N.B. Some links in this post are affiliate links, and I may receive a commission from purchases made off them at no extra cost to the reader
The VPN content/review market is full of reviews or recommendations for “free” VPNs. But not all free VPNs are created equal, nor are they always really “free”.
In this post, we want to really want to cut to the chase and recommend only the best, more high quality, reliable and secure free VPNs. The ones you’d feel confident logging into your email with.
Here’s what we DO include in this list:
- 100% free VPNs (ZERO upfront payment required to start using)
- Legitimate standalone VPN applications that are secure and work and look like a proper VPN.
- Free VPNs that are safe and deliver at least reasonable performance.
- Free VPNs with at least a decent monthly data allowance.
Here’s what we DON’T include in this list:
- Tacky, browser VPNs that aren’t really legit VPNs and use shared IP addresses that often get blocked by search engines
- VPN/proxy hybrids that again aren’t really proper VPNs.
- 3 or 7 day “Free” VPN trials that still require a payment, subscription or other upfront details to use them.
- Free VPNs with a miniscule data allowance or very low speeds.
- “Peer to peer” or shared VPNs, where fellow users of a service effectively pool and shared their locations and connections (not private at all).
Let’s get started.
Option #1 – ProtonVPN
Swiss based ProtonVPN are quite well known by now, and are one of the market leading free VPNs, simply because they have unlimited data, even on their free version.
Here are the main benefits of ProtonVPN’s free version:
- Totally unlimited use
- Has multiple servers in 3 locations – Netherlands, Japan and USA.
- Strict no logs policy.
- Fast, reliable servers. Even the free version has always worked well when I’ve used it.
- Based in Switzerland with a strong commitment to privacy (like their ProtonMail service).
- Even the free version looks, feels and operates like a proper VPN service (it’s not a browser add-on – it’s a full on proper VPN software)
- You can upgrade to the Premium version with more countries/servers for a very competitive price
Click here to get started with ProtonVPN, and select their Free Plan.
It’s a legitimate VPN service, where you download their software and load it up, select your server and go. It covers all browsers you use and is not just built into one browser, so you get comprehensive protection once you enable it.
Many users may need to look no further than this to get everything they need from a free VPN. Nevertheless, we’ll also cover some other options, though they can’t quite match up to ProtonVPN.
Option #2 – PrivadoVPN
Next up are fellow Swiss based provider PrivadoVPN, who are also excellent but in a different way – they have the best free VPN server selection on the market.
Here are some features of PrivadoVPN free version:
- 10 GB data use per month on the free plan
- Free servers in 11 countries and 14 locations on the free plan – USA (New York, Washington DC, Miami, Los Angeles), UK, Netherlands, Canada, Mexico, France, Switzerland, India, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina.
- Free server list continues to expand as well (more countries will likely be added)
- Strict zero logs policy, even on the free version
- Based in Switzerland with strong privacy laws
- 1 connection allowed on free version
- Apps for all major devices.
- Email address only required to get free version.
- Paid plans start at $2.50/month for a 12 month subscription and servers in 48 countries.
Click here to get started with the free version of PrivadoVPN – go to their Pricing page and select their Free Plan.
Option #3 – ZoogVPN
Greece based ZoogVPN are a new addition to this list, as they have similar model to PrivadoVPN – less server locations, but still an excellent data allowance and well functioning VPN.
Here are the main features of ZoogVPN Free:
- 10 GB of data to use per month
- Servers in plus UK (London), Germany (Dusseldorf), USA, Netherlands, Singapore
- No payment or payment details required
- Zero logs also on the free version
- Reasonably fast servers (some rumblings in other reviews about them being unreliable, but have always been fine when I used them).
- Excellent value premium plans as well, with servers in 41 countries.
Click here to get started with ZoogVPN’s free version – just an email required.
Option #4 – AtlasVPN
Next up is another relative newcomer, AtlasVPN, who also offer a well functioning, but slightly more limited, free version of their VPN service.
Here are some features and benefits of the AtlasVPN free version:
- Completely free to install and use the free version. No account or user details are required. The program can be installed and run without registering an account.
- 3 free server locations – Netherlands, New York, Los Angeles
- 5 GB monthly data allowance
- Fast, reliable free servers
- Available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV.
- All protocols, plus DNS leak protection still available on the free version.
- Free version still P2P friendly
- Torrenting also allowed.
- Excellent value Premium plans as well ($3.29/month) with servers in 40+ countries, fast speeds and strong streaming access.
The 5 GB data cap is a downside, but it’s a clean, professional looking VPN app, and was also fast and reliable whenever I used it on mobile.
Click here to get started with AtlasVPN’s free version.
Option #5 – Hide.me
Malaysia based Hide.me are another good free VPN option, with an extensive free version that can work very well for users.
- Totally free to sign up, and no personal details needed – just download the app and start using free servers.
- Generous 10 GB monthly data allowance on the free version. Once this is breached, you are instead connected to a random server.
- Strict zero logs policy, including on the free version. No user data collected or stored, and no ads or trackers either.
- Free server locations – USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Netherlands (random server selection).
- Fast servers even on the free version. No speed throttling.
- P2P supported on all 5 free server locations.
- Paid version also offers competitive plans and servers in 50 countries.
The one big downside to the Hide.me free version is that you cannot manually select the server location you want – free server selection is random and the app selects what it thinks is the “best” current free server.
This means that you might need to keep connecting/disconnecting until it selects the server location you want. But the data allowance and speeds are good.
Click here to get started with Hide.me, and select their Free plan.
Option #6 – Windscribe
Another reasonably longstanding free VPN option are Windscribe, who’ve had a free version available for a while now.
Here are some features of Windscribe free version:
- 10 GB data use per month on the free plan
- Free servers in 10 countries – USA, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Norway, Romania.
- Strict zero logs policy, even on the free version
- Canadian based company.
- Unlimited connections allowed even on free version
- Apps for all major devices.
- Only an Email address required to get free version.
- Paid plans start at $4/month for a 12 month subscription.
Click here to get started with Windscribe– go to their Features page and select their Free Plan.
Option #7 – TurboVPN
Another slightly lesser known free VPN option is Singapore based TurboVPN, who also offer a workable free version of their VPN service.
Here are some great features to TurboVPN’s free version:
- Free version can be downloaded directly from their website with no registration or user details required. Just download the app and start using free servers
- 4 free server locations – USA, Germany, Singapore, India
- Speeds are limited to 2 Mbps, but perfectly usable.
- Premium version offers much more complete server choice of thousands of servers in 37 countries.
But here are some caveats:
- TurboVPN free most likely WON’T work for accessing geo-restricted streaming services.
- Once 1 device/connection allowed (5 on Premium accounts)
- Some free server locations sometimes not working.
Click here to get started with TurboVPN, and select their free plan (finding and downloading the free version can be tricky – we have a guide on how to do this).
