What is the best VPN for privacy?
Mullvad is the privacy champion: no account, no email address, cash payments accepted, and a no-compromise no-logs setup. Proton VPN is the strong alternative with open source apps and Swiss jurisdiction, and hide.me the underrated third option.
If privacy is your main reason for a VPN, your checklist differs from a streamer's. It comes down to how little the provider knows about you, whether the no-logs policy has been externally audited, and which legal jurisdiction the company answers to. On all three, Mullvad is the most radical: you get a randomly generated account number instead of an account, payments can be anonymous, and the flat five-euro monthly price has no teaser games attached.
Proton VPN is the pick for privacy without sacrificing daily convenience. Swiss jurisdiction, fully open source apps, an audited no-logs policy, and the only serious free plan without a data cap. Streaming and high speeds work fine on the paid tier, something Mullvad deliberately does not chase.
hide.me deserves an honorable mention: demonstrably no logs and a ten-gigabyte free plan that does not ask for a profile's worth of personal data. Whichever you pick, the biggest privacy win is turning it on and leaving it on.