Most VPN providers require a monthly fee if you want to use their secure server network. But there are some VPN providers that offer a free connection. While there are very few VPNs that offer a truly free option, most companies offer limited-time trials or money-back guarantees.
The VPNs listed in the table above offer completely free subscription levels. ProtonVPN is the most complete and useful free VPN service, mainly because there are no data limits. It is also the only free service on our list that supports Linux. You can connect to servers in three countries (US, Netherlands, and Japan) and have found consistent speeds in all of those locations. In our tests, ProtonVPN's free service only reduced download speeds by about 20%, which isn't the fastest free VPN, but it's still excellent and comparable to many paid services. ProtonVPN currently tops our best free VPN lists.
The real surprise here is PrivadoVPN's Free unblocking results. Unlike the rest of the free VPN world, PrivadoVPN offers both free and paid customers access to the same streaming servers, and in our latest review we discovered that the company unblocked Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, and BBC iPlayer from the US. Even most paid VPNs can't say the same.
PrivadoVPN Free only supports one connection; if you install it on your laptop and phone, you can only use one at a time. The applications are robust and reliable, but they can't match Proton when it comes to features. In addition, the company has not verified its privacy credentials with an independent audit. Overall, however, PrivadoVPN Free is an excellent service that scores in all the most important areas.
Windscribe Free VPN is a quality Canadian service whose attractive combination of features more than justifies its position in the top three. The network is another highlight, as Windscribe Free VPN users can choose from 14 locations in 11 countries. That beats PrivadoVPN Free (nine countries), ProtonVPN (three countries), and many others.
There are also some surprising positive points. Although Windscribe Free VPN doesn't include Windflix's specialized streaming servers, we found that the service was still successfully unblocking Netflix from the United Kingdom and BBC iPlayer. All in all, while Windscribe Free VPN can't match ProtonVPN and PrivadoVPN, it comes very close and may be the right choice for some people.
Atlas VPN Free caught our attention for the first time with its impressive data allocation. It's not the 10 GB you get with your Windows, Android, and iOS VPNs, although that's not bad; Mac users get an excellent 2 GB per day. However, in other areas Atlas VPN Free delivered a little more than we expected. It doesn't support unblocking any streaming site, for example, but we found that the service allowed us to enter Disney Plus, and maybe you'll have luck with other sites.
Overall, while Atlas VPN Free has some issues, we found that it did a good job of protecting us online overall; Mac users in particular will love the 2GB per day data allocation.
CyberGhost has been at the forefront of the VPN industry for many years. It offers several premium models, but its free version with advertising is a completely free VPN suitable for most casual users. For example, ProtonVPN only has 3 free server locations while Avira PhantomVPN imposes a data limit of 1 GB per month.
Tunnelbear VPN limits free users to just 500 MB (with an additional 1 GB available) per month but allows free users to access all its servers and connect an unlimited number of devices.
Since Tor is already taking longer to send your traffic through its repeaters, you need a high-speed VPN to be fast enough to use. Even though ExpressVPN isn't 100% free I prefer to use this VPN because it's much more reliable than any truly free VPN I've used.
We especially like that Bitdefender Premium VPN allows users to connect up to 10 devices simultaneously.
And someone with more nefarious intentions could quickly gain a lot of credentials by setting up a free VPN and waiting for people to simply hand over their personal information.
If it's absolutely necessary to have a location in the United Kingdom or some other country that isn't on Proton's very short list then PrivadoVPN and Windscribe below have around 10 countries to choose from.
The 5 GB monthly limit is about a third of the data limit you'd get with Hotspot Shield's free VPN for an entire month. If you're looking for a VPN for this reason make sure you first familiarize yourself with local laws and regulations regarding the use of the VPN.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a term used to designate services that allow you to encrypt Internet traffic between your computer and a destination computer in the VPN service. They simply don't have the resources to update their server networks and keep up with IP blocks imposed by Netflix to reduce VPN traffic on their site.
