I used to use Tunnel Bear until I realized I couldn’t shop online with it operating. I tried turning it on/off but that was just too much so, I dropped it. No VPN now.
I used TunnelBear a number of years ago when I first went to Europe on a trip. Even though it supposedly had “local” servers I could route through (versus their home base in Canada), I found its performance to be hit-or-miss.
In some cases it was so slow as to be unusable, taking several minutes just to load one web page. I could never tell if it was the VPN or my wifi/cellular connection that was slowing me down. When I would turn off TunnelBear things would speed up, and after a while, I got so I was using it off most of the time and eventually I just stopped using it. Later, when my subscription came up for renewal, I didn’t bother.
That experience turned me off VPNs enough that I haven’t really used them since. If you’re in a situation where you really need one, then the slowdown might worth the trouble.
I have to use my employers VPN when I work from home or to access ultra-secure resources. The software is PaloAlto GlobalProtect.
That’s more than I knew before. Thanks for your patient explanation!
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I have used a personal commercial VPN service since circa 2005. For the first 10 years or so I used Witopia but at some point I ran into a usability issue (I cannot recall the details and I didn’t retain any notes) which the company acknowledged but refused to address. The problem may not have been a deal-killer but their indifference regarding something that wasn’t prevalent at other VPNs at the time was. . .
While looking at my options I found an early Wirecutter.com review of VPNs. This was my introduction to the New York Times review website. (Years later I may use it as a starting point but I wouldn’t rely on it as my primary resource.) One of the 2 or 3 recommended services was IVPN.net. IVPN was easily the most expensive option, which was then $100 annually for the “Pro” plan. But there was a $70 “lifetime” limited-time price offer so I went for it. Since then I’ve only seen a 2-day Wirecutter $40 offer but I assume that it was for the Standard plan. Since then I haven’t seen any such IVPN offers apart from the 1-3 year discounts on its website.
My wife and I have IVPN apps installed on our Macs and iPhones. We usually use IVPN all the time and only disconnect on the rare occasion that a VPN is rejected and we must access something when there is no alternative.
I do not understand why IVPN is not more popular but I assume that it is mainly due to the cost. When I compare its policies and procedures to other commercial services it has few if any comparable competitors. I appreciate its commitment to customer privacy, transparent ownership/management, annual independent audits, its no-marketing policy (including no affiliate relationships), its use of open-source apps, and more.
Everything is carefully detailed in the Ethics, Privacy and Blog sections on its website. After reading all of the pertinent information I decided that I would rely on it and my personal experience rather than questionable online reviews. Some people will ask “how can you trust what they are saying?” My reply is that we all make decisions about which companies we should trust and most companies (particularly privately-held ones) are not as forthcoming as IVPN. I also refuse to become cynical despite having 71 years of experience living in this crazy world.
Is IVPN perfect? Of course not. . . But I haven’t come across anything that is remotely a deal-killing problem. When there are technical or other issues I have found IVPN to be quick to acknowledge and address them via its blog, etc. When I have required assistance their customer support has been fast to reply 24/7. There is also an active IVPN subReddit which is another way to ascertain the satisfaction of its customers.
I may be willing to accept certain technical aspects while others place a greater emphasis on them than I do. The company’s adherence to its stated policies and ethics along with its reputation are most important to me. Contrary to what seems to be popular opinion, I think that personal VPNs remain a viable component when putting together a multi-layer system protecting user privacy and against the growing variety of malware and other cyber-threats.
I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who had that experience. Fortunately, VPN Unlimited has turned out to be fine.
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Doesn’t Apple’s iCloud+ Private Relay provide most (if not all) the security features of a VPN? And doesn’t it do that in a manner that doesn’t involve having to trust a stranger?
I’ve tried VPNs in the past. They invariably slowed my connections considerably. And then I asked myself if the security was worth it. How could I possibly know that the VPN server was itself secure? I couldn’t. And if it wasn’t secure, I was just paying someone to look over my shoulder.
If I was sitting in an airport just reading the news in a browser, and not logging into my bank account, did I even care if someone was snooping on me? In general, the answer was “No.” So why would I pay to have a New York Times article sent to me securely?
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For the past few years, I’ve used PIA, but quite often Apple’s E-mail reports that the IP address I was using was “blacklisted” by (for example) Comcast’s IMAP or SMTP servers. And reconnection was a real problem when traveling overseas using my travel router, so a little over a month ago I tried NordVPN and found it to be much more reliable.
I also use the OpenVPN client to VPN into to my home network (many Netgear routers provide built-in support) so I can dip in there for occasional management/maintanence. Performance isn’t great, so I don’t use it for general, all-purpose networking.
If I had to guess, I’d estimate that 90% of VPN users do so to support remote work into a corporate workplace. But I feel like the survey questions are geared heavily towards personal VPN use.
Eg, my answer to the first question is “often” AND “only as necessary”, because I have to use it for work and I work often. And the answer to why is because my employer requires it, which isn’t even an option. Yes, my employer requires it for a number of security reasons, but most staff aren’t qualified to know the specific security reasons.
But I like the info about the Chinese. Not surprised. And yes I’ve often warned people that you’re heavily trusting whomever is at the other end.
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Only for Web traffic in Safari.
From the current responses, only about 15% of people use an employer-provided VPN, which I would assume is what anyone doing remote work with a corporate network would use. It’s lower than I would have thought too.
I’m suspicious of selection bias based on your audience demographic :-)
For one, I get a feeling that you have a lot of older (retired?) readers.
Secondly, I think you have a more security-minded and technically-astute listener base, one that doesn’t match the populace at large.
But it’s pure hunch. I haven’t done any homework :-)
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I’m based in the UK but am quite often in France, and to some extent other countries. I use Le VPN (https://www.le-vpn.com), not only on my Macs but also on an Amazon Fire TV stick and an Android tablet. It’s very stable on all these platforms. Support is good, with quick responses. I primarily use it for circumventing geographical restrictions. I note that some sources such as Netflix appear to know you’re using a VPN, but I don’t know how. (In fact a single Netflix account works in more than one country, so that one’s a bit theoretical.) I regularly link to UK sites when I’m in France, and to US ones when I’m in the UK or Europe.
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I also wonder if responders are restricting themselves to use of a personal computer or to their Apple systems, since TidBITS focuses mostly on Apple’s products.
If people are omitting their Windows/Linux systems and/or their employer-provided systems, that would also skew the numbers.
I didn’t do this, but I suspect others might because when I take a commercial survey on computer usage, they usually make a point of asking that you only talk about computers you own and manage, not those provided by third-parties.
Right. I don’t usually use one on my Macs, but I do use the Windows-supplied VPN client on my work PC to work remotely. My wife is in the same situation. My daughter uses a Mac professionally, but that may have a VPN for her work (and she doesn’t use a VPN for personal use).
I’m not sure what to make of Google AI, but it has this to say about work vs. personal VPN use:
There’s definitely some hallucination going on here, because the numbers don’t add up.
It says 40% use VPNs for work or personal reasons. Then it says 30% use it for business-only and 23.1% for both - which adds up to 53.1%, not 40.
An actual web search found a Forbes article dated February 2024 (but talks about 2025 statistics, so there’s a mistake somewhere). Some possibly interesting data points:
- 77% of people use VPNs for personal use
- 46% when accessing streaming services
- 16% when torrenting
- 26% to access region-locked entertainment
- 47% to enhance data privacy of personal information
- 42% for security on public Wi-Fi
- 50% use VPNs at work.
- 40% use a work VPN for personal streaming
- 11% don’t use a work VPN for any personal activities
- 72% of desktop/laptop users use a VPN
- 69% use a VPN on mobile devices
- 52% of iOS users
- 37% of Android users
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I didn’t answer Yes to the employer-provided VPN question, because it would distort the survey. The reasons for using an employer-provided VPN are different than a personal VPN. The VPN provider is different. And since the VPN provider is not in the employee’s control, there’s nothing the employee can do about it, even if the VPN company is Chinese.
Yes, It’s hard to believe that individuals are paying $139 and $120 per year for their own VPN service (the undiscounted prices of the current top two services in the survey, NordVPN and ProtonVPN, respectively). I’d think these almost have to be third-party supplied. Both having a 70% off deal for starting a subscription sounds strangely suspicious.
Wish that the normal yearly costs were included with the service names, for better comparison.
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I don’t think so. I you think you have a legitimate need, $10-12 per month seems quite reasonable.
I would be very wary of any services that are dirt-cheap. They are probably making money from ad-insertion or by selling the data that you thought you were hiding from third parties.
Low introductory prices that go up to normal levels after the first renewal is standard industry practice.
ISP’s, streaming services and just about every other service does this. So why not a VPN provider?
Okay, that makes sense. Where I live, cell service is often not good enough to be relied upon in circumstances like you describe…
I use BitDefender VPN Service, but I might go back to Private Relay.