A VPN Does Not Mean Reduced Performance as a Trade-Off for Security

A major misconception that exists between users of VPN services is that they would have to make a trade-off between speed or performance of data transmission and the security protection it provides. While it is undeniable that a marginal drop in speed is inevitable, it doesn’t have to be significant to affect the performance of your computing process.

Performance and speed of a VPN service depend on a number of factors. While data security and interoperability are factors which have traditionally been given higher priority by VPN services over speed, there are ways in which you can increase the speed, two components of which are latency and throughput, so that it doesn’t affect performance.

But first you need to understand some factors that may affect latency (the time taken to send a request to a server that you want to access and get a response from the same server) and throughput (amount of data that can be transferred over a network in a specific amount of time) rates.

Factors that affect performance

Overcrowding of the VPN service: Best VPN services limit the maximum number of users per server. However, ordinary servers can’t limit the number of people using the same server and sometimes due to overcrowding the performance gets affected.
Geographical distance of server: If the VPN server is too far away, the speed and performance may get affected. So, try to choose a server which is close to your real location if possible.
Very high level of encryption: Most users usually prefer a very high level of encryption to reinforce security. However, if you think that you can make do with a 128-bit encryption instead of 256-bits, go for it as it will increase speed without compromising your data security significantly.
The right choice of protocol is important: The kind of VPN protocol that you choose can not only affect the level of security but also the amount of speed. UDP is much faster than TCP, both of which are open VPN protocols. PPTP is a lot faster than L2TP VPN protocol but the level of security is reduced in the inverse proportion.
Routing slows the speed: If you are using a normal route instead of a VPN protected route, your speed will be a little faster. This is because in the case of VPN network, the data is first routed to a secured, remote server and then the data reaches the final destination. Although, this masks your IP address, it eats into speed somewhat.
Performance of the VPN server often makes a difference: A VPN server has to process everything. It has to process encrypted data as well as traffic. So, how powerful the server is will ultimately contribute to the speed of data transmission.
Choose your ISP wisely: Your internet service provider (ISP) ultimately decides the level of speed of your transactions. Choosing one which offers higher speed help.

Tips to improve performance

Most of these factors that affect performance can be made void by making suitable changes. For example, by choosing an ISP that provides better speed and service, by choosing a VPN service that provides a more powerful server, by choosing VPN services that use transfer protocols of your choice, by choosing a server which is close to your location, by properly configuring your local network and controlling the number of people who use the same VPN server, you can make a significant improvement in performance.

You will have to find a fine balance between security and speed. If you have been using a free VPN service, you could possibly consider upgrading to a premium service which would give you a range of options to choose from.

Follow these tips and you will be able to minimize speed loss to negligible so that it won’t impact the quality of data sharing. You don’t have to choose one over the other. VPN services can give you both and a lot more.