Free vs Paid: Which Should You Go For?

Who doesn’t love getting something for free? However, when we are talking about the difference between 0 and 3 or 4 dollars a month, we are not talking about huge savings here. For that small difference in cost, what exactly are you getting from a paid VPN?

Now, most of you will know that free VPNs come with limitations when compared to paid versions. Usually, users get a much smaller choice of servers and their locations, a set bandwidth cap, slower speeds, and a lack of features. If you are somebody that only sparingly uses a VPN, this might be fine for you. If you are somebody that plans on using it extensively, it might be worth considering a paid VPN instead.

Cost

Obviously, a free VPN has the trump card here, they are free after all! But you have to consider that even a free VPN has to make money even if just to help towards the costs of the network and maintaining it. So where does that money come from if you are not paying for it?

Many free VPNs get around this by flooding your service with advertising. Others, as sceptics might say, are not as private as they make out and sell your data, logs, and activity to advertising companies. Either way, you will not get the same experience as you would by just coughing up a couple of dollars each month. 

Security

This is where a paid VPN really starts to show its worth. A free VPN will offer you basic protection and security features. You will usually get access to the OpenVPN protocol which is fine but on a paid subscription you have the choice of other protocols including UDP, TCP, L2TP, WireGuard, and IPsec.

Privacy

If you value your privacy, you are probably better off avoiding a free VPN gratis. While some may tell the truth when they say they do not keep logs and will not sell off your data, the fact their service is free will always cause doubts in your mind. There is nothing worse than a VPN, technology designed to improve privacy, is doing the complete opposite by telling anyone who wants to know, what you have been doing. To be on the safe side, go with a paid VPN and one with a solid reputation in terms of privacy.

The Takeaway

Which you choose really comes down to how much and why you will use a VPN, whether you really want the better security features, and whether you really care about online privacy. A free VPN might be fine for many of you but if you need the full works or want ‘actual privacy, a paid VPN is the only way to go.