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.

  • Hellfire103@lemmy.caEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I switched from ProtonVPN Free to Mullvad last month when I needed to torrent something. ProtonVPN Free doesn’t allow P2P traffic, and Mullvad is cheaper than ProtonVPN Pro (or whatever it’s called these days).

    The AI doesn’t seem too bad, but I’d prefer it not be there at all. I have no opinions about the crypto, as there is a legitimate use for it, but I have no use for the wallet as I have had a lot of trouble getting ahold of any cryptocurrency.

    I’m also happier with the company and the experience. I paid with a card, but I liked that they accept cash and Monero.

    On top of that, nobody seems to have anything bad to say about Mullvad. Privacy? They keep no logs and are pretty damn transparent. Limitations? No port forwarding, but I can just use Windscribe if I need that. Clients? They don’t exclude Linux or arm64, and BSD users can just use wireguard-go or something.

    There’s also a story when one time the Polisen came to Mullvad HQ with a search warrant, but had to leave after discovering that there were no logs kept, and therefore nothing they could do.

    Furthermore, they’ve made my favourite web browser (which is essentially Tor Browser without Tor) by collaborating with the Tor Project. It’s one of only three browsers which give good results in Cover Your Tracks (although I have not yet tested anything with CreepJS; and I tend to change the settings in everything, so your mileage may vary).

    TL;DR: I recommend Mullvad over ProtonVPN, but not because of the AI or crypto.

    I also recommend Posteo over ProtonMail, Filen over Proton Drive, Bitwarden over Proton Pass, and I stopped using Proton before we got Proton Wallet.

  • BobGnarley@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    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.

  • madeindjs@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    I’m really happy with Mullvad and their pricing. I can pay for only one month if I need it so I don’t have another subscription to pay each month.

    • Hellfire103@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      Riseup is good, but I try to use other services as it’s aimed at activists, journalists, refugees, and other people in need who will need the bandwidth a lot more than I do.

    • xh3ynd@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      think I didn’t get it?

      protonvpn is a few pennies cheaper when goin’ for 2 years and even much more when you wait for the black friday offers.

      so if you can’t wait and don’t use a vpn on a daily basis, mullvad is 100% cheaper, so yes kinda.

      • delirious_owl@discuss.online
        0·
        2 months ago

        I wouldn’t pay for 2 years for a privacy service. Eventually you’ll loose privacy. Better to create a new account at least every 6 months.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    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.

  • Bruhh@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Huge fan of Mullvad for the work around respecting users privacy. They are implementing ways of skewing AI-guided traffic analysis. VPN encrypts your data but companies are starting to use AI to look at traffic patterns and help determine what that data is. I won’t pretend to understand it completely so I’d recommend reading their blog about it.

    I’ve been eyeing PIA for it’s price and the inclusion of port forwarding but not sure if anyone has experience with PIA.

  • Mikelius@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    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).

    • trolololol@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I watched 4k Olympics live for a long time yesterday on mulvad. Different continents for end to end.

  • Gleddified@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    Only reason to use proton is because you’re already paying for their email/drive/whatever.

    • Raverbunny@aussie.zone
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      2 months ago

      Whilst I appreciate the level of privacy you have, I feel your post is just showing that off and not actually answering OP’s question.