this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
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Privacy

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It's so difficult with so many options and all these bullshit "discounts", coupled with the fact that different VPNs charge different prices based on what country you're connecting from...

What is the cheapest functional VPN you've come across? Bonus points if it supports IPv6.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Imho, 'cheapest' and 'useful' are rarely a great combo for a VPN.

I mho, Mullvad is the best available, at 5€/month.
Close second, I would place Proton VPN.

Most of the others are just, well, I don't care much about their existence.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Popular VPNs like Mullvad are banned in some authoritorian countries

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Mullvad accepts cash in envelopes as payment. That's a good sign they care about privacy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Personnaly I would recommend pia for VPN torrenting, it's not private but it's good for this use case

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why do you say PIA isn't private?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm not really an expert but it not known to be private, it's almost like when using any mainstream VPNs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You are spreading disinformation.

PIA has stood up in court multiple times previously: https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-claims-proven-true-again-in-court-180606/.

So unless you have a reliable source, you are wrong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I wouldn't say that pia is the worst in term of "privacy" but you will agree with me that it's not a recommended VPN when talking about his category. Maybe it's just a really bad misconception and I'm sorry. But I would not really recommend this VPN if any.

(But you shouldn't justify yourself by using a 2018 article, and even more when talking about "no logging") Indeed, I'm wrong.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Imho, 'cheapest' and 'useful' are rarely a great combo for a VPN.

Yeah I never understood why people have this mindset.

Like looking for security, but then buying the cheapest option?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

People have limited funds. It's as simple as that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Mullvad. It does not not really get cheaper if you want something reliable.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Mullvad is fairly expensive though. If you want cheaper slightly cheaper go with a 1 or 2 year subscription of Proton VPN.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Another vote for Mullvad, here. It's arguably one of the best VPNs out there and at 5 bucks a month, you really can't go wrong. If you want cheaper than that, you have bigger problems than a VPN.

[–] ouch 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Mullvad no longer has port forwarding.

[–] MissGutsy 2 points 1 week ago

Which is only really needed for hosting a torrent, something most people don't do. Most VPN users do not even know what torrenting is and most torrent users are leechers so they don't use it either.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 week ago

Proton has a free package with unlimited bandwidth. It doesn't offer as many countries or advanced features but it works just fine.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago

I think Proton has a free tier. It would be the most legit free one. Otherwise the best VPNs would be Proton, Mullvad, and IVPN with their no log policies, anonymous account creation and payment methods, audit history, and legal track records

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 week ago

AirVPN has a pretty good reputation AKAIK, and their 2-year plans are cheaper than Mullvad and Proton.

[–] lemming741 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

PIA is $40/yr and if you're just dodging hollywood lawyers, it is perfect for that. I can easily saturate my 1Gbps connection. It's a well known service so some companies block their IPs and you'll get captchas but I think that's unavoidable.

If you have state actors interested in your activities, keep shopping.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think they just jumped about $10 a year, I was just renewed for $50 a few weeks ago.

[–] lemming741 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maybe it's a cyber Monday deal, they're advertising 3.33/mo

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Son of a... Yeah probably new users or something. I'm ok with losing $10 this year though.

[–] AtariDump 3 points 1 week ago

Buy the deal and have them merge it into your account. It’s what I did.

[–] johannesvanderwhales 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Note that PIA has extremely limited options if you want to be connectable on private trackers

[–] lemming741 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Their port forwarding works for me, but you're right. It takes some knowledge to make it work.

[–] johannesvanderwhales 1 points 1 week ago

The real issue is that they only allow port forwarding on certain endpoints (and when I was still using them, none of the endpoints that supported port forwarding were in the US which is a headache)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Agreed. I have a VPS exit node for 4$/month, took an hour to set up, never once come within a mile of hitting my bandwidth cap on it.

The clients run on everything.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Surprised this isn't at the top. Perhaps I'm too used to r/selfhosted

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm surprised too. Since it's a mesh VPN, you can set up your exit node anywhere you like.

[–] rolling_resistance 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I assume you need to pay for exit node hosting + traffic, right? Which would be comparable to the price of a classic VPN.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

If you have it at home, you have to only pay for the bandwidth you're using.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

Mullvad. Supports IPv6, €5/month no matter how long you pay for or from what country.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

i'd say Mullvad is the better choice, Surfshark if you want better speeds (from my personal experience, also depending on location)

Have a look at https://thatoneprivacysite.xyz/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

for what purpose? if it's just bypassing your ISP, a free VPS + wireguard and you're golden.

[–] useyourmainfinger 5 points 1 week ago

Been using Air/Eddie for a while, it's been solid... Not the best interface perhaps, but a wide selection of servers globally..

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Most VPN software is free. OpenVPN is FOSS and a popular product.

What are you trying to achieve?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's no use. "VPN" means gateway/MITM service, just like "crypto" means digital tulip mania.

Today's episode brought to you by our friends CoinSkank™ and EchelonVPN.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Tor. Or use gnunet's 'vpn' function with friends in other countries.

[–] AnUnusualRelic 1 points 1 week ago

A car with a thumbstick, I guess.

[–] 3aqn5k6ryk 1 points 1 week ago

I just bought adguard vpn for 5 year. Cost me 35$. Includes adguard private dns and adguard family license.

Imo, its worth it for me. Good speed but no wireguard support.