If you have been looking for a VPN tool that you can use to get around censorship and to remain private while you are online, Psiphon could be a good option for you. For its free service, Psiphon is a great VPN; however, if you’re looking for more without jeopardizing your privacy, we recommend buying an affordable premium VPN like NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
Many people around the world are limited in their access to the web for one reason or another. In some cases, it is due to government restriction. Psiphon believes the web should be accessible fully and completely by everyone, and that people should not be tracking the things you do online. The goal is to provide open access to the Internet and to fight censorship.
As is the case with most free VPNs, Psiphon can’t unblock Netflix. If that’s what you’re after, why not check out our top five recommended VPNs for unblocking Netflix?
What Other Features Does Psiphon Offer?
Downloading also happens to be easy. From their site, you can download directly for Windows or Android. In addition, they have links to the App Store download, and an email download link as well. Setup is very easy, and it even comes with a user guide to help you get started and to become familiar with the system.
The system uses a range of technology to help avoid censorship. It is available in a wide variety of languages too, so people all around the world should be able to use it without trouble.
The website is simple to understand and use. If you have questions or concerns and need to contact support, you can do so directly through the Psiphon client by clicking on the blue plus and minus symbol located in the right corner of the app.
However, there are some other things you need to know about the service before you start using Psiphon, just so you can make sure it is right for you. The speed of the service is certainly acceptable, but it might be difficult to stream at some times.
In addition, it is important to know that this is a commercial company, and they use advertising to make money. In their privacy policy, Psiphon states that they “sometimes use advertisements to support [their] service, which may use technology such as cookies and web beacons. [Psiphon’s] advertising partners’ use of cookies enable them and their partners to serve ads based on your usage data. Any information collected through this process is handled under the terms of [Psiphon’s] advertising partners’ privacy policies.”
In a nutshell, Psiphon does track some of your online activity and sells it to third-parties.
However, their goal is to remove censorship, and that’s something the service is very good at doing. They can help you access sites that would otherwise be impossible to enter.
If you are in a location where you are merely trying to access censored information, and you aren’t as concerned about anonymity, this could be a great tool. After all, it is free and it is very easy to set up and get started. Try it out and see how it works for you.
As a free provider, Psiphon does the basics, and it will allow you to get past tricky digital censorship laws. But you can only expect so much from a free service. If you’re security conscious and want to make sure you’re 100% anonymous, and unlock geo-restricted content on popular streaming platforms, opt for a market-leading vendor like NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
And if streaming is top of your list, Netflix is off limits with Pshiphon. Although you can easily bypass Netflix’s geoblocks with one of these five leading vendors.
| Number of countries with servers | 9 |
| Number of servers | 1000 |
| Number of IP addresses | 1000 |
| Does VPN keep logs? | Partially |
| Does VPN include a kill switch? | No |
| Number of devices per license | 1 |
At time exceedingly slow BUT overall practical and efficient solution to the need to sideline censorship. No major Windows system intrusions and easily accessed. Just be aware of the data retention policy.