Riseup VPN vs Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy: which wins in 2026?
Head-to-head on the facts that decide the purchase: real prices in the provider's own unit, minimum, KYC, proof, payment and terms - every number sourced in the linked reviews.
The most trustworthy free VPN on structural grounds: an anarchist Seattle collective that has run since 1999, funds itself by donations, asks no account registration and states plainly that it does not log IP addresses, with a quarterly PGP-signed warrant canary and honest documentation of its own VPN limitations and the 2016 canary incident. But it is still US jurisdiction, there is no independent audit, servers are few, and the client is Bitmask-based with basic features - activists' pick, not a streaming tool.
A text-book ad-funded freemium trap that has quietly become an in-house brand of the least trustworthy conglomerate in consumer VPNs. The app works and is fast for a free product (Tom's Guide measured 52 Mbps on a 100 Mbps line; vpnMentor measured small download losses), it needs no signup on the free tier, and it unblocks at least one streaming service. Everything else points the wrong way: the free tier pays for itself with personalized advertising through named SDKs (Unity Ads, Ironsource, Kochava, Google Publisher) whose data practices the operator admits may constitute a 'sale' under California law - while the Google Play data-safety panel claims 'No data shared with third parties' and the App Store blurb claims TouchVPN 'never tracks, logs, or stores your... IP address' against Apple's own tracking label and an Aura notice that logs domains (anonymized), bandwidth, session durations and device hashes 'for analytics and marketing purposes'. There is no independent audit, the encryption story is thin (SSL/proxy-style, undisclosed on Windows, no forward secrecy), the kill-switch story changes by reviewer and platform, and the operator's own site cannot keep its country count straight (80+ vs 90+ vs 30+). The ownership chain is the decisive fact: Touch VPN's terms say 'We are a division of the Pango Group'; its privacy policy names VPN Proxy Pro, LLC at the same 250 Northern Ave, Boston address as the TotalAV group; and since December 2024 that group is Point Wild - owner of TotalAV, Hotspot Shield, Betternet, UltraAV and of the review site Comparitech, which reviews Touch VPN's category while sitting in the same group. The terms' refund section reserves discretion to deny 'any refund request... for any or no reason'. As a disposable geo-unblocker with ads it does what it says; as a privacy product it is documented as the opposite.
Short answer: Riseup VPN wins overall (4.5/10 vs 3/10). Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy is the better pick if you care most about security. Facts checked 2026-11-03.
The facts
 Riseup VPN | Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score (0-10) | 4.5 | 3 |
| Privacy & proof | ||
| Logging claim | 'Unlike most other VPN providers, Riseup does not log your IP address' | Touch VPN privacy policy (last updated Oct 31, 2024, fetched 2026-11-03): 'Our VPN… |
| Logging evidence | promise only (no proof) | CLAIM CONTRADICTED |
| Audits | unknown | unknown |
| Jurisdiction | United States | United States - VPN Proxy Pro, LLC, 250 Northern Ave, Floor… moreUnited States - VPN Proxy Pro, LLC, 250 Northern Ave, Floor 3, Boston, MA 02210 (per Touch VPN privacy policy and terms), with affiliate TouchVPN LLC; part of the Pango Group, which merged into Point Wild in December 2024; Pango is Aura's VPN arm (the App Store listing's privacy-policy link resolves to aura.com) |
| Owner | Riseup Collective (volunteer collective, Seattle) | Pango Group / Point Wild |
| Money | ||
| Intro price | unknown | $12.99 /mo |
| Renewal price | not published | not published |
| Anonymous payment | bitcoin | fiat |
| Account | ||
| Personal info | none | none |
| Kind | Free VPNs | Free VPNs |
| Facts checked | 2026-09-29 | 2026-11-03 |
Score breakdown
Riseup VPN leads on privacy & logging (+3.5), ownership & track record (+2.5), honest value (+2.5) · Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy leads on security (+3), ease of use (+1).
Riseup VPN at a glance
++ What holds up
- Completely free, donation-funded, no account registration (VPN page re-checked 2026-09-28)
- 'Riseup does not log your IP address' - explicit operator statement
- Quarterly PGP-signed warrant canary (re-checked 2026-09-28)
- Unusually honest docs: a dedicated 'security issues / limitations of VPN' page that explains what a VPN cannot do
- Open-source Bitmask client; same stack as CalyxVPN
- Fifteen-year paper trail of collective operation (FBI server seizure 2012, canary episode 2016) handled candidly
-- What to watch
- US jurisdiction and US-based infrastructure
- No independent audit of the no-logs claim
- Small free network; speeds and server choice are basic
- Client setup is less polished than commercial apps (users report uninstall troubles and occasional site-blocking quirks)
Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy at a glance
++ What holds up
- Genuinely free with no signup required and respectable speeds for a free tier - 52 Mbps download on a 100 Mbps line in Tom's Guide's testing; vpnMentor measured only 5-9% download loss on most servers
- Android app updated regularly (Oct 23, 2026) and well liked at retail scale: ~830K Play reviews at 4.3-4.5 stars, 50M+ installs
- Passed DNS/IP leak tests in both fetched reviews (Tom's Guide 'no leaks' in Top10VPN's 2019 testing; vpnMentor's leak tests clean)
- Netflix US unblocked in Tom's Guide's 2024 streaming tests
-- What to watch
- Free tier is funded by personalized advertising: the policy names Unity Ads, Ironsource, Kochava and Google Publisher SDKs receiving advertising IDs, IP address and device data, admits some ads are personalized and that under CCPA this 'may be deemed a sale' - while the Play data-safety panel claims 'No data shared with third parties'
- Store-listing logging claim ('never tracks, logs, or stores your... IP address') is contradicted by the operator's own Aura VPN notice (domain logging on an anonymized basis, bandwidth and session logs to 'enforce free app usage limits', device hashes used for 'analytics and marketing purposes') and by Apple's 'Data Used to Track You' label
- No independent security or no-logs audit of Touch VPN exists; Pango's 2023 AON audit covered Hotspot Shield and it is 'unclear if other members of the Pango group such as Touch VPN were included' (Tom's Guide)
- Thin security engineering: SSL/proxy-style encryption with no perfect forward secrecy (vpnMentor), Windows protocol locked and Windows encryption undisclosed (Tom's Guide), kill switch absent on Windows/macOS per Tom's Guide and 'no kill switch' per vpnMentor's text
- Aggressive upsell: 500 MB/day cap, few locations and 'invasive'/'incredibly annoying' pop-up ads on the free tier (both reviews); premium costs $12.99/mo or $79.99/yr - ExpressVPN-level pricing for a barebones service
- Operator opacity: touchvpn.net publishes no pricing page, the terms reserve refunds 'at Our sole discretion... denied for any or no reason', and the privacy policy contains a copy-paste artifact referencing 'UltraAV web pages' - a sibling brand
- 2007-era Top10VPN Risk Index entry for the app flagged intrusive permissions (READ_PHONE_STATE, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) and one major network abnormality
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Riseup VPN or Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy?
Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy publishes a price ($12.99 /mo); Riseup VPN is free (no comparable price exists) - compare what each one takes instead of money.
Which has better logging evidence, Riseup VPN or Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy?
Riseup VPN has the stronger logging evidence; Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy documents no logging evidence - unknown is not evidence - and its claim was contradicted in a documented case.
Which renewal price is honest, Riseup VPN or Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy?
Riseup VPN is free - there is no renewal price to hide; the honest question is what the "free" is funded with. See the linked reviews.
Which needs less KYC, Riseup VPN or Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy?
Both have the same KYC stance (none).
Which has the longer track record?
Only Riseup VPN publishes a founding year (1999); the other has no verifiable history on file.
Scores and facts: meta-reviews with dated sources - Riseup VPN · Touch VPN - Fast Hotspot Proxy. Method: how we verify. More: all providers compared · all head-to-heads.