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Best Free VPN for Android
Your Android phone contains a lot of sensitive personal information – you need to protect it with a powerful, secure VPN service.
There are tons of free VPNs for Android, but very few are to be trusted – as we discovered in our recent independent investigation.
We’ve tested out a lot of free VPN services for Android and rounded up the best ones that offer a private, user-friendly experience without compromising on performance.
The Most Important Factors When We Review a Free VPN for Android
- Simple, user-friendly app for Android
- Reliable and fast speeds
- Generous data allowance
- Transparent, fair, and privacy-focused logging policies
- Useful privacy features
- High quality customer support
Wondering why you should trust our reviews? Take a look at How We Test VPNs
Read More Information on the Top 5 Best Free VPN Services for Android
Works with
Torrenting
Available on
The Bottom Line
Windscribe isn’t just our best overall free VPN service, it’s also the top free VPN for Android thanks to its user-friendly Android app.
Not only is Windscribe super fast, it also comes with a minimal VPN logging policy to ensure you’re safe while using your Android.
Annoyingly Windscribe doesn’t provide a VPN kill switch for Android, though, and the 10GB data cap, however generous, is still limiting.
Works with
N/A
Available on
The Bottom Line
ProtonVPN is our #2 free VPN service for Android due to its lack of data cap, even if free VPN users are limited to just three server locations.
ProtonVPN is easy to use on Android and includes a privacy-friendly VPN logging policy. It’s a fairly fast free VPN service, too.
Again, there’s no VPN kill switch feature on Android, but ProtonVPN’s ‘Always On’ setting provides the same level of protection.
Works with
Torrenting, Kodi
Available on
The Bottom Line
Hide.me is one of the safest free VPN services for Android we’ve come across, and it’s incredibly easy to use, too.
Hide.me is the only free VPN on this list that includes a kill switch on Android, and it comes with a strict zero-logs policy too.
If you’re looking for a fast free VPN for Android, Hide.me is the best choice, but the 2GB data cap will massively limit your online activity.
Works with
N/A
Available on
The Bottom Line
TunnelBear’s free VPN service for Android is ideal for beginners only looking to do a bit of light mobile browsing.
It’s not as fast as our top free VPNs for Android but is very reliable – we particularly like TunnelBear’s privacy-friendly logging policy, too.
Unfortunately, TunnelBear’s Android app also lacks a VPN kill switch, and the 500MB data cap is overbearingly restrictive.
Works with
N/A
Available on
The Bottom Line
Avira Phantom just makes it into our top five free VPN service for Android thanks to its sleek, simple Android app.
We like Avira Phantom’s minimal logging policy but it’s disappointing that free users can’t manually select a VPN server location.
A major downside is Avira Phantom’s limiting 1GB monthly data cap, as well as the lack of a VPN kill switch on Android.
Do I Need a VPN on Android?
In short, yes – you absolutely need a VPN on your Android smartphone or tablet.
Without one, not only will your ISP (Internet Service Provider) be able to see everything you’re doing online, you will also be vulnerable to any potential hackers or snoopers, particularly if you connect to a public WiFi network.
Using a VPN on your Android means you’ll be browsing on a secure, encrypted connection, meaning your online activity won’t be visible to anyone apart from yourself.
A VPN service also hides your IP address so it’s impossible for your ISP or any other third parties to see your true physical location.
How We Picked the Best Free VPN for Android
Our top free VPN services for Android offer simple, user-friendly custom VPN apps for Android, making the setup process quick and easy.
The best free Android VPNs offer fast, reliable speeds along with privacy-friendly logging policies to ensure your online activity is protected.
Most high-quality free VPNs for Android come with some kind of data cap, so we made sure to only choose the most generous ones.
If you’re looking for a VPN service without any sort of restrictions or limitations, check out our best premium VPNs for Android.
Are Free VPNs Safe?
Unfortunately for the 200 million-plus users of free VPNs, the reality is that most free VPNs are not safe and should not be trusted with your confidential personal data.
We recently carried out two in-depth investigations on some of the most popular free VPN services and discovered that an alarming amount of them were linked in some way to China, and, even worse, had some extremely worryingly privacy flaws.
Our recommended free VPN services for Android will keep you safe online, though. They all effectively hide your IP address, encrypt all of your traffic and come with privacy-friendly logging policies to boot.
What Does a VPN Do on Android?
A VPN does exactly the same on Android as it does on any other device. Instead of your internet traffic being routed to the website you’re accessing via your ISP, it will instead be routed through a secure VPN server in a location of your choice.
Using a VPN on Android also masks your true IP address, aka the unique identifier of your internet connection, and replaces it with an IP address owned by the VPN service. This means that as long as you use a VPN on Android, there’s no way any of your online activity can be linked back to you as an individual.
Take a look at our guide ‘What is a VPN?’ for a more comprehensive overview of how VPNs work on Android and other platforms.
What is the Fastest Free VPN for Android?
We run regular speed tests on all of our recommended VPNs and can confirm that Hide.me is currently the fastest free VPN for Android.
Hide.me Free only reduced our speeds without a VPN by 11%, which is actually better than the vast majority of premium VPN services on our site.
All of our recommended free VPNs for Android are quick enough that they shouldn’t restrict your online activities too much, but if you want truly fast, reliable speeds you might be better off paying for a premium VPN service – we’ve rounded up the fastest VPN services here.
How to Use a VPN on Android
All of the free VPN services listed above provide custom Android apps, so simply go to the Google Play Store, download your chosen free VPN and log in.
If there are any extra privacy features such as a VPN kill switch or protection against DNS and IPv6 leaks, make sure to turn these on before you connect to the VPN. If it’s possible to manually select your VPN connection protocol, we’d recommend choosing OpenVPN.
Next you need to choose a VPN server – the closer this is to your physical location, the faster performance will be. Hit connect and you’ll be connected to the VPN.
If you opt for a free VPN service that doesn’t offer a dedicated app for Android, take a look at our step-by-step guide to manually installing a VPN on the device.
What Is the Best Free VPN for Android in India?
All of the free Android VPNs listed above should be available in India, but your best choice is a VPN service that has servers in or close to the country. Both TunnelBear and Avira Phantom VPN have free servers in India, or if you need a more generous data cap, Windscribe has a server in nearby Hong Kong.
How to Choose a Free VPN for Android: 6 Tips
To save yourself from fiddly manual configuration, make sure you choose a free VPN service with a user-friendly app that you can download straight onto your Android device.
The easier the VPN is to use, the more likely you are to use it on a regular basis.
Most decent free VPN services will impose some sort of data cap – it’s down to you to decide how much this will affect your online activity on Android.
If you’re just going to be browsing while connected to the VPN it probably won’t be too much of a problem, but streamers and torrenters should look for the most generous caps out there.
All VPN services will have some sort of impact on your Android’s performance, so choosing the quickest one is very important.
Check out the Speed & Reliability sections of our VPN reviews to take a closer look at how each free VPN service above performs on both local and international connections.
You need to choose a VPN server close to your physical location for the best possible performance. Make sure the free VPN you select offers VPN servers in nearby locations to allow you to get the best out of the service.
Not all VPNs work with popular services such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer, and even fewer free VPN services do.
If accessing these sorts of sites is a priority for you, we’d recommend taking a look at our Best VPNs for Streaming.
You trust your VPN service with all of your online traffic, so you need to be sure it isn’t storing any of your personal information or sharing it with any other third parties.
Choose a VPN with a minimal logging policy, or even better, one that doesn’t collect any logs whatsoever. Avoid VPNs that collect any sort of personally identifiable information, such as your true IP address.
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