Advice Request To pay, or not to pay? That is the VPN question

[Tutman]

To pay, or not to pay? That is the VPN question - Malwarebytes Labs

Should you pay for a VPN? We delve into the paid versus free VPN debate.

blog.malwarebytes.com

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Good article!​

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[blackice]

I say pay. If it’s worth using then I feel it’s preferable to pay the developers in a straightforward transaction. I don’t feel I am entitled to get access to all technology for free, and it’s not worth selling my data for. I generally agree with this article.

As all economy professors say “There's no such thing as a free lunch”.

 

[rain2reign]

I always say pay. Of course there are some good "free" vpn services out there. Though my data and traffic I'd rather trust to a party handles them well, and that costs money. Of course developers and other employees at said vpn provider need to eat too...

Though people always try to convince me over and over, why not this free vpn instead. I tell them that unless you run it yourself, there should always be a -mium behind it in regard to VPN.

 

[Eggnog]

You get what you play for. Free VPN's are free for a reason. And that reason is not for your benefit. VPN's are pretty inexpensive these days.

 

[n8chavez]

If you are not paying for something then you are the product being sold. Nothing is free; every business has to make money some how. Always pay.

 

[Marko :)]

Everyone says pay, but pay isn't proof some company isn't spying on you and selling your browsing habits. When talking about VPNs, it's not about whether to choose free product or paid product; it's about your privacy and the company's principles.

I can't think of a reason why I shouldn't use free VPN from reputable company that also sells premium VPN plans. I'll take Windscribe and Proton VPN for example; they care about privacy, and yet they offer great free plans. While Windscribe offers you more countries in free plan, Proton VPN will offer you unlimited traffic. And, it's not like they have different privacy principles for each of their plans because that would be ridiculous.

On the end, it really comes to what you need. I honestly don't need unlimited VPN as I use it only to access blocked content. 64 GB of data which Windscribe provides me is more than enough in my case.

 

[Cortex]

If I'm going to pay for a VPN I'll do as much research as possible onto to companies behaviour - There aren't that many VPN's I would trust and a bad VPN is worse than no VPN at all - No free VPN will satisfy my needs as regards data usage, decent ones that is - Though whether to use a VPN or not is a discussion that will continue past the end of time (maybe longer)

 

[conditions]

While the danger of using free vpn is true, why am i not surprised that people may pay vpn services to get tracked.
That is so ironic and you will never know.

 

[upnorth]

I pay gladly for several reasons and several has already been mentioned in this thread.

Support is for me personal worth much more then being forced down my throat to use some poor and weak side channels that can take for ever, and even risk getting zero help or a plain rude reply from someone that can't handle technical questions and talk normal like an adult. It also all boils down to the key reason with any security product in the first place, Trust! Companies, vendors or developers that are up front and say how and what their products do, also in print without any sugarcoating just for the sake of another buck and another registered customer, they for sure get my vote and trust and in the end, my money.

 

[Ink]

If Malwarebytes were to release a free, limited version of their paid Privacy VPN... what would they say about that? (don't quote me).

Is the company known, has an excellent reputation for transparency, trust, customer service, active on social media and blog posts, and continuing to improve their infrastructure?
If yes, use their Free tier or Paid tier plans.

If no, avoid all contact.

Look out and avoid:

• Best Free VPN on App Store / Play Store
• Unlimited usage
• Speed boost
• Has a vague privacy policy (generic copy and paste)
• Is a subsidiary company
• Not a professional email address (ie. @gmail.com, outlook etc)
• No real address, or shady origin

 

[jetman]

There are some trustworthy and good free options- Windscribe and ProtonVPN for instance. These are obviously limited in some way - either with a data cap or with a limited range of servers. The purpose is to get you to upgrade in the future. However, they can be more than adequate for the needs of many users.

I’d avoid free options from business you don’t know about though- or at least do some proper research. There are certainly some scams out there.

If you need very fast connections and want to unblock region specific websites then its probably worth paying.

 

[codswollip]

Seems obvious. If VPN is "free" then the user is the product. #avoid

 

[Marko :)]

Seems obvious. If VPN is "free" then the user is the product. #avoid

Hate to tell you, but you can be the product even if you pay. Search for the latest VPN scandals.

 

[blackice]

Hate to tell you, but you can be the product even if you pay. Search for the latest VPN scandals.

This is true, but the likelihood of it being the case is much higher with a 'free' product. Much research should be involved in picking a VPN. And an evaluation of what you need and if it's even necessary. "Freemium" products are a different story than totally free. I would say a few companies such as Windscribe have good 'freemium' models that work to entice heavy users toward their paid options, but are trustworthy for the free option.

 

[Marko :)]

This is true, but the likelihood of it being the case is much higher with a 'free' product. Much research should be involved in picking a VPN. And an evaluation of what you need and if it's even necessary. "Freemium" products are a different story than totally free. I would say a few companies such as Windscribe have good 'freemium' models that work to entice heavy users toward their paid options, but are trustworthy for the free option.

I agree!

I for sure wouldn't use free VPN, totally unlimited and coming from an unknown company. But I would use free VPN from reputable company that also offers paid plans. Totally free VPN is for sure shady because nothing is life is free. On the other hand, "partially" free isn't shady because company actually has ways to make money.

 

[Wasar]

By definition free VPNs have no obligation to protect your privacy and of course the product is you. Paid VPNs should protect your privacy, but I'm not so sure they all do that.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

SuperVPN & GeckoVPN​

In February 2021, a series of "free" VPN services were breached including SuperVPN and GeckoVPN, exposing over 20M records. The data appeared together in a single file with a small number of records also included from FlashVPN, suggesting that all three brands may share the same platform. Impacted data also included email addresses, the country logged in from and the date and time each login occurred alongside device information including the make and model, IMSI number and serial number.

Breach date: 25 February 2021
Date added to HIBP: 28 February 2021
Compromised accounts: 20,339,937
Compromised data: Device information, Device serial numbers, Email addresses, Geographic locations, IMSI numbers, Login histories
Permalink

Have I Been Pwned: Pwned websites

Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised.

haveibeenpwned.com

Best VPN Services of 2022 - Top 12 VPNs reviewed | Cybernews

Best VPN services in 2022 tested, reviewed and compared. Most popular providers such as NordVPN, Surfshark VPN & IPVanish have made it to our curated list.

cybernews.com

 

[Eggnog]

Looks like they may have found a way to monetize their free product.

By definition free VPNs have no obligation to protect your privacy and of course the product is you. Paid VPNs should protect your privacy, but I'm not so sure they all do that.

True. I do remember, though, that PIA won two court cases in 2016 and, I think, 2018 where they did not have to give up any logs because they didn't have any, and they are not obligated to have any. And they're based in the U.S. That whole "we're not in the Five Eyes" thing is a marketing ploy that mostly plays on paranoid fears. If you don't keep logs, you have nothing to turn over.

I would say most reputable VPNs don't keep logs; it's not in their business interests to do so. We have no idea what's in the best interests of free VPNS. I can't say whether free VPNs even offer split tunneling or wireguard. You roll the dice with free VPNs.

 

[NetrunnerEdge]

Everyone says pay, but pay isn't proof some company isn't spying on you and selling your browsing habits. When talking about VPNs, it's not about whether to choose free product or paid product; it's about your privacy and the company's principles.

I can't think of a reason why I shouldn't use free VPN from reputable company that also sells premium VPN plans. I'll take Windscribe and Proton VPN for example; they care about privacy, and yet they offer great free plans. While Windscribe offers you more countries in free plan, Proton VPN will offer you unlimited traffic. And, it's not like they have different privacy principles for each of their plans because that would be ridiculous.

On the end, it really comes to what you need. I honestly don't need unlimited VPN as I use it only to access blocked content. 64 GB of data which Windscribe provides me is more than enough in my case.

I totally agree with this. Right to privacy is really gray area right now. VPN ensures this right to privacy. Something like this should obviously be free since it provides increased protection from the big brother (Surveillance of any kind)....

 

[Marko :)]

Something like this should obviously be free since it provides increased protection from the big brother (Surveillance of any kind)....

Yeah. Unfortunately, our data is like the new payment system. So I don't see unlimited free privacy protection in near future.