Best Free VPN 2021
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Naturally, a free VPN download looks very attractive. VPN services are a great way to stay safer and more secure online, while also giving you a chance to get around geo-restrictions and unlock blocked apps.
But it’s worth taking some caution, too. There are hundreds of free VPNs out there on the web and in your App Store, and the vast majority are not very good. In fact, it goes beyond that, with some dodgy free apps bombarding you with unwanted ads, doing poorly and even selling your data.
However, if your reason to have a VPN is to get more security on your laptop or mobile when using public Wi-Fi now and then, the best free VPNs can do a decent job.
So on this page, you will find a selection of the best options available to download today. We evaluated the ability of the best free VPNs to see which ones will keep your internet activity anonymous without having to spend anything. ExpressVPN may take the crown of our favorite premium service provider in the world, but the best free VPN right now is ProtonVPN – we explain why we think so below.
Free VPN Problems
Free VPN services may cost nothing but there is usually a good reason for it – it means that the provider will make a profit in some other way, usually through invasive advertising or by selling your browsing data to third parties (instead of defeating your entire drive for privacy in Primarily).
Additionally, free services tend to limit the amount of data you can use and the speed at which you can use it, making them practically useless for video streaming, torrenting, or as an extra layer of reliable security in your everyday online life. And don’t expect the kind of easy access support or server scale you get with paid services either.
So before we get stuck in our list of best free VPN downloads, it’s worth knowing that the paid version can cost as little as $1/£1 per month and will give you much better performance and protection.
Best Free VPN of 2021:
(Image credit: ProtonVPN)
1. ProtonVPN is free
Our #1 Free VPN – Unlimited Data Allowance Without Paying a Cent
based on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Server countries: 3 | data limit: unlimited | 24/7 live chat support: number
No monthly data limits!
Surprisingly complete feature set
Great on the privacy front
speed throttle
limited support
ProtonVPN is our current pick for the best free VPN. While the notable advantage is undeniable that it does not offer zero limits on the amount of data you can use with your VPN uses, there is a lot to like outside of that alone.
It would be remiss of us not to start with that headline, though. ProtonVPN has no data restrictions. In other words, you’re free to use as much data as you want each month – which is pretty rare for a free VPN provider, as you’ll discover below along with others in this guide.
The free version of this service has servers in three locations, well scattered around the world: in the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands. There are of course clients for Windows and Mac, as well as apps for Android and iPhone. On the desktop, we like the option to switch between automatic connections when your PC starts up. Some more unusual features are also included for freebies, such as split tunneling and DNS leak protection.
There are, of course, limitations to the free plan to incentivize upgrading to a paid offer. We think the most notable is the fact that free users get lower priority when it comes to speed than paid subscribers. There’s also no P2P support and speeds may drop at peak times when lots of users are nearby and paying people is a priority. Proton makes it clear that you’ll need to upgrade to the Plus tier if you want to use your VPN for streaming.
But if you can live with all that, this is an impressive provider with a strict no-logging policy, and you can sign up for nothing more than your email address and username of your choice. There aren’t even any ads on the site, let alone the client.
– Go to the ProtonVPN website to download this free VPN
Today’s Best Free ProtonVPN Deals
(Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
2. Hotspot Shield Free VPN
An easy-to-use free VPN that gets you started in an instant
based on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS | Available servers: 1 | data limit: 500 megabytes per day | 24/7 live chat support: number
Most of the features of the premium version
Very easy to use
simple to set up
Fast top speeds
only one server
data limit
The premium version of Hotspot Shield holds its place among the best paid services on the web, so it comes as no surprise that its free option is so popular.
Subscribers to the free plan are limited to 500MB of data per day (about 15GB per month). This may sound restrictive, but compared to one or two on this list, it’s actually one of the most generous limits (although, of course, it’s not a patch on the unlimited data you get with paid services).
If security is your only goal, Hotspot is on the same wavelength, and boasts the same “military encryption” that most premium VPNs scream out. In addition to security, Hotspot Shield Free also won plaudits in our tests for being very easy to use. Whether it’s on the mobile or desktop version, you won’t find the hair-raising user experience that some competitors offer.
In the past we have seen the strange issue with the free Hotspot Shield download. For a period of a few weeks at the beginning of 2021, Hotspot was completely eliminating the ability to search on Google when turned on. Everything we got was wrong – and we tried it Much From a variety of sites and devices. Fortunately, this issue appears to be sorted out now.
You can choose to connect yourself to one of 70 individual countries if you pay $2.50 per month for the premium version of Hotspot, this should give you access to anything you want; In the free version, you’re limited to one location in the US that Hotspot Shield chooses for you, and you’ll have to put up with ads if you’re on Android.
– Head over to Hotspot Shield to download now
(Image credit: Windscribe)
3. Windscribe is free
Extremely secure with a generous data cap
based on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Server countries: 11 | data limit: 2-10 GB per month | 24/7 live chat support: number
Sterling’s privacy policy
Easy to start and use
Even works with Netflix
Speeds are sometimes inconsistent
Standard 2 GB data per month is not much
The folks at Windscribe take great pride in offering their very own Free VPN…and why they shouldn’t be! It’s a really solid choice thanks to its generous data availability and commitment to protecting your privacy.
You get 2GB of bandwidth per month as standard – not much. But this can easily be increased to a more acceptable 10GB if you are happy to give Windscribe your email address. The free version lets you choose from 11 remote server locations including the UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Canada, Turkey and eight US VPN cities at last count). It’s a “freemium” model in play here, so there are some nice caveats to sign up for the unlimited version if you like what you’re seeing, but the upsell isn’t too annoying or aggressive.
It’s easy to get started with desktop clients or the very useful Chrome extension – you’ll be jumping around the world on different servers in no time.
We don’t actually expect free VPNs to help us bypass region blocking of some apps, websites, and streaming services. So we were thrilled when Windscribe passed the call of duty in our Netflix VPN test. Unlike most others, it gave us full access to exclusive content in the US, Germany and UK (plus BBC iPlayer in the latter). Of course the data limit will prevent you from too many massive binges, but it’s good to know the odd show on your travels or commute.
Windscribe does not store connection logs, IP stamps, or websites visited; When you are actively connected to a server, it stores your username, the server you are connected to, and the amount of data transferred, but this is cleared within three minutes of the session ending. And if that wasn’t enough to tempt you, there’s also a built-in ad blocker, malware protection, and a firewall.
A word about speeds though. We found Windscribe to be less consistent with some competitors and at times it took a while to connect to the server. But it’s fairly minor complaints in the grand scheme of things… did we mention it was free!
(Image credit: Tunnelbear)
4. TunnelBear
Easily protect your identity
based on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS | Server countries: 20+ | data limit: 500 MB per month | 24/7 live chat support: Yes
Really easy to use
Both mobile and desktop clients
suitable speeds
Little data limit
Not many options or settings
TunnelBear may have a bit of a nice design, but it’s a serious free option, especially after its acquisition by security giant, McAfee. There are free and paid subscriptions for you to choose from.
The main limitation with the free plan is that you are limited to 500MB of traffic each month. This is really a small amount and means you can only really use it for the times when you feel like you need a little extra protection and want to go the free way. You won’t be able to keep it all the time and you can forget to use a VPN for torrenting and streaming activities. Obviously, going to a provider like ExpressVPN or NordVPN alleviates this pain point completely.
But at least this free version does not limit you to available servers, making more than 20 countries the premium service available. And TunnelBear recently fine-tuned its privacy policy, so it now collects less data on users – eliminating the need to provide a first name for registration, and foregoing its record of the number of total user connections for life.
(Image credit: Speedify)
5. Accelerate
Safe, fast and with lots of servers
based on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Available servers: 50+ | data limit: 2 GB per month | 24/7 live chat support: number
Elegant Performance Boost Technology
Solid on the privacy front
The program has quite a few low-level controls
Speedify, as the name suggests, has one main goal as a free VPN provider: to ensure that while you benefit from encryption, your internet connection remains as fast as possible. To this end, this provider will make use of all available Internet connections for the best possible performance, and will likely combine, for example, an Ethernet (fixed broadband) connection with a restricted mobile connection. Even if you only have one type of internet connection, the company claims its turbocharging technology will still help speed things up.
The free plan features full access to those servers (just as with the subscription options), and the only limitation to the free offer is that you’re limited to the amount of data you can download. Free users get 2GB of data every month. That’s not a huge allowance, and certainly not as much as some of the other competitors you’ll see elsewhere on this page, but it’s more than some, and still enough to cover some basic browsing and email tasks.
This provider is definitely worth a look at the performance front, as during testing, the aforementioned speed-granting techniques proved to have a positive effect.
6. Hide.me
You’re hiding something with this privacy-conscious service
based on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS | Available servers: 5 | data limit: 10 GB per month | 24/7 live chat support: Yes
Strong in privacy
No ads or speed throttling
Limited to one device
Hide.me offers both paid and free VPN products, with the latter giving you 10GB of data per month to play with. There are other limits, too: You can only connect a maximum of one device, and you’re limited to five server locations (including the US and Canada VPN) rather than 50+ sites that pay subscribers.
However, on the plus side, this provider will not throttle the connection speed of free users, and Hide.me also promises that it does not keep…
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