Products · Pattern or everyday thing
VPN
Raised as a usability problem by 20 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 20 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
VPN often fails to connect, making blocked sites hard to reachUnreviewed
20122026- VPN use makes browsing much slower and annoying2026-05-04
- VPNs are unreliable and frustrating to use, even for video2024-04-25
- VPN clients are slow to connect and break networking, leaving apps and services hanging2022-08-21
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 21 complaints
- Family and friends would need to install and maintain a VPN to access shared services2026-10-19
- VPN use makes browsing much slower and annoying2026-05-04
- VPNs are unreliable and frustrating to use, even for video2024-04-25
- Map is hard to use and the user gave up; prefers a readable table2023-08-30
- Page scrolls buggily on mobile; address bar won't collapse and tap-to-top fails2023-06-28
- Website is confusing to navigate2023-06-28
- Setup is so painful and option-heavy that the user fears they misconfigured it2022-09-24
- VPN clients are slow to connect and break networking, leaving apps and services hanging2022-08-21
- Email popup appears immediately with manipulative decline wording2021-11-24
- Setting per-app VPN routing is difficult, and the per-app settings feel buggy2021-09-18
- Login fields stay hidden unless JavaScript is enabled, with only a background shown2021-01-27
- Force-upgraded VPN client blocks connecting to other client's VPN until fully uninstalled and reinstalled2020-10-14
- Home page takes over two minutes to load and throws repeated console errors2020-06-23
- Forced proprietary app and can't find OpenVPN hostname list2019-11-25
- Many sites don't work or are a pain to use through a VPN2018-04-07
- Takes minutes to become functional again after switching wifi networks2017-10-30
- Can't tell if slowness comes from site or VPN; VPN disconnects silently2017-06-10
- VPN often fails to connect and is slow, making blocked sites hard to reach2014-11-18
- Setting up and managing VPNs is too hard for ordinary people, with abysmal interfaces2013-07-11
- VPNs are too hard for casual users to set up and manage2013-06-09
- Average users can't get VPN working; debugging needs cryptic dbus commands and log digging2012-11-12