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Touch VPN - Full Review
A VPN (virtual private network) offers a range of benefits, whether you’re looking to protect your online privacy, bypass geo-restrictions on worldwide content libraries or you just want to stop your ISP from throttling your bandwidth during peak times.
With so many competing products offering similar features, it’s not easy to know which one to choose if you’re not an experienced VPN user – and the increasing value of your browsing history means it is getting ever more important to secure your connection.
We’ve taken a look at some of the biggest names in the world of VPN and tested them on a range of criteria. Touch VPN has only been around for a couple of years and offers a free service, so we thought we’d take a look at what it had to offer.
Speed
VPNs protect your identity by sending your internet connection through servers in different countries, making it impossible for prying eyes to view what you’re doing. While this is essential for maintaining your privacy, one side-effect is that it slows down your internet speed.
We started with a base speed of 50mbps when not connected to the VPN and were pleasantly surprised to find that when we connected via a local server the speed dropped by just 20%, averaging around 40mbps. The loss of speed was far less consistent when we connected to other countries, ranging from 40% to 95%, but mostly maintained a decent performance compared to other free VPNs.
Servers
As a general rule, the more servers a VPN can offer, the better the performance is likely to be. A large server base allow you more opportunities to find a reliable, fast connection, and also opens up a wider range of geo-blocked content libraries from around the world (see Streaming below for more details).
Touch VPN’s server list is very limited, with just 18 locations around the world, although these are at least spread across 18 different countries – so your access to region-specific content isn’t too bad. The server list is entirely based in North America and Europe, so if you wish to access content from elsewhere in the world there are VPNs around that are more suited to your needs.
Features
As Touch VPN is a free service, we were not expecting an expansive list of features, but the absence of a kill switch is a big problem if your priority is maintaining your privacy. A kill switch automatically disconnects you from the internet if your VPN connection ends, preventing your activity from being made public – plenty of products offer this feature, and this oversight counts heavily against Touch VPN.
In truth, Touch VPN’s security is questionable more generally. While it does provide an element of security, it lacks basic features and more worryingly it retains logs of everything you do – so if any authorities requested the information with legitimate reason, the company would be able to provide it; unlike the many rival VPNs that have a no-logging policy, Touch VPN does not provide true anonymity.
Streaming
Having learned that Touch VPN isn’t brilliant for protecting your privacy, we looked at the other major advantage of virtual private network – the ability to stream region-specific content. Most well-known streaming apps have different content libraries for different areas and have geo-restrictions in place to ensure that the content can only be viewed in those areas.
In theory, a VPN should be able to bypass those restrictions by routing your connection through a server in the region you wish to access. Unfortunately, during testing we were consistently unable to do so through Touch VPN, failing to connect to overseas versions of Netflix, BBC iPlayer and many others.
Torrenting
Torrenting is a controversial subject, with lengthy legal battles disputing whether they should be made illegal due to their association with the breaking of copyright laws. Many ISPs now block torrenting software and websites outright, but a VPN can allow you to get around this ban by masking your activity.
Once again, though, Touch VPN is best avoided if this is your priority when looking for a VPN. Regular torrent users will find the worrying logging policy off-putting, while none of Touch VPN’s servers are optimised for P2P use. With so many other VPNs offering much better security and a range of servers designed specifically for P2P file-sharing, Touch VPN is left lagging behind in this regard.
Gaming
Gaming enthusiasts have long been frustrated by the tendency for ISPs to limit bandwidth during peak times, leading to much lower internet speeds that can harm your gaming experience by creating lag.
By masking your identity, a VPN can prevent your ISP from knowing anything about you, making it difficult for them to limit your connection and allowing you to play games without worrying about your internet speed. Touch VPN can help in this regard, however the inconsistency of the speed loss when the VPN is connected means you could occasionally lose even more speed by connecting.
Free Trial
Touch VPN offers a completely free, unrestricted service. The premium plan costs $6.67 for a year (or $12.99 for a month) and does not offer a free trial.
FAQ
Is Touch VPN safe?
In a word: no. While it does offer a few security features that will help protect your identity, the lack of a kill switch is a serious drawback and the company does not have a no-logs policy, so your data could be sold to marketers.
Does Touch VPN work?
Touch VPN is functional to a limited extent – it does mask your identity using high-end encryption and has less of an impact on your internet speed than some rival products – but it isn’t secure, has a small server base and doesn’t unlock geo-blocked content.
Is Touch VPN free?
This product is available for free, although there is a paid premium plan. The free version does not seem to lack any features that are available in the paid plan, with no data restrictions or limits on available services.
It is worth remembering however, that this product still comes at a price: Free VPNs make money by selling your information, which is exactly what you’re trying to avoid when getting a VPN.
Can I stream Netflix on Touch VPN?
Touch VPN was unable to access geo-restricted content from Netflix or any other major streaming app when we tested it.
Verdict
Touch VPN can accurately describe itself as a free, unrestricted product – you don’t pay for it, and there are no limits on how much data you can use or the features that are made available.
However, ultimately you get your money’s worth with a paid VPN, whereas Touch VPN doesn’t really do any of the things you want a VPN to do.
It doesn’t unlock geo-restricted content, it doesn’t offer proper security and on top of that it retains a lot of information on you that can be sold on to marketing companies. We think Touch VPN is best avoided.