this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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Privacy

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VPN Comparison (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by Charger8232@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml
 

VPN Comparison

I made a spreadsheet comparing different open source VPN providers.

Part 2 here

Providers

Notes

  • Please do not start a flame war about Proton.
  • Please do not start a flame war about cryptocurrencies. Monero is the only cryptocurrency listed because of its privacy.
  • The very left column is the category for each row, the middle section is the various VPN providers, and the right section is which VPNs are the best in each category.
  • IVPN has two differing plans, which is why "Standard" and "Pro" are sometimes differentiated.
  • For accounts, "Generated" means a random identifier is created for you to act as your account, "Required" means you must sign up yourself. Proton VPN allows guest use under specific conditions (e.g. installed from the Google Play Store), but otherwise requires an account.
  • Switzerland is seen as more private than Sweden. Gibraltar is seen as privacy neutral.
  • All prices are in United States Dollars. Tax is not included.
  • Pricing is based on the price combination to achieve the exact time frame. For example, Proton VPN does not have a 3 year plan but you can achieve 3 years by combining a 2 year plan with a 1 year plan.
  • The availability section is security based. Availability is framed around a GrapheneOS and secureblue setup.
  • The Proton VPN Flatpak is unofficial, but based on the official code.
  • Availability on secureblue is based on the ujust install-vpn command. Security features must be disabled on secureblue in order to use the GUI for IVPN and Mullvad VPN, but not for Proton VPN. Mozilla VPN and NymVPN are available as Flatpaks, which are safer than layering packages.
  • I wanted to include more categories, such as which programming languages they are written in, connection speed, and security, but that became far too difficult and complex, so I decided to omit those categories.

Takeaways

  • NymVPN is very very new, but it's off to a strong start. It wins in almost every category. I actually hadn't heard of it until I started this project.
  • If you want a free VPN, Proton VPN is the only one here that meets that requirement.
  • If you want to pay week-by-week, IVPN is the only one that allows that.
  • If you're paying month-by-month on a budget, Mullvad VPN is the cheapest option.
  • NymVPN is the cheapest plan for anything past 1 month.
  • If you want to use Accrescent as your main app store, IVPN is the only VPN available there for now.
  • If you want to pay for a bundle of apps, including a VPN, Proton sells more than just a VPN.
  • Mozilla VPN is terrible. The only thing it has going for it is a verified Flatpak, but NymVPN also has that so it doesn't even matter.
(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] spacemanspiffy@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

I suggest adding AirVPN.

[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ProtonVPN has started to become blocked on tons of websites. I have to switch servers all the time, to the point I won't be able to keep a VPN connection up like I used to.

I've read Mullvad has worsened as well. There seems to be a general ban on VPN use (there was always some of course)

My last hope: non profits who offer VPN. They keep logs, don't allow torrenting, and require a real name to subscribe. Very few server choices, if any.

I'm... fine with that. I just want privacy. No surveillance. And I trust the non profit. Plus I torrent on a VPS anyway

What I would like to see are local VPNs, with a small enough pool of users on each server to not get flagged. A rotation between servers from time to time. Compliant with the law of course (as long as the law doesn't require total surveillance, evidently). The goal is to hide everyone's activity from the providers and websites (yes, I know, fingerprinting)

But maybe there's some other existing tool/service I'm not aware of?

[–] Ratte@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Does using a VPS truly enhance safety while torrenting? Isn't it still possible for downloads and uploads to be traced back to your identifiable IP address, especially considering that the VPS provider logs your IP and email details?

[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

VPN on VPS (easy to do with gluetun)

Basically you use a container that's a VPN connection and connect other containers to it.

[–] Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Exactly this, the commenter above even mentioned they have a VPS already, what's stopping them from (this is just an option) slapping tailscale on there, enabling it as an exit node and being done with it? Would literally take 5 minutes and suddenly your traffic is coming from a datacenter and not your home IP

[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Both comments are me. Configuring Tailscale (or Headscale?) is on my to-do.

To be clear, connecting to the VPS is not what I use for the anonymizing part, it's the gluetun container that connects to ProtonVPN servers. This way I can still access my VPS with its real IP. Not sure if there was a confusion there.

Simply using my VPS as relay would still attach my browsing to a single IP I'm the sole user of... or not? I do not know how that works.

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[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (9 children)

FWIW took me less than 1h yesterday to setup WireGuard on 4 different devices :

  • server with wg-easy and thus easy to use Web UI (before 2-step auth)
  • peers
    • BananiPi 3 F (RISC-V) headless via nmcli
    • desktop on Debian via NetworkManaged
    • mobile phone on /e/OS via the WireGuard client (with Ente Auth to login back on server as admin)

... and it was the first time I used WireGuard.

So I'm trying to imply that one shouldn't use commercial VPNs or benefit from their services, solely that setting up your own depending on your abilities and needs might not be as complex as you initially imagine.

PS: I did have experience with OpenVPN before and a running server already with Docker and nginx as reverse proxy.

[–] HereIAm@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I assume you're talking about creating a VPN into your own personal network? Unless you have family or friends in a different country I fail see how you're circumventing geo restrictions or gain anonymity on the internet.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

Wrong assumption, you can install it on any other machine you have root access to, e.g. remote ssh. You can rent a server in another country and put your VPN server if that's your need.

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[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

Does anyone have experience with the Mullvad, NymVPN, or AirVPN clients (if they exist) on Linux? I'm still mad Proton removed support for their Linux client and replaced it with an intern-level gnome-only taskbar applet. Also, do they support generating plain Wireguard configs?

[–] Joseph_Boom@feddit.it 9 points 3 days ago

I can confirm that Mullvad VPN client works quite well on Linux.

[–] OccasionallyFeralya@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

I really like Mullvad. I can’t speak towards their app though I just export the configurations and import them to my distros networking settings so I can activate it more easily.

[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

The AirVPN client works well on Linux. They provide really good Linux support. https://airvpn.org/linux/

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I don't use the official client, but airvpn with pure wireguard works perfectly.

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[–] christov@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Nice comparison. Thanks for sharing! Any reason NordVPN was excluded?

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[–] pound_heap@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 3 days ago

This is great, thanks for sharing! You've got a few useful feedback points, let me add one more: does a provider have an onion address. This allows decoupling of payment from usage. Not a big thing, but good to know.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

What would happen if you tried to put I2P on there?

... I guess you'd have to go by the different outproxies... ?

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

no love for windscribe? :(

[–] PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

CEO is a jackass but the product is fantastic and has a great free tier, although P2P/torrenting was removed from the free tier unfortunately I believe

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[–] fruitycoder@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Why is Tor never compared to vpns for most people? Like 90% are just wanting an encrypted tunnel to a proxiy right?

[–] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

VPNs and Tor are used for different purposes (sort of).

And common tasks like downloading big-ish files or streaming video should not be done on Tor (it's possible, but I believe it is discouraged), but can be done easily over a VPN.

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

As someone who regularly uses Tor, it takes like 5 minutes to load a simple webpage half the time

Because it is not a good option to route that kind of traffic. It's okay for most use cases, though.

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