I’ve used proton for a year or two now and it is fine. Great for use on my phone when I want to use public/airport wifi and it sort of kind of works with gluetun (the rotating port is annoying but it still is a forwarded port).
But I’ve increasingly been annoyed with Proton as a company and am looking to migrate my email/domain to fastmail in the very near future. I COULD continue to just pay for the vpn (60 USD a year is pretty reasonable) but also feel like this is a good opportunity to “shop around”
Checked the wiki and other FAQs (which all basically crib from said wiki) and they all basically boil down to proton or mullivad… except that mullivad apparently stopped allowing port forwarding which is a bit of an issue for any torrents and the like.
So are there any other good options?
Thanks
I’ve used AirVPN for this exact setup and it works great. The port forwarding is static and doesn’t change once setup. I switched to proton because it was convenient, I was already paying for ProtonMail et all, so I dropped the extra VPN subscription when it renewed.
I’ll add another recommendation for Windscribe. I’ve had a lifetime subscription since 2017 and have never had issues. I use it for normal internet usage pretty much daily and the occasional torrenting.
I love Mullvad, but if you need P2P its not the best option. If you just need a VPN, though, its amazing. Today I just switched to AirVPN and am running it on Arch through Eddie. Have my qbittorrent set up to only allow connections through Eddie and just forwarded my first port. I’m very happy with it.
I think the only downside is that I could get Mullvad for 5eur a month on a month by month basis. AirVPN is 7eur or 15eur for three months, so I have to lock into the three months to get the same price.
Worth noting that Italy (location of airvpn) hates vpns and is constantly fucking around with them, to the point air doesn’t even actually operate in Italy to preserve users privacy. Right now, theres no immediate risk, but it’ is worth keeping an eye on the political situation in Italy regarding VPN laws
I did read this somewhere before. I just have to take my chances at the moment. My other option was Windscribe, but unless you’re paying for a year+ their prices are astronomical.
Yeah I use airvpn myself, its just worth throwing that info out for full transparency/disclosure
Try Orbot. I use it and works pretty great.
If you plan to torrent with your vpn. Tor isn’t a good idea. If you use it just as A VPN it could be fine ig.
If you use it just as A VPN it could be fine ig.
If I’m not mistaken Orbot passes traffic through the Tor network which will significantly reduce network speeds.
Someone feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
Yes you are right. That is why I said it could be fine. I think most people will find it too slow. And also route all your phone traffic through tor isn’t a great idea neither because most services block Tor IP anyway.
Cryptostorm. Supports port forwarding, and you can buy access tokens through third parties using crypto. You do not register an account or provide them with any information to use the service, other than the token.
But honestly, Proton is the best route to go.
ProtonVPN has been a known data miner for years now. Cryptostorm’s admins do know what they’re doing. If you want an audit see mullvad or ipredator
Not a VPN, but you may also want to look into I2P.
https://proprivacy.com/privacy-service/guides/i2p-guide
https://youtube.com/watch?v=FNp0TRDG0BQ
Basically, a p2p protocol for the entire internet.
Its considerably more complicated to set up than most modern VPNs, where nowaday’s its usually as simple as install an app with a GUI, verify some settings and you’re good to go, and i2p is also quite slow…
… but its totally free, and you can torrent over it, and as far as I know, if you’ve set it up properly, it is basically undetectable by ISPs, due to how it uses ‘garlic’ routing: basically, a whole bunch of users net requests are encrypted, anonymized, and then smashed into a big packet… so an ISP would have to untangle all of that for every packet, and afaik, none of them have figured out how.
I2P would obviously be horrible for watching streaming content though, snail speed.
Great for use on my phone when I want to use public/airport wifi
If you just want the tunnel encryption you can try hosting a VPN on your own home network. It’s what I do since I don’t need to spoof my location.
You are asking in the piracy community so I’m assuming you’re also using it to torrent (which a home VPN won’t help with) but you didn’t specifiy so I’m not sure
What’s wrong with NordVPN?
Mostly misleading ads
I’m with Azire, they have port forwarding and 10 gig servers. Note they were bought recently by malwarebytes, so it is possible things will change in the future. For the time being, things have been great. I moved from OVPN after myself and others started experiencing persistant failures.
I’ve been meaning to try out CryptoStorm. If anyone has experience with them please share.
I really like express VPN, and the app is open source.
Just throwing in another voice for PIA. Their corporate owners may be questionable, but I’ve been with them since before they sold out and have never heard a peep from my ISP for seeding terabytes of torrents. They don’t keep logs, and they are audited to prove it regularly.
EDIT: They also have port forwarding, but not for every exit server.
I have been happy with PrivateVPN, but I can’t get a read on them.
They say no-log, but many VPNs probably lie about that. Small, based in Sweden.
I just saw on the kumo app literally just now that they got bought out by Miss Group and are no longer independent like when I started with them in 2019.
They have no strikes against them besides the not-disclosed buyout. No idea if I should switch, but they have good prices and port forwarding.
not-disclosed buyout
That alone would make me jump ship. VPNs need to be transparent about this kind of shit to their paying users.
Edit: FYI, this is in the works https://webhosting.today/2025/01/15/miss-group-prepares-for-sale-what-lies-ahead-for-the-nordic-hosting-giant/
Why is NordVPN not mentioned ? I’m using it and happy so far. Should I switch to something else ?
if you care about privacy , yes, you should
Why ? Asking seriously because they got multiple certifications about their no-logs policy done by independent third parties.
Nord is Lithuanian.
What’s the relation with NordVPN ? Are other VPN providers I.e mullivad better ?
I’m guessing his/her point involves the location of its incorporation. Any company in the “five eyes” zone can be forced to release details about its users to any member state. One must evaluate whether NordVPN keeps anything more than a few hours - days tops - to decide if it is “safe enough”. I was worried enough about this particular point that I chose a VPN that is not in any way beholden to five eyes or the fourteen eyes, which is a similar agreement.
Proton caught heat because of its release of information to the local law enforcement recently. While Switzerland is not part of the five eyes, it does have its own laws requiring a reveal in certain circumstances. I forgot the details, but I think they had an IP address that had not yet been wiped from cache, and that was enough to pinpoint the hackers being sought.
In truth, there’s no sure way to be sure. One still must trust the organization is both honest and competent enough to properly wipe any residual information. No matter who it is, some amount of information has to be in cache for some time in order to be able to deliver the service, and there also needs something tracking the workings of the system to ensure it isn’t overloaded or to find opportunities to improve it.
No Port forwarding
I just want to mention that the forwarded port provided by the VPN must match the one configured in the torrent client. Buying a VPN which offers port forwarding is not enough.
Yeah it changes. I’m used to doing that in QBT
Too much advertising, it just feels off.
I think a safe assumption is that anyone that runs over half of their budget in ads can’t be trusted.
I have no opinion of them, but I’m curious why advertising would imply untrustworthiness. Are you saying they’re too eager or something? Spending money on ads is also consistent with a company that’s making money by charging for a service — I’d be more suspicious of free VPNs.
My experience with products that lean so heavily into the sponsors is that they’re usually mediocre in terms of your overall choices. Basically, the ads kind of give me bad vibes. I admit, it’s not a rational judgment, but I won’t go out of my way to find out if NordVPN is actually good when there are alternatives.
If many people feel the same way, it may be evidence that sponsors are an outdated method of advertising.
It is more than a bit of a fallacy, but the general idea is that any product worth using will distinguish itself. Whereas the products that spend vast amounts of money on advertisement “can’t stand on their own”.
Like I said, it is a fallacy that insists companies should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and ignores the reality of the landscape these days.
THAT said: nordvpn goes REALLY hard on the advertisements and is still one of the more popular/few remaining big sponsors for podcasts and influencers. And THAT gives me pause because it has generally been shown that those are horrible venues for “getting a product out there” and mostly exist to take advantage of parasocial relationships. And, based on the linus media group leaks and corroboration from various twitch streamers, the big outfits are asking for a LOT of money per sponsorship spot.
And considering there is no way to really vet a VPN and you are inherently trusting them to do what they say they do (or do the good version of what they don’t even bother to talk about)…
You’d probably be surprised that the companies that spend the most money on advertising are the biggest and most successful companies on the planet.
The number of leads youtube/podcast advertising generates is not that impressive, the number of leads that become buyers is even less impressive. When a company spends too much on this type of advertising for a product that is not “premium”(meaning overpriced shit), it casts a shadow of doubt on where they get their revenue.
If you want port forwarding the choice is between AirVPN, ProtonVPN and Njalla. Iirc PIA also supports port forwarding, but their ownerships reputation is no good.
Mullvad, IVPN and many other services don’t support port forwarding.
Do you have any experience with Njalla? This would be my first time purchasing a VPN and I couldn’t imagine a better provider on paper.
I just don’t know anything practical about it besides it’s founded by a member of the swedish pirate party.
I’ve never used them but I heard about them in the context of private DNS and VPS hosting. E.g. they act as a middleman to shield domain the shield the client from authorities (at least to some extent — they still have to follow the laws).
Given their focus on privacy I’d trust them for torrenting at least as much as the other options. As a first VPN I’d say it’s great because of their flat 5€/m price. A few years ago I used Mullvad for that purpose — until they removed port forwarding.
Why do we care about their ownership if it’s proven that they don’t log and let you forward ports?
Given there’re alternatives I’d rather choose an independent service instead.
But that’s a personal decision which is why I mentioned PIA with the disclaimer, instead of ignoring them.
I get what you’re saying and I use proton despite the kerfuffle with their CEO, but where privacy is concerned yes I do care about the reputation of the company to an extent. To not care about that all would be very silly. Too much trust involved.
You’re right but if it’s something that sensitive I’d rather use TOR/I2P
I2P is not an option because I’m using a VPN for regular internet traffic. As much as I like the idea of I2P, there’s just no I2P torrent sites with the selection of content I want.
Tor is not an option choice for torrents.
I think PIA is decent for torrenting and Mullvad for privacy
That’s fine. It completely depends on your threat model and your preferences. To this date I haven’t heard anything negative about PIA except their owners, so it’s fair to trust them. I just want to point out that you can have both with other providers.
Generating a random account number is a unique and great feature of Mullvad.
But other providers allow for the same privacy. E.g. AirVPN does not require a valid email address. Any random string works for all required fields (email, username, password). Payment via Monero is available too. Njalla does require a valid email address (it sends a confirmation mail), but any tempmail provider works (which you could access through Tor). They also accept Monero.Impressive, I didn’t know AirVPN accepted XMR. That greatly influences my decision about them vs PIA and others. I wanted a VPN which I could pay for anonymously and could torrent with (open ports)
Use what works for you!
I’d say the proven good ones are Proton, Mullvad, and IVPN.
Windscribe has really improved a lot and is worth considering. Still probably worth waiting for Freshscribe infrastructure before considering over the 3 I mentioned above.
Nym and Obscura are up and comers worth looking at. Nym is a decentralized VPN and Obscura has partnered with Mullvad to offer a true double hop (ie one in where both hops are not owned by the same entity).
