I've used proton for a year or two now and it is fine. Great for use on my phone when I want to use public/airport wifi and it sort of kind of works with gluetun (the rotating port is annoying but it still is a forwarded port).

But I've increasingly been annoyed with Proton as a company and am looking to migrate my email/domain to fastmail in the very near future. I COULD continue to just pay for the vpn (60 USD a year is pretty reasonable) but also feel like this is a good opportunity to "shop around"

Checked the wiki and other FAQs (which all basically crib from said wiki) and they all basically boil down to proton or mullivad... except that mullivad apparently stopped allowing port forwarding which is a bit of an issue for any torrents and the like.

So are there any other good options?

Thanks

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[–] matey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 53 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

What's going on with Proton the company?

Edit: ah fuck, thanks for the replies. Sigh.

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 84 points 1 week ago (20 children)

Their CEO praised Trump/the Republican Party. He got widely criticised for it. Proton released a damage control statement but later deleted it after it made things worse.

People are now moving away from Proton as a result.

[–] Extras5023@lemm.ee 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wow! Add me to that group. I need to cancel my annual family plan.

[–] Gronk@aussie.zone 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I unfortunately bought a subscription before dickhead made his statement. Looks like I'm with them for a year >.<

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[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The CEO doesn't own Proton, for what it's worth. He may have founded it, but he does not have complete and total control over anything that Proton offers, as some here may believe.

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[–] Wildfire0Straggler3@lemm.ee 46 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

The CEO said that Trump chose a great pick and sided with Republicans and there was a firestorm over it, he doubled down on his position through the official Proton channel.

https://archive.ph/2yWGz

[–] FearMeAndDecay@literature.cafe 21 points 1 week ago

Ffs I literally just got proton. Fuuuuuck that

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[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 25 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Like basically all tech companies, the leadership are libertarian tech bros. It sucks, but whatever. The problem is also that the CEO (?) has been making public statements to try and cozy up to the trump administration over the past few months

Some of that still falls under the LTB effect (These policies benefit the company so fuck everyone else, etc) and it DOES make sense for a company to try and earn themselves an exception for the upcoming hellscape in a market that will REALLY want VPNs. But it still leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

Not in an "I MUST LEAVE PROTON NOW" state since I like the products because they tend to be pretty honest about what they will and won't do when the goons come a knocking and that mostly boils down to "cooperate. So do X Y and Z to protect yourself by preventing us from having the information they want"). But that, plus protonmail being kind of a shitshow if you want to keep offline copies of your emails, is motivation to shop around.

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

I wouldn't exactly call Tim Berners-Lee a "libertarian tech bro".

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 9 points 1 week ago

"libertarian"

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (27 children)

Just FYI, the majority of Proton AG (which includes all Proton services) is owned by a non-profit body called the "Proton Foundation". This are headed by a board of 5 members, including Andy (CEO) and Tim Berners-Lee (the literal father of the internet as we know it).

Proton is fine.

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[–] limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Proton recently closed their masterdon account because of the mutual hostility

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[–] DARbarian@fedia.io 44 points 1 week ago (2 children)

AirVPN, IVPN, Mullvad, Windscribe

[–] kbal@fedia.io 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The requirement for port forwarding narrows that down to AirVPN and Windscribe, which is an unfortunately small set of choices.

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

What exactly does port forwarding do and why is it better for torrenting like I've heard? I've been using Mullvad for a couple of years now but if I could get faster torrent download speeds that would be great

[–] kbal@fedia.io 37 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Port forwarding lets you connect with other hosts peer-to-peer which a VPN would otherwise block if both sides are behind one. For torrents you'd get more peers (which doesn't matter if you're just downloading the latest and most popular stuff) and be able to seed more effectively.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And the way that many (most? (all?)) private trackers implement their monitoring kind of requires an open port.

[–] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 week ago

Not all torrent sites require an open port. E.g. MAM works without an open port. It majorly impacts your ability to seed) but that isn't a problem because of how much bonus points you get. TL does not either.

[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 6 points 1 week ago

Thanks!

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 week ago

Just adding onto the good answer you already got, but the thing that made this click to me was understanding that if you're not port forwarding, you're limited in the connections you can make to other peers. Specifically, you can only connect to peers who are fully available. Whereas if you're port forwarding, then you can connect both to people who are limited, and to people who are fully available.

I imagine you would get faster download speeds if you were port forwarding, but my impression is that this mainly is a factor for seeding, which matters more if you're on a private tracker that requires a certain download/upload ratio; it's way harder to keep that ratio above 1.0 if you're limited in the peers you can connect to.

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[–] marauding_gibberish142@lemmy.dbzer0.com 32 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Mullvad, IVPN and ~~Nym~~ (not tested with audits yet, do not trust as much as the other two).

For clearnet browsing. PIA, AirVPN and Windscribe for torrenting. Windscribe and PIA are probably good for either but this is my classification, take it as you will

[–] sonalder@lemmy.ml 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I agree on this with the exception of PIA.

Marketing is BS like most VPN
Company is based in the USA
They do analytics
You cannot register "anonymously"

It's not the worst VPN you could choose but there is better options.

[–] marauding_gibberish142@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wait don't they take crypto? Just fake your details

[–] khorovodoved@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago (6 children)

They also take your IP.

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[–] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

PIA user here. It gets the job done

[–] khorovodoved@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I would not put Nym in the same category as Mullvad and IVPN. It is a new and immature product. I have not heard that they have passed any sort of audit, their claims about non-log policy have not been tested yet.

Their infrastructure is decentralized only in name. In fact, they have the same problem as session, the cost of maintaining a server discourages decentralization so much that no one does that. As a result it nullifies any advantages their mixnet might offer, as chances are all your hops are between the servers of the same owner.

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[–] droolio@feddit.uk 29 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Still using Private Internet Access (PIA).

Honestly, dunno why they've fallen out of fashion due to the FUD about being owned by an unsavoury parent company, but the most important matter to me is if they keep logs, which they don't. One of the few VPN companies tested on this, in court, and in a recent audit. Plus still extremely cheap (if you go for 3yr+3mo).

Port forwarding works with with this docker NAS stack. Doesn't use gluetun, but there's a specialised docker-wireguard-pia container as part of the stack, with a script that handles port changes. Been flawless.

[–] realitista@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week ago

Yeah they are throroughly vetted and work well, competitively priced. I've never seen a reason to switch.

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[–] land@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 week ago (3 children)

If you mainly do torrenting, AirVPN is a good option. I have recently moved away from ProtonVPN; it’s too expensive.

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[–] zedgeist@lemm.ee 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Just throwing in another voice for PIA. Their corporate owners may be questionable, but I've been with them since before they sold out and have never heard a peep from my ISP for seeding terabytes of torrents. They don't keep logs, and they are audited to prove it regularly.

EDIT: They also have port forwarding, but not for every exit server.

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[–] upstroke4448@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I'd say the proven good ones are Proton, Mullvad, and IVPN.

Windscribe has really improved a lot and is worth considering. Still probably worth waiting for Freshscribe infrastructure before considering over the 3 I mentioned above.

Nym and Obscura are up and comers worth looking at. Nym is a decentralized VPN and Obscura has partnered with Mullvad to offer a true double hop (ie one in where both hops are not owned by the same entity).

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[–] Chewy7324@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 week ago (11 children)

If you want port forwarding the choice is between AirVPN, ProtonVPN and Njalla. Iirc PIA also supports port forwarding, but their ownerships reputation is no good.

Mullvad, IVPN and many other services don't support port forwarding.

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[–] Tiger@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I use both Mullvad and Astrill in China. A lot of VPNs don’t work here so it’s a feather in the cap for these that do.

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[–] JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I have been happy with PrivateVPN, but I can't get a read on them.

They say no-log, but many VPNs probably lie about that. Small, based in Sweden.

I just saw on the kumo app literally just now that they got bought out by Miss Group and are no longer independent like when I started with them in 2019.

They have no strikes against them besides the not-disclosed buyout. No idea if I should switch, but they have good prices and port forwarding.

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

not-disclosed buyout

That alone would make me jump ship. VPNs need to be transparent about this kind of shit to their paying users.

Edit: FYI, this is in the works https://webhosting.today/2025/01/15/miss-group-prepares-for-sale-what-lies-ahead-for-the-nordic-hosting-giant/

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