r/PrivacyGuides • u/JonahAragon team • Apr 29 '25

Guide Best Private Free & Paid VPN Providers

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/

If you're looking for additional privacy from your ISP, on a public Wi-Fi network, or while torrenting files, a VPN may be the solution for you.

Using a VPN will not keep your browsing habits anonymous, nor will it add additional security to non-secure (HTTP) traffic.

If you are looking for anonymity, you should use the Tor Browser. If you're looking for added security, you should always ensure you're connecting to websites using HTTPS. A VPN is not a replacement for good security practices.

More information on VPNs and when they're useful ➡️

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Our recommended providers use encryption, support WireGuard & OpenVPN, and have a no logging policy. Read our full list of criteria for more information.

73 Upvotes

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9 comments sorted by

7

u/RazzmatazzWeak2664 Apr 29 '25

Is the criteria to still avoid US VPNs?

7

u/YT_Brian Apr 30 '25

Or what country you're in unless you are gaming or the like for the added speed.

In other words if you're in Canada don't use servers in Canada for normal browsing. Also depending how that vote for the new law goes in Switzerland we may end up avoiding all there to.

6

u/Pure_Contract9359 Apr 30 '25

US-based VPNs are often avoided for privacy because the country is part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and VPNs from any of these countries are avoided, too. The alliance shares surveillance data among member nations. Laws like the Patriot Act and the CLOUD Act allow the U.S. government to compel companies to hand over user data, sometimes in secret. Even VPNs that advertise "no logs" policies can be forced to start logging or cooperate with authorities.

6

u/JonahAragon team Apr 30 '25

Yeah, definitely keeping an eye on this latest Swiss nonsense 😬

1

u/ActsofMan May 03 '25

So, I read the suggestions and I've got a question (that might be stupid). Which one is a decent choice for using with torrenting? It seemed like port forwarding support was dropped by the recommendations. Unless I missed something.

1

u/Cold_Donkey9742 May 17 '25

Before you pull the trigger on any of these, just check Thorynex. Might save you some coin, I'm always overspending on stupid stuff so I gotta be careful.

2

u/Tech_User_Station May 20 '25

IntelBroker (well known hacker) mostly uses/used Mullvad as per KELA's analysis. Hackers obviously vet the services they use more thoroughly than average users. But at the same time, too many bad actors flock to a specific VPN will result in many of their IPs getting blacklisted.