Can Anybody Recommend a Great VPN?

[phrehdd]

NordVPN works well and the Mac app is well designed. I have never had problems connecting to any server.

That said, I'm afraid that I can't recommend NordVPN.

I've had it for two years and was automatically renewed the other day on a one-year subscription for 114 Euro.

Before that happened I saw that I could extend for two years for the same amount. Due to work and travels I wasn't quick enough to do that and so was auto-extended for one year.

I brought this to the attention of Nord customer service, but was told that the lower price is only for "initial" customers and that it cannot be used on an active subscription.

That's plainly not true. Even now, with a running subscription into its third year, I can in actual fact extend for two years for 114 Euro.

Yet the myriad of customer service people that reply to my emails simply repeat the same message over and over, that the lower price is only for initial customers. Nobody seems interested in actually taking a moment to check that what I have written is true. And since it is true, there is no reason at all why Nord should not offer an automatic extension for the lower price to loyal customers. This is the case also because Nord keeps bugging its customers with "last minute" offers for that same low price, which ultimately it won't offer in the auto-extension process.
#NordVPNsucks #avoidNordvpn

First, I fully appreciate your frustrations. I was a bit luckier as I did take a renewal with a discount as it was offered. Do I think NordVPN (and other businesses) could be better when dealing with customers, - absolutely. I would be curious if people using other VPN services had challenges as well.

 

[Chuckeee]

I had NordVPN and was not very happy. Disconnect from my Mac about once a week. And on my Mac and iPhone it would regular require that I manually switch servers since connect data rate would slow to crawl (4-5 times a week). Although worked fine on my Dell laptop.

Switched to ProtonVPN and I am much happier. I little bit more pricey but much more consistent service across all of my machines all the time

 

[pullman]

That's great, thank you for mentioning that. I'm kicking myself for not having extended on the cheaper offer.

Nord's service has worked really well for me and continues to do so, which I suppose helps with the negativity I felt when I got extended for a higher-than-necessary price. I never have any problems actually, literally never, be it on my Mac Pro 2008, MBA 2015, MBPr 2013 or my iPhone X. Granted I use it for non-complex things such as to obfuscate browsing when I have to use an open network while travelling (though I try to avoid it by hot spotting with my iPhone) and sometimes accessing streaming services' catalogues. So I may not be the type of customer who really pushes Nord VPN to the limit.

During the spring I tried a few others. I tried Mullvad which I like because I'm Swedish and slightly nostalgic, but it doesn't use a wide enough network and also doesn't work reliably with the streaming services I use. I tried OVPN which is another Swedish provider with sadly similar results.

Finally I tried Windscribe and that one has in my testing offered the exact same reliability as Nord does (again for my purposes). Windscribe is likely to be what I will be switching to in a year's time. I had one of the founders email me back to answer my questions, which I think is pretty amazing. Windscribe and Nord have really good data rates when connected compared to Mullvad and OVPN.

cheers
p

First, I fully appreciate your frustrations. I was a bit luckier as I did take a renewal with a discount as it was offered. Do I think NordVPN (and other businesses) could be better when dealing with customers, - absolutely. I would be curious if people using other VPN services had challenges as well.

 

[MacBH928]

That's great, thank you for mentioning that. I'm kicking myself for not having extended on the cheaper offer.

Nord's service has worked really well for me and continues to do so, which I suppose helps with the negativity I felt when I got extended for a higher-than-necessary price. I never have any problems actually, literally never, be it on my Mac Pro 2008, MBA 2015, MBPr 2013 or my iPhone X. Granted I use it for non-complex things such as to obfuscate browsing when I have to use an open network while travelling (though I try to avoid it by hot spotting with my iPhone) and sometimes accessing streaming services' catalogues. So I may not be the type of customer who really pushes Nord VPN to the limit.

During the spring I tried a few others. I tried Mullvad which I like because I'm Swedish and slightly nostalgic, but it doesn't use a wide enough network and also doesn't work reliably with the streaming services I use. I tried OVPN which is another Swedish provider with sadly similar results.

Finally I tried Windscribe and that one has in my testing offered the exact same reliability as Nord does (again for my purposes). Windscribe is likely to be what I will be switching to in a year's time. I had one of the founders email me back to answer my questions, which I think is pretty amazing. Windscribe and Nord have really good data rates when connected compared to Mullvad and OVPN.

cheers
p

mullvad seems to cap their speed at 100Mbps

some might think its slow but for $5 a month its more than enough speed to do anything really. What was the speeds on Windscribe?

 

[Fishrrman]

Mac wrote in reply 279:
"mullvad seems to cap their speed at 100Mbps"

Not in my experience.
I just switched on Mullvad, then went to SpeedTest.net to check my speeds.
Download - 333
Upload - 214

This is on a 2018 Mini running Mojave.
I actually get better speeds on wifi on my 2021 MacBook Pro 14".

 

[MacBH928]

Mac wrote in reply 279:
"mullvad seems to cap their speed at 100Mbps"

Not in my experience.
I just switched on Mullvad, then went to SpeedTest.net to check my speeds.
Download - 333
Upload - 214

This is on a 2018 Mini running Mojave.
I actually get better speeds on wifi on my 2021 MacBook Pro 14".

maybe you live near the server or something. I always get near 100Mbps with Mullvad

without Mullvad VPN turned on

 

[phrehdd]

maybe you live near the server or something. I always get near 100Mbps with Mullvad

View attachment 2386080

without Mullvad VPN turned on

View attachment 2386081

Check the server you are connecting to. I went with one server and it show a certain download and when I switched to another server, it was about 30 percent faster than the first one.

 

[AL2TEACH]

I must be in a group of the few that use Torguard

 

[DouglasCarroll]

I like free Proton vpn because one of the free locations is Japan and I can listen/watch the Japanese sites for my wife who is Japanese. Never had an issue.

 

[JonaM]

NordVPN is find is very good *when* it's connected. I've had a lot of problems with it deleting the VPN profile from devices apparently at random - you go to connect and find the VPN profile has vanished from your iPad, so have to log in and download it again ( without VPN to protect you). It also will fail to reliably obey the "auto connect on WiFi", leaving you unprotected (without warning).
Unfortunately I just cannot trust it to be working when I need it to be. Not sure how much of that is NordVPN and how much is Apple

 

[Martyimac]

I recommended Private Internet Access quite a while ago and still use it and recommend it. With one caveat.

It works fine on my M1 iMac and my M2 Air. But while it technically works on my M2 studio, it's cludgy. The window doesn't stick to the menu bar like it should and when you click to activate it, in the window nothing seems to happen, IE no change from yellow to green showing it's working but thankfully the small icon in the menu bar does change to show you are on the VPN. Also, one cannot access the settings from the floating window after the first use. Uninstalling it then reinstalling it makes everything work okay again, but only on the first use.

So if you have an M Studio, can't say I give it a 5 of 5 rating but having learned the work arounds, I'm okay with it.
YMMV

 

[Lord of the Pies]

+1 for Mullvad. Most trustworthy company, no dark patterns with their checkout process, really nice apps, a ton of server locations, excellent speeds and latency, no username and password needed etc. Pretty much the perfect VPN.

 

[Henry V]

Do you recommend using a VPN on Mac?
NordVPN is highly recommended??

 

[Chuckeee]

I had problems with NordVPN, having to manually switch servers multiple time a week, occasionally service would just drop, and their Mac support is a bit sparse. Currently using ProtonVPN and it seems to work very well with Apple eco system. I’ve also heard good things about ExpressVPN.

 

[Henry V]

I had problems with NordVPN, having to manually switch servers multiple time a week, occasionally service would just drop, and their Mac support is a bit sparse. Currently using ProtonVPN and it seems to work very well with Apple eco system. I’ve also heard good things about ExpressVPN.

Thank you Chuckeee!
Do you think we need VPN?

 

[Chuckeee]

Depends on what you do and how you work. If you use public wifi-yes! If your sole online activity is email from home/work- probably not.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Do you recommend using a VPN on Mac?
NordVPN is highly recommended??

Take a look at Tailscale. No need to pay for NordVPN and the like. It is free and very easy to set up your own connection. I use it.

Tailscale · Best VPN Service for Secure Networks

Securely connect to anything on the internet with Tailscale. Built on WireGuard®️, Tailscale enables you to make finely configurable connections, secured end-to-end according to zero trust principles, between any resources on any infrastructure.

tailscale.com

 

[Nermal]

Do you think we need VPN?

What is your use case?

 

[Henry V]

What is your use case?

mainly internet surfing and watching netflix etc.

 

[Chuckeee]

mainly internet surfing and watching netflix etc.

From home or while traveling?

 

[dmr727]

I use ProtonVPN while overseas, and it's been reliable and easy.

 

[gilby101]

mainly internet surfing and watching netflix etc.

If travelling: You should use a VPN service to protect from WiFi eavesdropping.
At home: Depends what you want to hide from your internet provider or government agencies, and how much you want to reduce tracking by IP address. You have to trust the VPN provider not to watch what you are doing.

NordVPN is highly recommended??

I don't think anything is "highly" recommended. What to avoid: Free VPN (you are the product). I am happy with PIA.

 

[HDFan]

What is your use case?

mainly internet surfing and watching netflix etc.

From home or while traveling?

Normally you don't need the overhead and technical complications of a VPN. If you are traveling, need to access overseas region specific sites, or are a high risk target then it might make sense.

 

[Nermal]

Further to that, when accessing HTTPS sites (which is virtually all of them these days) the connection is already secure unless you've clicked something like "continue anyway" on a security warning. Theoretically a man in the middle can see the URLs you're visiting (or maybe just the hostname: can anyone confirm?) but not the actual content of those pages.

 

[Henry V]

Normally you don't need the overhead and technical complications of a VPN. If you are traveling, need to access overseas region specific sites, or are a high risk target then it might make sense.

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