iCloud Private Relay
Ranked 3 of 15 VPN services by recommenders
A two-hop relay that people say keeps neither Apple nor the exit node knowing both who you are and what you visit, and that many sites accept. Main caveat: it mostly works only in Safari.
A two-hop relay that people say keeps neither Apple nor the exit node knowing both who you are and what you visit, and that many sites accept. Main caveat: it mostly works only in Safari.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 20
- approval share
- 57%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, 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
Splits trust between Apple and exit node
“neither Apple nor the exit node (Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly) are supposed to know both who you are and what you’re doing.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com” “neither party involved gets to be able to track the user, says Apple”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did” “It uses a 2-hop architecture so it's probably more private than any single-hop VPN.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Confirms Windows GDID Device Identifier That Cannot Be Disabled” - Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Obscura: VPN that can't log your activity”
Sites accept it more than VPNs
“Apple private relay is very flawed but on the other hand most sites that view connections originating from VPN as suspicious seem to be ok with Apple Private Relay”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “IP and DNS Leaks in WebKit Affecting Proxy Browsers and iCloud Private Relay” “Thankfully almost nobody has ever blocked Apple's VPN, so I never have to turn it off.”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “A web page that shows you everything the browser told it without asking” “many websites block all VPN except iCloud Private Relay”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com” - Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “The Safari MCP server for web developers”
More private than typical VPNs
“It uses a 2-hop architecture so it's probably more private than any single-hop VPN.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Confirms Windows GDID Device Identifier That Cannot Be Disabled” “much more privacy preserving than most VPNs”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “SoundCloud has banned VPN access” Easy and seamless to use
“make it EASY and SEAMLESS to use. No other company comes close.”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Apple Platform Security (Jan 2026) [pdf]” “I much prefer modern browser-centric solutions like iCloud Relay over VPNs”
Comment from 21 Mar 2026 in “Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Only works well in Safari
“Tradeoff is that it seems to be a browser only thing.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “SoundCloud has banned VPN access” “It's a very limited VPN as it only works for Safari/Mail and only anonymizes you to your region/country.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in “SoundCloud has banned VPN access” “iCloud Private Relay for all apps (why only Safari?! and Mail and HTTP) as a start”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Loupe – A iOS app that raises awareness about what native apps can see” - Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “Donation Controversy”
- Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Google Has Removed MV2 Extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Including UBO”
- Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “LittleSnitch for Linux”
Breaks sites; often must be disabled
“Sometimes I need to disable private relay to get it to work with all the switchovers.”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “How London cracked mobile phone coverage on the Underground” “I can never edit Wikipedia when I have private relay enabled unfortunately”
Comment from 1 Feb 2026 in “Wikipedia: Sandbox” “I love iCloud private relay, but I need a way to turn it off.”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “IP and DNS Leaks in WebKit Affecting Proxy Browsers and iCloud Private Relay” - Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “macOS 27 Golden Gate – Review”
Apple still learns sites visited
“with the icloud "privacy" proxy they default enable on macos/ios users to slurp everything they do”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did” “that shifts the trust even moreso onto Apple, and now they know every site you visit”
Comment from 4 Oct 2026 in “Cloudflare OHTTP gateway” “More concerning is that they're plugging private access tokens there, which allows Apple to vouch that you're a human running their hardware.”
Comment from 3 Jul 2026 in “The Safari MCP server for web developers” Triggers Cloudflare challenges
“the amount of Cloudflare challenges I get is really annoying”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits” “I can often stuck in tarpits on Safari for iOS with Wipr and iCloud Private Relay.”
Comment from 8 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Are others seeing Google's reCAPTCHA rejecting Firefox users?”
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 RelayThis page | 26 | 20 | 57% | 11 | — | — |
| Cloudflare WARP | 18 | 10 | 64% | 7 | — | — |
| Firefox VPN | 16 | 22 | 42% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 55 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Best is still the apple privacy proxy.”
“that shifts the trust even moreso onto Apple, and now they know every site you visit”
“the guarantees are cryptographic in nature and not merely based on promises”
“like Apple's Private Relay, but I really don't think they are comparable”
“maybe your network issues could be related to iCloud relay? I've had similar issues”
“I can often stuck in tarpits on Safari for iOS with Wipr and iCloud Private Relay.”
“perhaps my fault for using iCloud Private Relay like I bet scrapers sometimes abuse”
“Orion, I guess, but it's not good enough to offset Safari's iCloud Private Relay.”
“it doesn't let you single out privacy conscious users!”
“neither Apple nor the exit node (Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly) are supposed to know both who you are and what you’re doing.”
“It's meant to protect you only until you get to a major carriers infrastructure.”
“many websites block all VPN except iCloud Private Relay”
“neither party involved gets to be able to track the user, says Apple”
“with the icloud "privacy" proxy they default enable on macos/ios users to slurp everything they do”
“Apple private relay is very flawed but on the other hand most sites that view connections originating from VPN as suspicious seem to be ok with Apple Private Relay”
“I love iCloud private relay, but I need a way to turn it off.”
“Similar with iCloud Private Relay but that's only for Safari which is inadequate.”
“It uses a 2-hop architecture so it's probably more private than any single-hop VPN.”
“More concerning is that they're plugging private access tokens there, which allows Apple to vouch that you're a human running their hardware.”
“Private Relay is great for getting around scraping blocks because they explicitly whitelist apple private Relay ips.”
“which I quite appreciate actually”
“has done more in just a few years than Tor ever has”
“iCloud Private Relay for all apps (why only Safari?! and Mail and HTTP) as a start”
“They pioneered things like iCloud Private Relay and privacy protecting cloud backups for devices.”
“Use safari on private relay in private mode.”
“Thankfully almost nobody has ever blocked Apple's VPN, so I never have to turn it off.”
“Other things that genuinely help: Apple private relay.”
“iCloud Private Relay (native VPN-like thing)”
“They are still restricting iCloud Private Relay to Safari for the most part.”
“use their Apple-VPN service (forget what its called) - which exists _literally_ for this”
“I much prefer modern browser-centric solutions like iCloud Relay over VPNs”
“iPhone with private relay seems to defeat that”
“I can never edit Wikipedia when I have private relay enabled unfortunately”
“make it EASY and SEAMLESS to use. No other company comes close.”
“Sometimes I need to disable private relay to get it to work with all the switchovers.”
“much more privacy preserving than most VPNs”
“Tradeoff is that it seems to be a browser only thing.”
“It's a very limited VPN as it only works for Safari/Mail and only anonymizes you to your region/country.”
“the amount of Cloudflare challenges I get is really annoying”
“You can use features like ICloud private relay to prevent IP tracking.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.