Free vs Paid VPN Service: what’s the difference?

Updated on July 13, 2021: From now on, traffic filtering, malware protection, and suspicious DNS activity blocking are available as a part of the separate DNS Firewall app.

Annoyed about the fact that hackers or governments can follow your online life? Need to get the information, which isn’t available in your region? Want to enter the home network during your trip abroad? Then we strongly recommend you to try a VPN service. This is the best way to remain anonymous and circumvent a lot of online restrictions.

By the way, according to the Global Web Index, more than half a billion people (or 24% of all internet users) have ever tried or use at the moment the VPN service. Ready to join them? Then, you have to learn more about the differences between free and paid VPN services. Keep reading and choose the option that suits you best.

Free VPN services: pros and cons

Of course, if you need just to visit Facebook or other social networks to check the news, free VPN services are quite enough. There is one “but” (much more that one, actually). Wonder what’s the catch? Here are some benefits and drawbacks for your reference.

Pros of free VPN services:

• You don’t need to pay a dime. Yes, users do obtain access to some online resources, which were blocked for some reason. But, don’t forget that there’s always free cheese in a mousetrap!
• Sign up isn’t a necessary condition. This advantage keeps your time significantly and allows you to instantly enable the VPN right after the downloading process completes.
• Your real IP address is hidden. A free VPN service will replace it to virtual one to make it harder for third parties to define your location and other sensitive information. This will increase your privacy on the internet. But there is one nuance, about which you will learn in the cons below.
• Access to some online resources. There are many places, such as offices or schools, where social networks, and some other online resources are prohibited. Using free VPN services, there is an opportunity to access them. However, not all of the required services will be available.

Cons of  free VPN services:

• A free service can provide a direct access to your personal information, such as passwords, credit card details, or your online habits, to all concerned parties on request.
• You are offered only outdated encryption protocols, which make your privacy vulnerable to hackers, snoopers, and other adversaries. Some free VPN apps don’t encrypt your connection at all.
• IP addresses provided by free VPN services are often blocked by all trusted resources.
• Such services offer a poor list of servers to choose from. This means that you share your traffic, bandwidth, and other resources among hundreds or even thousands of other users. As a result, the server you chose becomes overloaded and you get a very poor connection speed.
• The session is often limited to several hours, letting annoying ads break in your web activities.
• Lack of investments makes impossible to provide a quality support all customers  who use a free VPN service.

Paid VPN services: pros and cons

There was a time when the VPN was exclusively a paid service, more than, quite expensive one. However, it is a high-tech era now, the internet and all the related services become more accessible. If you really take care of your sensitive data and online privacy, you should consider about a paid VPN service, like VPN Unlimited.

Pros of paid VPN services:

• Ability to use different types of protocols, such as PPTP, L2TP/IPSEC, OpenVPN®, for different needs you may have. If you’ve already tried a free VPN version, this means that communication problems are well known to you.
• Moreover, VPN Unlimited offers you a unique technology, KeepSolid Wise. It gives you an opportunity to get free access to legal content and explore the uncensored internet. Also, this security solution protects your VPN traffic from being detected and throttled.
• Usually, paid VPN services ensures a high internet connection speed. It will be at least as high as without it or even faster, in case you choose the nearest server to your geo-location.
• Feature-rich solutions. VPN, AdBlock, Anti-Malware, and Stop Tracking – all in one VPN Unlimited app. The Keepsolid DNS Firewall feature blocks a large majority of annoying ads in order to make your online experience smooth and enjoyable. Also, it’s an opportunity to enhance online privacy manyfold, prevent third parties from monitoring your web activities, and protect devices from malicious software and phishing websites.
• Enjoy a high-quality support. It is one of the main elements of the overall business strategy of paid VPN services.
• Data Encryption. VPN Unlimited offers AES 256 algorithm that is considered to be the most secure today

Cons of paid VPN services:

• Of course, it’s a payment. This is the main drawback we found here. However, taking into account all the benefits you receive and that the VPN market has a number of affordable options, it is not a problem.
• Be extremely careful when choosing a paid VPN service. Unfortunately, not all of them deserve your attention. Some services don’t guarantee maximum protection and often they can’t boast about high connection speed.

Conclusion

Making the choice, remember that anything worthing your attention always comes at a cost in our world. If you want to get a secure connection, 24/7/365 premium customer support, military-level 256-bit encryption, and other benefits, the best way is to use a well-trusted paid VPN service.

VPN Unlimited offers you all the above mentioned features and way more. Download the app now and enjoy the best and the safest online experience possible.

“OpenVPN” is a registered trademark of OpenVPN Inc.