#1
IVPN
The anti-affiliate champion candidate holds up: no affiliate program (stated out loud on the homepage), flat honest pricing, quarterly warrant canary, annual th
audited canary open source crypto accepted
intro $6 /month
five-eyes-free
Short answer: IVPN is our top pick as of 2026-09-28 (8/10) - read why, and who we ranked below it and why.
#2
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
#3
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
#4
Riseup VPN
Structurally the most trustworthy free VPN: a Seattle activist collective running RiseupVPN as a donation-funded experiment - no account, no IP logging, open-so
canary open source crypto accepted
completely free, no account registration, donation-funded
#5
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
#6
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)
#7
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
#8
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
#9
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
#10
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
#11
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
#12
NordLayer
Nord Security's business VPN arm, per-user pricing. Prices unverified.
intro $8 /month
#13
Perfect Privacy
No discounts, no intro games - and almost no new development since ~2018; leaked internal concerns in 2019. Expensive honesty with a stale codebase.
intro $12.95 /month
#14
NetBird (WireGuard mesh VPN / zero-trust network)
Verified live 2026-09-27; open-source WireGuard mesh with SSO, self-host or cloud.
intro $0 /month
#15
SoftEther VPN
Multi-protocol university project (VPN Gate's engine); powerful, aging codebase.
open source
#16
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
#17
defguard
Verified live 2026-09-27; self-hosted enterprise WireGuard platform with SSO/identity.
open-source core
#18
Best VPN Proxy AppVPN
1M+ (TTP: ranked #82-99 US App Store 2024) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier Included as second instance of the multi-brand farm pattern.
price on request
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#19
CalyxVPN
100k+ (estimate, not verified) installs. Open-source; run by a nonprofit education/research institute Genuinely non-commercial; 'free' as mission rather than fu
price on request
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#20
Hola VPN
10M+ (Play, current listing); extension user base historically tens of millions installs. Not applicable - peer-to-peer bandwidth-sharing architecture The most
price on request
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#21
HulaVPN - Best Fast Secure VPN
1M+ (TTP: >1M US iOS lifetime) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier The completely opaque tier: an operator you cannot identify even with corpora
price on request
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#22
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
#23
Now VPN - Best VPN Proxy
1M+ (TTP: >200k US iOS lifetime) installs. A 'Now VPN' appears in MVPNalyzer NDSS 2026 Unencrypted Traffic list (package ambiguity possible) Dev-rename history
price on request
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#24
Ostrich VPN - Proxy Master
10M+ (TTP: >5M lifetime US iOS downloads) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier Ownership chain documented through the Hong Kong registry.
price on request
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#25
Pearl VPN
1M+ (TTP: >500k US iOS lifetime) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier Thin-shell operator with minimal transparency even by this family's standar
price on request
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#26
Proton VPN Free
10M+ (Play) installs. No ads/trackers per own claims; open-source apps; no-logs policy independently audited (Securitum) The freemium free tier done honestly: u
price on request
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#27
RiseupVPN
1M+ (estimate, not verified) installs. Open-source client; no third-party trackers; service docs state no user IP logging The most trustworthy free VPN on struc
price on request
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#28
Secure VPN – Safer Internet
Another Signal Lab whitelabel; indistinguishable backend from Thunder/Snap.
ad-supported
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#29
Signal Secure VPN - Robot VPN
1M+ (not in top-100 lists) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier The 'Signal' branding invites confusion with the Signal messenger - unrelated.
price on request
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#30
Snap VPN
Signal Lab family app; research flagged it for excessive tracker SDKs.
ad-supported
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#31
Speedy Quark VPN
Clone-ecosystem free VPN repeatedly flagged in VPN-app security studies; treat as unknown-ownership risk.
ad-supported
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#32
Thunder VPN
Signal Lab clone-app family member (same dev fingerprint as Snap/Secure VPN). Free tier monetizes via ads and broad permissions.
ad-supported
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#33
Tor (The Onion Router)
Not a VPN - onion routing. Every 'VPN vs Tor' comparison should say: different threat models; Tor = anonymity, VPN = privacy from local network.
intro $0 /month
#34
TunnelBear Free
10M+ (Play) installs. Publishes annual independent security audits; records aggregate connection counts and publishes law-enforcement request reports The 2 GB c
price on request
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#35
Turbo VPN
A 500M-install free VPN from the Qihoo 360-linked developer cluster (Innovative Connecting / Autumn Breeze / Lemon Clove, per TTP 2025 and OTF 2025), undisclose
yes - ad-supported free tier + premium upsell
#36
Turbo VPN Lite
Lite variant of Turbo VPN; Play-Store-only funnel, duplicate codebase of the flagship.
ad-supported
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#37
VPN Gate
Academic anti-censorship project; volunteer-run exits = no trust guarantees, logs vary per relay; great for censorship research, bad for anonymity.
fully free, volunteer relays
#38
VPN Proxy OvpnSpider
10M+ (TTP: ranked #34-36 US App Store 2024) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier Second WCOMES app (AppVPN) below.
price on request
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#39
WireVPN - Fast VPN & Proxy
10M+ (TTP: ranked #23-36 US App Store 2024) installs. 'wirevpn' named in MVPNalyzer NDSS 2026 failure lists: Unencrypted Traffic, Leak, Tracking Same-name app f
price on request
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#40
X-VPN
Free Connected Ltd. Heavy Play Store ASO + influencer ads; privacy policy permits broad data collection on free tier.
ad-supported free tier (server choice limited)
#41
vpnify - Unlimited VPN Proxy
10M+ (Play) installs. Not independently audited in this dossier Only app in the set with any public ownership pushback - unresolved either way; the HK papers re
price on request
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#42
CactusVPN Smart DNS
Romanian VPN+SmartDNS combo; niche survivor.
3-day trial
#43
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
#44
Mysterium Network (MYST residential dVPN)
Verified live 2026-09-27 (now branded 'Open Web Protocol'). Longest-running dVPN; node quality/abuse problems are real; payments in MYST.
intro $2.59 /month
#45
Sentinel dVPN (Cosmos bandwidth marketplace, token P2P)
Verified live 2026-09-27; site cites ~$0.033/day style pay-per-use. Largest real dVPN ecosystem (Cosmos SDK chain, client apps), quality varies per node.
intro $1 /month
#46
UrbanVPN
The rare VPN where no investigation is needed - the privacy policy is the evidence. Urban VPN's parent self-declares as a data broker and sells behavior segment
the entire product is free, funded by data brokerage and advertising
#47
AVG Secure VPN
Reskin of Avast SecureLine. Exists to A/B test price ladders in antivirus checkouts.
price on request
#48
BolehVPN
Small, technically credible, P2P-friendly; founder posts honest postmortems. Status needs re-verification 2026.
unverified unverified
price on request
#49
Bright Data
Ex-Luminati; the industrial-scale residential proxy network - the ethical and legal center of the proxy market (Hola feeds it historically).
$ credit trial
#50
Decodo (ex-Smartproxy)
Smartproxy rebranded to Decodo (2024); mid-market scraping proxies.
price on request
#51
HOPR
Mixnet protocol with paid relays; more research project than consumer VPN in 2026.
unverified unverified
price on request
#52
Hola VPN
Site verified 2026-09-27. P2P model resells users' idle bandwidth as Bright Data proxies - you are the product in the most literal sense.
free with ads; premium removes ads
#53
IPRoyal
Budget residential/socks proxies; popular in sneaker/streaming/automation scenes.
price on request
#54
Oxylabs
Enterprise scraping-proxy giant; the 'clean' end of a market that also runs on infected/rented devices.
price on request
#55
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
#56
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
#57
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
#58
UFO VPN
2020 breach exposed ~900GB of user logs/DNS records despite 'zero-log' claims. Still distributed. Textbook free-VPN trust failure.
unverified unverified
ad-supported free tier
#59
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
#60
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
#61
VPN Proxy Master
The worst documented app in this comparison set: 100M+ installs, ownership in the Qihoo 360-linked shell network (TTP 2025), and a peer-reviewed NDSS 2026 audit
no-logs contradicted
yes - ad-supported free tier + premium upsell
#62
PrivadoVPN
VERIFIED LIVE 2026-09-27: intro $1.11/mo. Zurich-based, post-2021 entrant riding affiliate wave; free 10GB tier is real but tied to an account with marketing em
intro $1.11 /month renews $9.99
#63
Avast SecureLine VPN
Gen Digital. Same network as AVG/HMA variants; 2020 Avast data-selling scandal (Jumpshot) permanently stained the family name.
7-day trial
#64
HideMyAss! (HMA)
The most famous logging receipt in VPN history: in 2011 HMA itself blogged that it had handed the FBI the connection logs that convicted a LulzSec member. Fourt
price on request
#65
Super VPN
SuperSoftTech app; 2022 leak exposed ~235M records incl. plaintext emails/passwords; also the 2023 breach. Top-10 Play Store traffic for years despite this.
ad-supported free tier
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#66
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