People tend to use VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, for plenty of reasons. And if these are free VPN software, then it’s even better.
However, the vast majority of them either want to hide where they are or want to hide who they are.
If this sounds strange to you, you might be curious as to why you would want either of these things.
Many people would rather avoid having their online activities be traceable, and this is especially true in some parts of the world, where there’s a serious problem with internet surveillance. This mostly depends on what you’re doing online but to each their own.
A good example of this would be the signing of the bill by the United States President Trump, which legally allows ISPs in the US to sell the user data. This severely degrades the privacy of users and is a very valid reason for wanting to hide online.
As far as hiding where you are, this is useful for accessing websites that you usually wouldn’t be able to use in some parts of the world. For example, sites like YouTube Red are still unavailable in many countries, and so is software like Spotify.
Using geo-locking to block visitors from specific countries is a very popular thing nowadays, and VPNs can help you bypass this.
Below, you have a list of free VPNs that you can use for whatever you please. Free VPN services like this can keep you anonymous on the Internet, and give you access to sites and services previously inaccessible. Finding a good free VPN can be a bit tricky, but the list below tries to help as much as possible.
Be cautious: Recently, there have been numerous reports of malware being disguised as an application that otherwise looks harmless. This has been especially true for VPNs, especially ones for mobile platforms. If there’s a freshly launched free VPN software, and it seems too good to be true, it usually is, and you should stay away from it.
However, if you’re aware of what you’re getting into, or you simply can’t justify or afford a good paid VPN, here are a couple of the top free VPN services you can get at the moment.
SurfEasy
A Canadian-made piece of software, SurfEasy is one of the best free VPN you could go for. It is owned by Opera, which is among the best browsers on the market and is fairly similar to TunnelBear.
The apps are incredibly easy, and you can find your way around them without many issues. You won’t notice any serious speed issues either, and there’s decent protection to add up to everything.
For starters, their free plan only gives you 2 gigabytes of data, but if you’d rather stay free, you can get more by recommending the service to others. There’s also a paid plan here, and at $6.49/month, it is a very compelling offer.
Hide.me
Made in Malaysia, Hide.me is a fairly restricted VPN provider and one of the best free VPN software for Windows. It gives you a 2-gigabyte cap per month, which is enough to get some privacy when you really need it, but not much more to be honest.
You could also use it to unblock certain websites that might be unavailable at the moment.
There are 28 servers, and 22 countries to choose from, and the OpenVPN encryption keeps solid connection speeds and decent security. As with almost all free VPN services, this one is restricted as well, meaning it isn’t very useful if you’re online all the time.
However, despite that, Hide.me is a very good free VPN service, and one of the all-round best ones nowadays.
TunnelBear
This is the people’s favorite, and a great free VPN software that is designed to be fun and easy to use, yet offer decent functionality. Security is kept at high levels, and this is confirmed by the fact that TunnelBear doesn’t keep any logs.
They also have a very tight privacy policy, so if this is one of your concerns, you’re good to go here. When you’re comparing the free and paid options, it’s worth noting that the free one gives you all of the server locations that the paid one has, but there’s a data cap of 500MB.
This isn’t a lot, but you can earn more with social shares, which isn’t very hard if you need it.
CyberGhost
CyberGhost easily makes the best free VPN for PC list. It is one of the best options, and the free version is on par with some of the premium, paid versions by other competitors. There is no data limit, and setting everything up will take less than 10 minutes.
The encryption is as good as you’ll get with a premium service, and there’s a user-friendly desktop app that just makes things even easier.
There are a few things that you should know, though. Even though it’s great for entry-level users, power users will want to know that the free version comes with ads, and during peak hours there are often queues, so you might need to wait a little before connecting.
You’re also limited in terms of server locations as well, which may or may not be a problem depending on what you need.
VPNGate
A university project by the University of Tsukuba in Japan, VPNGate takes a different approach. Instead of using a centralized server, it runs off of volunteer computers that are interconnected. You will also find that mirrors are provided on a daily basis, just to keep things going in case the main site goes down for some reason.
There are regular updates to keep improving it, and it is open source.
The goal of the entire project is to give users with strict government censorship access to blocked websites. Torrents, P2P and any other activities that may be illegal aren’t allowed, and the project keeps logs.
They also state that if asked, they would comply with police investigations, which is why this software is only good for accessing websites that would otherwise be blocked. And, given that it runs on machines around the globe that are purely volunteers, the speeds can also be a little low for some.
Spotflux
One more ad-supported solution, it is one of the best choices for people who download or stream a lot of videos. It does everything, from blocking dangerous sites to a “set it and forget it” mindset. It also works on multiple platforms, and there’s a Chrome extension for the users who’d rather not download a full desktop version.
You will even find a privacy test that checks websites you visit for tracing cookies. You’ll need to shell out for the premium in order to block them, though.
As far as the premium goes, the $38/year asking price is not much, by any criteria. Compared to the free one, you get access to Spotflux’ premium network, as well as removal of all ads.
VPNBook
VPNBook is a little different than the others. There is no premium service, meaning that everything is included in the free one. This means no service limitation and no bandwidth caps, but there is a catch.
Guidance in setting up is minimal, and you will need it as there is no software and no installer. You merely get a list of servers and a choice of either OpenVPN or PPTP VPN. PPTP VPN has better support throughout the popular platforms, but it is much easier for both content providers and governments to block.
OpenVPN on the other hand is more secure, but it does require extra effort by downloading a client, as well as VPNBook’s bundles that include configurations and certificates. Servers are located throughout mainland Europe, UK and the United states, which should be enough.
Windscribe
With Windscribe you have a choice of either a full-on desktop version for Windows or a lightweight, Chrome browser version. Even though the main focus falls on the VPN network, you will also find a lot of additional tools that can be excellent from a privacy standpoint.
There’s an ad blocker, as well as a tracker blocker, and even a firewall that doesn’t expose your IP in case your connection is lost for any reason. And it is all included in the free version.
Where the free version is limited is the servers’ locations. You only get servers in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Canada, the UK and the United States. If you want another 40 countries to choose from, you will need to spend $7.50 per month.
Hotspot Shield
Hotspot Shield has one goal, and that is to protect your online privacy. HTTPS encryption is used to protect your personal information, and you can use it to bypass the Internet censorship and access any service or website.
There are even compression technologies and malware protection that reduce the data used and protect you from websites that don’t really have friendly intentions.
Psiphon
Another decent free tool, you get a combination of SSH, HTTP Proxy and VPN technologies, all combined to give you an open and unrestricted access to the worldwide web. Censored knowledge is fully accessible, and the borders imposed by your campus, company or country can be bypassed with ease.
Betternet
Betternet was made to give you access to any website you might think of, from any country you might be located in. You can surf anonymously, without worrying about leaving a trace, and blocked websites won’t be an issue anymore.
Your data will be protected from both surveillance, and hackers as well, which is always welcome nowadays.
PrivateTunnel
A decent entry-level option that is available for plenty of platforms, such as Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, PrivateTunnel works to keep you safe when you’re online. You get a choice between a free package, and a paid one, given that you need one.
The paid options offer plenty of flexibility. You have 200MB of data to use as you please, whenever you need it. Once you’ve used it up, you can buy more data, in packages of either 20GB or 100GB, depending on how much you think you’ll need.
This is great as you only buy more data once you need it and doesn’t limit you with a monthly subscription. However, if you want to use it more often, or simply don’t turn it off at all, there’s a $30/year subscription package that nets you unlimited data.
Even though connections might sometimes be a little stubborn and slow, you will find that PrivateTunnel is a great choice with a welcomed twist on the subscription packages. It prides on being incredibly easy to use, and you have no excuse for not even trying it out.
Freelan
This one isn’t for the masses, and novice users beware – you might get confused if you don’t know your way around a command line. You get a completely free, open source tool, which doesn’t limit you in any way.
The trick is that you don’t really get the software, but instead you get a set of network drivers that control all of your web traffic. This is worth mentioning, as technical users who want to have complete control over things will find that it is great.
Novice users, however, won’t get the step-by-step set up and usage instructions that other services offer.
Opera
Before you jump on me saying that Opera is a browser and not a VPN, hear me out. For a while now, Opera offers a built-in VPN service, and it is great. It isn’t an extension, but it is instead a built-in part of the browser that you can simply enable from the settings menu.
The best thing? It doesn’t offer any limitations as far as data caps or network speeds go. As with any VPN, yes, your speed will drop a little, but that is to be expected. It is only limited in the fact that there aren’t really a lot of server locations, but the service is only a few months old, and locations are expected to be added soon.
FinchVPN
An extremely reliable and completely free option, FinchVPN is full of features. There are plenty of servers for you to choose from, and the control panel is very easy, which means that beginners can easily find their way around it.
Everything, from your activities to your web connections, is encrypted, and there are no logs saved. You can get it on macOS, Windows, Linux and Android.
Tor Project
Just like Opera, the Tor project is not exactly a VPN, yet it finds its way in this guide. Running on volunteer relays all around the entire globe, Tor is an open source software which relies on Onion Routing, a highly secure layered encryption.
Your entire data is encrypted at least three times. This is done in a very simple way. Each time you send data, it goes through at least three volunteers’ machines or nodes in the network, and it is encrypted every time it passes through. Your IP address will be the one of a volunteer to anyone who tries to check it, and there is no way of being identified, mainly due to the sheer number of nodes.
The only drawback that is worth mentioning is the connection speed. Bouncing everything greatly depends on the volunteers’ connection speed, and it can be considerably slow. P2P sharing is also not allowed, due to the speeds being severely slowed down with it. However, if you can bypass this, Tor is one of the best options you could go for.
Conclusion
Even though everyone would like to get something for free, any complete and fully functional VPN will charge a subscription fee, and they have every right to do so.
You can look at it as an investment that gets you access to a safe, private, malware-free browsing and unlimited access to browsing anything without anyone knowing who, or where you are. However, if that is really not your cup of tea, you can go for any of the free options offered above.
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