AFAIK only Mulvad and IVPN (and maybe ProtonVPN) are worth using.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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Privacy
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I succumbed to frienship bias and went with NordVPN which my best friend vouched for. I have since regretted that decision. While the process of paying and setting up was easy, the technical issues I've faced are really annoying. Still have a year and change on the contract so I don't want to change right now but as soon as it's over I'm switching to Mullvad. (If world war 3 does not destroy civilization)
Mullvad is how my 80-year-old mom can access the real internet in Russia. I top off her account here in the U.S., and she can browse all she wants. It’s easy enough for her to use.
Oh, also obligatory fuck Putin.
I'm switching to AIRVPN when my mullvad subscription ends. It's been a nice 4 years, but I need port forwarding and mullvad took that away.
May I know why you chose airvpn, other than because of port forwarding?
A group of friends gotten PIA a year or something ago for 3 years and we shared an account but the performance is mid. They also abandoned updating their Firefox extension so that's another reason I want to change.
Like you I also want port forwarding so mullvad isn't it
Yeah, PIA is… Alright? The parent company has a problematic past. Their old business model back in the late 2000’s was basically buying dying software, then pumping it full of adware to extract as much profit from the existing user base as possible. So lots of people jumped ship to other VPNs when PIA was sold to them a few years ago. But PIA itself has passed every audit that has been thrown at them, and they’re one of the few VPNs that still supports port forwarding.
Their performance is, as you said, mid. The speed definitely isn’t anywhere near gigabit, and the client tends to be kinda glitchy. But since port forwarding is such a hard requirement for so many people, they’ve managed to hold on to a pretty solid user base purely because of that.
PIA consistently drops on me whenever a torrent gets decent speed
It's also cheaper than mullvad and has good reviews. That's all I got.
Cheaper and have good reviews is just enough justification :)
Mullvad is an absolute bargain too.
I love mullvad and their account generation feature, it's so refreshing not having to enter all of your personal details in order to receive a service.
And you can use monero to pay for your subscription, too. No need to give them any identifiable payment info.
you can send several currencies by mail anonymously
welcome to the club, gentleman 🥂
I would use Mullvad if it wasn't for the lack of port forwarding. without that the service is subpar for my needs
I've been using the one included with my Proton subscription, what do yall think about it? Worth it to also pay for Mullvad?
I have nothing against Proton or any of their products, but I took the opportunity of switching away from big tech to also switch away from the all-services-in-one-provider model. Moving everything from let's say Google to let's say Proton just kicks the problem down the road. If Proton ever goes evil or goes out of business you're now looking for a new home for all your services again.
Its also generally good privacy practice to use a VPN provider that is wholly separate from any other provider you use so that provider can't relate your VPN traffic to all the other data they have on you. This is more true from providers who aren't trustworthy, but it's a rule I follow regardless.
Of course, this all depends on your threat model.
I am in the process of slowly buying up the hardware and learning the needed information to self host, I degoogled my life which was a hard thing and Proton was the easier place to go and it was intended to be a place holder till I feel confident enough to switch everything over to a self hosted setup. Using Proton's VPN is more a frugal choice.
I've setup my first Pi Nas (raspberry 5 pi nas) and that was my first step in my self hosting journey, I do own my domains for my emails so step 2 is to get another raspberry 5 and setup my own self hosted website server and email.
I've always been a tech savvy guy but my field is manufacturing, I'm not a software or web developer like a lot of the people on here so it's a bit of a slower pace and learning curve for me but I'm working on it. Also it doesn't help that it's getting more and more expensive to self host by the day.
I do value the input and information I learn on here and appreciate the explanation.
I've always been a tech savvy guy but my field is manufacturing, I'm not a software or web developer like a lot of the people on here so it's a bit of a slower pace and learning curve for me but I'm working on it.
I felt this in my bones. I do a lot of tech work, but basically none of it is programming or web dev. So lots of the self hosting stuff goes right over my head unless I really take the time to dive in. The worst part about self hosting is realizing how much you don’t know, but also knowing there’s probably a lot more that isn’t even on your radar.
Everyone has heard horror stories about the newbie self hoster just forwarding ports for every single service they run, not realizing that it’s turning their firewall into a sieve. And it’s the “not realizing” part that is scary. Especially when basically every Reddit thread about hosting something like Jellyfin will inevitably have a comment near the top, which is along the lines of “lol I just forward my port and it works.” Misinformation about best security practices is rampant, and filtering it out can be overwhelming for a newbie. Especially since the “not realizing” threat is always present. It’s always possible you made some dumb mistake that just exposed your entire LAN to the internet. And you won’t even know you made the mistake until all of your shit is ransomwared or being used to mine bitcoin.
Using separate providers for cloud storage, passwords, email and VPN is way less convenient and more expensive than having it all under Proton. It’s not perfect but it’s miles ahead of what most people use.
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I've used mullvlad for over a decade. Just started using proton last year. Both offer really good encryption and in great countries outside of the big data stealers. Mullvad sweden, proton swiss. Last I saw protons encryption is a bit better..both offer two-hop. Proton offers many more countries and servers. And proton is a bit faster.
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Ok guys, do I drop Proton for Mullvad, or do I keep it for port forwarding? My contract is ending soon. I'm starting to pirate more as I have a homelab running Arr services now, and I use port forwarding on my Qbittorrent client with Gluetun. I dislike Proton for liking Trump, but I need port forwarding. Or try AirVPN?
If you need port forwarding for qBittorrent + Arr + Gluetun, Mullvad isn’t an option anymore. They removed port forwarding in 2023.
That basically leaves Proton or AirVPN. Proton still supports port forwarding on P2P servers, while AirVPN is the more “power-user” option with persistent forwarded ports.
So if port forwarding matters for your setup, dropping Proton for Mullvad would actually break the functionality you’re using.
The original post for proton wasn’t directly supporting trump but that argument has been beat to death.
I’ve been running the arrs for years without vpn. Qbittorrent container, nzbget, etc
I mean, yes, it was specifically Andy who said he liked Trump's pick, not the entire Proton business (although he's dumb for posting from the Proton account). But it still doesn't sit right with me to have a board member that thinks anyone on Trump's cabinet is competent in any form, and the idea that Republicans support the "little guys" lol.
Also that's fantastic for you that your Qbittorrent isn't behind a VPN, but I'm not about to take that chance and have my ISP breaking down my door or cause issues for my parents, so I use a VPN.
Same. VPN is a waste of money if using private trackers and encryption.
Lemme just drop this here:
Yes, but you could have just told us the TLDR? Forums are discussions not link dropping. Your contribution would really help.
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Yes same, hi five borther
I can't wait for my Private Internet Access to run out.
While I agree PIA is mid, they’re one of the few half-decent VPNs that still supports port forwarding.
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