Privacy @lemmy.ml john89 @lemmy.ca 4 wk. ago

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.

45 comments

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.
- Popular VPNs like Mullvad are banned in some authoritorian countries
  
  That's a good sign
- Personnaly I would recommend pia for VPN torrenting, it's not private but it's good for this use case
  
  Why do you say PIA isn't private?
- 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.
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- 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.
  
  Permanently Deleted
  
  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!"
  
  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.
Proton has a free package with unlimited bandwidth. It doesn't offer as many countries or advanced features but it works just fine.
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.
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.
AirVPN has a pretty good reputation AKAIK, and their 2-year plans are cheaper than Mullvad and Proton.
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
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.
- I think they just jumped about $10 a year, I was just renewed for $50 a few weeks ago.
  
  Maybe it's a cyber Monday deal, they're advertising 3.33/mo
- Note that PIA has extremely limited options if you want to be connectable on private trackers
  
  Their port forwarding works for me, but you're right. It takes some knowledge to make it work.
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/
Most VPN software is free. OpenVPN is FOSS and a popular product.

What are you trying to achieve?
- Excuse me for digressing, but I think it's no coincidence that the OP wanted a "cheap" VPN, not a "free" one. If the OP wanted something like privacy. If so, then a free VPN is a bad choice.
  
  Honestly, I don’t believe that free VPNs will protect your privacy. If you just need something like unblocking websites, you can use a free VPN. If you care about privacy, do the opposite—pay for a VPN.
- It's no use. "VPN" means gateway/MITM service, just like "crypto" means digital tulip mania.
  
  Today's episode brought to you by our friends CoinSkank™ and EchelonVPN.
Been using Air/Eddie for a while, it's been solid... Not the best interface perhaps, but a wide selection of servers globally..
Tor. Or use gnunet's 'vpn' function with friends in other countries.
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.
- Surprised this isn't at the top. Perhaps I'm too used to r/selfhosted
  
  I'm surprised too. Since it's a mesh VPN, you can set up your exit node anywhere you like.
for what purpose? if it's just bypassing your ISP, a free VPS + wireguard and you're golden.
A car with a thumbstick, I guess.

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What is the cheapest functional VPN?

Today's episode brought to you by our friends CoinSkank™ and EchelonVPN.