Dylis's Guide to Choosing a VPN that Doesn't Suck

Long story short, two companies known as Kape Technologies and Nord Security own pretty much every VPN regular consumers know about. Kape Technology owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, alongside many prominant review websites that RANK these VPNs! Nord Security [infamous for sponsoring youtubers-] owns both NordVPN and Surfshark.

Both of these parent companies don't have great records with privacy- namely Kape Technology's [AKA Crossrider] history with PUPs and adware and Nord VPN's history of hiding data breaches from consumers.

The majority of the other VPNs available to consumers aren't great on the privacy front either. Many of the mobile VPN apps are operated out of China- which means that they are forced to be compliant with their state intelligence network. This means that all data sent over the VPN could intercepted by their government.

It's not just China, though. If the parent company of a VPN is located in a 5 eyes, 9 eyes, or 14 eyes country- your data is not legally safe from the government. In the incoming age of censorship, ensuring that the parent company of the VPN you're using is in a country with strong privacy laws is extremely important. While most of these governments do not currently care about VPN users, that could change in an instant. It's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to internet privacy.

So what VPN should you actually use? There are- as of writing this- a few decent options. Hell, even a few of them have free options, which I really didn't expect. I'm sourcing this mainly from the article from websiterating.com [all sources i used in making this will be linked at the bottom of the page btw!!!], but I have also poked around myself to gather more clarity.

Also also I should mention that I'm not sponsored or affiliated with literally any of these sites. And that this isn't AI generated or altered. I just think web privacy is important and that more people should know about this before choosing who to send all their internet traffic through. Also I have ADHD and have been hard focusing on this for like 5 hours straight while avoiding going to the grocery store. I should probably do that.

ProtonVPN - A Safe Free Option [https://protonvpn.com/]

Pros - They have a logless free tier! If you need an option to access websites now, this is probably the best you can get for free. They're operated out of Switzerland, which has very strong privacy laws. Because they have paid tiers, they don't have an incentive to sell your data. They have apps for pretty much every device, alongside browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox! If you need a VPN right now to access blocked pages, installing the extension could honestly be the simplest solution.

Cons - You do have to sign up with an email, and the free tier is one device at a time without streaming. But, again- it's free.

Neutrals - The paid tier is pretty good on my opinion- 10 dollars a month. They have an option to bundle in the monthly VPN subscription with their other products at 12 dollars a month, so if you want to switch off of Google and go paid privacy instead, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go for the Proton Unlimited, which is something I'm currently considering doing.

Mullvad - Dead Simple Paid Option [https://mullvad.net/en]

Pros - It's super simple to set up. You can use WireGuard, OpenVPN, or their dedicated app to set it up. I'm not sure how the first two work, but the Windows app is decent.

They also have iOS and Android apps. On android, it's on Google Play, F-Droid [!!!] and as a downloadable APK from their website. They make it super easy to get started, seriously.

Cons - Unsure as of right now. I'll report back once I've used it for longer.

Neutrals - 5 Euros a month. [5.85 in USD] It's not a bad price, but if paying online or via mail is unavailable to you, this could be a deal breaker. You have to manually load your account- they have options up to a year I believe. There's no discount for buying ahead, and there's only one pricing option. It's very straightforward, but could be almost 'too simple' if you're an advanced user. Also, I might be biased since this was the VPN I personally chose to use.

IVPN - Another Good Paid Option [https://www.ivpn.net/en/]

Pros - Straightforward and ethical. Apps offered on pretty much every platform- including F-Droid and APK file for Android.

Cons - Cash Payments only starting from 1 year.

Neutrals - Two Paid Subscription tiers: Standard with 2 devices [6 USD a month] and Pro with 7 devices [10 USD a month]. No email collected. However, they do offer auto-renew through a service called Braintree. I don't know much about IVPN honestly, but from looking around their website they seem decent but more technical and slightly more expensive than Mullvad. It honestly comes down to personal preference.

Windscribe - Another Free Option [https://windscribe.com/]

Pros - They have a free tier in the form of both Apps and Extensions on most platforms. If you're forced to use Microsoft Edge and cannot get the external app for ProtonVPN, this could work as an alternative free option for accessing censored webpages.

Cons - Operated out of Canada, so unfortunately they do reside in one of the 5 Eyes countries. Keep up with censorship laws if you go with this option.

Neutrals - I've used this one before a few years ago, and it works, but it can be a bit finnicky at times. It'll get the job done if you can't access the other VPNs listed, though.

Air VPN - Honorable Mention

I wanted to mention this one here because while they are independently and ethically owned- they're located in Italy and unfortunately have to comply with EU regulations. It seems like an alright paid option and a well managed business- but unfortunately it's not better than any of the ones I've listed here as of writing this. However, if none of the other options work for you, this could be worth looking into.