Touch VPN review

Touch VPN review: Touch VPN is a popular VPN that is available for free and supports Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, Edge, Firefox, and Chrome. The servers offer 27 locations, not bad for a free VPN, mostly in Europe and North America, but with numerous other options: Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and more.

All apps can be used for free and without registration. The mobile versions have ads, but when you upgrade, they will be removed, and the Android app says you also get ‘faster connection,’ ‘high-quality support,’ and coverage for up to 5 devices.

Touch VPN review: Privacy and logging

The Touch VPN website is so short of substance that we didn’t expect much from the privacy policy at all, but we don’t have to worry; the company uses the same document as the various other VPNs in the group (Hotspot Shield, Betternet, Hexatech, VPN360, and VPN in Touch).

The policy explains that it ‘does not include your VPN browse activities in a way that can be linked to you.’ That is, ‘When you use a VPN connection, we do not store any information that identifies what you browse, view, or do online through that VPN connection.’ The company explains that it ‘does not inspect or record the content of what you browse, view, or do .’The system does record your IP address when you connect, but this is hashed and deleted at the end of the session.

Touch VPN logs of the domains to which users have access, but only the domains, not the full URLs, and the data is anonymized to ensure that the company cannot link domain access to a particular user, time, or session. Touch VPN says it can ‘identify devices and link to other data we collect … such as measuring bandwidth usage, providing support, understanding how you interact with our VPN, and further analysis and marketing purposes.

As the company says, it can also record details, including ‘your approximate geographic location,’ making it possible to build a record of when and where this device is connected to the service, each session’s length, the data transferred more.

However, the device still can’t connect to any particular Internet activity. And please note that the free Touch VPN service does not require registration. Whatever the company knows about your devices, it can’t tie them to you with any of your data.

Touch VPN review: Performance

Free, no registration, and no bandwidth restrictions, Touch VPN looks like a natural choice for website unblocking tasks, but how does it work? Not so good, we thought, when Touch VPN failed with BBC iPlayer. And Amazon Prime Video. And Disney+. But it saved the situation in the end by giving us access to US Netflix; even paid VPNs can’t always do that.

Download speeds were very acceptable, with an average of 60-62Mbps on our test 75Mbps connection. We may get 5-6Mbps extra from the best of the competition, but that’s still quite a performance for a free service. Could there be more? We have switched to a European location at 300-400Mbps, and speeds have increased slightly to 90-95Mbps. We’ve seen faster, but not a free service, and overall, Touch VPN performed very well.

Touch VPN review: Pricing and plans

It seems a bit expensive for $12.99 a month, $6.67 over a year- Private Internet Access’s annual plan is half the price, Surfshark‘s two-year plan is less than a third. We hunted for other outlets on the website but gave up quickly; it’s one page of essential marketing with a few generic descriptions of what a VPN can do. And that’s a pity because Touch VPN has a story to tell.

Final words

Touch VPN is a mess of service with a weak website and largely undervalued apps, and the overpriced commercial plans don’t deserve your time. But with decent speeds, Netflix unblocking and no registration required, the free version can be worth the effort for simple tasks.