No-logs policy
A provider’s commitment not to record which sites you visit, when you connected, or what address you connected from.
Glossary
Free VPN
A VPN offered at no cost, funded either by a paid tier or by something else.
Why it matters
Running VPN infrastructure costs real money. If subscribers are not paying it, the funding comes from somewhere, and the candidates are advertising, data sale, or an undisclosed party.
What most explanations leave out
A free tier funded by a paying business is a different product from a free app funded by unknown means. The test is whether the company has a real paid product and whether the same infrastructure has been audited. That distinction is the whole basis of our free-tier shortlist.
Related terms
Independent audit
An examination of a provider’s systems or policy by an external firm, published with the firm’s name, the date, and the scope.
Terms are defined here because they appear in our scoring rubric or in provider reviews, not to fill a glossary.