* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Claims He Was ‘Disrespected’ on the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Opens Up About Feeling ‘Disrespected’ During the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    Cardi B Adds More Dates to Little Miss Drama Tour: ‘Y’all Making Me Work’ – Yahoo

    Cardi B Extends Little Miss Drama Tour: “Y’all Making Me Work

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Virginia Tech hosts annual New Music + Technology Festival this week – Cardinal News

    Virginia Tech Kicks Off Exciting Annual New Music and Technology Festival This Week

    Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee – The Guardian

    Why I Decided to Make the World Wide Web Free for Everyone | Tim Berners-Lee

    From shale to steam: Fossil fuel technology boosts clean geothermal energy – Washington Examiner

    From Shale to Steam: How Fossil Fuel Technology is Powering a Clean Geothermal Energy Revolution

    How Sustainable Technology is Shaping a Greener Future – Technology Magazine

    How Sustainable Technology is Driving the Revolution Toward a Greener Future

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

    How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

    Good Deed Entertainment Acquires Worldwide Rights To Liza Mandelup’s Documentary ‘Caterpillar’ – Deadline

    Good Deed Entertainment Lands Global Rights to Liza Mandelup’s Captivating Documentary ‘Caterpillar

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Danielle Fishel Explains Why Being on “DWTS” Makes Her Feel ‘Like It’s 1994 Again’ Filming “Boy Meets World” (Exclusive) – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Claims He Was ‘Disrespected’ on the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere – Yahoo

    Jussie Smollett Opens Up About Feeling ‘Disrespected’ During the ‘Special Forces’ Season Premiere

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    TicketSmarter Fall Entertainment Guide – Eastern Illinois University Athletics

    Cardi B Adds More Dates to Little Miss Drama Tour: ‘Y’all Making Me Work’ – Yahoo

    Cardi B Extends Little Miss Drama Tour: “Y’all Making Me Work

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

    Four Strategic Signals Technology Leaders Are Tuning In To – SPONSOR CONTENT FROM ARM – Harvard Business Review

    Four Essential Strategic Signals Every Technology Leader Should Watch

    Virginia Tech hosts annual New Music + Technology Festival this week – Cardinal News

    Virginia Tech Kicks Off Exciting Annual New Music and Technology Festival This Week

    Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee – The Guardian

    Why I Decided to Make the World Wide Web Free for Everyone | Tim Berners-Lee

    From shale to steam: Fossil fuel technology boosts clean geothermal energy – Washington Examiner

    From Shale to Steam: How Fossil Fuel Technology is Powering a Clean Geothermal Energy Revolution

    How Sustainable Technology is Shaping a Greener Future – Technology Magazine

    How Sustainable Technology is Driving the Revolution Toward a Greener Future

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

Are free VPNs any good?

April 15, 2024
in Technology
Are free VPNs any good?
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, are proving to be more and more consequential in the wide open world of the internet, where privacy is now so precious. While premium VPN services provide reliable protection, what about free VPNs?

A free VPN can be an attractive option for people seeking a no-cost solution to their anonymity and security concerns. But beyond the appeal of not having to pay for the service, free VPNs can come with serious drawbacks or even hazardous data collection practices.

To help you make the right decision with your VPN and keep you safe and secure online, I’ll cover what you can expect to get with a free VPN, the pros and cons of free vs. paid, and what free options are worth considering.

Further reading: How to use a VPN to watch Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max while traveling

What do you get with a free VPN?

Included features with free VPNs can vary widely. Some will impose myriad restrictions; only offering a laughably low data limit, one or two server options, or speed constraints. These are oftentimes free versions of popular paid services that want to draw in users and entice them to upgrade in the future. Other free VPNs will provide no such restrictions, but will hoover up user data and sell it in order to continually fund the service.

You’ll almost always encounter trade-offs when using a free VPN so it’s worth doing research about each individual service before you use it to understand what you’re truly giving up — performance or privacy.

That being said, many people still use free VPNs daily and never have issues. The right free VPN for the right purpose can fulfill your needs without you having to pay up for another monthly subscription.

Paid VPNs vs. free VPNs

It’s worth comparing what you get with a paid VPN versus what you get with a free VPN to better understand these trade-offs. Take this with a grain of salt, however, as features differ considerably between individual services (both paid and free). 

When discussing the features you can expect to get with a paid service below, I’ll assume the minimum available. Many services go well beyond this with additional features and performance.

Server network

CyberGhost VPN

Paid services like CyberGhost offer huge server networks.

CyberGhost VPN

Paid services like CyberGhost offer huge server networks.

Sam Singleton

CyberGhost VPN

Paid services like CyberGhost offer huge server networks.

Sam Singleton

Sam Singleton

Most paid VPNs provide extensive server networks with 500 or more servers to connect to in countries all over the world. Some, such as CyberGhost and Private Internet Access, boast networks with close to 10,000 individual servers.

Free VPNs, on the other hand, typically limit users to around five to 10 servers in only a few countries. Most of the servers are located in the U.S., as well, so those looking for options in other countries might be out of luck.

Privacy

Privacy is one of the most important features a VPN can provide. Paid services will often prioritize this above all else by not logging or selling user data such as online activity or any other metadata. They oftentimes submit themselves to independent third-party audits to further back up these no-log claims. 

The premium VPN Mullvad, one of our favorites for privacy, even goes so far as to accept mail-in cash payments and forgo personalized user login data so that no identifiable information is ever kept.

Free VPNs, on the other hand may, but not always, collect user data directly or indirectly through ads and pop-ups. Since free VPNs don’t charge subscription fees, they have to find alternative ways to generate revenue, and selling user data can be extremely lucrative. 

This bizarrely defeats the purpose of using a VPN to protect your privacy. And in the worst case can result in identity theft, leaving users in a whole world of hurt.

It’s important to note that this is not the case with all free VPNs, but data collection is certainly more likely with free services than with paid services.

Access to location-restricted content

In today’s age of online streaming services, access to location restricted content has quickly become one of the most popular reasons for people to subscribe to a VPN.

Many paid VPNs advertise that their servers can access Netflix anywhere in the world. Some even come with special servers designed to successfully evade streaming service blocks. This is a huge benefit for those who still want to access the content they pay for while abroad.

Free VPNs don’t usually have server networks large enough to accommodate this, nor do they have the human bandwidth to keep on top of the constant cat-and-mouse game between streaming services to keep their servers unblocked.

Further reading: 14 VPN terms and features everyone should know

Speeds

All VPNs will lower your speeds just by the nature of how they work. The distance between your home computer and the VPN server, current server load, and the protocol are just some of the factors that can affect your VPN connection speeds.

That being said, paid VPNs offer large enough server networks that no one server is ever overcrowded. They also have the resources to pay for more robust servers that can handle large volumes of traffic. And they generally provide multiple protocol options for users to choose from.

This isn’t always the case with free VPNs. Server networks are usually smaller, the servers they employ likely aren’t as powerful, and they hardly ever provide multiple protocols as options.

Additional features

NordVPN

Paid services usually offer way more features than free VPNs.

NordVPN

Paid services usually offer way more features than free VPNs.

Sam Singleton

NordVPN

Paid services usually offer way more features than free VPNs.

Sam Singleton

Sam Singleton

The perks above are likely the main draw for most people, but there are also some other enticing features that paid VPNs are now offering. Features such as split-tunneling, multi-hop, ad- and tracker-blocking, and more are all supplemental but useful additions to their services.

Most free VPNs will not provide any of these extra deal sweeteners. They will come fairly bare-boned with just the essentials to connect. That’s not a bad thing, per se, it just comes down to the fact that you’ll get what you pay for — which is literally nothing in this instance.

Why use a free VPN?

After reading the above you may be wondering why one would even use a free VPN? You miss out on almost every advantage of a paid service. “Almost” is the key word here.

A trustworthy free VPN will still provide you the privacy and anonymity that a paid VPN will; and this is the main reason to use them. You might miss out on the Netflix unblocking and massive server networks, but you can still connect to a free VPN and do basic internet tasks privately without worrying about any snooping third-parties. It’s crucial that you pick the correct free VPN though, otherwise you may just be inviting more snoops rather than keeping them out.

My favorite free VPNs

If you go onto the Play store or App store you’ll likely come across dozens of free VPNs. So which of them are worth your time?

Some of our top free services actually have a lot to offer. Windscribe VPN is a great option that provides a full-featured free version of its VPN with all of the bells and whistles. Just be aware that you’re limited to 10GB of bandwidth per month and only allowed access to 10 of its servers. 

ProtonVPN is another good free option. It restricts you to only three country locations and only one device at a time, but there are no data caps or speed limits. That’s extremely generous by free VPN standards. ProtonVPN also ranks up among the fastest VPNs we’ve ever tested. 

Choosing a free VPN will ultimately be a question of weighing the trade-offs of each service. Stay away at all costs from VPNS that are ad supported or don’t have any official reviews by third-parties. For more info on free VPNs or good recommendations, you can check out our curated list of all of our favorite free VPNs to help you decide.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : PCWorld – https://www.pcworld.com/article/2290587/are-free-vpns-any-good.html

Tags: technology
Previous Post

This top-rated PDF tool is just $31.99 for life now

Next Post

Migrate PCs like a pro with this 3-part kit, now $100 off

Interim study committee discusses expanding postpartum care for Hoosier women – The Statehouse File

Interim study committee discusses expanding postpartum care for Hoosier women – The Statehouse File

September 30, 2025
Microplastics and invasive crayfish: emerging interactions and ecological implications from three coexisting species in a subalpine lake – Nature

Uncovering the Hidden Impact: How Microplastics and Invasive Crayfish Interact in a Subalpine Lake Ecosystem

September 30, 2025
Scientists Warn: Bottled Water May Pose Serious Long-Term Health Risks – SciTechDaily

Scientists Reveal Shocking Long-Term Health Risks of Bottled Water

September 30, 2025
You Can Trigger ‘Time Expansion’—Meaning You Can Stretch Seconds and Warp Reality, Scientists Say – Popular Mechanics

Unlock the Secret to Stretching Seconds and Bending Reality: Scientists Reveal How to Trigger ‘Time Expansion

September 30, 2025
Roiserv Lifestyle Services Announces Key Corporate Changes at Upcoming EGM – TipRanks

Roiserv Lifestyle Services Announces Exciting Corporate Overhaul Ahead of Key EGM

September 30, 2025
Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

Saving Energy and Money with Smart Technology – Terms of Service with Clare Duffy – Podcast on CNN Podcasts – CNN

September 30, 2025
Tim and Anita Schoen Endow Sport Psychology Program Director Position – Notre Dame Athletics

Tim and Anita Schoen Endow Sport Psychology Program Director Position – Notre Dame Athletics

September 30, 2025
Dodgers feel an urgency to deliver another World Series title to L.A. – Los Angeles Times

Dodgers Fueled by Determination to Bring Another World Series Title to L.A

September 30, 2025
City of Malibu Eases Event and Sign Permitting Requirements to Support Post-Fire Economic Recovery – City of Malibu

Malibu Simplifies Event and Sign Permitting to Boost Post-Fire Economic Recovery

September 30, 2025
The Police Made Chart History With This 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago – Yahoo

How The Police Changed Music Forever with Their Iconic 1979 Hit Nearly 50 Years Ago

September 30, 2025

Categories

Archives

September 2025
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930  
« Aug    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (844)
  • Economy (865)
  • Entertainment (21,739)
  • General (17,332)
  • Health (9,908)
  • Lifestyle (878)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (867)
  • Politics (876)
  • Science (16,075)
  • Sports (21,365)
  • Technology (15,848)
  • World (847)

Recent News

Interim study committee discusses expanding postpartum care for Hoosier women – The Statehouse File

Interim study committee discusses expanding postpartum care for Hoosier women – The Statehouse File

September 30, 2025
Microplastics and invasive crayfish: emerging interactions and ecological implications from three coexisting species in a subalpine lake – Nature

Uncovering the Hidden Impact: How Microplastics and Invasive Crayfish Interact in a Subalpine Lake Ecosystem

September 30, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version