Best VPN for Android and Browsers

Best VPN for Android and Browsers

Browsing from a VPN is not only possible from our computer or a PC operating system, most browsers are available on both platforms with identical functionality. And the same is the case with VPN applications, the supplying companies offer wide compatibility even with SmartTV. That is why in this article we will show the best VPNs for Android on the market.

We will know the most valued and extended solutions especially focused on Android phones. For this, we have selected a list where paid VPNs, free and even with browsers that already have it integrated, such as Opera VPN or Aloha Browser appear. Finally, know that the paid services will always be the most complete, so we will give some of them at a very good price.

VPNs are not just for a PC

For those who are not too new to the subject, we can explain in a few lines what a VPN consists of, although we already have a very complete article explaining the subject in more depth.

A VPN or Virtual Private Network is an Internet connection method that is based on tunnels of encrypted information from destination to origin. The connection is made through a secure and encrypted extension of a local area network (LAN) that extends to the domains of a WAN (Internet). It is therefore a LAN network where the computers will be connected to each other at geographically separated points, under one or several access servers.

The advantage of a VPN network is that all the data in it travels encrypted, much more securely than with TCP, HTTPS, and SSL, using protocols specially designed for this such as Open VPN, L2TP, IPSec, or IKEv2. The server to which we connect will give us the IP address and we will be virtually connected in the country where that server resides.

VPN: everything you need to know

Traditionally, VPN networks have been linked to laptop and desktop computers, to make a secure connection on them, mainly in companies that work with sensitive data. The need to interconnect several geographically separated offices was ideal for working with a VPN since the link would be much more secure.

But today, VPNs have become a service accessible to all users thanks to companies that provide the functions for a fee and even free with limitations. With an account and an extension or application installed, we can connect to your VPN, being compatible with browsers of all kinds, any platform including iOS and Android, and even smart TV systems.

What can we do with a VPN for Android?

With a VPN you can do many interesting things, of course, its greatest utility and the one that we should never forget is to encrypt all the content that enters and leaves our computer on the network. In this way, we place another layer of security against hackers who operate without us noticing on the Internet.

The conditions in which a VPN spreads over the Internet give the user advantages in terms of geographic positioning on the network. As we have commented, it will be a server that gives us a new IP, which implies a direct connection between it and the client.

In addition, this is not only possible to do from a WiFi, but also with our 4G or 5G data connection without any problem. VPN is a security layer that is added to any connection made if we have the application installed.

These will be the advantages of having a VPN on our Android phone :

  • Add a security layer: in the connections made by the VPN tunnels. Obviously, it makes us less susceptible to hackers.
  • Browsing anonymously: this implies browsing with our real IP masked and not visible by other users, and anonymously by not sharing information from our team.
  • Unblock content from other countries that is not accessible from our country: this will be of great advantage in countries with large blockages such as Asia, being able to connect in another country and access YouTube, Facebook, and other geo-blocked services.
  • Being able to remotely access other computers on our LAN: although this is usually done with a VPN that we create ourselves on our router or computer.
  • Access your work network remotely and securely from anywhere in the world or public WiFi.

Free, paid extensions, and even full browsers

The way to connect to a VPN can be different depending on the service we are going to use, although there are common methods in almost all cases that are based on browser extensions, applications installed on the system, functions directly implemented in the browser, or even with own Android function.

Extensions vs apps

browser extension allows us to navigate through a VPN through all the websites that we access from this same application. However, it is not applicable to the rest of the connections made from the phone, for example, other browsers and other applications. So the range of operation is reduced to that browser only.

However, with an application installed in the terminal, we get all the connections to be encrypted, all the browsers, and the rest of the App. We will use this method when we want all the content to be encrypted.

Browser-integrated VPN

There are also many browsers with an integrated VPN service, although more than a proper VPN is an SSL Proxy service. The operation in our eyes will be similar, even being able to select the country where we want to connect. But these connections will not normally carry the encryption typical of a VPN.

Android VPN Option

They are available in the VPN section or similar names depending on the layer that our terminal has. From this option, we can connect to a VPN service manually. The VPN applications that we have installed will appear in the list in this section as if they were user accounts. Browser extensions and browsers themselves will not appear.

Best VPNs for Android

Given the main characteristics and factors to take into account of a VPN for Android, we are going to see each one that makes up this list. Some of them already appear in other articles that we have prepared previously. Here the usual thing will be to work with reliable services, so we will not look for any strange and unknown ones.

Private Tunnel: the Open VPN service to connect anywhere

This is a service that hasn’t been on the market for too long, and access to it is as simple as downloading the application with the same name to our Android phone. In this case, we will need a user account to connect our terminal to the VPN network.

In principle, the service is free, although after creating the account and confirming it, it will give us the possibility to fill in the payment information to acquire the premium service. Obviously, we have not accessed it. It is an excellent way to be able to browse from servers in all countries for free and without limitation of data or bandwidth, we believe.

The terminal will detect it as a normal VPN, and the application can see that the protocols used are TCP, UDP, HTTP Proxy, and OFBS Proxy, so it is rather a hybrid between proxy and VPN. At least it will allow us to connect to any server from the huge list available without limitation, which will come in handy for geo-blocked content.

Opera VPN: the most downloaded service for browsing SSL Proxy

Opera is a VPN service integrated directly into the Opera browser, which is available for free on Linux, Windows, iOS, and of course Android platforms. We can download it from Google Play, being one of the best browsers we have for the system with permission from Chrome.

As we say, the service is integrated directly into the browser, we do not need any extra application or browser extension. It is available from the browser options, and with a simple switch, we will activate or deactivate it. It is extensible to all the connections that we make in the said browser, and we will not have any data limitations.

It is not really a VPN service as such and we must take this into account, rather it is an SSL Proxy where the encryption will be weaker. It’s not that it has too many options, just being able to connect to servers in America, Asia, or Europe without knowing the exact location. Depending on our location, the bandwidth will be quite affected, keep that in mind.

Aloha Browser: Browser + Proxy

This VPN service is directly integrated into the Aloha Browser, and in principle, it is free to activate. In addition, we do not need to create an account to start using it, and we will be able to browse anonymously and without any record of our network activity.

As such, it is a fairly complete browser, with the possibility of blocking tabs and ads or setting an access password. It has a fairly clean and intuitive interface in general, although we cannot avoid the presence of ads in it due to the fact that it has a premium service.

In fact, the best advantages of the VPN will be limited to the free service. Currently, a premium account costs 29.99 euros per month, and with it, we can select the country we want to connect to, the automatic activation of the service, and the VPN mode for the entire phone. For free you will only connect to the fastest server in our area.

For this reason, it is not recommended to unblock content from other countries, but for those who want to browse safely and anonymously, it is a good option. At least it’s worth a try.

Tenta Browser: Browser + SSL Proxy

This case is quite similar to the previous one, in fact, the menu system is very similar, and unfortunately so are the limitations. It is another browser with an integrated free VPN service in which you can browse without data limits. Unlike the previous one, the default language of this one is English, the same place to which the VPN connects by default.

And it is that to be able to choose the server we need a premium subscription, which is worth only 1 dollar per month in the annual fee. It is one of the cheapest VPN services we have seen on the net. With this subscription, the bandwidth and the possibility of customizing the service will be increased. It should be said that in the free mode, it is a rather slow browser.

Until recently this browser was not in the Play Store, fortunately, we already have it inside and it will be as simple as the other cases. We could also configure several VPN zones to access different servers in different tabs, of course with premium access of course. Once again it’s a solution for those who just want to browse, as they don’t want full phone VPN mode.

Orbot + Tor: the best combination without limitations

This is one of the best VPNs for Android that we could try. Orbot is a standalone and open-source application that will be installed on our Android phone to encrypt all incoming and outgoing connections from the phone if we choose to do so.

It was actually called Orbot Proxy, and it’s certainly not a VPN service as such. It looks more like a secure proxy since the connection is made through the SOCKS4, SOCKS5, and HTTPS protocols, which are generally used by proxy servers of this type. For all practical purposes, they are more secure than regular web proxies, but they also do not have as strong encryption as a VPN.

Why do we say it is one of the best? Well, because being an application, it operates in all areas of the phone, in fact within the App we have a list of all the applications that access the network to be able to activate or deactivate them when using the VPN. It also offers a large number of configuration options and the possibility of connecting to servers around the world.

Ideally, it will be combined with Tor, the famous browser that operates on the overlay Internet network with the same name, in which we can browse anonymously and securely even through the Deep Web. With the combination of both, we will obtain an anonymous connection with several layers of security without advertising or data limits as it is open source.

WARP CloudFlare: DNS + VPN in one touch

If you do not know Cloudflare, it is a company dedicated to providing services over the Internet, including the famous DNS 1.1.1.1. Some time ago we already analyzed it here and compared it with Google’s, leaving us with very good speed and latency results.

Well, it also has a VPN service called WARP, although this time only available for Android and iOS mobile systems. Like its DNS, it is very focused on the mobile world, being a free service to ensure safe browsing on the web, although with limitations on the amount of data used per month, without the possibility of choosing the server or the connection mode and protocols.

This means we won’t connect to a server in a certain country, so it won’t remove geoblocks for content either. And although we are going to browse securely and encrypted, it does not hide our IP address as other browsers and VPN applications for Android do. Although it is not a bad option for browsing from public sites, which is ultimately the general idea of ​​the article. The premium service is worth 3.99 euros per month, so it is clearly not the cheapest on the list.

We will be able to integrate it with DNS 1.1.1.1, with the same philosophy of pressing only one button to activate the service. So in addition to having a VPN, we can also choose only a high-performance DNS with unlimited data.

Hotspot Shield: possibility to choose server and country

Hotspot is a company dedicated to providing paid VPN services, among others, although we will focus on the free version it offers for Android. It is one of the most famous and also used options for browsing, with more than 1 million downloads. It has a data limit of 500 MB per day, which isn’t bad at all, although we will have a fairly significant bandwidth limitation on Android, although it will also depend on the server we have connected to and our location.

The option to choose server and country is available for free, so it is possible to access geo-blocked content. It has servers in many countries throughout the world, including the US, Canada and China. Of course, with those 500 MB and limited bandwidth, streaming in HD becomes somewhat complicated.

To use the service we will have to create the corresponding user account and download the App for Android. Being an application, all connections made from the terminal are encrypted, both via WiFi and mobile data. It does not have too many extra services and we will also eat advertising. The paid service is not cheap at all, with an annual cost of 96 dollars.

Windscribe: one of the most complete in the free version

This is why it usually appears in almost all of our VPN articles. At least to date, it offers a very complete free service with up to 10 GB of data per month just by validating the email in our account, being able to expand by more GB if we tweet and recommend it to friends.

Bandwidth is also quite good, always depending on where we connect from and the server we choose. From its VPN application for Android, we will be able to choose without any obstacle any of the available countries and servers, as well as the tunneling method and other options blocked in previously seen options. It has an annual subscription at $4.08 per month, and another monthly subscription at 9 euros per month in case we want to eliminate the limitations.

The free VPN provides the same level of security as the paid version, using AES-256 bit encryption and protocols such as OpenVPN, IKEv2, or SOCKS, typical of Proxy. It has an advertising and malware blocker called ROBERT. We think it’s one of the best options for watching geo-blocked streaming content like YouTube in China, ESPN, Hulu, etc. from our mobile.

NordVPN:

We end with one of the services that do not have any free option, so it is fully paid, but the best of its kind according to worldwide ratings. It is also compatible with almost all existing platforms including Android, which we will install through an application that encrypts all terminal connections.

The service is worth 3.10 euros per month in the 3-year plan, which would be about 111 euros in the three years. The current offer, offers from 1 month to 3 years free, depending on the services we hire, always with a 30-day refundable trial. Considering what it offers, it is quite cheap, with servers in more than 50 countries without limitations in bandwidth or data.

Its encryption is military level, with a double VPN encryption function, CyberSec to block malicious content, and working on IKEv2 and OpenVPN protocols, among others. This service is rather designed for a long duration and for those who want to watch streaming in other countries.

Conclusions on the best VPNs for Android

In the end, we have provided a fairly complete list of VPNs for Android. Most of them are also available for other platforms, specially dedicated services like Hotspot Shield, Windscribe, or NordVPN, being able to connect several devices at the same time in the VPN.

In general, most free services are limited in some way, as we have seen in their description. We have tested all of them and despite these limits, they are more worthwhile than other available options. Having 500MB a day or 10 GB is quite good to be able to navigate normally, and if we add to this the possibility of choosing a country as in the case of Windscribe or Orbot, even better.

In the case of browsers that integrate VPN, it is rather a secure Proxy service, which masks our identity but does not provide encryption as strong as dedicated services. This must be taken into account since they are more aimed at people who simply want to navigate or access blocked sites in their current country without complicating their lives.

We leave you now with more options and articles related to networks:

Do these VPNs fit what you need? Tell us which you think is the best option and if you know of any other service that is worth adding to the list. Your help is always appreciated.

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