Amnezia VPN
Shares rank 14 of 15 VPN services by recommenders
Free app that sets up a self-hosted VPN on a rented server from your phone. Critics say its setup wizard overwrites server settings and hides steps.
Free app that sets up a self-hosted VPN on a rented server from your phone. Critics say its setup wizard overwrites server settings and hides steps.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works reliably for users
“worked for me during my last visit too”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Traffic from Russia to Cloudflare is 60% down from last year” “works well with a self-hosted server”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Traffic from Russia to Cloudflare is 60% down from last year” Sets up VPS from phone
“It's an app that helps you buy a VPS from a range of cloud provides, then sets it up, completely from the phone, as an exit node under user control.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Discord/Twitch/Snapchat age verification bypass” “This something your slightly technical parents/friends can run to re-gain access to YouTube, Instagram or Telegram calls.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Amnezia – Self-Hosted VPN”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Opaque setup, hidden commands
“Although their setup is kinda wacky (you provide their GUI app SSH credentials, it connects and installs packages, set up firewall rules, and spawns some containers)”
Comment from 23 Dec 2025 in “Amnezia – Self-Hosted VPN” “they don't provide transparent setup commands or server source code on their github”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Amnezia – Self-Hosted VPN”
Other VPN services people recommend
The four most recommended other VPN services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mullvad VPN | 255 | 146 | 64% | 12 | 4.5 yrs4 owners | — |
| Proton VPN | 63 | 35 | 64% | 13 | 3 yrs4 owners | — |
| iCloud Private Relay | 26 | 20 | 57% | 11 | — | — |
| Cloudflare WARP | 18 | 10 | 64% | 7 | — | — |
| Amnezia VPNThis page | 5 | 3 | 63% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 9 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“works well with a self-hosted server”
“amnezia and vxray get disrupted frequently, requiring hopping around self hosted solutions and updating ones setup periodically”
“worked for me during my last visit too”
“It's an app that helps you buy a VPS from a range of cloud provides, then sets it up, completely from the phone, as an exit node under user control.”
“This something your slightly technical parents/friends can run to re-gain access to YouTube, Instagram or Telegram calls.”
“they don't provide transparent setup commands or server source code on their github”
“I strongly disliked the "wizard" interface, and it clobbered a good amount of the baseline settings I deploy to servers”
“Although their setup is kinda wacky (you provide their GUI app SSH credentials, it connects and installs packages, set up firewall rules, and spawns some containers)”
“A deeply frustrating software, the UI is buggy and hides a lot of things.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.