ANYONE looking to protect their data or online browsing history should look to make use of a virtual private network (VPN) app.
We’ve rounded up some of the best free and paid-for VPNs out there on a host of devices. And you’ll likely find some great deals on VPNs during the Black Friday sales, so read on for our shopping tips.
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Use it sparingly and you should be able to make TunnelBear’s 500MB data limit last
- Shop VPN Black Friday sales at ExpressVPN here
Best live VPN Black Friday deals
Good news: some retailers are already offering up fantastic bargains for VPN shoppers.
Here are some of the best that you can take advantage of right now.
- ExpressVPN, £6.35 a month for 12 months, was £9.89 a month – buy here
- Surfshark VPN, £1.64 a month for 24 months plus three months free, was £8.99 a month – buy here
- NordVPN, £3.64 a month or £43.66 for one year, was £106.08 – buy here
- CyberGhost VPN, includes an exclusive IP address, £3.20 a month for two years, was £4 – buy here
When is Black Friday 2021?
The shopping sensation that is Black Friday is always the fourth Friday of November, coming hot on the heels of the US Thanksgiving celebrations.
That means Black Friday falls on November 26 in 2021.
Major retailers and brands all compete to bring you the best deals on their products.
When is Cyber Monday 2021 and will VPN retailers take part?
Cyber Monday is the online-only version of Black Friday. It falls on the Monday directly afterwards, completing a weekend of sales – so this year, it’s on November 29.
Yes, we’d expect to see lots of great VPN deals. In fact, there are already some early-bird offers available.
We’ll bring you more as soon as they go live, so watch this space!
What can you expect from the VPN Black Friday sale?
Big savings for sure! If you’ve been thinking about investing in a VPN subscription, this is the time to do it.
We’re already seeing big price drops across the major players. And, based on past years, we’d expect to see more to come.
Make sure you shop around to find the best deal for you.
Were there VPN Black Friday deals last year?
Absolutely! In 2020, we saw big savings on VPNs, and we expect the same again this year.
Watch out for not just price drops but extra months added to the subscription.
For example, many top VPN retailers added three months extra to their deals in 2020.
Some of the best offers included:
- CyberGhost VPN, £1.68 a month for three years, plus three months free
- ExpressVPN, £4.99 a month for a year, plus three months free
- NordVPN, £2.77 a month for two years, plus three months free
- Surfshark VPN, £1.65 a month for two years, plus three months free
What should you know about VPNs before buying?
It’s important to note that VPNs can be used to get around geo-restrictions that stop you watching videos in certain countries. This is illegal, so it’s important not to use them for this purpose. VPNs should only be used to help protect your personal data from snoopers.
More recently, the backlash over Snapchat’s app redesign had some utilising a VPN to get around the update – although the company’s official Twitter account warns against it, and so do we.
There are plenty of VPN programs popping up online all the time, so we’ve taken the liberty of finding the best paid and free ones to keep you secure.
The best VPN apps for PC
NordVPN offers clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux – plus a Chrome plug-in and Firefox add-on. It’s an easy-to-use tool that boasts double encryption to ensure the most secure solution around. The search bar offers quick access to global servers, and there’s extra privacy through connection to the Tor onion network (an anonymous web browsing software used by major sites like The New York Times and Facebook).
- ExpressVPN (£10.18/month, £78.6/15 months) – Get it here
One of the best VPNs across both mobile and desktop platforms, ExpressVPN has a vast network of 160 locations in 94 countries. Most of its servers provide excellent speed and client support is known to be one of the best. With several security features and support for torrents and Netflix, ExpressVPN is certainly at the top of this list.
Like most free VPNs, TunnelBear boasts a premium version that ditches the download limit restrictions. But, if you’re okay with a data cap of 500MB of traffic each month, this is a solid free VPN. We’d recommend using it intermittently to get around the constraints, and you’ll probably enjoy the cutesy design while you’re at it.
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OpenVPN Connect for Android is free but requires a lot of know-how on the part of users
The best VPN apps for Mac
A lightning-fast VPN for Mac, this Switzerland-based provider owns and operates all of its servers. Auto-selection of the fastest servers is just one of the paid perks, along with auto-encryption of untrusted WiFi networks, and unrestricted connections by IP address.
Betternet’s free-forever service doesn’t come with a data limit. But be warned, it’s considered one of the worst for intercepting malware and you won’t be able to choose the server you connect to.
Mullvad’s strong suit is privacy. Most VPN providers try to make their users as anonymous as possible, but Mullvad takes things one step further. The company runs its own VPN network, and users don’t need to provide names or email addresses when they register for the service. They can even pay cash if they wish to remain completely anonymous.
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NordVPN’s all-encompassing app is one of the best money can buy
The best VPN apps for iPhone
You may have heard of the Opera web browser, well the company behind it also boasts a VPN app. Its free and unlimited, and also blocks ads and trackers. So what’s the catch? It can be slow and unresponsive at times. But you get what you pay for (or in this case, what you don’t pay for).
- CyberGhost VPN (£10.28/month, £68.58/year) – Get it here
Merging a robust network with a wonderfully pleasant interface, CyberGhost is a solid choice for anyone looking for a VPN working properly on an iPhone. The company also has a very extensive privacy policy, which is always a plus when looking for a VPN.
- KeepSolid VPN Unlimited (£8.57/month, £51.48/year) – Get it here
Balancing a very good speed with flexible pricing options, KeepSolid VPN allows users to pick monthly and yearly plans, as well as a lifetime licence they can get for £171.61. It also has interesting extra features such as BitTorrent support, browser clients and specific streaming services.
The best VPN apps for Android
ExpressVPN (£6.48) – Get it here
Building on the success and features of the PC version, ExpressVPN for Android is super-fast and extremely safe (touting an SSL secured network with 256-bit encryption, for all the privacy buffs). Everyone else can rest assured knowing that it should always have a connection available near you.
One of the few truly free VPN apps out there, OpenVPN is open-source (which means other, more privacy-minded folk can dig through its code and see if it measures up). It requires much more legwork than the paid apps on this list, and there’s plenty of advanced settings that need fine-tuning before you can fire it up. It should be noted that you’ll need to create and set up an OpenVPN server in order to use the app.
- Private Internet Access VPN(£8.99/month, £34/year) – Get it here
The perfect balance between performance and price, the Private Internet Access app features a great list of options, including port forwarding support, proxy support and custom encryption and handshaking methods. With a solid privacy policy and a very cheap 2-year plan, Private Internet Access is one of the best VPN apps you can get on Android.
The best VPN apps for unlimited device coverage
If you own multiple devices with different Operating Systems (think an iPhone running iOS, a Windows PC and a Mac-book Pro), or if you’re looking for a solution for the whole family, it may be difficult to find a VPN service ticking all those boxes.
Below are some of the best multi-platform VPN solutions offering unlimited device coverage.
One of the fastest VPNs in this list, Surfshark offers unlimited device cover and it is available on Windows, Mac, Linux, as well as iOS and Android.
Surfshark is based in the British Virgin Islands and offers most of the features you could ask of a VPN service, including AES-256 encryption and OpenVPN UDP and TCP, IKEv2 security protocols.
- Surfshark (£1.59/month, £38.16/two-year plan) – Get it here
With more than 400 servers in 110 locations, Windscribe has a big-enough network for you not to worry about being left out of a secure connection.
This VPN has clients available for most devices, including Mac and Windows PCs, iPhone and Linux devices, and even browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox.
- Windscribe (£3.31/month, £39.70/year) – Get it here
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Source: https://www.the-sun.com/tech/562190/best-free-vpn-apps-pc-mac-iphone-android/
