Basically I started with mullvad then turned to proton but after they introduced AI and a crypto wallet I’m just looking for what peoples opinions are.
Personally I wouldn’t trust any VPN I didn’t host myself
Self hosted VPN can be easily traced back to you unless you have multiple users.
I used ProtonVPN for years. I use MullvadVPN. Both are totally fine, in my experience. I left ProtonVPN because I couldn’t get port forwarding on Linux, and then less than two months after I did that Mullvad removed that feature, so that’s how it goes.
And now you can have it through NAT-PMP on ProtonVON
IMHO Mullvad
Always mullvad for privacy, top tier. Only know you as a number and you can pay physical cash whole os (iirc) & vpn server runs in RAM and is gone on powerloss, the best.
Unless you are trying to get around geo blocks as they publish all their servers, so it’s easier for them to get blocked https://mullvad.net/en/servers.
Or if you are using it constantly, then just go with whoever is cheapest/has the features you like as you are only hiding from your ISP, everyone else still knows.
@Ste41th mullvad, definitely
Use Mullvad, unless you absolutely require port forwarding.
And if you need port forwarding use airvpn. Proton seems more and more sketch every day
Thank you for your opinion
Or you already use Proton Mail / Drive etc and want to save a bit of money with Proton Unlimited at 9.99 EUR/USD / mo. That’s why I switched from Mullvad. I do agree that overall though Mullvad is the best in terms of trustworthiness (so far as we know anyway)
This is the best answer.
Proton has port forwarding? Source?
God damn that’s complicated compared to PIA
I dont know why that has you doing so much, I use port forwarding with proton vpn and all I did was press a button in the proton vpn app and it was on.
What OS?
Windows 11
Ah that’ll do it. Seems more effort has been put into the windows app
That’s the manual setup for use cases like on a server or whatever (a common place where you would need port forwarding)
Pia is owned by very sketchy Kape Technologies, just FYI.
Yeah but their stack is open source, with no evidence of wrongdoing, and proven no log track record. Their servers have no persistent storage. The threat model isn’t the fuckin NSA lol
While PIA Might not have done any wrong doing, Kape Technologies definitely has. Imo, it’s not worth funding.
I have a proton subscription but it’s not worth the effort to port forward until their app can do it
Isn’t mullvad better and cheaper?
think I didn’t get it?
protonvpn is a few pennies cheaper when goin’ for 2 years and even much more when you wait for the black friday offers.
so if you can’t wait and don’t use a vpn on a daily basis, mullvad is 100% cheaper, so yes kinda.
I wouldn’t pay for 2 years for a privacy service. Eventually you’ll loose privacy. Better to create a new account at least every 6 months.
Mullvad is very trusted by community generally they haven’t given any reason to mistrust for now that I know of. They don’t allow port forwarding anymore though so that’s something to keep in mind if you need that.
What was the reason for you to switch from Mullvad in the first place?
I’m using a combination of Astrill (paid) and Proton (free, as a backup) since they are the only ones that reliably work in China, but once I’m out of here and my subscriptions expire, I’ll be on Mullvad again.
To be fair the only reason I switched is because I couldn’t find out how to pay for a year instead of monthly, but I think I’ve figured it out now
You can pay in bulk. It just scales linearly/it’s a flat rate, so no kind of discount for buying a year vs buying a month.
Damn, Astrill is expensive though. Friend in China is currently happy with Mullvad + Shadowsocks. A few hiccups here and there, but it works pretty well and is fast enough for streaming, too.
They also have guides to a few more involved methods in case Shadowsocks is blocked.
Yep, the one issue with shadowsocks is that you can only install it on end devices, not on a router. That’s the big benefit of Astrill. But anyway, my days in China are numbered, so I’m soon not going to need that anymore.
Mullvad
Mullvad is currently highly trusted by the community. If you lost your trust in proton I recommend switching back to it.
they’re both good but I use mullvad only because I use proton for email and I don’t want one company to have both my emails and web traffic
Mullvad is cheaper, and probably a bit more trusted, but Proton has port forwarding. Currently I use Mullvad. I don’t like the Mullvad’s 5 device limit on Wireguard clients though. You can only have 5 devices added to the account, no matter if just 1 or all 5 are currently connected. And after using Wireguard once, I don’t want to use OpenVPN again where wg can fully replace it.
Both support cash payments, though Proton makes me feel like they expect it for larger sums of cash:We cannot be responsible for lost shipments, so we strongly recommend sending your payment using a service that provides a tracking number so you can track the shipment. It’s also helpful to notify us that you’re sending us cash in the mail, so we know to expect it.
While Mullvad asks you not to use registered mail nor send larger amounts of cash. I feel like the latter is implied by asking to notify them. I suppose “Hey, I am sending you 10 bucks via mail.” is not what’s expected here.
What I absolutely like is the fair pricing. It’s same price no matter how much time you buy, whether it’s 1 month, a year or two. Even their direct competitor IVPN does this crap (and so does Proton). I value that quite a bit.
So currently Mullvad is winning for me.
Oh does the 5 device limit not apply to OpenVPN? Interesting
It technologically can’t. With Wireguard, you need to upload each device’s public key to Mullvad, thus registering each device separately. With OpenVPN you login with username and password. Or in this case just the username.
Theoretically speaking, you could have the same private key on 2 devices that won’t be connected simultaneously though.
Mail is extremely insecure, it’s actually really nefarious for them to recommend it. I still use Mullvad sometimes because it’s just so cheap and fast. I know it’s some kind of high level NATO spyware though. Just look at where their servers are. I mean fucking come on now.
Just look at where their servers are.
Kind of… al around the place? What do you mean?
Also, in the mail you don’t send the account number, just a payment token. So the postman won’t be stealing your account, just your cash at most.
Vouchers are probably the safest, but I actually like sending mail, and this is basically my only opportunity to do so nowadays.
Both options are very good. Neither the wallet nor the writing assistant impact your vpn experience, so not sure what you’re looking for in alternatives.
Anyway, sticking with proton or using mullvad are two equally good but different options. Want a VPN without port forwarding and only a VPN? Mullvad. Want port forwarding, or are interested in using their other privacy minded products? Proton.
Mullvad is better imo, unless you need port forwarding. I’m currently using Proton since I pay for Unlimited for that encrypted drive space, and using their VPN saves me money since I just think of the payment as just for Proton Drive. This is a change I made just a few days ago though, for about a year I’ve paid for both Proton Unlimited and Mullvad, and I legitimately prefer Mullvad over Proton, it just made sense for me to switch money wise. Can’t really go wrong between the two imo.
