List of VPN Service Providers - 2025

[Synchronice]

Is there a list of which VPN providers get blocked when using yt-dlp

There can't be such list because I assume, not every IP of each VPN gets blocked when using yt-dlp. Sometimes VPNs also add new IPs and new locations, some of them even offer Static IP locations (Data center and Residential IPs) and Dedicated IPs.

Like I said, g00gle doesn't like this so they detect and record IP addresses from everyone who downloads videos from their platform.

Really? I have download videos from youtube via yt-dlp so many times and never had a problem. Maybe one way is to use mobile internet to download videos (of course you should have lots of MBs or unlimited package) because mobile internet changes IP all the time.

Windscribe account can be created without email address.

Yes, it can be created and you get 2GB bandwidth for free but Windscribe also offers 10GB bandwidth if you add email. That's what I don't like about them. A company that claims they care about your privacy, offers you 10GB of bandwidth in exchange of email. It no longer means that they care about your privacy but data. That's just my opinion and I'll be glad if someone proves me wrong.

[LoyceV]

completely decentralized and has no corporate servers
the pay-as-you-go model using their token is super convenient ~

Your edit to advertise is obvious. This ann is forgotten for a reason. Without servers, you are someone else's exit node. That's a terrible idea!

Mullvad shows this:

When paying with XMR, do not use swap services (e.g. ChangeNOW or SimpleSwap). These payments will not be credited.

I don't get it: how would this be different for receiving the payment?

[Pmalek]

Perhaps an update is due for Mullvad. According to their own records, the VPN is available in 50 countries and 91 different cities. Your OP mentions 38 locations.
Take a look at Obscura VPN and see if it fits your requirements of a privacy-focused VPN. I am sure it was suggested in the past. What's weird about this product is that there is still no Windows version. It's still in development. It's available on Android, iOS, and macOS.

[dkbit98]

For people who are using macOS, iOS, android or windowOS there is interesting new Obscura VPN.
Price is a bit more expensive comapred to other vpn services, but there was discount with 25% promo code WINDOWS26 (not sure f that is still valid).
Note that linux version is not released yet but it is on the roadmap.
https://obscura.com/

[ABCbits]

For people who are using macOS, iOS, android or windowOS there is interesting new Obscura VPN.
Price is a bit more expensive comapred to other vpn services, but there was discount with 25% promo code WINDOWS26 (not sure f that is still valid).
Note that linux version is not released yet but it is on the roadmap.
https://obscura.com/

Their approach is really interesting and sound promising. But I wonder if they explicitly cooperate with Mullvad or Mullvad doesn't even know their VPN used in this way. While it's on expensive side, im more annoyed with how their FAQ mention they accept "Bitcoin over Lightning (for more privacy)", but doesn't mention possibility to make payment with Bitcoin on-chain/directly.

[LoyceV]

Their approach is really interesting and sound promising. But I wonder if they explicitly cooperate with Mullvad or Mullvad doesn't even know their VPN used in this way.

This is the summary I get from their website:

Obscura never sees your traffic
Obscura’s servers relay your connection to exit servers but can never decrypt your traffic.
Your traffic is always end-to-end encrypted via WireGuard® to the exit server.

Exit hops never see who you are
Exit servers (run by Mullvad) connect you to the internet but never see your personal info.
Obscura masks your real IP address when relaying to the exit server.

If all they're doing is hide your IP-address from Mullvad, I really don't see the point of paying them extra for just that.

[Synchronice]

Obscura can still see your connecting IP address and necessary payment information. As again, we have to trust that they never log our connecting IP. I understand they never see our decrypted internet packets but they still see our IP and we still have to trust their no-log claim. Am I mistaken? So, what makes them different from other VPNs?

And honestly, VPNs are not everything. It's ironic if someone runs Windows and uses VPN at the same time for privacy. Besides VPN, there are fingerprints too that's left by us and that makes us identifiable.

[LoyceV]

So, what makes them different from other VPNs?

They're more or less a reseller. If you want to use a separate VPN service for your own IP, and another one for your exit IP, I'd just use 2 different services.

And honestly, VPNs are not everything. It's ironic if someone runs Windows and uses VPN at the same time for privacy. Besides VPN, there are fingerprints too that's left by us and that makes us identifiable.

It depends on what you're hiding from. If you're hiding from a state actor, a VPN won't help you. But if you don't want your local porn site streaming service to know who you are, it works great.

[dkbit98]

Their approach is really interesting and sound promising. But I wonder if they explicitly cooperate with Mullvad or Mullvad doesn't even know their VPN used in this way. While it's on expensive side, im more annoyed with how their FAQ mention they accept "Bitcoin over Lightning (for more privacy)", but doesn't mention possibility to make payment with Bitcoin on-chain/directly.

Yes, from information I got Obscura and Mullvad VPN have joined partnership early this year.
I don't know exact details of their arrangement, but Obscura basically wanted to built on top of Mullvad, and make something unique.
Obscura is probably one of the safest VPN we have today, but I wonder what would happen with them if Mullvad got shut down for some reason?

[TryNinja]

Yes, from information I got Obscura and Mullvad VPN have joined partnership early this year.
I don't know exact details of their arrangement, but Obscura basically wanted to built on top of Mullvad, and make something unique.
Obscura is probably one of the safest VPN we have today, but I wonder what would happen with them if Mullvad got shut down for some reason?

Well, they are just using Mullvad servers as their "exit hop"

Today we are announcing a partnership with Obscura VPN, a newly launched two-party VPN service that uses our WireGuard VPN servers as its “exit hop”.

If Mullvad shuts down, they just need to find another trusted partner and change to their servers. There's nothing special about Mullvad other than that they are trusted.

[ABCbits]

If all they're doing is hide your IP-address from Mullvad, I really don't see the point of paying them extra for just that.

Relaying costs them a bit, but IMO 60% higher price (than using Mullvad VPN directly) is on expensive side, even considering their obsfucation with QUIC to make it look like average network traffic.

For obfuscation, we use quinn-rs’s implementation of RFC 9221 to tunnel WireGuard packets over QUIC. With QUIC’s unreliable transport, we’ve made Obscura much harder to block without sacrificing performance.

Their approach is really interesting and sound promising. But I wonder if they explicitly cooperate with Mullvad or Mullvad doesn't even know their VPN used in this way. While it's on expensive side, im more annoyed with how their FAQ mention they accept "Bitcoin over Lightning (for more privacy)", but doesn't mention possibility to make payment with Bitcoin on-chain/directly.

Yes, from information I got Obscura and Mullvad VPN have joined partnership early this year.

Yeah. I didn't found it last time, but Mullvad actually write a blog about it on https://mullvad.net/en/blog/mullvad-partnered-with-obscura-vpn.