Should I Pay For VPN

Why Should You Use A VPN

Before we talk about that let me correct one assertion that a VPN is a “glorified proxy”. It is not! A proxy accepts connections on behalf of clients then it creates connections to the ultimate destination, relaying the traffic as a middleman. A VPN on the other hand tunnels the traffic.The distinction is important because where a connection your client is initiating terminates is very important because your session security protocols such as TLS establish trust between a client and the termination server of a client-server connection. So for example, if you trust your local country’s certificate authority or your corporate network’s PKI , assuming a proxy is configured in the middle will show the connection is secure proxies generally speaking require explicit configuration, but transparent proxies exist).

A VPN is not a glorified proxy because when you assess the risk of using proxy compared to a VPN tunnel, with a VPN you can compensate for the risk introduced by the middle-box server by using the aforementioned connection security protocols such as TLS.

If we agree that VPN is not just a glorified proxy, then let’s talk about why you should Always use a VPN tunnel.

When discussing a security solution one should always consider what information they are securing against being compromised using what means and from whom . So how can I say one should Always use a VPN tunnel when I don’t know any of these answers at any level of specificity for all users?

Common Reasons For Using A VPN

People use VPNs for countless reasons. Some of these reasons are specific, while some people just have a VPN as another layer of security in addition to a good antivirus program and practicing generally sensible internet usage.

• As previously mentioned, a common reason to use a VPN is to prevent anyone from ISPs to public Wi-Fi hotspots– from tracking what youre doing online.
• Another reason many like to use a VPN is to gain access to region-restricted content, whether that be a TV show on your countrys Netflix, or to get around a certain jurisdictions internet censorship laws.

Ultimately, why people use a VPN is to have greater anonymity online. In a day and age where revelations of public data being used in shady ways have become a daily occurrence, keeping private information private is more vital than ever.

So Should You Use A VPN When Connecting To Your Bank

Frankly speaking, I don’t think it’s a good idea. It certainly does not add any extra layer of protection – especially with respect to SaferWeb’s claims. In fact, using a VPN to connect to your bank may backfire on you.

Provided that your system is not infected with malware, your operating system is up to date with the latest security patches, and you’re using the latest web browser version of Firefox, Chrome, or Internet Explorer, then connecting to your bank should be perfectly secure and nothing else needs to be done. Millions of people do it like that every day.

Using the notation example: if you are connecting to your bank without a VPN, then the connection would look something like this: You -> Bank . So is there any point of using a VPN to do this?: You -> China : China -> Bank ? Probably not.

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They Ensure Safe And Private Internet Browsing

While some top VPN providers retain partial session records, none of them ever monitor your activities or exchange your details. Typically, even if a premium provider records some of your browsing details, it does only for diagnostic purposes.

Better yet, most highly rated VPNs do not hold any records at all, so the online interaction is, as it should be, entirely private.

What’s The Fastest VPN

When a VPN is active, your web traffic is taking a more circuitous route than usual, often resulting in sluggish download and upload speeds as well as increased latency. The good news is that using a VPN probably isn’t going to remind you of the dial-up days of yore.

Most services provide perfectly adequate internet speed when in use, and they can even handle streaming HD video. However, 4K video and other data-intensive tasks like gaming over a VPN are another story.

When we test VPNs, we use the Ookla speed test tool. This test provides metrics for latency, download speeds, and upload speeds. Any one of these can be an important measurement depending on your needs, but we tend to view the download speed as the most important. After all, we live in an age of digital consumption.

To evaluate VPNs, we first run several speed tests without the VPN. Then, we compare that figure to speed tests taken with the VPN active and find a percent change. Our speed tests stress comparison and reproducibility. That means we stand by our work, but your individual results may vary. After all, perhaps you live on top of a VPN server, or just happen to have a super-high bandwidth connection. Please read our feature, conveniently named How We Test VPNs, if you want the full details.

Read Also: Can I Create My Own VPN

They Will Slow Down Your Internet Connection

If youre looking for a free VPN to stream videos, play games, or download torrents, you will almost certainly be badly disappointed. Use of any VPN involves some loss of speed due to the encryption process, but with the best paid VPNs, youll hardly notice it.

Its a different story with free services. Because of their small networks, constant ads, or intentional speed throttling, theyll slow your web surfing to a crawl.

Fortunately, slow speeds are only an annoyance, not a threat to your security or privacy. If you just need to send a confidential email from a WiFi café, a little patience and a trustworthy free VPN will serve you well.

What VPNs Accept Gift Card Payments

TorGuard

Tor guard provides enhanced privacy with zero-log protocols and stealth VPN that can bypass DPI firewalls and provides open VPN obfuscation, Stunnel, and Shadowsocks. They offer the top email security with OpenPGP email encryption and anonymize and encrypt all web traffic.

Accepts Payment: Paymentwall, Paygarden.

Windscribe

With servers in 63 countries, Windscribe offers flexible connectivity and an AES-256 cipher for superior security. Windscribe randomly rotates your user agent to reduce fingerprinting and creates time zone changes amongst various privacy features. Windscribe is a trusted, highly-rated zero log VPN.

Payments Accepted: Paymentwall and Bitcoin.

PerfectPrivacy

A contender since 2008, PerfectPrivacy works across multiple devices to deliver superior protection. With NeuroRouting and TrackStop, along with advanced stealth VPN technologies and a strict zero-logging protocol. Most of PerfectPrivacys servers have IPv6 addresses and a bandwidth of up to 1000 Mbps.

Payment Accepted: Paymentwall, various cryptocurrencies.

ibVPN

With over 15 years of experience, ibVPN has built up a reputation for high security and transparency standards. ibVPN allows users to choose from popular VPN protocols according to their needs for privacy or speed. They also use military-grade 256-bit encryption to ensure the confidentiality and security of their clients.

Payment Accepted: Paymentwall.

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Free Vs Paid VPNs: Which Should You Choose

Using the best VPN service when connecting to the Internet has long been recommended as a way to keep data private and secure. And, as concerns over data collection and government surveillance increase seemingly by the day, it’s now more important to take action than it ever has been.

‘While VPNs have always been appropriate for untrusted networks, like unsecured Wi-Fi at places like coffee shops and airports, this change now means that we must all think about our home network connections as untrusted as well,’ said Jarret Raim, head of strategy and operations for Rackspace Managed Security in San Antonio, Texas.

With this in mind, more people than ever are looking for VPN service providers, and a quick search through Google Play or the Apple App Store will bring up a lot of free VPN options. We won’t lie: free always looks like the more attractive option.

But are the free services as reliable and trustworthy as a paid VPN, or do you really get what you pay for? What are the pros and cons of free versus paid VPNs?

Here, we’ll run down all the key similarities and differences including security, general quality of service, and all-important streaming performance.

NB: The interviews with Jarret Raim and Adnan Raja referenced in this article were undertaken in 2017.

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Another benefit of a VPN is that your true IP address is hidden behind the IP address of the VPN server. This makes it harder for advertisers and others to track your movements across the web. Even a dedicated observer would have a hard time telling whose traffic is whose, because your data is mixed in with everyone else using the same VPN server.

Recommended Reading: How To Change VPN For Pokemon Go

How Do I Get A VPN

Getting a VPN is as easy as downloading an app from the Apple Store or the Google Play store you can also use a browser extension if thats easier for you. Of course, we recommend researching the VPN thoroughly before you connect, as not all are created equal. A good place to start is our best VPN page scroll up to see our favorite tried and tested picks.

Can A VPN Track You Online

The entire point of downloading a VPN in the first place is to ensure your online anonymity, but some VPNs save more of your data than others. While we havent reviewed many VPNs aside from Encrypt.me that save user data, many VPNs will save other information about their users, which can include:

• The time and duration the user connected to the VPN
• The users IP address
• The amount of data the user used while connected to the VPN
• The users personal information like their name, address, payment information, email, etc.

For the large majority of VPNs, they will not track their users online in terms of the sites they visit, or any of their web traffic or activity. However, we recommend reading the VPNs privacy policy before you sign up to make sure that they dont log web activity. Another option? Read our VPN content, which goes into detail on each of the VPNs privacy policies. Weve read them so you dont have to!

Recommended Reading: How To Change VPN For Pokemon Go

Free Vs Paid VPN: Which One Should I Pick In 2021

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Okay, we are almost half way into the 2021. Still, users keep comparing free vs. paid VPN. And, it understandably is an essential and valid question.

The simple answer is: Nothing in this world is free. All comes at a cost. When it comes to the internet, this is mainly so.

The free utilities that we all love and take for granted are a means for corporations to gather your data and market it for a fee to third parties.

However, are free VPNs secure to use? The simple answer is no. While you can notice a range of choices available on the market that provide their services for free, it is necessary to note that utilizing free VPNs typically comes with a few downsides, unlike a premium VPN.

In brief, you are the commodity if youre not paying for the product. It is no brainer that free VPNs ought to make money for themselves, too. This typically comes at the users cost.

Will individuals pay for a VPN, or is it okay to have it for free? It is also challenging to get the correct answer to these concerns. Lets discuss the variations, along with the benefits and drawbacks of free and paid VPNs.

Quick guide section: Free vs. paid VPNs

Risks of using free VPNs

Search For Compatible Devices

Although most VPNs today support Apple, iOS, Mac, Linux, and Windows. Some VPNs arent accessible on all platforms.

If you have a Windows device but are using an iPhone, you should make sure that your VPN offers both a manual setup and software for Windows.

Its also a smart idea to see how many multiple gadgets can be linked at the same time. Some VPNs support limitless devices, while others only allow up to three devices to be attached to your account.

Recommended Reading: How To Add VPN Extension In Chrome

What Is A VPN And How Does It Work

When you switch it on, a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between you and a remote server operated by a VPN service. All your internet traffic is routed through this tunnel, so your data is secure from prying eyes along the way. Because your traffic is exiting the VPN server, your true IP address is hidden, masking your identity and location.

To understand the value of a VPN, it helps to think of some specific scenarios in which a VPN might be used. Consider the public Wi-Fi network, perhaps at a coffee shop or airport. Normally, you might connect without a second thought. But do you know who might be watching the traffic on that network? Can you even be sure the Wi-Fi network is legit, or might it be operated by some nefarious individual?

If you connect to that same public Wi-Fi network using a VPN, you can rest assured that no one on that network will be able to see what you’re up tonot other users snooping around for would-be victims, nor even the operators of the network itself. This last point is particularly important, and everyone should keep in mind that it’s difficult to tell whether a Wi-Fi network is what it appears to be. Just because it’s Starbucks_WiFi doesn’t mean it’s really owned by a well-known coffee purveyor.

Is It True That A VPN Is Completely Unhackable

No. No. Did I mention… no. Nothing is unhackable. As evidence…

In January 2018, Cisco Systems revealed that a critical bug was found in its ASA software that could allow hackers to execute code remotely.

This is a bug in enterprise-level VPN systems used by corporations, so it’s severe, indeed. Fortunately, responsible IT administrators can patch their systems to fix the bug. However, it goes to show how no system can be truly deemed absolutely secure.

Another example was a bug in Hotspot Shield, a popular VPN service. This bug allowed a hacker to expose private information, including originating IP. Hotspot Shield issued an update, which gives us an excuse to remind you that you should always install updates, especially on your VPN client software.

Recommended Reading: How To Install Pia VPN On Firestick

Whats Their Anonymity Like

Some VPNs keep usage records for short periods . Depending on how you feel about privacy, you may want to look for a VPN that doesnt keep any records of activity whatsoever.

For the services that do keep logs, records generally include the time you connect, and sometimes an IP address. Torrent Freak recently did a detailed rundown of several VPNs and how they handle your privacy.

VPNs are a great tool for privacy and getting around regional restrictions, but not all VPN services operate under the same conditions. For savvy shoppers, a little research is required.

Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. Read ouraffiliate link policyfor more details.

Is A VPN Worth Paying For

If you can relate to any of the aforementioned scenarios, one thing is for sure you need a VPN. As far as whether its worth purchasing one is concerned, then the answer is YES. Why not, when you can reap all the advantages of a VPN for a few dollars per month?

Sure, there are many free VPNs available on the market. But considering the risks that come along with them, youre better off not using one altogether. These services do very little for you, that too, at a high cost i.e. your privacy!

Recommended Reading: How To Change VPN For Pokemon Go

Financial Privacy For VPN Users

If you want to pay for your VPN in the most secure and anonymous way possible, its best to do it with cryptocurrency. The reason is that when you are signing up for TorGuard with cryptocurrency, you dont have to provide private information like your address or name.

When you use a credit card, your billing information is required to prevent fraud and verify transactions. But with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and litecoin, you simply send your crypto to our receiving address and the transaction is complete. This means that no personal information is needed for the VPN to be activated.

Who Needs A VPN

Anyone who uses the Internet on a public Wi-Fi network needs a VPN. Theyre also ideal for anyone traveling internationally who needs to access a private network in another location, or anyone that wants to bypass government, school or work restrictions on Internet usage. VPNs are ideal for journalists, activists, whistleblowers, and anyone else that wants to be as anonymous as possible online.

Also Check: How To Install Pia VPN On Firestick

How To Create Your Own VPN

Some people still benefit from using a VPN, and not all providers are bad.

Wirecutter, a New York Times publication that tests products, recommends a few that are still trustworthy. But if your next VPN gets bought by a larger company, you may have to vet its trustworthiness all over again. Im tired of the whiplash, so I created my own private network service.

I turned to Algo VPN, a free tool developed by Mr. Guido that automatically builds a VPN service in the cloud, which shields my browsing activity by allowing me to create a virtual tunnel on an outside server for my internet traffic to pass through.

Following the instructions listed on the Algo VPN project website, I set up a cloud service where my VPN service would be located on Amazons web services, a reputable and widely trusted cloud provider. The rest of the steps involved installing some scripts on my computer and typing in commands to generate my VPN.

After about an hour, I set up a VPN that worked flawlessly. The best part? Not only is it free to use, but I no longer have to worry about trust, because the operator of the technology is me.