Disclosure: Top10VPN is editorially independent. We may earn commissions if you buy a VPN through links on our site.
The best free VPNs (virtual private networks) hide your IP address, securely encrypt your web traffic, and unblock region-restricted content.
Sadly, most free are restricted by data usage caps, unreliable speeds, or P2P and streaming limitations. Even worse, many are outright dangerous to use. Of the 150+ free VPN apps we tested, 85% posed privacy and security risks.
Not all free VPNs are unsafe, though. The table below compares the best and safest free VPNs – even if they can’t compete with the best premium VPN services.
We hold free services to the same high standard as paid ones. We never recommend VPNs that log your internet activity, leak your IP address, limit speeds, or otherwise endanger your privacy and security.
For a superior VPN experience, consider using a top VPN free trial. You can use one of our top choices ExpressVPN for 30 days virtually free.
Choosing the right free VPN depends on your specific needs, though. Do you want to unblock US Netflix, download files securely, or stay safe on free public WiFi?
We listed below the best free VPNs and the key purposes we recommend them for:
For additional category recommendations, skip to our Best Free VPNs by Category section.
Why Trust Top10VPN.com?
We’ve spent thousands of hours testing and reviewing free VPNs using our impartial review process to recommend the best free VPN software.
Here are our summary free VPN testing statistics:
Here’s how each of the top five free VPN services perform in our six key testing areas:
Free VPNs are used around the world on a variety of devices and for many different reasons.
We created specific recommendation lists for popular free VPN categories we test for – follow each category link to discover our latest picks.
Find out which free VPNs perform the best for streaming, torrenting, and on Firestick.
Some free VPNs have limited features depending on your OS.
Find the free VPN services that work best with your device here.
Discover the free VPNs that work best for the countries you're looking to connect to.
The absolute top free VPN – great for streaming, torrenting, and security.
Windscribe Free is the best free VPN overall. It’s secure, fast and it’s the best free VPN for US Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
The service has a privacy-friendly logging policy, robust security features, and it never leaked our true IP address in our tests.
The free VPN comes with 10 server locations and a 10GB data cap. The 10GB data cap is generous, but isn’t enough for heavy internet use.
However, the customer service needs improving. There is no live chat to help with complex issues, and the online knowledge-base and chatbot system can only help with simple queries.
| Compatible with |
|
|---|---|
| Data Cap | 10GB |
| US Netflix | Yes |
| Torrenting | Permitted |
| Jurisdiction | Canada (Five-Eyes Member) |
| Data Leaks | No |
| Works in China | Unreliable |
Windscribe Free works well on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Fire OS devices.
It’s by far our favorite free iPhone VPN, with a well-designed interface.
Windscribe’s app for iPhone and iPad.
It has browser proxy extensions for Chrome and Firefox, too. Both browser extensions work with US Netflix and BBC iPlayer, which is impressive.
Windscribe also allows P2P and torrenting traffic on most of its free servers, which is rare.
The VPN software uses secure AES-256 encryption and the secure OpenVPN, WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols.
In particular, Windscribe’s free PC VPN client, and a free Mac VPN app too are highly secure, thanks to the ‘Windscribe Firewall.’
The Firewall tool prevents your real IP address and data packets from leaking outside the VPN tunnel in the event of a connection drop.
Windscribe has never leaked IP or DNS data in our tests, and it doesn’t store any logs that would compromise your identity.
Altogether, Windscribe is a great free VPN for internet security and an excellent free VPN for torrenting.
Windscribe is the only free VPN that consistently streams BBC iPlayer and American Netflix.
Windscribe Free works with US Netflix and nine other regions.
However, its limited speeds and 10GB data cap will restrict the number of movies and TV shows you can watch.
The free version’s speeds are about a third slower than the premium VPN, and there are only 10 free server locations available.
These include servers in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.
By comparison, Windscribe’s paid VPN gives access to 110 server locations.
We tested Windscribe Free’s ability to unblock websites in China, and it’s still working.
This is thanks to its ‘Stealth’ connection protocol, which uses the open-source ‘Stunnel’ algorithm to obscure your VPN traffic.
The Stealth protocol is only available on the Windows, macOS, and Android apps, though.
Windscribe Free works best in China when you connect to the nearby Hong Kong server. It will also work in other censored countries like Turkey and the UAE.
or read our full Windscribe VPN Review.
A very fast free VPN with a 10GB monthly data cap.
Hide.me Free is a secure free VPN with a generous 10GB data cap. It’s one the fastest free VPNs on same-country connections, and it also allows P2P traffic on most of its free servers.
However, it doesn’t unblock streaming platforms like Netflix.
| Compatible with |
|
|---|---|
| Data Cap | 10GB |
| US Netflix | Yes |
| Torrenting | Permitted |
| Jurisdiction | Malaysia (Privacy Haven) |
| Data Leaks | No |
| Works in China | Unreliable |
Hide.me is a fast free VPN. We experienced a 7% speed loss connecting to a nearby server.
The VPN performed well on longer distances too. We experienced a 25% speed loss connecting from the UK to the Netherlands. That’s not bad at all for a free VPN.
While Hide.me Free doesn’t collect personal web data, it does keep temporary logs of your internally-assigned IP address (for the duration of your connection) and the total amount of bandwidth used per month.
This isn’t perfect, but it’s a reasonable logging policy that protects your identity and activity.
Hide.me Free works on most devices, including home routers. This lets you use the VPN on devices like Fire TV Stick, games consoles and Apple TV.
The software’s apps are reasonably secure, too. They use AES 256-bit encryption and secure protocols like IKEv2, OpenVPN, and Wireguard.
Hide.me’s Windows app settings
In addition to its 10GB data cap, Hide.me free can only connect to five server locations: the Netherlands, Canada, Singapore, and the US (East and West).
This is a problem if you’re in India, Africa, South America or Australia. Speeds will be very slow because there are no nearby servers.
Hide.me’s free VPN app doesn’t bypass geographic restrictions on streaming services reliably.
It very occasionally works with US Netflix and BBC iPlayer, but it can’t unblock Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, or DAZN.
The VPN does unblock YouTube videos, though, like most other VPN services we tested.
Despite its limitations, Hide.me is a good free VPN to use public WiFi securely and with fast speeds. It’s also a good alternative to Windscribe for light torrenting.
or read our full Hide.me Review.
A private free VPN with no data cap, ideal for securing public WiFi.
ProtonVPN is the only free and safe VPN you can leave on all the time. That’s because it doesn’t impose any data limits whatsoever.
You can use ProtonVPN as much as you want, completely free, and without adverts.
The VPN delivers good speeds, protects against IP leaks, and has a privacy-friendly logging policy.
While it’s an excellent VPN for security, it only gives access to 3 free server locations. It also doesn’t work for streaming, or with P2P traffic.
| Compatible with |
|
|---|---|
| Data Cap | Unlimited |
| US Netflix | No |
| Torrenting | No |
| Jurisdiction | Switzerland (Privacy Haven) |
| Data Leaks | No |
| Works in China | No |
ProtonVPN is an excellent general-use VPN thanks to airtight security and a minimal-logging policy.
Sadly, the unlimited data can’t be used to stream unlimited video content, or for torrenting, which isn’t allowed by the service.
The free version of ProtonVPN doesn’t unblock US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and most region-locked streaming services. The only major streaming platform it works with is YouTube.
ProtonVPN has subjected its apps to a full third-party security audit. It has also made them open-source to allow the public to scrutinize them for vulnerabilities.
This level of transparency is the gold-standard in VPN security.
You can use ProtonVPN securely on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices. All apps use OpenVPN, and have a built-in kill switch for added IP leak protection.
Moreover, ProtonVPN is one of the very few free VPNs for Android and iOS that comes with a kill switch called ‘Always-on VPN.’
This free VPN software is also very private thanks to its minimal-logs policy.
ProtonVPN Free is very quick across short distances, despite its small network of free servers. Currently, it only has free VPN servers in the US, the Netherlands, and Japan.
ProtonVPN’s list of free server locations
Speeds do slow down internationally, though. Connecting from the UK to the Netherlands, our download speeds dropped about 36%. If you live outside Europe, North America or Japan, don’t expect fast speeds.
Frustratingly, you can only use ProtonVPN Free on one device at a time. Windscribe, by comparison, allows unlimited simultaneous connections.
or read our full ProtonVPN Review.
An extremely basic free VPN with a 1GB monthly data cap.
The free version of Avira Phantom VPN provides a basic level of privacy and security.
It has a privacy-friendly logging policy and strong AES-256 encryption, along with fast speeds and unlimited simultaneous connections.
Avira Phantom Free’s simplicity makes it great for beginners, but it does have drawbacks too. There is no kill switch, no customer support, and you can’t manually choose which server to connect to.
| Compatible with |
|
|---|---|
| Data Cap | 1GB |
| US Netflix | No |
| Torrenting | Restricted |
| Jurisdiction | Germany (14-Eyes Member) |
| Data Leaks | No |
| Works in China | No |
Avira’s free VPN apps are available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. All apps use the OpenVPN security protocol apart from iOS, which uses IKEv2.
Its speeds are reasonable, too. Avira Free performs at around 70% of the paid version’s speeds.
We measured an average speed loss of 36% connecting to the free VPN from the UK.
The number of features available is very limited on Avira Phantom Free.
You’re automatically connected to the closest VPN server with no ability to select a country. There is also no VPN kill switch.
If you’re in the UK, you can only connect to a free UK VPN server, and in the US you can only connect to a US server. This also means you can’t unblock region-restricted content.
There’s only 1GB of data available each month, which doesn’t last long. To claim the full 1GB, you need to register an email address. Otherwise, the original allowance is just 500MB.
Avira Phantom Free has a limiting 1GB data cap
Despite its limited data cap, Avira Phantom Free does support torrenting.
The VPN is also secure enough to hide your IP address and mask your web traffic from your ISP.
1GB isn’t enough to download many large files, but you can safely download a film or some music.
The VPN doesn’t work in China, or in other highly-censored regions.
Just like the paid version, Avira Free VPN doesn’t have the obfuscation tools to beat aggressive web blocks.
or read our full Avira Phantom Free VPN Review.
23 free server locations, with a small 500MB monthly data cap.
TunnelBear Free is trustworthy, safe, and ideal for beginners and travelers. It’s also reasonably fast for a free VPN.
While the VPN is easy to use, it isn’t good for torrenting or streaming. It’s also limited by a 500MB monthly data cap, which is very restrictive.
The free version of TunnelBear is exactly the same as the paid version. That means you’ll have access to advanced security features and 23 worldwide server locations.
| Compatible with |
|
|---|---|
| Data Cap | 500MB |
| US Netflix | No |
| Torrenting | Permitted |
| Jurisdiction | Canada (Five-Eyes Member) |
| Data Leaks | No |
| Works in China | Unreliable |
TunnelBear Free has one of the largest free server networks. It covers 23 server locations worldwide, just like the paid version. These include the US, the UK and Australia.
Unlike many free VPNs, TunnelBear also operates a server in India. This is rare amongst paid VPN services, which makes it even rarer for a free VPN.
TunnelBear Free lets you choose from 23 different server locations.
Like ProtonVPN, TunnelBear has commissioned independent audits into all of its VPN apps. In fact, TunnelBear was one of the first services to do this.
It has also taken other important steps towards user privacy. This includes the use of first-party DNS servers, a VPN kill switch, and the release of an annual transparency report.
The free VPN apps work on all popular platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. They all use AES-256 encryption and protect you from IP and DNS leaks.
TunnelBear Free does not unblock BBC iPlayer or US Netflix.
While torrenting is technically allowed on all servers, the 500MB data cap is extremely limiting for file-sharing.
But, the free app does come with ‘GhostBear’ obfuscation technology. It works in high-censorship countries like Turkey, but not in China.
or read our full TunnelBear VPN Review.
Free VPN services are incredibly popular, with some counting hundreds of millions of combined iOS and Android installs.
We tested over 150 free VPNs, and below are some of the most popular we don’t feel comfortable recommending:
Overall Rating: 3.2
What we don’t like: Hotspot Shield Free VPN logs your IP address, connection timestamps, and approximate geolocation. Due to its poor logging policy, the company’s American jurisdiction is problematic. Also, you can only connect to one country.
Overall Rating: 2.6
What we don’t like: Betternet Free VPN is a slow VPN that lacks many critical security features. It also leaks your DNS requests.
Overall Rating: 2.4
What we don’t like: Thunder VPN suffers from slow speeds, enforces an invasive logging policy, and uses a very weak encryption protocol.
Overall Rating: 2.1
What we don’t like: Turbo VPN is infested with third-party adverts, has unsafe permissions, and we even detected malware in our security audits.
Overall Rating: 1.9
What we don’t like: VPN Proxy Master doesn’t have adequate security features and we even detected dangerous functions and malware in its apps.
Overall Rating: 1.5
What we don’t like: Hola Free VPN is a terrible VPN service. The free VPN logs all your internet activity, doesn’t unblock websites and blocks P2P traffic. In fact, Hola VPN Chrome was removed from the Chrome Store in 2021 after being labeled as potentially dangerous.
Overall Rating: 1.0
What we don’t like: SuperVPN Free VPN Client is the absolute worst free VPN there is. The service has a dangerous logging policy, its ownership is very opaque, and its apps are full of adverts.
Some popular free VPN services can pose serious risks to your online safety.
Free VPNs can be riddled with aggressive advertising or malware. Many collect and monetize user data by selling it to third parties. Hola VPN, for example, was caught selling its users’ bandwidth to botnets.
Many free VPNs also have weak encryption and leak IP or DNS data.
In 2019, we tested 150 free Android VPNs and found that over 85% had security flaws. Below are the results of our investigations:
Sources: 1Global Mobile VPN Report, 2Free VPN Ownership Investigation, 3Free VPN Risk Index: Android Apps
Not every free VPN is dangerous, though. Some free VPNs are very good for small and specific tasks like browsing safely on public WiFi or accessing a short geo-blocked video on YouTube.
It’s tempting to use a VPN without a long-term commitment, but be aware that even safe free VPNs have limitations.
For example, it’s rare for a free VPN to support streaming services or P2P traffic. Most have a reduced server network, and many limit your speeds or cap your data usage. What’s more, many popular free services are simply proxies.
Here are the potential dangers of using an unverified free VPN:
Free VPN services need to make money to support their business. Most services do it through advertising. Free VPN apps with ads have third-party code that can send personal data back to the ad platform.
Some free VPNs even log your web data and sell it to third-parties.
If you are using a VPN to use the internet privately, avoid those that have advertising.
Strong encryption and a secure server network cost money. Many free VPNs are poorly maintained – as a result, they simply aren’t secure.
We see many popular free VPNs like YogaVPN and TurboVPN leak DNS and IP address information. Basically, free ‘VPNs’ like these are proxies that don’t encrypt your data.
We investigate which companies and individuals are behind a VPN service.
For example, our past research revealed how 60% of popular free VPNs had suspicious links to China, as well as serious privacy flaws.
Most popular free VPNs on the App Store or Google Play Store belong to companies that do not prioritize user privacy. At the very worst, some actively harvest your data.
VPNs aren’t free to run. There are development, infrastructure, and staff costs, to list a few. It isn’t really possible to run a VPN for free.
How a free VPN makes its money is really important. As the saying goes: if you aren’t paying for a product, then you are the product. These are most common ways free VPNs make money:
It’s safer to choose free VPNs that are subsidized by paid VPN services. Windscribe, TunnelBear, and ProtonVPN are good examples. These companies don’t have to monetize their free applications directly.
Other free VPNs generate income by running advertisements in their apps. This is most common with mobile-only free VPNs. These apps often prompt you to upgrade to an ad-free (paid) version of the VPN.
Advertisements aren’t ideal from a privacy standpoint. But many users make that trade-off in order to use a free service.
The worst free VPNs make money by selling your browsing data to advertisers and other third parties. At best, you’re made into a product for marketers. At worst, your personal details are sold online.
In short, paid VPNs are almost always better than free VPNs. They are faster, more secure, and don’t have data usage limits.
We test every free VPN we review regularly. If a VPN service offers both free and a paid versions of their apps, we will often test both versions as part of the same review.
In other words, we put free VPNs through the same rigorous testing process we apply to paid VPN services.
We test for speed, security, streaming, and P2P. We analyze every privacy and logging policy in detail, as well as assessing a VPN’s ease of use and reliability.
All the free VPNs we recommend meet the following criteria:
Security is especially important when testing free VPNs. That’s because dangerous and ineffective free VPNs are much more common than dangerous paid VPNs.
We make sure every free VPN we recommend is free of malware, actually encrypts your data, and does not collect any compromising information.
Our reviews and verdicts are completely impartial. We never accept compensation in return for positive coverage.
Here’s a more specific look at the factors that go into our free VPN testing process, and how we weigh each individual category:
Minimum Requirement: 500MB per month.
We Recommend: 10GB a month or higher.
Data caps are one the most common drawbacks of safe, free VPNs.
The vast majority of free VPNs place restrictions on how much data you can use, which can hugely inhibit what you’re able to do with the VPN.
We thoroughly check every VPNs data allowance policy, and explore ways you can claim ‘bonus’ data for free (e.g. through ‘refer a friend’ schemes or by registering an email address).
The very best free VPNs will let you use at least 10GB of data per month. One or two have no limit at all.
Minimum Requirement: No more than 40% loss in download speeds on local connections.
We Recommend: Local speed loss less than 30% and reliably quick international speeds.
A VPN slows down your internet speeds, at least a little. This is because your connection goes via the VPN server, so it takes a longer round trip.
High data encryption can also slow down the speed at which the data travels through the VPN tunnel.
With free VPNs, the speed loss tends to be bigger than with the best premium VPNs. However, that doesn’t mean you have to endure painfully slow connection speeds.
We run regular manual speed tests, measuring each VPN’s download speed, upload speed, and ping time.
We conduct speed tests around the world, connecting to local and international VPN servers, in order to get a full picture of the VPN’s performance.
The best free VPNs are almost as fast as many of the premium VPNs we review. You’re unlikely to notice huge drop-offs in speed, and you’ll able to stream high-quality video or torrent quickly.
Minimum Requirement: Any connection logs must be anonymized.
We Recommend: An absolutely zero-logs policy.
We only recommend free VPN services that respect your privacy.
We scrutinize each VPN’s privacy policy to get a clear idea of what information the service is collecting, why they need it, and how long they store it for.
Also, we look for transparent and detailed policies, written in plain language.
A VPN shouldn’t collect unnecessary or personally-identifying information, including your IP address or records of your online activity.
The most private VPNs operate a strictly no-logs policy. Ideally, they’ve also been independently audited by a trusted third-party.
Minimum Requirement: A choice of VPN server locations.
We Recommend: A number of VPN servers spread across the globe.
Larger VPN server networks give you greater chances of unblocking streaming content and enjoying fast connection speeds. Servers will likely be less congested, and closer to your physical location.
We analyze each VPN’s server network in detail. We pay particular attention to the total number of servers, how well distributed they are across the world, and any specialized servers (e.g. P2P-, streaming- or Tor-optimized servers).
Free VPNs tend to have rather limited server networks, but there are services with 10+ global server locations.
Minimum Requirement: Can sometimes unblock global streaming libraries.
We Recommend: Reliable access to US Netflix and BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.
One of the most common reasons to use a VPN is for streaming. By hiding your IP address, you can access TV shows and movies usually blocked in your geographic region.
Sadly, free VPNs are notoriously bad for streaming. Most content platforms, such as Netflix, dedicate many resources to blocking VPN users – and free VPNs are often the easiest to identify and ban.
We’ve run thousands of tests to see which VPNs unblock which streaming services. We regularly check multiple Netflix regions, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, and DAZN.
Although free VPNs have a very low success rate when it comes to unblocking streaming sites, the best ones are able to stream US Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
Minimum Requirement: Permits torrenting on some of the free servers.
We Recommend: P2P-optimized servers and an average bitrate of at least 4MiB/s.
Using a VPN is key for safe and private torrenting. We first examine each service’s P2P policy, as many don’t allow free users to torrent at all.
We then check for P2P-optimized servers, and make sure the VPN is using airtight AES-256 encryption.
We also run IP and DNS leak tests to ensure the VPN won’t leak your true torrent IP address while you’re in the torrent swarm.
Finally, we run a series of P2P performance tests. Most importantly, we record the VPN’s average torrenting bitrate. Just because a VPN is fast for streaming, it doesn’t mean it’ll deliver fast P2P speeds.
The best free VPNs have an average torrenting bitrate of at least 4MiB/s.
Windscribe Free is the best free VPN we’ve tested. It’s completely secure, has a private logging policy, and doesn’t leak IP or DNS data.
Impressively, the free VPN also works to unblock US Netflix, and it even works in China. It also allows torrenting and P2P traffic on all of its free servers.
Windscribe Free has a 10GB monthly data allowance, which is more generous than many competing free VPNs.
The fastest free VPNs are Hide.me Free and TunnelBear Free. These two VPNs offer the exact same service as their paid versions, just with a very restrictive data cap.
Hide.me’s average download speed is 93Mbps on a local 100Mbps connection. That’s a mere 7% speed loss on short-distance connections.
However, once you pass the 10GB monthly data cap, speeds are limited to 3Mbps.
Many free VPN services use speed caps or throttling in order to persuade users to pay for a subscription plan. If the number of servers is limited on the free version, the VPN is also likely to be slower due to server congestion.
For this reason, free VPN speeds vary a lot depending on what time of day you connect and how many other users are connected to the same VPN server. In short, don’t be surprised if you encounter some large fluctuations in speed.
As well as their privacy and security issues, free VPNs are usually extremely limited when compared to premium alternatives.
Even the very best free VPN services typically have limited server networks, poor streaming capabilities, and restrictions on bandwidth usage.
It’s likely you’ll experience slow speeds, constant advertising, and difficulty maintaining a reliable connection.
Though some free VPNs are useful in the short-term, their limitations make them frustrating to use regularly.
Premium VPNs sometimes offer money-back guarantees and free trials. You can take advantage of these to use a paid VPN for free.
Paid VPNs like CyberGhost and PrivateVPN offer genuine free trials. These let you try the full VPN service for a set number of days without asking for payment details upfront.
Other premium VPNs, like ExpressVPN and NordVPN, offer risk-free money-back guarantees.
Refund guarantees let you try a paid VPN for a set amount of time. You’ll be charged on signup, but request a refund before the guarantee period ends and you’ll be promptly reimbursed.
Hotspot Shield Free is a very popular free VPN, and a few years ago it was one of the better options available. Right now, though, it can’t match the five free VPNs we recommend.
There’s nothing fundamentally dangerous or ineffective about Hotspot Shield Free, it’s simply not as good as its competitors.
The VPN doesn’t have the streaming capabilities of Windscribe Free, or the unlimited data of ProtonVPN Free. It doesn’t allow torrenting on its free version, either.
Hotspot Shield Free does have a daily data allowance of 500MB, which isn’t bad. If you spread your VPN usage evenly, that’s around 15GB of data a month, one of the largest bandwidth allowances across safe free VPNs.
If you already use Hotspot Shield Free and you’re happy with it, keep using it. Otherwise, we believe there are much better free VPNs available.
