TOR free. But slow. Scarce resource. Jumps thru many routers so very good at anonymity.

VPN usually paid. Fast. Server knows your IP address so LE can possibly obtain logs...choose VPN that doesn't keep logs. Can select country of apparent origin.

In general due to the scarcity of TOR bandwidth (volunteers run TOR servers for free and assume crminal liability) VPN seems like the more ethical choice IMHO.

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Nord VPN on my iphone and laptop, and TOR as my browser. The combo is a bit slow, but worth it to me for the extra peace of mind.

These days you can never be too careful!!

Stay safe, everyone!

The TOR browser is a pain to use. I would use it only if there isn’t a choice. A VPN lets me use my FF browser and isn’t slow

I am finding that the VPN interferes in other ways .. I was just looking at a sports schedule and Google showed  the wrong time. Google was picking up the tome from the IP location... I went into settings and turned the VPN. Visited that site and the schedule was now correct. Turned the VPN back on and came here. Smooth.

The TOR Onion browser kept disconnecting me from TER any time I did something else.

Using the Tor browser hasn't been an issue. At times it may slow down slightly but not a big deal.

No cost and speed has not been an issue.  I got a bonus, now able to see/download porn that was banned/blocked in USA.

That will give me something to keep busy with if my TOR does slow down, ha ha!!

I'm experimenting to see what works best for me. Free is nice but the few bucks per month for VPN is reasonable too. Sometimes disable both for routine browsing.

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be careful of using "free" VPNs.  They are making money off you, that means they track where you go, what you do, and sell it to other entities.

 
High quality VPNs are not expensive.  You can find ones that are less than $5 / month and most keep no logs at all of what you are up to.  NordVPN is a good one.

I posted this same warning yesterday after all the chatter here about "FREE" VPN's.  Free VPN's have no revenue stream to pay their expenses, so they mine you info and track you and then sell the data to commercial businesses.  Most people notice a jump in spam and unsolicited advertising when using "free" VPN's.  It because they are selling info about you (like your email address and websites you visit) to fund their operations.  The pay sites like Express VPN charge about $7-10 a month depending on the plan you select, and the user fees fund their operations, so you get a much higher level of privacy than the "free" VPN's give you.  I'm getting the same speed as I was getting in the US with any of the major search engines.  

Protonmail-offers VPN  

Works well & quick on a phone so far.

Can't get it to work on the mac tho. Oh well. I'm having someone help me figure that out later. But it's pretty fast

I posted a very elementary explanation on my twitter about VPN and TOR a while back:

If you’re using the Tor browser, you’re surfing anonymously. Your activity is being sent through a series of servers called Tor exit nodes. Your internet provider (Comcast, Verizon, etc) can see that you’re using Tor browser and might block the connections. Although, no one can see what your activity.  
Tor is S L O W, because it’s going through multiple servers. You activity appears to come from the last server as opposed to your real location.  
Tor browser is not the most safe as far as malware. Also because the servers are hosted by random people, they have the ability if they wanted to to see your activity.  
 
With VPN, you can also be anonymous, with the right VPN Service. VPN is a lot faster than TOR. VPN, you connect to a server securely however to your internet provider it just looks like you connected to one IP address or site. After that, they can’t track your activity. You activity is going through the server you connected to. VPN services, most of them tend to log your activity (even paid ones that say they don’t), which often defeats the purpose. There is no way for you to verify that they do or don’t retain your IP address logs. So just assume that they do.  

Some people go all out and use both, which is what I would recommend. VPN first then TOR so their internet provider doesn’t see the Tor activity, but it will be slow. It provides the most anonymity.  

Also, logging into your personal accounts defeats the purpose of using these things. If you REALLY want to be anonymous, use TOR browser from a public location and never log into anything (your personal gmail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)... doesn’t make sense to be claim you want to be anonymous but log into an account that clearly can be traced back to you.  

If you are serious about cyber security, I would recommend doing a GIAC certification with training done by SANS institute. It’s something you can put on your professional resume. Providers could write it off on taxes. Mine was paid for at my full time job. A lot of practical knowledge is given and you also will meet industry cyber security professionals who may give handy advice in the future.