Which VPN actually protects your privacy?
An independent, transparent comparison of VPN tools across privacy, security, transparency, value and ethics. Every cell is scored by a published rubric and backed by primary sources. We take no money from the VPNs we list.
43 services independently verified. Tip: tick two or more rows to compare them side-by-side.
Infrastructure: mixnets, meshes, marketplaces and protocols
These are networks, marketplaces and protocol frameworks rather than products you subscribe to. Some have independent apps built on top of them. There is no single company holding your traffic, so most of the VPN rubric (a provider no-logs policy, a jurisdiction, a server fleet) doesn't apply, and we list them without a head-to-head score. NymVPN is the exception: it sells a conventional subscription on top of its mixnet, so it is scored.
A free censorship-circumvention proxy service from the US non-profit Unredacted Inc, not a VPN. Anonymous number-only accounts, no client IP stored anywhere, and a GPL-3.0 stack anyone can self-host.
An experimental, decentralised VPN built on the HOPR incentivised mixnet by Gnosis DAO, with on-chain metered payments. A proof-of-concept, not yet a consumer product.
A decentralised, Tailscale-style mesh VPN that links your own devices using Nostr-key identity instead of a central provider or account.
Decentralised mixnet VPN that hides metadata, not just your IP, with a 5-hop noise-generating mix network.
An open-source Layer 1 bandwidth marketplace and dVPN application framework, with 1,500+ independently operated nodes across 70+ countries and a native $P2P token. Independent apps are built on it, so it is not a single VPN you sign up to.
The Tor Project's free, open-source, experimental Android app that routes each app through a 3-hop Tor circuit (onion routing), with per-app circuits and .onion access.
VPN apps
Conventional VPN services: you pay a company, and it routes your traffic through its own servers. Scored in full on the published rubric.
Legend: ✓ good · ∼ partial · ✗ poor · ? unknown. Scores exclude unknown values so missing data never inflates or sinks a rating. A ⚠ Concerns tag marks a service with a documented incident or ownership history on record; those are listed with sources and receive no overall score.