Another vote for Mullvad here who are one the best these days IMO, completely anonymous and you can even pay cash sent into them as a form of payment if you so desired. You also have a choice of selecting only their own servers and they protect against AI with DAITA, support for Multihop, Split Tunnelling etc. All data on their servers in held in RAM only so on reboot it's all wiped.
Proton is hyped up a lot because of Swiss privacy laws but what many seem to forget is that stronger Swiss privacy laws only apply to Swiss residents. Saying that they are outside the 14 eyes alliance unlike Sweden but Police have raided Mullvad and there was nothing there for them to take, no data, no logs accept for those that can't be avoided due to functionality (try sending a letter with no address) but as mentioned they have been audited so proven secure and have yet to be breached. Proton on the other hand have been caught handing the contents of email data over to French authorities so it's questionable as to how trustworthy they really are and to how far they are prepared to go to protect users data. They also get a lot of media attention which I dislike and there's the Swiss Surveillance Ordinance Proposal hanging over them right now (see link below) and Signal is threatening to leave Switzerland.
Switzerland is all a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing IMO unless your a Swiss resident. I also don't like the fact that Proton are trying to do everything from Mail, VPN, Storage, everything all in the one basket rather than specialise and concentrate on one service.
[https://cyberinsider.com/swiss-surveillance-ordinance-sparks-backlash-from-privacy-tech-firms/](https://)
I'm surprised that Windscribe gets mentioned a lot. I tried them out many years ago in the early days when they first started out but they where raided and data was handed over to authorities so I lost trust. It seems they are have improved somewhat over the years which is probably why they are now recommended but don't forget Canada is within 5 eyes. They are up there at the top and privy to as much data sharing as the US and UK. But in truth is it as important to where a provider is registered versus what servers you use and their their location and the path (servers) passed through to get from A to B. It's not called border gateway for nothing. Think of it like passing through customs but as long as everything is encrypted during transport it should be safe from anyone outside of the most advanced nation states and dependant on resources, time and money.
Wireguard is also hyped up a lot but OpenVPN is the better protocol with it's obfuscation but then Wireguard has better encryption so take your pick.
Best VPN provider I have ever used was Express in the early days before they sold out but it wasn't cheap. I wouldn't reccomend them now or any of the Kape bunch.
Van-de-GraaffeneOS That mole mascot is adorable.
LOL Not the best considering the alternative meanings for a mole.