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Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers are all over the internet and most of the time, you have to pay to access their services. It takes money to set up a VPN server and you don’t expect these people to do it for free. Most VPN apps available for Android on the Play Store are not actually free apps, they are freemium in most cases. The free offer is always a ploy to get you to subscribe to their premium service.
Some of them limit you to a server or two with a daily cap on the amount data you can transfer. But still, there are VPN apps that are unlimited and totally free.
While these VPN apps are free to use, I do not guarantee your privacy; some VPN providers are known to keep logs on their servers. Some providers sell your data to third-party companies and you are at risk of the dangers associated with free VPN like browser hijacking, tracking, bandwidth theft and more.
Ultrasurf
Ultrasurf is one of the oldest censorship circumvention tools, and it has been in existence since 2002. I got to know about the Windows version of the program back in 2009. The Android version has a very simple user interface with a settings panel that lets you tunnel the VPN through a proxy server. It’s simple and straightforward. Ultrasurf doesn’t allow you change servers like other VPN apps, the only server available has a US IP address. It’s totally unlimited and not ad-supported.
OVPN Spider
I got to know this while trying to access a restricted Chinese music streaming service last year. The (premium) VPN service I use doesn’t have a Chinese server and I was desperate to get a Chinese IP address. OVPN Spider works with OpenVPN and it’s based on public VPN servers available on VPN Gate. These servers are set up by volunteers across the world, you want to be careful with what you do on a VPN server set up by anonymous internet users. Servers are grouped by country and there are lots to choose from.
Orbot (Tor for Android)
Anyone who has been on the internet long enough already knows Tor as the gateway to the Dark Web. Even if you don’t plan on buying illegal items from .onion websites, you can still use the Tor’s mobile VPN to hide your IP address on the Internet.
It works just like the regular Tor we known. Orbot uses Tor network to encrypt your traffic. It hides your real IP address too by tunneling it through several computers around the world also on the network.
Opera VPN (discontinued)
This is owned by the same Norweigan company that owns Opera desktop browser and Opera Mini mobile browser. Apart from the free VPN service offered by this app, it also has the capability to block ad trackers from websites you visit. There are about 5 regions to choose from including the US, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, and Singapore.
Other VPN Apps
I tried another VPN app called Unlimited VPN but this VPN app is heavily supported by ads and you only get a single server with a French IP address. Another one called VPN Private too offers this service but it forces you to give it a 5-star rating in the Play Store to get “Premium” features. If you’re looking for more VPN providers for Android, you can check vpnAlert.
My recommendation
OVPN Spider doesn’t look totally safe as servers are operated by volunteers. You don’t know who’s behind the server you’re surfing with or whether they have ulterior motives. I would recommend Opera VPN and Ultrasurf. I’m not saying they are totally safe or your data isn’t being used for other purposes, but these services are not operated by nameless individuals.