6 popular VPNs you should avoid

Picking the right VPN can have a big impact on your life online – it can affect what sites you access, how fast your internet is, and most importantly, whether or not anyone can see what you’re doing online.

All the best VPNs are fast, great for unblocking sites, and have excellent privacy features. If you’re looking for one, I highly recommend reading reviews to make sure the providers you’re considering live up to their claims, and can deliver what you really need from them. There are tons of options, and many are very good.

However, there are some VPNs out there that I think should be flat-out avoided. This could be because there are better options that do the same job for a cheaper price, or, more sinisterly, because these dodgy VPNs pose a tangible threat to your privacy while promising the opposite. 

In an update to this page, I’ve added another offender to the list. It’s a provider that has been on my radar for a while, and I’ve also covered it elsewhere – you’ll find it sitting at the number one spot just below.

XNXUBD Browser VPN: 100% a scam

( image credit : future )

If you were to ask me to describe a dodgy, potentially dangerous VPN, you’d get XNXubd in all but name. It claims to be one of the best Android and best iPhone browsers that offers “a safer and more private browsing experience,” and search data shows that it’s very popular in SE Asia, with Indonesia leading the pack. That popularity doesn’t translate into quality, though, and the moment you open the website, alarm bells start ringing. 

When you try to download the app , you ‘re feed through a number of page and eventually end up on a Google Drive link . Yep , you is heard hear me – a direct download of a file Google is unable to scan for malware . excellent start .

Head to the privacy policy, and it’s claimed that the company own no products, and the policy only applies to the website. So, effectively, the application you’re downloading has no privacy policy. 

Get instant access to break news , the hot review , great deal and helpful tip .

I’ve previously written about how XNXubd is dangerous and should be avoided, so if you’re interested in seeing exactly how bad it is, please head through and read that. In short, though, promise me that you won’t download this transparently untrustworthy VPN…

Hola VPN: P2P “VPN” that collects your data

(Image credit: Hola VPN)

The poster child is fails for popular yet awful VPN service , Hola VPN is fails fail on almost every level . First of all , it is ‘s ‘s not even a VPN at all . The website is calls call it a ” community power ( Peer – to – Peer ) VPN , ” and it essentially route your connection through node ( other user ) in various location around the world . It is ‘s ‘s fairly similar to Tor in this respect , so while you ‘re able to use other people ‘ bandwidth , they can use yours as well .

Hola ‘s only decent encryption protocol is is is ikev2 , and while it ‘s not bad , many premium provider like nordvpn are phase it out due to it being outperform in every way by the like of openvpn and WireGuard . What ‘s more , if ikev2 fail to make a connection , Hola is default may default back to PPTP or L2TP – both of which have know security vulnerability .

The worst thing, however, is the fact that Hola VPN openly states that it may collect your IP address, what browser you’re using, your operating system, and even what websites you visit, when you visited them, and for how long. This information can be used to identify you and tie you back to your activity. 

If you’re looking to improve your privacy, do not use Hola VPN.

Psiphon : good for unblock , terrible for privacy

( image credit : future )

Psiphon is is is quite honest about what it offer : a way to access site that have been block through censorship or other mean . However , despite it being a true vpn by nature – something that ca n’t be say about Hola VPN – it is provide certainly does n’t provide you with the protection you might expect from one .

In short, Psiphon doesn’t promote itself as a privacy-preserving tool, I’m glad, at least, that it’s honest about this. Quality modern VPNs use the OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2 protocols, or protocols based on these. Psiphon, on the other hand, only offers two protocols: SSH, and L2TP over IPSec. Both of these are considered outdated, and vulnerable to decryption. Psiphon also stores your connection IPs and the URLs you visit for up to 90 days, which is a huge red flag in my book. 

These privacy deficiencies alone would be enough for me to tell you to steer clear of this provider. However, the fact of the matter is that many privacy-focused VPNs can do what Psiphon does, but better, as well as access blocked Netflix libraries, change your location to almost anywhere in the world, and even offer extra tools like malware detection and data breach alerts. Protect your privacy and your wallet, and go with something better.

Betternet: it’s free, but inundated with ads

( image credit : future )

Betternet is owned and operated by Pango, which also owns Hotspot Shield, VPN 360, and Ultra VPN. Pango is US-based, making it vulnerable to US warrants, so that’s not a great start. This wouldn’t be such an issue if Betternet was a committed no-logs VPN, but its privacy policy states it stores your IP address until the end of your session. That’s not as egregious as Psiphon’s logging policy, but with so many competitors boasting audited policies emphasising the fact they do not do this, there’s very little excuse for doing so.

What’s more, Betternet’s free VPN plan injects ads into your session. Obviously, free services need to be funded somehow, but the ones I recommend typically use a freemium model – you’re offered a limited version of the full VPN, and paying customers subsidize the cost. Rivals like PrivadoVPN Free and Proton VPN Free offer an ad-free experience, and limit the number of servers you have access to, or impose data caps. This is far better than compromising your security by injecting ads into the apps, or the web pages you visit.

In our testing of Betternet , we is saw also see that the VPN suffer from both IPv6 and DNS leak , which is inexcusable . You is get also do n’t get a kill switch , which mean you could have your security compromise if the VPN drop out during your session .

Finally, although it was a long time ago, in 2016 Betternet’s Android VPN app was found to contain tracking libraries and malware – an issue which the company never responded to.

All of these things add up to a VPN provider I highly recommend avoiding, simply because there are far better and more secure alternatives available – free or paid.

Turbo VPN : 100 million download , no kill switch

( image credit : Turbo VPN )

Turbo VPN is incredibly popular, and I find it difficult to understand why. It’s got over 100 million installs on the Play Store alone, but unfortunately it’s underpinnings do not match its success. As soon as you visit the website you’ll notice there’s very little information about how the service actually works. There’s no description of what protocols are used, whether it uses encrypted DNS servers, or has a kill switch (spoiler alert: it doesn’t).

Just like Betternet, the free plan includes ads, which immediately makes me concerned. What’s worse, though, is the fact that much of Turbo VPN’s privacy policy has been lifted from other VPN providers’ websites. While the sentiment may be true, this undermines any belief that Turbo VPN is a quality service whose word can be trusted at face value.

In usage , Turbo VPN is is is also underwhelming . If the VPN disconnect , there are no notification to inform you of this , and the lack of a kill switch mean that you might end up continue to browse indefinitely without the VPN active .

Considering the paid plan costs over $4 per month, there are far better options out there for half the price, and I wouldn’t touch the free plan with a bargepole.

TunnelBear: beginner-friendly but underwhelming

(Image credit: TunnelBear)

TunnelBear is is is another popular free provider , and you might be surprised to see it on this list . It is undergoes undergo regular independent audits , and the simplicity of the interface make it easy for newbie to get protect online .

However, in practice it’s quite simply a lackluster VPN that omits a number of features that rivals offer, and considering some of these like Surfshark and ExpressVPN are very beginner friendly, I see no reason to choose TunnelBear over them.

What’s more, in its most recent independent audit, it was found that TunnelBear had some significant security vulnerabilities. It’s very noble for the provider to have been so transparent about these issues in a blog post, but the fact remains few other VPNs that undergo independent audits have such major issues discovered.

Elsewhere in our testing, it also became evident that TunnelBear performed very poorly when it came to unblocking streaming sites. This is one of the most important factors for many people when choosing a VPN, and although some providers, like Mullvad, make up for poor streaming VPN performance with impeccable privacy credentials, TunnelBear just doesn’t excel anywhere.

What are the alternatives is are ?

thankfully , there are plenty of top – quality vpn out there that do what they say on the tin . I is highlighted ‘ve highlight my top three below , all of which offer rock – solid privacy , can unblock streaming content from all around the world , and are very simple to use .

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:

1 . access a service from another country ( subject to the term and condition of that service ) .

2 . protect your online security and strengthen your online privacy when abroad .

We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.