7 Reasons for Buying a VPN Vs Using a Free VPN

Over the past decade, the number of total VPN providers in the world has multiplied. While we have discussed how residential VPNs are in vogue these days, especially in this post-pandemic world, VPN as a standalone privacy software has been continuously gaining popularity and acceptance. In the past few years, not only did netizens try out a VPN for the first time but existing VPN users also experimented with different offerings such as dedicated IPs and website unblocking.

However, such a scenario presents an obvious challenge, broadly: over-choice. You scramble to get a VPN but are not sure which one to get. The overcrowded VPN market poses the first challenge: whether to get a paid VPN or a free VPN. It spawns a flurry of questions.

Are our new and free VPNs worth it? How do established premium brands like TuxlerVPN compare with such free applications? Why are paid VPNs better? Let’s find out answers to all these in this short article.

Paid VPNs Versus Free VPNs: 7 Key Differences

While we will compare these two types broadly, you should note that many distinguished providers offer a free or trial service too. TuxlerVPN also has a free VPN app and web browser extensions. This comparison, therefore, does not consider such offerings. Instead, we will cover those providers that offer only free or suspiciously cheap VPN products.

Free VPNs have poor to no encryption

Any VPN software should carry out two chief duties: hide your IP address and encrypt your web traffic. Together, these two functions help you protect your privacy online and surf the web anonymously. Most established VPN players today offer these two functions in their standard plans. Free VPNs do not.

A free VPN may only route your traffic through a low-cost server and call it a feature. Here, your IP address may be hidden but your communication is still accessible to anyone with the means and intent (like your ISP or a hacker). 

While you can test a VPN by checking if it’s hiding your IP address, there is no easy way to check a software’s encryption efficacy. Free VPN providers usually take advantage of this fact and wrongly claim support for encryption in their products.

Free VPNs could infect your device

While most free VPNs haven’t stooped to this level, there are a few bad apples who do infest their apps with malware. When you install such an app on your computer or smartphone, it can wreck your device and put your data at risk. This is one very strong reason to prefer paid VPNs over free ones. Not everything free is good for your device.

Free VPNs may have unscrupulous business models

Installing a random free VPN on your device may not necessarily protect your identity online. Tunneling and encryption are resource-heavy and cost-sensitive operations. A company cannot simply build a VPN product without spending money and effort on it. If a company offers its product for free, it will most likely have some other way to monetize it.

Such VPNs engage in data mining and sell that data to third-party advertisers. This can lead to phishing attacks, malware attacks, identity theft, and even fraud. Ironically, software meant to be used for privacy then becomes the very opposite of it.

Unreliable servers

You cannot depend on the VPN servers of such free products. They may claim active servers across the world, but they could just be low-quality proxy local servers masquerading as global ones. The VPN app may show that you are connected to a server in Japan, whereas in reality, the server may be in your city itself. This can affect use cases such as unblocking geoblocked streaming sites and bypassing censorship. Sure, you will have a VPN, but it will be useless. 

If you take your online privacy seriously, you should depend on a premium VPN like TuxlerVPN to cover your tracks online. 

Free VPNs don’t have extra features

As we have noted before on our blog, one reason why VPNs have recently become more popular among netizens is their additional features. Things like kill switch, port forwarding, and split tunneling are useful to improve one’s web experience. Most free VPNs do not offer such features.

Premium VPNs are fast, reliable, and effective

When you buy a VPN, you get a reliable and periodically-updated VPN client (app). You also get customer support to who you can reach out in case of any queries with installation, subscription, and usage. Above all, a premium VPN offers a fast and reliable service that is effective for most applications.

Need to unblock Netflix in the UK? Or do you simply prefer isolating your connection from the world wide web? When you buy from a known provider, you get a guarantee of the product. Netizens who care about online privacy and worry about the hostility of the web should stick to paid VPNs.

Paid VPNs are affordable

When you keep all the above reasons aside and just weigh two VPNs on the monetary scale, you will see how much of a headache you can avoid by opting for a premium VPN. Even in the case of TuxlerVPN Premium, you can pay a low monthly fee of $7.99 per month to get uninterrupted privacy protection and military-grade encryption. 

VPNs used to be expensive but that is no longer the case. Today for less than $10, you can get a premium residential VPN. Isn’t it better than all the trouble of a free VPN?

Want to know what more a paid VPN can do for you? Check out our Premium offering to experience the free web while maintaining your privacy.

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