#1
OVPN
One of the strongest no-logs receipts in the industry - a Swedish court could not prove logs exist, the servers are diskless RAM-only, and monthly transparency
court-proven no-logs
intro $4.99 /month
Affiliate payouts
The commission table the review industry does not print: who pays what per signup, and what that means for the "rankings" you read.
Short answer: OVPN is our top pick as of 2026-09-28 (7.1/10) - read why, and who we ranked below it and why.
#2
Proton VPN
The most honest mainstream deal in 2026: open-source apps, real audits, a genuinely usable free tier with no data cap, and a transparent renewal model - and in
audited open source crypto accepted
intro $3.59 /month renews $9.99
#3
VyprVPN
A genuinely interesting infrastructure story wrapped in a jurisdiction problem: Golden Frog built one of the few fully self-owned server networks and invented C
audited
intro $3 /month
#4
AirVPN
Community-run Italian operator with the best power-user transparency stack in the business: fully open-source Eddie client (GPL-3.0), 258 bare-metal entry IPs a
open source crypto accepted
no free tier; paid 3-day trial (EUR 2)
#5
NymVPN
The only consumer VPN with a real metadata-protection architecture - a 5-hop noise-generating Sphinx mixnet with cover traffic - and it costs just $4/mo on the
open source crypto accepted
intro $4 /month renews $8
#6
CyberGhost
A marketing machine with a real 45-day refund and honest-ish renewal math ($56.94 stays $56.94) - but it has the weakest trust story of the Kape brands: Romania
audited
intro $2.19 /month renews $4.75
#7
hide.me
The quiet overachiever: hide.me ships dynamic port forwarding, multihop, split tunneling, a real free tier and the widest crypto-payment list of the ten (BTC th
audited crypto accepted
intro $2.95 /month renews $12
#8
Astrill VPN
The most expensive mainstream VPN ($300 per 2 years, $30/mo monthly) with the most hostile refund stance: 'All sales are final and refunds are not possible once
crypto accepted
intro $12.50 /month
#9
PrivateVPN
A small, quiet Swedish outfit with an honest-ish pitch: no audit, no circus, 10 simultaneous devices, port forwarding, AnyConnect-style obfuscation and a 30-day
crypto accepted
intro $12 /month
#10
StrongVPN
The oldest brand in this batch (2005) and the most forgotten: now a footnote inside Ziff Davis's VPN portfolio alongside IPVanish - the sibling that was court-p
intro $3.97 /month
#11
Surfshark
Unlimited devices and a genuinely documented 2025 Deloitte ISAE 3000 no-logs audit - the strongest paper trail in the Kape/Nord orbit. But it is half of the Nor
audited
intro $2.19 /month renews $15.45
#12
Ivacy
Effectively a discontinued brand: 'Ivacy Powered by PureVPN' no longer sells new Ivacy subscriptions and funnels everything into PureVPN's Gaditek checkout. Leg
crypto accepted
intro $1.69 /month
#13
ExpressVPN
The most expensive VPN in the room wearing the most auditing laurels: $8.33/mo forever after a $2.99 teaser, owned by Kape Technologies (ex-Crossrider adware, a
audited
intro $2.99 /month renews $8.33
#14
Norton VPN
Gen Digital (Norton/Avast/Avira). Sold mostly as a 360-suite bundle; standalone exists. 'VPN' here is a checkbox in an antivirus bundle.
price on request
#15
SaferVPN
Ziff Davis-owned; appears to have been quietly folded into StrongVPN/Encrypt.me marketing. Status needs re-check.
unverified unverified
price on request
#16
Trust.Zone
Site served 200 but pricing is client-rendered; zero verifiable price data. Small, aging brand.
1GB/month trial
#17
ZenMate
A brand in palliative care that still markets like it's 2018: ZenMate's own announcement closed new signups on March 16, 2023, killed its apps on May 1, 2023, a
unverified unverified
1.0
#18
Hotspot Shield
The most polished sales machine with the most compromised track record: a 2017 CDT complaint to the FTC - built on Carnegie Mellon research - documented undiscl
audit
intro $7.99 /month renews $95.99
#19
TorGuard
A privacy veteran with real strengths - 8 devices, serious obfuscation stack (Stealth/Stunnel/Shadowsocks/OpenConnect), crypto payments, dedicated IPs and port
crypto accepted
intro $9.99 /month renews $59.99
#20
Betternet
Mostly a ghost with a live storefront: the operator lives at betternet.co, while betternet.io redirects straight to GoDaddy's 'domain for sale' lander and bette
audit
intro $6 /month renews $95.99
#21
NordVPN
The most successful VPN marketer on earth: polished apps, huge network (7,664 servers / 150 countries verified from their own API on 2026-09-27), strong streami
audited
intro $3.09 /month renews $12.99
#22
IPVanish
The cautionary tale of the entire industry: the service that literally proved a VPN's 'no logs' can be a lie - real logs to DHS in 2016, then sold three times (
no-logs contradicted audit
intro $2.39 /month renews $8.33
#23
PureVPN
Cheap intro pricing wraps a genuinely compromised privacy history: a documented 2017 FBI case where its 'no logs' records identified a user, plus a 2025 IPv6-le
logs handed over audit crypto accepted
intro $2.15 /month renews $47.95
// FAQ
Why publish affiliate rates?
Because it is the missing context for every "best VPN 2026" list you have ever read. When a list ranks ExpressVPN #1 while its author earns ~$100 per signup - and Mullvad, which pays nothing, is absent - that is not a ranking, it is a price list.