Pretty much all the VPN "review" sites are paid. I tried using NordVPN on my trip to China, which all the "review" sites says it'll work, well it didn't. An relatively unknown VPN that I've found actually worked (although slow).

So which VPN should one use these days?

For getting around geo blocking or downloading torrents, any of the big name VPN should be fine (Express, Nord, PIA). If you need VPN to use in a specific country, maybe ask around the expat sub or forums for that country. But truly anonymous VPN probably don't exist, maybe rent a server somewhere to setup Shadowsock, pay with crypto, then logon to it from public wifi? I don't know if that's secure enough, never really needed that level of anonymity.

I'd be fine with VPNs not owned by a shady company.