VPN recommendations, Summer 2025
VPN recommendations, Summer 2025
First off, sorry if this has been asked a million times in this community already, but the only post I found on this topic when I searched was over two years old.
I've been using PIA vpn for the past two years, but my subscription is ending soon and I was thinking about switching providers. I'm a fairly basic vpn user so I'm not overly concerned about advanced features and bells and whistles. I have a limited budget to work with, and I run Fedora os. Does anyone have any recommendations on what vpn I should be using?
I've seen Mullvad mentioned frequently, but it's a touch expensive compared to others. I've heard some good things about Proton vpn too, but I know there was a controversy with their CEO not long ago. I've also just read something about IVPN and they look good, but I'd like opinions from more sources. I'm open too all other suggestions as well. Thanks for any and all thoughts!
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Mullvad. I don't even think about alternatives.
Mullvad doesn’t support port forwarding does it?
How important is port forwarding? I've never really bothered with it. I'm definitely still in the shallow end of the pool when it comes to using vpns.
The only realistic answer is “it depends”. Torrents require at least one side to have an open port. If your port isn’t open, you’ll only be able to connect to people who have opened theirs. If everyone had open ports, you wouldn’t need to worry about it. But the reality is that many people don’t bother with opening a port, so your connections will be limited.
The issue will be much more apparent on smaller/less popular torrents. With popular torrents and hundreds of seeders, chances are good that some people will have an open port. But your speeds may be limited, because you can only connect to a select few. Even worse, torrents may stall entirely if there are only a few seeders, (and none of them have open ports). It’s super frustrating looking at a torrent with 3 or 4 seeders, but seeing that it has stalled.
There are workarounds like pinholing, but those are bodges that require specific circumstances to work.
Seeding torrents will be next to impossible without it, especially for private trackers. It's pretty vital for torrenting. Anything else, doesn't matter.
I used Mullvad for a year and love the service, but they explicitly don't allow port forwarding, so I recently switched to Proton. Their CEO's comments last year still feel disgusting and I trust them as a company far less than I trust Mullvad as a result, but the service they offer is stellar regardless.
From what I understand, Mullvad is the top choice for a privacy-focused daily driver VPN, while Proton is the best choice for torrenting while still functioning just fine for daily use.
Their CEO's comments last year still feel disgusting and I trust them as a company far less than I trust Mullvad as a result, but the service they offer is stellar regardless.
I run a Minecraft server. Couldn't have done it without port forwarding.
Could do it on a private network with Tailscale. Minecraft server on a port forwarded VPN sounds terrible because your address and port change every time you connect
Talescale is a VPN, "private network" is what P and N stand for. It's just one with only forwarded ports and no outbound traffic. The question was are forwarded ports important, and yes they are. So important that some users pay for a VPN twice! Once for something like Mullvad with no port forwarding, and once for Talescale for port forwarding. It's true it has benefits like static IP, but even on my commercial VPN I get the same forwarded IP and port when connecting to the same server, so I don't want to pay twice.
IIRC it's good to get faster downloads on BitTorrent, but I've never stumbled upon a torrent that was slow anyway.
It's more of an issue with torrent seeding. You need to be able to accept incoming connections to seed, so you need a VPN/router to allow incoming traffic to a certain port to reach your torrent client.
So, not a problem for leeching, but if you are trying to meet ratio requirements, could be a big problem.
I haven't even looked at port forwarding. I think maybe some ISPs in some countries might block traffic this way but others will know better. Everything just works with Mullvad on Fedora with Qbittorrent, so I'm happy.
It’s nothing to do with what ISPs blocking traffic it’s about being able to seed
Ah OK that's a shame.
I don't think it does but I don't care so far.
Mullvad is the correct answer.
That was the case, but now that they no longer support port forwarding thinking about alternatives is a good idea. For me, a VPN without port forwarding is not an option (since I use private trackers).
Mullvad seemed like the perfect choice and I was happy with them until they killed port forwarding, that got me wanting to switch to something else.
I recently bought a year of AirVPN. Their apps aren't as nice but it works, and port forwarding works with the same port across all their servers.
I use Wiresock Secure Connect on Windows, and the Eddie app or OpenVPN Connect on Android.
What is it about Mullvad that makes it superior to all other options? I'm open to it, I just need something to justify the higher price.
higher price
$5 is a low price for a service that I trust way more than the others. You should wonder why the alternatives are so cheap.
Check their reddit for all the threads with pictures of cities plastered in Mullvad billboards. Then you know why others are cheaper.
That would be unfortunate to see. Can you maybe link examples so others can judgr for themselves? I use their service and often recommend and confirming your statement is important to me so I can adjust my opinion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/mullvadvpn/comments/1l6r7bw/billboard_spotted_in_california/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mullvadvpn/comments/1l1lpnz/mullvad_bus_spotted_in_central_london/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mullvadvpn/comments/1kugm61/found_in_the_wild/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mullvadvpn/comments/1kp8e92/a_good_reminder_of_free_speech_in_uk_is/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mullvadvpn/comments/1knp3jl/ad_on_broadway_nyc/
https://www.reddit.com/r/mullvadvpn/comments/1kefzu3/mullvad_going_mainstream_will_it_stay_safe_or/What is wrong with them buying billboards?
I dont need part of my money going to advertisment campaigns
New York City reporting in, can confirm the subways have been plastered in Mullvad ads for months. I'm so glad I switched away last year, so that at least I know none of my money is used to spam my own eyeballs. Though in some sense it is nice that VPNs are common in public discourse now.
I can confirm I’ve seen their ads in person in multiple places in Los Angeles. North Hollywood had a billboard near the Noho gateway sign, and I think the red line? had a bunch of ads on the inside and outside of some of the trains a year or two ago.
It's about $8 CAD / month, which is noticeably more than Air vpn's ~$5.25 CAD / month (if I signed up for two years). That being said I understand your point, assuming that they have that trust. As someone who isn't familiar with them though I need to first know why they deserve it more than others. Other people do seem to speak highly of them though and have made some points that are in their favour.
Basically, Mullvad has a great track record, seems to legitimately care about privacy rather than just making money.
As for your mention on protonvpn, the founder did say some weird stuff last year, but so far the company itself hasn’t demonstrated any questionable behavior in regards to data, so it’s still considered safe.
You can pay them in cash, for me this is a great feature
Few good things:
- They don't have ability to keep logs (even if they wanted)
- Their wireguard speeds can keep up with fiber (800mbps with 1gbps fiber)
- I've not seen any connection drops.
Downside: No port forwarding, this I've remedied with headscale server and tailscale clients. Port forwarding is needed if u want to access your home network from outside
No information needs to even be provided to them. No login, you just get a number (16 digits I think?). You can pay with untraceable Monero, and use the VPN anywhere as long as you have that number.
If you want.
on mint cinnamon, mullvad app prevents auto-suspending and screen timeout, idk if it does that on other distros. spent a full year troubleshooting and lost most of my hair and will to live. accidentally found the solution after switching to ivpn because it became impossible to watch youtube with mullvad