I’m wondering if someone has real world knowledge of how VPN services seem to just pop up out of nowhere and offer cheap service. Are they renting servers in each country? Is there a VPN reseller out there?
No I’m not interested in becoming one myself 
The problem doesn’t arise unless they tackle legal issues. Becoming one is isn’t that hard, need some capital income to rent a few dedis around the European (NL is fast and cheap) countries.
Most popup VPN companies run really cheap VPS’s with cheasy hardware. They claim unlimited bandwith and a bunch of other BS but don’t really know what they are doing. They generally just install an OpenVPN cert on the rented VPS and sell it as the “ultimate privacy” for $1. In reality, they are making money because they are using a crap VPS. You can get a VPS at Digital Ocean for $5/mo.
So most popups are crap, you just have to find legit ones. Look for providers that have legally registered businesses, are resellers, or are using dedi servers and are a team. If a popup only has a couple locations that most likely good because they are using dedicated hardware and cannot afford to spend a fortune like mainstream providers. They simply don’t have the budget, so they are going to give real privacy to their users and establish names for themselves.
Also, a lot of the popups will basically steal privacy policies, terms of service, and legal agreements from other websites. A lot of the popups have no idea what they are doing and want a quick buck.
Honestly, a reseller is a hell of a lot safer then a rented VPS company. A while back I remember reading this from CryptoStorm
Anyone running a “VPN service” via leased VPS “servers” is either engaging in a form of dark satire, is incompetent, is a fraud… or some weird combination of all three. Which means about 90% of “VPN services.”
But in short thats what I can say. Most are using VPS’s. So look for some info for them online before jumping in. Its always good to support a starter company, but don’t just look at what the website says, dig a bit deeper.
I guess its more of a marketing stint. Most VPN providers tend to display prices of an yearly package after dividing them per month whereas the actual per month price is significantly higher. They just want to attract the users through a somewhat unethical practice.
I don’t know about resellers, but i know that there are sites that will set up a VPN provider for you. You pay them the money and they get the servers etc all set up for you etc. I seen some forum talking about them and how much of a security risk it is doing that. I know most of these providers are just owned by large companies or people who own large web sites etc so they can buy in bulk and get discounts at data centers.
VPNs services are cheap and easy to setup. That’s why. I actually considered doing it myself a few years ago. But I decided I didn’t want to make money a nickel and dime at a time and went into a higher end market instead.