Bitdefender Premium VPN vs RiseupVPN

Bitdefender Premium VPN sends internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to protect privacy on home, public, and unsecured Wi-Fi. Its listed protections include AES-256 encryption, WireGuard and Hydra protocols, Perfect Forward Secrecy, ad blocking, tracker disabling, and hiding a user’s real location. Bitdefender says the network has more than 3,000 servers across over 100 countries and can unblock streaming services across geographic restrictions. The service supports streaming and torrents, a kill switch, and up to 10 devices at once. Bitdefender says it does not retain information revealing online activity and reports an independent audit of its VPN infrastructure in 2025. Windows users can prioritize traffic for up to three apps and set apps or websites to bypass the VPN. The free version allows 200 MB per day per device and selects an unchangeable optimal server automatically. Premium VPN is listed at $6.99 a month or $2.92 a year, with the annual price shown per month. A seven-day trial and 30-day money-back guarantee are advertised.

RiseupVPN is a free personal VPN for traffic encryption, location anonymization and censorship circumvention. Clients are available for Android, Linux, macOS and Windows, and torrent support is listed. The software is designed to install and run without account registration or configuration. It routes internet traffic through an encrypted connection to riseup.net before reaching the public internet. Riseup describes protection against ISP surveillance, blocking most tracking companies and bypassing government censorship where internet access remains available. Its stated logs exclude IP addresses, DNS requests, traffic flows, browser fingerprints and identifying information; minimal logs are encrypted and rotated within five days. Riseup warns that traffic can face man-in-the-middle attacks after leaving the VPN gateway, so HTTPS remains important. The service is funded by donations and estimates its cost at approximately $60 USD per person per year. Android installation is documented through F-Droid, Google Play or an LEAP APK. Riseup says clients use open-source Bitmask software. Windows lacks a kill switch, and the Linux Snap package is out of support.