With all the recent talk of privacy violations from companies using platforms like Facebook, there’s never been a more important time to protect your privacy online.
For many people, the first line of thought for protecting your privacy is to use a VPN. Using a virtual private network can be a great way to mask your connection, but it’s also a potentially dangerous way to hand over all of your browsing data to another third party.
In fact, many VPN providers out there offer their services for cheap or free, and then sell off your data to companies. Many of these providers suggest that they provide privacy for their customers, but then bury their third-party data practices deep into their terms and conditions.
To avoid falling prey to these predatorial VPN apps that care little about your privacy, we’ve created a list that showcases the top 5 VPN apps you can actually trust on the market.
NordVPN – For Mobile And Desktop
What Makes NordVPN Trustworthy: Uses military grade encryption and strict no logs policy. Monthly Price: $3.29 - $11.95 Free Trial: Yes, 3 day trial
NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN apps and there are a few reasons why. Firstly, NordVPN stays reasonably priced, with 2 year plans costing just $3.29 and a monthly subscription for $11.95.
When finding a VPN, the features are important, and NordVPN delivers. NordVPN supports up to 6 devices simultaneously on a single account, and installation and setup is easy for both desktop and mobile.
You can choose to route your traffic through 62 different countries and even get your own dedicated IP address. For additional protection, you can even send your traffic through two virtual private networks for an added layer of security.
What’s more important than NordVPN’s features is their policy on privacy. NordVPN has a very strict no logs policy, which means none of your data is stored. NordVPN also uses what they call military grade encryption to ensure that even if your data was somehow left on their server, it’d be encrypted and very difficult to decrypt.
Private Internet Access – For Mobile And Desktop
What Makes PIA Trustworthy: Encryption for data sent through their servers and no data logs are kept on you. Monthly Price: $2.91 - $6.95 Free Trial: No, but 7 day money back guarantee
Despite using such a simple, basic name, Private Internet Access is easily one of the most comprehensive secure VPN services available in 2018.
Their interface and web design may not be as welcoming as some other options in this list, but they deliver on their promises when it comes to features and privacy.
Monthly prices are incredibly cheap at as little as $2.91 for a two year subscription, or $6.95 per month for monthly renewals.
For this price, you get a secure VPN account, your data sent over WiFi that is encrypted, and the ability to connect up to 5 devices simultaneously.
Despite the less appealing website design, Private Internet Access is still very straightforward to use and it becomes very easy to pick and choose connections to and from 28 different countries.
Private Internet Access also does not hold onto any data you send through their servers and their security methods do enough to keep your privacy safe.
VyprVPN – For Mobile And Desktop
What Makes VyprVPN Trustworthy: All servers are owned by VyprVPN and data is encrypted. Monthly Price: £3.63 - £9.25 Free Trial: 3 Day Free Trial
Prices for VyprVPN’s service depend on which package you choose and whether you pay monthly or annually.
There are two packages, standard VyprVPN and Premium. The main benefit of using the premium version is that you are able to connect up to 5 devices simultaneously, whilst the standard package only allows three devices.
One of the best things about VyprVPN is that they own and operate all of their servers across the world. This means that no data is ever sent to a third party server (besides VyprVPN’s) and all data that goes through these servers is encrypted.
In total, VyprVPN has over 70 countries available for users to connect to, across 6 continents, which gives them one of the largest location portfolios for any VPN provider.
If you ever need help with learning more about how VyprVPN protects your data, or want advice on how to use their service, VyprVPN has a 24/7 chat team available, which is a nice benefit.
IPVanish – For Mobile And Desktop
What Makes IPVanish Trustworthy: No traffic logs and data encryption. Monthly Price: $6.49 - $10 Free Trial: No, but 7 day money back guarantee
IPVanish is one of the more expensive VPN providers, but for just $10 on a monthly renewal, or $6.49/month for a 2 year subscription, prices are still more than reasonable.
IPVanish supports all major platforms from Windows and Mac to iOS and Android, and their experience has been streamlined across all platforms.
With IPVanish you can get access to servers in over 60 different countries and you’re given the ability to switch between these servers without restriction. You’re given up to 5 simultaneous devices and everything done on these devices goes through 256-bit AES encryption. IPVanish does not store any traffic logs, either.
If you ever need help, IPVanish also has 24/7 live chat to help you with any questions you may have about their service or their products.
PrivateVPN – For Mobile And Desktop
What Makes PrivateVPN Trustworthy: No personal logs or data is collected when you use PrivateVPN. Monthly Price: $3.88 - $7.67 Free Trial: No, but 30 day money back guarantee
PrivateVPN offers their VPN services for as little as $3.88 per month on a 13 month subscription, or $7.67 for a 1 month renewal price.
With PrivateVPN you are able to access servers in 56 different countries and there’s no limit to how many times you can switch between these servers.
Your subscription to PrivateVPN will also allow up to 6 simultaneous device connections and their VPN is supported on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
With PrivateVPN, it’s easy to mask your IP address and location and PrivateVPN will never store any data whijle using their platform.
Your data, personal information, and communications are all encrypted through PrivateVPN as well.
Conclusion
Using a VPN isn’t a requirement and most people don’t bother because of the extra cost and hassle of setting everything up. However, if you’re concerned about what your privacy and want to ensure that no one else is able to secretly monitoring your Internet activity, a VPN is the first step in the process.
The only major downside I’ve seen when using a VPN is the reduction in speed. It works best if you have a fairly fast Internet connection and if you go with one of the reputable companies that have many servers all over the world.
Thanks for reading our list of five excellent VPN apps to protect your privacy. Which of these will you be trying? Enjoy!
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