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!

    • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
      9·
      9 months ago

      So what if the vps hands your data to the feds and the feds are like hey, why was your vps torrenting Paul blart mall cop 2?

      What do you say to that?

      That’s my only concern with hosting my own vps.

      • auth@lemmy.ml
        31·
        9 months ago

        you think they cant issue a warrant against any VPN hosts?

        • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          Sure they could, but you are a a bit more anonymous and don’t keeps logs, then there may be nothing to hand over.

          Hosting your own vps directly ties internet traffic to you. They can see your ip is part of a swarm and see who owns it. If it’s owned by some guy, they can press you. If it’s owned by a company with a legal team, it’s much more difficult.

      • grubbylarry@lemmy.mlOP
        2·
        9 months ago

        NGL doing something like that is WAY above my pay grade anyway, but I still am interested in the answer to this question, because I’ve seen the advice to take the ‘self-operated’ approach before.

        • M500@lemmy.mlEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          It’s not too difficult to setup, but I think people don’t realize that even if your not breaking the law, you may still have to deal with charges and going to court for years before your found innocent. All while dealing with the stress of a jury possibly finding you guilty.

          Then you have prosecutors offering plea deals, so then you think do I stand my ground and risk X years in jail? Or do I plead guilty and just go to jail for 2 years?

      • auth@lemmy.ml
        11·
        9 months ago

        I host the server, I dont have to keep any logs and I can pay with moneros

          • auth@lemmy.ml
            11·
            9 months ago

            whats the difference in trusting a remote vpn provider or remote vps provider? from a privacy standpoint… btw my vps is hosted in russia and I cant touch it… can you touch the server that host your vpn???

            • HappyRedditRefugee@lemm.ee
              3·
              9 months ago

              I’d argue that deanonimation would be easier.

              In a VPN you have hundreds of clients and also hundreds of outbound connections, tho not impossible is way harder to find out which connection is being piped to which client. On you own hosted VPS, if you have a dedicated ip is easier, all the traffic will be redirected to only one address, then one of your client.

              Even with a vps with a shared ip the number of clients mantaning open connections is probably way lower on average.

              • auth@lemmy.ml
                12·
                9 months ago

                I don’t know what size my vps provider is compared to your VPN provider but I’m pretty sure they would tell the US government to fuck off if they asked for data… They are from Russia

                • HappyRedditRefugee@lemm.ee
                  2·
                  9 months ago

                  You are missing the point, in this case the vector would not be someone requesting data but someone surveiling the VPS or VPN server’s traffic and drawing conclutions out of it

                  • auth@lemmy.ml
                    11·
                    9 months ago

                    the NSA sees all traffic… how is your VPN traffic not traceable?

              • auth@lemmy.ml
                11·
                9 months ago

                If you don’t host your own VPN, what’s the difference

              • auth@lemmy.ml
                11·
                9 months ago

                Russia may be worst, but I doubt that they will share data with the USA and I will never visit Russia.

    • Psychhim@mastodon.social
      1·
      9 months ago

      @authed @grubbylarry I also used to host my own openvpn and wireshark servers on a vps. But later I shut them down. The thing is, vps will definitely trade your data if Gov pressure is high. Remember, data protecting is not their first priority being a VPS provider, their main priority is giving infrastructure to customers. But with vpn providers, their core business model is based on protecting users privacy (I am not saying all really do that, but many are bound to follow swiss laws or such)

      • Psychhim@mastodon.social
        1·
        9 months ago

        @authed @grubbylarry Proton VPN free plan is even better than hosting vpn on a vps, because they atleast can claim of being protected by the Swiss law, so atleast they can protect your data by that. Whereas you can’t even sue your vps if they share your data with anybody, because nobody knows if they really did it. Additionally the problem of dedicated ip is there always.

      • auth@lemmy.ml
        11·
        9 months ago

        Do you really think that a VPN provider would resist requests from the US gov?