The Best Free VPN of 2022

1. PrivadoVPN

Editors Rating:

9.0 /10

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Unlimited Speeds

VPNs are great for security, but many free VPNs aren’t so great when it comes to speed. In fact, a lot of them impose speed limits when you connect to their servers. With speed limits in place, even with a one Gbps internet connection, your browsing speed will be throttled to as low as two Mbps. That’s not ideal, which is why we selected PrivadoVPN as our top pick. It provides great security and privacy features, and at the same time, the free VPN offers unlimited speeds. Our 50 Mbps internet connection notched a reading of 34 Mbps while connected to Privado, which we’d say is the normal speed drop when you connect to a VPN. Not bad, not bad at all.

A Simple Interface

Whether we used PrivadoVPN on our laptops or mobile devices, the software proved easy to use. You won’t have to jump through hoops to connect, and the most important VPN features are laid out neatly under one tab. It even has the option to switch VPN protocols between OpenVPN, Wireguard, and IKEv2, which we don’t usually see in free VPNs. And lastly, the software’s home screen shows how much data you have left on your monthly data allowance so you can budget your 10 GB monthly allocation.

Serious About Privacy

PrivadoVPN is based in Switzerland, a country with great privacy laws. There are no strict data retention policies there, which means PrivadoVPN isn’t required to keep usage data. In fact, Privado doesn’t store any usage data as part of its no-logs policy. On top of that, Privado uses top-notch encryption in 256-bit AES, plus, it has a kill switch to protect its users’ privacy in case of sudden network loss.

2. Hotspot Shield

Editors Rating:

8.9 /10

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How We Review

500 MB Daily Data Usage Limit

Hotspot Shield did limit our data usage, but it was more generous than most other free VPNs. Hotspot Shield refreshed our data allowance every 24 hours, giving us 500 MB of bandwidth to consume every day. That’s about 15 GB per month, provided that we max out our allowance daily. However, unused data didn’t roll over to the next day, so if we used only 400 MB in one day, we would still only receive 500 MB the next day. The daily limit made sense as it helped us control our data usage. Instead of giving us 15 GB per month, which frankly, we could blow through in just a week or so, it limited our daily usage so we’d still have bandwidth left towards the end of the month. Now that’s just smart.

Works On Up to Five Devices

We’ve been able to log in using our Hotspot Shield account using five different devices. It worked on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, so whether we were in the office working on our MacBooks, at a coffee shop browsing on our smartphones, or at home with our Windows PC, we had access to Hotspot Shield. Only one device connected to Hotspot Shield at a time, though, but it was easy enough to switch between devices thanks to the VPN’s fast connection times. It usually took the VPN less than five seconds to establish connections, which was impressive for a free VPN.

No Ads on Windows and Mac Clients

Most free VPNs generate revenue by injecting ads into the websites we visit. While Hotspot Shield did that in the past, it changed its policy recently and only placed ads in its mobile apps. Also, instead of injecting the ads into websites, Hotspot Shield only showed us short ads after we connected and disconnected our mobile phone VPN. Of course, it’s never fun to see ads, but with a freemium VPN with a generous data usage allowance, going through a couple of ads every session didn’t hurt.

3. Atlas VPN

Editors Rating:

9.0 /10

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Data Privacy

Using a VPN increases your privacy, but Atlas VPN takes it a notch higher by offering tools that can help you keep track of your digital health. The free version includes Tracker Blocker, a tool that automatically blocks trackers injected by websites you visit into your computer. It also includes a breach monitor, wherein you can input your email address and Atlas will find if it has ever been a part of a data breach. It’s these little things that earned Atlas a spot on our list of the best free VPNs.

Streaming Access

Most free VPNs do not offer access to streaming websites, but Atlas does. While connected to Atlas, we were able to stream from Netflix and Prime Video. However, keep in mind that there’s a 10 GB data usage limit per month, which could hamper your binge watching sessions. A couple of episodes of Bones, and your data allowance is gone. Still, if you’re willing to sacrifice the video quality, you might be able to binge a bit using Atlas.

Unlimited Devices

Atlas VPN doesn’t require you to create an account if you’re on the free plan. That means that you can load Atlas on all your devices and connect them all to the VPN simultaneously. You won’t need to pay a monthly fee to protect all your computers and mobile phones, just as long as you’re not doing any bandwidth-heavy tasks.

4. Surfshark

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

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How We Review

Low Prices After Trial Ends

Sure, we’re not thrilled that SurfShark’s free trial only lasts a month. But that trial period does have its advantages. One, we weren’t limited at all on how we could use the VPN in terms of servers, data, or speed limits, so we could really try it out accurately. That’s what makes it so perfect for those looking for a free VPN to use short term. We got all the features of a premium VPN without spending a single cent. And even once the free trial month is over, the prices didn’t exactly break the bank.

We signed up for two years to lock in that $2.49 a month rate, billed one time as about $60. We were confident about committing for two years thanks to the free trial. If you’re looking for other free trial options, other than SurfShark, check out our review of the best VPNs with free trials.

Unlimited Simultaneous Connections

It’s no secret that we spend a ton of time online. We often find ourselves on our laptops, watching Netflix using one of the best VPNs for Chrome and Chromecast, while checking Instagram on our phones at the same time. So we need a VPN that doesn’t limit us on how many devices we can connect simultaneously. Enter Surfshark, which allows for unlimited connections at the same time. Not only that, but it worked on a ton of our devices, including:

• iOS
• Android
• macOS
• Windows
• Linux
• Fire TV Stick
• Xbox

This opens up SurfShark to most people online, plus, anyone that uses Chrome or Firefox, as it has browser extensions for both.

Netflix Access

We’ll let you in on a little secret: even though there are VPNs that work well with Netflix, Netflix is not a fan of VPNs. After pressure from TV networks and studios, it blocked a ton of VPN IP addresses, forcing VPN companies to scramble for new servers. Fortunately, we had no issues watching Surfshark on Netflix, so if you need to finish that show that’s only on Netflix in another country, you can connect to Surfshark and switch your Netflix region.

5. TunnelBear

Editors Rating:

8.8 /10

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How We Review

Fun and Easy To Use

Most VPNs have a serious vibe going on with their user interface, but TunnelBear took a different approach with its intuitive yet fun and easy-to-use user interface. It connected to the encrypted tunnels with one click of a button and once connected, the application showed us our server location through a virtual map That was incredibly helpful because choosing a server location closest to our physical location usually yielded faster upload and download speeds. Whenever we felt a slowdown, we simply clicked on the “tunnel”, an icon representing TunnelBear’s server locations, closest to us to get a better connection.

Up To Five Simultaneous Connections

Although TunnelBear is a free VPN, it allows up to five connections at any single time. In fact, on several occasions, we used it to encrypt our MacBook Air, Android smartphone, and iPad that we connected to a public library Wi-Fi network. And that’s another advantage of the TunnelBear as a free VPN: it worked across all major operating systems for desktop and mobile, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. It also had browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, which allowed us to encrypt only our browsing data rather than encrypting our laptop or smartphone’s entire online activity.

20+ Server Locations

While other VPNs limit the number of virtual locations accessible to free users, we loved that TunnelBear let us connect to over 20 different server locations. It allowed us to choose a server closest to us for faster speeds and to switch over to different servers if our current connection wasn’t good. And for those like us who aren’t geography buffs, TunnelBear’s interface makes it easier to visualize the location of the servers. The interface also makes it easier to find other close proximity servers in case the closest one doesn’t yield good speeds, or if you want to change your iPhone’s location to a specific country.

6. Windscribe VPN

Editors Rating:

8.7 /10

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How We Review

Worked On Desktops, Smartphones, and Browsers

Windscribe worked on just about any device we used at home. There were desktop clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux, apps for iOS and Android, browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, and even an app for our Amazon Fire TV. Now that’s impressive, but let’s go back to the basics. We used Windscribe mostly on our MacBook Pro. The desktop client connected all our apps to the VPN tunnel, while the Windscribe extension we installed on our Chrome browser only encrypted our browser activity. That was helpful because, given the 10 GB per month data limit, we used Windscribe mostly to browse the Internet. If, for instance, we wanted to Google something while on a Skype call, we could simply connect our browser to Windscribe without having to connect Skype and all our other desktop applications.

Ads, Tracking, and Social Network Blocking

There was another advantage to using the Windscribe browser extension: it blocked ads, trackers, and social network widget buttons that often contain trackers. You know those Like, Tweet, and Share widget buttons that appear on various websites? Turns out, they can track our browsing data even if we don’t click on any of them.2 Windscribe blocked those widgets so that we could browse the Web, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks couldn’t track us. That just goes to show how serious the company is about keeping its customers’ online activity private. But don’t worry, we could still access our social networks even with the blocking feature.

Data Logging Policy

As far as logging data goes, Windscribe didn’t keep track and store any identifying data such as our real IP address and the websites we visited while connected to the VPN. However, it did log a little more information than the bare minimum, including the amount of data we’ve used during our sessions and the times of our connections. That’s a little bit concerning, but to be fair, Windscribe’s data privacy policy requires its servers to discard such data as soon as we disconnect from the service. The only records Windscribe kept were the number of parallel connections at any given time to prevent abuse and account-sharing and our data usage within a 30-day period.