Browser With VPN: These Are the Best VPN Browsers

Privacy and security on the web are more important than ever. Cookies, tracking, data collection, and storage - Those who browse the Internet without protection leave digital footprints and all kinds of personal information about themselves, often without realizing it.

To protect your privacy online, it's recommended to use a virtual private network (VPN). These days, a number of developers have integrated VPN features and functionality directly into their browsers, advertising the enhanced security that these offer.

In this article, we'll let you know what VPN browsers are capable of, what their limits are, and when you should use them.

Supposing that you use a regular browser, information like your IP address, the websites you've visited, as well as your surfing behavior can be seen by third parties. These include your Internet service provider (ISP), your operating system, as well as search engines and website owners. Many of these gather information about you in order to sell it to advertisers.

You might have tried out your browser's incognito mode, which saves fewer cookies and doesn't record the websites you've visited in your browser's cache or history. However, browsers with integrated VPNs offer significantly more protection. With a VPN browser, you can:

There are many providers who offer browsers with integrated VPN features. Below, we'll introduce you to some of the best options on the market, summarizing their features, as well as their advantages and disadvantages:

Since 2016, Opera has offered users a popular browser with integrated "VPN" features (in practice, these function more like a proxy).

The browser itself is very user-friendly, and its VPN can be activated/deactivated by clicking on the power button in the upper left. According to the developer, Opera VPN uses AES-256 encryption, guaranteeing highly secure data transfers.

In contrast to full-fledged VPNs, Opera's users can only select from a few, very general server locations (Asia, Europe, North and South America). The browser doesn't include a kill switch either. This immediately severs your Internet connection whenever there's a disruption to your VPN tunnel.

A free version of Epic Browser, which includes integrated VPN features, is also available. Here too, VPN features can be enabled or disabled from within the browser by clicking on the switch in the upper right. You'll be able to choose from servers in the US, Canada, UK, France, Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and India.

Since Epic Browser is open-source, anyone can check its source code. This provides a significant amount of transparency. Epic Browser states that it doesn't collect logs or data, however, as with every VPN, this should be taken with a grain of salt.

The browser doesn't offer actual VPN functionality and instead encrypts your browser's data at a comparably low level.

Avast is famous for its antivirus programs and firewalls, with Avast Secure Browser Pro being its contribution to the VPN browser market segment. This is built around Avast SecureLine VPN. In addition, Avast's premium VPN browser offers a number of useful features that further enhance your security.

In contrast to free VPN browsers, Avast offers actual VPN encryption and a large selection of server locations: Users have access to more than 700 servers across 55 countries.

In the past, Brave's VPN features were only available to users of its browser's mobile version. That's changed, as the desktop version (starting from Version 1.49) comes with an integrated VPN. Users can select from more than 40 different server locations across 30 countries, allowing them to access a wide variety of otherwise unavailable content.

However, coming in at $9.99 per month ($99.99 per year), Brave Browser is a relatively expensive solution. You will get system-wide VPN protection, which free VPN browsers don't offer. At the same time, for the same price (or even less) you can book a full-fledged VPN subscription.

In case we've discouraged you from switching over to a VPN browser, you can add VPN features to your current browser through add-ons or extensions. Below, we've compiled a list of our favorite Chrome and Firefox VPN extensions:

Beyond that, you might also want to consider privacy browsers, which offer a range of security features and overlap in many areas with VPN browsers.

Another alternative for even more online security and anonymity is Tor Browser, however, this isn't as beginner-friendly as VPN or privacy browsers.

Apart from a few exceptions, most "VPN browsers" are in actuality, less secure, proxy services. You can use these to hide your IP address and simulate being in a different physical location, which will come in handy for accessing content or services that aren't available in your region.

At the same time, unlike VPNs, proxy connections rarely encrypt data transfers. If your security and privacy demands are high, a full-fledged VPN is the way to go. To help in making your decision, be sure to consult our detailed comparison of 27 VPN providers.