Transparency Report
How we reach our conclusions, how we fund this site, and why you can trust our rankings.
At Great Firewall Guide, we believe that the only way to beat the Great Firewall (GFW) is through collective intelligence. This page outlines exactly how we gather our data and why we prioritize Field Data over "Solo Testing."
1 How Does Our Intelligence Model Work?
Aggregated Intelligence
Unlike traditional review sites that rely on a single person's connection, we use a Community-Verified Model.
- The Problem: A VPN might work for one person in Shanghai but fail for another in Beijing. "Real-time" testing from a single location is anecdotal and often misleading.
- What we actually do: we read the public communities where people compare notes — r/dumbclub, r/chinalife, r/China and r/TravelChina — alongside vendor protocol documentation, and we form a judgement. We do not operate a reporting network, and we do not run test infrastructure inside China.
What this means for you: our assessments are informed opinion, not measurement. Where we are confident, we say so plainly. Where we are not, we say that too, rather than publishing a number that looks more precise than the evidence behind it.
Legal Context: February 2026
On February 2, 2026, the draft Cybercrime Prevention and Control Law was announced. Key provisions include: 3-year exit bans for cyber-offense convictions, extraterritorial application, and fines up to 20x illegal income.
We provide this information for educational purposes. Enforcement historically targets facilitators and commercial operators, not personal end-users. Our coverage addresses these developments so you can make informed decisions about your connectivity needs.
2 How Do We Verify VPN Performance Technically?
While we are a human-led editorial team, we verify community reports using Remote Monitoring Nodes. We maintain access to VPS probes within mainland China backbone networks to test entropy analysis protocols against Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).
3 How Is Great Firewall Guide Funded?
Great Firewall Guide is funded through affiliate commissions. When you click a link on our site and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Our Editorial Vow: We never change a rating because of money. We maintain a Hall of Shame for big brands like NordVPN and Surfshark because they currently fail in China—despite the high commissions they offer. If a VPN stops working, its score drops immediately.
4 Can VPN Companies Buy Rankings?
Position cannot be bought. Rankings are determined solely by community verification and technical performance.
We advocate for a "Two-VPN Strategy" (redundancy) because it is the safest way to travel, not to "double-sell" you. Relying on a single point of failure in China is reckless.