Amnezia VPN vs Store4Gateway

Who this comparison is for

You are in a heavily censored country — Iran, Myanmar, China, Russia, or somewhere similar — and you have heard of both Amnezia and Store4Gateway. You want to know which one to use — not from a marketing page, but from someone who has actually looked at how both work.

We will cover protocols, privacy models, setup experience, pricing, and where each service is better. We will be specific about where Amnezia wins. A comparison that only lists your own strengths is an advertisement; this is not that.

What each service is

Amnezia started as an open-source self-hosted tool. You rent a VPS, install the Amnezia app on your desktop, and it configures a VPN server on that VPS automatically. More recently, they launched Amnezia Premium — a managed version where they operate the servers. They also offer a free tier capped at 8 Mbps.

Store4Gateway is managed-only. We operate the servers; you get an access key. There is no self-hosted option. The pitch is that circumvention should require zero infrastructure knowledge: buy a plan, scan a QR code, connect.

Both services explicitly target censored regions, where deep-packet inspection (DPI), protocol fingerprinting, and active probing are the everyday reality.

The protocol question

This is the part that matters most. A great user experience running a weak protocol will still fail the moment a national firewall's DPI blocks it.

What Amnezia runs: AmneziaWG

Amnezia's primary protocol is AmneziaWG — a fork of WireGuard with the signature-removal problem solved. Standard WireGuard is trivially blocked by advanced censorship systems: its handshake has a fixed structure, fixed packet sizes, and well-known port behavior. Any DPI system trained on WireGuard traffic can identify and block it instantly.

AmneziaWG fixes this by randomizing the parts of the WireGuard handshake that create a fingerprint:

• Junk packets are injected before the handshake to destroy the fixed-length patterns
• Handshake packet sizes are padded with random bytes to remove the size signature
• Packet type headers are replaced with random values instead of WireGuard's fixed constants

The result looks like an unknown encrypted protocol rather than WireGuard. Most passive DPI systems will not block it because there is no known signature to match.

The weakness: it still looks like an unknown protocol. Some ISPs — particularly during political events — implement a whitelist-only policy: block everything that is not recognizably HTTP, HTTPS, or DNS. An unknown protocol is blocked not because it is identified, but because it is not recognized. AmneziaWG has no answer to this mode of censorship.

There is also no active-probe defense. If a censor's DPI suspects a server and sends a crafted probe packet, an AmneziaWG server has no response that proves it is something innocent. It can only time out, which is itself suspicious.

What we run: VLESS+Reality

Our protocol is VLESS+Reality via Xray-core. The design goal is different from AmneziaWG: instead of removing signatures, Reality manufactures a perfect imitation of a legitimate HTTPS connection.

When you connect to our server, the TLS handshake is forwarded to a real target site — for example, www.microsoft.com. What the firewall observes:

• A TCP connection to our server on port 443
• A TLS ClientHello with SNI www.microsoft.com and a Chrome fingerprint
• A TLS ServerHello containing Microsoft's actual certificate, signed by a real CA
• A completed TLS 1.3 handshake that is byte-identical to what visiting Microsoft looks like

The authentication — an x25519 key pair and a short ID — is embedded in the ClientHello in a way that is invisible to passive inspection. If anyone probes the server without the correct credentials, the connection is forwarded to the real Microsoft, which responds with real HTML. There is no proxy behavior to detect.

This survives the whitelist-only blocking mode because the traffic is HTTPS on port 443 — the most common traffic pattern on the internet. There is no unknown protocol to flag. It also survives active probing because a probe receives a real response from a real website.

Head-to-head under aggressive censorship

The anti-censorship community (net4people/bbs) consistently rates VLESS+Reality as the stronger protocol in 2025–2026 against the most advanced firewalls. AmneziaWG is used as a fallback for ISPs where Reality's server IP has been flagged by reputation — but that is an IP problem, not a protocol problem, and it affects both services equally.

⚠️ The one scenario no service can beat — and why you must test first

During the most extreme censorship periods — major protests, election crackdowns, nationwide unrest — governments switch from blocklisting to whitelisting mode. Instead of blocking known-bad protocols, they block everything and allow only a short pre-approved list: domestic HTTP/HTTPS to government-sanctioned IP ranges, and little else. This has been observed in Iran, Myanmar, and during regional shutdowns elsewhere.

In this mode, no circumvention tool works — not VLESS+Reality, not AmneziaWG, not any VPN — because the exit server itself is outside the approved list. The traffic never gets the chance to look innocent; the destination is simply not allowed. This is a routing-layer block, not a protocol-fingerprint block, so no amount of protocol cleverness defeats it.

This is exactly why you should always try before you buy. Blocking conditions change week to week, region to region, and ISP to ISP. A protocol that works perfectly on your network today may be cut off during the next whitelist event — and that is outside the control of any provider, us included.

Store4Gateway gives you a free trial key precisely for this reason. Get the trial, connect on your own ISP and device, confirm it works right now on your network — then buy. Never pay for circumvention you have not personally verified. Amnezia's free tier serves the same purpose for their service.

To be explicit about the limit: if an ISP enforces this extreme whitelist — blocking every port and protocol except domestic HTTP/HTTPS to pre-approved IP ranges — then neither VLESS+Reality nor AmneziaWG will work, because the exit server itself is outside the approved list. This scenario does happen during major political events and is outside the control of any circumvention service.

The honest conclusion: VLESS+Reality has the better protocol design under the blocking conditions that are active most of the time. AmneziaWG is a significant improvement over standard WireGuard, but the whitelist-only blocking mode remains a real gap.

Privacy and trust model

Amnezia

Amnezia's self-hosted option is the strongest privacy model of any circumvention tool. You rent the VPS. You run the software. You are the operator. No company has your traffic metadata because no company runs the server. If you are a journalist, activist, or anyone whose traffic patterns are themselves sensitive, self-hosting is the right answer.

Amnezia Premium is different. You are now trusting Amnezia's infrastructure, logging policy, and jurisdiction. They are registered in the Netherlands. Their privacy policy states they do not log browsing activity. We cannot verify this externally; nor can you.

Store4Gateway

We do not offer self-hosting. We log bandwidth totals for billing — we need to know when you have used 50 GB to enforce the plan limit. We do not log destinations, timestamps, or browsing history. We are a small team with a public reputation to maintain.

Where Amnezia clearly wins: the self-hosted option is objectively more private than any managed service, including ours. If you have the technical ability to manage a VPS and the threat model that requires it, Amnezia self-hosted is the right choice.

For most users in censored regions — people who need circumvention to access social media, communicate with family abroad, or read foreign news — managed is the practical option. The question then becomes which managed service to trust, and both Amnezia and Store4Gateway are reasonable choices.

Setup and daily use

Amnezia self-hosted

1. Rent a VPS from a provider with a non-flagged IP
2. Install the Amnezia desktop app
3. Enter your VPS credentials
4. App configures the server automatically
5. Share a connection link to your phone

Realistic time investment: 30–60 minutes, assuming you know what a VPS is and have a credit card that works with international services. Ongoing maintenance: occasional IP changes when the VPS gets blocked.

Amnezia Premium

1. Create an account
2. Pay (credit card, no crypto option at present)
3. Download the app
4. Connect

Faster. No server management.

Store4Gateway

1. Choose a plan on the website or Telegram bot
2. Pay (BTC, Lightning, USDT-TRC20, or credit card)
3. Receive an Outline access key
4. Install a compatible client (Hiddify, v2RayTun)
5. Scan the QR code

No account required for the Telegram bot flow. No email address needed. The crypto payment flow is fully anonymous.

Where they compare:

• Amnezia self-hosted wins on privacy but requires technical skill
• Amnezia Premium and Store4Gateway are similar in setup friction
• Store4Gateway accepts crypto; Amnezia Premium does not
• Amnezia has a free tier; we do not

Pricing

Amnezia Free is a meaningful option for users who only need light usage. We have no equivalent free tier, but we do offer a free trial key — you can test connectivity on your ISP before paying.

Amnezia Premium at $4/month billed annually is cheaper than our Starter ($1.80/mo annual). For month-to-month, our Starter at $3/mo is cheaper than Amnezia Premium's lowest advertised price.

If multiple server locations matter — for latency optimization or to switch regions if one is blocked — Amnezia Premium's 20 locations are a real advantage. We run a smaller infrastructure intentionally to keep it manageable; we are not trying to be a global VPN provider.

Where Amnezia wins

Being direct about this:

1. Open source. Amnezia's client and server code are fully public. Security researchers can audit both. We run Xray-core (also open source) but our service layer is not.

2. Free tier. 8 Mbps is enough for text, messaging, and basic web browsing. For users who cannot afford a paid plan, Amnezia Free is a real option.

3. Self-hosted mode. Best-in-class privacy. No managed service can match it for users with the technical ability and threat model to justify it.

4. More server locations. 20 locations vs our 1–2. Matters if you travel or want region-specific routing.

5. Larger community. More localized documentation (Farsi, Burmese, and others), more community support, more posts from other users troubleshooting region-specific issues.

Where Store4Gateway wins

1. Stronger protocol against advanced censorship. VLESS+Reality survives the blocking scenarios where AmneziaWG fails.

2. Free trial before you pay. You can get a trial key and verify that our servers work on your specific ISP and device before spending money. Neither Amnezia Premium nor their self-hosted option provides this — with self-hosting you pay for the VPS first.

3. Anonymous payment. BTC, Lightning, and USDT-TRC20 mean no financial paper trail. Paying for a circumvention tool with a credit card creates a record; crypto does not.

4. No account required. The Telegram bot flow returns an access key without an email address or registration. There is no user account to subpoena.

5. Dedicated IP tier. A private server not shared with other users eliminates the risk of a noisy neighbor triggering an IP block that affects your connection.

Which one should you use?

Use Amnezia self-hosted if:

• You have the technical ability to manage a VPS
• Your threat model requires that no company have your traffic metadata
• You want the strongest possible privacy guarantee

Use Amnezia Premium if:

• You want a simple app-based VPN with no technical setup
• Multiple server locations matter to you
• You cannot pay with crypto

Use Amnezia Free if:

• You cannot pay for a plan
• 8 Mbps is sufficient for your usage

Use Store4Gateway if:

• You want the strongest protocol against advanced censorship infrastructure
• You want to test connectivity on your ISP before paying (free trial key available)
• Anonymous payment is important to you
• You want to use it without creating an account

Both services are serious attempts to solve a hard problem. Neither is a scam. If you are in a censored country today and need reliable circumvention, both will work most of the time — the differences show up at the margins, during crackdowns, and in the specific ISP configurations that are most aggressive.

And remember the one hard limit that applies to every provider: during an extreme-whitelist crackdown, where the government allows only a handful of approved domestic IPs, nothing reaches an outside server. Because blocking conditions shift constantly, always claim the free trial and verify the connection on your own network before you pay. Never buy circumvention you have not tested yourself.

The protocol difference is real and matters during those margins. But so does the free tier, the open source code, and the larger community that Amnezia has. Make the choice based on what matters to your situation.