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Why does every VPN need to rewrite their own client?
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this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2026
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Programming
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You're not missing anything. Mullvad and probably some of the others lets you download a client config and use it in whatever app you want.
The ones that don't allow that are probably shady or just don't care about your freedoms, behind a guise of "our app is more convenient/safe/etc".
Proton offers downloading config files as well, at least for paid customers. I do agree that providers that do not provide these are at least somewhat shady in their business practices.
At best, having a separate VPN client can offer some extra features over the standard openvpn/wireguard config files. They can allow quickly changing settings and detect the fastest server.
For free customers too, thats how I use it from my PC.
PIA let's you download OpenVPN and I think also WireGuard configs for all their servers too.