AmneziaWG vs Reality, and 10 VPNs scored for censored networks
Two protocols now decide whether a VPN works in Russia, Iran or Turkmenistan. Most VPN reviews never mention either. This page compares them directly, then scores ten popular services on seven categories and names a winner — with the weights published, so you can disagree with them.
Short answer
Overall winner: Unblock Master, 8.1/10, just ahead of Amnezia VPN at 8.0/10. Both run AmneziaWG and Reality; the difference is that one is an app you install and the other is a server you set up.
AmneziaWG vs Reality: use AmneziaWG first, because it is faster. Switch to Reality when UDP is blocked or AmneziaWG starts dropping, because it is the harder of the two to block.
We make one of the products in this table, Unblock Master, and say so wherever it appears. Last reviewed 2026-10-25.
AmneziaWG vs Reality, head to head
Both exist because plain WireGuard and OpenVPN are recognised by deep packet inspection within a packet or two. They solve that in opposite ways. AmneziaWG keeps WireGuard's tunnel and scrambles its shape so no fixed rule matches it. Reality stops looking like a tunnel at all: it presents the TLS handshake of a real, popular website, and a censor who checks finds that website.
| AmneziaWG | VLESS + Reality | |
|---|---|---|
| Built on | WireGuard, over UDP | Xray's VLESS, over TCP with TLS 1.3 |
| How it hides | Junk packets before the handshake, random padding and changed header values, so packet sizes and constants match nothing fixed. | Looks like an HTTPS visit to a real site (the SNI), and forwards anyone without the key to that site. |
| Active probing | No distinctive reply, but a server that speaks only an unknown UDP protocol is still unusual. | Strongest available: a prober is served the borrowed website's real certificate. |
| Speed and latency | Near WireGuard: the fastest option that still hides. | Slightly slower: TCP plus TLS adds overhead, most noticeable on lossy mobile links. |
| What still stops it | Networks that throttle or block UDP wholesale, and IP blocking of the server. | IP blocking of the server, and whitelist-only networks that allow just a fixed set of addresses. |
| Silent misconfiguration | H1–H4 must all differ and S1 + 56 must not equal S2, or the fingerprint returns with no error shown. | The borrowed site must support TLS 1.3 and HTTP/2 and not be hosted next to the server; a bad choice stands out. |
| Use it when | WireGuard is blocked but UDP still flows. The default first step. | AmneziaWG drops, UDP is throttled, or the network probes servers. The fallback that lasts longest. |
Neither one is "better" in general: they fail in different situations, which is why a service that offers both and switches between them scores higher below than one that offers either alone. How every protocol is identified
Which popular VPN uses which protocol
Only two services in the list ship AmneziaWG and Reality. The large commercial brands each built their own stealth layer instead, usually by wrapping OpenVPN or WireGuard in TLS — which helps against protocol matching but still connects to an address a censor can learn and block.
| Service | Protocols | Stealth transport | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unblock Master (ours) | AmneziaWG, VLESS + Reality | Reality: borrows a real website's TLS handshake | $3.99–7.99/mo, 3-day free trial |
| Amnezia VPN | AmneziaWG, XRay (VLESS + Reality), OpenVPN over Cloak, Shadowsocks | Reality and Cloak, chosen by you on your own server | Free and open source; you pay for a VPS (~$5/mo) |
| Proton VPN | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, Stealth | Stealth: WireGuard wrapped in TLS over TCP | Free tier; paid from about $4.50/mo |
| Mullvad | WireGuard; Shadowsocks, QUIC and UDP-over-TCP obfuscation | Shadowsocks or QUIC wrapping around WireGuard | €5/mo flat, no long plans |
| NordVPN | NordLynx (WireGuard), OpenVPN, NordWhisper | NordWhisper and obfuscated OpenVPN servers | From about $3.50/mo on a two-year plan |
| ExpressVPN | Lightway, OpenVPN, IKEv2 | Automatic obfuscation on all servers | From about $5/mo on a long plan |
| Psiphon | OSSH, meek (domain fronting), QUIC, TLS, Conjure | Many transports, switched automatically | Free with ads; Psiphon Pro removes the speed cap |
| Windscribe | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, Stealth, WStunnel | Stealth (OpenVPN in TLS) and WStunnel (WebSocket) | 10 GB/mo free; Pro from about $5.75/mo |
| Outline | Shadowsocks | Shadowsocks with configurable prefix disguise | Free and open source; you pay for a server |
| Surfshark | WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 | Camouflage mode / NoBorders (obfuscated OpenVPN) | From about $2.50/mo, unlimited devices |
Prices are the vendors' public list prices in October 2026 and change often; check before you buy.
The scoreboard
Each service gets 0–10 per category. The total is weighted towards what matters on a filtered network: censorship resistance counts for 30%, the rest share the remaining 70%.
| Service | Censorship resistance30% | Active-probing resistance15% | Speed15% | Privacy and logging15% | Ease of use10% | Platforms5% | Price and value10% | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Unblock Master (ours) | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 8.1 |
| 2. Amnezia VPN | 9 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 8.0 |
| 3. Proton VPN | 7 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 7.7 |
| 4. Mullvad | 6 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 7.2 |
| 5. NordVPN | 6 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 7.2 |
| 6. ExpressVPN | 6 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 7.0 |
| 7. Psiphon | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 7.0 |
| 8. Windscribe | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 7.0 |
| 9. Outline | 6 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 6.8 |
| 10. Surfshark | 5 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 6.5 |
How we scored
Censorship resistance · 30%
Does it still connect where WireGuard and OpenVPN are matched and dropped by deep packet inspection? 10 means it ships a transport with no fixed fingerprint and falls back on its own.
Active-probing resistance · 15%
If a censor connects to the server to test it, does the server give itself away? 10 means it answers like an ordinary website.
Speed · 15%
Throughput and latency on an unfiltered link with the fastest protocol the service offers. 10 is WireGuard-class.
Privacy and logging · 15%
Published no-logs policy, independent audits, open-source clients, how much identity the account needs.
Ease of use · 10%
Can a non-technical person install it and connect in under a minute without renting or configuring a server?
Platforms · 5%
Native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux.
Price and value · 10%
Monthly cost on the cheapest long plan, free tier or trial, and what the money buys.
The weights decide the result, and we would rather show that than hide it. On a plain average with every category equal, Proton VPN comes first with 8.0, ahead of Unblock Master at 7.71. If your network is not filtered, that is the ranking to use.
Scores are editorial judgements from each vendor's published protocols, audits and apps, not lab measurements. Speeds in particular vary more by server and route than by brand.
Best in each category
- Censorship resistance: Unblock Master, Amnezia VPN (9/10)
- Active-probing resistance: Unblock Master, Amnezia VPN (9/10)
- Speed: Mullvad, NordVPN, ExpressVPN (9/10)
- Privacy and logging: Mullvad (10/10)
- Ease of use: Unblock Master, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Psiphon, Surfshark (9/10)
- Platforms: Proton VPN, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Windscribe, Surfshark (10/10)
- Price and value: Psiphon (10/10)
Each service, in order
1. Unblock Master — 8.1/10 (our product)
Best for: Phone users in Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan and similar networks who want both stealth protocols without running a server.
It runs the two protocols this comparison is about and nothing else, and the app picks between them. That is what earns the top censorship and probing scores. The weak spots are real: the no-logs policy has not yet been independently audited, and there is no Windows or Linux client — iOS, Android and macOS only.
2. Amnezia VPN — 8.0/10
Best for: Technical users who want the same two protocols on a server they rent and control.
The project that created AmneziaWG, and the honest equal of the winner on the two censorship categories. It loses on ease because the usual setup means renting a VPS and installing it yourself. Privacy is mixed rather than perfect: nobody else logs you, but a server with one user puts every packet behind an IP address paid for in your name.
3. Proton VPN — 7.7/10
Best for: The best general-purpose privacy VPN, and the strongest of the big brands on a filtered network.
Open-source apps, repeated no-logs audits, a usable free tier and a Stealth protocol that genuinely helps in Russia and Iran. Stealth still looks like a TLS connection to a VPN provider's address rather than to an ordinary website, so it sits a step below Reality once a censor starts blocking by IP and probing.
4. Mullvad — 7.2/10
Best for: Privacy first: no email, numbered accounts, cash accepted, RAM-only servers.
The privacy benchmark every other service is measured against. Its obfuscation options are wrappers around WireGuard and get it through moderate filtering, but there is no Reality-style transport, and its server ranges are well known to censors.
5. NordVPN — 7.2/10
Best for: Streaming, travel and unfiltered networks where speed and a large server list matter most.
Fast, polished and audited. NordWhisper was built for blocked networks and helps, but results in Russia, Iran and China are inconsistent from week to week, and the obfuscated servers are a short, well-known list.
6. ExpressVPN — 7.0/10
Best for: Users who want the simplest app of the big brands and will pay for it.
Lightway is quick and the apps are excellent. Obfuscation is automatic, which is good, but not documented well enough to know what it defeats, and its reputation for working in China is older than its current results. The most expensive service in the table.
7. Psiphon — 7.0/10
Best for: Getting online at all during a crackdown, for free, with no configuration.
A circumvention tool rather than a privacy VPN, and an excellent one: it rotates through transports until something works. The free tier is slow, it shows ads, and it does not promise anonymity — which it says plainly.
8. Windscribe — 7.0/10
Best for: A generous free tier with real stealth options.
More stealth options than most commercial services and an app that fails over between them. Stealth and WStunnel both tunnel OpenVPN or WireGuard inside ordinary-looking TLS, which works until a censor blocks the server's address outright.
9. Outline — 6.8/10
Best for: Sharing one self-hosted server with a group of friends or family.
The easiest self-hosted option, with a manager app that hands out access keys. Plain Shadowsocks is fully encrypted from the first byte, and that very randomness is what China and Iran now flag; the prefix feature helps but does not make it look like a real protocol.
10. Surfshark — 6.5/10
Best for: Households with many devices on a budget.
Cheap, audited and pleasant to use, with unlimited devices. Its stealth is obfuscated OpenVPN, the oldest approach in this table and the one most censors have already caught up with.
The winner: Unblock Master
Unblock Master wins with 8.1/10 because it is the only managed, one-tap service in the list that runs both AmneziaWG and Reality — the two protocols that keep working after a censor has learned to match WireGuard, OpenVPN and TLS-wrapped VPNs. Amnezia VPN has the same protocols and better platform coverage, but the usual setup asks you to rent and configure a server, and most people trying to get past a block will not.
It is not the best at everything, and the table says where: Mullvad and Proton VPN are ahead on audited privacy, the big brands have Windows and Linux apps we do not yet ship, and Psiphon costs nothing. Since we make the winning product, treat the result as a claim to check rather than a verdict to trust — every score above has a stated reason, and the protocol details are documented well enough to verify elsewhere.
Pick by situation: filtered network on a phone — Unblock Master; filtered network and you can run a server — Amnezia VPN; unfiltered network and privacy first — Mullvad or Proton VPN; free and just need to get online — Psiphon.
Questions
Is AmneziaWG better than Reality?
It is faster, and Reality is harder to block. Use AmneziaWG while it connects and switch when it does not; a client that does the switching for you removes the guesswork.
Do NordVPN, ExpressVPN or Surfshark support AmneziaWG or Reality?
No. Each has its own obfuscation instead — NordWhisper, Lightway with automatic obfuscation, and Camouflage mode respectively. They help on moderately filtered networks but are not the same technique.
Does Reality work on whitelist-only mobile networks?
Only if the server's address is itself allowed. When a network permits a fixed list of addresses and drops everything else, no protocol disguise helps by itself; that is a different problem from deep packet inspection.
Why is plain WireGuard not in the scoreboard?
The scoreboard compares services, not protocols. Most services in it use WireGuard on unfiltered networks; how WireGuard itself is detected is covered on the protocol comparison page.
Compare the underlying protocols Which censor technique each one defeats