Are cheap VPN services worth it? When you searched for this on Google, you came across a list of cheap VPN services, but you also came across content that tells you not to use VPN services at all.
The issue with all that content? It’s that it assumed that people want to use VPN services only to stay private on the internet.
And ultimately, there are 4 mains reasons for why you might want to use a VPN.
If you are looking for a service that will give you access to not just every major country virtually, but also every major city, that’s where cheap VPN services often aren’t worth it.
...But you have to ask yourself why do you need to have access to thousands of servers in the first place.
If it’s for business purposes and you just need a large variety of servers, then you should indeed go for a pricier service.
If you are looking to unblock entertainment services, though, quantity does not correlate with quality, and those servers working.
A great example? Our service PrivateVPN.
It doesn’t have 3,000 servers. It doesn’t even have a thousand, but yet it supports the most Netflix regions on the market, meaning that you can unblock the most Netflix content possible.
As humans, we all naturally choose more. We love quantity, and VPN services market their service in that way. We just automatically assume that a service is better if it has more servers as then you can unlock more content.
However, that, unfortunately, is not the case.
Services like ESPN+, DAZN, Hulu, Starz, and all other streaming services with geo-restrictions make efforts to prevent VPN services from working.
Why? As they have to as otherwise, these companies would be breaking their contract agreements over where they show content.
As a result, VPN servers don’t just automatically work with entertainment services.
That doesn’t mean that cheap VPN services with lower quality of servers are automatically worth it, though.
Less doesn’t automatically equal quality.
What’s more important in this case is whether the servers you want to use support the entertainment platforms that you want to access.
In our post about whether free VPN services are worth it, we mentioned that whenever something is free, that you tend to pay with the currency of privacy.
VPN services are a business. They need to make money even just for the purpose of running.
So how does a service run for free and make money? By selling your data.
Free VPN services collect logs on usage and then sell it, in the process completely eliminating the point of a VPN in the first point.
On the other hand, paid services have, in the past, said that they don’t store logs and did which got a bunch of high profile hackers in jail.
The truth is that while a VPN will keep your personal data safe from hackers around you via encryption, and will offer you with a different IP to mask your location, that is often not enough to stay fully-safe on the internet.
Your IP address change? It’s great until it leaks. That’s why it’s important that the client you use also has the right security precautions in place.
That’s where PrivateVPN comes in with features such as IPv6 Leak Protection, DNS Leak Protection, App Guard, and Killswitch.
Is that enough then? It depends on what you are looking for.
The companies that collect data about you will still be able to show you the ads you already see as while your IP might be changed, websites can collect thousands of different data points on you anyway. After all, you still rock the same OS, still have the same screen resolution, and still, rock the same web browser with the same graphics card. All of that can be used to identify you too. That’s called browser fingerprinting.
We mentioned that there are four main reasons why people use VPN services.
The answer to whether they are worth it or not, well, it’s complicated.
It depends on the specific service, and that’s why we at PrVPNivate provide a 7-day risk-free trial that doesn’t involve you having to provide a card. Just sign up, and you are ready to go.
And find out for yourself when you unblock all the streaming services that you want to access.
Written by Michael Smolski.