Freedom-IP is a French VPN service founded in 2010, but you rarely see its name across the web. If you are French, you might know more about it, as it seems that the service is aimed towards a French audience.
Even though Freedom-IP was probably not created strictly with gamers in mind, it’s great for online games because it has a special LowLatency mode that enables improved speed and lower latency. Another unusual thing about Freedom-IP is that it doesn’t have any proprietary apps but relies on a third-party client — OpenVPN.
Freedom-IP can be installed on all Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux devices. There are instructions for Windows, Mac OS X, and Freebox OS, but they’re only in French. You can also set it up directly on your router.
Some of the main features this VPN offers include the ability to unblock websites, protection from hackers, and military-level encryption. It also gives you the use of the OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP protocols and a few extras like firewall protection, port forwarding, and 5 simultaneous connections.
It has a small server network with 12 servers in 12 countries, mainly in Europe and North America.
Considering how strict French privacy laws are, I believe that Freedom-IP managed to create a decent VPN service. It is not the safest to use, though. Their short privacy policy clearly states that they keep records of your IP addresses, which is disappointing for a VPN service.
The VPN service comes at a very affordable price, starting at $2.90/month. I couldn't find any info about a money-back guarantee, but there is a 7-day free trial. Sadly enough, they only accept debit and credit cards — no cryptocurrencies or PayPal.
If you don’t feel like testing out a VPN on your own, you can pick one of the best available VPNs for Windows, Mac, and mobile that we already reviewed for you.
Short on Time? Here Are My Key Findings
- Difficult to set up, and instructions are in French. Freedom-IP does not have any proprietary apps. Instead, it uses third-party software (OpenVPN), which can be installed on all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and Freebox OS. While the download and install processes are not that difficult, you might run into a language barrier as everything, including setup guides and support docs, is in French. Learn how to set up Freedom-IP here.
- Not the fastest VPN out there. While Freedom-IP offers OK speeds, you might be in the wrong place if you are looking for smooth 4K streaming. Make a quick jump to the speeds section.
- It can’t unblock any streaming services except YouTube. But there’s plenty of free content you can watch on YouTube, so not a total loss, right? Read about Freedom-IP’s streaming capabilities here.
- There’s a dedicated gaming mode. Freedom-IP offers a dedicated gaming mode that allows you to play with high speeds and lower latency. Read more about my gaming experience here.
- Poor privacy and lack of security. Thanks to France’s privacy laws, Freedom-IP has to keep activity logs, and leaks have been detected. And there’s no kill-switch. Learn more about privacy features here.
- All support is available only in French. As a person who does not understand French, save for a word or two, I found this to be a significant problem. All tutorials, setup guides, and the forum are in French. There’s no 24/7 or live chat either. Find out more available about support here.
- Freedom-IP does offer some value considering it comes at a low price. Not the best VPN you can get, but you can still get some use out of it. It has limited capabilities, but if you are not sure if those are enough for you, there's a 7-day free trial. See all subscription plans here.
Freedom-IP VPN Features — Updated in February 2023
8.4
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💸
Price
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2.90 USD/month
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📝
Does VPN keep logs?
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Yes |
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🖥
Number of servers
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12+ |
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💻
Number of devices per license
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5 |
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🛡
Kill switch
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No |
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🗺
Based in country
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France |
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📥
Supports torrenting
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Yes |
Streaming — Freedom-IP Can’t Unblock Any Popular Streaming Platforms
It seems that unblocking streaming platforms remain off-limits with Freedom-IP. The only platform I could access was YouTube. Even though you’d expect a VPN service to unblock at least one or two platforms, it seems that Freedom-IP can’t do that. Moreover, I found inconsistencies between the server location and IP location after connecting, which was not very trust-inspiring.
Unblocked: YouTube
Most (if not all) streaming platforms remain blocked with Freedom-IP, but at least you can unblock different YouTube content from other countries when you change servers. Unblocking YouTube may not be a huge selling point in my eyes, but it still counts for a few points. And for some people that live in countries with strong censorship, being able to unblock YouTube might be a huge plus.
Blocked By: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Hulu, ITV Hub, ESPN/ESPN+, and Peacock TV
First, I tried unblocking Netflix US and UK. There are no servers for Canada or Japan, so I had to stick to these locations. My attempts to watch any US- or UK-only shows failed. If you want to unblock Netflix from anywhere, try using one of these VPNs instead.
Then, I tried to unblock Amazon Prime Video and stream some US-only content. To my surprise, even though I was connected to the US server, Amazon Prime was in German. When I tried with the UK location, it was in French, which was very weird and unexpected. I got similar results for Disney+. I was able to log in and stream but couldn’t really unblock country-specific content for the desired location. In my book, this does not count as unblocking.
Unblocking Hulu was also a failure. Even though I logged in, the tiles where you’d see the choice of TV shows and movies were grey squares that appeared as if loading. They never did, so I gave up. BBC iPlayer and HBO Max also didn’t work. Next, I tried ESPN/ESPN+. As I managed to log in and see the list of games to watch, I thought it might be a success. But as soon as I clicked on a game and selected a stream, I got an error message.
When I wasn’t able to unblock anything and even got the wrong language, I suspected something wasn’t right, so I investigated some more. Using the IPLocation.com website, I checked my IP while connected to several different servers. To my disappointment, no matter how many different servers I tried, my IP was shown to be in France or Germany. It became clear why I got Amazon Prime Video in German and French and why Freedom-IP couldn't ‘trick’ any other platforms.
In the end, it was clear that Freedom-IP can’t bypass geo-restrictions to help me unblock my favorite streaming platforms.
Speed — Surprisingly Fast Speeds
Surprisingly enough, I got pretty good speeds with Freedom-IP. My standard Internet speed is up to 50Mbps. I usually get over 45 Mbps download and around 5 Mbps upload speeds. I got speeds that varied from 34Mbps to 44Mbps download, and from 1 Mbps to 4Mbps upload, which is very good for a VPN. I listened to music on YouTube, browsed the internet, and had multiple windows with 5+ tabs open, and everything ran smoothly.
To confirm the speed, I connected another device — an Android smartphone. Then, I streamed YouTube in HD on my smartphone and rechecked the speed. It dropped to 23Mbps, which is still fast enough to stream in HD on multiple devices without interruptions.
Even though an average of 40Mbps is not the fastest speed, it’s good enough for most activities such as internet browsing, watching videos without lag, and even streaming in 4K.
Are Freedom-IP’s Speeds Fast Enough for Gaming? Freedom-IP Is Fast Enough for Online Gaming
To my pleasant surprise, Freedom-IP is fast enough for gaming. I won’t call myself a gamer, but I enjoy the occasional game or two. I also read that Freedom-IP is a favorite among gamers due to its dedicated ‘gaming mode’, which enables high speeds and lower latency. I can confirm that the speeds are around 40Mbps, which is good.
At first, I couldn’t find the gaming mode. After some digging around the Dashboard, I finally found the ‘gaming mode’, which is actually called LowLatency Mode. But on the site, Freedom-IP states it’s still an experimental feature and is only available with OpenVPN’s TCP mode. This means opening the command line of OpenVPN, something many people don’t know how to do.
Since turning on the LowLatency Mode was more complicated than I expected, I had to get help from a friend. Once it was active, I decided to give Freedom-IP’s ‘gaming mode’ a test run by playing one of my favorites — Counter-Strike. Everything ran smoothly. I was positively surprised to see there are no lags whatsoever.
Server Network — Small But Reliable Network
Freedom-IP has a relatively small server network compared to other VPNs. They have 12 servers in 12 countries. The server network is pretty reliable, but having only a few servers for each country can overwhelm the servers with traffic, thus getting slower connections.
Another limiting aspect of their server network is that it covers only Europe and North America. There’s no coverage for Australia, India, or Japan, which is slightly disappointing.
If you want to change a different server location, you must first disconnect. Once you choose another location, you are prompted to enter your credentials again. You have to do this connect > login > disconnect > connect > login exercise each time you need to change the server location, which was highly annoying to me.
Security — No Security
Freedom-IP provides a seemingly secure VPN service, but it’s not the safest one. It offers 3 protocols: OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP. It also comes with military-grade 256-bit encryption, which is the best available. Meaning, you should get the best possible protection. The VPN also has DNS leak protection, a firewall, and port forwarding.
In reality, it seems that Freedom-IP is not very secure. Even though it’s advertised as having solid DNS leak protection, I discovered that my connection had a DNS leak during my testing. There is a solution for this in the control panel, but the switch is flipped off by default. This is easy to fix for tech-savvy users, but it’s practically impossible for the rest because they won’t even know it’s happening.
Another issue that concerns security is the lack of a kill switch. If your network connection drops mid-browsing, you will be immediately exposed. This only proves my previous point that Freedom-IP is not very safe.
Privacy — No Privacy or Anonymity
Well, where do I begin on this one? Freedom-IP is located in France, and it has to adhere to stringent French privacy regulations. Thus, you can’t have complete privacy and anonymity. The VPN’s privacy policy is short and concise — only 216 words. The good news is Freedom-IP does not record the content of the communication. But, there is some session logging, including the start and end times, incoming and outgoing bandwidth used, and the IP address used.
This does not directly expose your activity. But it proves a connection to a specific VPN IP address at particular times. And that’s a lot of information when using a VPN to stay anonymous. This type of log-keeping means that even though Freedom-IP does not perform deep packet inspection on your traffic, they have the capability to analyze your online activity. They promise to do this only in particular circumstances, but I am not reassured at all.
France is a member of the infamous 9 Eyes Alliance. Moreover, this lack of privacy is supported by French law from 2015, which states that ISPs must keep user data for one year even after users unsubscribe, including personally identifiable information and online activity logs.
Torrenting — Nope, Don’t Even Think About It
Freedom-IP is in France, and torrenting is forbidden there. To make it even more straightforward, Freedom-IP stated in the Terms of Service that using the VPN for infringement of copyright, trademark, and patent is prohibited.
Does Freedom-IP Work in China? No
Due to the limited server network, inability to unblock any streaming platforms, or keep you safe and anonymous, I believe trying to use Freedom-IP in China and go through the Great Firewall is a waste of time and money.
Simultaneous Device Connections — Connect Up To 5 Devices Simultaneously
One good thing about Freedom-IP is that you can use it on up to 5 devices simultaneously with one subscription.
But as expected, once you connect more than one device, the speed drops. The speed drop is not very dramatic, though, and you can both continue enjoying whatever it is you’re doing. After connecting the third device, the connection drops some more. But there are no considerable waits or lags.
Device Compatibility — Install on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux
Freedom-IP does not have an app of its own and runs using OpenVPN. This makes the VPN available on all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux. There is also the option to download standalone configuration files.
In the Dashboard, under Setups, you can find the downloads for each platform. Each one of the installation files comes with a pre-configured OpenVPN installation. The only issue is that Freedom-IP’s OpenVPN version is not updated, and is in fact, several years old. The good thing is that the VPN offers guides on how to set up and configure the client. The bad thing is that there are only three tutorials, one each for Windows, Mac OS X, and Freebox OS, and they are available only in French.
worked perfectly , only need it to watch sport, so paying 50 cents per time is perfect. not had one problem yet. I live in germany , set my country to switzerland and can watch sport thru livestream, works a charm. billing is fast and set up simple .