Betternet

A free VPN with a paid upgrade, priced in dollars

Betternet is a standalone VPN app with two tiers: a free version that shows ads and a paid Premium version without them. The copyright line on every page reads "© Betternet LLC. 2026", which is the only company name the site gives. The homepage pitches the free tier plainly: "Totally free VPN," with "No registration needed" and "Not even your email! Just download and connect."

On who can get it, the site lists apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Chrome and Firefox, and its menus link download pages for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS and Chrome. The homepage shows the App Store with "191K reviews" and Google Play with "1.2M reviews," which are the provider's own figures for those listings and come without a star rating. Prices on the site are shown in US dollars. The site does not list payment methods, does not say which countries the paid plan is sold in, and does not say the app is unavailable anywhere. Since the free app needs no account, anyone who can reach one of those stores or download pages can use the free tier.

Logging claims, the security audit and ownership

The provider's logging claim is short. Under the heading "Privacy first: no browsing device logs," the features page says "Betternet does not log data or activity that can be tied back to users." That is the provider's statement. The pages quote no wording from the privacy policy on what is logged, such as connection times, IP addresses or session data, and they do not say how long any data is kept. The privacy policy is linked in the footer.

The site has a page called "Security Audit." It says the company commissioned "an independent security audit for our Betternet VPN" and adds that "This independent security audit reinforces our dedication to transparency and privacy." The page offers a download button for the document. The site refers to an audit but does not name the firm that carried it out, and the page gives no date, scope or findings in its own text. It also presents this as a security audit of the VPN rather than a review of the no-logs claim, and the site does not name an independent audit of its logging policy. Anyone weighing the logging claim has to open the downloadable document and judge it for themselves.

On ownership, the site gives only the name Betternet LLC. It does not say where that company is incorporated or based, and it does not name a parent company, investors or sister brands. How the free tier is paid for is partly answered: the comparison table says ads "appear while using the free version of the app," and that the Premium package does not include them. The site does not say whether the service earns money in any other way.

Apps, protocols and features

The comparison table on the features page is the most detailed part of the site. It says Betternet uses Hydra, "a proprietary protocol, awarded for reliability and speed," and that users can also connect over WireGuard and IPSec. The site does not say who gave Hydra that award. The same table says Hydra can "obfuscate traffic to look like other traffic, to enable you to bypass VPN restrictions or local censorship"; the site does not name any country where that has been tested.

The security features listed are always-on auto-connect when the app launches, a kill switch that cuts the internet if the VPN drops, split tunneling for specific websites or apps, IP and DNS leak protection, and anti-phishing protection that warns before a user opens a suspicious site. The homepage calls the encryption "military-grade" without naming a cipher. There is also Tor over VPN, which the site describes as a way to reach Tor sites and services while connected to the VPN.

The server network is described as 1,000+ servers with connections of up to 1 Gbps, and the same figures appear in both the Free and Premium columns. The server list names locations from the United States and the United Kingdom to Argentina, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan and Uruguay, and it marks India as "India (via Singapore)" without explaining the arrangement. The list also includes China, Russia and Belarus as locations.

On streaming, the table has a streaming mode "Optimized for Netflix, Youtube, Disney+, Prime & more," and a gaming mode "Optimized for Roblox, Fortnite & more." Those are the services the site names; it gives no date for the claim and does not promise that any catalog works from any location. The homepage adds that the network helps users "Avoid ISP throttling." The pages say nothing about torrenting either way.

Free versus Premium, prices and renewals

The comparison table sets out the difference between the tiers:

• Free: 5 simultaneous device connections, 5 virtual locations, ads, and unlimited data, with a note that "Free users may watch ads to surpass the Basic plan's daily limit of iOS." The table does not say what that iOS daily limit is.
• Premium: 10 simultaneous device connections, 115+ virtual locations, no ads and unlimited data.

Both tiers get the same listed server count and speed figure, and the features in the table beyond locations and ads are not split by tier.

Prices appear in two places. The features and security audit pages show "$1.99/mo" as an "introductory offer for the first month," with the note that "Auto-renewal will be at the standard price of $12.99/month." The homepage banner advertises "54% Off Premium + 7-day free trial," shown as "Reg: $155.88/yr Now: $71.99/yr" when billed annually, with the small print "Valid for annual subscription only. Auto-renews annually at $95.99/year." The same banner says the promotion ends at 04:59 UTC on March 24, 2026, so a buyer should expect the annual offer to change. The site states renewal prices for both the monthly and the annual plan. It does not state a money-back guarantee or a refund window, only the 7-day free trial in that banner. Support is listed as 24/7 live chat and email.

What stays open, and who it fits

Several points are left open. The security audit page names no firm, date or scope, and the site does not describe any review of the logging claim itself. The operating company appears only as Betternet LLC, with no location. The iOS daily limit on the free plan is mentioned but not quantified. The site states no payment methods and no refund terms, and the annual promotion shown carries an end date that has passed.

For someone who wants a free VPN on a phone or laptop without handing over an email address, Betternet is easy to start with: unlimited data, 5 devices and 5 locations are listed for the free tier, with ads as the stated cost, and the feature list includes a kill switch and split tunneling. Premium's published renewal prices make the long-run cost easy to see. It suits less well a reader who wants a named auditor's view of the logging policy, or who needs to know the company's home before trusting it with traffic.