on the surface they do a lot right. warrant canary, no logs, solid infrastructure, profitable.

for me, i really don’t like the weird ways that they market. super misleading to imply that they make a person “anonymous” and/or greatly improve your privacy beyond you sending them your information instead of your isp. i also really dont like the lack of transparency, particularly with closed-source clients. i also really don’t like the number of controversies that nord has been in, even insofar as getting hacked. i don’t want my vpn provider to have any, let alone quite a few, of these controversies.

in terms of the model, proton is transitioning to a non-profit which reinforces why they are so well-regarded by the community. long history of doing right by consumers, where it matters most.