May not be relevant to OP's use case but OpenVPN setup is not that bad, and could be very easy if you are willing to use pre-made setup script available online (e.g., https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install).
In other words, you don't have to be a poor man for VPN if you have the freedom (say with a throw-away cloud VPS).
Having said that, I need to point out again that OP's use case is completely different.
In Poor man's VPN via ssh socks proxyNyr
openvpn-install
Shell2013–2020
Nyr / openvpn-install
openvpn-install
OpenVPN road warrior installer for Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS and Fedora
28Distinct people
34Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
20.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
OpenVPN road warrior installer for Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS and Fedora
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- robbintt/popup-openvpn · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- sovereign/sovereign · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- streisandeffect/streisand · linked in 3 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 12:45:45 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year34 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2013-06-20 20:35:24 UTC to 2020-07-02 01:10:37 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
New: wireguard-install is also available.
openvpn-install
OpenVPN road warrior installer for Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS and Fedora.
This script will let you set up your own VPN server in no more than a minute, even if you haven't used OpenVPN before. It has been designed to be as unobtrusive and universal as possible.
Installation
Run the script and follow the assistant:
wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh && bash openvpn-install.sh
Once it ends, you can run it again to add more users, remove some of them or even completely uninstall OpenVPN.
I want to run my own VPN but don't have a server for that
You can get a VPS from just 2 EUR or 2 USD per month at AlphaVPS.
Donations
If you want to show your appreciation, you can donate via PayPal or cryptocurrency. Thanks!
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
6 sourcesAs you can imagine, this has already been discussed many times. For example:
https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install/issues/24
https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install/issues/66
> given the security and privacy expectations of VPN
The security and privacy expectations are that the network for the server is not compromised. If that's not the case, why would you want the VPN hosted there in the first place?
In Comcast injects JavaScript into webpages to show copyright notices to customers> Is it possible to run your own VPN on a VPS host, digitil ocean or linode or similar?
It's possible and very easy: https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install
Disclaimer: I'm the script creator.
In Comcast injects JavaScript into webpages to show copyright notices to customersUse this script:
https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install
In GoVPN – simple secure free software virtual private network daemonUsing Hola will allow other users to use your connection and their privacy policy is awful: http://hola.org/legal_privacy
Just spin up a VPS and install OpenVPN on it. I use ansible but used to use this one-shot script here: https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install
In Show HN: JustWatch – Choose your favorite streaming providers and see what’s newIf you aren't partial to OpenBSD, I've had good success with this:
https://github.com/Nyr/openvpn-install
You can turn off logging on the server with
/etc/openvpn/server.conf
log /dev/null
status /dev/null
Remember to restart the openvpn service after that.
That said, this wouldn't deal with the VPS provider's logging etc.
In Be your own VPN provider with OpenBSD