VPN recommendations

I've been thinking for quite sometime about getting a VPN & now with Net Neutrality officially repealed as of yesterday, it seems that now is the time. However, I have zero experience with them. A quick search reveals quite a range in prices, from as low $2/ mo. to $10 / month.

I really don't do anything particularly nefarious online, but added privacy and cybersecurity is always a plus.

So anyone have any experience with VPNs and can recommend what I should choose / avoid?

The main thing to remember with VPNs is that you still have to trust in the provider, as they could monitor your traffic if they wished. We can go on reputation and stated policies, but trust is still required.

I use AirVPN. They state that they don't retain any logs of activity, and they seem to know what they're doing, technically. One account gives you three simultaneous logins, so you can cover your phone etc. They have their own client software which makes things easy, or you can set it up your own way.

They also have advanced options like SSL tunneling, so your traffic is indistinguishable from SSL web traffic, and so can bypass VPN throttling.

I also use a router which can make a connection to the VPN, and route all household traffic through it, which makes things simpler and more reliable.

Ah, yeah I would prefer to simplify the process. However, currently I have a modem / router hybrid that I rent from my ISP. Can I even connect to a VPN with that or would I need to buy my own router?

It depends on the model and its features, but I don't think many of the ISP provided routers would do it. It tends to be the better ones you buy yourself that would have it. I know many of the Asus ones do.

Well there's really only three devices I'd want to connect to the VPN. My PC, my wife's PC, and our Raspberry Pi.

I have a tablet with wifi but only use that occasionally.

You'll probably be fine just installing the client on each device. It's very simple - once you have an account, you just put your login details into the client, and it takes care of the rest. Also, I see they've upped it to 5 connections per account, so you could do the tablet, too. That needs a bit more manual faffing around, though.

Not sure how performance will be with the encryption running on a Pi, but give it a go.

Pick any crappy freebie VPN with restricted amount of data montly for starters so you can experiment for a day or two and see how it works. Tunnelbear comes in mind.

When you're done with that rubbish, get some proper paid VPN.
Ripper's AirVPN is good.
Other good ones? Here:
https://www.privacytools.io/

Need more details about each and every one of them? Sure:
https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/

TunnelBear. it has 500MB free traffic each month. Or you can set up an VPS with shadowsocks.

I agree with tzinebh, tunnelbear has been the most reliable VPN for me. If you tweet from the app then you can get 1GB data free per month I guess. Do give it a try.

Unless you love torrenting, in that case Tunnelbear won’t work for you.

If you use a VPN also for privacy, you might also look into what they do with your data.
Here is an overview related to privacy for VPNs: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-chart/
They have a more thorough overview as well.

It may be a little late to respond, but it's better to share your thought than keep it to yourself. I am a user of Ivacy VPN, the fastest VPN I have come across. I have used ProtonVPN and a few others in the past, but the experience with Ivacy is on a different level. No lag, fastest connectivity, unlock features, accessibility, simple user interface, simultaneous connections, remote availability, supports advanced features, kill switch, etc. It offers a lot of them, but I can't list them all here. I would recommend you to look at more details about ivacy vpn here https://www.reviewsed.com/ivacy-vpn-review/ for a better understanding of its features and pricing plan. So, yes, my vote is for Ivacy VPN. Attempt.