A virtual private network (VPN) allows you to hide your internet browsing data from your internet service provider (ISP), advertisers, and all kinds of websites. This works by establishing a secure connection between your computer and the VPN server, and routing your internet traffic through the server. Most people use VPNs to get past geo-restrictions for streaming services, to use torrents, and to stop their ISPs from selling browsing data to advertisers.
If you’ve decided that you need a VPN, you should know that the best VPN services are paid. Free VPNs often make a compromise—when the service costs nothing, there’s a much higher chance of your data being sold by the VPN company itself. That said, not all companies do this, and free VPNs could be great for some small-scale uses such as opening a site blocked in your country, or watching a show that’s not available in your region. Free VPNs will usually throttle your internet speeds, have strict data caps, or offer a limited number of services to connect to.
Now that you know what you’re getting into, here are the best free VPNs that you can check out.
ProtonVPN
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
ProtonVPN’s free tier is easily the best you can find without paying a dime. The service has no restrictions on bandwidth as long as you use the VPN on one device at a time. You can get around this restriction by creating a new ProtonVPN account on each of your devices, if you wish to. On Proton’s free tier, you’ll get access to just the three servers—U.S., Netherlands, and Japan.
Try the free tier of ProtonVPN.
Tunnelbear
Credit: Tunnelbear
The Tunnelbear free plan does not limit the number of devices on your account, but it only allows you to use 2GB of free data per month. This isn’t going to help you much if you’re streaming 4K videos, but it’s good enough to try the service and see if it is able to do the things you need it to. You can access all of Tunnelbear’s servers on the free tier.
Hide.me
Credit: Hide.me VPN/YouTube
You get unlimited data on Hide.me’s free tier and access to eight servers. This is good enough for most people to get started with a VPN. You do miss out on ad blocking, port forwarding, and access to more than one device at a time. Hide.me’s free plan is a strong alternative to ProtonVPN.
Try Hide.me for free
Atlas VPN
Credit: Atlas VPN
Atlas VPN has a free tier that lets you use up to 5GB of data per month, but you only get to choose from three servers—two in the U.S. and one in Netherlands. There are no limits on the number of devices you can use. The site’s marketing can be a bit aggressive and you can expect a lot of emails from them if you sign up.
Hotspot Shield
Credit: Hotspot Shield
Hotspot Shield advertises a feature called virtual locations, which lets you view streaming content from various regions in the world. On its free tier, you get to access US-based IP addresses and a virtual location from the same country. This makes it good for people who want to access US content while being abroad. For free, you can connect up to one device on one account and your speeds will be lower than that of premium tiers. Note that the service may show ads on some devices on its free tier.
