F-Secure Freedome Review 2024: Is It Worth the Price?

Decent Speeds on Short and Long Distances

Freedome’s network was reliable and fast for most online activities and delivered consistent speeds in a wide range of locations worldwide. Despite being able to connect reliably to a server within my own country, I was most impressed that I could connect with decent speeds to countries farther away like Australia and Singapore.

Speed Test Results

When I was connected to Freedome, my average connection speed was 22.39Mbps, which was 45% slower than my normal internet speed. To establish a baseline, I tested the speeds of my local Internet connection in the US without using a VPN. The speed test I performed resulted in downloads of 41.04Mbps and uploads of 21.67Mbps.

After that, I connected to a Freedome server in Los Angeles. Specifically, I wanted to see what effect the short distance would have on my connection speed. There was only a minimal 36% drop in my connection speed from my baseline.

Following that, I connected to the Australian server since it was furthest from my home location. The speed didn’t seem to drop more than my local connections, which surprised me. I got download speeds of 25.78Mbps.

Similarly, I experienced higher than average speeds while connected to a French server. My traffic dropped by 67% when I routed through the UK, but I was still able to stream videos. The Freedome Internet service is fast enough to allow you to stream video and play online games without worrying about bandwidth or high latency, though the initial connection can be a bit slow as it took a few seconds to establish each connection to a server.

Even though Freedome VPN only offered a limited number of servers, it performed admirably in my tests. You can improve speeds by switching from OpenVPN to IKEv2, which, in my testing, yielded a speed increase of about 10%.

Server Network — Few Server Locations in 24 Countries

Freedome VPN has a relatively small network of servers. Since the provider doesn’t make its total server count public, I had to rely on the application’s count of available servers when making my decision. F-Secure Freedome has only 29 servers in total, which is a disappointingly low number considering the high price.

The locations are organized by continent, covering the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, but you have access to other helpful information like server load, latency, and stability. Only 24 countries are represented. There are 5 servers available in the United States, 3 in Canada, and one in every other country. There are no Freedome servers in Africa, Central America, or South America, limiting the service’s reach.

According to F-Secure’s FAQ section on its website, the company uses virtual servers as part of its server infrastructure. As a result, it may appear as though some servers are located in a different country than they actually are. While using a virtual location may slow down the service and reduce its dependability, everything seems to be running smoothly so far. It remains to be seen whether or not it will become an issue if the number of users gets larger.

The 24-location server network of Freedome is definitely not what you would anticipate from a service that charges a premium price. Because of this, you may find better results with a service like CyberGhost, which has more than 11,780 servers to choose from.

Security — Highly Secure with AES-256 Encryption

Several of the security measures implemented by F-Secure Freedome demonstrate that it values its customers’ safety and privacy. Freedome employs the most sophisticated encryption technology and the most secure VPN protocols.

The provider uses the Diffie-Hellman key exchange to offer perfect forward secrecy. This setup creates a new encryption key every time a new session is initiated. A hacker who gains access to one of your sessions and records your traffic will no longer have access to that data once you end the session.

A summary of F-Secure Freedome’s security options follows.

• Rigid security – 256-bit encryption with RSA keys up to 2048 bits is used for security on Windows, macOS, and Android devices. The provider supports 256-bit encryption, 2048-bit keys, and SHA-256 authentication for iOS devices.
• Multiple protocol options – Freedome can be used with different protocols based on the operating system you’re using. IPSec/IKEv2 and OpenVPN are supported on Windows and Mac. On Android, OpenVPN UDP is the only protocol supported. On iOS, IPSec is supported along with IKEv1 and IKEv2.
• Split tunneling – Freedome VPN’s split tunneling feature is restricted to the Windows and Android operating systems. This function, dubbed “Apps bypassing VPN,” lets you choose which applications’ data transmissions should bypass the VPN tunnel.
• Kill switch – This feature will disconnect your internet connection if your VPN connection drops, preventing your browsing data from being exposed. Additionally, the kill switch makes sure that you do not suffer from IP and DNS leaks, which can reveal your location and DNS queries.

As a company that cares about security in general, F-Secure Freedom has added some new features to its VPN. These features, however, require logging additional information, as explained in the provider’s privacy policy. You can expect to see the following:

• Browsing Protection – This feature guards you against potentially harmful websites and keeps you safe online. However, this VPN clearly monitors your online activity by revealing how many potentially dangerous sites it has blocked during your browsing sessions.
• Tracking Protection – You’ve probably heard that trackers are used by advertisers all over the web to better target their messages to specific users. This feature will show you the total number of thwarted tracking attempts.
• Tracker Mapper – This tool plots your online footprints on a map, revealing which sites are responsible for tracking your movements and from which locations. It’s a great addition, but just like F-Secure Freedome VPN, it’s not entirely secure, despite the fact that the company uses it to promote online security.

Following extensive testing, I can guarantee that using F-Secure Freedome VPN will prevent the leakage of your IP, DNS, WebRTC, or Flash IP address. Some of my results differed from one another with respect to the location of the server, but I attribute this discrepancy to the use of virtual servers rather than physical ones. It is not a significant concern.

Privacy — Ambiguous and Lacking Transparency

As reassuring as it is that no logs of data usage are kept, F-Secure Freedome does keep connection logs. When you first connect to a VPN, the service provider logs information about your IP address and device. Even if no logs are kept after a session ends, it could theoretically allow for continuous monitoring of your activity while connected to its servers.

The company also keeps logs of your VPN connection time, data transferred per session, your public IP address, your computer’s host name, and packet inspection results that indicate service abuse (P2P use on non-P2P servers). There is a 90-day retention policy for these connection logs.

Freedome’s logging philosophy is also mirrored in the app’s “Tracker Mapper” function. If you enable this function, you’ll be able to keep track of the trackers you come across in your web browsing over the course of a day, as well as the sites they appear on and the data they collect. Although this data will be removed after three days, it demonstrates how easily Freedome VPN can track your online actions.

While I recognize that the vast majority of consumers will not be adversely affected by this level of data collection, I still find it to be somewhat intrusive. F-Secure claims it will comply with valid legal requests for customer data and will not hesitate to disclose information to the government in response to a court order or warrant. To ensure a truly private VPN connection, I recommend only using a reputable company that does not keep any activity logs.

Freedome VPN, fortunately, is headquartered in Finland. The country has some of the world’s strictest privacy laws, making it an ideal location for VPN service providers to set up shop. Therefore, the provider is under no obligation to reveal any information. Despite its convenient location, I wouldn’t recommend using Freedome VPN because of the service’s intrusive logging policies.

ExpressVPN is the best option if anonymity is a top priority for you. Its policy prohibits it from keeping records of its users’ online activities. To top it all off, ExpressVPN has its legal base in the British Virgin Islands, a country with lax privacy protections and no data retention regulations.

Torrenting — Not P2P-Friendly

While the company aims to protect its customers’ privacy and security, it does not support anything illegal. The service blocks BitTorrent programs to prevent them from being used for illegal downloading, which is often the case.

So, Freedome VPN does not support P2P sharing, and you will not be able to download files in this way, regardless of whether they are legal public domain files or illegal copies of copyrighted materials.

In contrast, ExpressVPN is completely P2P compatible and designed to work with BitTorrent, uTorrent, and qBittorrent. It’s one of the rare VPNs that allows port forwarding, so you can maximize your torrenting experience. You can try ExpressVPN’s torrenting services without risk thanks to the company’s 30-day money-back guarantee.

My team and I do not condone illegal torrenting, so I recommend that you familiarize yourself with your country’s laws and regulations before engaging in any P2P file-sharing activities.

Does F-Secure Freedome Work in China? No!

You should avoid Freedome VPN if you need a VPN to access content in China. It was confirmed to me by a company representative that the Chinese government has blocked access to all of Freedome VPN’s servers. In addition, its relatively small server network might not have much of an effect on performance in locations with significant levels of online censorship.

You should check out ExpressVPN if you’re traveling to China because it is one of the few VPNs that work there. When using a VPN in China, remember that you are still subject to local laws and regulations and should exercise basic caution.

F-Secure provides comprehensive customer support through an online articles database, forums, live chat support, and telephone support. It can be accessed either by clicking on ‘Support’ on the F-Secure website or by navigating to ‘Help’ within the Freedome VPN client.

Live chat allows you to submit a question directly from your browser, which is then reviewed by an employee from F-Secure. I submitted my question and received a detailed response in minutes. My follow-up question was answered promptly as well. I was also impressed with the friendliness of the employee. Alternatively, F-Secure recommends that you consult their forums and FAQs if chat isn’t available.

A key feature of this site is that customers can find customer support phone numbers for a wide range of countries, which is quite unusual these days. The company also has an active social media presence. The provider can be contacted via Twitter if you wish, although I recommend using one of the other options if the problem is urgent.