i2Coalition Member Spotlight Q&A: Atlas VPN

Atlas VPN is a popular Virtual Private Network provider with military-grade encryption and support across pretty much any device — and that’s all provided in its free tier. Atlas VPN is also an innovator in the VPN space, having developed several new features that have earned it a great deal of praise in the tech media.

Atlas VPN is also a new member of i2Coalition and the VPN Trust Initiative, the i2Coalition’s industry-wide initiative focused on promoting privacy and security through VPNs, and establishing standard practices for VPNs that foster trust.

In this interview, Atlas VPN’s Chief Marketing Officer Gediminas Galkauskas explains Atlas VPN’s unique freemium approach, what new features it’s developed to protect users, why security online is not a privilege but a right, and why it was important for the company to join other VPNs as members of the i2Coalition and VPN Trust Initiative.

i2Coalition: Can you provide us a short introduction to Atlas VPN?

Gediminas Galkauskas (Atlas VPN): Founded in 2019, Atlas VPN is a highly secure freemium VPN service with a goal to make safe and open internet accessible for everyone. In 2021, Atlas VPN became part of Nord Security — a leader in providing digital security and privacy solutions. While relatively new to the VPN scene, we are already trusted by more than six million users across the world. Our main driving force is to make digital privacy and security accessible to all consumers, irrespective of their budget or tech-savviness. Anyone is welcome to try Atlas VPN for free or sign up for premium services with more additional features.

i2C: Atlas VPN seems like it’s provided a unique offering in the VPN space. Can you go further into what makes Atlas VPN unique in the industry?

GG: In 2019, we noticed a gap in the VPN market. To be more exact, we realized that nearly all trusted providers offer a 7-day trial and then require users to purchase a premium subscription. Even if there were companies that ran under a freemium business model, they were completely outshined by their premium competitors.

Introducing Atlas VPN – a service that offers top-notch security and privacy while at the same time offering completely free subscriptions to users worldwide. Naturally, there is a premium version with more features, since we have to upkeep our servers and pay our staff, among other costs.

However, our main mission of providing world-class security and privacy to all users, irrespective of their budget, will never fade into the background. 

Moreover, most VPN services that offer free subscriptions keep their service barebones to keep their costs down. Yet, Atlas VPN decided to hire a senior team of developers with an in-depth understanding of security and privacy intricacies, to keep pushing the envelope further, which is unseen in a freemium VPN market. 

i2C: Not only is the price for AtlasVPN attractive, but the features are also really impressive. Let’s hear about some of the innovations Atlas VPN has developed. Can you tell us about MultiHop+?

GG: MultiHop+ is an extremely advanced security feature we recently released and which is in the process of being patented.

In short, MultiHop+ is an advanced network topology with carefully selected locations for optimal latency and speed designed to randomly rotate between various gateways. 

MultiHop+ picks a random exit server from a pool of VPN servers in different locations and rotates it as you browse, making your online activity virtually untraceable. At the same time, you also benefit from double encryption.

As a result, your online activity is hidden behind several VPN locations and encryption layers, boosting your privacy, anonymity, and security.

i2C: That’s fascinating—another feature we thought was really interesting was SafeSwap. Can you explain a bit of what that is and how it works?

GG: On top of MultiHop+, we also offer an advanced security and privacy feature called SafeSwap. SafeSwap was developed by our senior engineers and it allows you to have not one, but many different IP addresses that rotate as you browse by connecting to a single VPN server.

Your outgoing internet traffic is routed through a pool of different IP addresses that automatically change as you move between online sessions. The constant IP rotation makes your online activity even more difficult to track.

By combining all our advanced features, users stay more private and secure than ever before.

These features are not something that we saw on the market and made our own, we actually created them from scratch, which makes Atlas VPN unique even among premium competitors.

i2C: Why was it important to join i2Coalition and VPN Trust Initiative?

GG: To start with, the Atlas VPN team does its utmost to make sure that the integrity of our brand name stays unsullied. We believe that trust is one of the most important factors that make a VPN company successful. This is why we closely select companies and people to work with.

Currently, we believe that the i2Coalition project is one of the top initiatives in the market that aligns with our values. Net neutrality is something that we are passionate about and we are glad to stand behind an organization that goes out there and makes things happen towards this goal.

The free flow of information is extremely important, especially in present times of commotion. 

It is quite surprising to realize that some countries still actively monitor and restrict their citizens’ online activities. Current events in Ukraine made us realize that it is important for all of us to join hands and work towards the freedom of speech both on the net and in the real world.

This is why we decided to hand out our premium subscriptions to journalists in Ukraine. We were happy to see that we were able to help in a tangible way. 

Moreover, we are proud to join the VPN Trust Initiative, because we believe that it is beneficial to foster cooperation between VPN providers. We think that anyone who goes out of their way to join a movement like the i2Coalition is worth being around.