{"id":494289,"date":"2022-09-19T15:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/"},"modified":"2022-09-19T15:00:33","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T12:00:33","slug":"free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/","title":{"rendered":"#Free VPN vs. Paid VPN: Which Should You Choose?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a393fc73b0eb\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a393fc73b0eb\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/#%E2%80%9CFree_VPN_vs_Paid_VPN_Which_Should_You_Choose%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Free VPN vs. Paid VPN: Which Should You Choose?&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/#Are_There_Good_Free_VPNs\" >Are There Good Free VPNs?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/#Free_Tiers_of_Paid_VPNs\" >Free Tiers of Paid VPNs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/#Free_VPN_Security_Issues\" >Free VPN Security Issues<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn-which-should-you-choose\/#Privacy_Issues\" >Privacy Issues<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CFree_VPN_vs_Paid_VPN_Which_Should_You_Choose%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Free VPN vs. Paid VPN: Which Should You Choose?&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<!-- UNCACHED CONTENT --><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage size-full wp-image-832819\" data-pagespeed-no-defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/vpn.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"A VPN logo.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-illustration\/vpn-network-security-internet-privacy-encryption-1935153176\">BERK CAN\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You\u2019ve probably seen ads for free VPNs and wondered why you shouldn\u2019t use one of those rather than their paid counterparts. After all, you can\u2019t beat the price of $0. Let\u2019s compare free vs. paid VPNs and see why exactly you shouldn\u2019t trust free VPNs, at least not in most cases.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Are_There_Good_Free_VPNs\"><\/span>Are There Good Free VPNs?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>When talking about free VPNs, there are two types: free plans of legitimate, trustworthy VPN services and other services that exist purely as a free VPN. The first group is <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly safe to use and includes entries from our roundup of the best VPNs, like <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/protonvpn.com\">ProtonVPN<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/windscribe.net\/\">Windscribe<\/a>, or <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/redirect.viglink.com\/?key=204a528a336ede4177fff0d84a044482&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fhide.me%2Fen%2F&amp;cuid=xid:{xid}&amp;___trxnet=vg\">Hide.me<\/a>. We\u2019ll call these free VPN plans or free tiers.<\/p>\n<p>The second group, however, isn\u2019t nearly as safe and may even be outright hazardous to use. Generally speaking, they exist as free apps you can <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">download<\/a> from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. They\u2019ll often advertise like all untrustworthy VPNs do, promising too much and doing too little. These are actual free VPNs, ones that rarely will have a paid tier.<\/p>\n<p>This, of course, raises the question on how they make money. As with all things, if a service is free, it means you\u2019re the product being sold or, in this particular case, your data. Your personal information is worth a lot of money to advertisers, not to mention scammers and other denizens of the dark web. Most, if not all, the free VPN apps you\u2019ll find exist purely to collect and sell your data.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll go into a bit more detail about how that works further down, but for now, know one thing: these free VPN apps exist to sell data. To add insult to injury, the vast majority are very bad at being VPNs. In fact, it\u2019s probably safer to surf without a VPN than use one of these services. Whatever you do, do not use them.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Free_Tiers_of_Paid_VPNs\"><\/span>Free Tiers of Paid VPNs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Before we examine these dodgy free VPNs more closely, though, let\u2019s go over some of the quirks of the free plans that some\u2014very few, if we\u2019re honest\u2014reputable VPNs offer. You\u2019re perfectly safe when using these services as long as the VPN itself is good. Examples of legitimate VPNs with a free plan include PrivadoVPN as well as those we mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n<p>However, there are some limitations on the use of these free tiers. After all, if they were as good as the paid plans, nobody would bother paying. For one, you\u2019re usually limited by the number of VPN servers and their locations. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/protonvpn.com\/free-vpn\/\">ProtonVPN<\/a>, for example, only lets you connect to three locations across the world (the U.S., the Netherlands, and Japan), while Windscribe limits you to ten countries.<\/p>\n<p>Another limitation to free plans is that there\u2019s almost always a bandwidth cap, a limit to the amount of data you can send and receive through the VPN. In most cases, this cap is 10GB, which is enough if you\u2019re just surfing, but it won\u2019t cover the needs of most streamers or torrenters.<\/p>\n<p>The exception is ProtonVPN, which has no bandwidth cap, but will instead limit speeds on the free plan. Add to this the load on its free servers (one of the most important factors in VPN slowdown) and using ProtonVPN for free means your internet will slow to a crawl. Then again, you get what you pay for.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Free_VPN_Security_Issues\"><\/span>Free VPN Security Issues<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>With the safe but limited free tiers out of the way, let\u2019s take a look at the actual free VPNs. As we mentioned earlier, there are several problems with these, which we\u2019ll break down into two categories: security and privacy.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to security, free VPNs have a problem in that they\u2019re not really VPNs, but instead just glorified proxies. As we explain in our article comparing VPNs and proxies, the main difference between these two tools is that VPNs encrypt your connection, while proxies do not\u2014at least not to the same extent.<\/p>\n<p>The result is an app that may seem like it works like a VPN\u2014it reroutes your traffic and spoofs your IP address\u2014but very much isn\u2019t one. Where a VPN offers some measure of anonymity and makes it much harder to track you, a proxy, and by extension most free VPNs, leave you wide open to tracking.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not a huge deal if you\u2019re just trying to access a different country\u2019s version of a site (though it\u2019ll likely fail to get through), but it\u2019s a massive problem to people living in authoritarian countries that want to escape internet censorship.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Privacy_Issues\"><\/span>Privacy Issues<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Another good reason not to use free VPNs is that they will use your data for marketing purposes, or even worse. There have been several scandals involving free VPNs, the worst of which is probably that of Hola VPN, a simple browser extension you can install to unlock different regions\u2019 websites.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t work too well, though, at least for its customers. Usually, the site you\u2019re trying to visit will stall out or the connection will fail entirely. However, for Hola itself, it works great as its browser extension <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcworld.com\/article\/427726\/ultra-popular-hola-vpn-extension-sold-your-bandwidth-for-use-in-a-botnet-attack.html\">usurps your bandwidth<\/a> and resells it to third parties\u2014who in the past have used it for all kinds of shady purposes, including botnet attacks.<\/p>\n<p>A more prosaic example is Betternet, which has been found by the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/research.csiro.au\/isp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/106\/2016\/08\/paper-1.pdf\">Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation<\/a> to contain trackers\u00a0to gather users\u2019 information and sell it. The price of free, in this case, is knowledge of your browsing behavior.<\/p>\n<p>Companies like this do the opposite of\u00a0what VPNs are supposed to do, and use your data for their own purposes rather than protect it. To avoid scams like this, make sure to either sign up for the free tier of a reputable VPN, or just buy a subscription\u2014some excellent VPNs cost less than $50 per year\u2014a lot less than what a scam will cost you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/830645\/free-vpn-vs-paid-vpn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Free VPN vs. Paid VPN: Which Should You Choose?&#8221; BERK CAN\/Shutterstock.com You\u2019ve probably seen ads for free VPNs and wondered why you shouldn\u2019t use one of those rather than their paid counterparts. After all, you can\u2019t beat the price of $0. Let\u2019s compare free vs. paid VPNs and see why exactly you shouldn\u2019t trust free&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":494290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/vpn.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}