If you’re into the online scene, the chances are slim that you haven’t at least heard of the term –VPN. Undoubtedly, Virtual Private Networks have become much more of a necessity when it comes to internet security, encryption, and browsing anonymously. Furthermore, there are both free and paid services available.
Therefore, it highly depends on your day to day usage and exactly how much privacy you’re looking for when it comes to choosing a preferred VPN service. In this article, we will go through the benefits and drawbacks of both types of VPN – Free and Paid. However, just as a heads-up, if you want to enjoy the end-to-end functionality and the ultimate protection and security offered by a VPN service, it is advisable to choose a paid solution.
Free VPN – Pros And Cons
There is always a price for everything – free is free; nonetheless, you just need to think about what you are giving up in return to those VPN services which are free.
When it comes to free VPNs (like these), the standalone pros are none. The only benefit is that they are free of cost. You can try out different settings and features, play around to know what is there, and explore the core functionality that initially attracted you to that particular service. Such as, you can unlock your favorite streaming sites, check out if there are good discounts on hotel and flight bookings from accessing the vendor’s website from other countries, etc.
On the other hand, the list of cons is a little lengthy. You will be subjecting your data to huge privacy and security risks, which ultimately defeats the purpose of using a VPN anyway.
There are tons of advertisements that come along with the free VPN services.
Other than this, some free VPNs provide slower speeds but offer better bandwidth whereas some offer the opposite. However, there is no connection guarantee with these free services and the likelihood that you’ll have a day where you’ll encounter an endless void of buffering can ultimately be closer and more frequent than you’d like.
Even if you have the best free VPN, you won’t get very far because their range of functions is minimal, and they do not offer the security that can be expected from a paid VPN service. In terms of security, you shouldn’t take any risks online. If you’re looking for maximum privacy and protection, relying on a free VPN is not a good idea.
Although you are somewhat protected looking at the overall picture if the system crashes, which is almost inevitable, you are not protected by protective mechanisms such as the kill switch. This makes sure your IP is not exposed during a dropped connection, these functions are reserved for chargeable providers.
Free VPN – The Usecase
As mentioned above, your decision to choose a free vs. paid VPN is correlated to your purpose of using a VPN; some users do not worry about their data and privacy, they opt for a VPN only for streaming and accessing sites that would otherwise be banned in their home country. Thus, less risk is imposed, meaning a free VPN would do just fine for them.
Alternatively, if someone isn’t bothered with a slow connection, limited bandwidth, and lots of advertisements and your purpose is just to get done with your task at hand, then using a free VPN is indeed a goto option for you.
Paid VPN – Pros And Cons
The concept is probably clear: to benefit from the features of a paid VPN, you’ll have to pay a subscription fee. While this may turn some users off, it’s your best chance at being protected online by a reputable VPN service.
Quite a few of the paid VPN providers offer a free trial so you can test drive their services and see if it’s a good fit for you before you commit to a monthly To justify the price of the VPN, the provider limits the range of functions of the free model in most cases. For example, the daily available bandwidth (e.g., 100 MB per day) or the type of data transmission may be restricted (some providers prohibit torrenting or streaming), etc.
Paid VPN – The Usecase
Companies that are handling sensitive information on such as location and personalized user details would prefer to use premium VPNs for optimal security.
The daily users who are concerned about their data and privacy should always consider the paid VPN services.
Crazy sports fans who want live streaming of their favorite matches from the host country with expeditious speed and with no delays.
All in all, the main necessity of a paid VPN revolves around how secure a stable connection you require to use a VPN either for data transfer, data streaming or for any other purpose you’d like to use a VPN for.
Wrapping up
As a closing thought, the following are the summed up points that a free VPN lacks and that a paid VPN possesses. So, decide exactly why and how you want to use a VPN then take a look at a variety of available options.
- Low-quality overall protection
- Higher risk of disconnection
- limited speed and bandwidth
- Fewer countries available
- Customer service not available 24/7
- Storage of log data (for resale)
- Usually, no kill-switch function
