Hey guys,
With so many providers to choose from and Black Friday approaching, I will look through Reddit to find out which VPN is the best. Why Reddit? I think it’s a great place to get a genuine picture, as so many of its users share opinions, reviews, and recommendations on VPNs and privacy issues. Most often, redditors do not agree on the best VPN provider, and in each thread, you’ll read about vastly different opinions and experiences. Only one thing seems to always come up - do not trust free VPNs!
Why should you avoid free VPNs?
Just like the saying goes - if something is free, you are the product. Remember this golden rule; it definitely applies to free VPNs. Free VPNs may profit by exploiting user data for marketing purposes, bombarding users with ads, selling user data to third parties, and using users’ devices as an exit node for its other services. So, if you care about your privacy and your data, better pick a paid VPN.
VPN Recommendation According to Reddit
Of course, the best VPN depends on what you as a user want to get out of it, but most often users discuss the following criteria - speed, streaming experience, privacy, security, and cost.
There are some honorable mentions, such as Mullvad (r/mullvadvpn) which is excellent for privacy as it offers completely anonymous accounts (no email needed), and they also accept cash and cryptocurrencies. Additionally, redditors like them for their pricing plans - all of them are 5 euros. They are externally audited and transparent, which earned them the trust of redditors. Surfshark (r/surfshark) is known for top speeds and they recently reached 100 locations (over 3200 servers), making it great for streaming - according to users, it unlocks many libraries, especially when using the browser extension. As for cost, the opinion on Reddit is to always look for a deal as VPN companies are almost always running a promotion, so the cheapest option might sometimes change.
Best VPN Overall
While looking through the criteria, one name kept coming up - NordVPN. It might be a bit more costly; however, I found a code ‘unblockdeal’ that makes the price go down rapidly.
On top of that, it excels in other criteria. According to NordVPN reviews from users on Reddit, it is mostly valued for the ability to perform well in many different use cases, meaning it offers great speeds, great protection, and users are happy with streaming performance. I have also noticed that users especially recommend the NordLynx protocol, which is based on WireGuard manual setup. Such setup brings speeds to an excellent level and contributes to overall smooth browsing and streaming experiences.
There are several NordVPN features which, according to users, are the reason for its good performance:
- 5400 NordVPN servers in 59 countries guarantee a large IP pool to choose from to maintain the best speeds and usability.
- Obfuscated servers help bypass geographical restrictions (e.g., censorship) by avoiding standard VPN traffic blocks.
- Strict no-logs policies and two no-logs independent audits ensure user online privacy.
- Threat Protection - provides an additional layer of security and safer browsing by blocking malicious websites, ads, and trackers, as well as identifying files infected with malware.
- Meshnet - a feature which lets users access devices or encrypted private tunnels, hence instead of connecting to a VPN server, you can connect to other devices anywhere.
Further Recommendations
If you want to research more before making a purchase, I suggest reading up on this subreddit as well as checking out a few others:
r/VPN
r/privacy
r/vpncoupons
r/VPNTorrents (if your main focus is torrenting)
These subs are the biggest and most active in VPN discussions, so you’ll definitely get some good insights. Moreover, r/VPN has a great VPN comparison table where you can get an overview of all main providers, which are all rated on different criteria. Check it out and stay safe with a (paid) VPN!
TL;DR: Reddit is full of VPN discussions and is a good place to hear first-hand experiences with different providers. I did a little research and concluded that users mostly recommend Mullvad for privacy, Surfshark gets praise for speeds and streaming. Overall, the best VPN according to Reddit is NordVPN as it performs well in all of the most discussed criteria for a VPN - speed, streaming, privacy, and security.