Opera Rolls Out Free VPN To iOS Users

While it might not be as popular as Google Chrome or Apple's Safari, the Opera Browser has its share of happy users. A major reason for this following are the distinctive features that Opera has often brought to consumers, including Opera's free VPN service, which the company introduced a couple of years ago.

Opera's bundled VPN service is available across all major desktop and smartphone operating systems — including Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux. However, for some reason, Opera's free VPN feature was unavailable for the iOS version of Opera for several years, until now.

In a recent blog post, Opera confirmed that it is gradually rolling out the much-sought-after free VPN service to iOS users. As of publishing this story, the VPN service is now live for all iOS users using Opera browser. The company has, however, revealed that it would take them a couple of weeks to complete the rollout process. With the addition of iOS to the list of officially supported platforms, Opera has claimed to have become the only browser that offers a built-in free VPN service across all major operating systems.

Besides the inherent advantage of having a VPN option tied to the mobile browser, Opera's free VPN service also offers consumers unlimited bandwidth without any data cap. Other goodies part of the free tier include features like DNS leak protection, availability of 100+ servers, and the option to choose between different VPN locations.

A major advantage of using the bundled free VPN service is that users no longer need to subscribe to or log in to a separate VPN app. The process of enabling the VPN service on Opera is simple, and only requires users to toggle a VPN switch in the settings menu of the browser. Opera has also confirmed that its VPN is a no-log service, which essentially means that the company does not collect any personal data pertaining to the users browsing history or other activities, thereby ensuring complete online anonymity.

Its free tier currently offers consumers the option to choose between three regional servers (America, Asia, Europe) in addition to one "Optimal" server. Those upgrading to Opera browser's paid VPN plans get the option to select individual servers belonging to a specific country of their choice. A major advantage of Opera VPN's paid tier is the fact that it offers consumers system-wide protection. On the other hand, the free tier restricts VPN access to just the Opera browser, meaning that it cannot be used to encrypt data sent by other apps.

Given that smartphone users spent a lot of time on other apps, it would have been great to have some degree of system-wide protection within its free tier. That being said, if you spend a long time surfing the web, it might be a good idea to try out Opera's free VPN service and see how it works.