I came across this wild list of VPNs that one of our competitors recognizes. There were 591 services listed there. I thought 591 was an absurd number.
Regardless of their “disclaimer,” this is a list nonetheless and it is published on the website. In a case where a user or developer compares us to them, they could point to this provider and say they recognize so many providers - why don’t you do that?
So, let’s take a look…
The spreadsheet
It will take me a while to fill up but starting of these is not very promising…
I will be using Google for this spotcheck.
Exists
With double quotes, I will look for the name of the VPN service. If their website exists and has a functional download or pricing button, I will consider them as existing.
This service exists
Another criteria is that the word VPN or vpn must appear in their official website.
For example: https://www.24shells.net/ exists as a hosting provider but they do not provide VPN service.
https://7proxies.com/ does not exists as their website is non-functional.
http://1337vpn.com/ does not exists as it points to a parked domain.
Exists on their service
Exists on their service will also use Google’s query
If any page other then their “VPN Coverage” page indicates the existence of the service that would indicate the service exists on their website.
For example, 7Proxies does not have a functional website but they point an IP address to be using this service.
Legit?
It is an AND column that combines both “Exists” and “Exists on their service” values. If both are TRUE then it is TRUE and if anyone of them as is FALSE then it is FALSE.
Result
I checked the first 10 services only 2 services are categorized as Legit.
Let me know if you want me to go through the rest of the 580 services…
How we do VPN coverage report
We ourselves have a VPN coverage page. However, it is quite different. We actually point to IP addresses. The VPN service page is dynamically generated from the backend from active VPN services we recognize to be functional and working.
Most importantly, we show IP addresses associated with the VPN service to provide evidence of the existence of the service.
