When it comes to affiliate marketing, both affiliate networks and publishers can benefit from VPN software.
VPN, as in Virtual Private Network, is a tool that enables users to access websites and applications bypassing all geographic restrictions. Choosing one among more than 400 may be confusing and time-consuming. Our team had spent quite a while comparing different apps and that’s how this article was born.
VPN can become handy when you need to check the availability of your offer with targeting for a specific, and definitely not yours, location. However, dealing with different types of offers, you will see that VPN has a limited usage for some, while others won’t benefit from these services whatsoever. Let’s make a quick detour to clear this out.
CPI offers
Both networks and publishers require VPN to test the installation process for the targeted GEO to make sure the process can go through and that every such event will count correctly in the system. However, if you need to check the installation from a specific device, you’ll have to get your hands on it first. There is another problem that may occur. Almost all the public IP-addresses are included to the fraud lists and it means that the installation may work just fine, but it would not be counted.
CPM offers
As no specific action needed from the user here, this model is the one that can almost fully benefit from the perks of VPN tools. Although, as most offers of this type come with a long rebrokering chain, you can’t hope for much more than 50% of certainty that what you see is what every targeted user will. The main problem is that no VPN app will show you neither the whole chain nor the problem that user may encounter (as in one of the retargeting links is broken, you’ll never be able to see which one that was).
CPA offers
If your main income comes from CPA offers, you can stop reading. As all VPN tools have very limited features when it comes to targeting, none will be able to provide you results you’re looking for.
For those of you who work with CPI and CPM offers, here’s our pick for top 5 VPN services for affiliate marketing.
| name | VyprVPN | TunnelBear | NordVPN | IPVanishVPN | StrongVPN |
| # of IP adressess | 200.000+ | n/a | n/a | 40.000+ | n/a |
| # of servers | 700+ | ~1,000 | 4000+ | 1000+ | 40+ |
| # of server locations | 70+ | 20+ | 80+ | 60+ | 20+ |
| internet kill switch | yes | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Dynamic server switching | n/a | n/a | yes | yes | n/a |
| # of simultaneous connections | n/a | 5 | 6 | 5 | 2 |
| DNS leak protection | yes | n/a | yes | yes | n/a |
| protocols | OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, PPTP and Chameleon | OpenVPNIKEv2PSec | n/a | PPTP, L2TP, OpenVPN ( TCP, UDP),IPSec and IKEv2 for IOSSOCKS5 web proxy | PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, or OpenVPN |
| + | VPN cloaking | easy-to-usetransparent policies | optional dedicated IP addressesencrypted proxy extensions for Chrome and Firefox browsersSmartPlay feature | unlimited P2P traffica no logs policy | no data capvarious customization options (from MTU size to HMAC authentication) |
| – | logging of connection data (connection times, IP addresses) | configuration options are very limited | can’t specify server city/provincesome servers don’t connect | poor customer support | some locations that are on the list don’t connect |
| mobile apps for iOS, Android | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| accepts cryptocurrency | no | yes | yes | yes | n/a |
| accepts PayPal | n/a | n/a | yes | yes | n/a |
| bandwidth | unlimited | n/a | unlimited | n/a | unlimited |
| free trial | 3 days | 7 days | 3 days | no, but they have 7-day money-back guarantee | no, but they have 5-day money-back guarantee |
| pricing | 12 month plan (basic) – $5 per month12 month plan (premium) – $6.67 per month1 month plan – $9.95 | Free service available12 month plan – $4.99 per month1 month plan – $9.99 | 24 month plan – $3.29 per month12 month plan – $5.75 per month1 month plan – $11.95 | 12 months – $6.49 per month3 months – $8.99 per month1 month – $10 | 12 month plan – $5.83 per month1 month – $10 |
As you can see, all of the mentioned tools have quite similar standard features and the fee for 1 month is pretty much the same. So, before you choose TunnelBear for its cute bear-ish visuals, make sure to lay out your needs and priorities.
If you’re looking for a more detailed testing method, you might consider adding Orangear Checker to your platform to get:
- a list of all the rebrokering links;
- review of obstacles & problems along the way;
- 25% more reliable verification results due to the dynamic testing.
