What's our deal, anyway?

VPN's really are simple. And they're cheap (or even free, keep reading).

So many different reasons to have one, not to have one, to pay or not pay for one. Who knows these things? I do! After you read this, you will too! Give it a shot.

Why pay for a VPN when you don't need one. If you don't download / upload illegal materials, needing to trick Netflix in to thinking you are residing in a different area in able to get your favorite show, work on top secret missions for the CIA, perform mission critical work that lives depend on, you probably don't need a VPN. Of course, this is a generalization and any number of things can change this. One is, if you do online banking... yeah, good idea to have a VPN. But for online banking you can safely use a free solution.

Let's break it down like this...

- You perform illegal activity online. You 100% need to be using a VPN.

- If you use WiFi ANYWHERE other than in your own home, consider using a VPN. Although rare for YOUR school or coffee shop to be the victim of a hostile takeover, it does happen here and there. Don't be a statistic! Do you want some random con-man to have your bank login credentials? Of course you don't. So BE SMART! If you don't use a VPN, don't do ANYTHING mission critical or send/receive sensitive data, etc. Use common sense. And it gets worse, with the smarter guys out there they are capable of getting much more than keylogger details. In addition to anything you type, they can get all your phone contacts, all your emails, all your text messages, all you ... yeah, you get it?
WiFi vulnerabilities are about as scary as they come. More people really should be talking about this.
For this one, and I know a lot of people aren't going to like this disposition, I'm going to say 100% need to have. BUT, a free one will work just fine since you'll likely not be performing illegal activities or streaming movies online while on Taco Bell's WiFi. Just sayin'.

If you need a VPN for gaming (? why ?), you'll have to pay for one, a free one will not work for you. I just wouldn't use one at all. This said, read about "lag" below in "Final Thoughts".

- You travel and want to be able to stream your premium shows out of your home region. For this a VPN is a good tool to trick your service provider to tell it your in any darn region you want to big guy (or girl. or, whatever the case may be. I don't judge). But, you'll need a PAID for VPN, because of these 3 things. 1) You'll need to bounce off an IP address local to your home area. You cannot assure this with a free VPN. 2) Data: free services give only limited monthly data. 3) Speed: LOL, try to stream a HiDef movie with a free VPN. Bandwidth (speed) baby!! Free VPN's not only give you limited data, but also limited speed. This is not "most cases" or "some cases" or "yeah man, but... " NO! You cannot stream HD video with a free VPN. It's not going to work out very well for you. And for your cousin Eddie who says he can... your cousin Eddie is a liar!

-You do your banking online: I don't care how much time you spend fat fingering your online banking or who you bank with, a free VPN will just fine. Let's talk about why.
It's simple really. You are not using gobs of data (you're not), and the data doesn't need to flow at warp speed. Without exaggeration, you could do "online banking" with a 56k modem fairly smoothly. But don't try it, just take me word for it. You can trust me :)
Free VPN highly suggested

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Final Thoughts

Just about everything I've written in this article can be overshadowed by the ridiculously low prices being offered by the "premium" VPN providers. Some are like $2 a month, if you pay a year in advance, or $

Remember something. When you read ANYTHING from someone's website (not mine), it's all about the money. They'll tell you anything to get you to send them money, including not only bent truths, but outright lies.

ALL VPN's work the same. There are NO differences in the "PROTECTION" you get from a free VPN as you would for a paid for VPN. That's facts and don't let anyone tell you different. I'm telling you this because one of the TOP VPN providers has on their website some bs

[rant] It seems like EVERYBODY these days, they say things that aren't real, bend the truth, say things that don't apply nor need to besaid, and just outright lies. I'm saying this to show you that even "PREMIUM" providers spew just garbage and they should be ashamed. They do it to get you scared, to get you to sign. What they never tell you, is WHY you should (get a VPN). They tell you how great 'theirs' is, using open ended and meaningless jargon. Tell us how, we're not dumb! HOW is yours better! What is it specifically that yours does so much better than the other guys, showing hard data. It's not even hard. It's easy to produce and understand. [/rant]

Surfshark vs. free VPNs

Free VPNs might sound like a good deal, but they often come with slower speeds, weaker security, tracking, and ads. Paid VPNs offer stronger encryption, better privacy, and faster connections. If you care about keeping your data safe, it's worth paying for a trusted VPN.