Free VPNs are generally regarded with some suspicion. People say they have a reputation for playing fast and loose with your personal data and that limit the services to the point theyâÃÂÃÂre basically unusable
That may be true for some free VPNs, but certainly not all. And the good news is that there are some excellent free VPN services, such as those youâÃÂÃÂll find here
None of them will sell your data in return for your use of their servers and, while they do impose restrictions that paid-for VPNs donâÃÂÃÂt, they can still do the job you need them to
And the job weâÃÂÃÂre talking about is actually one of three possible jobs:
- Unblocking websites and videos
- Browsing the web in private
- Securing your internet connection on public Wi-Fi hotspots
A free VPN might well be all you need, so long as you donâÃÂÃÂt want to stream lots of video
ThatâÃÂÃÂs for two reasons. First, most free options only allow you to use a certain amount of data per day (or month). Video uses up data fast and once that limit is reached, either the VPN connection will be stopped and youâÃÂÃÂll be returned to your normal internet connection or youâÃÂÃÂll find you can no longer stream video due to throttled connection speeds
The second reason is that free VPNs limit you to a choice of just a few servers. Often theyâÃÂÃÂre not in the locations you want, either because their distance from you is too great, which means slower browsing speeds, or because you canâÃÂÃÂt unblock US Netflix because thereâÃÂÃÂs no US server to select
However, if you just want a VPN so you can browse the web without your ISP, government or websites themselves tracking your activity, a free one can certainly enable that
TheyâÃÂÃÂre also a great option when you need to connect to free Wi-Fi in airports, hotels and other public places. The Wi-Fi networks there often have no password, which means the connection isnâÃÂÃÂt encrypted. That means data sent between your phone, laptop or tablet and the Wi-Fi hotspot could be visible to anyone if it isnâÃÂÃÂt encrypted by another means. Using a VPN ensures all data is encrypted, protecting you from such attacks
## Free vs paid VPNs
ItâÃÂÃÂs worth knowing that a paid-for VPN service, which doesnâÃÂÃÂt have the limitations of free services, can be surprisingly cheap. ThatâÃÂÃÂs especially true if you donâÃÂÃÂt mind paying for a subscription up front which lasts several years. WeâÃÂÃÂve seen five-year deals offered as cheap as $0.99 per month (around 73p), and for most people itâÃÂÃÂs simply not worth putting up with the restrictions of a free service when you can have a fully fledged one at those kinds of prices
YouâÃÂÃÂll find plenty of other great VPN deals in our roundup as well as our recommendations of the best paid-for VPN services
## Which is the best free VPN?
PROMOTION
**Grab the best Black Friday VPN deal now**
Enjoy two years of Surfshark VPN this Black Friday for $2.22 a month, plus get two extra months for free (all rounded to $2.05/mo)! Explore the internet safely on unlimited devices without overpaying
Privado VPN
Pros
- Unblocks Streaming services
- 10GB bandwidth per month
Cons
- Only 1 connection allowed
- Unremarkable speeds
Privado is a relatively new VPN service, though only the brand is new: the company behind it has a wealth of experience, not just in VPN but also running the networks for streaming services
Because it owns the server and network hardware, Privado is a good choice if you want a VPN for privacy, and itâÃÂÃÂs headquartered in Switzerland âÃÂàa country with favourable privacy laws
The big advantage, though, is that it will unblock Netflix and other streaming services including iPlayer and Amazon Prime, and offers the use of 13 servers in 9 countries (including the UK and US of course)
In addition to its macOS app, it also supports iPhone, but you can only use a free account on one device at a time. (You can install it on multiple devices, but you canâÃÂÃÂt use the service on more than one at a time.)
It even lets you download files using P2P and the only catch, if you like, is that you can only download or stream 10GB per month
ProtonVPN
Pros
- Unlimited data usage
- Zero logs
Cons
- 1 connection
- Doesn't unblock streaming video services
Compared to most free VPN services, ProtonVPN is in a different league. Like some of the others here, it is a rare beast, imposing none of the restrictions you usually get from a free service
ThereâÃÂÃÂs no throttling, no ads and you have unlimited data usage. Proton has plenty of servers, but while anyone signed up to the Basic tier ($5 per month) can pick and choose between them, free users can only pick Japan, Netherlands or the US
The latter is an unexpected bonus, as it means you can access websites that are otherwise blocked for European visitors. However, donâÃÂÃÂt get too excited, as it wonâÃÂÃÂt unblock Netflix or other US streaming services. For that, youâÃÂÃÂll need to upgrade to a Plus or Visionary account, which grants you access to âÃÂÃÂPlusâÃÂàservers. But as we said, there are much cheaper paid-for services if your priority is to watch US Netflix
Proton is a Swiss-based VPN which has a no-logs policy, so is a fine choice for privacy. It offers apps for macOS and iOS (plus Windows and Android) which should cover most, if not all of the devices you want to use
Just note that only one device can be connected to the service at any one time, but itâÃÂÃÂs impossible to complain about that when youâÃÂÃÂre not a paying customer
Atlas VPN
Pros
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Unlimited connections
Cons
- Only 3 servers
- No streaming
Atlas VPN is another new VPN service. It offers a completely free tier, but will nag you to upgrade to the paid-for version (as will others here which offer them)
The three servers offered to free users are in the USA and Europe, but the speeds youâÃÂÃÂll get wonâÃÂÃÂt be as quick as paying customers receive
ItâÃÂÃÂs hard to complain, of course, when youâÃÂÃÂre getting free use of the service which supports P2P downloads and, theoretically at least, unblocking for streaming services. However, in testing, we found Atlas wouldnâÃÂÃÂt unblock Netflix, Amazon Prime or BBC iPlayer. You might have better luck
ThereâÃÂÃÂs also good news and bad news in terms of privacy. The good is that you can download Atlas VPN to your Mac (and iPhone) and use the service without even entering so much as an email address. But being based in the USA isnâÃÂÃÂt ideal because of its unfavourable privacy laws
As youâÃÂÃÂd expect, Atlas VPNâÃÂÃÂs privacy policy says that it doesnâÃÂÃÂt log any data. But it does collect âÃÂÃÂanonymousâÃÂàdata such as an approximate location based on your IP address. Most VPN services have a similar policy of collecting this aggregated data, but combined with the US jurisdiction, Atlas may not be the best choice if you specifically want a free VPN for privacy
Windscribe
Pros
- Supports many devices
- 10GB monthly data
Cons
- Doesn't unblock Netflix
- Below-par speeds
Windscribe is a VPN service that supports more devices than you might expect. It offers apps for macOS, iOS, Amazon Fire TV Stick, Windows, Android and Linux
The Apple TV doesnâÃÂÃÂt have VPN support, so any service that claims to offer an app will instead direct you to an awkward workaround using your Mac or router
There are also browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome, which can be useful if you only want web browsing traffic to go via the VPN connection
Windscribe gives you a 10GB data allowance per month, which is huge compared to most free VPNs. There are also quite a few servers to pick from, with locations in the US, UK, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Romania and Switzerland
As with ProtonVPN, though, you cannot watch US Netflix and speeds can be very slow, despite the claim that the free version doesnâÃÂÃÂt have any speed restrictions
Note that youâÃÂÃÂll get a 2GB allowance if you donâÃÂÃÂt provide an email address, too, but Windscribe says it does not sell data to third parties even if youâÃÂÃÂre using its free service
hide.me
Pros
- 24/7 tech support
- No ads
- 'Unlimited' bandwidth
Cons
- No video unblocking
- 1 connection at a time
Have a read through hide.meâÃÂÃÂs website and youâÃÂÃÂll be tempted to download the app immediately. It wonâÃÂÃÂt bombard you with ads, youâÃÂÃÂll get the same 24/7 customer support that paying customers receive, thereâÃÂÃÂs no throttling and unlimited bandwidth
âÃÂÃÂSoâÃÂæWhatâÃÂÃÂs the catch?âÃÂàasks a sub-headline. And the answer is that âÃÂàdespite the unlimited bandwidth claim, free users are actually only entitled to 10GB per month. This is five times more hide.me used to offer and you
*can* keep using the service once your 10GB is used up. The difference is that youâÃÂÃÂll lose the ability to pick a server
What hide.me means by
*bandwidth* is speed, because it promises fast connections and doesnâÃÂÃÂt impose throttling on users of its free tier. (It does say, though, that it wonâÃÂÃÂt guarantee speeds once youâÃÂÃÂve hit that 10GB limit but will offer the best service it can at that point.)
The other two limitations are just five server locations (Singapore, Canada, Netherlands, US East and US West) and that youâÃÂÃÂre only allowed to connect one device to the service at any one time
ThereâÃÂÃÂs one final restriction that isnâÃÂÃÂt mentioned: free users donâÃÂÃÂt get P2P support, so you canâÃÂÃÂt download torrent files or play any games which use P2P
The 10GB allowance isnâÃÂÃÂt as good as the unlimited package you get with ProtonVPN and Atlas VPN, but if youâÃÂÃÂre only looking for a VPN to use on your iPhone or MacBook to secure your connection on public Wi-Fi, itâÃÂÃÂs probably more than enough
And donâÃÂÃÂt get over-excited about the two US servers: they wonâÃÂÃÂt unblock Netflix, Hulu, HBO or other streaming services
TunnelBear
Pros
- 23 locations available
Cons
- Only 500MB of data per month
This fun VPN service has been around for ages, and is now owned by antivirus giant McAfee. The free version is also very well known and still exists in exactly the same format
It means that, unlike other providersâÃÂàfree tiers, TunnelBear gives you access to the full list of 23 locations that paying subscribers get. The catch in this case is that youâÃÂÃÂre only allowed to route 500MB of data via those servers each month
That is pretty restrictive, even if youâÃÂÃÂre only intending to use it on public Wi-Fi hotspots as some users will get through that allowance before the month is up. Even if you donâÃÂÃÂt use it up, data does not roll over
Twitter users can tweet bear-related puns to @thetunnelbear to get an extra 500MB that month. Rawr! to that
There are a couple of other things that free users miss out on. First, you can only have one device connected to the service and second, only paying users get Priority support
ItâÃÂÃÂs the 23 locations, then, which are the main reason to use Tunnel Bear over the other free services here.