I’ve tried all 3 VPN’s in the past few days and wanted to share my opinions. Specifically over 4 categories. Speed / Price / Port Forward / Split Tunneling
I have 1gb connection and get 800/900 normally on speed tests.
Mullvad
Speed - I normally get 700-800 once configured properly
Port Forward - Obviously the reason I am moving VPNs. They discontinued this.
Split Tunneling - VERY easy. Select App, that’s it.
Price - $5/mo no matter what. Best price I’ve seen honestly.
AirVPN
Speed - I tried all the tricks, talked to their support. I saw 400mb/s once on a close server. Even their 20gb server couldn’t get me above 200
Port Forward - Dynamically assigned static port(doesn’t change)
Split Tunneling - Not easy. I saw several guides walking through how to do it. I am sure it works, but it takes some effort.
Price - $7/mo. Can get cheaper if you purchase for longer.
Proton
Speed - 300-600
Port Forward - Dynamically assigned, changes every time you connect.
Split Tunneling - VERY easy. Select App, that’s it.
Price - $10/mo (There is a deal for 30% off of the monthly sub.)
I’m frustrated with Mullvad’s lack of PF. I’m frustrated with AirVPN’s speed and Split Tunneling. I’m frustrated with Proton’s dynamically ever changing port.
With AirVPN you’re using wireguard protocol right? I regularly max out my 500/500 connection on the servers near me. Does get a little congested during peak times. Normally doesn’t dip below 300 in my experience but your results would probably vary depending on location. Occasionally the servers have issues with packet loss or whatever which is the same with literally every VPN provider I’ve used in the past. Switching servers usually does the trick. Another thing you can try is increasing to decreasing the mtu size, the slower speeds you’re getting might be due to packet loss.
AirVPN is apparently working on implementing app split tunneling soon in their Eddie client so that will be nice. Setting up wiresock for split tunneling is definitely a little more technical to setup but it’s really not that hard and it’s pretty nice once it’s setup. Actually, it has the best split tunneling support I’ve ever seen because it supports adding folders as well as files/programs which is really convenient. As a gamer I can add my steam library folder instead of manually adding each game like most other apps which saves me tons of legwork. The dev for wiresock just fixed a bunch of bugs and made a lot of improvements recently so it’s a really solid solution now for people who don’t mind putting in a little extra effort.
Excuse my ignorance, I’ve been looking for a vpn and saw mullvad looked good here but In moo terms, what does the lack of port forwarding really mean for your average user?
I leave my PC on all the time, so Proton’s dynamic IP for port forwarding is never an issue for me since I just stay connected to the same server. If I was going to turn off my computer each night, I don’t think it would be that big of a deal to manually change it each time I get back on though. And Proton speeds are almost as good as I get without the VPN. Just had to find the right server.
For me AirVPN was just way too complicated when it came to split tunneling. All the guides were half a decade old or more and not user friendly at all. I also wasn’t impressed with torrent speeds either. Between the two it feels like an easy choice to me
try using airvpn with the windscribe client. the client will accept anyone’s wireguard configs without making you sign into a windscribe account. it has good split tunneling and even provisions a local socks5 if you want.
any update? i’m on mac, maybe i’ll just see how bad mullvad is without port forwarding. i’m also wondering if a VPN would help get around my ISP capping video streaming at 3 mbps? lol
I opened this post hoping for good news, sadly this has been what I’ve found as well. Air provides great support when it comes to ports, that’s also the most important feature for me since my torrent server and media server are the same box atm.
Trying to get good VPN speed and ports and how impossible that is at this point I’m going to be setting up a raspberry pi to act as a proxy server. Though honestly even that doesn’t fix the torrent problem and having to chase down ports every time I reconnect doesn’t sound like fun either.
I’m also using a Mac as the server, my understanding is the split tunneling for Air is just as messy on every OS. I also have used it on my Windows laptop and my android phone and the supposed option to split tunnel by app I have yet to find. I’ve had the same speed returns too, it’s 25 to 35 down on a good day, and any server that is in that speed range AND reliable is in Canada.
Mullvad was SO disappointing … I’ll just leave it at that
I like Torguard with PF and $30 a year seems great price (with coupon) though I would have preferred to find a VPN that is based overseas…. I have tried most big names to this date though this is my first VPN that has PF which I need for Plex
An old thread sorry, But I’ve been reading reviews and most say that airvpn doesn’t have wireguard? Is it something that is supported natively now or did you somehow add it yourself?
