Need a new VPN service

VPN.ac has really gone down the toilet lately. When I first signed up, connections were fast and reliable, and the customer service would have my questions answered within hours. Now I'm seeing the exact opposite. I'm now seeing download speeds that are half of what my Internet connection is rated at, and my latest support inquiry has gone two days with nary a peep.

I've been investigating other avenues but would like to solicit feedback from here. Non-negotiable requirements are:

• Speed
• Stability
• Availability of a browser extension
• Responsive customer service/support

Things that would be nice but are not absolutely necessary:

• P2P compatibility
• No logs
• Not based in the US or other member of the 5/9/14 Eyes consortium
• Accepts alternate methods of payment (crypto, gift cards, etc)
• Availability of a lifetime subscription

Based on my research, NordVPN and ExpressVPN are the leading candidates, but I'm happy to entertain more ideas.

 

I use NordVPN but only because my friend lets me use it. He likes it as well but doesnt like the lack of region control vs simple country locations.

We've also both used PIA and he prefers to use that one and I also didnt have any issues with it when I had my subscription but if hes letting me use his Nord for free then Im not paying for another sub lol.

 

NordVPN is a good choice, i wouldve gone for them if it wasnt for the fact that i prefer low monthly based payments over paying for years in advance, so my choice fell to PIA (yeah i know, theyre US based, but so far all is well!)

 

Same here, VPN.AC turned from the best VPN to the worst. Support is non-existent and I can rarely ever connect successfully and most of the time even if I am connected, there would be no internet connectivity.

I use Hide.ME. Instant support and works super duper fast with a 0 logging policy

I have the premium plan which allows me to connect upto 5 devices simultaneously, you setup a different username for each device:

Example:

Main Account: snappyphoenix
2nd: snappyphoenix@mobile
3rd: snappyphoenix@tablet
4th: snappyphoenix@mom

etc.

 

Unfortunately that service doesn't offer a browser extension.

I'm going to try NordVPN. They sell pre-paid subscriptions at places like Best Buy, MicroCenter, and Fry's, and they seem to have all the other features I'm looking for.

 

I have been happy with NORDVPN so far. I set up our ASUS router to use it, so all of our home devices are protected. This does cost some speed - not an issue for IPADS and mobile devices. I use the standalone version on my laptop and connect via the ATT router - this is definitely faster.
Best,
Joe

 

Maybe I'm lucky - but no problems with VPN.ac whatsoever.

 

Then ExpressVPN is awesome as well and it does have a browser extension. I just bought a one month subscription to test it which allows you to install it on 3 different devices and use it at the same time for 12 bucks. The speeds are insanely fast.

 

The fact that ExpressVPN only allows 3 connections per account is what ultimately removed them from consideration.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

You need more than 3 connections simultaneously?

 

If I'm sharing with my family, yes.

 

Most do, no? Even 5 device limit per person is somewhat tight - while 3 devices is simply not enough.

 

I've been playing around with services the past couple days, and I hate to admit it, but VPN.ac continues to provide the best all-around performance. The company did eventually respond to my support ticket. I'm still not pleased that it took 3 days, but the response was actually helpful.

NordVPN was OK. I had some performance issues until I mucked about with changing some DNS settings. Neither their desktop nor iOS client is as sleek as VPN.ac's.

I even signed up for ExpressVPN, and their speeds were absolutely abysmal, particularly on iOS. I've requested a refund on that.

 

I've been using vpn.ac for a while now as well (on a 100/10 connection). My router is a running a VPN client co all devices are using VPN without the need for an external applications (I do keep them installed off course for use outside of my LAN).

I get max speed pretty much all of the time and no downtime at all - or at least I haven't noticed any.
If they continue like this I'm gonna happily re-new for another year.

 

It's funny because shortly before I posted my reply above, I submitted another ticket for an issue not related to the reason I started this thread, and I just now received an answer. Maybe they were short staffed at the time, or they had to have most hands on deck for a round of server deployments because several new connection options have popped up recently.

 

So Hide.me released a Chrome browser extension. I checked it out, and it's quite limited. It only offers three servers, none of which are in the US. There's no way to log in with your premium account credentials to unlock access to all of them. I'm also not crazy about the fact that you need to create individual logins for all the devices you want to use, and their iOS app feels a bit crudely done. Hide.me is stupidly fast, I'll give them that, but the other compromises are not worth the fact that the service costs more than twice as much as VPN.ac. I've requested a refund of this one, too.

 

I use nord, mainly because it works with netflix and cable/sat provider apps. They regularly have a 3 year deal that's absurdly cheap (it shows up as a little popup box on their site) that was just too good to turn down. Their generally good reputation for privacy helps too.

 

TorGuard has a deal where you get a week's free trial if you send them a copy of your current VPN provider's bill. I did that, and so far I'm really impressed. Speeds are fantastic, the Chrome extension seems to work well, and you can purchase a dedicated residential IP address, which would be great for streaming, etc.