A free service connects, and so does a paid one. So what are you paying for? The honest answer is not speed and not a “protected” badge. It is who pays for the servers and with what, where you get the app, and who answers when something breaks.
In short. Servers and bandwidth cost money every month, and if you are not paying, somebody still settles the bill — most often with your data. A subscription buys you a model you can see: the service lives on your money, not on you. Everything else is worth checking before you pay, with five questions: what the service lives on, where to install the app from, how many devices, how Russian apps work, and who answers if it breaks. Below are the questions and our answers, with prices. What money does not buy is a guarantee that tomorrow everything will work the same: nobody can promise that.
We build Mayak and live on subscriptions — so below are our own answers to the same five questions, with prices and with what we do not promise. 7 days free after you confirm your email, no card needed. The trial is free and needs no card; without an email it is 3 days.
🍎 On iPhone Mayak works through the third-party Happ app — with the subscription link from your account. Happ is not in the Russian App Store; there incy (publisher LLC ITDEV) works instead, checked on 22 September 2026.
Five questions before you pay
They are worth asking any service, paid or free. The right-hand column is our answer as of 18 September 2026; details on each point follow below.
| Question for the service | How it is with Mayak |
|---|---|
| What do you live on? | Subscriptions: 300, 500 or 700 ₽ a month. No ads, we do not sell data |
| Where do I install the app from? | Google Play or a file from our site, signed with our key. There is no iPhone app |
| How many devices? | A stated number: 3, 5 or 10 |
| Will Russian apps work? | Split tunneling: the “RU Apps” set goes past the tunnel with one switch |
| Who answers if it breaks? | A form in the cabinet and email; we usually answer within a day |
What the service lives on: your money or you
A free service has to pay for servers too, and the ways it makes that money back are documented: resell your connection to other people, collect and sell your browsing history, swap the ads in the pages you open, or call something “protection” when it encrypts nothing. We went through each of these with examples separately: what you really pay for a free VPN.
That does not make everything free bad: free tiers at paid services can be honest — the source of money is visible there. The question is always the same: what does the service live on? If there is no answer, you are paying — just not with money.
How it is with us. Mayak lives on subscriptions. There are no ads in the app. Our privacy policy says it plainly: we do not sell data and use no advertising trackers and no third-party advertising or analytics modules. What we do receive from the app — for example, a report on how it is working, about once a week — is listed there field by field, in plain language.
Where to install the app: a store or the service's own site
An official source is an app store or the service's own website. Not a link from a chat, not a file from a “free download” channel and not a third-party catalogue. All of the phone's traffic passes through a VPN app, which makes a fake one convenient bait.
Such cases are publicly documented. In November 2022 researchers at ESET (report) took apart a website that posed as a real service and handed out Android files only; the apps had never been on Google Play. Inside were repackaged real apps with spyware added: according to the researchers, they took contacts, SMS, call logs, location, recorded calls and messenger chats.
A store is a filter, though, not a guarantee. A CSIRO study (2016 paper) examined 283 apps from Google Play with the VPN permission: for 38 % at least one antivirus out of dozens flagged something, for 4 % five or more did. The data is old, but the conclusion holds: the source matters, and who stands behind the app and what it lives on matters even more.
How it is with us. There are two ways: Google Play and a file from our site — it is in the Download section on the home page. The file is signed with our key, and the app checks that signature on every self-update: it will not install a swapped copy over itself. The store version and the site version do not install over each other, and that is not a fault — why, and what to do. We have no iPhone app.
How many devices and people on one subscription
Our plans differ in the number of devices, not in speed, and the devices work at the same time:
- Start — up to 3 devices, 300 ₽ a month;
- Family — up to 5 devices, 500 ₽ a month;
- Max — up to 10 devices, 700 ₽ a month.
You can pay for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.
Why a number and not “as many as you like”. Each device has its own key, and the server recognises the device by it. Two phones on one key get in each other's way: in our test on 13 September they went without a reply for 63–68 % of requests — the breakdown with numbers. So a place on the plan is a key, and there are exactly as many places as it says.
Family. There is no need to share your password. In the cabinet you can give slots of your plan to people close to you: each gets their own account and their own sign-in, and you pay — it is your device limit that is used. The plan's name limits nothing: Family is five places, and whose devices fill them is up to you.
Russian apps without switching by hand
Banks, Gosuslugi and some shops look at where you came from, and a foreign server address gets in their way. Turning protection off entirely every time you pay for something is inconvenient and unsafe: it is easy to forget to turn it back on.
That is what split tunneling is for: selected apps go direct, everything else goes through the secure connection.
How it is with us. On the app's home screen, above the connect button, there is a strip with the “RU Apps” set and a switch. We maintain the list of Russian apps, so you do not have to build it by hand; you can add your own (Settings → “Split tunneling”). If you go online from Russia on the first launch, the app turns the set on by itself and tells you so. The feature is in the current version 0.7.33: we checked it in the file from our site, and Google Play has the same version.
What this means for protection: an app sent past the tunnel goes the way it would without Mayak — from your usual address, and your carrier sees which service you are talking to. How we checked it on Gosuslugi and a banking app is in a separate article. If you are abroad, sending apps past the tunnel will not help: your address is foreign anyway — that is what the “Russia” location is for.
Who answers when it breaks
A free service owes you nothing. A paid one should at least answer and explain what is going on. You can check that before you pay: send support a question and see whether a real person replies, and how soon.
How it is with us. The cabinet has a Support section — a form to which we attach your plan and app version ourselves. Without an account you can write to support@mayaknetworks.com. We usually answer within a day. And so that you need to write less often, the app has four connection attempts in a row and moves between them without you — how that works.
What money does not buy
- A guarantee for tomorrow. Networks change, and a service that promises everything will always work is promising what it does not control. A paid one can stop connecting too — what to check, in order.
- Speed beyond your network. We do not throttle speed or cap volume, but the tunnel will not be faster than your carrier gives you.
- Money back for a paid term. Our offer says so directly: a paid period is not refundable (section 4). A mistake on our side — a double charge, or money taken with no access appearing — is different: we put that right. That is why we ask you to try for free first and pay only after that.
Try before you pay. The trial is 7 days on one device after you confirm your email, no card needed. There is no free-forever plan: the trial is there so you can check that everything works for you in particular.
With Mayak you pay for the service, not with yourself. Plans from 300 ₽ a month, Russian apps past the tunnel with one switch, an app for Android and Android TV. We ask for no payment details for the trial. A confirmed email opens the access — 7 free days. An email is optional: without one the trial is 3 days.
🍎 On iPhone Mayak works through the third-party Happ app — with the subscription link from your account. Happ is not in the Russian App Store; there incy (publisher LLC ITDEV) works instead, checked on 22 September 2026.
What we checked
- Prices and devices. Plans and the trial were checked on 18 September 2026 against our server's settings, the home page and the offer (version of 24 August 2026).
- Split tunneling in the live version. On 18 September we downloaded the app file from our site: version 0.7.33, the same as in Google Play. The file itself contains the items “Split tunneling”, “RU Apps”, “All except selected” and “Only selected”.
- Refunds. Quoted from the offer, section 4, and it matches the help centre.
- What we collect. Summarised from our privacy policy, not from memory.
- Other people's cases. The ESET report and the CSIRO paper were read at the source; the numbers are given with their own caveats.
What we do not know
We try to make sure nothing more can be read out of our text than is in it.
- How any particular free service works. We did not test other apps and we do not write ratings. The ways free services pay their way come from public research, not from our own measurement.
- How current the outside numbers are. The CSIRO paper is ten years old, the ESET report almost four. What the same picture looks like today, we did not measure.
- The split tunneling screen this time. We read the items in the 0.7.33 file and did not film it live on a phone this time. On a phone, the feature was checked on 13 September with two apps — details and caveats are in the article about banks.
- Tomorrow's prices. Everything above is as of 18 September 2026. Current prices are always shown in the account cabinet before you pay.
- Whether it will all work for you. That depends on your network, and the only way to check is on your own phone — which is what the trial is for.
Short answers
Why is a paid VPN better than a free one? Above all, it is clear what it lives on: your money, not your data. Beyond that, compare using the five questions above: where the app comes from, the number of devices, Russian apps, support.
Is a paid VPN worth it if a free one works? If the free service says honestly what it lives on and you are happy with it, maybe not. If there is no answer to that question, you are already paying — just not with money.
How much does Mayak cost? From 300 ₽ a month for 3 devices; 500 ₽ for 5, 700 ₽ for 10. That is what you pay us for the service; it has nothing to do with the discussed carrier fee for foreign traffic.
Does Mayak have a free plan? Not a free-forever one. There is a trial: 7 days on one device after you confirm your email, no card.
Can I get a refund? A paid period is not refundable — the offer says so. A double charge or a payment with no access is our mistake and we will fix it: details in the help centre.
Can a whole family use one subscription? Yes, within the plan's devices: slots are handed out to people close to you in the cabinet, each has their own sign-in, one person pays.
Where is it safe to download the app? On Google Play or on our site, in the Download section on the home page. Files from chats and third-party catalogues are better left alone.
What about iPhone or a computer? We have no app of our own for them yet. What already works on Windows, Mac and iPhone with a config file — in the help centre.