I’m thinking about paying for a VPN, I currently don’t use one.

I’d like to use Mullvad but they don’t seem to have regional prices, while Proton does.

I wonder if Proton is still a reliable option, Proton is 60% cheaper in my country, probably because regional pricing (but I didn’t check if it’s really the case).

If anyone has any other suggestion I’d like to hear it.

  • this@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I like mullvad because I can pay for it with vouchers and have nothing to tie my payment to my account#

    I don’t think any other VPN can do that.

    Theres also the fact that mullvad was raided by the (Swedish)police and even though they fully complied, the police ended up walking away with nothing because mullvad had nothing to give them.

    Proton on the other hand, will at the very least be storing your email, payment info, and possibly other info in your account that mullvad won’t. I also don’t like how they have aligned themselves with conservative politics.

  • akilou@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I use Proton VPN only because I use Proton everything else. If not, I’d probably consider Mullvad. But I’m in the US and regional pricing doesn’t apply.

  • Corridor8031@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I would recommend mullvad.

    the ceo of proton did idicate support of the trump and the republican party and while they backtracked and apologized and all that, is it out that atleast some in the company think like that and i dont trust them anymore.

    and trust is number 1 priority for vpn.

  • pathief@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I used to have Mullvad and switched to Proton because I use pretty much their entire suite…

    If you don’t need port forwarding, I think Mullvad is superior in everything. Such a great service, highly recommend it.

  • adj@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I use both (not suggesting that). I mostly use Proton because it’s already included in my plan, and they seem to have more connections to choose from, but I frequently have to switch because the one I’m on starts to get really slow. I like Mullvad’s flat pricing and lack of commitment (they even accept cash), and it was an easier setup on Linux (at least Arch).

  • Broken@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Both options are good. I think for the most part it boils down to wanting a single product or suite of products.

    While you certainly can get just one proton service, the idea of having an easy entry point into multiple privacy focused solutions is what they are going for.

    The pro argument for that is cheaper overall, simpler to get into and mange, etc. The con argument is an eggs in one basket philosophy isn’t ideal because you can have a single point of failure. This is all subjective to your personal threat model.

  • unconsciousvoidling@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    Proton mail has an alias feature that I rather enjoy. Does anyone know an alternative service for that. I was looking to leave the proton ecosystem. Switching to mullvad is easy enough for vpn but im also looking at email etc.

    • Corridor8031@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      i too miss the alias service, and i dont really know an alternative aswell.

      The issue is kinda, that any alias service is basically just forwarding your mails … so it is really hard to trust anyone with that

      and a private domain is not really a solution, for privacy

      and like tuta does offer 15 or 30 (but 30 is super expensive) permanent aliases… which is like nice but does fill up super quickly if used like how it is used for proton

  • unfinished | 🇵🇸@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I personally prefer the Mullvad client since, at least on MacOS, it allows you to exclude specific apps from the VPN, while the ProtonVPN client does not! I still use ProtonVPN instead though, since it’s also significantly cheaper for me.

  • bl4kers@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Moved from Proton to Mullvad to Windscribe

    Proton kept getting worse and is moving towards a walled garden.

    Mullvad seemed great on the private payment front. Their apps are pretty solid. The device limit was too low for me. For 6-10 devices the price doubles.

    Windscribe won me over with their build a plan option. Their apps aren’t the most visually appealing but get the job done.

      • bl4kers@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        A la carte pricing has gone out the window in favor of bundles. This enables the same subsidization model of business used by Apple, Google, etc. Even when you pay, they display ads and reminders to get you to upgrade to higher tiers. Drive launched in beta only for paid users. Drive now encourages the use of their proprietary document format. They hand out storage bonuses for each year of membership. That’s not a sustainable long-term practice and purposefully creates stickiness. Generally speaking, they don’t have easy export tools, so they’re not very interoperable. Forwarding emails sent to @proton.me or @protonmail.com addresses to a new inbox is not possible unless you’re a paying customer, which makes switching more difficult.

  • Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Mullvad VPN is more private but I find I’m being asked to prove I’m human more often. Proton VPN I don’t trust with anything like piracy because they’re a large company with too much to lose by being overly private.

    EDIT: Oh, and reminder that you should use the Mullvad browser too if you want to keep anything private.

  • Clark@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Why don’t you use a decentralized VPN like NymVPN? It’s impossible for the company or anyone to take logs because your traffic is routed over several nodes. It’s like Tor but also adds noise to data and harder to deanonymize