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VPN recommendations, Summer 2025

First off, sorry if this has been asked a million times in this community already, but the only post I found on this topic when I searched was over two years old.

I've been using PIA vpn for the past two years, but my subscription is ending soon and I was thinking about switching providers. I'm a fairly basic vpn user so I'm not overly concerned about advanced features and bells and whistles. I have a limited budget to work with, and I run Fedora os. Does anyone have any recommendations on what vpn I should be using?

I've seen Mullvad mentioned frequently, but it's a touch expensive compared to others. I've heard some good things about Proton vpn too, but I know there was a controversy with their CEO not long ago. I've also just read something about IVPN and they look good, but I'd like opinions from more sources. I'm open too all other suggestions as well. Thanks for any and all thoughts!

73 comments
  • you might as well assume that any traffic you send to an american vpn is routed directly to the NSA, FBI, etc. get something that physically resides in a GDPR country. as for price, it's either that or just drop the P out of VPN

    • GDPR is not relevant to state monitoring. Article 23 provides the provisions to explicitly restrict data protection rights for the purpose of eavesdropping, detection, crime prevention, etc. Its wildly open ended to the point that it makes no difference in choosing a VPN: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-23-gdpr/

  • I tried airvpn, but found it confusing in some regards. ProtonVPN is easier to use and it has served me well, despite the recent controversy around it. The only real annoyance is that it randomly selects a new port to forward every time you connect, so you have to manually update that in your client. Quantum is a nifty tool that will read your ProtonVPN logs and automatically complete this step for you, if you use qBittorrent.

  • What you should also consider, do you need a VPN. If you just want to avoid region blocking, (any) will do. Just need to check if their IP range is blocked by the provider. For normal https traffic you don’t need one. Enable dns over https in your browser and your traffic is as secure and anonymous as with most commercial VPNs.
    VPNs have their use cases but we now have a decade of scareware ads from VPNs that implied our traffic is as insecure as it was in 1980. but it isn’t, you’re paying for a lava insurance. And let me say this, you can still be tracked if you use a VPN. It’s just a bit harder, like marginally

  • i use expressvpn with a dedicated uk server for streaming (as an anglophile) and mullvad wireguard on my gl ax1800 with port forwarding on the router for educational archival purposes and historical academic studies of long john silver and ive been happy.

    i have been trying out windscribe paid but not sold on it

73 comments