From provider claims to comparable evidence.
VPN Advisor is building a versioned research program for people who need to understand what a VPN provider documents, what independent records actually cover and what still needs verification.
Evidence ledger
Each future index row will connect a claim to its source, date, scope and confidence instead of hiding the trail behind a single score.
Reproducible checks
Browser and connection diagnostics will document the test conditions and limitations. A reader-run signal will never be presented as a provider-wide verdict.
Citation-ready output
Reports will include stable URLs, downloadable data, a data dictionary and a changelog so journalists, researchers and readers can verify the work.
The first index
VPN Transparency Index 2026
The first edition will begin with a focused group of major providers. Depth comes before volume: a smaller set of well-documented records is more useful than a large directory with generic or untraceable claims.
| Research dimension | What the record will show |
|---|---|
| Privacy and logging | What the policy says, what data it covers and which questions remain open. |
| Audit evidence | Auditor, publication date, scope, exclusions and whether the report is still current. |
| Jurisdiction and ownership | Legal entity, operating jurisdiction and publicly documented ownership signals. |
| Security features | Protocols, kill switch, open-source components and the provider's technical documentation. |
| Transparency | Security disclosures, transparency reports, warrant canaries and material changes. |
| Price and terms | Introductory price, renewal terms, refund window and currency or tax notes. |
Publication standard
How we publish evidence
The research desk follows the same principle as the provider profiles: show the source, classify the information, disclose uncertainty and never present an unrun test as a completed test.
- Every material claim gets a source URL and a source or verification date.
- Provider statements, independent records and our own measurements are labelled separately.
- Audit reports are described by scope; an audit is never treated as a blanket security certification.
- Uncertainty, missing evidence and test limitations remain visible in the published record.
- Each edition gets a changelog so readers can see what changed and why.
Start with the evidence you can inspect today
Our live tools describe the current browser or connection context. The methodology explains how provider information is classified; the research desk will add versioned, citable datasets as each edition is completed.