- Betternet, it has free and paid versions,
which is usually a sustainable business model for a VPN,
plus it makes a lot of big claims,
but are they true?
When you have way more free users than paid ones,
something looks fishy, right?
This is my honest Betternet VPN review.
And I'm gonna investigate both paid and free versions
of this service.
I'll give you its pros and cons and my expert opinion
on whether Betternet is a reliable option for you in 2021.
If you wanna watch
some interesting VPN content every week,
please sub to this channel,
and give me a heads-up if you find this video helpful.
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Is Betternet free VPN fast and reliable enough
for everyday use?
Tunneling protocols and the number of servers
have a massive impact on a VPN speed.
Betternet uses a proprietary protocol called Hydra Catapult,
which it claims is similar
to the commonly used OpenVPN protocol.
It's tough to figure out how many servers are available
for free users as there's no clear info about this,
but since there's only one location in the US available,
I gather that it's really not a lot.
My speed test showed
that Betternet's free performance is underwhelming.
I experienced a massive drop in speeds,
and the ping was too high for comfort.
There have even been reports
of Betternet not working at all.
Some free users failed to connect and got error messages.
Free users are also capped at 500 megabytes per day.
Okay, so what about Betternet VPN Premium?
Paid users are uncapped
and get access to around 80 countries.
Once again, the actual server count is unclear.
Fortunately, speeds are better than on the free version,
but they're still far from being as good as service claims.
And here's the kicker,
since the overloaded free servers are in the US,
you'll slow right down if you connect to a US server.
So for free users,
Betternet's performance is terrible.
For paid users, performances are on average,
depending on where you are connecting.
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Is Betternet VPN safe?
Does it protect your data?
Both the free and the premium versions
uses AES 128 and 256-bit encryption.
So the website's military-grade encryption claim
is actually true.
Unfortunately, there's no kill switch in the apps
outside of the Windows app.
Kill switches protect you if your VPN connection fails.
And with Betternet, this happens a lot.
Betternet has also been known to leak data.
Right now, there's a leak protection feature,
which seems to effectively prevent leaks.
But I wish this was built into the app
rather than being a setting you can toggle on and off.
Leak protection is not solid
in the Betternet Chrome extension,
I would advise against ever installing this
as it's prone to both WebRTC and DNS leaks
and puts you in danger.
There's also no camouflage feature
for disguising the VPN traffic.
So you should never use this VPN
in a country with heavy internet censorship.
The Whitelister feature is handy
but can only be used for domains, not apps.
And there are no advanced security features besides it.
Betternet's privacy is also far from ideal.
It's based in the US,
which is a part of the Five Eyes
intelligence sharing alliance.
Meaning, the government might ask this provider
to share your data if they see fit.
Some of their server locations are virtual
so you have no idea
which physical territory you're visiting.
And the privacy policy is worrying.
For a start, the Betternet free VPN app used to contain ads,
and while they were replaced with bandwidth limit,
there are still issues with the privacy policy that remain.
It states that your approximate location and ISP
are shared with these advertisers,
even though they should be gone.
Third parties are also allowed to install cookies
on your device via the free app.
It's Weird, isn't it?
Apart from that,
Betternet collects and stores browsing timestamps,
device information, such as device ID,
hardware model and OS version and bandwidth used.
Domain names are logged,
although these apparently aren't personally identifiable.
This isn't great,
although at least they're honest about it, I guess.
You can download the free version without signing up,
but considering the privacy policy,
this isn't much help.
So I'd have to advise against using this service.
Privacy and security leave much to be desired.
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It's tough for VPNs to unblock Netflix.
Unfortunately, despite their website claims,
Betternet Netflix service is almost non-existent
even on the paid plans,
I was only able to access Netflix US and UK.
Don't expect to access other streaming platforms though.
The most that Betternet can manage reliably
is unblocking some geo-restricted content
on video sites like YouTube and Vimeo.
Betternet claims to support P2P,
in practice though,
the slow speeds make torrenting nearly impossible.
This is probably a blessing in disguise,
a Betternet's privacy policy
doesn't give torrentors much protection.
Overall, this is not a streaming and torrenting VPN.
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So far, this Betternet review hasn't been too positive,
but there's only one good aspect to the service;
it's really easy to use.
There aren't a lot of features,
so connecting and finding your way around
is straightforward.
There are apps for four major platforms
and the only browser extension is the unsafe Chrome add-on.
Sadly, there's no manual configuration,
so you can't use this VPN on routers,
gaming consoles, streaming boxes, and so on.
Their free version allows one connection,
while the paid version allows up to six devices.
Overall, the ease of use
comes at the price of limited functionality.
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Betternet is far from a perfect service,
so is it priced to match?
Unfortunately, you don't get what you pay for here
because their premium version is actually pretty pricey.
For example, it's long-term price is much more expensive
than the long-term NordVPN and Surfshark plans,
and these services are among the fastest
on the market right now,
with stellar privacy and security.
There's really no comparison,
Betternet does have a 7-day money back guarantee
and if you wanna quit the service before 45 days,
you can ask for a refund.
I'm unsure if this claim is reliable, though,
paying for this service is probably a waste of money.
If you'd like a really solid VPN,
but you'd want to pay for a bargain price,
check out the link in the description
for my list of the best VPNs.
Each of these has a unique discount attached to use
so you can score some massive savings.
Guys, I have to say
that Betternet VPN contains more drawbacks than advantages.
It's slow, greedy and unsafe.
Don't put your trust in free VPNs like this one
because it's not actually free,
you're just the product.
So if you've used Betternet,
please share your experiences down in the comments,
I'd love to hear from you.
Sub to this channel for your weekly dose of VPN news,
reviews and tutorials.
And thanks for watching.
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