What is the cheapest functional VPN?
It's so difficult with so many options and all these bullshit "discounts", coupled with the fact that different VPNs charge different prices based on what country you're connecting from...
What is the cheapest functional VPN you've come across? Bonus points if it supports IPv6.
Imho, 'cheapest' and 'useful' are rarely a great combo for a VPN.
I mho, Mullvad is the best available, at 5€/month.
Close second, I would place Proton VPN.
Most of the others are just, well, I don't care much about their existence.
Imho, 'cheapest' and 'useful' are rarely a great combo for a VPN.
Yeah I never understood why people have this mindset.
Like looking for security, but then buying the cheapest option?
People have limited funds. It's as simple as that.
Proton VPN has a free plan that is fine if you just want general privacy from your ISP. If you want to do more like torrenting or circumventing geoblocking, there are probably cheaper options although Proton VPN does have significant Black Friday sales (which I think you just missed, unfortunately).
I’m on the Proton train, but know now, you’ll never see a discount once you’re a customer. They will promo you up to a more premium plan, but I recommend only comparing proton at full price.
Edit: I'm on a proton family plan. I’ve watched since October for any kind of deal or promo with Black Friday. There’s nothing available once you’re on this type of plan.
You will be offered a discount the first time you up to this plan, but once on it, nothing.
This sentiment is all over the proton communities.
For what it’s worth, I’m not expecting any BIG discounts from proton, but it would feel a lot better if they offered something (5 or 10 percent) on an annual subscription that’s nearly $300. (Yes I know annual is discounted from monthly, as is always the case).
As a subscriber it feels like you’re just part of the revenue stream and forgotten.
I felt this way as well. That top tier of subscription maxes you out, and they give no incentives. I assumed it was because they shrugged and thought, "They can't level up, so we have them where we want them. Let's upsell the others instead!"
but know now, you’ll never see a discount once you’re a customer.
That's not true, I have been a customer for several years and regularly receive offers on my current plan during the big sales. The problem for me is that they lowered my VPN Plus monthly rate to $5 a while back and the promomotional offers usually reset to a rate higher than that, so even though I would save more in the short-term I am locking myself into a longer and potentially more expensive contract with them in the longer-term. I don't know if this is bait from them or an oversight - I did notice that the most recent Black Friday promotion said it would reset to my discounted price at the end of the promotion so maybe they've changed it. I still didn't take them up on it, though.
I get promo emails every so often, especially last weekend. Maybe they’re getting snagged by your spam filter. I always ignore the promos, because I’m grandfathered into the older price which was cheaper for a single account with all their services. As long as I don’t cancel, I get to keep that price.
Mullvad. It does not not really get cheaper if you want something reliable.
Mullvad is fairly expensive though. If you want cheaper slightly cheaper go with a 1 or 2 year subscription of Proton VPN.
Proton has a free package with unlimited bandwidth. It doesn't offer as many countries or advanced features but it works just fine.
Another vote for Mullvad, here. It's arguably one of the best VPNs out there and at 5 bucks a month, you really can't go wrong. If you want cheaper than that, you have bigger problems than a VPN.
Mullvad no longer has port forwarding.
Which is only really needed for hosting a torrent, something most people don't do. Most VPN users do not even know what torrenting is and most torrent users are leechers so they don't use it either.
I think Proton has a free tier. It would be the most legit free one. Otherwise the best VPNs would be Proton, Mullvad, and IVPN with their no log policies, anonymous account creation and payment methods, audit history, and legal track records
AirVPN has a pretty good reputation AKAIK, and their 2-year plans are cheaper than Mullvad and Proton.
PIA is $40/yr and if you're just dodging hollywood lawyers, it is perfect for that. I can easily saturate my 1Gbps connection. It's a well known service so some companies block their IPs and you'll get captchas but I think that's unavoidable.
If you have state actors interested in your activities, keep shopping.
Tailscale.
Agreed. I have a VPS exit node for 4$/month, took an hour to set up, never once come within a mile of hitting my bandwidth cap on it.
The clients run on everything.
Mullvad. Supports IPv6, €5/month no matter how long you pay for or from what country.
i'd say Mullvad is the better choice, Surfshark if you want better speeds (from my personal experience, also depending on location)
Have a look at https://thatoneprivacysite.xyz/
for what purpose? if it's just bypassing your ISP, a free VPS + wireguard and you're golden.
Been using Air/Eddie for a while, it's been solid... Not the best interface perhaps, but a wide selection of servers globally..
Most VPN software is free. OpenVPN is FOSS and a popular product.
What are you trying to achieve?
It's no use. "VPN" means gateway/MITM service, just like "crypto" means digital tulip mania.
Tor. Or use gnunet's 'vpn' function with friends in other countries.
A car with a thumbstick, I guess.
I just bought adguard vpn for 5 year. Cost me 35$. Includes adguard private dns and adguard family license.
Imo, its worth it for me. Good speed but no wireguard support.