I’m shopping for a VPN providers, and really struggling to find a detailed and non-biased breakdown of the various options. A number of years ago, I recall finding an extremely detailed VPN comparison spreadsheet that had 30+ columns, which were contained criteria by which the VPNs were judged both quantitatively and qualitatively. I can no longer find that table, so I suspect it has been removed, but I did find the less-comprehensive table, below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ijfqfLrJWLUVBfJZ_YalVpstWsjw-JGzkvMd6u2jqEk/edit?usp=sharing
In the thread posted by the owner of this sheet, a few commenters pointed out that the highest rated VPN providers in this table just happen to be the ones that advertise most aggressively and are well-known for buying positive reviews from tech blogs, which are pretty clearly designed to be misleading. I too am suspicious that this table can’t be trusted, however I really am not knowledgeable about VPNs, so before passing judgement, I figured I should consult those who know more about it. I also recognize that a strong marketing team and an excellent product aren’t mutually exclusive, however I think that generally applies more in markets where economies of scale play a significant role, as does mass-adoption, which fuels loads of well-informed, independent research (ex: the car market and phone market.) That obviously isn’t the case with the VPN markets… but I’m still sorta holding out hope.
If I end up excluding this table, I’m not sure where to turn at that point. Shilling is extremely pervasive in the VPN market, so it’s tough to trust any one person or any one thread. It’s also well established that a few of the large VPNs actually own a number of review blogs, so I can’t really trust blogs either.
I guess I’m here hoping to be told that my suspicions about this table are unfounded, and / or that another excellent, unbiased resource for comparative VPN info exists. Any help would be appreciated!
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It’s a transfer of trust either way, point being you don’t have physical control over it, and therefore have no idea what’s actually happening on the other end, you’re not hosting it, they are, you’re just administering it.Russia is NO fan of privacy, arguably worse than the US, and now talking about banning all VPN use.
My server is in my house physically. I’d never host my own VPN because I could never compete with what commercial ones in privacy respecting countries can do, let alone needing more outsourced servers for changing my location all over the place, which I do regularly.
Russia may be worst, but I doubt that they will share data with the USA and I will never visit Russia.
If you don’t host your own VPN, what’s the difference