List of VPN Service Providers - 2025

[NotATether]

Dkbit mentioned Linux. It's free because Linus Torvalds started it as a personal hobby for his own computer, later shared the code with other volunteers and so on. In the end, thousands of developers got connected and developed a great OS. He did gain something in exchange: trust, reputation and power but I wouldn't say that I'm the product in this case.

That was an old era when people actually cared about collaborating and improving software.

Now it seems that everyone wants to ship out a worse product to make money.

The white-label VPNs are a good example. Most are woefully public-facing, while the affiliates are encouraged to lie about the privacy strength to get more sales.

[SFR10]

.Small update about discounted prices.

Windscribe is celebrating its 10th year by offering a 58% discount ^{[$69 > $29]} on its yearly plan ^[source].
^{- I couldn't find the exact end date, but this promo is still active with "this link".}

Surfshark also celebrated its birthday last month by offering some discounts ^{[$63 > $48 for 27 months]} and according to this "PCWorld article", this promo ends on the 11th of May.

[LoyceV]

That was an old era when people actually cared about collaborating and improving software.
Now it seems that everyone wants to ship out a worse product to make money.

I'm always surprised that the shittiest, utterly unimportant piece of software on a phone wants my money before I can install it (as if!), while I have an entire computer filled with the best free Open Source Software out there! I dislike phones more and more, the entire Play store makes me feel like I am the product instead of the customer who paid good money for that phone.
My computer is the opposite: I haven't paid anything for the software on it, and it makes me feel like I own the place

[dkbit98]

NYM Vpn just added split tunneling and they updated interface for linux and android:
https://nym.com/blog/nymvpn-v2026.8

Also consider LibreWolf, it has been around longer and may be better choice if you don't like Zen UI.

Yeah, Librewolf is also great and it follows Firefox release closely, but you obviously won't have firefox VPN available there

Surfshark also celebrated its birthday last month by offering some discounts ^{[$63 > $48 for 27 months]} and according to this "PCWorld article", this promo ends on the 11th of May.

I wouldn't touch surfshark vpn with a stick.

That was an old era when people actually cared about collaborating and improving software.

Some people still care, otherwise we wouldn't have open source bitcoin wallets, linux OS, etc.

I dislike phones more and more, the entire Play store makes me feel like I am the product instead of the customer who paid good money for that phone.

Tell me about it... smartphones are a nightmare, and we need comeback of old style minimal phones.
Even new laptops are mostly crap, but new Framework 13 Pro is actually not bad.

[joker_josue]

I just found this thread, which I think is very interesting.

But, looking at the OP, I have a question.

Why is NordVPN in the "Non-Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs" category and not in the "Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs" category?

[SFR10]

I wouldn't touch surfshark vpn with a stick.

Is it because of the category that they belong to ^{[e.g., because of this"]} or did you have a bad experience in the past?

Why is NordVPN in the "Non-Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs" category and not in the "Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs" category?

I believe it has something to do with the latter part of "this post ^{[refer to posts #70 - #73]}".

• BTW, I just noticed this unrelated news happened recently ^{[IIRC, the same thing happened in the past few years as well (SMH)]}: Nord Security Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Allegedly ‘Tricking Customers’ into Automatically Renewing Subscriptions

[Synchronice]

That was an old era when people actually cared about collaborating and improving software.

Now it seems that everyone wants to ship out a worse product to make money.

It's not only about the software, it applies to everything. In the past, there are more enthusiasm to create a genuinely good thing like inventing a medicine, something new in science and so on. I feel like capitalism destroyed everything and now everyone is focused on making money and nothing else.

I just found this thread, which I think is very interesting.

But, looking at the OP, I have a question.

Why is NordVPN in the "Non-Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs" category and not in the "Privacy Focused Mainstream VPNs" category?

SFR10 quoted the right post for the answer (thank you man). NordVPN got hacked and they didn't announce it until someone published their private key on twitter. Besides this, there is also this post floating on the internet: NordVPN denies the use of trackers – But an app recording shows a different picture. This is in German language, so use a translator.

[NotATether]

SFR10 quoted the right post for the answer (thank you man). NordVPN got hacked and they didn't announce it until someone published their private key on twitter. Besides this, there is also this post floating on the internet: NordVPN denies the use of trackers – But an app recording shows a different picture. This is in German language, so use a translator.

NordVPN is good at making loud advertising and that's about it. Hacks like this demonstrate that they are in the same category as Lastpass and these other services that are easily hackable.

[joniboini]

Besides this, there is also this post floating on the internet: NordVPN denies the use of trackers – But an app recording shows a different picture. This is in German language, so use a translator.

Well, looks like the cheap price is paid through other means then. Not really surprising tbh.

Kinda surprised someone I know still used them today even though they're quite up to date with the latest stuff. I guess because it's cheap and he believes even if Nord track him the data would be useless. He's quite confident about it too.

[joker_josue]

Besides this, there is also this post floating on the internet: NordVPN denies the use of trackers – But an app recording shows a different picture. This is in German language, so use a translator.

Well, looks like the cheap price is paid through other means then. Not really surprising tbh.

Kinda surprised someone I know still used them today even though they're quite up to date with the latest stuff. I guess because it's cheap and he believes even if Nord track him the data would be useless. He's quite confident about it too.

If that were all, do you think they would be willing to leave the EU market because of the new rules?
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/the-eu-prepares-ground-for-wider-data-retention-and-vpn-providers-are-among-the-targets

NordVPN has been one of the leading VPN companies fighting against the new rules in France, Spain, and Italy, as well as the EU's plans to "end" privacy.

[Synchronice]

Besides this, there is also this post floating on the internet: NordVPN denies the use of trackers – But an app recording shows a different picture. This is in German language, so use a translator.

Well, looks like the cheap price is paid through other means then. Not really surprising tbh.

I think that VPNs make quite a lot of money. Mullvad, Windscribe and IVPN are cheap too but they are good and actually, they are the best options for privacy (I would prioritize Mullvad and IVPN). They don't heavily invest into marketing, they invest into what they actually do, without adding further 3rd parties. I also hate this subscription model where one month costs 10 euro or more but one month when you pay for 3 years, costs 3 euro or something similar. These VPNs that follow such shady subscription model, spend lots of money in marketing.

[dkbit98]

One of the first Bitcoin developers Martti Malmi just released brand new open-source mesh based Nostr VPN!
There are NO central servers, NO accounts, NO emails, NO coordinators, and it is based on Nostr and two layers of encryption.
https://nostrvpn.org/

[LoyceV]

open-source mesh based Nostr VPN!
There are NO central servers, NO accounts, NO emails, NO coordinators

I read it, then read it again:

Keep laptops, phones, desktops, and home servers reachable without signing them into a company account.

Isn't this meant to create a VPN between your own devices, instead of the VPN meant in this topic?
If you'd want an external connection, you'd still need a "classic" VPN:

Send selected traffic through a peer or upstream WireGuard path when the network calls for it.

The site has very little information for something to "just install" without really knowing what it does.

[dkbit98]

Isn't this meant to create a VPN between your own devices, instead of the VPN meant in this topic?

NostrVPN is more like a private mesh VPN than a standard VPN service, and it can be used for connection all your devices.
There is also github page with source code available, and it has slightly more information than on official website.
You can also follow Martti Malmi on X for more information and updates:
https://github.com/mmalmi/nostr-vpn
https://x.com/marttimalmi

[SFR10]

To Mullvad users who care a lot about their privacy, there's a minor fingerprinting vulnerability concerning how exit IP addresses are assigned ^{[when you switch servers with the same internal tunnel address, you'll get an exit address in a similar range and that could help websites to almost accurately guess a user who recently changed or rather switched their connection]}:

• Exit IP fingerprinting between VPN servers
  
  • Exit IP VPN servers mitigation rollout

In the meantime, Mullvad recommends relogging before switching the servers ^{[it'd "regenerate the WireGuard key and change the internal IP address"]}.

[LoyceV]

To Mullvad users who care a lot about their privacy, there's a minor fingerprinting vulnerability concerning how exit IP addresses are assigned

I didn't realize each server uses many different IP addresses, so I learned something new today. But this is only a problem if you visit the same website, pretending to be someone else.

[NotATether]

The site has very little information for something to "just install" without really knowing what it does.

If it does exactly as it advertises, then I expect this VPN to be very slow.

Nostr itself is painful enough to use already if you're on a limited data plan as it will keep polling for messages over and over again, and sending notes appears to be very unreliable with public relays.

Not something I would like to jump into.

[examplens]

To Mullvad users who care a lot about their privacy, there's a minor fingerprinting vulnerability concerning how exit IP addresses are assigned

I didn't realize each server uses many different IP addresses, so I learned something new today. But this is only a problem if you visit the same website, pretending to be someone else.

But it can also be an advantage if you always visit the same site and want to be the same (pretending to be someone) person every time.
If you log in somewhere, you want to always come from approximately the same location/IP/provider

Or did I overlook something here?

[LoyceV]

But it can also be an advantage if you always visit the same site and want to be the same (pretending to be someone) person every time.

This fingerprinting vulnerability is about changing to a dofferent VPN server:

The issue arises when connecting to different VPN servers with the same internal tunnel address. Then the user is likely to be assigned an exit address with the same relative position in each VPN server's range of exit addresses. If for example this is 40%, then it will be an exit address about 40% into in the range on all VPN servers.

If you want a website to think you're the same person, you wouldn't be moving to a different server.

[pandakitty]

But it can also be an advantage if you always visit the same site and want to be the same (pretending to be someone) person every time.
If you log in somewhere, you want to always come from approximately the same location/IP/provider

Or did I overlook something here?

If you choose the same server and country, you are most likely doing enough. For my personal connection, my IP changes all the time because of NAT and limited IP addresses for my internet provider. But the IP is close enough and from the same region so this is enough for exchanges to not sound alarms as a unknown and suspicious login attempt.

As of now, Mullvad applied the new mitigation for servers:

au-mel-wg-402
au-syd-wg-001
ca-mtr-wg-302
de-fra-wg-103
fi-hel-wg-201
fr-par-wg-101
ie-dub-wg-101
no-osl-wg-101
se-sto-wg-208
us-dal-wg-701
us-lax-wg-002
us-nyc-wg-601
us-slc-wg-303