Obscura
Ranked 11 of 15 VPN services by recommenders
People recommend Obscura for multi-party relays that avoid trusting one provider, seen as better than traditional VPNs. The main caveat: critics call it overkill for simple no-log browsing.
People recommend Obscura for multi-party relays that avoid trusting one provider, seen as better than traditional VPNs. The main caveat: critics call it overkill for simple no-log browsing.
10 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 80%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Multi-party relays avoid single-entity trust
“With Multi-Party Relays you no longer have a trust a single entity not being malicious or compromised.”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Leaving Proton Mail” “Obscura by definition is the same or better than Mullvad because of the multi-party factor.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Mullvad to China: Block This. We Dare You” Seen as better than traditional VPNs
“Obscura by definition is the same or better than Mullvad because of the multi-party factor.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Mullvad to China: Block This. We Dare You” “Nym and Obscura make improvements on the traditional VPN.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2026 in “Ask HN: What has been your favorite VPN provider?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Overkill for simple no-log use
“That's really cool, but perhaps a bit overkill for the typical no-log quick access variant”
Comment from 23 Sep 2026 in “Obscura: VPN that can't log your activity”
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 | — | — |
| ObscuraThis page | 8 | 2 | 80% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
9 of the 10 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Nym and Obscura make improvements on the traditional VPN.”
“That's really cool, but perhaps a bit overkill for the typical no-log quick access variant”
“With Multi-Party Relays you no longer have a trust a single entity not being malicious or compromised.”
“it's a dead end for me and all the others.”
“it's not really implementing the web.”
“It can now take screenshots, stream screencasts, and generate PDFs without Chromium.”
“Obscura by definition is the same or better than Mullvad because of the multi-party factor.”
“obscura could do very well imo”
“I like your inclusion of Obscura.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.