The number of Australian VPN users has been on a steady rise over the past couple of years. One primary reason for this is that subscribing to premium VPN services has become increasingly cheaper. Not to mention the fact that now there are dozens out there, each competing for your hard-earned dollars. However, with so many companies selling VPN services, it is easy to get confused.
To keep things simple, what if you just wanted to use a VPN service to anonymize and secure your internet browsing? You could use a full-blown VPN, like many we have reviewed over the years. Though the alternative is you could use an extension like a Google Chrome extension.
A Google extension, for the most part, can be turned on each time you want to stay anonymous online. The extension goes beyond the barebones incognito mode built into Chrome. The VPN extension can be used to mask your location, so you are invisible to all the websites assessed. So, the next logical question is which are the best chrome extensions in terms of privacy, security, and price? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll examine in this article.
Express VPN Chrome Extension
The Chrome extension by Express VPN is a fuss-free affair with a pretty easy to use interface. Though there are a couple of settings, you can play around with like WebRTC blocking and location spoofing. Despite the various settings it is still possible to click and go with the extension.
While the Chrome extension will require that you are a paid user, the extension also allows for you to teak the Windows app too. The fact that the extension opens the app when you want to make a few changes can be frustrating and annoying at the same time. But as it turns out it is necessary for true security and privacy.
The speeds are pretty good with the extension. However, it can be better, and that’s something we hope will be fixed with future updates. We prefer Express VPN’s Chrome extension in Australia because it comes backed by a full VPN suite by the company. Not to mention the over 2000+ servers across the world and each one offers excellent performance across the board.
Nord VPN’s Chrome Extension
Nord VPN’s Chrome extension is a bit strange or weird for many reasons. Nord VPN’s extension is a lot like ExpressVPN’s extension in terms of it offering a single click affair, but Nord tends to take things a few steps further.
Users have very little room to maneuver with the app. Choosing a server is limited to choosing a country. For instance, if you want to connect to an Australian server, you just choose Australia as the country and which server it ends up connecting to is a toss up between all the ones available. We assume it chooses the fastest server but have no way of proving it.
The only downside of Nord’s VPN Chrome extension is that the speed isn’t always good. Remember when we said that our assumption was it connected to the fastest server, our speed tests showed that many times the speed was slower than it should have been. Though your mileage may vary.
TunnelBear Chrome Extension
The TunnelBear Chrome extension is free which is arguably its biggest perk, and it has a pretty smooth signup process. Once the extension is installed, you’re taken to the signup page where you are asked to register a username and password. It takes a total of 3 minutes to get set up and started.
The only issue is that the free account entitles you to just 500MB of bandwidth a month. Obviously, it isn’t enough for most people. Not to mention their varying server speeds. That said if you feel that the service works fine for you, it is possible to pay for more bandwidth and it still works out to be a lot cheaper than the competition.
ZenMate Chrome Extension
Australians will find that the ZenMate Chrome extension offers a pretty good deal as it costs nothing. The speeds for a free service are pretty decent, not to mention loads of extra options and various other stuff that you won’t normally find with a free extension. That said the premium version is only free for a week.
The so-called freebie is meant to lure people into using the service, getting used to its speed and performance after which they need to buy it. After a weeklong trial, you’re down to the free model if you don’t pay. The free version is good but not as great as the paid version. That said you’ll find the stable server connections are a huge perk even when compared to the competition which can charge you up to 25% more.
Conclusion
Finally, we feel that it is essential to stress the difference between full-blown VPN apps and Chrome extensions. VPN apps will secure your entire internet connection and every app that accesses the internet. Though the Chrome extension is limited solely to the Chrome browser and all the traffic passing through it.
A Chrome extension is only for those who want to browse anonymously. It isn’t a foolproof solution the way a full-blown VPN app is. That said if we had a choice, we’d go for a complete VPN app solution which includes a Chrome extension. That way we have the best of both worlds, but that type of solution isn’t free.
