Best VPNs comparison table in Google Sheets
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Most of us here are quite keen on spreading the word on how even the simplest steps toward online privacy is a huge leap forward for our online security. Having in mind the extensive tracking and targeting by almost everything we use online (ISPs, search engines, social media, streaming sites, ads, etc.), we're able to use these VPN-related subreddits to try and make it as simple as possible for people to choose and start using the best VPN that can help avoid at least some part of that.
The goal of all of this is to make sure that even those who don’t understand much about tech are aware of the risks and challenges we face these days when it comes to online privacy. We're all aware that a VPN isn't an 'all in one' tool which fully protects our privacy, but it's surely a good place to start.
It’s probably obvious to people who have been following this topic for a while that this table is inspired by That One Privacy Guy. He did an amazing job back in the day but unfortunately the information hasn't been updated in ages so it isn't as reliable as it used to be. It was a very important and useful tool, so I thought we could make it a community effort to bring it back. Anyone who would like to collaborate on this please get in touch with me over DMs. Also, in case you notice any mistakes - feel free to point those out, too.
You will see a table with scores, explanations on how each score was calculated, as well as detailed information by provider for each criteria. As I mentioned before, if you notice any mistakes or outdated information - please DM me with the source so we can fix it. Let's make sure it's up to date and as helpful as it can
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Table last updated: August 22, 2024 (several provider prices were updated).
To not make the comment section a war front with people asking about providers that are not yet included, the automod will still be removing comments mentioning specific ones on this thread. I've read them all, thanks for all the ideas! I will definitely consider them and see what I can add pretty soon and which ones will need more serious research. Thanks for being so active!
Also, if you're writing about a specific provider or criteria that should be added to the table in your opinion, please add the sources if you have as this would make the process much easier and quicker!
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I'd like to see you add (perhaps in the "Ethics" section) a consideration of the number of trackers and persistent cookies that are used on the VPN's website. Can one really trust a VPN that is tracking your website visit?
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Good point!!
You can include any trackers on a website without them being present on the cookie list. On the other hand, google cookies does not mean directly "tracking on their users". Anyway, if you are so sensitive about your privacy, the VPN doesnt mean shit, a website has much more powerful ways of fingerprinting you than the cookies and ip addess. Use Tor for being relatively anonymous.
And if they use third party analytics, which one (probably Google, but maybe others are being used as well).
owning your VPN has fewer benefits. You're still associated with the IP the traffic came from. It's great for breaking out of a restricted network or remote networking, but terrible for opsec unless you send your VPN traffic through another VPN. If you just need to watch out-of-market games, that's another story.
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The table you linked to was definitely good and unbiased before, but That One Privacy Site/Guy was bought by SafetyDetectives who own a couple of VPNs on that table, so wouldn’t say it’s unbiased anymore. I’d recommend this one instead, it seems promising
I mentioned this table you're linking in my thread. This fantastic thing was made by thatoneprivacyguy. That table inspired me to start this one and continue building it with your a.k.a this community's help. The thing with his table is that it was last updated in 2019, and as we all know, in the VPN industry, a couple of months alone could change a great deal, and it has been years now. Hence the updated one. I know it isn't as in-depth yet, but I hope we'll be able to keep adding more providers and criteria as we go.
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Thanks for your feedback, only this way we'll be able to make it better as we go. Obviously there's only a few providers for now (it's pretty damn time consuming to dig the latest information up) but I will try my best to add more, I hope with everyone's help here we'll be able to do that really soon.
Regarding ELI5 it is a great idea and I'm already lurking on the thought of creating such list on what a VPN actually does and how to choose one considering everyone's different needs. In the meantime, I've tried to cover some of that in the FAQ article, which is in the wiki of this sub.
Just for clarity, given the work it must have taken to arrange all those "exclusive deals," were you compensated for including any of them?
i wonder if they can add a row for linux GUI client. and wow most of these VPNs suck one way or another. the ones that get almost all greens have very limited number of connections or lack linux gui client etc etc
i'd almost swear once someone gets a good thing going they kill a feature or get knock the on the door by men in black.
Yeah there’s way too much going on in that one. I like this one. It just has an eli5 explanation of each category and a _/5 rating at the end
This VPN table is a solid starting point for finding something reliable without overthinking it. Some other comparisons I like include krabustyno, its always udpdated
Hey can you freeze that first row so that scrolling down and seeing the title of columns is easier?
Done. Thanks for pointing it out!
This comparison table seems really biased tbh
May I ask, as a beginner, why do you believe that is biased?
The top two results have referral links. Scoring includes useless metrics that bias towards these providers so they "score high" and can get referral money.
Not only that, there seems to be no weighting on the metrics. Pricing, payments, and customer support are all much less important than encryption and logging.
oh yeah if those are referral links… I guess we’re done here folks pack it up
Because he's a conspiracy theorist that believe everything mainstream is biased and fake. There's no other reason believe me.
that's not something we tell vpn beginners
What does "Enemy of the Internet" mean? Sounds spooky, but is this specific jargon for some group-affiliation?
looks like that was given to all providers in the US or UK, both countries which actively are against a free and open internet.
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Question, why isn't port forwarding part of the table?
Thanks for the info regardless!
Thanks for the suggestion and the feedback! This feature wasn’t amongst the most requested ones at that time, but I might add it when I come round to it.
You're welcome! Port forwarding, as I understand it, facilitates more/faster/better seeding of torrents, for example.
We are finishing 2024 and port forwarding was never included on the table. A pity
Thanks for the effort in investigating this, I did want to make an easier decision when choosing a new VPN, so I used the top couple of items to make a small radar chart so I can compare them more easily - here's a link to it.
Which did you end up choosing? I currently use express but thinking about switching.
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I thought it was pretty straight forward, considering the current standards in the VPN industry, some protocols and encryption algorithms are being changed by newer and more complex ones. Most of the providers were scored 5 for that criteria, except for one which still uses AES-128 as a default. There's really not much more in between for this one. But if you have a suggestion how this would work better - please share.
Could you add supports IPv6 under additional features?
Nice to see many providers in one document. This is a decent vpn comparison if I ever saw one. Quite nicely done, kudos to the creator.
I always wondered whether there is a vpn chart somewhere. Turns out reddit has all kinds of cool shit.
Reddit is a goldmine for anything we can think of, from a good VPN comparison chart to maximum obscure stuff
I've read this table without any problems both on PC and Android, so I don't know what people are talking about here.
I know in the past google docs intentionally looks bad on iPhone and then encourage you to download the google sheets app.
I don’t even use google docs for my fantasy football anymore because everyone just complains.
Thanks for doing that, for the begginers, is gold
Is this a joke?
Its 3 years later, why we cant still copy?
because he put his own referral link to this and wants to make money, it's a stupid list anyway, minimum effort.
Reasons haven't changed. A lot of work was put into creating this table, and it would be a shame if anyone can copy it and claim as their own.
I get that, but what about people creating open source software?
What about you ending like that website with vpn list that was your inspiration?
Or something else could happen. And everything could be lost ....
People also want to change it by their needs etc.
+Even you get lot of help from community.
I just hate this kind of reason tbh. I read somewhere that the reason was that it isnt done, I could take that reason, but I think that time already passed.
(but yes, I dont feel like its done, some things are still missing and because of that some vpns has better/worse scores then they should have)
Its internet, someone could steal it anyway. And maybe someone could steal it just for other people, so they can copy it.
Because he gets money for that list, it must not be changed. VPN providers sponsor the hell out of the internet content
Reads perfectly not sure what people are talking about
https://imgur.com/a/z5wD61i
It took me 3 tried but it opened fine. probably a combination of screen size and browser, Im just saying there is a reason people are saying it. it can open funny
Why is copying disabled? This should really be broken up into multiple sheets or you can't properly filter and sort the data!! Since copying is disabled, I can't even just bring it into excel to make it more usable
Agreed. I'd love to adjust the weighting of the table, or exclude columns that I don't care about.
because he has added his referral links
A column for WireGuard/Open vpn and region/profile generators for OpenVPN/WireGuard would be great
All the extra tables below the main table should be on their own sheet. Can't sort, filter, or use any of the tools that make spreadsheets inherently valuable. I hope others appreciate the irony that download/copy/print are disabled. I appreciate that you made this, but it's frustrating how poorly available the data is.
Great work ... Thank you for sharing .. if it's possible I would like to add a GUI Linux support .. most of them are using CLI client . For people who use Linux it will be very helpful when they decide which provider to use .
More relevantly for everyone, whether client apps are open-source or not. This relates to everything. Transparency, privacy, security... and the theoretical possibility to create 3d-party apps, GUI, or otherwise.
/u/paperplans5
Are these free or of Cost?
bad question
Hi /u/paperplans5,
Can you please enable public export options on that Google doc? (Copy, download, etc.) I wish to privately generate my own weighted average that better reflects my own personal values. Thank you!
Hi there,
At this time, as it is a work in progress, I don't want to allow copying. I'm sorry for the inconvenience
How long until you'll deem this to be finished?
It would be nice if you could post it on, you know, somewhere that isn't Google or one of the Big Tech companies because some of us use VPNs as a tool to enhance our privacy. We'd appreciate it if you guys were more privacy friendly with your guide links.
Reasonable point in abstract, but practical alternative suggestions would be more helpful.
To get the ball rolling, I've heard of https://cryptpad.fr/sheet/ and https://www.jotform.com/table-templates/ but have used neither, so can't attest to their suitability.
Other suggestions?
It’s people like you expert that fascinate me the past year or so I’ve been reading a lot of security and privacy I’m very intrigued in the subject I’m spent hours online reading lot’s of stuff information and enjoy and also learn I’m not and expert,but I have common sense and learn a lot on forum boards and what not.excuse me with my vocabulary I’m French but thank you for this post :)
This is absolutely amazing. You saved me hours of research. Thank you so much! :)
I would also add section for streaming services, Do they block you? Always yes 0, Its about luck 3, Always no 5
Add port forwarding. Since many VPNs dont have this feature making it difficult to seed torrents
Thanks for suggestion!
people that can’t read it are talking about the image and not the link to the table
I don't see any hidden affiliate links, so I already like this. It seems like a pretty honest vpn ratings system too
This is what I call a solid VPN comparison chart, most if not all review sites seem to be affiliated
Can u add a column for availability of dedicated ip?
Great spreadsheet, thanks for posting. Very useful information on here. I found best viewed on mobile via the sheets app
Why can't we download or copy?
Would love to see which ones have wireguard config generators.
It's interesting how there's only 2 on the with 5's for ethics rankings.
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What VPN did you choose?
Why isnt openvpn here?
Because it’s a protocol, not a service.
Thanks for your continued efforts to keep this updated! Would you consider moving the different tables into separate tabs? This would allow for filtering and sorting which right now isn't really possible since the sheet's columns are "multi-use" across the different tables.
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Thank you so much for this post and the post with offers. Im new to vpns (long overdue and irresponsible of me) but this helped me decide. Love the table format too!
Who has editing privileges to the sheet?
What metric am I looking for when it comes to being able to watch out of market sporting events without being interrupted because they know I’m using a VPN?
Can someone shine light on what "Respects Copyrights" means? Maybe direct me to a post?
Missing Virtual Shield
Have some few others that i would like to suggest to be looked into further too.
OK but this does not answer the simple questions with ratings of who are the best VPN services for speed and safety. Why is there no pinned VPN thread for recommended VPN's?
When you find out please let me know lol
u/paperplans5
What about maximum anonymity?
No kyc
No sms, no email needed
No country information
Add open source section, please
Thank you for the suggestion!
I would also set section if one their company owns more than 1 VPN.
1 VPN - 5
2+ VPNs - 0
Can you please enable copying? It's been years and it'd be so easy to enable it for us.
I think there should be a core feature score that is separate from the larger one that includes nice to have features, lest a RAM server, lots of servers, overshadow poor security in the singular score. This score feature score would include no logs, encryption, probably some other stuff as well.
This is an awesome content.
I've spent 10minutes doing my own research then had the idea to look up here on reddit. I was expecting to find something, but I gotta say I am impressed with this comparison.
I am somewhat of a lay person when it comes to cybersecurity, so it would be nice if there was some sort of "legend" tab explaining what each of the categories mean. Then I can weigh them and decide which provider better fits my needs. Most categories are pretty straightforward (such as pricing, audited no logs policy, payments, etc), but some seem a bit confusing to me. For example, I get what jurisdiction mean legally, but how does that impact the cyber security world? Also, what difference do the protocols make?
I know I could solve it by researching myself, but thought that sharing my experience as someone who doesn't know much about this tech in specific could help make this awesome tool even better.
Once again, thanks a lot for creating it!
Edit: just saw a recent comment about scrolling down and saw everything is already there. I am even more impressed with the table now lol maybe
missing malwarebytes vpn which is mulvad but with better payment options
There are many free VPNs but most of them are very slow and don’t work well. For about $5 to $10 per month, you can get a great service.
Here are a few tips on how to choose the best VPN:
Read verified users reviews. Go to Google and social media and check what people talk about them.
What you will be using the VPN for? What is your OS? A PC or mobile phone? Based on these criteria, there can be found many different products.
In my example, in my case, I want a VPN that works in all states.
Money back guaranteed.
At start, register for a month to check do the VPN work for you. This will cost you less than $10.
Use the VPN ONLY for legit purposes please.
Hope that helps.
why can't we make our own copy? The score calculation is weird and I just want to make my own copy and evaluate myself.
edit: i see the response below, but I don't trust it. I feel like it is greed driven (for referrals). I think the community should make a new spreadsheet.
You should add Comet VPN to this table. They have very good prices, the connection is reliable, and there are plenty of locations to choose from.
It's a shame the picture is too small to read.
Can’t read it
Excellent work. Thanks for sharing.
Can vpn block carrier from keeping my call log and text history
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also availability on f-droid is important
Could you add "is there a free tier" as a criteria?
Edit: nvm it's there I just had to scroll down, it didn't look like I could in my smaller TOR Browser window
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😁😁😁