# Privacy on a budget — every slot has a free pick

> You don't need a paid VPN, paid email, paid VPS, and a hardware wallet to be private. The directory's no-cost picks per slot — what works for free, what costs marginally, and where paying actually buys you something.

Canonical URL: https://www.xmr.club/guides/privacy-on-a-budget

## Overview

A common stuck-point: people read a privacy guide, see five paid subscriptions stacked, and decide it's not realistic. The honest answer is that most of the directory's A-grade privacy stack has zero-cost or near-zero-cost picks. Below: every functional slot with a no-cost pick named, where the freemium ceiling actually bites, and the four places paying buys real privacy (not just convenience).

## Body

What's actually free You can run a complete, A-grade privacy stack at $0/month and zero up-front spend. The free picks below are not freemium throttled into uselessness — they're software the privacy community runs as a default. Browser: Tor Browser (free). Already includes uBlock-equivalent + anti-fingerprint hardening. Email: Tuta or Proton free tier. 1 GB is plenty for a privacy-clean identity. Email aliases: Anonaddy / SimpleLogin / addy.io free tiers — fine for casual signup compartmentalisation. Monero wallet: Feather (Linux/macOS/Windows, free, open-source) or Cake Wallet (mobile, free, open-source). Bitcoin wallet: Sparrow or BlueWallet — free, open-source, Tor-aware. Operating system: Tails (free) for highest-stakes work; mainstream Linux distro for everyday. Messaging: Signal (free) — username-only signup since 2024, no phone number required. File transfer: OnionShare (free) — peer-to-peer over Tor hidden service. Self-hosted services: Monero node, Tor relay, mail server, web server — free at the software level; only your VPS or home electricity costs money. Where freemium bites Three slots where the free tier of an otherwise-fine product caps your privacy posture in subtle ways: VPN free tiers are almost universally honeypot-grade. Either the provider monetizes by selling traffic data, or the throttle makes it unusable, or both. The free pick here is not Mullvad-free (doesn't exist) — it's Tor Browser , which gives you a stronger privacy property than any paid VPN for the kinds of browsing where it matters. Email free tiers usually cap aliases or block custom domain. For a personal pseudonymous identity that doesn't matter. For a public-facing project identity, you'll outgrow the free tier in months — that's the place paying ~€3/mo is justified. Cloud storage — the free tiers from Proton / Filen / Internxt are real (5-10 GB), but if you actually rely on the storage you'll hit the ceiling and the upgrade is significant. Decide upfront whether you'll pay or self-host before depending on a free tier. When paying buys real privacy (not just convenience) VPN with no-logs commitment + no-email signup — Mullvad €5/mo. The privacy property bought: a stable IP that isn't your home + isn't a Tor exit node. Useful when Tor is blocked at the destination, or when you need to look like a "normal" IP to avoid bot-checks. Cash-by-mail accepted; pseudonymous account number, no email. No-KYC VPS — €5-€10/mo from an A-grade no-KYC host . Buy: ability to run your own services (mail server, Monero node, Tor relay, hidden service) on infrastructure you control. Replace one paid SaaS with self-hosted and the VPS pays for itself. Hardware wallet for serious balance — €60-€100 one-time. Buy: offline key storage. The free alternative is a watch-only / cold-signing setup on an air-gapped machine, which works but takes more discipline. See monero cold storage for the trade-off. Anonymous domain — €10-€20/year. Buy: an identity surface you control independent of any platform. Cheaper than the cost of getting platform-banned mid-project. See buy a domain anonymously . A $0/month full stack To prove it's possible, here's a complete A-grade privacy stack at zero recurring spend: Tor Browser for daily web browsing. Tuta free tier for primary email; Anonaddy free tier for aliases. Feather wallet for Monero, Sparrow for Bitcoin. Both Tor-aware out of the box. P2P fiat → XMR via RoboSats or Bisq (network fees only). Signal (no phone) for messaging; OnionShare for file transfer. Monero node optional via a community node (run your own only when ready). This stack handles 90% of privacy threat models without spending a euro. The other 10% is where the four paid upgrades above earn their place. The mindset trap The biggest budget-related privacy mistake is thinking the stack is gated by money. It isn't — it's gated by attention. People spend €50/mo on a VPN + email + cloud-storage bundle and use it inconsistently; people running €0/mo Tor Browser + Tuta + Feather get a stronger privacy property by being deliberate. Privacy without paranoia for the habit layer; this guide for the cost layer. Curated free picks per slot

## Recommended picks

- [Tor Browser](https://www.xmr.club/tools/tor-browser) · /llm/tools/tor-browser.txt — Free. Strongest browser-side privacy property; comes hardened.
- [Tuta Mail](https://www.xmr.club/email/tutanota) · /llm/email/tutanota.txt — Free tier sufficient for a clean privacy identity; E2E at rest.
- [Feather](https://www.xmr.club/wallets/feather) · /llm/wallets/feather.txt — Free, open-source Monero wallet with cold-signing support.
- [RoboSats](https://www.xmr.club/exchanges/robosats) · /llm/exchanges/robosats.txt — Free no-KYC fiat→BTC peer-to-peer; network fee only.
- [Bisq](https://www.xmr.club/exchanges/bisq) · /llm/exchanges/bisq.txt — Free no-KYC fiat→BTC + multisig; community-maintained.

## License

CC-BY-4.0. Attribute "xmr.club".