Given the choice between a free product and one that costs money, the decision is obvious for many. When it comes to a VPN, though, it’s not as simple as it seems.
The vast majority of free VPNs are, frankly, awful. They offer slow speeds, bombard you with pop-up ads and, worst of all, won’t even protect your privacy. That’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to trawl through the most popular free VPNs on the market to find out which ones are actually worth your time and safe to use.
The five free VPNs below may not be able to rival the best paid-for options out there, but they’re still top choices for anyone looking for an introduction to the world of VPNs before they commit. They’re guaranteed to keep your online activity safe and secure, with fast speeds and professional apps.
The best free VPN with a strong privacy focus and user-friendly apps.
- Customer Support
- Email support via an online form
- No. of Server Locations
- 10 Countries
- Simultaneous Connections
- Unlimited
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Windscribe is the best free VPN on the current market. Most importantly it’s secure, offering the same excellent levels of privacy to its free users as it does to premium ones. With a minimal-logs policy and extra features such as a VPN kill switch and DNS leak protection, you can rest assured that your personal data won’t be transferred to any third parties.
Performance is pretty impressive for a complimentary VPN too, reaching a speedy 50Mbps locally. Windscribe does impose a 10GB monthly data allowance, but this is much more generous than most secure free apps and will allow you to browse the web normally. Occasional streaming or torrenting is also possible but you’ll have to upgrade to access Netflix.
Windscribe’s free plan is a solid long-term solution for casual users, and a great test run for those after something more.
- Customer Support
- Live chat Support
- No. of Server Locations
- 3 Countries
- Simultaneous Connections
- 1
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ProtonVPN’s free offering comes in a very close second, offering top-notch privacy with none of the speed or data restrictions found with other complimentary apps. Performance is excellent, with downloads peaking at 80Mbps on local connections. Uploads are just as good but P2P activity isn’t permitted on any of the free servers – something our top pick allows.
Unlike Windscribe, you are limited to using the VPN on just one device at a time and the server network is smaller, with just three locations to choose from. However, a strong set of privacy extras such as a VPN kill switch, DNS leak protection, and a robust minimal-logs policy go a long way to make up for its downfalls.
If you’re not fussed about torrenting or streaming Netflix, ProtonVPN’s free plan is definitely worth a go.
- Customer Support
- Email support via an online form
- No. of Server Locations
- 20 Countries
- Simultaneous Connections
- 5
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TunnelBear Free is an ideal way for beginners to experiment with a VPN. It’s super simple and user-friendly with a light-hearted bear theme thrown in for good measure.
The free plan is fully functional but comes with a very restrictive data cap of 500MB a month. If you’re enjoying it you can tweet about it for an extra 1GB. The upside is that you can test out all 20 of TunnelBear’s server locations and browse securely with a VPN kill switch and first-party DNS servers. It also has an excellent privacy policy and has been independently audited.
User-friendly free VPN with loads of advanced privacy extras and strict zero-logs policy.
- Customer Support
- 24/7 live chat support
- No. of Server Locations
- 3 Countries
- Simultaneous Connections
- 1
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Hide.me comes with a slightly more generous data cap than TunnelBear – 2GB per month – but you can only choose from three server locations: the Netherlands, Canada, and Singapore. It does however offer a strict zero-logs policy and loads of privacy extras, making it one of the most secure choices on the free VPN market.
During our tests performance was decent, coming in at 41Mbps locally. However, Hide.me clearly states that free users get ‘best effort bandwidth’, meaning that premium users are given priority during peak times. Outside of peak times, uploads are fast enough for torrenting, which is permitted on all free servers.
Basic free VPN with 1GB monthly data cap - a secure choice for general browsing.
- Customer Support
- No support available
- No. of Server Locations
- 25 Countries
- Simultaneous Connections
- Unlimited
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Avira Phantom is a simple, straightforward VPN for people satisfied with a basic level of privacy. Unlike our other top picks, it doesn’t come with a VPN kill switch unless you upgrade to the premium plan. The logging policy is minimal, though, and you can connect to 25 different countries. City-level servers are also available in the US, which is rare for a free app.
As long as you register with your email address, you can access 1GB of data. If you don’t, it’s a paltry 500MB. Even browsing the web will burn through that allowance in a matter of hours, but with peak local speeds of 31Mbps it’s not a great choice for much else. You can access Netflix but prepare for data to run out after 30 minutes of watching.
How We Picked the Best Free VPN of 2018
Our top picks have the fullest functionality compared to paid VPN services, and the fewest limitations on speed and performance. Most importantly, just because it’s free doesn’t mean your VPN shouldn’t properly protect you – we look for the most transparent and fair privacy policies along with the most effective privacy features. Our top picks are easy to use, easy to install and offer a good customer support even for non-paying customers.
We recently conducted an original, in-depth investigation on a number of popular free VPNs. Still not sold on just how damaging picking the wrong free VPN can be? Our findings revealed that a huge proportion of them had questionable links to China, as well as extremely disconcerting privacy policies – you can read it here.
Free vs Paid VPN: Should You Pay for a VPN?
The free VPNs listed in this round-up all come with our seal of approval. We’ve sat down with every each one for hours at a time making sure it delivers a speedy and secure service, and we’re happy with what we’ve seen.
As you can probably tell from their overall scores, though, they still underwhelm in a lot of areas. The very best free VPN can’t hold a torch to the majority of premium options: truly top-tier speeds, server options and extra features have to be paid for.
We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a good free VPN for newbies or casual browsers, but if you want a complete VPN experience then we would strongly suggest you subscribe to one – right after you take a look at our Best VPNs of 2018.
How to Choose the Best Free VPN: 7 Tips
- Are there any speed or data caps?
Check whether the free VPN you are considering caps speed or bandwidth, or even both – this is the most common restriction we find when reviewing free VPNs. Think about your expected VPN usage. If you are only planning to do very light browsing then you might be able to live with the limitations – just be aware that the modern web, with all of its auto-play videos, high-res images and rich web pages, is very bandwidth-hungry. If it takes 1GB of data to stream an hour-long Full-HD show on Netflix, will the free VPN you’re considering really give you enough data?
- Does the free VPN have servers in the locations you need?
Check whether the free VPN allows you to use servers in your preferred location. Odds are you’ll only be offered a few, and there may not be any at all in super popular locations like the US or UK. Even a free VPN will be a waste of time if you can’t connect to the location you need.
- Will it work with your computer, smartphone or streaming device?
Another common limitation with free VPNs is the devices you can use them on. There are plenty that are mobile only, which is as good as useless if you’re trying to protect your desktop or laptop computer. Others will have a connection limit, meaning that while it may be compatible with all your devices it won’t be able to run on them all at once. We check all the small print so you know just what you’re getting before you download it.
- Will it unlock Netflix, iPlayer and torrenting?
It’s no secret that a hugely popular use for VPNs is to gain access to streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer. However, guaranteeing and maintaining access to them requires a lot of money and resources from a provider, so it’s only natural that it may not be guaranteed in a free VPN. The same goes for torrenting – all that bandwidth costs money, so you may have to pay to get access to servers that allow it.
- Will it keep you safe and secure?
Some products proclaiming to be a VPN can be nothing more than a placebo. If it doesn’t have the right security standards, like AES-256 encryption and the OpenVPN protocol, it’s not actually doing anything to protect your privacy. You’ll rarely get as much choice with a free VPN, but as a bare minimum you should make sure that it’s doing its job.
- What is its logging policy?
This is the single biggest danger when browsing for a free VPN. Many, many providers that don’t charge a free make their money by selling your data. It should go without saying that this is the exact opposite of what you want from a VPN. You can rest assured that we will never recommend a VPN, free or otherwise, that doesn’t have the most transparent, stringent privacy policy possible.
- Are its client apps and software easy to use?
A lot of free VPNs don’t put time or effort into designing a clean and simple app. The very worst will shove pop-ups in your face and fill their app with obnoxious ads. We’ve tested dozens of VPNs, and we’ve seen the best (and the worst) programs the industry has to offer. We’ll always fully explain just what we do and don’t like about using any VPN.
