6 Reasons to Not Use a Free VPN Service

During the past years, I have written several articles on VPNs and one of the most common things people ask me is:

I found this free VPN. What do you think of it?

So, this article is especially dedicated to those people. In it, I expose 6 reasons why you should avoid using a free VPN:

• Offering a VPN service is not free

• Some companies sell their users’ bandwidth

• Some companies collect and sell your internet use data

• Some providers modify the web code to show ads

• Many VPNs don’t really offer secure connections

• VPN services can be used by scammers

You can click here to read our comparative review of the three VPNs that we currently recommend.

Disclaimer: While this article is based on the common practices of some rather well-known free VPN providers, I have avoided naming them as to not promote companies whose business model (in my understanding) borders on illegal.

Offering a VPN service is not free

This is the main reason why you should never trust a free VPN.

To offer a free VPN service, is it necessary to have servers in various countries. For example, ExpressVPN has more than 1,000 servers located around the world. The cost, whether to maintain or rent them, is high, and can amount to thousands of dollars for each server, depending on the volume of the traffic they are able to withstand.

Unless you believe that someone is going to be so generous as to spend thousands of dollars so that you can use a free VPN, the questions is: where does the money to offer a free VPN come from?

While I imagine that there are thousands of ways to make a profit off of a VPN, in the following sections, you will see some of the methods that the most famous VPNs use to make money.

Some companies sell their users’ bandwidth

As I said at the beginning, maintaining servers isn’t exactly cheap and because of this, some VPNs have designed a system to lower costs; that is, using their users as servers (converting them into a botnet), which is similar to what Tor does. Some VPN providers have even been revealed to sell your bandwidth to other companies. This has two basic problems:

• Your computer and internet connection will go much slower: This is because you are letting other users use your bandwidth and processor

• You are going to be responsible for what other users connected to your computer do: that means that because the users are connected to your computer, when they browse, your IP will appear, and as a result, if they do something illegal, you are going to be responsible.

Below, I have added an extract from the FAQ of one of the most famous VPNs (it is even recommended by CNN and Business Insider):

X is a Peer-to-Peer VPN community, where users help other users make the web global again. This means that X redirects traffic through other nodes (Peers) in its network, as opposed to routing via expensive servers.
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/free-vpn/