I’m currently paying for iCloud storage and have an option to turn on iCloud Private Relay which I do all the time.
I wanted to ask what are the advantages of paying for a VPN like Mullvad or Proton if iCloud Private Relay already hides my ip address and works pretty well.
I know it works only with Safari but I mostly use Safari and avoid installing apps anyway.
Also, If using a VPN is your recommendation should I enable it 24/7?
ICloud private relay is a VPN provider, but if you are talking about choosing between Apple and others, I would suggest you try out Proton VPN (freemium, limited free speed), Windscribe (freemium, data cap on free), Mullvad (paid) or IVPN (paid) + you can use Tor if you don’t care about speed (although many websites block tor users)
As for if you shoud you use a VPN 24/7? As always, it depends. A VPN protects the IP addresses (and often domain names) of websites you visit from your ISP (but the VPN provider can see them). This can be useful for cencorship circumvention, as the ISP could ban certain IPs from being acceses (which also includes the IPs of VPN servers). The only thing the ISP sees, is that you are connecting to some IP (the VPN server’s IP).
A VPN also protects yout IP address (which often contains location information) from the websites you visit. This is useful to circumvent geo-blocking by websites.
In short, you should use a VPN if you want to hide the websites you visiting from your ISP (but let the VPN provider see them), or want to hide your approximate location from websites. Usually VPN providers want you to use them constantly, as you pay more if you do that.
I tried Proton and Mullvad and they work fine except some websites are blocking the VPN.
With iCloud Private Relay most websites work perfectly fine.
The thing is I’m not sure what is the point of paying for a VPN provider if I don’t use it all the time.
Yea, VPN blockage by websites is a massive problem, but you can’t really do anything about it. You can use Apple’s VPN for them, if you trust Apple more then your ISP (and, in terms of privacy, they are pretty good accually)
Whether something is worth paying for is quite subjective. And I understand the frustration when websites block (or even ban) you, because you’re using a VPN. I usually try the following:
I had been using iCloud Private Relay for most of the last year but have stopped using it about a month ago.
There had always been some random slowdowns but after iOS 17 update it was constantly waaaaay slower than iVPN. For instance I did multiple speed tests over several days and IVPN was getting around 250-280 megabits compared with a little over 300 with no VPN.
iCloud relay was down to 20. No not 200, twenty megabits per second.
I have switched to just having IVPN on instead.
@Fiofo At one time, I used a VPN nearly all the time on my Apple devices (I used ProtonVPN - paid tier). Since then, I have abandoned an always-on VPN solution, primarily because virtually ever website I visit is https:// enabled. So, the value of having a VPN connection on in those situations is a bit less than it was years ago. The only time I use a VPN is if I need to connect to a public wifi connection, which I try to avoid most of the time, or if there is a geolocation-related reason, which is also rare for me. When I travel overseas, I do tend to subscribe to a VPN service, just for the duration of the trip. That may be overkill for me as well.
I find that using iCloud Private Relay in conjunction with a service like NextDNS handles most of the privacy-related needs I have (I don’t have a high threat profile and simply want some privacy from companies looking to take advantage of my internet use). Yes, my IP address may be visible to my ISP, but they have no idea of my internet destinations other than that I am connecting to NextDNS or Apple’s first hop of servers. NextDNS adds value to Private Relay because it protects my DNS queries beyond just Safari browsing and Apple email.