VPN Scorecard

An independent, non-commercial comparison of VPN tools — the way PrivacyTests.org compares browsers. Every VPN is scored against a published rubric, every fact is backed by a primary source, and the project carries no affiliate links.

A project of IP3 Studio. Live site: vpnscorecard.com (coming soon).

Principles

• No affiliate links, ever. We take no money from the services we rank.
• Sourced or unknown. Every published value cites a source or is marked unknown — never guessed.
• Transparent scoring. The whole rubric is generated from one config and rendered on the /methodology page.
• Point-in-time honesty. Every record carries a lastVerified date.

Stack

Next.js 16 (App Router) · React 19 · TypeScript · Tailwind v4 · Zod. Statically generated; deploys to Vercel with zero config.

npm install
npm run dev      # http://localhost:3000
npm run build    # type-checks + validates data + static-generates

How the data works

Each VPN is one JSON file in data/vpns/, validated at build time against lib/schema.ts. A record only appears on the site when verified: true, and the build fails if a verified record lacks sources or a lastVerified date.

To add or update a VPN:

1. Copy an existing file in data/vpns/ (e.g. mullvad.json).
2. Fill in what you can verify from primary sources; leave anything uncertain as "unknown".
3. Add sources (label + URL) and today's lastVerified date, then set verified: true.
4. npm run build to validate.

Scoring

Hybrid and fully documented. Each criterion in lib/criteria.ts maps a field to a colour-coded cell worth 0–1; category scores are the weighted mean of their criteria, and the overall score is the weighted mean of category scores. unknown/N-A cells are excluded so missing data never skews a rating. See /methodology.

Project layout

Path	What
lib/schema.ts	Zod schema + types for a VPN record
lib/criteria.ts	Criteria registry: labels, weights, cell evaluation
lib/scoring.ts	Category + overall score computation
lib/recommend.ts	Rule-based "find my VPN" recommender
lib/load.ts	Build-time loader + verified-only filter
data/vpns/*.json	One re-verified record per VPN
data/raw/	Seed material (the 2019 source chart) — not published as current
components/ComparisonGrid.tsx	Sortable/filterable home grid
app/vpn/[slug] · app/compare · app/recommend · app/methodology	Pages

Status

35 verified services and counting — re-researched from primary sources, with defunct providers (ibVPN, Perfect Privacy, Atlas VPN, …) removed. More in batches.

Roadmap

• More verified VPNs (re-researching the full active set from primary sources).
• AI assistant — a Claude-powered, dataset-grounded chat (phase 2).
• Website-privacy and speed metrics (collected in the schema, not yet scored).

Licensing

• Code: MIT.
• Comparison data & framework: adapted from That One Privacy Site's VPN comparison chart under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. In keeping with that licence, this project is non-commercial. Visual approach inspired by PrivacyTests.org.