Had to pick between a free VPN and paying for one last year

I was setting up a new laptop and needed a VPN for public Wi-Fi. The choice was a free service with ads or paying $60 a year for a known brand. I went with the paid one after reading a report about free VPNs selling user data. It's been solid for 14 months now, no weird slowdowns or pop-ups. Has anyone else made that call and regretted it, or found a good free option that's actually safe?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley_craig537d ago

Public Wi-Fi panic is way overblown. Most sites use HTTPS now, so your data is already scrambled. Free VPNs might be shady, but paying feels like buying insurance for a problem that barely exists. You just handed over sixty bucks because of some scary story.

coran637d ago

I grabbed Proton VPN's free tier for airport Wi-Fi last month (the one with servers in three countries). It was fine for checking email, but the speed dropped hard when I tried streaming. Honestly, if you're just doing basic browsing on public networks, it's a decent temporary shield. I still keep it as a backup on my phone, but my paid subscription handles the heavy lifting at home.