Ask HN: What are good VPS options for running private VPNs?

[jayFellows]

Which VPS providers can you suggest that work well for running private VPNs (for proxying internet traffic)?

CRITERIA

- Affordable :: Relatively, at least on par with the better VPN services.. no more than $10-$15/month

- Worry-free bandwidth allowance :: Not necessarily "unlimited" but enough to prevent worrying about running out

- No/Fewest privacy concerns :: Business and server location should NOT be located in a "Five Eyes" country (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, US)

[outsomnia]

"No privacy concerns".... you're dreaming if you think you won't have "privacy concerns" in Russia or whatever. In fact being able to see the endpoint of the traffic you're trying to conceal while having your billing address will put a big target on your head.

[jayFellows → outsomnia]

Good point. Updated the criteria to "no/fewest".

Having anonymous login and crypto as a payment option seems it would go a long way here...

[joey_spaztard]

I see that you operate a movie recommendation website.

Do you want a VPS provider that ignores copyright complaints?

Do you care if the VPS is on the other side of the planet so web browsing through it will add a noticeable amount of lag?

You mention "five eyes", if three letter agencies are your threat model then I think that having much confidence that you are out of their reach requires more effort than a $10 vps. The big cheap VPS companies use the usual big carriers that the USA has power over and probably half the websites you look at are MITMed by cloudflare.

If you prefer to not give a VPS company a real name and address then there are loads that accept cryptocurrency payment, which is a whole different hassle.

For a web browsing VPN I like regvps Switzerland location.

Years ago, for torrenting without copyright complaints I liked xserver.ua using their Ukraine datacenter, they were in an active war zone for a while, I don't know how reliable they are since the Russians invaded.

For web browsing, an option that is less subject to being blocked by lots of websites is Scaleways NAT gateways. Scaleway charge by the hour so spinning up a VPN server just when you need it can be very cheap but it is complicated to use and like AWS it is possible to accidentally run up a huge bill.

[jayFellows → joey_spaztard]

> I see that you operate a movie recommendation website.

> Do you want a VPS provider that ignores copyright complaints?

Yes, familymoviedb.com. It's a side project. Have not had any copyright complaints so far. The question at hand here is completely unrelated...

Essentially just looking to have my own VPN and not have to rely on a VPN-as-a-service (e.g. ExpressVPN, SurfSharkVPN, Mullvad, etc, etc).

Thanks for the recommendations! I've added them to my list of considerations...

[reify]

https://contabo.com/en/vps/

[JSDevOps]

https://lowendtalk.com/discussions

[JSDevOps]

https://www.serverhunter.com/

[JSDevOps]

https://lowendbox.com/