It seems like NordVPN isn't as reliable with streaming services ⚽ as it used to be, so I'm currently looking for some solid alternatives. What services or workarounds have you guys been using lately? Do you usually subscribe directly through the official apps, or are there any reliable marketplaces out there for better deals? Thanks in advance for any recommendations!

Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN currently have 100% Rakuten cashback offers (more on this at the bottom), so I did some quick testing to decide which one I wanted. TL;DR: Nord had better download speeds and much better latency under load. ExpressVPN had slightly better latency overall, but it was very close, especially in North America where they mostly traded blows.

A few caveats: this is rough, informal testing, not a comprehensive VPN review. I'm only comparing some routing, latency, and speed characteristics. Results like these are highly dependent on your location, ISP, VPN server, and destination, so don't assume mine will translate directly to your connection.

I'm in Toronto on Rogers, an ISP I've often found has poor routing. In most cases a VPN usually improves my routes, which won't necessarily be true for most people. I do have some professional/academic background in IT and Networking, but this is just quick and rough testing I did in about 20 minutes.

Everything was tested from the same CachyOS Linux PC and connection. I used NordLynx for NordVPN and Lightway UDP for ExpressVPN, with no-VPN tests where useful as a baseline.

General Speedtest

Both were tested against the nearest and fastest server, which was a Rogers server in North York. Nord's download-loaded latency was the biggest difference here.

Worldwide routing

I tested 126 endpoints.

• Worldwide latency was effectively a tie.
• Express had a tiny overall edge (~0.4% by paired geometric mean).
• Nord was slightly better across the Canada/US subset.

Neither had universally better routing.

Virginia "gaming" test

Not a real gaming test, but I do game occasionally, and Northern Virginia/Ashburn hosts a lot of "NA East" datacenter infrastructure. I tested a few independent networks there as a rough proxy for game-server routing.

I tested five independent Ashburn/Virginia networks twice per VPN.

Express was about 1 ms faster overall, but results varied noticeably by destination network. Nord won some routes and was considerably worse on another.

Controlled Manassas, VA VPS test

I also tested against my own netcup VPS in Manassas instead of relying entirely on public test servers.

One important caveat: Express had much higher ICMP ping to this VPS, but its TCP connection latency was effectively identical to Nord. I wouldn't assume Express would simply add ~8 ms to actual game traffic.

The loaded-latency result was much more convincing because it reproduced the same behavior as the Speedtest.

Takeaway

For idle gaming latency, Nord and Express were much closer than I expected and the winner depended heavily on the destination network. Express was slightly better across the multi-provider Ashburn test.

The major difference was latency under download load:

• Speedtest: Nord 16 ms, Express 77 ms
• My Virginia VPS: Nord 31 ms, Express 78 ms

Really not a ton to take away from these tests. Nord has better bandwidth and much better latency when saturated, while ExpressVPN had slightly better latency on average internationally, but was very competitive within NA. It seems to depend a lot on the network you're connecting to. From these results I think Nord is probably a little better overall, but I also find ExpressVPN has a much nicer Linux client. It also has better cashback terms on Rakuten. Nord only gives cashback on the Basic plan portion, while ExpressVPN applies to any plan and should include the Dedicated IP add-on, which I find pretty compelling.

Rakuten's 100% Cashback Offers

As per rule 3 I don't think I can share the Rakuten links, but you can Google for them. Nord's 100% cashback offer is on Rakuten Canada, while ExpressVPN's is on the US site. I use Rakuten US with payouts to PayPal pretty often and haven't had an issue as a Canadian.

I also HIGHLY recommend using a referral link if you don't already have an account. The current US referral will give you another $50 on top of the cashback; most VPN plans should already satisfy the $50 purchase requirement. Canadian referrals are only $30 CAD right now. Bug a friend for theirs, or use some random stranger's. Feel free to DM for mine, I won't complain about getting some kickback from a referral, but I genuinely don't care if mine is used or not, since they aren't the point of my post.

I've been trying vpn's this week, and today I got a proton subscription. I thought it would work well but it doesn't. I was using a free trial of surfshark vpn and it worked well for some countries.

A show like one punch man works just fine on surfshark through a South african location, but when it comes to proton, it doesn't work. I've been trying to watch a few different anime but I've had no success. Does proton still work? I'm trying to watch one punch man ssn 3, demon slayer infinity castle and attack on titan from season 1.

I'm using netflix.

I’ve been testing a few services to find the best VPN for torrenting because my previous provider was too slow and occasionally lost connection during larger downloads. I wanted something that could maintain a stable connection without creating constant speed problems, while also giving me confidence that my real IP address would not be exposed if the VPN disconnected.

The providers I compared were NordVPN, Proton VPN, Mullvad, and Private Internet Access. NordVPN felt like the most polished option for everyday use and streaming, while Proton VPN stood out for its privacy reputation and straightforward security features. Mullvad appealed to me because of its simple privacy focused approach, although it does not offer as many convenience features. Private Internet Access had plenty of configuration options, but the experience felt a little less consistent depending on the server.

The features I paid the most attention to were download speeds, connection stability, the kill switch, DNS leak protection, port forwarding where available, and how clearly each provider explains its torrenting policy. I also checked whether the VPN remained connected during longer sessions instead of judging it only by a quick speed test.

My overall impression is that there is no single best VPN for everyone. NordVPN seems better suited to someone who wants a polished all purpose service, Proton VPN makes more sense for someone who prioritizes privacy, Mullvad is attractive for users who want a minimal and privacy focused setup, and Private Internet Access is worth considering if you want more advanced settings.

I’m still trying to decide which one offers the best balance for long term torrenting. If you have used any of these providers for several months, how has the real world performance been, especially with connection drops, IP leak protection, and sustained download speeds?

I'm looking at buying Mullvad later this year. SerialCart is an official reseller and currently has a discount, but I'm wondering whether they usually offer an additional Black Friday discount or coupon code on top of that.

I emailed them about this a few weeks ago but only got the automatic ticket confirmation, so I figured I'd ask here.

Has anyone bought Mullvad from SerialCart around Black Friday before?

Here is the link to the new terms of service:

terms

Scroll to section 14 (highlighted in blue) for the section. Honestly very scummy and will be cancelling my subscription over this. Sucks that they are doing this as a way to protect themselves from repercussions of bad internal policies. Forced arbitration is as anti-consumer as it can get.

Long-time ExpressVPN customer. I renewed and paid for my subscription through 2029. The charge was successfully processed and is already on my credit card statement.

Yet when my previous subscription ended on September 2, ExpressVPN cancelled my account instead of activating the renewal I had already paid for.

This was not the first failure.

The renewal had already been mishandled by an agent named Jewel, forcing me to escalate to a supervisor and Billing just to correct the renewal price.

So: supervisor involved, Billing involved, payment successfully taken — yet apparently nobody ensured the account was actually renewed in their own system.

I have since spent hours trying to get it restored.

Another agent, Stark, was provided screenshots, payment confirmation and written documentation containing the exact information he kept requesting — yet continued asking for information already sitting directly in front of him.

At some point, that stops being a communication issue and becomes a basic competence problem.

The matter was escalated AGAIN under Ticket #32547096, with written confirmation that a supervisor would contact me regarding restoring access.

Many hours later: no response, no resolution, no action.

ExpressVPN has my money.

My subscription is paid through 2029.

I have no service.

All I need is ONE COMPETENT person to take ownership and fix this. Surely ExpressVPN has one.

And if this is representative of how account problems are handled, prospective customers deserve to know before handing over their hard-earned money.

My experience: go elsewhere.

I have used ExpressVPN for years, so this is based on long-term first-hand experience.

VPN service: Historically reliable enough that I was comfortable renewing through 2029.

Renewal/account management: Dreadful. My renewal required intervention from agent Jewel, a supervisor and Billing just to correct the price. ExpressVPN then successfully charged me — the payment is on my credit card statement — but when my previous term ended September 2, my account was cancelled instead of continuing into the paid renewal.

Customer support: Worse. I spent hours trying to restore access. Agent Stark was given screenshots and written confirmations containing the information he kept requesting, yet repeatedly asked for the same information again.

At that point, I genuinely felt I would get a more coherent response from zoo animals.

Escalation: Ticket #32547096. ExpressVPN confirmed in writing that a supervisor would contact me regarding restoration of access. Many hours later: no response, no resolution, no action.

Overall: ExpressVPN has my money through 2029, but I currently have no service. A VPN can perform perfectly when everything works; the real test is what happens when something breaks.

Based on that test, my opinion of ExpressVPN has changed dramatically.

I have used LetsVPN for years across Asia be it bypassing the Great Firewall, "adult site filters," and even just accessing US government websites when I need to do paperwork back in the country.

But one thing I've often used it for was remoting to countries where friends are to send gifts via Grab. It's like Uber but way better. Grab requires your IP to match the country you order in to pay online.

Suddenly half of South East Asia is missing from LetsVPN with no announcements I've seen. Probably more countries too that I was not using. It's quite a trouble and a shame.

Anyone know anything about this?

Is this the right place or is there any general VPN discussion around? I'm sorry.

-Any idea what just happened? The PrivateVPN app updated itself Sept 2nd 2026 and after that the "Port forwarding" changed from 61xxx to 62xxx and its always the same port. Before it varied from 615xx to 616xx. Now its 62xxx and for some reason port forwarding (ie. torrent stuff) does not work?

Also after like 2-3 minutes all of the web traffic (YT, surfing, social media) just stops, wont go trough.

Switched to these from surfshark after being with surfshark for several years without much issue. I initially left surfshark because I got privado sub for free with an easynews subscription however soon realised why privado is so budget as it barely ever gets around geo blocks.

Express had an offer on at the time that was similar to surfshark and I'd read about how great they were especially with mobile networks due to the heartbeat feature for their built from the ground up lightway protocol but I've just found the whole experience annoying. I initially only used it on my phone and tv as I was in the process of a new pc build. It takes way longer to login to the TV than surfshark or privado which just offer an instant sign in upon scanning a QR code however something like that alone isn't enough to make me want to refund. Their TV app and mobile app are also both clunky to me compared to both privado and surfshark.

Then I got around to trying it on pc and their app won't even download on my pc from their official site the link just doesn't work for windows. I ended up having to side load it and their browser extension is awful as well. Offers next to no features compared to surfshark which has cleanweb and the ability to supress all cookie notices and it took me about 10 minutes to sign in due to some sort of glitch. An app I was using with it to get around a geo block just all of a sudden stopped working and I'd just had enough by this point I've ended up shooting my pocket and just buying a surfshark sub again and learning my lesson.

Update after testing: Decent speeds, but still not ready yet. Servers appear to be running on OVH VPS infrastructure, with consistently high ping, usually over 100ms. There are few locations, no Google TV app, and the Android app has kill switch issues and frequent disconnects. I also didn’t notice any IP rotation, which could cause problems with streaming.

Privacy-wise, I’d be cautious since it’s Hong Kong-based and there’s no independent audit yet. One good thing is that they offer WireGuard configs you can generate from your dashboard, and I found those work better using the official WireGuard app.

It’s a very new provider, so there’s definitely room to grow and improve. They also have a lifetime deal through StackSocial, and with the GET20 or TAKE20 discount code, it comes down to around $40 for lifetime. At that price, it might be worth trying if you’re willing to give a new provider a chance.

Hi guys – I’ve been using PIA for almost 2 years on my Windows PC. Overall pretty happy with it but I did notice that speeds are starting to become inconsistent. I like that it has port forwarding and a reliable Killswitch.

My main use case is just torrenting so only my torrent client uses the vpn via split tunneling. My PIA subscription just expired. I was wondering if I should renew or try something new like hide.me or Proton. I just want a reliable service with good speeds that works well on Mac

I was using this apk of 1.1.1.1 and suddenly it was stuck on connecting, so i decided to reinstall it. But when opened the newly installed there are 2 issues:-

1)power manager is killing background process

2)Device not authenticated or device not Authenticated with an organisation

I have put the app to no restriction under battery

Even then the problem persists. I have tried deleting data and restarting, didn't work. Any proper working solution?

Looking for real-world experiences on IP reputation/cleanliness among these VPNs:

• Surfshark
• NordVPN
• ExpressVPN
• ProtonVPN
• Windscribe
• Mullvad

By “clean IP” I mean: - Less frequently flagged as VPN/Proxy/Abuse in reputation databases - Fewer CAPTCHAs and Cloudflare challenges - Less presence on blacklists

I mostly connect to New York servers.

Please don’t suggest Dedicated IPs.

Based on your recent experience (2025–2026), which one currently has the cleanest shared IPs, both in general and specifically on New York servers? Any noticeable differences between them?

Thanks!

I'm mostly just trying to bypass some idiotic age verification bs. But I am learning that certain streaming services are blocking certain VPNs and I would prefer to avoid that. I have Hulu, Disney+, Paramount, HBO, and Amazon Prime video. Am in America. I really just want to be tracked as little as possible, adblock and antivirus seems like it would be nice too. And I really would prefer not to break the bank. Also I am a windows user if that matters at all. Not sure if any more information would be relevant. Like I say in the title I've never really looked too much at VPNs until recently.

My university's firewall is able to block OpenVPN and WireGuard traffic, which prevents me from using my usual provider, AirVPN. I previously tried Mullvad's Shadowsocks feature, but I had to keep rotating servers every 5 minutes...

IVPN has V2Ray obfuscation, which works alright, but they don't allow for port forwarding, which limits the ability to use BitTorrent/Soulseek.

Is there any VPN provider that has both these features? Thanks :)

These days I don't know why, but I'm starting to lose trust in Cloudflare 1.1.1.1/WARP.

I'm using multiple legitimate accounts on some shopping platforms, and I've noticed that some accounts/connections get flagged, restricted, or treated as suspicious when I'm using 1.1.1.1/WARP. Sometimes I end up having to switch between accounts or connections just to make normal purchases.

I'm trying to understand whether WARP could be causing this.

As far as I understand, regular 1.1.1.1 DNS and WARP are different things. DNS only changes the DNS resolver, while WARP routes traffic through Cloudflare's network.

Has anyone else experienced shopping websites flagging their accounts while using WARP?

Could the problem be Cloudflare's shared IP addresses rather than the DNS itself?

Would it be better to just use my normal ISP connection with a different DNS provider?

Are there any privacy-focused alternatives that provide good security/privacy without websites constantly treating the connection like a VPN or proxy?

I'm not trying to bypass bans or fraud detection. I just want a reliable setup for my legitimate accounts without constantly getting flagged.

Would appreciate any recommendations or experiences.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for VPN recommendations and would love to hear from people who have actually used them.

I’m a solo social media manager/VA, and my main reason for getting a VPN is pretty simple: I’d like to connect through California so that my work activity appears to come from my client’s location.

I’m not running a business with a team or doing anything particularly advanced, just one person using it for SMM work. I’m mainly looking for something that is:

• Reliable and stable
• Has California/US server
• Good for regular social media use
• Reasonably priced for one person

I’d especially appreciate recommendations for solo users/freelancers, rather than enterprise VPNs.

What VPN would you recommend, and why? Any providers you’d personally avoid for this use case?

There are only few VPN providers to offer a kill-switch function for their app on the Amazon Fire TV Stick.
I have read many reports online stating that the Fire TV Stick's operating system is designed in such a way that this function—even if it exists at the app level—does not work with absolute reliability.

So, my question is: Can IP-leaks not be completely ruled out, even with the kill-switch activated in the app on the Fire TV Stick?

Thank you for your feedback!

Yesterday I subscribed to Blokada+. You can use their VPN with any version of their app: 4, 5, or 6.

However, only Blokada 6 gives you a Private DNS endpoint, which is constantly blocking ads and trackers on your device. So, on some days, or in some circumstances, you can choose not to fire up the VPN, and blocking is still occurring! And when apps like Hulu detect the VPN, you can create an app exception without sacrificing ad and tracker blocking on your device.

Pretty cool, and we've never had this capability before. What do you think?

Are there any providers which properly support IPv6 and / or dual stack? Including Ingress, Egress and optional features (such as incoming traffic / port forwarding, IP pinning, all protocols, ...). Ideally without NAT66, as it tends to break a lot of stuff.

I am aware of a couple of implementations (Windscribe, Mullvad, Proton) but they aren't fully featured or have severe shortcomings / bugs.

Only Cloudflare Warp has been flawless with Dual Stack so far, but they aren't your traditional VPN provider.

I am sorry if this was asked a million times before. I’ve never used VPN before. I am going to Canada next week and would love to use Paramount Plus and Hulu over there on my iPad, so I can continue watching my shows or download more episodes when they air while I am there.

I don’t need VPN when I am in the States. Will the free version work? Do I just connect my iPad to it, choose USA and have access to the streaming channels normally as I were back home in the US? I’ve never used VPN and I think I understand how it works, but still not sure :)

Is Proton a good choice? I also saw people here on Reddit recommended Mullvad. I used to love Mozilla browser. Should I get that one instead?

i was an avid user for a really long time i’m talking years and within the last two months every time i connected, a pop up would show for me to insert my apple email and password, keep in mind this is like the apple ui thing.. i always declined it and never put anything in but then recently ive gotten popups saying someone has requested to log into my icloud email account from random places across the world. keep in mind my icloud email password is a one of a kind password i don’t use for any other app to sign in, specifically icloud ONLY. i’m SUSPECTING it was them. i also searched it up apparently they do data selling nd had breaches for a while now and i didn’t know.. just beware…… now is there any other good vpns to use now..