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Some Good VPN Services You May Have Missed

George Miller

August 19, 2024

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New VPN Services You May Not Have Heard About – Alternatives to the Top-Rated VPNs

You have probably seen plenty of those YouTube ads and TV commercials going on about the benefits of a VPN service. All of these services promise to protect you from cybercriminals, and the prying eyes of your employer, but not all of these VPN or Virtual Private Networks are equal. As a rule of thumb, I always weigh my options when it comes to investing in a VPN service based on three factors, what kind of privacy policy they have, how many servers I can pick from, and whether the service is affordable or not. Another factor which I take into account is how old is the service.

With giants like Google, you never know which of their services would be shut down next. The search giant is notorious for launching and discontinuing its services, and just in June 2024, they decided to pull the plug on their unlimited VPN service that used to come bundled with the One membership. If you have been using Google’s VPN service for the past couple of years, you will probably need to look for an alternative. As a Google One member myself, I decided to explore the latest VPNs on the market. Here are my top picks as an alternative to any age-old VPN service, like the now unavailable Google One.

Although not as popular as Google or Bing, DuckDuckGo has already carved its niche as a privacy-focused search engine. This is because the search site doesn’t use ad trackers, which makes it very difficult for websites to track your browsing activities. On top of that, the search engine launched a privacy bundle in 2024, which includes a VPN, identity theft restoration and personal information removal services. Naturally, it piqued my interest.

DuckDuckGo’s VPN offering is relatively minimalistic compared to other services such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark. It provides server options in a few countries at the moment, although with the regular addition of new server locations, the server network is growing steadily, which is a good thing. The unique selling proposition of the Privacy Pro bundle is that the no-trial service packs in a browser and a VPN.

I decided to use Google Trends to compare the search interest between DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro and NordVPN over the past 12 months. It showed a significant disparity in popularity. NordVPN has consistently maintained a high level of interest.

In contrast, DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro has negligible search interest, barely registering on the graph. This indicates that NordVPN is far more recognized and searched for by users worldwide compared to DuckDuckGo Privacy Pro, which has yet to gain substantial traction in the market.

I started gauging people’s reactions from the social news platform Reddit. Redditors have mixed opinions about DuckDuckGo’s Privacy Bundle. One user, terkistan, compared it favorably to Mozilla VPN and Mozilla Plus, praising its better pricing and in-house development.

Users prioritize several factors while evaluating and comparing VPN services, including how good the VPN is regarding nodes, speed, and other factors. In contrast, they note Mozilla VPN’s reliance on the well-regarded Mullvad VPN, suggesting a difference in approach and experience.

Another user, drydockn, raises concerns about outsourcing service providers, referencing Mozilla’s past issues with providers linked to questionable practices. They prefer DuckDuckGo’s in-house development approach, seeing it as a way to maintain better control and security.

In a different thread, users discuss technical limitations. One user, theTVsaidso, asks if DuckDuckGo’s VPN can work alongside other VPN interfaces like 1Blocker on iOS, noting that it cannot due to iOS limitations. However, DuckDuckGo staff confirm that their VPN supports app track protection, a positive feature for users concerned with tracking.

Avira is one of those handful of VPNs that offer a full-spectrum free plan, which means you could get access to all of its servers for free. However, there’s a data cap of 500 MB for free users, and they do not get the tech support and cannot use the Kill Switch feature. The VPN allows for torrenting and P2P file-sharing on all of its servers.

Once you subscribe, the data cap is lifted and you can use it for streaming your favorite content, no strings attached. Avira, which uses bank-grade encryption, even hides P2P file sharing activities, which I think is a big plus. It has got 1,400+ servers in 37 countries, but I found that the servers are mostly located in Europe and the USA, with Africa and South America completely ignored. I was happy to find India and Mexico on the list too.

Like always, I took recourse to Google Trends to analyze and compare the search interest for Avira and one of the top-rated VPNs at this moment, to see how they fare against each other. As you can see, ExpressVPN has consistently maintained a high level of interest, and the search interest reached its lowest point during May 2024.

I checked out one of the most popular software-related discussion forums on the internet, Software Advice, and found that the overall consensus about the software is mostly positive.

Users pointed out that the software is extremely easy to use, and offers top-notch privacy and security, which translates into good value for money for them. For some users, the price is a concern, although it is not a dealbreaker in any way. The robust encryption and the user-friendly interface are the two as aspects lauded by the users.

However, one of the biggest downsides of the VPN software is its speed. The VPN has slow connection speed when it comes to streaming content, and if that is one of your primary concerns, I would recommend looking for other options.

Launched in 2019, Zug, Switzerland-based PrivadoVPN implemented the cutting-edge WireGuard protocol in late 2021 and has all the features you would look for in a tried and tested VPN service.

To start with, it allows users to access any sort of content, whether it’s music, video, or social media content, irrespective of where they are based at. It also features Autoconnect, which is common among all the leading VPN services available as on date. You can choose from all the latest VPN protocols, such as IKEv2, OpenVPN, and WireGuard and your data is always encrypted regardless of which protocol you choose, thanks to its IP leak protection.

I liked that the relatively new VPN has a zero-log policy. Switzerland’s privacy laws are pretty watertight, which is also a big relief for anybody using it while travelling. The VPN lets you connect to its servers in 66 cities in nearly 50 countries, and you get 13 locations on the free plan too. Although they have servers in parts of Asia, I couldn’t find any African server location, which might be a letdown for some users.

Google Trends reflect the search interest in a topic, product, and even a personality over a certain duration. I compared the search trends for PrivadoVPN and another top VPN service, IPVanish, and discovered that the latter has shown significant level of interest, and it actually reached the peak of the search trends back in October 2023.

With all the buzz around it, PrivadoVPN didn’t live up to my expectations as it did not garner any significant interest throughout the past one year. Consider the fact that it is a comparative analysis and IPVanish is actually much older and a very respected brand in the VPN circuit.

I checked out TrustPilot, which is one of the largest consumer review websites on the internet, to understand what the real users think about PRivadoVPN. I found mixed user opinions about the fairly young VPN service on the forum.

Some users are understandably pretty disappointed, particularly due to the poor Linux/OpenVPN support offered by the provider and its limited server availability. However, some other users praise it for the flexible pricing, ease of use, and its security. Some users even consider it as a strong competitor to another top VPN, NordVPN, due to its stable connection and strict no-log policy.

From a user’s perspective, UTunnel VPN is certainly a solid choice for both individual users and businesses. Launched in 2019, it is a cloud-integrated VPN service which allows dedicated servers on the cloud. For example, you can set up a VPN server in Hetzner or Digital Ocean using UTunnel.

The user interface is clutter-free, and I found that even beginners can navigate through it, set up, and manage the VPN pretty easily. The VPN, as I found it, has a lot in store for business or enterprise users, although it won’t disappoint regular individual users.

With a whole lot of advanced security features such as least privilege access, role-based access control, and 256-bit encryption, it stands out as an enterprise-focused VPN which caters equally well to individual users looking for safe internet browsing options. However, it doesn’t support streaming devices like Amazon Fire TV and is not a great option for gamers as well.

While comparing the search trends for UTunnel VPN and CyberGhost, which remains one of the fastest VPN services, I discovered that the latter steadily maintained a high level of interest worldwide over the past one year, whereas UTunnel lags far behind in this regard.

CyberGhost, which has already become an editor’s choice for some of the biggest software reviewrs, enjoys its fair share of popularity across the world. This is quite natural, as it has got more than 11,500 server locations in more than 100 locations, which is huge.

However, as I mentioned it earlier, UTunnel is mostly focused on businesses and it has already carved its own niche. You cannot expect a business-focused VPN to enjoy the same level of popularity as a personal one.

I turned to G2, which is one of the largest software marketplaces, to have an idea of what the real users think about UTunnel VPN. As I expected, most of the users are from the global business community, and the VPN has got zero negative rating on the platform.

Specifically, small business owners appreciate its easy installation and management, and many actually praised the Bring Your Own Server (BYOS) option. The BYOS feature enables business owners to deploy a VPN gateway on the cloud servers of their preference, which is one reason privacy-focused businesses prefer it over other VPN solutions.

However, some users wish the payment options could be expanded to PayPal. Overall, it has garnered positive reviews on G2 for being a solid, cost-effective VPN service.

One of the leading VPN service providers coming out of the UAE, Symlex comes with a rich assortment of features that cater to both privacy-conscious business users and users who are mostly interested in geo restriction-free streaming and gaming. You can unblock all the popular social media apps and VoIP apps regardless of where you are, including Facebook and Tiktok, by choosing from the servers located in 95 locations across the world.

Once you are a paid user, you can use your subscription across five different devices, and access streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix from your actual location quite easily. The service has broad compatibility, and you can download and install the VPN client on Android, Windows, iOS and Max. In addition to that, you will get unlimited bandwidth, and if you use the internet most of the time of the day, it’s an automatic choice.

If you don’t like the intrusive advertisements, Symlex has good news for you. It packs in an ad blocker, which can help you avoid distractions. I found that the company has a stringent no-logs policy, and with its military-grade encryption, it actually stands as a reliable alternative to some of the biggest VPN services on the market now, including Private Internet Access.

Having more than 35,000 servers, Private Internet Access is arguably the best VPN service on the internet. I decided to pit Symlex against PIA on Google Trends to see which one has garnered more search interest over the past one year. As you can assume, Private Internet Access is the clear winner in this regard, as its search volume is considerably higher than that of Symlex.

However, this is all about putting it in a perspective, and I won’t say Symlex hasn’t been able to draw attention of real users worldwide. It’s just that the two are in different leagues as Private Internet Access is almost a decade older than Symlex, which is a big reason why they are a more familiar name, and that is why more people search for the term on Google.

On Trustpilot, Symlex has got an incredibly high rating (4.9 out of 5). I delved deeper to know why users consistently rated it with a 5-star and found plenty of reasons for satisfaction. Its wide range of features, along with the east of use and strong security features such as a kill switch are what impressed many of the existing users. Most users find its connection speed pretty fast.

The best part, as pointed out by many users, is its customer support. Symlex offers robust multi-channel support, including WhatsApp support. Some users also like the frequent promotions run by the company, not to mention its affordable pricing.

Feature Name	DuckDuckGo VPN	Avira Phantom VPN	Privado VPN	UTunnel VPN	Symlex	SurfShark	PureVPN	IPVanish
No Log Policy
Number of Servers	Unspecified	1,400+	Unspecified (100+)	50+	300+	3,200+	6,500+	2,000+
Number of Countries	23+	37+	49+	22+	40+	100+	65+	52+
Free Trial				14-day free trial (conditions apply)		7-day free trial
Maximum Connections	5	Unlimited	10	Unspecified	5	Unlimited	10	Unlimited
Multihop
Kill Switch
Supported Protocols	WireGuard	IPv4, IPv6	OpenVPN	OpenVPN, IKEV2	ireGuard, Ope VPN, OpenConnect, IKEv2, Shadowsock, PPTP, L2TIPSec	WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2	WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, IPSec	WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, IPSec
Ads Blocking					Yes (on some servers)
Split Tunneling
IPv6 Protection
DNS Protection		Windows only

The competition in the VPN market gets fiercer with each passing day. New features and customization options keep coming regularly from the most reputed developers, and as with every market, there are disruptors who aim to change the dynamics with never-seen-before features. However, when choosing VPN, always consider your requirements first. Are you going to use it mostly for streaming and gaming? Do you want a VPN for easy deployment on the cloud? Is price really a concern? Answer these questions first to narrow down your search. As a rule of thumb, check a VPN’s log policy, server network, cost, and market reputation before investing in it.