How come TurboVPN can have double the amount of downloads compared to NordVPN and ExpresVPN? ++

Technology@lemmy.world – 113 points – 7 months ago

Disclaimer: I know TurboVPN and the others mentioned are not good services to use, I'm strictly doing research. I'm not looking for VPN recommendations.

Genuinely wondering how these numbers are possible? 300M downloads and 8.35M reviews...? How?! Not even Amazon Shopping app or Disney+ have this many reviews. And surely NordVPN and Express VPN are considerable larger in both users and resources? I've never seen a sponsorship, not even once, from Turbo VPN. Are these numbers regional based? Is Turbo VPN more known in other regions? Is it easy to spoof these numbers?

Appreciate any comments on the matter, and have a nice day 🌻

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What did nordvpn do that makes you hate them?

https://my.nordaccount.com/legal/terms-of-service/ It's only ~ two pages, 19 sections total. you should at least skim over the absolutely no guarantees, no refunds past 30 days, no refunds without needing support to "diagnose" your issue first.

Tickets are 3 day wait times, most of the updates are "do you know your account number" despite being in the ticket. The branded application is insanely unstable, since using ovpn client it's been somewhat stable but the android client causes problems with Bluetooth on my pixel. They built in multiple layers of kill switch automation INTO the product, they can't seem to figure out static ips. Honestly they are just incompetent.

So what I'm reading from your comment is:

They accept refunds even if you were already using the service for up to 30 days
They have support that will help you diagnose issues
They will give you a refund if they can't solve your issue
They usually get back to you within 3 days
You are not locked in to their app and can use other ones if they work better for you

Thanks for the info, I should try them.

If you care about privacy you should use tor/the tor network:

It's free
It can't track you unless someone happens to own your entire route the network, which hopefully isn't happening and would have to a very big actor and would only be a low chance
You can use tor bridges to bypass censorship and detection
You can visit hidden services if you find out their .onion address
You can host hidden services if you find out how to configure tor
You can switch to a VPN if you really want
Has integration into an existing privacy centred browser but can be used with anything that supports sock5 proxies

I run tor nodes. I use VPNs to bypass geoblocks, not for privacy.

Fair enough

Leak your identity twice in 20 days and get denied a refund and get stuck in a multi-year plan. Yup they are great

I thought the main issue with NordVPN was, good luck trying to close your account once you’ve signed up.

I don’t really remember, I use another provider and would avoid NordVPN if only due to their aggressive YouTuber push, they must be a scam!