People always seem to bitch about free VPN’s not being reliable and supposedly doesn’t protect your privacy. Well I’m here to testify against that. Free VPN’s do just as good a job at protecting your privacy when compared to PIA and some of the other overrated and overpriced paid VPN solutions.
I reside in the States and can safely declare that I have never gotten a DMCA notice, ISP warning or anything of the sort ever since I started using Hotspot Shield (the most popular free vpn in the world). And I started using it over 6 years ago. HSS, Cyberghost, VPNBook, Spotflux and many other free vpn solutions already provide a strong backbone to protect your privacy and there isn’t really any need to dig into your wallets and shell out your hard-earned cash for some overhyped paid vpn. In the case of HSS, there is even a method to obtain and extend the Elite (paid) service just by inviting some friends.
The point I’m trying to drive home here is that a free VPN is more than enough for most people. Of course, if you just have too much cash to spend and would prefer a VPN with a dedicated IP, then by all means go ahead, it’s your money after all. But for those who are using VPN’s primarily to download torrents and protect your privacy, free VPN’s are more than adequate for your daily needs. Only downside of a free VPN is that there may be ads popping up when you browse, but it’s nothing that adblock can’t take care of. All the same, it’s your call and your money, I’m merely stating the facts here and hope that gives an alternative to people who don’t want to shell out their hard-earned cash for a VPN.
You should realize that free providers have to make money somehow, and if it’s not on premium plans or usage limits, after which you have to pay, you should assume they’re making their money off of your data, logging your activity, and using it for marketing purposes.
This is like asking someone why they choose to pay for a computer and home internet connection when they could just go down to their local library and ‘get it for free’.
I generally pay for things (that I can get for free) because the paid alternative is better than the free alternative.
Solid stuff. Initially I was a little skeptical of this post, but after I read a couple of your sources I began to see the light. The true masterstroke of your testimony was how easy you made it to understand the empirical data. After seeing all of this I decided to crunch some numbers and I came up with exactly what you’d already laid out: if I cancel my VPN I could afford another 6 or 7 cheeseburgers a year. I was stunned to the point of stupefaction. Deftly worded OP, and thanks, I know I’ll be shouting this from rooftops.
You mention HSS(Hotspot Shield). I have experience with it, and here’s something you probably don’t know: It does not protect your IP. Test for yourself - Go here. Unless they’ve made fundamental changes to how their service operates, it should show your real IP-address below the HSS one. So for security, HSS is most emphatically not a good choice.
Furthermore, HSS implements server-side filtering that’s supposed to protect from malware or some such, but in reality just screws up certain websites, and there’s nothing that you can do about it.
The reason to pay for a VPN is quite simple - Free networks are very often unstable and offer lower speeds. Furthermore, there’s the whole thing about if this service is free, how are they financing it? Big chance of shadiness there.
Also if a paid VPN is doing their job, you’ll never know they’ve protected your privacy.
Yes free VPN (in fact not even VPN) is probably good enough for most people, but I really don’t know someone that strapped they can’t forgo 1 coffee, 1 coke, or 1 cheezeburger to get a proper VPN…
I actually agree with the point you are trying to make. For me, I have been a long-term user of VPNBook and suffice to say it has served my needs really well over the years. Never had the need or a paid VPN solution. And HSS is indeed one of the best free VPN clients around, although the ads were sometimes annoying. It’s similar to shelling out cash for an antivirus program when you can just as easily use MSE for all your security needs.
So the VPN thing is tricky, they seriosly charge way too much that being said There are discouts and levels of security to lessen the burden as well, that being said
I believe the free VPN means well however they dont get updated as quickly as one of the paid companies do, usually relying on someone to report that there has been a virus or something new, so thats why I want to have a pay service myself.
I am going to look into hotspot shield, I am always skeptical, your profile might have like 200 karma and you could have something to gain from feeding us bad information so, that being said if I find good reason to trust the site I will speak on that. thanks again.
EDIT: Offices in Ukraine, and Russia, your call, perhaps if it was officed in Ukraine exclusively but there is absolutely no sense in any us citizen to use any russian security anything that isn’t powder actuated.
What exactly is the point of VPN that you speak of? As far as I know, the primary function of a VPN is to mask your IP address, thereby giving you privacy when browsing online or downloading pirated stuff. The way I see it, free VPN’s do an adequate job at that and there isn’t really a need for a paid VPN. And, if say you spend $10 a month on a paid VPN solution, you are actually spending $120 a year on something which can be obtained for $0.00. So in a course of a year, that’s many more cokes, coffees and cheeseburgers that you could buy. Just my 2 cents on the matter.
“all HSS does” is read all of your traffic as it traverses their gateway. They openly admit to doing so. You are full of shit. You can’t inject ads into a page without being able to read the data to target your ads. It doesn’t even make logical sense to deny it.
Considering that we were in internal alpha testing 1 year ago. You can take your lying elsewhere.
Edit: judging by the account age, and the replies, and the obvious trolling, i’d say this is either a shill or someone on a campaign against paid VPN services for some weird personal reasoning.
