I like mullvad because I can pay for it with vouchers and have nothing to tie my payment to my account#

I don't think any other VPN can do that.

Theres also the fact that mullvad was raided by the (Swedish)police and even though they fully complied, the police ended up walking away with nothing because mullvad had nothing to give them.

Proton on the other hand, will at the very least be storing your email, payment info, and possibly other info in your account that mullvad won't. I also don't like how they have aligned themselves with conservative politics.

Mullvad.

All you are to them is an account number. that's it. no name, no email, nothing. you can even pay in cash. while mullvad's GUI is still meh their CLI is top notch and very quick.

I used to have Mullvad and switched to Proton because I use pretty much their entire suite...

If you don't need port forwarding, I think Mullvad is superior in everything. Such a great service, highly recommend it.

Proton's CEO sucks. I canceled my extremely low-priced, grandfathered subscription and moved elsewhere. I had been a user since basically day one, a subscriber since available, and converted family members and friends to it. Not anymore.

Mullvad has been stellar. Fast, anonymous, easy to use. Zero complaints.

I use both (not suggesting that). I mostly use Proton because it's already included in my plan, and they seem to have more connections to choose from, but I frequently have to switch because the one I'm on starts to get really slow. I like Mullvad's flat pricing and lack of commitment (they even accept cash), and it was an easier setup on Linux (at least Arch).

The main difference I see between the two is that Mullvad no longer offers port forwarding services and ProtonVPn does offer port forwarding services.

This can make a big difference based on your use-case scenarios. If you are gaming and need port forwarding or are torrenting and need port forwarding Protonvpn is the better choice.

I use Proton VPN only because I use Proton everything else. If not, I'd probably consider Mullvad. But I'm in the US and regional pricing doesn't apply.

Mullvad because it accepts cash payments.

Mullvad is more private but Proton VPN still supports port forwarding.

Both options are good. I think for the most part it boils down to wanting a single product or suite of products.

While you certainly can get just one proton service, the idea of having an easy entry point into multiple privacy focused solutions is what they are going for.

The pro argument for that is cheaper overall, simpler to get into and mange, etc. The con argument is an eggs in one basket philosophy isn't ideal because you can have a single point of failure. This is all subjective to your personal threat model.

Proton mail has an alias feature that I rather enjoy. Does anyone know an alternative service for that. I was looking to leave the proton ecosystem. Switching to mullvad is easy enough for vpn but im also looking at email etc.

Mullvad. Excellent service, never had an issue. Used to use Proton, but their CEO sucks ass

I personally prefer the Mullvad client since, at least on MacOS, it allows you to exclude specific apps from the VPN, while the ProtonVPN client does not! I still use ProtonVPN instead though, since it's also significantly cheaper for me.

I'd rather compare IVPN vs Mullvad.

I like mullvad i use their dns filtering and their socks5 proxies however it does lack port forwarding so it sucks for torrenting.

Does anyone here regard ivpn as a good vpn as well?

Definitely Mullvad, the whole point of VPN is to stay private and Proton does not accept crypto while Mullvad does.

If the VPN has your payment details then any privacy just goes out the window.

For sailing the seas, I like CryptoStorm.is Good speed with port forwarding.

What about AirVPN? I haven't chosen any VPNs yet, mostly because I'm still not sure which to go with, but I never see anyone talk about Air, even though I once heard Proton or Air were the best choices.

Vote for the unlisted AirVPN because extremely easy to use, very moderate pricing, and specifically why I needed it, port forwarding.

Both of them are decent VPN choices at the end of the day. If one is 60% cheaper then the choice should be very easy unless you have too much money on your hand. Try 1 month of each and make a choice.

Moved from Proton to Mullvad to Windscribe

Proton kept getting worse and is moving towards a walled garden.

Mullvad seemed great on the private payment front. Their apps are pretty solid. The device limit was too low for me. For 6-10 devices the price doubles.

Windscribe won me over with their build a plan option. Their apps aren't the most visually appealing but get the job done.

Why don't you use a decentralized VPN like NymVPN? It's impossible for the company or anyone to take logs because your traffic is routed over several nodes. It's like Tor but also adds noise to data and harder to deanonymize

Why do you want a VPN? Is it just for some light piracy? Staying safe on public wifi? Or do you actually NEED to maintain your privacy, with real consequences if you can't?

If you need true privacy, the answer is Mullvad. But there's also more required than just switching on a VPN if you want privacy. If you want a convenient and easy VPN that's part of a bigger privacy-focused suite of tools, then I'd recommend Proton. They make some pretty good products.

If you care about things beyond the operations, the Proton boss came out in support of 47's adminstration with regards to regulating big tech IIRC. I'm not aware the Mullvad chief did something similar.

Proton works well. But it's designed to be the basket for all your eggs (VPN, office suite, email, etc.). They want you to use all their services and push for upgrades to the highest tier. I found their customer support you be ... very ... slow.

If you need port forwarding, AirVPN is another option. I think they're cheaper than Mullvad but it's held together by dedication and duct tape. It works okay but read their website first to see if you're okay with how it's set up.

I dont use the well known ones, seems to me that those would be the first to have backdoors since people pick them.

I have a vpn that is never mentioned anywhere. Perfect.

Any reason Private Internet Access (PIA) isn’t in the running? I’ve been using it for years now with no complaints or issues.