VPNs can be pretty expensive, and I was wondering if it was the norm to use one, as the privacy benefits it provides are small.

    LyonSyonII IVPN and Mullvad are good and generally recommended, Mullvad VPN pairs well with Mullvad Browser which is an official fork of the Tor Browser developed by the Tor Project.

    I sometimes use mine for certain tasks, but I agree that the benefit in terms of privacy is quite small, it's no even longer an absolute necessity on public wifi.

    Let's just say that a trusted VPN should be part of a wider plan and should be part of a set of tools, on its own it doesn't do much.

      Xtreix Mullvad VPN pairs well with Mullvad Browser which is an official fork of the Tor Browser developed by the Tor Project.

      Just adding that Mullvad Browser is desktop only currently.

      iVPN, Mullvad, ProtonVPN and Windscribe are the most common recommendation in the privacy community. Other than Proton's free plan (which recently became quite restrictive) Windscribe is the cheapest with $3 per month on the Build a plan... plan.

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      I use Mullvad. I pay for it with vouchers from Amazon.

      Proton VPN paid services. It's part of the package. It comes with 520 gb of e2ee storage, and other email perks. As others say above. It's part of the equation.

        Proton here, too. I've used it without incident in the countries I've visited over the last several years (Europe, USA, South-East Asia).

        Everything has been said, those 4 VPN providers have the best track record and are recommended in the privacy communities.

        I'd say check their feature sets against your desires and then test the ones you can imagine using. I tried IVPN, Mullvad and Proton VPN each for a month and ended up using Mullvad because it had the best stability and speed where I am. IVPN came in as a close second so I book and use it every once in a while. Your mileage may vary.

        I use mullvad and Proton vpn... Most time Proton cause i also use the calendar and Mail

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        phone-company Mullvad is one of the most reputable and coincidentally its far less political than others. (Apart from human rights activism for privacy, which i wouldnt consider very political coming from a vpn.)

        Recently just switched from ProtonVPN to IVPN. Protons Netshield wasn't the best and there's no telling what it blocks cause they don't make their block lists public. IVPN not only tells you what they use but you can custom pick from a lot of popular lists. Speeds, for me, are equally fast with both companies.

        I guess this is the thread with the least discussion or disagreement. :D

        Thanks everyone for confirming and thank you LyonSyonII for asking this. Rarely have the answers been so uniform, you won't go wrong with any of the 4 I guess.

        Mullvad doesn't bypass country restrictions like in Russia as far as I know

          11 days later

          Also check out Azire VPN

          I don't use any VPN to hide or obfuscate my IP. In my situation it's not necessary. I use a VPN only to connect to my home network. In use DNS over TLS on my phone to block tracker and ads. This DNS server is a self hosted Adguard Home VM running on my server at home.