Please Note: Competitor data may be outdated since the comparison was made.
Some VPN apps trick you into thinking that a "kill switch" will protect you. A kill switch simply shuts down programs you choose when the connection drops. There is zero guarantee that packets will not leak, since its a reactive measure. The OS itself will also make requests behind the scenes, which you cannot prevent with a kill switch. With a firewall, all connectivity outside of the VPN tunnel is blocked by default, so if your VPN connection is severed for any reason, there is nothing for the app to do, so you can guarantee that your IP will not leak, as it "fails closed" so to speak.
Having a VPN alone will not do much for your privacy. When you access websites, they leave tracking cookies in your browser, so when you disconnect from a VPN, all your activity can be linked back to your ISP assigned IP, and then directly to you. Windscribe prevents this, as our browser extension will block ads and trackers that can compromise your privacy, even after you disconnect.
Don't trust a VPN that logs your activity, or claims to have absolutely no logs at all. Running an Internet service without any kind of logs is impossible, due to the nature of computers. A VPN provider has to be very transparent in terms of what information is stored, and for how long. You can read about Windscribe's logging policy here. In short, we don't keep logs of your activity, your ISP assigned IP, or any metadata except for your bandwidth usage in a 30 day period. The record of your connection is discarded within 3 minutes of you disconnecting.