Ask HN: Which VPN would you recommend? - mirap
======
bendiksolheim
Roll your own! Setting up your own, private VPN can be done quite easily with
[https://github.com/jlund/streisand](https://github.com/jlund/streisand) and a
DigitalOcean account. Costs $5 per month. It doesn't require a whole lot of
technical competence either, as the Streisand project configures just about
everything for you.

~~~
zx2c4
If you do roll your own, consider trying out WireGuard, the VPN protocol I've
been working on. It's a lot faster and simpler than anything else. I'd
appreciate all the feedback I can get.
[https://www.wireguard.io](https://www.wireguard.io)

~~~
atmosx
I haven't take a look yet but will do soon.

If this can be used under ARM cpu and has smaller memory footprint compared to
openvpn, I am going to use it.

------
darkblackcorner
I use
[https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/](https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/)
on recommendation from a colleague, and I'm pretty happy. No logs, plenty
servers, no real issues, and they recently shut down their Russian server due
to imminent privacy concerns. So I feel that they have their priorities
straight.

I used [https://www.frootvpn.com/](https://www.frootvpn.com/) briefly when it
was free - seemed ok too, but not many servers back then.

Depends really what you want to use it for, but you could look into something
like [https://www.zerotier.com/](https://www.zerotier.com/) or even hosting
your own.

This might be useful for more in depth comparisons:
[https://thatoneprivacysite.net/](https://thatoneprivacysite.net/)

~~~
prophet_
I use PIA and I can't complain. One issue I noticed that may affect others as
well is that they are being blocked more and more around the internet. I don't
think this is only a PIA problem though.

~~~
Klathmon
Yeah I love PIA, but i've found several sites that outright block you in very
"opaque" ways (my favorite is one that says the site is down for emergency
maintenance when you connect from a PIA VPN IP).

It sucks, but I think PIA (and others) are going to need to start using
different IPs and getting around these blocks if they want to stay
competitive.

------
pizza234
I think that a analyzing VPNs is quite impractical, but here we go:

After trying a couple, I'm now with Private Internet Access; the reasons are:

    
    
      - the support actually replies and helps (this doesn't hold true for all the companies); although I think VPN typical problems are very technical (in fact, I didn't really solve the issue at the time) and may not be solved by them, it shows that the company is actually striving to provide a good service
      - they don't keep logs
      - the quality is stable and fast; my network is permanently connected to it
      - they have many servers around the world
      - they do provided their service with integrity; they've pulled their Russian servers because the Russian authorities imposed them to keep logs
    

Some of these statements can't be proved, but as far as I can possibly examine
and experience, it's a really good service.

------
criddell
With Verizon becoming an ad company and AT&T showing signs of the same thing,
I was wondering what would be involved in having my home's router
automatically and permanently connect to a VPN service to keep my data from my
ISP? I understand the performance hit would be huge (I have a gigabit fiber
connection), but as long as I can still stream MLB and Netflix, I'd be happy.

~~~
rando444
Your VPN provider would be the bottleneck, not the VPN itself, in which case
if you take a performance hit you should explore other VPN providers.

But to tunnel all of your home traffic you can either (1) buy a router that
supports VPN tunneling or (2) try and save some money by buying a generic
router and flashing it with something like DD-WRT, which would give you an
OpenVPN client which would allow you to do the same thing, just with cheaper
hardware.

Once set up, whenever your router boots it will connect the VPN and all of
your traffic will go over that connection.

------
baeschtl
Torrentfreak has a quite excessive comparison list of different providers:
[https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-
review-160220/](https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/)

I'm also not a big fan of rolling my own VPN, don't have the time to keep it
updated.

------
znpy
OpenVPN, on a host you do control.

Everything else is not trustworthy.

~~~
dblooman
Also, there are lots of third party plugins that work nicely with OpenVPN. I
use OneLogin with OpenVPN via RADIUS for example.

------
wineisfine
Privateinternetaccess.com besides their somewhat uncatchy name and dated
looking website is cheap and reliable. You can even pay with Amazon gift
cards, in case you want to anonymise your payment and don't want to dive into
Bitcoin

I had PIA for a year and when the subscription ran out, though being a happy
customer, I got tempted by iVpn.net, which was 3x the price, and had a pretty
website. It also got many recommendations here on HN, but think they were not
100% honest. I regret moving away and will go back to PIA asap.

Takeaways: also important is which device you will be using to surf. Many vpn
providers have a flawed or no iPad app, and refer to the standard openvpn app.
It's very cumbersome to use (you can not copy paste your username and
password, just to name one thing).

And setting up your own, doesn't make much sense to me as you will always have
the same public ip then.

------
tatoalo
I've been using
Tunnelbear([https://www.tunnelbear.com/](https://www.tunnelbear.com/)) for a
couple of years now and my experience has been fantastic:

    
    
      • It doesn't keep activity logs.
      • Their tunnel network has been recently improved and it counts something like 20 countries at the moment.
      • It's really fast and it keeps your device safe even in the possibility of a connection issue, it will block all unsecured traffic until it's possible to properly gain access again.
      • Something not directly related as a VPN feature but since I have to pay for it I'm more than happily going to underline this, the UI is really really nice, the design is clean, smooth and is one great experience on every device I've been using it on(Android, iOS and Windows).

~~~
walterbell
On iOS, it's free up to 500MB/mo, $4/mo after. Their app has VPN auto-
reconnect on iOS, which is useful because iOS does not seem to support always-
on VPNs (except for "enterprise").

~~~
tatoalo
Yeah, it's 500MB/month shared across all devices since it's linked to the
account you login with. Depending on what mobile device you're using there are
different offers since it's possible to go with an Android/iOS-only
subscription. I usually end up picking the $7.99/mo offer which is the most
logic one if you have multiple devices with different OS enviroments.

------
mtmail
Didn't you ask the same question two days ago?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12290362](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12290362)

~~~
pizza234
Looks like the difference is free (previous post) and not free (current one).

------
proftimfanning
I prefer [http://BlackHoleCloud.com](http://BlackHoleCloud.com) . You get your
own VPN server(s) in the cities that you choose so there is no fighting for
bandwidth, and no other vpn subscriber will try to hack into your computer. It
also comes with your choice of tiny hardware firewalls. The smallest one fits
on a keychain. You can put up to 64 devices on the VPN at no extra cost. Oh,
and it has Tor built in if you want it and the firewall blocks ads like a
PiHole.

------
dbroberson
I've done "VPNs" using sshuttle [https://www.unixmen.com/sshuttle-poor-mans-
vpn-ssh/](https://www.unixmen.com/sshuttle-poor-mans-vpn-ssh/)

Basically, if you have SSH access to a machine and Python is installed on the
endpoint, you can set up a "VPN" over SSH. To me, this is much easier to set
up. You can get by most of the time by having a vanilla Linux installation on
a cheap VPS without any additional work.

------
phideauxrocks
I'm in Sydney and a very satisfied user of AirVPN. I mostly use it to get
around geo-blocking. They have more than enough servers and I've never had an
issue with the reliability of their service. Speeds in Europe are reasonable,
but I'm on crappy ADSL anyway.

You should check out this very extensive comparison sheet as well:

[https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-
chart/](https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/)

------
rakic
If you need it only for web browsing, than I highly recommend the free VPN
that’s now integrated in developer release of Opera.
[https://www.opera.com/computer/beta](https://www.opera.com/computer/beta)

On iOS, all traffic goes through it.
[http://www.opera.com/apps/vpn](http://www.opera.com/apps/vpn)

~~~
walterbell
Opera has been acquired by a Chinese consortium,
[https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/25/operas-shareholders-
greenl...](https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/25/operas-shareholders-
greenlight-1-2b-sale-to-chinese-consortium/)

------
zacharycohn
Huge fan of getcloak.com. Osx/ios only, but Android coming soon. Been a paid
customer for four or five years.

------
yardie
I use NordVPN. Pay annually and it can be as low as $40. Allows up to 5
devices and they have servers all over the planet. I primarily use it for
streaming; Netflix US/UK/CA/FR, i-player, and checking how advertising looks
in different countries.

And popcorntime, occassionally.

------
nitai
I used to be a customer of PIA but the speed wasn't good anymore and I got
blocked.

I switched to ExpressVPN and they are very reliable. Especially if you travel
in Asia.

In addition, they have dedicated router firmwares so you can secure your whole
network.

------
saji13
I've found F-secure Freedome quite suitable for me. Works on phone also
(sometimes there's some issues though) and blocks tracking attemps.

------
herbst
I always liked mullvad, but they don't offer multiple countries and stuff. It
really comes down for what you need it actually.

~~~
staticelf
But they do nowadays. I used to be a customer and used to connected to
american servers for example.

~~~
herbst
Thats strange, guess they changed their TOS then. There is no way they can
provide the same privacy they did back then on a US Server :/

------
Learn2win
airvpn, privateinternetaccess It's easy to set up your own VPN as well. Just
get a VPS and then install OpenVPN server on it. [https://vpntips.com/how-to-
setup-a-vpn-server/](https://vpntips.com/how-to-setup-a-vpn-server/)

------
dx034
I use hide.me I tested several providers over the years but this one has given
me the best speed and lowest latency when I choose servers close to me. Works
well to have it running 24/7 on the phone. Of course it's more expensive than
just hosting a droplet, but very helpful to get IPs of various countries.
Unlimited traffic also comes in handy..

------
johny85
I'm using Overplay vpn service.I chose it from this rating
[https://myipservices.com/vpnrating](https://myipservices.com/vpnrating) . I
chose a paid service as they say that it works much better and faster. And to
be honest, their security is much better.

------
ecaroth
Many good recommendations in here, but I use froot and am pretty happy with
it.

------
samblr
Hola chrome extension VPN - works for couple of websites I dont have access
to.

------
pedro2
AirVPN. It allows to setup a stable port-forward, unlike PIA which (by design,
I suppose, due to being safer) changes the port forward every connection.

Also, AirVPN allows 3 or 5 port forwards, whereas PIA allows 1.

------
misbah143
DOT VPN is one of the best i have ever used.

------
Technologix
You can use this VPN Comparator to choose the right VPN for you:
[https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-
chart/](https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-chart/)

Personally, I've been using ExpressVPN for the last 6 months. Absolutely great
service and speed with a large choice of locations/servers.

You can get 30 days free trial using my referral link:
[http://bit.ly/2bKHXgO](http://bit.ly/2bKHXgO)

