Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

Something that people need to realize: If you want a VPN for PRIVACY, Mullvad (edit: also maybe IVPN) is the only good option on this list. They make it very easy for you to maintain complete anonymity, they don't even WANT your email address, you can use crypto, or you can literally mail them an envelope of cash with a note inside containing your unique ID and they'll load up your account with that value. It's ridiculous how seriously they take this stuff. And if you're really concerned about privacy, you should also be taking extra steps like using a hardened OS and browser, and using disposable virtual machines. But I suspect that most of us here aren't that concerned with actual privacy.

If you want a VPN for PIRACY, any of these options are probably fine as long as they don't block or slow torrent traffic. Just use the fastest one here that you can afford. The only thing you're really doing in this case is blocking your torrent traffic from your ISP. Remember, if you give them a credit card and your email address, then that's not private! It's just for piracy. It's important to look at your priorities and pick a VPN accordingly.

If someone starts his list with NordVPN you know its complete and utter bullshit

I still highly recommend Mullvad, they are generally an awesome company and havent had many issues with them beyond a few random sites blocking them which is to be expected.

Wasn’t PIA bought out by a company that keeps logs a couple years ago? Interesting it made it on this list.

I've been using Proton VPN for years without issue. They don't keep any logs.

I use Mullvad. They have you buy time upfront at a fixed price, have lots of payment options, and at one point were subpoenaed and proved to the Swedish government they don't store any user data and therefore have nothing to turn over. They have a nice app too, I like them.

You should not trust any provider that says they do not keeps logs unless they have been audited by a reputable 3rd party and then you are putting your trust in that 3rd party. Anyone can say that they do not keep logs so it's absolutely meaningless, there really is no way to know unless you admin the server.

The secret service used a honeypot VPN to successfully take down ShadowCrew almost 20 years ago. They have had the blueprint for 2 decades, so I wouldn't be surprised if half these VPNs secretly cooperate with them over higher profile cases despite their claims.

Mysterium Network

If you want privacy and great speeds better to use a dVPN.

Anyone used ProtonVPN before? What's your thought?

I recently made the switch from Surfshark to Mullvad. No real complaints about the actual VPN service with Surfshark, but the desktop app was constantly advertising their other products and was becoming bloated. Mullvad just does what I want it to do with little fuss.