Basically I started with mullvad then turned to proton but after they introduced AI and a crypto wallet I’m just looking for what peoples opinions are.
EDIT: Thank you all for your suggestions and opinions :D
Use Mullvad, unless you absolutely require port forwarding.
Or you already use Proton Mail / Drive etc and want to save a bit of money with Proton Unlimited at 9.99 EUR/USD / mo. That’s why I switched from Mullvad. I do agree that overall though Mullvad is the best in terms of trustworthiness (so far as we know anyway)
Mullvad is cheaper, and probably a bit more trusted, but Proton has port forwarding. Currently I use Mullvad. I don't like the Mullvad's 5 device limit on Wireguard clients though. You can only have 5 devices added to the account, no matter if just 1 or all 5 are currently connected. And after using Wireguard once, I don't want to use OpenVPN again where wg can fully replace it.
Both support cash payments, though Proton makes me feel like they expect it for larger sums of cash:We cannot be responsible for lost shipments, so we strongly recommend sending your payment using a service that provides a tracking number so you can track the shipment. It’s also helpful to notify us that you’re sending us cash in the mail, so we know to expect it.
While Mullvad asks you not to use registered mail nor send larger amounts of cash. I feel like the latter is implied by asking to notify them. I suppose "Hey, I am sending you 10 bucks via mail." is not what's expected here.
What I absolutely like is the fair pricing. It's same price no matter how much time you buy, whether it's 1 month, a year or two. Even their direct competitor IVPN does this crap (and so does Proton). I value that quite a bit.
So currently Mullvad is winning for me.
It technologically can't. With Wireguard, you need to upload each device's public key to Mullvad, thus registering each device separately. With OpenVPN you login with username and password. Or in this case just the username.
Theoretically speaking, you could have the same private key on 2 devices that won't be connected simultaneously though.
Mail is extremely insecure, it's actually really nefarious for them to recommend it. I still use Mullvad sometimes because it's just so cheap and fast. I know it's some kind of high level NATO spyware though. Just look at where their servers are. I mean fucking come on now.
Just look at where their servers are.
Kind of... al around the place? What do you mean?
Also, in the mail you don't send the account number, just a payment token. So the postman won't be stealing your account, just your cash at most.
Vouchers are probably the safest, but I actually like sending mail, and this is basically my only opportunity to do so nowadays.
Okay let me try again. Where are their servers conspicuously NOT located?
They can just scan and open and reclose the mail they do this to everyone now I am so serious. Difficult to do at scale though so honestly I take it back, if everyone did it the mail way it could increase surveillance costs? Escalating everyone's piracy to require forensic cracking at a federal or international level would skyrocket costa which should be a goal
What was the reason for you to switch from Mullvad in the first place?
I'm using a combination of Astrill (paid) and Proton (free, as a backup) since they are the only ones that reliably work in China, but once I'm out of here and my subscriptions expire, I'll be on Mullvad again.
Damn, Astrill is expensive though. Friend in China is currently happy with Mullvad + Shadowsocks. A few hiccups here and there, but it works pretty well and is fast enough for streaming, too.
They also have guides to a few more involved methods in case Shadowsocks is blocked.
Yep, the one issue with shadowsocks is that you can only install it on end devices, not on a router. That's the big benefit of Astrill. But anyway, my days in China are numbered, so I'm soon not going to need that anymore.
To be fair the only reason I switched is because I couldn’t find out how to pay for a year instead of monthly, but I think I’ve figured it out now
You can pay in bulk. It just scales linearly/it's a flat rate, so no kind of discount for buying a year vs buying a month.
I found that Proton always had connectivity issues tbh. Frequently had to disable my vpn just to use the internet which defeated the purpose. Never had this issue with Mullvad; I've found it very reliable. Also Mullvad is absolutely more privacy oriented. They don't require any kind of personal data. Proton will be tied to your Proton account so possibly your email, proton drive, etc.
Experience wise i’ve had a better time with mullvad at every corner when it comes to vpns than proton.
Protons still a respectable company i’d say but there focus is gonna become spread more thin while mullvads gonna continue providing a stable and simple experience.
Plus mullvads never gonna confuse you when it comes to pricing unlike proton, no extra time spent finding the difference between a monthly and annual subscription.
I used ProtonVPN for years. I use MullvadVPN. Both are totally fine, in my experience. I left ProtonVPN because I couldn't get port forwarding on Linux, and then less than two months after I did that Mullvad removed that feature, so that's how it goes.
Mullvad because, much like going raw, VPN's are used for special occasions.
I pay for proton mail and proton drive and still use Mullvad for my daily driver VPN.
Only time proton VPN is worth using is if you need the port forwarding like for gaming or something.
I personally use mullvad for all outgoing traffic and then airvpn for any let forwarding I require. Basically airvpn is exclusive to incoming traffic, like my self hosted services or game servers, and then anything I do on the internet routes through mullvad. All setup through opnsense since they both support wireguard.
I always had issues with proton's port forwarding being reliable in the past. That being said, if you need things like video streaming services, mullvad seems to be having a hard time with these recently where as proton worked well for me back when I used it (unsure if that's still true).
