The Best Free VPNs (2024), Tested for Speed and Safety

1. NordVPN - Best Full-Featured VPN with Free Offers

Editors Rating:

9.7 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Data Usage Limit

NordVPN’s free VPN is a special offer attached to its premium plans. You get free access for a certain number of months if you sign up for a one-year or two-year subscription. We know; calling that a ‘free VPN’ is a stretch, but it’s a great way to save money on one of the most secure VPNs out there. And keep in mind, because the included free VPN is the premium version, there aren’t going to be any data limits. You can use NordVPN to your heart’s content during those free months.

>> Learn More: NordVPN Deals

Server Limit

You’ll get access to all of NordVPN’s 6,000+ servers in 61 locations. NordVPN may not offer as many server locations as Surfshark (has servers in 100 countries), but it has one of the best server networks we’ve seen. They are fast and secure. All NordVPN servers run on RAM. That means they don’t retain any data once powercycled. RAM-based servers are currently the gold-standard of VPN servers, offered only by top-tier VPNs like NordVPN, Surfshark, Private Internet Access, and ExpressVPN.

>> Compare: NordVPN vs. Surfshark

Speed Limit

Once again, it’s a premium VPN. NordVPN isn’t going to limit your speed. You’ll enjoy just as much access as paying NordVPN users, because even though you’re using free months, your account is as good as a premium NordVPN account.

So how’s NordVPN’s speed? Well, in our VPN speed tests, it ranked 3rd out of the 12 VPNs we tested. That’s pretty good. And we didn’t just test NordVPN’s fastest servers. We connected to an Australia server from New York – a distance of about 10,000 miles. NordVPN lost only about six-percent of our download speed and four-percent of our upload speed.

Device Limit

This is one area that NordVPN limits, and the limit applies to all users. You can connect only up to six devices at a time. To clarify, that’s a limit on simultaneous connections. You can download and set up NordVPN on as many devices as you want, just as long as you don’t connect them to a NordVPN server simultaneously.

In our opinion, six devices is just enough for personal use. On a daily basis, we have NordVPN connected on two smartphones, an iPad, a laptop, and a desktop computer. That’s five devices, so if we wanted to watch on our Apple TV, we could still connect it to NordVPN. That said, we do wish it offered at least 10 simultaneous connections.

>> Check Out: The Best Apple TV VPNs

Besides the fact that it requires a subscription, we call NordVPN a ‘premium VPN’ because it offers rarely-seen features that even most paid-for VPNs don’t. For example, it offers multi-hop servers, Threat Protection (malicious site and ad blocker), dedicated P2P servers, and RAM-based servers. Those features make NordVPN one of the top VPNs in terms of security and privacy.

Because of that, we really appreciate NordVPN’s complimentary free months. Those are given to new users buying a one-year or two-year subscription. It changes from time to time; sometimes it’s two months, most times it’s three. We even see NordVPN offer up to four months of free access during special periods, like NordVPN’s Black Friday sale. Considering that a month-long subscription costs $12.99, those free months are nothing to sneeze at.

So how much do you need to pay to get your complimentary NordVPN access? Check out NordVPN’s pricing below:

In case you’re wondering, the one-year Basic subscription averages $5.74 per month while the two-year subscription averages $3.48 per month, not counting the free months. Those are in the lower range of VPN pricing.

2. Surfshark - Best VPN Free Trial

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Data Usage Limit

Surfshark offers a free trial so it’s not like any of the free VPNs on this list. The free trial is good for 30 days, after which you’ll need to renew your subscription (not free) to keep using Surfshark or cancel the service entirely. In our experience, though, canceling Surfshark is quick and easy. There’s no need to talk to a live agent, since there’s an automated cancellation protocol via the chat bot.

Server Limit

Since it’s a free trial of the premium service, we got access to the entire Surfshark network. And Surfshark has one of the largest server networks we’ve seen with over 100 locations.

» Interesting Info: Best Free VPNs for Torrenting

Speed Limit

There were no speed limits with Surfshark. We enjoyed speeds of up to 240 Mbps upload and download, although the speed was highly dependent on the server location. We got those speeds from the automatically-selected fastest server at the time we connected, but when we chose a server that’s a little farther away, our network speed dropped to about 200 Mbps.

Device Limit

For both the free trial version and the premium version, Surfshark has no device limits. What’s more, it has apps for almost every platform that supports VPN apps, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, FireTV, Chromecast, and more.

The Surfshark free trial we’re talking about is the money-back guarantee that comes with every Surfshark subscription. That means you’ll have to buy a subscription first, but you’ll be refunded if you cancel before 30 days. Surfshark offers a few different options for subscriptions, which we’ve detailed in the chart below:

When we tried Surfshark, we canceled on the 25th day and our access ended right then. The process was smooth. First, we logged-in to our Surfshark web dashboard, and then started a chat with the chatbot. From there, we selected the automated protocol that initiated the cancellation and refund. It took about six business days for the refund to reflect on our credit card statement.

A 30-day money-back guarantee is normal in the VPN industry, but we found Surfshark the easiest to cancel, which is why we think it’s the best VPN free trial. For example, with NordVPN, we had to chat with a live agent and there were hoops to go through – they asked why we were canceling and they were insistent we let them “fix whatever the problem was” before letting us go. With Surfshark, it was literally no-questions-asked.

3. Hotspot Shield - Fastest Free VPN

Editors Rating:

8.9 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes, but not in all regions
Torrenting	Yes

Data Usage Limit

Hotspot Shield doesn’t technically have a data usage limit, but there is a time limit. The VPN is ad-supported. Every 15- to 30-second ad it showed granted us free access for 15-minutes, and if we ran out of time, we could just watch another ad over and over to extend it. Watching multiple ads in a row to stack up the limit was even an option. Four ads equals one hour – more than enough to use it to browse during our lunch breaks.

If you get sick of the ads, though, Hotspot Shield’s premium version costs $7.99 per month. We think that’s a little expensive when you consider Hotspot Shield’s footprint — they only have 800 servers — but if it gets the job done and you like the free service, it’s something to consider.

Server Limit

We found this the most limiting aspect of Hotspot Shield VPN. It gave us only four server options – Los Angeles, New York, Singapore, and London – unlike TunnelBear, our best pick for server availability, which has over 20 free locations worldwide. Needless to say, Hotspot Shield isn’t a good VPN for changing Netflix streaming regions.

» Learn more: How to Watch Netflix With a VPN

Speed Limit

On the other hand, Hotspot Shield’s speed was impressive. Despite the company’s claim that the premium version is four times faster1, the speed we got from the free version rivaled even the fastest premium VPNs. We got 237 Mbps and 220 Mbps download and upload speeds via the Singapore server using our 250 Mbps fiber-optic network. That’s a less than 12-percent decrease.

Device Limit

We didn’t have to sign up for an account to use the free VPN, so there was no device limit. However, if you register your free account and try to sign in on multiple devices, there will be a five-device limit.

Hotspot Shield came out on top in terms of download speed when we tested and compared VPN speeds, but that was the premium version. We were pleasantly surprised to find that even the free version boasts such fast connections.

Add to that the time-based usage limit, and you get a free VPN that’s good for downloading large files. We wouldn’t count on it for streaming, though. On more than a few occasions, Netflix was able to detect we were using a VPN, which prevented us from changing our Netflix region and downloading episodes in advance. We were still able to stream internationally available titles though thanks to Netflix’s recent policy change regarding VPN use.2

One more thing to note is that Hotspot Shield makes it clear that the purpose of the free version is to get users to upgrade to a premium account. There were pop-up ads in the apps, banners plastered all over with Hotspot Shield Premium promotions, and skippable ads when connecting and disconnecting. Luckily, you won’t have to spend a lot of time in the app. We only ever used it to connect to the VPN and watch ads to extend our time limit.

4. PrivadoVPN - Best Free VPN for Unlimited Devices

Editors Rating:

9.0 /10

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How We Review

Data Usage Limit

PrivadoVPN offers 10 GB of free data per month, but it doesn’t carry over to the next month so you have to use it all up or it goes poof! 10 GB is enough to last a month for light browsing – scrolling on Facebook, searching home improvement ideas on Pinterest, etc. – but it’s not enough for video streaming. It didn’t even last us a week of browsing TikTok while on break, and unlike Hotspot Shield, there was no option to extend the usage limit without paying for the premium service.

The good news is that premium service is relatively affordable, especially when you sign up for a long-term plan. When you subscribe for two years, the monthly cost is just $1.99, and if you want to go month to month, it’s only $10.99.

Server Limit

PrivadoVPN offers generous options of server locations. It has 10 free locations – the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, India, Netherlands, and Mexico. It was able to unblock streaming libraries from those locations too. Netflix uses approximately 1 GB of data for every four hours of streaming, so PrivadoVPN could work as a free Netflix VPN.3

» Further Reading: VPNs Best for Netflix

Speed Limit

Connected to the “best” available server according to the app, we got a 146 Mbps download speed and 34 Mbps upload speed from PrivadoVPN. That’s a huge decline compared to our 250 Mbps network speed, but understandable since it’s a free VPN.

Device Limit

PrivadoVPN allowed us to use the free VPN on as many devices as we liked. This is a rarity for free VPNs, especially those that require users to create an account. That said, there’s one caveat – all the devices we signed in on shared the 10 GB monthly limit. Moreover, we could only connect one device at a time.

PrivadoVPN is great for users with multiple devices who want access to a free VPN. With it, we were able to work on our laptop and surf the web on our smartphones all while enjoying free protection. The 10 GB monthly limit is generous, too; just make sure to keep an eye on your remaining allowance as it refreshes only once and there’s no option to extend it.

As for the reliability of the VPN, it was able to bypass all geo-restrictions we tried it on, from unlocking Netflix libraries to accessing sites we blocked from our office network. It also passed our WebRTC and DNS leak tests, standard tests we perform on VPNs to test their IP protection and see if they’re working.

One piece of advice we have is if you decide to upgrade to premium, be sure that you’ll no longer need the free one. Once we upgraded and even after the subscription expired, we could no longer go back to the free version. We had to create a new account with a new email address to regain access to the free VPN.

5. Atlas VPN - Best Free VPN for Privacy

Editors Rating:

9.0 /10

How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	No
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Data Usage Limit

The usage limit for the free Atlas VPN was a paltry 5 GB per month – only half of what PrivadoVPN provides. There was also no option to exceed the limit besides the referral bonus that grants seven days of premium access for every new user you refer. We didn’t try the referral program, but it’s common in a lot of VPNs we’ve tested.

And if you want to sign up for the premium service, it’s a similar price point as PrivadoVPN. Month-to-month Atlas costs $11.99, but if you sign up for three years, that monthly cost nosedives down to $1.70.

Server Limit

Atlas VPN provided us access to three free locations – Amsterdam, Las Vegas, and New York. That’s only two countries, and since we’re in New York, the only server that actually changed our IP address location was the Amsterdam server. There’s nothing much we could do with a Dutch IP address that we couldn’t already do with our current U.S. IP address, but we enjoyed binge watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy on Netflix … until the 5 GB limit ran out, of course.

Speed Limit

Atlas VPN was faster than PrivadoVPN overall, but it still cut our network speed by more than half. Our download speed while connected to the Amsterdam server was 102 Mbps while the upload speed was 141 Mbps.

» More Information: Best Free VPNs for iPhones

Device Limit

As far as we can tell, you can sign in on multiple devices using the same free account. We set up Atlas on two iPhones, one Android, a Macbook Air, and a Windows laptop. However, only one of those devices could connect at a time, so like PrivadoVPN, simultaneous connections were not possible.

Atlas VPN wasn’t the best performer among the free VPNs we tested. The speeds were good, but the 5 GB monthly data allowance and the limited server option hampered our ability to use Atlas VPN on a daily basis. 5 GB was simply not enough.

While that’s the case, we found Atlas VPN a privacy-focused free VPN. For starters, the VPN encryption standard for the free and premium versions were the same – 256-bit AES, otherwise known as military-grade encryption. The same goes for the privacy policy, in which Atlas maintains that it doesn’t log any identifiable information about users’ browsing activity.

We also liked that Atlas included extra security and privacy features even in the free plan. For example, there was the Shield feature that we’ve never seen in any of the free VPNs we tested. Essentially, when we’re connected to Atlas, it monitored the websites we visited and blocked off potentially harmful ones. Checking the log, it even blocked ads and trackers. The Shield feature was similar to Threat Protection when we reviewed NordVPN, currently our highest-rated option.

6. TunnelBear - Best Server Network

Editors Rating:

8.8 /10

How We Review

Product Specs

MultiHop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill Switch	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Data Usage Limit

We found conflicting information regarding the data limit of TunnelBear. Their website mentions 2 GB per month4 and 500 MB per month on separate occasions5, but the Android and Windows app we tested said we had 8 GB of data when we first logged in. And indeed, we were able to use every bit of that 8 GB allowance by the end of the month, so neither TunnelBear pages were correct.

If you don’t want to deal with the data limits, though, you can always consider signing up for the premium service. The unlimited version costs $3.33 per month when you sign up for three years, and if you want to go month-to-month, it’ll cost you $9.99.

Server Limit

What we found great about TunnelBear is it offers the same server locations to premium and free users. We were able to choose from the over 40 countries where its servers are located.

Speed Limit

TunnelBear was on the sluggish side, even when we upgraded to a premium account. It only gave us about 110 Mbps of download and 90 Mbps of upload speed, which was acceptable for a free VPN but slow for a premium VPN.

Device Limit

We were able to log in using the same account on up to five devices and connect them simultaneously to TunnelBear. We couldn’t sign in on more than five devices, though, but it was easy enough to create a second account using a different email. So if you need multi-device access to a VPN, TunnelBear is a good option, especially with its generous 8 GB data limit.

We found TunnelBear a really great free VPN for unblocking websites because of its over 40 server locations and decent speeds for a free VPN. It also hardly gets detected as a VPN because there are many servers, which means users are well-dispersed. We tested an older free version of Hotspot Shield before with only one server location in Las Vegas, and because all free users used to connect to it, it easily got tagged and blocked by Netflix. Multiple users connecting to Netflix using the same IP address is an obvious indication of VPN use.

When it comes to server locations, the only difference between the free and paid TunnelBear VPNs is that the latter gets city-level server options. That means if you select the United States location, for instance, you can choose between the 13 cities where TunnelBear is located. With the free account, we only got to select the country. That’s it. That’s their only difference when it comes to servers, and that’s why we think TunnelBear has the best server network for a free VPN.