AtlasVPN are a relative newcomer to the VPN market, with excellent value Premium plans. But do they also have a free version of their product you can use?
AtlasVPN do a offer free version of their product, which you can get by downloading the app from their website. It offers unlimited use and 3 server locations (Netherlands, USA East, USA West), but does not support streaming.
Overall, this is very good for a free VPN service – many other free versions of VPNs impose data use limits. The server location limitation is to be expected, since VPNs for obvious reasons prefer you use paid plans with more servers, otherwise they wouldn’t make any money.
Let’s look at AtlasVPN’s free version of their service in more detail.
How Can I Get The Free Version of AtlasVPN?
Browsing AtlasVPN’s website, it’s not immediately obvious how you get their free version. Their Plans page only promotes their paid subscriptions, for obvious reasons. They’d rather customers use Premium plans rather than their free version, so they don’t blatantly advertise their free service. It’s mentioned but not emphasized.
Therefore, you have to dig a little bit to find it, but there is a free version available
You can get the AtlasVPN free version by downloading the app from the link on their “Apps” tab, or from their download page. Simply select your device, and then the “Download Free” option. No user details or account are required to download and use the free version.
However, you have to click on very specific pages to get access to this download link for the Free version. Most of their links and buttons try to funnel you into their paid plans for obvious reasons. You can’t find the link to their free version for instance by clicking on any “Get AtlasVPN button”, or on their “Pricing” tab. This will take you only to their paid plans.
Here are the 2 main ways I found to access the link for the free version:
- Clicks on the “VPN apps” tab on the top menu bar, click on your device type, then click the Download free button.
- Go to their Download page here, select your device type, then click on the Download free
Where Does AtlasVPN Free Version Have Servers?
AtlasVPN’s free version has servers in locations:
- Netherlands (Amsterdam)
- USA East (New York)
- USA West (Los Angeles)
As you can see, their free servers however do NOT support streaming on Netflix or other such services; you need the paid version for that.
However, on the positive side, use of their free servers is totally unrestricted and unlimited.
Having a free VPN offer unlimited use of 3 server locations is one of the much better free services on offer, up there with ProtonVPN. Many free services restrict bandwidth use or only offer one location, but AtlasVPN to their credit don’t. All reports I’ve seen also report the free servers as having decent speeds as well, with no interruptions or lag.
Benefits Of AtlasVPN Free Version
We’ve already touched on some positives of the free version, but let’s list them in more complete form:
- 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
- Completely unlimited server use, even on the free version
- 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.
Negatives To The AtlasVPN Free Version
As far as free VPN plans go, AtlasVPN is one of the better ones for sure, but here are some possible downsides:
- The free version doesn’t support streaming, so you can’t watch Netflix or other services with it. You need the Premium for that. This is to be expected though – you will struggle to find ANY free VPN that consistently works for unlocking streaming services.
- Slightly ambiguous no-logs policy. They do seem to log a small amount of user data (location), but claim this cannot be used to personally identify any users.
- Based in the USA, which isn’t a privacy friendly country. Would be better if it was based in a country which had stronger privacy laws and no data retention laws.
Overall, you are still probably safe using AtlasVPN’s free or Premium service, but it’s zero-logs policy is not quite as watertight as some other VPNs based in other jurisdictions.
AtlasVPN Free Version vs Other Free VPN’s
AtlasVPN’s unlimited data and 3 locations makes it a very good free VPN choice. It’s one of the better ones available, but there are some with a bit more server choice.
Let’s see how AtlasVPN’s free offering compares to some other free VPN services
Free VPN Comparison (links are partner links)
| Provider | Free Server Locations | Data Limit | More Info |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProtonVPN | 3 (USA, Amsterdam, Japan) | Unlimited | See here |
| AtlasVPN | 3 (USA East, USA West, Amsterdam) | 5 GB/month | See here |
| TurboVPN | 4 (USA, Germany, Singapore, India). | Unlimited | See here |
| ZoogVPN | 5 (USA, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore) | 10 GB/month | See here |
| Hide.me | 5 (Netherlands, USA*2, Germany, Canada) | 10 GB/month | See here |
| PrivadoVPN | 10 (USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina) | 10 GB/month | See here |
| Windscribe | 10 (USA, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark). | 10 GB/month | Visit site |
| Tunnelbear | 49 | 500 MB/month | Visit site |
The unlimited use is what puts the top 3 options above the others, but AtlasVPN is a little restricted on server choice with only 2 countries and 3 locations. ProtonVPN offers 3 countries, and TurboVPN and Hide.me offer 4 countries, but Hide.me doesn’t have unlimited data. Tunnelbear Free offers many more locations than the rest, but a very restrictive monthly data cap.
Therefore AtlasVPN’s free version is a little more biased towards the USA in terms of servers, whereas some of the others offer more countries, so it’s a question of what country IP address you want to have. But AtlasVPN’s free version can be a great option for many users.
Premium Plans For AtlasVPN
Upgrading to a Premium version of AtlasVPN is easy and also very affordable compared to some other VPN’s. You just need to select a plan, create an account and pay for the plan length you’d like.
Here are the subscriptions they have on offer right now:
- 1 year plan – $3.29/month – billed annually as $39.42
- 3 year plan – $1.99/month – billed as one payment of $71.49 for 3 years (best value by far)
- 1 month plan – billed as one payment of $10.99 (perfect for vacation or other short term use)
- All plans have a 30 day money back guarantee.
- Plans may recur/renew unless cancelled.
The Premium version offers:
- All the benefits of the free version, plus:
- 750+ servers in 31 countries (much more choice – see here for a full list)
- Streaming support for Netflix and other services
- Specialized SafeSwap servers in a few countries, which continually rotate the user’s IP address for extra privacy (not available on macOS).
Overall, AtlasVPN’s Premium version doesn’t offer as many servers and locations as some other paid VPN services, but many users don’t need that. If you just want a more stripped down, cheaper VPN service, with just the main core countries that you’d expect servers in, then AtlasVPN can be perfect for you.
Click here to check current AltasVPN Premium plans
