Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) vs ZeroTier: which wins in 2026?
Head-to-head on the facts that decide the purchase: real prices in the provider's own unit, minimum, KYC, proof, payment and terms - every number sourced in the linked reviews.
The most credible self-hosting on-ramp in the VPN space, built by and for people inside the censorship: the app is free and open source, you connect it to your own $5 VPS over SSH and it deploys the server for you, so your traffic never touches an Amnezia-operated machine. Its signature AmneziaWG protocol is the WireGuard cryptographic core with a serious anti-DPI layer (dynamic headers, randomized packet sizes, QUIC/DNS mimicry), and version 3.1 was rushed out after Russia's June-July 2026 hybrid attack - mass IP blocking, DDoS, and phishing against the team - that knocked the service around for a month and a half. The honesty ledger cuts both ways: security audits by 7ASecurity in 2022/2024/2025 and open code, but also a corporate structure that has drifted from Portugal (IP holder) to Estonia (operations) to a Cyprus-registered entity per today's footer, no public ledger of funding beyond donations and its paid services, self-hosting advocates calling the setup wizard opaque, and an open GitHub issue (since Aug 2024) documenting AmneziaWG being DPI-detected on Russian mobile networks. It is a censorship tool first; as an anonymity or streaming product it is the wrong category.
A network fabric, not an anonymity VPN - and the honest category match for it is 'Hamachi successor with an enterprise SDN conscience'. ZeroTier connects YOUR devices into flat virtual Layer 2 (or routed Layer 3) networks with end-to-end encryption, works behind CGNAT, and its free Personal tier still costs nothing. The trust questions are the same shape as Tailscale's, answered differently: the four planetary root servers are run by ZeroTier Inc. and see peer identities and IP metadata (payload is end-to-end encrypted and roots only relay ciphertext), the hosted controller is closed, and the 2021 Pulse Security research showed root-server trust is real attack surface - responsibly fixed, but instructive. The 2025 story is commercial: a new CEO, a $13.5M Series A, a free tier cut to 10 devices/1 network, Essential jumped to $18/month with $2 per extra device, and the controller code moved into a 'nonfree' source-available directory with commercial-use restrictions. The homelab community that built ZeroTier's reputation is visibly migrating to Tailscale, NetBird and Nebula; the technology (true L2 bridging, non-IP traffic, moons) remains genuinely differentiated. The full Trail of Bits code audit promised 'after 2.0' never appeared - ZeroTier 2.0 itself is still effectively vapor in the mainline product.
Short answer: Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) wins overall (6.2/10 vs 4.1/10). ZeroTier is the better pick if you care most about honest value. Facts checked 2026-11-03.
The facts
 Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) | ZeroTier | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score (0-10) | 6.2 | 4.1 |
| Privacy & proof | ||
| Logging claim | 'If you use the AmneziaVPN app for a self-hosted VPN, we do not collect any data about… | We collect minimal metadata about active networks and devices; ZeroTier routes traffic… |
| Logging evidence | independently audited | promise only (no proof) |
| Audits | 7ASecurity 2024, 7ASecurity 2022, 7ASecurity 2025 | Trail of Bits 2020, Pulse Security (Denis Andzakovic) 2021 |
| Jurisdiction | Cyprus (EUPHORIATECH LIMITED, Nicosia, reg HE 484287 per sit… moreCyprus (EUPHORIATECH LIMITED, Nicosia, reg HE 484287 per site footer, verified 2026-11-02; IP rights in Portugal with Amnezia LDA, ops in Estonia) - for self-hosted users the operative jurisdiction is wherever their own VPS is hosted | United States - ZeroTier, Inc., 548 Market St, San Francisco… moreUnited States - ZeroTier, Inc., 548 Market St, San Francisco, CA (privacy policy); a Five Eyes member country; ZeroTier Europe B.V. in Utrecht acts as GDPR representative |
| Owner | unknown | unknown |
| Money | ||
| Intro price | $5 /mo | $18 /mo |
| Renewal price | not published | $18/mo |
| Anonymous payment | unknown | fiat |
| Account | ||
| Personal info | none | email only for the hosted controller service; no government-ID verification |
| Kind | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Facts checked | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
Score breakdown
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) leads on privacy & logging (+4), security (+5), censorship resistance (+6) · ZeroTier leads on honest value (+4).
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) at a glance
++ What holds up
- Self-hosted mode is free, GPL-3.0 open source, and requires no account - your traffic goes only to your own VPS (GitHub README + FAQ, fetched 2026-11-02)
- AmneziaWG is documented in unusual technical depth, protocol mechanism by mechanism, with the WireGuard crypto core unchanged (docs.amnezia.org)
- Survived the largest state attack in its history (summer 2026: IP/subnet blocking, DDoS, API probing, phishing) and published a candid postmortem with compensation to subscribers
- Built and battle-tested where it matters: Russia, Iran, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, China are the actual user base, and an HN user confirmed the setup scripts were 'above board' on a throwaway VPS
- Free tier in genuinely censored countries (Instagram/Facebook/X access) and a Civil Rights Defenders partnership giving free Premium to journalists and activists
- Independent 7ASecurity security audits of clients and protocols in 2022, 2024 and 2025
-- What to watch
- You own the failure modes: a single-user VPS is trivial to block, and Iranian/Russian authorities block hoster IP ranges wholesale - community threads show constant server-hopping
- AmneziaWG has been detected by DPI before (open GitHub issue #1010 since Aug 2024, Russian MTS) and the project itself admits each protocol version is a temporary answer in an arms race
- Corporate opacity: operator entity is a small Cyprus company (EUPHORIATECH LIMITED) per the site footer, while the 2025 TorrentFreak answers named a Portugal IP holder and Estonia operator - jurisdiction depends on which page you read
- No public accounting of funding beyond donations (Patreon/crypto) and revenue from Premium/Hosting/Business - reviewers and community threads raise the question and get no ledger
- Setup wizard hands the app your VPS SSH credentials and historically hid its server scripts; HN users found buggy UI and a server private key embedded in exported config JSON (2025-12)
- Weak OpenWrt packaging (community-maintained packages), Premium torrenting limited to Netherlands and Switzerland with no port forwarding, and Amnezia Free is speed-capped at 8 Mbps without YouTube
- Useless during full internet shutdowns - Amnezia itself says so for Iran-style whitelists, where only satellite or mesh links work
ZeroTier at a glance
++ What holds up
- Free Personal tier (10 users, 10 devices, 1 network) - verified live 2026-11-03, though nerfed from the historical 25-node free tier per community reports
- True Layer 2 emulation: broadcast, multicast, LAN discovery, Ethernet bridging and non-IP traffic that WireGuard-based meshes cannot carry natively (protocol docs + VPNSmith)
- End-to-end encryption with keys that never leave devices; roots only relay ciphertext (operator security docs + founder statement on HN)
- Self-hostable controller and user-defined 'moon' root servers reduce dependency on ZeroTier Inc. infrastructure (operator docs)
- Two independent security research engagements engaged with and fixed: Trail of Bits crypto design review (2020, public summary) and Pulse Security root-identity research (2021, patched in 1.6.6 within days)
- FIPS 140-3 validated variant and SOC 2 Type II for the enterprise path; post-quantum Quantum platform for CNSA 2.0 mandates
-- What to watch
- The November 2025 pricing restructure cut the free tier to 10 devices/1 network and raised Essential to $18/month plus $2 per extra device - r/zerotier documented a >250 percent increase for legacy customers and a visible exodus to Tailscale, NetBird and Nebula
- The four planetary root servers are operated by ZeroTier Inc. in a Five Eyes jurisdiction and see member identities and IP metadata; the hosted Central controller is closed source
- Controller code now sits in a 'nonfree' directory under a source-available license that forbids commercial use without a paid license - the self-host path is narrower than it was under the old open-source positioning
- No forward secrecy in the standard VL1 protocol (documented in the operator's own protocol page); VPNSmith notes the proprietary transport has not received the breadth of independent audit and benchmarking that WireGuard has
- No public SOC 2 report (trust-center gated); the promised full Trail of Bits code audit never materialized
- ToS: all payments non-refundable, mandatory individual arbitration and class-action waiver, and 28 days of nonpayment leads to subscription deactivation and permanent deletion of network records
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or ZeroTier?
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) is cheaper at $5 /mo versus $18 /mo.
Which has better logging evidence, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or ZeroTier?
Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) has the stronger logging evidence; ZeroTier relies on claims alone.
Which renewal price is honest, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or ZeroTier?
ZeroTier documents renewal at $18/mo; Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) is free - no renewal price exists.
Which needs less KYC, Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) or ZeroTier?
At least one provider does not document its KYC policy - treat it as unknown, not as "no KYC".
Which has the longer track record?
ZeroTier has the longer track record (since 2013).
Scores and facts: meta-reviews with dated sources - Amnezia VPN (self-hosted with obfuscation) · ZeroTier. Method: how we verify. More: all providers compared · all head-to-heads.