VPN services are rightfully popular, but that level of privacy doesn’t come cheap. Unfortunately, free VPN services come with risks that may not be worth…
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VPNs are currently “in vogue”. IT experts are constantly praising them, claiming that VPNs protect you from many problems. But if you’re considering the free option, you should reconsider.
The question is – what if you don’t want to pay for a VPN subscription? While there are plenty of free VPNs you can use to protect your privacy, they potentially come with some risks – and those risks may not be worth taking, even if you don’t pay anything for the service.
Why You Should Use a VPN
For those unfamiliar, there are three main benefits of using VPNs that have made them extremely popular over the past few years.
- Rerouting
A VPN can mask your Internet connection. If you’re in one country and connect to a VPN server located in another country, websites will see you as a user from that other country. This can be useful for accessing content that’s restricted to certain regions, such as content on YouTube, Netflix, or the best USDC casino online casinos in 2023 at TopCasinoExpert.com.
- Privacy
One side benefit of masking your connection is that the VPN server can act as a “last line of defense” when someone tries to monitor your Internet traffic. If the VPN service isn’t logging your activity, then there’s no way for your traffic to be traced back to you.
- Security
The right VPN service will encrypt your Internet traffic before it leaves your computer and decrypt it once it reaches the VPN server, meaning it’s protected even as it passes through your router and your ISP. This is especially useful on public Wi-Fi networks.
8 Reasons Why You Should Never Use a Free VPN
It’s one thing to recognize the benefits of a VPN, and another to blindly trust them. There are many myths surrounding VPNs that are simply not true, and they have several risks and drawbacks that you need to be aware of when using them, especially when it comes to VPN services that are offered for free.
- Unreliable Service
As with most things, free options are rarely as effective or complete as paid options, and that’s absolutely true when it comes to VPNs.
You have to remember that VPNs are really just a service. They require maintenance, repairs, and constant attention in case of problems. Since free services don’t make money, they usually can’t afford round-the-clock support. If an interruption occurs, it can take days or weeks to resolve.
- Limited Functionality
Most of the time, the developers behind the VPN offer a free version to convince you to pay for the paid version later. However, free VPNs often lack some of the best features like split tunneling (it enables traffic to be simultaneously routed through a local network and a VPN), a kill switch (it’s a cutting-edge security feature made to shield your digital information from unintentional exposure), or a dedicated IP address (a unique IP address only you can use).
So, on the free version of the VPN, you might miss out on the best features of this service.
- Data, Speed, and Usage Limits
Bandwidth is cheap now compared to years past, but it still costs money — especially if you’re providing a free service that’s in high demand. Not only do you need enough bandwidth for thousands of simultaneous connections, but you also need servers that can handle the load of processing all those requests.
Because of this, most free VPNs have various limitations. One service can give you a certain amount of data for a month. The other may limit your connection speed. The third may have a login queue that limits the number of users on the VPN, meaning you have to wait for a spot to free up before you can log in and start using it. These are all awkward situations that worsen the user experience.
- Limited Regional Options
One of the main reasons to use a VPN is to route your traffic through another country to access region-blocked content, which we mentioned at the beginning of the article. Or maybe there’s a problem with data redirection and you want to work around it by switching to a different VPN server. Either way, server locations are important.
However, each additional server location costs more money, and free VPN services don’t have a big budget. Most such services will probably offer at least one US server and one European server, but beyond that, it’s up to chance. Also, there are server locations that you must avoid if you care about your privacy, and if you don’t have a server to choose from, you can’t do it!
- There’s No Guarantee of Privacy
This is the main and biggest problem for most people. Think about how a VPN works: your traffic is routed through the VPN service’s servers. You have to trust that your VPN is handling your data correctly, i.e. so that it doesn’t intercept, watch, log, or even modify your sessions.
How much trust can you have in a free service? You don’t pay them a cent, so it would be naive to think they have your best interests in mind. No free VPN that promises privacy and security can be trusted, even if they offer traffic encryption.
It’s true that free VPNs don’t come with the best encryption protocols. Most of them use inefficient protocols like PPTP, which could put you at risk of cyber-attacks. If you want better protocols and a more secure service, you have no choice but to pay for a VPN service.
- Malicious Intentions
Let’s say you find a free VPN service that doesn’t suffer from any of the above. It’s reliable, fast, unlimited, available in dozens of countries, and somehow manages to guarantee privacy without logging your activity. At that point you have to ask yourself: why are they offering this for free? If you can’t come up with a good answer, you’re probably the “product” they’re going to use.
When looking for a free VPN to use, take the time to analyze it. Weak security features or data logging are just some of the signs of a bad VPN that you should be aware of. Free services are rarely offered for altruistic reasons, especially VPNs. Don’t fall for it!
- Advertisements
Since VPNs need a lot of money to operate, there must be a way for them to make money with their free version. As a result, free VPN users may be bombarded with advertisements that are unique to their proxy server session. And, since the VPN needs users to click on those ads, the ads get priority traffic.
Not only does it feel like an invasion of your privacy, but it will further slow down your overall Internet speed.
- Higher Data Consumption
In general, VPNs need more data for encryption and decryption protocols. Free VPNs don’t use the most efficient encryption protocols, so they use more data.
In addition, displaying ads will use even more of your data.
Conclusion: Paid VPNs Are the Only Choice
Let’s be clear about one thing: a paid VPN can be just as bad as a free VPN.
Just because you’re paying money doesn’t mean the service will be good, delete logs of your activity, or have your best interests in mind. But they are more likely to be reliable. After all, they want to keep their operation and their business, and the best way to achieve that is to maintain an excellent reputation and deliver on their promises.
