Download Free Best Vpn

A VPN, or virtual private network, when you connect to the internet is the best way to protect your privacy. In addition to encrypting your online activity and protecting your personal information from third-party interception, ExpressVPN can also help you defeat censorship by making you appear to be in a different country.

Download Free Best Vpn

While downloading a free VPN is enticing, you may not be totally sure it's the right move to make. There are plenty of upsides to using a free option over a paying a premium, but there are also some sacrifices to be made.

There are literally hundreds of free VPNs available, and the truth is that most simply aren't that great. Some of the sketchy free VPN apps bombard you with unwanted ads and very well may sell your data.

In this guide, we explain more about the dangers of using free VPNs and how to make sure you avoid those potentially dodgy ones. If your main reason for having a VPN is just about having a bit more security on your computer or mobile device when using public Wi-Fi occasionally, the best free VPNs can do a decent job.

Plus, free services tend to limit the amount of data you can use and the speed you can use it at, rendering them practically useless for streaming video, torrenting or as an extra layer of reliable security in your day-to-day online life. And don't expect the kind of easy-access support or server range that you get with the paid services, either.

So, before we get stuck in to our list of the best free VPN downloads, it's worth knowing that a paid-for version can cost as little as around $2/2 per month and these best VPNs will give you much better performance and protection.

Proton VPN Free currently tops our Best Free VPN charts. Partly that's for its nicely judged mix of features, power and app quality. But it's also because the service doesn't pile on the limits and restrictions to try and persuade you to upgrade. This is a free VPN you could use long-term.

There are no data limits with Proton, for instance. While almost all other free VPNs might allow you 500 MB-10 GB a month, Proton VPN Free offers unlimited data: you can use it as often as you like. That's convenient, but it's also a big privacy plus because you don't have to choose where you use the VPN when data's running low. If you feel there's a risk, or you're unsure, then just get connected: Proton VPN Free is always available.

Proton hasn't punished free users by omitting key features, either. Some free providers drop the kill switch, WireGuard, maybe even support, but Proton VPN Free has all the core privacy features you need to stay safe online.

That first 10 GB of data is better than many, too. The choice of 12 locations over nine countries (including the UK, unusually) beats most, including Proton VPN Free. Get connected and speeds are another highlight, with its 350Mbps earning PrivadoVPN a second place in our free VPN performance charts.

The real surprise here is PrivadoVPN Free's unblocking results. Unlike the rest of the free VPN world, PrivadoVPN gives both free and paying customers access to the same streaming servers, and in our last review we found the company unblocked US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and BBC iPlayer. Even most paid VPNs can't say the same.

The data allowance is a little more restricted than our two top VPNs, at a strict 10 GB a month. That's enough to protect a lot of online activity, though, and Windscribe Free VPN has its own plus point as compensation. Most free plans restrict you to only one connection, but Windscribe has no limits: you can install and use it on as many devices simultaneously as you need.

The service isn't as generous with its locations. There are just three: Netherlands, Los Angeles and New York. You're able to connect a couple of devices simultaneously, though (our top two free VPNs only allow one), and our speed tests found Atlas VPN Free reached an above-average 320Mbps. Factor in the P2P support, and Atlas could be a smart torrenting choice.

There's some bad news with features, as Hide.me Free VPN doesn't support the speedy WireGuard protocol (it's for paying customers only, apparently.) We expect free VPNs to exclude some of the more advanced extras, but not something this fundamental.

Hide.me Free VPN does its best to make up for this elsewhere, though, and the apps have more settings, options, tweaks and tools than just about anybody else. Auto-connect on accessing untrusted Wi-Fi, custom DNS, split tunneling, a powerful kill switch, advanced protocol tweaks, capable browser extensions: they're all here. Great news for experts, although others might feel this makes for a more complex and intimidating interface.

Performance is more of a concern. Its paid service is one of the fastest VPN services around, but we found Hide.me Free VPN averaged only downloads of around 25Mbps. That's less than 10% of the speeds we saw from Proton VPN and our other top providers.

Hotspot Shield Basic is a popular free VPN plan with a very major plus: in June 2022, Hotspot Shield began upgrading the service to offer unlimited data across all platforms. (As we write, Mac, Android and iOS now support unlimited data, with Windows joining the party later.)

In a world where most free VPNs restrict you to 10 GB a month or even less, being able to use the service as much as you like is a huge advantage. So, you might be wondering, why is Hotspot Shield Basic not higher up our Best list?

TunnelBear Free VPN simplifies this by not even mentioning protocols in its website feature lists, support pages or most of its apps. This isn't because it's under powered; the Windows app still supports WireGuard and OpenVPN, the best protocol choices around. It just handles them itself, rather than exposing users to the low-level details.

There's also a real problem, though, in TunnelBear's miserly data allowance of just 500 MB a month. This might be enough if you only need to securely check your email very occasionally, or unblock a single website. But it's far behind the free 10 GB you'll typically get elsewhere.

Peeking under the hood can give you very useful information about a VPN, so we also dig deeper into the Windows app, exploring the files it uses, the settings, and whether it's properly setting up your connection for the best possible privacy.

The limited data on most free VPN plans mean they're not ideal for unblocking streaming sites. But it's still interesting to see who delivers on the unblocking front, and who doesn't. To find out, we check whether each provider can access exclusive regional content on (depending on the available locations) US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus and BBC iPlayer.

Honestly, there isn't one easy answer to this question. It depends on what you want to use your free VPN for. If it's just about having a bit more security on your laptop or mobile when using public Wi-Fi, they can be just the ticket. Jump on the service, turn on an encrypted server connection and crack on with your online activities safe in the knowledge that no prying eyes will be able to see your private information.

But if your main purpose is to have a streaming VPN say, or want to use it while downloading terabytes of torrent files, a free VPN just isn't going to do the trick. For starters, most of them limit you to a daily or monthly data allowance that you'll rinse through in no time at all. While most don't have the kind of easy access support or server range required to make those activities easy with a virtual private network.

1. What is its business model? Providers are in for the money and running such a business does cost a lot, especially if it is a popular one. Some will use their free version, just like Dropbox, as a marketing tool to entice potential customers to move to a paid version once they are happy with the free one. Most, however, will sell user data or provide a something to a third party that will, again, compromise your privacy.

5. Can I sign up completely anonymously? Having a provider that you can subscribe to without an email address and one that accepts Bitcoin payments, for maximum privacy, is mostly the best you can expect online. Some providers also offer double hopping, where you can obfuscate your traffic further by essentially doubling down on privacy.

While the main criticism of free VPNs is that they just aren't half as useful as the paid-for alternatives, there are genuine dangers lurking with some proponents (thankfully not with the services pinpointed above).

For example, research in 2020 suggested that around 40% of the free VPNs available on the Google Play Store do not protect their users' privacy to an adequate level. So the extra online protection you thought you would be getting just isn't there.

It's worth pointing out that you do have to pay upfront for these services. But they pride themselves on making the money back as hassle-free as possible, allowing you to claim a full refund online without trouble.

Mike is a lead security reviewer at Future, where he stress-tests VPNs, antivirus and more to find out which services are sure to keep you safe, and which are best avoided. Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace. The early PC viruses caught Mike's attention, and he developed an interest in analyzing malware, and learning the low-level technical details of how Windows and network security work under the hood.","contributorText":"With contributions from","contributors":["name":"Adam Zeis","role":"Editorial Director - High Yield","link":"href":"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/author\/adam-zeis"]}; var triggerHydrate = function() window.sliceComponents.authorBio.hydrate(data, componentContainer); var triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate = function() var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = ' -8-2/authorBio.js'; script.async = true; script.id = 'vanilla-slice-authorBio-component-script'; script.onload = () => window.sliceComponents.authorBio = authorBio; triggerHydrate(); ; document.head.append(script); if (window.lazyObserveElement) window.lazyObserveElement(componentContainer, triggerScriptLoadThenHydrate); else triggerHydrate(); } }).catch(err => console.log('Hydration Script has failed for authorBio Slice', err)); }).catch(err => console.log('Externals script failed to load', err));Mike WilliamsSocial Links NavigationLead security reviewerMike is a lead security reviewer at Future, where he stress-tests VPNs, antivirus and more to find out which services are sure to keep you safe, and which are best avoided. Mike began his career as a lead software developer in the engineering world, where his creations were used by big-name companies from Rolls Royce to British Nuclear Fuels and British Aerospace. The early PC viruses caught Mike's attention, and he developed an interest in analyzing malware, and learning the low-level technical details of how Windows and network security work under the hood.