In the wake of the Proton controversy, I’ve been looking towards alternatives towards their services. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a good alternative to ProtonVPN. I’m looking for the following in a VPN service:
- Port forwarding support
- Open source
- Android app and Firefox extension available
- Relatively cheap, around $3-4 month (okay with annual pricing)
The only options I found were Private Internet Access and Windscribe, but I found issues with them. If I’m cutting ties with Proton based on ideals I disagree with, I should be rejecting alternatives on the same basis.
Based on what I saw in the PIA subreddit, Private Internet Access seems to have some issues with service reliability and concerns about its ownership having ties to Israel, implying Zionist affiliation. Windscribe seems to have better service, but they have had a questionable social media history: edgy marketing including an AI-generated Hitler and a controversy where, according to them, they joked about a guy being mentally ill but their post easily looked like they were saying trans people are mentally ill.
Is there an option I missed? Should I try one of these options despite their faults? I’d like to know your thoughts.
I’ve seen AirVPN and IVPN mentioned in this type of thread but haven’t fully evaluated them yet as I’m in the same situation of gathering options.
They appear to be the only ethical 2 left since the mullvad incident
What about Windscribe?
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/windscribes-bizarre-ai-hitler-marketing-stunt-sparks-fury-and-vpn-subscription-cancellations
windscribe is also bit weird to deal with. I have exchanged messages with their customer support or whatever on reddit and it wasn’t ideal, and have also interacted with their ai chat on their website. I had issues with their product on linux and their ai gave me the console instructions that if entered would have deleted my operating system.
I’m considering them despite the UI issues and the fact that they don’t have a Firefox extension. I just don’t know if I want a service that doesn’t have the latter. For context, I’m particular about the extension because I want to able to whitelist specific websites from the VPN. Currently, ProtonVPN’s app doesn’t offer that (and I’m not sure any other VPN offers that either) so I have to enable split tunneling to disable VPN for Firefox, then install the extension to use the VPN in Firefox, except for websites I’ve whitelisted.
If you are able to export VPN configurations, can’t you use an extension like FoxyProxy for either of these? Admittedly, this can be a little tedious, and you might have to do some research first.
Alternatively, you might want to see if you can just download a portable version of Firefox and exclude one of the Foxes through split tunneling.
Interesting, I’ll have to look into that.
I wonder if that could also be possible, albeit difficult, with a Firefox profile or some container settings.
That’s not a bad idea either. You would only need to install FoxyProxy on one profile, without juggling conditions (a plus) but then you’d lose out on shared bookmarks and history (a minus). I guess only OP knows what’s right for them