TechRadar Verdict
Browsec’s super-competitive pricing and high download speeds, accompanied by strong unblocking capabilities, have earned this provider high marks, despite its lack of desktop clients and torrenting support.
Pros
- +
Affordable
- +
Solid speeds
- +
Unblocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer
- +
Solid server network
Cons
- -
No desktop clients
- -
Doesn’t support torrenting
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Browsec is a VPN provider that offers services to an 8 million-strong customer base, predominantly via mobile apps and desktop browser extensions.
Price
When we say a VPN service is “free”, this usually includes some drawbacks. In Browsec’s case, drawbacks include a small pool of server locations and low connection speeds.
The Premium version is much better, however, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg; only $1.99/month if you choose the two-year subscription plan.
Other subscription options are pretty affordable as well, with the monthly package costing only $3.99/month and the annual $2.49/month, which are among the lowest rates in the industry.
There’s also a risk-free money-back guarantee if you’re not entirely satisfied with the service. We tested the policy and received a refund with no issues.
Payments for the Premium version are accepted via PayPal and credit/debit cards, and you can run the VPN connection on up to 5 devices at the same time.
Alternatives
The closest competitor to Browsec VPN in terms of pricing is Surfshark, but the latter also offers user-friendly clients for all major platforms. There’s also Windscribe, which has a free plan that includes 10GB of VPN traffic per month with no restrictions on speeds.
If, however, you don’t mind paying more, then we would recommend either NordVPN or ExpressVPN, both of which are very capable platforms with gorgeous desktop apps, manual configuration options for non-mainstream platforms, torrenting support, 30-day money-back guarantees and more.
Streaming
Even though this isn’t explicitly stated on the website, our experience has shown that Browsec VPN can unblock geographically restricted content on Netflix (UK and US) and BBC iPlayer. Since this is one of the reasons why many VPN users seek out a service such as this one, this gives Browsec additional points in our book.
About the company
The provider is headquartered in Russia and offers access to 1,000+ servers in 40+ countries, including Australia, Iceland, India and many others.
Privacy and encryption
To protect your online privacy, Browsec deploys IPSec/IKEv2 connection protocol with AES-256 encryption on mobile and HTTP Proxy over TLS with AES-256 encryption when using its browser extensions. Despite these strong security and privacy mechanisms, torrenting isn’t supported as Browsec currently operates via browser extensions and mobile apps only.
The Privacy Policy isn’t a long document, but it does let the reader know what type of information is logged when using the provider’s services. This includes the automatic recording of “some information from your web browser additional/or client software”, to provide the continuous delivery of its services. However, as the provider assures us, “the information does not identify the user personally. Browsec uses such information in the aggregate for various purposes, including the monitoring of the service”.
We’d still love to see an independent report published on what information is and isn’t logged, as some of competitors have already done.
Support
Browsec is compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices, for which it has mobile apps and browser extensions you can install via Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Edge.
At the time of writing, its Chrome extension had been installed by more than 4 million users and 24,993 of them have given it an average of 4.5 stars (out of 5). The Firefox extension has been installed by 341,853 users, which scored 4.1 stars.
The Opera add-on has a rating of 4.4 stars as judged by 394 users, while the Edge add-on has a median score of 4 stars, but has been rated by only 75 users.
Browsec’s Android app had been downloaded by over a million users, socring 4.5 stars, while the iOS app has an even better score: 4.7 as judged by over 8,000 users.
If you run into any obstacles while installing or using this platform or you’re just generally inquisitive, there’s an FAQ section on the website you may be interested in, but do note that it’s rather limited.
However, if you’d rather talk to someone on the team, you can reach out to them via a contact form, online chat (not live, though), email or Facebook. Our email inquiry was answered on the first working day after we sent it.
Speed and experience
As soon as we made our payment, our account was instantly activated. We had no problems setting up the platform and were able to establish quick connections.
We tested the service on an 83.72Mbps connection and got solid results from most server locations. The server in the Netherlands hailed a decent 23.96Mbps, while another in the UK performed even better: 35.84Mbps. The results were a bit disappointing for the US (New Jersey), which only managed to deliver 6.46Mbps, even less than India (10.19Mbps).
The upload speeds remained pretty much unchanged from the original connection.
Verdict
Even though it has much work to do before it reaches the level of the industry giants, Browsec is a pretty good solution for users who either want a free or really cheap VPN service without compromising much.
The paid option provides strong privacy, solid download speeds and geo-unblocking capabilities, with the free version cutting the number of servers and download speeds. The only main attribute missing is high-quality desktop clients and support for the non-mainstream platforms.
