Linux Mint Forums

Can someone suggest a VPN that is free or reasonably priced? I'd like to add more privacy to my web browsing. Running 19.0 Mate. Thanks.- Howard

it is generally suggested that you Do Not Cheapskate and get any Free VPN for your system.


the company called Private Internet Access® is an Official Linux Mint Partner,
& is the VPN service that will get recommended by this Forum, in most cases.
- - there are other VPN companies, that do often get recommended as well.

you should simply search this forum a little more, as this subject does come up quite regularly.

I've always been happy with the free service ProtonVPN offer.
The free service is limited to Netherlands, US and I think the third is Japan. The website says the free service has low speeds but last time I checked I got 30mb using a 200mb connection. You get a free trial for the Plus package when you first sign up and I don't remember that being able to use all of my 200mb connection so I stayed with the free version.

Also, it's not one of the 26 providers on this list that apparently log something.
https://thebestvpn.com/118-vpns-logging-policy/

Edit: I've just checked the speeds again. 160mb down and 105mb up and ping 24ms. Thats on a free Netherlands server connecting to a broadband speed checker server in Germany, from the UK.

Pierre wrote: ⤴Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:02 pm it is generally suggested that you Do Not Cheapskate and get any Free VPN for your system.


the company called Private Internet Access® is an Official Linux Mint Partner,
& is the VPN service that will get recommended by this Forum, in most cases.
- - there are other VPN companies, that do often get recommended as well.

you should simply search this forum a little more, as this subject does come up quite regularly.

+1 This is good advise if you have not your own research and/or not really knowledgeable about VPNs.
From personal experience and research I have tried several VPN providers both free and subscription.
Typically free VPN, speaking for myself only, has not been very good. I have not tried Proton although I will say the free version of Proton Mail is excellent - they seem like a really good organization so may their free VPN service is good as well. All I am saying is the half dozen or so free VPN services I tried were very slow and later I found out they were not honest about securing your data. Think about it . . . if they are free how to do they make $$$$ - what I understand from reading and listening to podcasts, is some of them at least mine and sell you data even though they claim not to.

I tired three paid VPN subscriptions from $7 to $9 per month. The first two had very good reputations and folks on this forum seem to like them so I will not mention them for fear of being flamed. They were OK but significantly slowed my 100Mbps bandwidth - also I did not like going around trying to find the fastest server. I use Private Tunnel that is partnered with OpenVPN they are reputable and I do not a degradation in speed - to make my point I just did a speed test I registered 89.47Mbps. Also they have very good tech support - I was setting up DNScrypt to prevent DNS leak and called them - they were easy to reach and very helpful. I no longer use DNScrypt and have been a PiHole with DNSSEC/DoH via CloudFlare (1.1.1.1) to encrypt DNS and also prevent DNS leak. All works well with Private Tunnel as I am sure it would with PIA and since PIA is an Official Linux Mint Partner I don't think you could go wrong with them.

if you're just looking for a vpn for your browser i do recommend browsec. i've been using it for a very long time, both in windows and now in linux. addon for firefox available and a extension for chrome available. i have found it extreme fast. when i do a speed test i typically get between 125 and 160 mbps on a 150 mbps connection. free countries netherlands, uk, us, singapore.

+1 to Minty00

Hi Howard_P,

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

There are many posts on vpn's in this forum.

There are different types of VPN providers and some are free and some are not, some are fast and some are not.

1.) System-Wide VPN. Only the system-wide VPN protects everything on your computer that accesses the internet (browsers, instant messengers, email clients, update manager, music and video applications, etc...)

Free VPN: Usually do not allow torrent or P2P activities or online gaming and they do not usually have many server locations.
Free VPN providers with unlimited usage: vpnbook (fast, changes their login password every week or two), ProtonVPN (fast, requires a request signup and I had to wait nearly 6 months), vpngate (speed varies, all activities allowed, server locations change frequently) - see "vpngate with proxy" application.

Paid for VPN providers: Private Internet Access (pia), ProtonVPN, VPN.ac, etc...

2.) Browser extension add-on. Only protects what you do in the browser. (Hoxx VPN, DotVPN, browsec, etc...)

3.) Proxy websites are usually free and there is nothing to install. Search for "free vpn proxy website" and the country you want and use one of those. This option only protects you in that VPN proxy webpage and pages spawned from that VPN proxy webpage. Least secure of the VPN options, but better than not using any VPN option.


Hope this helps ...

"Free VPN: Usually do not allow torrent "

sorry but that's actually inaccurate. some will slow torrents down, some will block them, and ones like browsec just don't care. it's under half that will actually block. that said i'd go for nordvpn if you're going to pay. nord cause once it's setup you can have it turnoff the net if the vpn goes down, or have it turn off certain apps if the vpn goes down. when i do finally go to a system-wide paid vpn it's going to be nord.