We asked, you told us: Plenty of readers fork out for a VPN service

Virtual private networks, or VPNs, have become essential for those keen to access geofenced content or obfuscate their actions on the internet. But just how many of our readers already use VPNs?

We posed this question in a recent poll on our website, and the results are now in.

Do you use a VPN?

Results

This poll racked up over 2,300 votes since it went live on February 7. Of the four options on offer, one stood out head and shoulders above the rest.

A solid 46.6% of respondents claim to use a VPN, notably a paid service. Just under 29% of readers use a free VPN offering. In total, three in every four (75.4%) of the respondents on this poll use a VPN to some degree.

It’s not that surprising that most of our readers have come across a VPN at some point. Several free VPN options are available, from the baked-in VPN in Opera’s browser to other free services from the likes of TunnelBear and ProtonVPN. Those paying for a service presumably take the security of their browsing lifestyle more seriously or require higher speeds or no data limits. There is no shortage of paid VPN options either.

Notably, 11.2% of readers claim to have used VPNs in the past but have since ditched the practice. Finally, only 13.3% of voters claim to have never tried a VPN before.

See also: The best VPN Apps for Android

As for the comments, some readers note that they require VPNs to access workplace servers. Some prefer running their own home-rolled services, too. Peruse some choice comments below.

Your comments

• Ruma: The option, Running own VPN in personal server should be there too. That’s what most people do these days. At least the ones who know about it.
• aldousd: I only use an ad-blocking VPN. It’s DNS only. Works great, blocks Everything.
• Alvin Yankey: I use a VPN to get access to certain blocked websites on my school network.
• RethEldirood: Whenever I’m on public Wi-Fi, yes.
• Chris Laarman: For me, the only reason to use a VPN would be geo-fencing. But that’s not compelling. (I use only mobile data.)

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. Have any additional thoughts about VPNs or the poll results? Be sure to drop them below.