Personally, I’ve been sticking to Proton VPN. It’s served me well.
- Wireguard? Yep
- Privacy Friendly? Kinda their thing.
- Native app? Yes. Although the linux one is due for improvement.
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I too have been using Proton for years. Does the job.
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Proton for some years. Fully agree with @NothingConspicous
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I’ve never felt the need for a VPN but now I’m wondering what motivates others.
- privacy (prevent tracking by your ISP)?
- QOS (streaming service throttling)?
- region masking (enable access to regionally restricted assets)?
- security (phishing and targeted ad blocking)?
- remote worker security (experience for resume)?
- other?
Maybe I’m missing the point but seems like a lot of trouble to manage and maintain. I run a pretty tight firewall, keep my router patched and I’m pretty cautious about the sites I visit. It seems clear that I am vulnerable to targeted ad’s - probably my ISP cooperating with Google and others to track the items that get my attention. As soon as I look at an item online I start seeing related ads so it’s clear someone is watching but I’m not sure how much I care. It’s almost useful that they do the legwork to show me ad’s relevant to my interests.
Thoughts?
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In case of Proton VPN (paid version) I love the AD-Block feature. No need to run a Pi-Hole, no adminstration. Simply works on all devices.
I ran into geo-blocking again just this week—at work. Unfortunately, there are companies and organizations that take the liberty of blocking entire continents. This effectively places everyone under general suspicion and blocks them out…
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Okay - that’s plus one on the ad blocking. I don’t like the new subscription model a lot of the news outlets are using but I have to admit the ads are getting to be too much. Some sites are down to ~20% of the screen space for content with the rest consumed by title bar, footer, menu and ads. Gets so bad on some sites that the browser stops responding and I have to kill the process or even reboot to escape. I refuse to pay subscription fees to every news outlet so I now avoid a lot of sites that I know use excessive ads. Maybe using a VPN blocker is the answer although that cripples their ad revenue which is what keeps them in business. Slippery slope!
I have a little less concern over companies implementing Geo-blocking. I figure it’s their network and if they want to protect their assets by restricting access that’s their call. Governments trying to block access is an entirely different discussion but I can’t fault a business for protecting their assets.
Thanks for sharing.
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I use Mullvad VPN, because of their strong vision on privacy and security. They don’t ask for details signing up, you can pay anonymously, and any time information had been requested from them by authorities, even forcibly, they had nothing to show—strictly no logging. It has a flat rate of €5 per month, simple to use interface, I love it.
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I couldn’t agree with @andreas more if I tried! I switched to Mullvad for the same reasons. Their bandwidth is actually really good (at least from my testing) and I believe in their commitment to privacy and security.
I’ve used their client on Windows, Debian/Ubuntu/CachyOS, and Android and have had 0 issues. Couldn’t be happier with them.
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If I need to use a VPN client, I use Mullvad VPN, too. Did you enable it by default, @andreas ? Or are you using a VPN for specific circumstances?
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I don’t have it enabled by default at the moment. Generally, I don’t use a VPN, but I was travelling last months I renewed my subscription for use on public WiFi networks.
Do you have any particular uses?
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No. Just use a VPN from time to time. But the last time I used it was months ago. That’s why I don’t need a subscription.
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Ah, yes, that’s the great bit about Mullvad too imo—the way they charge (just €5 a month, however, whenever) makes it easy to “get it when needed”.
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Exactly. That’s what I like. 
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I started with Proton VPN, but had constant issues with crashes and failure to connect to Proton servers. At one point, I also had a paid Proton plan…it would be way off topic to describe why I dropped that.
I switched to Windscribe after researching VPNs. I started with a free plan - which provided enough data on a month-to-month basis for E-mais, but not to download Linux distros - and upgraded to to a paid plan last year in September.
In my opinion, one of the places where Windscribe stands out is their support. I have generally received responses within 3 business days, whether on the free plan or on the paid plan.
The only recurring issue I have is that Windscribe’s Linux client will not connect using WireGuard. I’ve tried multiple times to work with their developers, providing machine logs and tweaking configurations, and still no love there.
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Never heard of Windscribe before. Will take a closer look to that VPN provider. Thanks.
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Windscribe no longer has a marketing budget and stopped making “affiliate payments” several years ago. As a result, they do not show up in most “Top VPN” articles on the web.
I’ll suggest that anyone interested in learning more about Windscribe start at this link to see what Windscribe’s founder and CEO has to say about the matter.
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I’m actually going to give Winscribe a whirl. That article was very enlightning.
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I recently read this piece on some worrying donations one of their CEOs.
The recent revelation that Mullvad’s other CEO Daniel Berntsson had donated 5 million SEK to an ethnonationalist Örebro Party shattered the image of a flawless company.
The author recommends IVPN as a good alternative (and actually makes some points against Windscribe, for those interested). Has any one tried IVPN here?
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I never heard of this VPN provider … 
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