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Who is behind this site?
Hi, my name is Jared Clarke and I’m the person behind VPNandGO.com. As a passionate privacy and online security advocate, I regularly write about how you can be more secure online as well as access a lot more entertainment and get better value from your internet spend.
A Brief Rundown on What is a VPN
VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, used to conjure up images of sophisticated VPN router hardware and dedicated console screens not so long ago. Times have changes, however, as anonymous VPNs have now become consumer friendly, easy-to-use applications that can run on almost any internet enabled device today.
The biggest driving force behind the proliferation of secure VPN services among the masses is the increasing awareness of internet privacy rights and the lack of protection thereof by governments across the globe. Perhaps the most notorious in this regard is none other than our own federal government – what with the PATRIOT Act, the NSA snooping (recently made public by Edward Snowden), and numerous other accounts of government sanctioned takedowns of citizens based on their online activities.
With the online anonymity of the average US citizen under such dire threat, online VPNs have become the first line of defense against an invasive government for many. Many also use them to access geo-restricted content from other countries, and to secure themselves against hacker activity when conducting sensitive transactions/communications over unsecured wireless networks.
VPNs range from completely free to corporate-grade expensive, depending on what you require – but for the average user, mainstream affordable VPNs provide adequate protection. Read on to find out more about free VPN services as well as cheap paid options.
The Difference Between Free vs Paid
Here are a free vs paid VPN comparison to help you decide which one is for you:
| Free | Paid |
|---|---|
| You don’t have to supply any payment info | Payment information (e.g. credit card details) have to be provided up-front |
| You don’t have to search for any money back guarantee | Normally provide a money back guarantee |
| Do not allow multiple parallel connections | All several parallel connections |
| Restricted bandwidth | Unlimited bandwidth |
| Usually, do not support torrenting | Usually fully (or partially) support torrenting |
| Usage may be time or data bound | No usage restrictions |
| Weaker tunneling standards e.g. L2TP, SSTP, PPTP | Strong tunneling standards e.g. OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec |
| Ad-supported | No ads |
| May sell your contact information to third parties | Strong privacy rules, and no motivation for selling consumer information third parties |
Going by these contrasting qualities, you should appreciate by now that free VPNs are useful for casual internet users who only surf mostly text and image based websites. Some may even support low-quality video playback, but that would be the extent of it. They are also a good choice for individuals who want to try out the concept of a VPN before they sign up for a fully-fledged paid option.
Those who are conducting serious business online, and want to avoid third party eavesdropping (both government and hackers), should buy a VPN that’s paid. Users who want to access a geo-restricted content streaming service such as BBC iPlayer will require a fast VPN that can handle HD quality video playback – and such a VPN won’t come for free. The fastest VPN services, utilized by individuals who indulge in file sharing (especially over the P2P protocol) are all paid and may be slightly more expensive than the market average.
The bottom line is that even a cheap VPN with a monthly subscription fee will be a vast improvement over a free VPN, and objectively speaking, all the top VPN services are paid.