Let's start with the bad news: free VPN services are limited in one way or another. Many are so limited that they are effectively almost unusable, depending on your needs.
The services in this comparison will not be suitable for everyone, but for occasional use in order to protect your privacy when shopping online or using public Wi-Fi (station, café, airport, hotel, etc.) Free VPN may be just what you need. Some even unblock Netflix and other streaming services, but their monthly (or daily) data caps don't allow you to enjoy them every night, for example.
Either way, a free VPN is a great starting point for anyone trying out this technology for the first time. Paid services rarely offer free trials, preferring to have you sign up for a month and ask for a refund if you're not satisfied. And for many, it's simply a big constraint.
You'll find the limitations for each free VPN service below, but in general the free tier of a VPN will restrict you to choosing from a handful of different countries, stop working once you reach your monthly data allowance, and /or will limit the connection speed.
Are there completely free VPNs?
Yes, there are many, and most are not to be avoided like the plague, on the contrary. Some are very reliable and offer the same level of privacy as a paid service, but at different speeds, fewer servers, etc.
Free VPNs tend to be very restricted in their data allowances (called bandwidth), choice of server locations (there are usually half a dozen servers or less, instead of hundreds or thousands). Free services can also throttle speed, which can mean slower internet access, but it really depends on your initial internet connection speed whether this will affect you.
1
Private
- Most
- Unblock Netflix
- The lessers
- Limited to 10 GB/month
- Relatively slow speeds
- Indicated price:
Privado is new to the world of VPNs, but the company behind it has a lot of experience. Unlike most of its rivals, it owns and operates almost all of its servers instead of renting them. Which makes its VPN service more secure, and the fact that it is headquartered in Switzerland makes it a good choice if privacy is paramount to you.
But if you just want to unblock Netflix, Privado is one of the only free VPNs to do so. It will only unblock it in countries where it offers servers that you can use for free. In total, there are 13 servers to choose from in 9 countries.
The only catch is that you get 10GB of data per month to stream videos, download files, and browse the web. Once this quota is exhausted, you will have to wait for the renewal of the allocation the following month. Also, you can only use the service on one device at a time.
There are apps for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Android TV, and Fire TV. The last two are suitable for streaming and the applications also have a Kill switch. It is not enabled by default.
The speeds we saw in testing weren't amazing, but they're barely good enough to stream in HD. The company says it will soon release an update to support WireGuard, which should shorten connection times and improve transfer speeds.
To register, all you have to do is provide a valid email address.
2AtlasVPN
- Most
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited connections
- The lessers
- Only 3 servers in 2 countries
- Limited unblocking of streaming services
- Indicated price:
One of the newer VPN services is AtlasVPN. It's basically free and a bit atypical in that it doesn't impose bandwidth restrictions, so you can use as much data as you want. AtlasVPN has three free servers, one on each coast of the United States and one in Europe.
They don't offer the "5x faster" speeds promised to paid users, and there are no performance guarantees for video streaming. However, they are supposed to unblock several streaming services.
What is impressive with the free version is that you are not asked for your personal data, you download, install and you're done. Which is good news if you want to maintain your privacy, but it also means that it's possible to install it on all your devices, without limits.
AtlasVPN is based in the US and operates a no-log policy (no data retention), but that's not entirely true. Its privacy policy states that it "collects" data (such as your approximate location, extracted from your IP address) to ensure quality service to all of its users.
AtlasVPN is available on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android and has an emergency stop button. Overall it's still fairly basic, only supporting the IKEv2 protocol, but connection times are fast. As a bonus, it supports both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, which means better protection against IP address leaks.
However, we discovered a few DNS leaks. When we did not enable the kill switch in the Windows app, our ISP's DNS servers were used, which may reveal your true location to websites and streaming services. We reported this issue to AtlasVPN, who promptly fixed it and released an updated version of the Windows app that has the kill switch enabled by default.
If you can live with minimal data collection (which shouldn't be a problem for most people), this is a great free VPN service.
3ProtonVPN
- Most
- Unlimited bandwidth
- No ads
- The lessers
- Servers in only 3 countries
- Average speed
- Indicated price:
ProtonVPN is one of only two VPN services (along with Atlas VPN) that is completely free, ad-free, has no speed restrictions, and offers unlimited data.
This service applies a zero-log policy, protects your data in accordance with Swiss laws and encrypts it using the AES‑256 algorithm.
Note, however, that this VPN is very limited since it can only be used on one device, and it only gives access to three servers (United States, Japan and the Netherlands).
It is available as an app for Android, Windows and iOS, it is totally open source and offers a very high level of transparency.
4WindScribe
- Most
- Servers out of 10 servers
- No speed restriction
- The lessers
- Limited to 10 GB/month
- No access to servers that unblock streaming services
- Indicated price:
The free version of Windscribe is fine. It includes in particular a firewall, an adblock and allows the encryption of your data. It is even possible to install it on an unlimited number of devices.
You have access to 10 servers (United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Hong-Kong, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and Romania), without speed restriction and its bandwidth is rather generous (10 GB /month) compared to other free VPNs.
There is no guarantee that you are accessing Netflix and other video streaming services.
5Hide.me
- Most
- Unlimited bandwidth
- No account required
- The lessers
- Only 5 servers
- Doesn't unblock Netflix
- Indicated price:
For its free subscription, Hide.me gives you 10 GB of bandwidth, with no speed restrictions.
Better still, you can continue to use the service once this limit is reached, however you will not be able to choose the server to which you are connected. Speed is not guaranteed at this point.
No credit card is required and you don't even need to create an account. Just install the app on your phone, choose the free tier and click the activate button.
You will be limited to 5 servers, including the United States, which gives you the possibility of consulting American sites without being blocked by your geolocation. Unfortunately, hide.me is not compatible with Netflix US.
Hide.me does not log your activities or sell your user data. Finally, know that it is compatible with Android, iOS, macOS, Windows and it has an Amazon Fire TV app.
6tunnel Bear
- Most
- Choice of 20 countries
- No speed restriction
- The lessers
- Only 500 MB bandwidth
- Indicated price:
United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan... TunnelBear TunnelBear gives you free access to all its servers.
This VPN has a very reasonable connection speed but its usage is limited to 500 MB/month; if you are thrifty then that should suffice.
You can still try to win up to 1 GB of data by promoting the service on Twitter.
For unlimited data, you have the choice between an annual or monthly payment.
7Hotspot Shield
- Most
- 5 GB total bandwidth/month
- The lessers
- Limited to 500 MB/day
- Only 1 server
- 2 Mbps speed
- Indicated price:
Hotspot Shield is another big name in the world of VPN services. However, it is restricted in a number of areas, for example it only offers 15 GB of bandwidth/month and 500 MB of data/day...
Which means no Netflix binge-watching. Also, you will see a lot of advertisements since they are funding Hotspot Shield.
You will also see many advertisements when using Hotspot Shield - this is how the free service is funded.
Also, be aware that it is restricted to a single server (with the free account) and more importantly, its speed is limited to 2 Mbit/s.
Recommended articles:
- The Best Paid VPNs
- Best VPNs for Mac
- Best VPNs for iPhone and iPad
- Best VPNs for Streaming
- Best VPNs for Amazon Fire Stick
- How to unblock a Youtube video?
- How to install a VPN on your Playstation?
