2021
Founded
Successor to PrivacyTools
Report
Should I Use Privacy Guides?
Established in 2021, Privacy Guides is the largest impartial, non-profit media outlet focused on finding privacy tools and learning about protecting your digital life.
Worth it
Worth itUse it if you're an individual choosing browsers, VPNs, or email and want vetted, ad-free, non-profit recommendations.
Free non-profit privacy guides — great for individuals picking tools; not software, nothing for companies to buy.
Confidence: Medium
$0
Price
Donation-funded non-profit
Yes
Free tier
All content and forum
3
Paid staff
First full-time hires, 2024
Value for money
5
Entirely free, donation-funded, no ads
Ease of use
4
Browse freely; forum needs an account
Feature depth
4
Tool lists, wiki, learning center, forum
Support quality
3
Volunteer forum; moderation complaints exist
Security posture
4
Minimal data collection; no public vulns
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- mediumRecommended third-party tools carry their own costs and privacy tradeoffs — vet each one separately.³
- mediumA Trustpilot reviewer says posts get removed; forum help isn't guaranteed.⁷
- lowGuides get revised; recheck before adopting.
- lowSustainability depends on donations; no paid tier guarantees longevity.⁶
Best for
- Individuals picking VPNs, browsers, email
- Beginners learning threat modeling
- Privacy enthusiasts comparing tools
- Donors wanting ad-free non-profit media
Not for
- Enterprises needing deployable security tooling — it's articles, not software
- Teams wanting vendor support, SLAs, or invoicing
- Anyone expecting guaranteed anonymity from a reading list
- People averse to moderated forums; posts reportedly removed
Pricing
All content
$0
- Tool recommendations and reviews
- Guides and learning center
- Community forum access
Donor
Donation
- Funds staff and hosting
- No paywalled content unlocked — same site
Security
No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.
What users say
Reddit users treat it as the successor to PrivacyTools and generally favor its independence, while one Trustpilot reviewer accuses moderators of removing posts.
“I would not trust this community.. the remove real written”
“I know Privacy Guides is the new version of Privacy Tools, but even if so, do the recommendations (or at least most of them) in the old site still apply today?”
“PrivacyTools has commercial partnerships with many of the service providers listed on their website”
Alternatives
Compare Privacy Guides with each alternative.
PrivacyTools.io
Similar tool guides, but has commercial partnerships with listed providers
Privacy Guides vs PrivacyTools.ioAlternativeTo
Crowdsourced software discovery, broader than privacy only
Privacy Guides vs AlternativeToCover Your Tracks
Free browser fingerprint testing to check your own exposure
Privacy Guides vs Cover Your Tracksr/privacy
Large community for privacy questions and tool debates
Full analysis
Based on ~30 public sources: official site pages, Reddit threads, Trustpilot, and software directories.
Sources
- Privacy Guides homepageprivacyguides.orgofficial
- About Privacy Guidesprivacyguides.orgofficial
- Ad-Free Privacy Tool Recommendationsprivacyguides.orgofficial
- Privacy Guides Learning Centerlearn.privacyguides.orgofficial
- Privacy Guides Community Forumdiscuss.privacyguides.netofficial
- Donate pageprivacyguides.orgofficial
- Trustpilot reviewstrustpilot.comreview
review
- AlternativeTo listingalternativeto.netreview
- SaaSHub alternativessaashub.comreview
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