Thinking about getting a free VPN service in 2022? Free VPNs are, of course, free, but there are a few “buts” to that. That brings a question of whether free VPN services are worth it in 2022, and on the other hand, are VPN services worth it at all?
Going into 2022, on paper, we have more privacy. Some laws have restricted what companies can collect or what they can collect without permission. But such changes didn’t always result in the desired outcome for everyone. For instance, some websites in the US, instead of complying with EU laws have instead made their website unavailable to people in the EU. That then results in a problem for those that want to still use that specific website, and there are more than a few of them.
VPN services can solve that issue in 2022 while providing you with a level of privacy on these kinds of websites while unblocking other websites blocked due to different reasons such as with Hulu in Ireland which normally doesn’t work due to being available only in the US.
With those 2 issues in mind, it can be easily concluded that VPN services are still worth it in 2022, and that’s because they are. They can offer you protection and privacy, with things such as encryption and via an IP address change. But then comes the question of whether free VPN services can provide what paid VPN services can, and whether you should invest in one.
The primary issue with free VPN services is that they struggle in delivering what a VPN service is meant to deliver.
As in...if you break down the meaning of VPN, a VPN is meant to provide you with a virtual private network.
And free VPN services almost always don’t quite deliver on that, along with many other things.
That’s because when things are “free”, you often pay with a different currency, with that often being data. In the case of VPNs, you might not pay with money, but you might pay with data.
Think we are just saying this? Search for Onavo Protect who eventually closed down for that exact reason.
And that’s the reality when using almost all free VPN services. VPN services like many other businesses cost money to run. If you aren’t making money from users, then you need to make it in other ways, whether that’s through collecting data and selling it or other means. The issue with VPN services doing that is that the main purpose of a VPN service is to offer protection.
Using VPN services for protection in 2022 while not the only reason for why people use VPN services, is a major reason for why people using VPN services, and while free VPN services aren’t equal and some do offer more protection features than others, at the end of the day, you need to think about how the service makes money.
Not everyone cares about privacy when they are getting a VPN service. One of the main reasons people get VPN services in 2022 is for entertainment.
People use VPN services for protection but also for entertainment to unblock streaming services that don’t work in ones country whether that’s to watch Hulu in Sweden or Paramount Plus in the UK.
Whether free VPN services in 2022 make sense for you depends on what you want to unblock, and while one might think that it would get easier to unblock services as years go on, in reality, it gets harder as services get smarter about blocking VPN services from working, and secondly, as more streaming services launch, and the more pressure there is on content rights, the harder it gets to unblock content as VPN services are constantly targetted.
American Netflix? It can happen that free VPN services can unblock it at lower speeds, but if you truly want to unblock entertainment whether that be what is by many considered as the best streaming platform right now, with that being HBO Max, or perhaps want to unblock sporting events with DAZN, then that’s where you will be looking for a paid VPN service.
The issue with free VPN services even in 2022 is that a) free services aren’t of the highest quality and thus don’t work well with unblocking content, and b) when something is free, it often is quite popular, and when something is popular, it becomes a target.
That’s not to say that a paid VPN service automatically solves this issue and is worth it. The reality is that when it comes to unblocking streaming services, VPN services, paid and free, both often struggle. Free ones are an easy target, meanwhile many paid services focus on providing many locations option which can be great for certain things, but it doesn’t necessarily unblock all entertainment options.
PrivateVPN has a different approach, focusing on fewer servers than most paid options. Instead of offering thousands of servers, it focuses on providing quality, and making sure the servers are of the highest quality, and then if there is ever any problems, PrivateVPN comes with award-winning customer support that is there to solve issues if you ever have any.
When it comes to unblocking your US website that doesn’t work in the EU due to GDPR, most free VPN services can handle that as these kinds of websites as these websites don’t really care if you use their website or not. Their priority is not to break any rules in the EU, and if you want to bypass the blocks, then so be it.
However, when it comes to proper censorship such as China as an example, well, that’s when things get a little bit more complicated. That’s when a standard VPN isn’t enough. Whether it’s paid or free. That’s where you need features like Stealth VPN with your VPN.
Stealth VPN feature? It masks your VPN traffic so that it blends in with normal traffic. By doing so, it makes it hard for censorship to happen, as you don’t clearly stand out as someone using a VPN, whereas if you did, your internet just wouldn’t work.
If you need a VPN for such purposes, make sure that is has a stealth feature. It does slow down your internet connection, but at the end of the day, you have 2 options. You either don’t access restricted content or do you with slightly slower speeds.
VPN services? Whether looking for online protection via encryption and an IP change, or to unblock location restricted content, allow you to do what you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do. But that’s not necessarily what free VPN services allow you to do. If you want to see more VPN offers the website vpn.group offers reviews on the most popular VPN services.
Written by Michael Smolski.
Disclaimer: While PrivateVPN supports location blocked content, due to the nature of streaming services always making efforts against VPN services, it cannot guarantee non-stop 100% of the time protection. No service can.