Should Your VPN Be On by Default?
Short answer: for most people, yes. Leave your VPN on by default, then turn it off only when something specific breaks.
That sounds a little extreme until you think about how you actually use the internet. Your phone jumps from home WiFi to mobile data to coffee shop WiFi to airport WiFi without asking. Your laptop remembers old networks. Apps keep syncing in the background. You do not sit there making a privacy decision every time the network changes.
That is why always-on VPN exists. It turns privacy from a thing you remember to do into the normal state of the device.
What always-on VPN actually protects
A VPN encrypts the traffic between your device and the VPN server. Your internet provider, hotel WiFi, library network, school network, or coffee shop hotspot can see that you are connected to a VPN server. They cannot easily see the individual sites and apps inside that tunnel.
That matters most on shared and unfamiliar networks. Public WiFi is still public WiFi, even if it has a password on the wall. Mobile networks are better, but your carrier is still the first company handling your traffic. At home, your ISP is still in that first-hop position.
Leaving the VPN on does not make you invisible. Websites can still see your account login. Apps can still track what you do inside the app. Scams, malware, and phishing links are still scams, malware, and phishing links.
But a VPN does reduce what the network itself can learn. That is the whole point.
Will it drain your battery?
Usually, not enough to worry about. Any VPN has some overhead because it has to encrypt traffic and maintain a connection. Older protocols could feel heavy, especially on phones. WireGuard is different because it is smaller, simpler, and designed to stay quiet when it is not actively moving data.
If your phone is already struggling, you might notice a difference. If your VPN app is constantly reconnecting because the server is far away or unreliable, you might notice a difference. But with a nearby WireGuard server, always-on VPN should feel pretty normal for everyday browsing, messaging, email, and music.
When turning it off makes sense
Always-on does not mean never-off. Some banking apps, streaming apps, school portals, office tools, and ticketing sites get weird when they see VPN traffic. Some services block known VPN IP addresses. Some captive WiFi portals, like airports and hotels, need you to sign in before the VPN can connect.
In those cases, pause it for a minute. Log in, finish the thing, then turn it back on. That is not failure. That is normal.
If your VPN app supports split tunneling, you may be able to exclude one annoying app while keeping everything else protected. Just remember that split tunneling is a tradeoff. The excluded app leaves the tunnel, so the local network can see more about that app's connection.
For most people, the best setup is boring: VPN on by default, kill switch if you care about leaks, nearest server for speed, and a quick pause button for the rare site that complains.
That is how we built 99¢ VPN to be used. Not as a dashboard you stare at all day. Just a WireGuard connection you turn on and mostly forget.
If you want a cheap always-on VPN for one device, 99¢ VPN is $11.88/year with WireGuard setup. Use it on public WiFi, travel days, or as your normal default.
The bottom line: leave your VPN on unless you have a reason not to. Privacy tools work best when they become habits, not chores.
Written by the person who runs 99¢ VPN. Not a security researcher. Just someone who thinks privacy should be cheap and easy to leave on.