Seeking the most secure and reliable VPN service for all Apple devices

Apple doesn’t have an add-on “coffee shop” VPN product preference here AFAIK, and the immediate path you’re on here is too often filled with sketchy-looking vendors and rife with opportunities for privacy problems and data and metadata reselling. Yes, the privacy product you are asking about is itself too often a privacy problem.

I wouldn’t generally use and wouldn’t generally suggest a “coffee shop” VPN, irrespective of the amount of hype involved. Not outside of uses for geo-shifting for website testing or CDN testing or such, maybe.

What options do you have, then? One very nice option and this for various reasons, and one involving incrementally upgrading your own networking gear into your own Ubiquiti Unifi networking gear, would involve acquiring a Ubiquiti travel router.

There are other travel router options available, including options from GL.iNet and other vendors.

The advantages of travel routers and your own Unifi network gear (and similar gear offerings from select other non-hosted Wi-Fi vendors) is that you control the gear and the servers and the logs, and you also gain remote access into your own network, and the routing happens via your own network and not some other server and other network.

Here is a NAS Compares video review of the Unifi travel router and GL.iNet travel router, to get you started in how the pieces fit together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVID4cM5KFg

For lower-budget approaches for adding a a second and partial tunnel around your existing end-to-end encrypted connections, consider the Algo VPN client and your own hosted VPN server.

The lowest-budget approach is the existing end-to-end tunneling with iCloud+ Private Relay, and you probably already have this available.

If you’re in the US and are considering your own networking gear, there is an import ban on new consumer router designs recently promulgated, and how that import ban will work is not yet entirely clear. Existing imported router designs and new router designs originating from within the US can be FCC-approved and then sold, but things here are going to be “interesting” for a while.

Got questions? Ask.

NO, there is not an Apple preferred VPN and you should be wary of any you choose. Personally, I would recommend to NEVER use one unless required by an Employer or School where they will give you the settings to use for a specific VPN for the exact tunneling expected when accessing their servers. Also, I would recommend to go a step further and never use a public WiFi if you are planning on using any personal information or accessing your bank, even if you are using a VPN. You are better off using your Phone's personal hotspot for internet access on your Mac. Instead of relying on my personal recommendation, here is more information that should be considered.

• https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29
• https://overengineer.dev/blog/2019/04/08/very-precarious-narrative/
• VPN: What you need to know - Apple Community

The closest you will get to an Apple approved VPN is iCloud Private Relay and is included with any iCloud+ subscription. The cost is as little as 99 cents/month where you also get 50GB of syncing storage and other features such as Hide My Email to protect your personal email address from spam messages when you sign up for a services with another company.

About iCloud Private Relay - Apple Support

Cynthia ~ Consider Proton VPN.

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XXX VPN runs their business and VPN out of Switzerland.  Swiss privacy laws are very strict and they comply with all of them.  XXX VPN is open source with security features to keep you secure.  They have a no-logs policy.  They are independently audited.  I know all this because I just read a post on website I've never visited before by someone I don't know who quoted a couple of other people I don't know.  

Online reviews can only address the user experience - ease of use, speed, cost, etc.  No normal user can ever know whether or not the VPN is keeping logs, saving history, fingerprinting and/or tracking you by your usage, selling your history to the highest bidder, etc.  

Another view 

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

I can think of three reasons for using a VPN.

Your company or school or other establishment requires it and they set it all up for you with their own IT and app.

You want to bypass geographic content-blocks - i.e. your country doesn't allow access to a website so you want to spoof your location.

Keeping secure when using WiFi - BUT - the security problems associated with public WiFi have evolved to VPNs. There are recorded cases of paid-for VPNs with names you'd probably recognize being caught selling customer details (email addresses and sites visited) and also not erasing histories as promised. I think you're in the hands of the gods when choosing a VPN. Most responses here will be along the lines of "don't use a VPN because you can't trust them". The blurb on all their websites will promise stuff but, unless they are caught and publicly reported, you can/will never know if they keep their promises.

Zurarczurx wrote:

…Swiss privacy laws are very strict and they comply with all of them…

Might want to monitor those laws too, as there are proposed metadata retention rules changes being discussed in recent times. And the Swiss privacy laws for citizens can differ for citizens and non-citizens.