F-Secure is a digital security business that has been around since 1988, and is based in Finland. They have VPN solutions for both home and business. This F-Secure VPN review will focus on their home based product, but much of it overlaps with their business VPN. Some may know their VPN as Freedome, and this is the product which we are discussing in this F-Secure VPN review!
Being part of a large company that has been around for a long time has paid off well for the features found here. Their VPN client goes beyond standard VPN features to include malware and phishing protection, as well as ad and tracker blockers. All of this is done through an easy to use interface.
We like F-Secure’s Freedome VPN, but found it to be a little lacking in performance, has a logging policy we don’t like, doesn’t support P2P, and it has an odd pricing structure. We will review it again soon, but until then we recommend that you look at our Top 10 VPNs overall for better options.
Features
F-Secure’s Freedome VPN benefits from F-Secure’s history in malware and ad blocking. These two features could be very enticing to someone who is looking for an all-in-one solution. Their standard VPN features include:
- Support for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices
- Uses OpenVPN protocol with AES-256 bit encryption
- Kill switch
- Unlimited bandwidth
They are by no means the most feature-rich VPN we’ve tested, but they have the basics that you need to go along with their malware and ad blocking tools. We would suggest they add support for Linux to appeal to that group. It would also be good if they supported gaming consoles, or just routers to help that crowd.
Servers & countries
This is another area where the F-Secure VPN is set back as they only have servers in 23 countries, with extra server locations in the USA and Canada. That is around one-third of the number of servers from the best VPN for geo-unblocking.
Their server list currently includes:
- Americas: Canada, Mexico, USA
- Europe: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
- Scandinavia: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway
- Asia: Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore
They will not give out data on their total server numbers, but we doubt it’s any significant number. VPNs with thousands of servers scream it from the rooftops.
Speed & reliability
F-Secure’s Freedome VPN makes no claims about it’s speed on their website. Their only real discussion of the speed of their servers is a part where they talk about how every VPN causes some slowness, which is true.
Independent testing has found them to be about average in both download and upload speed, with very few complaints of disconnect issues. F-Secure has a large enough team to handle any major disruptions to their network, so you can be sure that nothing will ever be down for too long.
Pricing & payments
The F-Secure VPN has unusual pricing. Every subscription term is for one year, renewed yearly. The differences between packages are merely the number of licenses you get with your yearly subscription:
- Three devices: $4.17/month, $49.99 yearly
- Five devices: $5.00/month, $59.99 yearly
- Seven devices: $6.67/month, $79.99 yearly
These prices are right around the average for a VPN of this quality. We’d like to see them lower since they lack support for P2P, then maybe we’d consider them for our Top 5 Cheapest VPNs list we’ve researched.
We’re also frustrated to see that they don’t have a monthly option for those who want to try them out quickly, but they do offer a 30-day refund.
Support
We weren’t happy with how hard it was to find support for F-Secure’s VPN itself as it got a bit lost in the jumble of other products. It’s also sad to see a company of their huge size not putting more effort into displaying their live chat support, which is truly buried when it should be displayed at all times in the bottom right-hand corner. Their support phone numbers are also buried.
Their support section is divided up into four sections:
- Knowledge base
- Community
- Support for home
- Support for business
Once you click on one of these headings you’re sent to a general page about all of their products, and you then have to sift through or do a search to find what you need to know about the F-Secure VPN. This could have been organized much better.
The contact page is also divided up into:
- For Home: Click on this heading and you’re sent to another page which still doesn’t offer support. It offers links to FAQs, a forum, live chat, and phone support. You have to click on one of these four links to finally get help.
- For Business: This links leads you to a page which simply states you must contact your reseller, then links you to a page of regional sellers! Outrageous.
- Our Community: This opens up a new tab for the community bulletin board. You can search the topics for people who have had the same problem as you before and get answers.
This all could have been handled on one page, and just feels much more complicated than it needs to be, especially since the link for business support just says to contact your reseller!
Policies & logging
The biggest policy issue we have with them is that they do not allow P2P/torrenting traffic. Given that they are a huge company, with many different products, it’s likely that they don’t want hassles from DMCA notices.
To cover their Terms of Service, they have this to say:
- On security and privacy: “…we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.”
- On warranties: “No warranty of any kind, either express or implied, is made in relation to the availability, accuracy, reliability or content of these pages.”
These are standard disclaimers for corporate-talk on not wanting to take any real responsibility.
The privacy section specific to F-Secure Freedome VPN has some of the exact language you need to look for in a good VPN:
- There is no sharing or selling of your traffic.
- They don’t monitor your traffic, or know what traffic belongs to you.
- The software has no back doors.
Given how hard governments are pushing for back door access, the last point was good to read.
However, they are open about what they do record and we don’t find it to be very positive:
- They process IP addresses.
- Traffic is analysed for malicious files and URLs, and they automatically screen what goes against their acceptable use policy.
- The really odd comment is how they collect stats on your browsing history for you to review, but don’t connect it to you.
This is all clearly pointing to the fact that they are not the most private VPN available. For that, we suggest you look into the best no log VPN providers we’ve reviewed.
Expert recommendation
F-Secure VPN is run by a very reliable company, and you can be sure that what they say they will do will actually be what happens. Choosing them comes down to how private you actually want to be, and whether or not you want to do any torrenting/P2P activity. They’re a solid corporation, but not the most private VPN company.
Our big issues were their very complicated process for just talking to someone who works there, their unusual pricing structure, and their questionable privacy and monitoring of your connection. They can be a good choice if Freedome seems like the right fit for you, but we suggest looking at the five best VPNs we’ve reviewed for a high quality VPN.
