Top10VPN is editorially independent. Buying a VPN through our links supports our work.
The Disadvantages of Using a VPN
In This Guide
Understanding the disadvantages of using a VPN, and appreciating what it can and can’t do, is a crucial part of keeping yourself safe online. In this guide, I’ll walk you through the 10 biggest downsides to using a Virtual Private Network, drawing on the hundreds of VPN apps I’ve tested since 2016.
Using a good VPN enhances your internet privacy, security, and access around the world. It hides your IP address, encrypts your web browsing activity, and lets you access geo-restricted websites.
A VPN won’t solve all your problems though. You must understand its limitations and drawbacks to decide whether using a VPN is worth it for you.
Summary: 10 Main Disadvantages of VPNs
- A VPN won’t give you complete anonymity
- Your privacy isn’t always guaranteed
- Using a VPN is illegal in some countries
- A safe, top-quality VPN will cost you money
- VPNs almost always slow your connection speed
- Using a VPN on mobile increases data usage
- Some online services try to ban VPN users
- It won’t protect you from malware or phishing attacks
- No VPN can bypass every streaming block or censorship system
- Most free VPNs are dangerous to use
Despite the clear benefits, a VPN isn’t a universal solution for all internet privacy issues. Thinking that it is could put you at risk.
We’re fully independent and have been reviewing VPNs since 2016. Our advice is based on our own testing results and is unaffected by financial incentives. Learn who we are and how we test VPNs.
1. A VPN Will Not Make You Completely Anonymous
Even the best VPNs can’t guarantee your anonymity online. Your browsing behavior can still reveal your true identity in ways that your VPN service simply can’t control.
If you’re logged into a Google or Facebook account, a VPN won’t be able to stop those companies from monitoring your activity. It won’t help you to remove personal information from those websites, other social media accounts, or search engines, either.
There’s also a collection of techniques that advertisers use to track you across the internet:
- Web trackers and cookies: Websites use trackers and cookies to tailor their service to your specific needs. They store details about you, such as your name and geographic location, and can be used to identify you despite a VPN connection.
- Browser fingerprinting: Most browsers reveal small pieces of information unique to you and your session. Authorities and advertisers collate that information into a ‘fingerprint’ that identifies your online presence, even when you’re using a VPN.
Websites can track you through browser fingerprinting.
This is a surprising fact – your VPN can be doing its job perfectly, but you’re still being tracked.
To maximize your anonymity, pair your VPN with a genuinely private browser like Mozilla Firefox. Consider using an anonymous search engine like DuckDuckGo too, and think carefully about your behavioral patterns online.
2. Your Privacy Depends On Your VPN Service
One of the key reasons to use a VPN is to stop unwanted individuals from observing what you do online. Just as you wouldn’t let a stranger watch you from the window of your house, you don’t want strangers spying on you online.
There’s a trade-off though: by protecting yourself with a VPN, you’re still handing your browsing activity over to someone else – your VPN service.
All your internet traffic is routed through the VPN provider’s servers. If it wanted to, it could see who you are and what you’re doing online. That’s why I always read a VPN’s logging policy before I install it.
Your privacy is only ever as good as as the VPN service you choose. When I reviewed SkyVPN, for example, its data collection was invasive enough that your privacy wouldn’t be protected at all.
You need a VPN that won’t log any personally identifiable information about you or your activities. Ideally, its logging policy will have been independently verified by a third-party audit.
Without a no-logs policy, a VPN is a threat to your privacy and is probably unsafe to use. Learn more about this in our guide about VPN logs.
3. It’s Illegal to Use a VPN in Some Countries
Countries where VPNs are illegal or restricted.
VPN apps are legal in most countries around the world, but there are still a small number of places where using a VPN is either illegal or restricted.
The countries that ban or regulate VPN use are:
- Belarus
- Brazil
- China
- Iran
- Iraq
- Myanmar
- North Korea
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Russia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- United Arab Emirates
Where VPNs are banned, you could be breaking the law simply by connecting, and you may be prosecuted if caught. Where they’re regulated rather than banned, the rule is typically that only government-approved services are permitted.
In China, for instance, anyone caught using a VPN service that hasn’t been explicitly approved by the government can be fined up to 15,000 yuan (equal to around $2,300).
To learn more about global censorship, see where in the world VPNs are legal or illegal.
NOTE: Using a VPN to perform illegal activities is still illegal, regardless of where you are in the world.
4. Good VPN Services Cost Money
The unfortunate truth is that a high-performing, safe VPN will cost money.
It doesn’t have to break the bank, though. The average price of our most-recommended VPNs is just under $4.00/mo, with the cheapest option priced at $0.83/mo over 24 months.
The best VPNs don’t necessarily cost the most money, but in al my years of testing, I’ve yet to find a free service that does everything you’ll want it to.
The overwhelming majority of free VPNs are either poor quality or genuinely dangerous to use, a problem I discuss in disadvantage 10. When it comes to your privacy and security, it’s just not worth taking the risk.
5. Using a VPN Slows Down Your Connection Speeds
Using a VPN service almost always slows down your connection speed. Once you turn the VPN on, your connection takes a longer route to the internet via your chosen VPN server.
How much that actually impacts your speed depends entirely on the service. With good-quality VPNs the loss is so small you won’t notice it. For instance, when I speed-tested Hotspot Shield, it slowed my connection by just 0.41%.
Poor-quality VPNs are a different story. I’ve tested services that dragged download speeds and latency down to an unusable degree, which becomes a serious problem if your connection is already slow or if you’re doing something speed-sensitive like streaming, gaming, or torrenting.
EXPERT TIP: Very occasionally, a VPN will actually improve the speeds of certain activities by helping you to overcome ISP bandwidth throttling.
6. VPNs Increase Data Consumption
By encrypting your data and hiding your traffic from unwanted surveillance, a VPN also increases the amount of bandwidth you use.
This matters most on mobile, where you’re more likely to be using fixed-data cellular plans. Whenever you run a VPN on cellular data rather than WiFi, you’re consuming data at a faster rate than you would with it switched off.
My research has shown that VPNs increase data usage by anywhere between 4% and 20%, depending on which VPN protocol you’re using.
The practical consequence is that you’ll reach your contract’s monthly data limit much sooner. If you’re abroad, you could end up paying more in data roaming charges than you’d expect.
For more information, read our complete guide to VPN data usage.
7. Some Online Services Ban VPN Users
Many online services discourage the use of VPNs, or even prohibit them outright.
Streaming platforms like Netflix and BBC iPlayer are obvious examples. They try to block VPNs in order to stop you accessing videos and movies that aren’t licensed in your geographic region.
Some online stores do the same. Steam, for instance, tries to prevent users from accessing its store through a VPN, because it runs localized versions with region-specific prices and release dates.
In most countries it isn’t illegal to use a VPN to unlock ‘hidden’ content this way, but it may still breach the company’s terms of use. If it does, they have the right to suspend or delete your account.
8. VPNs Don’t Protect You from Malware or Phishing Attacks
Misunderstanding the limits of a VPN can leave you with the false impression that you are untouchable online.
Good VPNs provide essential protection from eavesdropping and man-in-the-middle attacks, but they don’t protect you from every cyber attack. A VPN is not a catch-all solution.
Using a VPN won’t protect you against:
- Malware: A VPN won’t secure your device against most forms of malware, such as viruses, spyware, and ransomware. It will prevent the injection of malicious code during a man-in-the-middle attack, though.
- Phishing attacks: You’re just as susceptible to social engineering scams with a VPN running. Be careful about which links you click on and what you download to your device.
NOTE: Some VPN services do offer additional security tools that go beyond what a VPN itself does. NordVPN’s Threat Protection, for example, includes an adblocker, anti-malware software, and a tool to prevent DDoS attacks. You’ll usually pay extra for these features, and in my experience they rarely match an equivalent standalone product.
9. It Isn’t Always Possible to Bypass Restrictions
Netflix Mexico detected and blocked PIA when I attempted to stream exclusive content.
More than a fifth of VPN users in the US and UK use their VPN to “access geographically restricted entertainment content”, according to our global statistics survey. In practice that means unblocking foreign streaming libraries to watch content that isn’t normally available where you live.
Other people use VPNs to access the free, global internet from inside high-censorship countries such as China, Turkey, and Iran.
Unfortunately, no VPN provider can guarantee you’ll be able to get through these restrictions every time.
Some VPNs are far better at it than others, but even the best services get blocked occasionally. It’s essentially a permanent game of cat-and-mouse between the streaming service (e.g. Netflix) or censorship system (e.g. Great Firewall of China) on one side, and your VPN service on the other.
10. Most Free VPNs Are Dangerous to Use
Your VPN service has access to a lot of personal information. It can see your IP address, the websites you visit, and what you do on those websites.
Trustworthy VPN companies ignore this information, and most make sure it is never recorded in the first place.
However, while safe VPN companies make their money through your subscription payments, most free VPNs aren’t safe, as they earn revenue by collecting your personal information and selling it to the highest bidder.
In short: you are the product, not the VPN. For many of these companies, gathering data to sell is the entire purpose of running the service. This is the reason they’re often able to offer their VPN for ‘free’.
That’s why the wrong VPN can leave you worse off than no VPN at all. Do your research before you download. Use a trusted, safe VPN, or don’t use one at all.
