Are VPNs Actually Worth It?

A virtual private network (VPN) is a piece of software that encrypts your internet connection and routes it through a remote server in a country of your choice.

By doing so, it masks your true IP address and location, allowing you to access geo-blocked streaming services, hide your browsing activity from your ISP, and secure public WiFi networks.

However, the average cost of a monthly VPN subscription is $10.94, which is more than the base plans of Netflix, Spotify, and Disney+.

Whether a VPN is worth it ultimately depends on you and your online habits.

Whether a VPN is worth it depends on your needs. But there are a number of clear and proven benefits to having one.

Here are the 6 main situations when VPN services are worth it:

1. Protecting Your Online Privacy

First and foremost, VPNs are privacy tools. Even if you use HTTPS websites, your ISP can still see which websites you visit.

By encrypting your connections, VPNs prevent your ISP from knowing which websites you visit, hiding your activity and identity from snooping.

Additionally, using a VPN will hide your IP address from the websites you visit. This makes it much harder for sites to track, profile, or target you with specific ads.

2. Accessing Geo-Restricted Streaming Content

VPNs are also entertainment tools. By changing your IP address, a VPN can make it appear as if you’re located in a different country, unblocking countless additional movies and TV shows that would otherwise be inaccessible.

For example, if you’re subscribed to Netflix, a good VPN for Netflix allows you to change your Netflix region and access many more regional libraries.

We’ve used VPNs to access 120 extra streaming services, including popular US exclusives like Max, YouTube TV, and Hulu, as well as streamers from France, Germany, the UK, Australia, and more. We also regularly use VPNs to bypass NHL and MLB sports blackouts.

Not all VPNs are good at this. Streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer try to block traffic from VPN servers, but the best VPNs for streaming unblock hundreds of extra sites without issue.

3. Unblocking Websites in Highly Censored Countries

VPNs are essential if you live in a country that blocks access to websites or limits your freedom of speech online. They can be used to access restricted websites and communicate in private.

This includes countries like Brazil, India, Iran, and Turkey, but extends to the most censorious countries of all, like Russia and China. If it’s a VPN with obfuscation technology, it can even bypass the Great Firewall of China.

4. Getting Cheaper Deals & Subscriptions

VPNs make it look like you’re in another region, so you can sometimes pay for services at local prices. For example, we used a VPN to get a cheap Netflix account, subscribing through a Ukraine server.

We also regularly use VPNs to stream sports events for substantially cheaper sums, like watching the UEFA Champions League through a cheaper Turkish streaming service called tabii.

We’re continuously researching and reporting on the latest ways to get cheap deals with a VPN and have discovered many workarounds. For example, streaming F1 for free on the Belgian site, RTBF Auvio, or using a VPN to access movies on Star on Disney+ or Tubi.

5. Securing Public WiFi Networks

Using public WiFi is a lot safer than it used to be, but there are still risks from hackers and malicious actors, and the WiFi owner can see your internet history.

A VPN for public WiFi allows you to connect to public WiFi privately and safely and stops third-parties from inserting any malicious content.

Although the risks are much smaller than they used to be, it’s still worth using a VPN for peace of mind when using public WiFi, especially if you’re doing something sensitive like online banking.

6. Protecting Your Anonymity When Torrenting

If you torrent without a VPN, your IP address is visible to other peers in the swarm, and the files you download are visible to your ISP.

Accidentally downloading copyrighted material would put you at risk of legal penalties pursued by copyright trolls, licensing companies, or your ISP itself.

By using a VPN for torrenting, you can prevent your torrenting activities from being traced to you.

You must ensure that you’re using a trustworthy VPN that does not store logs. That way, even if there is a legal request for information about you, there won’t be a record of your activities.

If none of the points above are important to you, then a VPN is not worth it. There are other disadvantages to VPNs to consider, too.

Below are 3 situations when VPNs are not worth it:

1. Achieving Complete Online Privacy

VPNs are excellent at improving your online privacy, especially against your ISP and the governments that mandate data collection. However, VPN software alone will not make you fully anonymous online.

Tracking methods that work within your browser are not stopped by a VPN. For example, a VPN doesn’t block cookies or fingerprinting based on your screen size, browser type, browser extensions, and how your graphics card works.

If you’re signed in to any social media accounts, your VPN will also become mostly worthless from a privacy point of view.

Additionally, you still have to trust a VPN service with your data. This essentially involves the choice between a VPN company or your ISP handling your data, so it’s vital to know whether the VPN service itself is trustworthy.

This is a problem when many VPNs can themselves be threat to your online privacy and security. They’re usually the free ones, like Hola VPN, but even some paid providers have been caught in scandals, like when Avast SecureLine was harvesting user data.

In addition, even premium VPNs can expose user data through accidental data leaks. If you’ve already subscribed to a service, use our VPN leak test to check for vulnerabilities.

2. Comprehensive Security Protection

VPNs improve your online security, but they aren’t perfect. While some VPNs include ad blockers and malware blockers, our tests show that they’re not as effective as dedicated ad blockers, antivirus, or anti-malware software.

If your primary goal is to protect your device and your data from digital attacks and viruses, then it’s worth investing in another type of security software.

Furthermore, most attacks use some form of social engineering. They convince someone to install something or to visit a website that has been weaponized to attack vulnerabilities in the user’s device.

Similarly, while a VPN’s encryption can prevent attackers from inserting malware into your web traffic, it can’t stop you downloading malware through the tunnel if that’s what you choose to do. Nor will a VPN scan any incoming emails or files to check whether they’re safe.

3. Prioritizing Connection Speed

VPNs slow down your internet connection due to the additional steps your data takes.

Your traffic is encrypted and routed through a remote server before reaching its destination – essentially taking a longer, more secure path to websites.

Even the fastest VPNs will slow down your internet to some degree. We recorded an average download speed loss of 13% with ExpressVPN and NordVPN, and 15% with Surfshark.

If you don’t plan to use a VPN very often, it might not be worth investing in a premium service.

Most free VPNs are not safe to use and we don’t recommend them.

However, there are a few free VPNs that are completely safe, such as Windscribe, Hide.me, and Proton VPN.

Using one of these involves accepting the various limitations of free VPNs, including monthly data caps, server restrictions, and slower speeds compared to paid services.

For context, the table below shows the differences between the paid and free versions of Windscribe and Proton VPN:

	Windscribe Paid	Windscribe Free	Proton VPN Paid	Proton VPN Free
Countries with Servers	69	10	112	5
Monthly Data Cap	Unlimited	10GB	Unlimited	Unlimited
Netflix Libraries	32	5	6	0
Torrenting	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

In short, for any regular VPN use, it’s worth paying for a high-quality premium service.