Question Which VPN do you use for your PC ?

[Elie_4]

I want buy vpn plan and I am looking at different companies with affordable prices, I found private Internet access, cyber ghost and surfshark, all of prices seam the cheapest I found others more expensive, what vpn should I get and what do you use? I am currently using Norton vpn because of anti virus now my subscription is about expire but I do not like norton that much and it was good deal back then 30$ for 3 devices and I shared it with 3 friends so paid 10$ for 2 years. idk if I will ever find deal like that so I want vpn.

 

[liberty610]

I've been using Nord for several years. Never had any issues, the connections are stable, and they are solid with streaming and downloading. Pretty high speeds. If you buy a multi year subsciption it is cheaper, and they are already doing the whole black friday/holdiay deal ordeal,

Also, if you have a credit card with coupon offers for places like CapitalOne, Citi or Discover, they can offer up to 40% cash back on it.

 

[Archon of the Valley]

I use Proton VPN myself. Currently the free plan but hoping to upgrade to Proton Ultimate in the reasonably near future, as I use and enjoy all their products. They're the only free option I'm comfortable with recommending since the free version is subsidized from their paid version and the free servers' speeds are very serviceable.

Plus, they're based in Switzerland (notoriously strict privacy laws, meaning logs and whatnot aren't a concern) and have been at the forefront of encrypted, pro-privacy services for a very long time. To top it off, their paid plan (for just the VPN alone) is reasonable, at $6/month, thought it'd definitely be a much better deal to pay the $8/month for Ultimate if you use more than just their VPN; all of their services are great so I definitely recommend that.

Another solid option would be Mullvad. They have a flat rate of $5/month for all plans, you can pay in Bitcoin/Monero, digital gift cards or even cash (not kidding) if you want. Plus, they were raided recently and couldn't give the authorities anything because they don't store anything.

If you're strictly using a VPN for bypassing censorship, then there are many other options but if you want an always-on option to protect against ISP snooping and hide your IP from the sites you visit, you're gonna want to go with a more private option like Proton, Mullvad or even IVPN.

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

I would not trust any VPN whatsoever to truly keep no logs and protect your privacy. Always assume they log something somewhere. and when it comes to any governing body requesting any data on you via court order assume you will not be 100% safe.

Don't use a VPN for illegal activities hoping it will fully protect you 100% (for example pirating Movies, Games, Software, TV Shows).

Use a VPN for the following reasons:

- To help obfuscate that you are doing something illegal (such as pirating games, movies and TV shows) to make it less directly obvious to your ISP that you are using their services for such things, and others who monitor torrent trackers and the IP's that connect to them.

- To protect your IP to a very minimal degree from those with intent to know who you are and where you are when connecting to online services (but this can easily be gotten around with javascripts, cookies, and other things).

- To help encrypt your data when using public WiFi access points so you can log into accounts and send messages using whatever messaging service without worrying that someone is logging the info and spying on your data.

- To help get around geo-restricted content on streaming services like Netflix.

In regards to that last one, not all VPN providers services work well for that.
The top two are Nord and Express with the rest not really being useful for such things.

I personally use Private Internet Access and pay $40/yr and use it to help with being on public WiFi access points, and to sometimes get around any odd connection throttling/website access issues.

For me personally it works as it should and for what I use it for.
Internet speeds can vary depending on the server I connect to and what time I connect to it, but for the most part I would say I maintain fairly good speeds.

As of writing this, doing a quick generic speed test with speedtest.net, without the VPN I get 890mbps down and 940 up on Fiber. (people are streaming in the other room)
With the VPN set to the closest server (located in the same state) I get 736 down with 668 up.
Percentage wise it's not a huge loss and still plenty fast.

 

[Archon of the Valley]

When it comes to VPNs, there's a lot of FUD but there's also a lot of marketing hype. If your safety depends on staying hidden and anonymous, then VPNs definitely shouldn't be trusted. However, everyone should use a VPN to hide your IP from sites so as to reduce your digital footprint. Furthermore, if you trust your VPN company more than your ISP (in my case, it's Proton vs. Spectrum, so I do), then it also serves to help transfer the trust of your internet traffic to someone you trust more.

Like you said, people need to avoid assuming they're hidden, particularly if they're gonna do illegal things. Even Tor can't fully protect criminals in that regard. VPNs serve a great purpose for privacy, they're just not a silver bullet.

 

[Elie_4]

I've been using Nord for several years. Never had any issues, the connections are stable, and they are solid with streaming and downloading. Pretty high speeds. If you buy a multi year subsciption it is cheaper, and they are already doing the whole black friday/holdiay deal ordeal,

Also, if you have a credit card with coupon offers for places like CapitalOne, Citi or Discover, they can offer up to 40% cash back on it.

I saw nord as an option but it is bit expensive I saw Surfshark as cheaper and a little bit same features do you think Surfshark can be an alternative

 

[Elie_4]

When it comes to VPNs, there's a lot of FUD but there's also a lot of marketing hype. If your safety depends on staying hidden and anonymous, then VPNs definitely shouldn't be trusted. However, everyone should use a VPN to hide your IP from sites so as to reduce your digital footprint. Furthermore, if you trust your VPN company more than your ISP (in my case, it's Proton vs. Spectrum, so I do), then it also serves to help transfer the trust of your internet traffic to someone you trust more.

Like you said, people need to avoid assuming they're hidden, particularly if they're gonna do illegal things. Even Tor can't fully protect criminals in that regard. VPNs serve a great purpose for privacy, they're just not a silver bullet.

I am not using vpn for ilegall stuff only thing I use it for some website that block my original IP after 1 day use, I old isp was slow but never had issue like getting blocked from a website after 1 day use, now I have isp that have 4 times speed of old isp but get issues here and there like rockstar I quite gta online because of it and I do some trading also happened to me after using VPN it fixed the issue

 

[liberty610]

I saw nord as an option but it is bit expensive I saw Surfshark as cheaper and a little bit same features do you think Surfshark can be an alternative

Surfshark and Nord and owned by the same people now.

 

[Math Geek]

i use fast vpn from namecheap. it's cheap as it gets. black friday sales each year usually see me get a year for $30 or so.

i use it more on mobile devices than my pc. but i do need to swap countries to be able to access shopping sites or location locked videos or similar here and there. does what i need it to do in that regard. when privacy is a concern i run my own vpn so i know nothing is getting logged

 

[whatdoitypehere9937982739]

Proton free. It has unlimited free data, and I trust the company.

 

[Flayed]

I have been using Surfshark but I am thinking to cancel it when it finishes and switch to proton

 

[faalin]

I use PIA vpn, $80 for 3 years and can install on unlimited devices. Ive never had an issue with it or speeds, i actually run it 24/7 on my Iphone. There's 55 servers in the USA alone and im not even going to try and count the countries, with most of them having multiple servers.