From provider claims to comparable evidence.
VPN Advisor is building a versioned source register for people who need to understand what a VPN provider documents, what independent records actually cover and what still needs verification.
Evidence ledger
The first working register is live today: it separates dated source checks, provider-reported claims and evidence gaps instead of hiding the trail behind a single score.
Reader-run diagnostics
Browser and connection diagnostics document the current session and their limitations. A reader-run signal is never presented as a provider-wide verdict.
Citation-ready output
The ledger provides a stable, citable URL and a visible change path. Machine-readable provider, question and source records are available through the public research APIs; a data dictionary and versioned download bundle are next.
The first index
VPN Transparency Index 2026
The working edition starts with 30 visible records: 10 detailed profiles and selected market references. Depth comes before volume: a smaller set of well-documented records is more useful than a large directory with generic or untraceable claims.
30
visible provider records
10
records with dated pricing checks
5
audit records with dedicated links
168
canonical field records
13
verified or partially verified records
110
canonical records needing review
Evidence coverage by field
Coverage shows how many of the seven tracked providers have a current structured value. It is a collection priority signal, not a safety score or provider ranking.
| Field | Coverage | Source linked | Verified or partial | Needs review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audit details | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Court or legal evidence | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| IKEv2 | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Kill switch | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| OpenVPN | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Ownership | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Privacy policy | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Supported platforms | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Terms | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Warrant canary | 0/7 (0%) | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Free plan | 1/7 (14%) | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| RAM-only servers | 1/7 (14%) | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Supported protocols | 1/7 (14%) | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| WireGuard | 1/7 (14%) | 1 | 0 | 6 |
| Open-source apps | 3/7 (43%) | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Independent no-logs audit | 4/7 (57%) | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Pricing reference | 4/7 (57%) | 7 | 0 | 3 |
| Transparency reports | 4/7 (57%) | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| Independent security audit | 5/7 (71%) | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Refund period | 6/7 (86%) | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| Jurisdiction | 7/7 (100%) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| No-logs policy | 7/7 (100%) | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Server / network claims | 7/7 (100%) | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Simultaneous devices | 7/7 (100%) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Information 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. |
New research layer
Browse the same evidence in several useful views
Provider profiles, question pages, source records and changes all read from the canonical dataset. This keeps visible answers and machine-readable outputs aligned.
Provider evidence profiles
Field-level records for the initial seven-provider set.
Open sectionResearch questions
Concise answers generated from canonical fields, with caveats and sources.
Open sectionSource registry and changes
Original URLs, check states and a reviewable change-log foundation.
Open sectionAI Citation Watch
A fixed benchmark for measuring whether independent AI answers can discover and cite the source desk.
Open sectionCurrent working record
What the source desk records
The source desk is a working information register. It shows the source and evidence limits where the record has them; it does not claim that every provider or every article has been checked to the same depth.
- The ledger records source links, dates and evidence gaps where those fields are available.
- Provider statements, independent records and reader-run diagnostics are kept separate in the working dataset.
- Audit reports are described by scope; an audit is never treated as a blanket security certification.
- Uncertainty, missing evidence and test limitations are not silently converted into certainty.
- The research section is a working record, not a certification or a guarantee that every site page has the same coverage.
Start with the evidence you can inspect today
Our live tools describe the current browser or connection context. The sources-and-limits page explains how to read the records; the evidence ledger is a working dataset that is incomplete and may need further checking.