I've heard a lot about AirVPN, but it doesn't have an app on Fdroid or anything. Yes you can download it directly from their site, but that is a little cumbersome.

Another option I'm considering is Windscribe.One major knock against it (and the same thing for AirVPN) is that htere is no tutorial available for installing the wireguard version on openwrt.

I really don't know enough about these. Windscribe has been sort of tested in court (again that was in Greece, and they don't have the same might of an authoritarian state as the US or some place), so that's a plus.

I don't know, I'm so confused that it sort of makes sense to stick with Mullvad at times.

I've seen IVPN recommended a lot compared to Mullvad but I have no experience with it personally

Highly recommend AirVPN. The Eddie App is perfectly fine.

ivpn is worth a look

Why would you migrate from Mullvad?

There's Proton, but given the controversy... yeah (though I did look at what they donate to and it seems to not be right-wing companies).

IVPN is perhaps your best bet.

The CEO donated money to a Swedish party that is for remigration/deportation.

I’ve been using IVPN for a few months and I’m happy with it. Was on mullvad before.

OpenVPN on a VPS from Njalla paid for in Monero

I'm not being silly (other than that I'm a freakin' tinfoil hat compared to most people)

This is my actual setup.

Depends on your reason for using a VPN. Presumably your Njalla VPS has a static IP address. I like being able to rotate servers if one is being blocked by a given service (ie YouTube).

Why OpenVPN and not something like wg out of interest?

Seconding electric nan's comment. There is a valid use case for that model IMO, but it also ties your identity to a different fixed IP. Maybe if you were PERFECT about opsec it wouldn't tie to your ID, but in practice nobody is going to be. That's nearly impossible in today's tracking centric world. So data brokers will learn user X has IP Y, nobody else uses that IP, so other connections from IP Y are probably user X too.

There's a benefit to sharing an IP with many other ppl and rotating the IP around. There are drawbacks too ofc.

IVPN is very good imo, I'm using it, and I love it

I'm looking to switch to Windscribe.

Why should I migrate from a trusted vendor?

Co-founder donated huge sums to extreme right party.

I've heard a lot about AirVPN, but it doesn’t have an app on Fdroid or anything. Yes you can download it directly from their site, but that is a little cumbersome.

Consider using Obtainium. It might be a little cumbersome to get it set up, but once you do, Obtainium will handle checking for and installing updates whenever they are released.

Install Obtainium from GitHub or F-Droid. Then you can add Eddie (the AirVPN client app) by using the install button on this page:
https://apps.obtainium.imranr.dev/apps?categoryMode=inclusive&category=vpn&sort=popular&q=Eddie

I am aware of https://mullvad.net/en/blog/donation-controversy and https://dberntsson.info/2026/07/20/orebropartiet/ and

• extreme right wing moniker seems a smear campaign against Örebro

• the company has nothing to do with private affairs of the founder

This whole campaign smells of something intelligence services would do if they're facing a problem they can't make go away another way. And it is actually working because of people like you, who amplify this attack.

So you are making that speculation purely on vibes without any sort of backing information?

It definitely is an extreme right party, and the founder's riches are a direct result of the company's success.

So you are attacking my character rather than correcting me? That doesn't work. Please provide your backing information.

I am going to look into the party, and simply because I might move to rural Sweden when I retire. But that's entirely othogonal to Mullvad.

Wait what lmao? Do you know how claiming things work? You made a claim now back it up. I don't have to prove the opposite, that's not how any of this works.

the company has nothing to do with private affairs of the founder

They give him money. He uses that money for bad.

Air is my go to piracy vpn. Their app is garbage, use the config file generator instead. Air is my go to piracy VPN because it is a piracy vpn service. I would not use them as a shield from any sort of serious threat.

I use windscribe for stuff that doesn’t matter like bypassing geoblocks. I don’t trust them, their abilities or my ability to limit my own exposure to their malice, compliance or incompetence. It’s a confusing service.

People are suggesting ivpn and I have used it. It’s a downgrade from mullvad in every way but it might be safe. I can’t say because it hasn’t been tested in the same way.

I use mullvad when it actually matters. It’s really hard to screw up and they have the best app of any vpn service I’ve ever used.

There are a lot of people saying why they would want to move away from mullvad, why do you? What devices and operating systems do you use it on? How do you pay?

airvpn and ivpn appear to be the only ethical ones.

The recent issue with one of Mullvad's founders/co-owners is very well known.

https://lemmy.zip/post/68295409

https://lemmy.zip/post/67067247

We know where you stand.

proton is privacy greenwashing

Last I looked the eddie app didn't even have split tunneling?

people on their reddit frequently recommend against using eddie too

Because I set it up like 5 ywars ago as a pandemic project and that was the top option from my searches

Again, it's fine - not the bees knees. You can exclude local networks from the VPN. If there is another VPN/Wireguard app that does app based split tunnelling or whatever you're looking for just use that with AirVPN instead of Eddie.

Maybe WGTunnel? Haven't tried it myself.

obscura?

airvpn can fix their software if they want my money.

mullvad has good software and the browser extension, which together makes a very usable system. Unfortunately they completely failed ethically.

It shouldn't be too much to ask for decent software and ethics.

Oh, so you can join it huh?

I know you mentioned AirVPN only having an app on their website, but you can use it with the wireguard client (you just have to make the conf file names short enough and remove special characters to import them). This is how I personally use AirVPN on Android.

Agreed. These are the only real options at present.

I switched to Xeovo, works great so far. Winscribe was a no after this: https://x.com/Windscribe/status/1991176084662964688

How so? i know only about the CEO saying stupid things. But the technical aide?

Repeated misleading marketing on both their social medias and websites such as the false "no-log" claim that got someone arrested

Completely agree most people have recommended proton and perhaps wind scribe. But something people tend to miss is proton, mullvad & others tend to use rented vps servers. Ivpn claims they own all of their servers hands down. If that is the case and you may need to look into this then go with them.

Interesting. I'll read up in that.

Also: check your permissions to prevent possible rights escalations. (And yes, I know that it relies more on the sudoers file but I am sure there is some attack surface there ...)

Obtainium is annoying a lot though, its probably not a fault of theirs necessarily but there is so often failure due to locating an installable build from a repo link

They are nationalist racists trying to cloak themselves with populist leftist ideas. This is the leader of that party:

https://www.friatider.se/markus-allard-om-andra-generationens-invandrare-de-ska-ocksa-ut

Örebro Party leader Markus Allard goes to the election on expulsions. He opens to withdraw citizenship and also expel second generation of immigrants – even if they were born in Sweden.
"I'm prepared to cross corpses," he said.

One suggestion that he has is that citizenship and permanent residence permits can be torn up – with reference to "Sweden is the country of Swedes".

In a section of Yoshi's Podcast, Allard develops his view on expulsions and explains that he prepared to "go over corpses" to bring home unwanted immigrants. The host notes that there will be no beautiful sight when, for example, immigrant mothers who have been on maternity leave for 15 years are to be deported together with their children. "It's not going to be pretty to send these people home," he said. Markus Allard agrees, but says: I think you can handle that optics. Even the children will need to be deported, he explains.

He further explains that many of the problems relate to second-generation immigrants. They are going out too. Even if they were born in Sweden, because they have no natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedes. They have not become Swedes. It says Sweden in the passport, but they have not been interested in becoming part of Sweden. There's a difference. It's a qualitative difference," Allard said

Remember; the Nazi's did the same thing by strategically calling their party the National Socialist German Workers' Party, despite them not being socialist nor a working class party. This was chosen because Socialism was gaining popularity, and thus the Nazi's thought it would help their chances of getting votes and public support.

One of the owners of Mullvad donated a vast sum of money to a Swedish Nazi political party, accounting for 70% of their funding, which resulted in boosted popularity there.

This is the leader of that political party:

https://www.friatider.se/markus-allard-om-andra-generationens-invandrare-de-ska-ocksa-ut

Örebro Party leader Markus Allard goes to the election on expulsions. He opens to withdraw citizenship and also expel second generation of immigrants – even if they were born in Sweden.
"I'm prepared to cross corpses," he said.

One suggestion that he has is that citizenship and permanent residence permits can be torn up – with reference to "Sweden is the country of Swedes".

In a section of Yoshi's Podcast, Allard develops his view on expulsions and explains that he prepared to "go over corpses" to bring home unwanted immigrants. The host notes that there will be no beautiful sight when, for example, immigrant mothers who have been on maternity leave for 15 years are to be deported together with their children. "It's not going to be pretty to send these people home," he said. Markus Allard agrees, but says: I think you can handle that optics. Even the children will need to be deported, he explains.

He further explains that many of the problems relate to second-generation immigrants. They are going out too. Even if they were born in Sweden, because they have no natural connection to Sweden. They are not Swedes. They have not become Swedes. It says Sweden in the passport, but they have not been interested in becoming part of Sweden. There's a difference. It's a qualitative difference," Allard said.

Yeah IRL for most things I actually use a separate account not in the "wheel" group that doesn't have sudo access and use a Nix module that locks down directory permissions lol

What? It fails because it locates an app to install?

That's how I do it. I use WG Tunnel (on FDroid), make the conf on the website, rename it to something short ('airvpn' for example) and import it. I only connect to one server though (Azelfafage), so I have no clue how it behaves with multiple exit nodes...

Hope this helps OP!

I believe mullvad owns most of their servers. Ivpn does not claim to own their servers.

Not sure if linking is allowed but if you go to IVPN's server status page, they have a quick faq at the bottom where they mention they rent from datacenter partners.

Yeah I would try to install from their git as much as possible but it is very inconsistent. Nothing found or no installable build found, so have to hope they are on fdroid.

proton are an ai company, and an email provider. do the math there.

I had a 2 year subscription with them, using their vpn and email. I stopped using them after approx 6 months of product use, customer support, and paying attention to their social media manipulation, and repeated lack of attention to product quality. Throwing away the other 18 months of subscription.

They are a very dodgy company, trying to be the next google, which is ironic considering how many canadian patriots are now heading there due to trump/google.

Their brand is very popular with their zombie fans who struggle to think, but are very quick with upvotes, and downvotes.