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As a general rule, paid VPNs are usually the best quality, but a free VPN can also be a good option depending on our particular needs. By establishing a VPN connection, we can obtain an extra layer of security when browsing dubious pages, connecting to public Wi-Fi, or avoiding regional blocks of some online content. What are the best VPNs we can currently use without spending a single penny out of pocket?
4 Factors to Consider Before You Start Using a Free VPN
Like almost everything in this life, offering a VPN service has relatively high and associated maintenance costs. In the case of VPNs, this requires having several servers in different countries, technical support, development, and a long etcetera.
Therefore, before we start surfing with a free VPN – especially considering that we do it to have greater privacy – it is essential that we take into account several things:
- What is your business model? As we say, maintaining a VPN service with servers scattered all over the planet is expensive. Money certainly has to come from somewhere, so if we’re using a “free” service, where does all that money come from? Some companies offer a limited free plan in order for us to switch to their paid subscriptions, while others include ads or sell our personal data to recover part of your investment and make a profit. The only thing we are clear about is that we do not want them to sell our data to external companies, so before starting to use a free VPN it is advisable to review what their business model is.
- Does the service save the user’s logs? Many VPNs claim that they do not keep any records of what the user does when they are connected, but it is always advisable to read the policies and terms of service to ensure that all our activity data is completely deleted once we close the connection.
- What are the disadvantages or compensation of the free plan? As we say, free VPNs usually have certain limitations. Some companies only allow a certain consumption of megabytes per month, while others reduce connection speeds during peak traffic hours. First of all, we must assess whether these counterparts seem acceptable to us and are compatible with our needs.
- What data do you ask us to register and use the service? When it comes to registering, some VPN providers ask us for certain data such as name, email or a password, while others let us use their service without providing any prior information. If our goal is to browse anonymously and privately, the less data we have to give, the better.
NOTE: I will still highly recommend using a paid VPN for security and privacy concerns. I personally use NordVPN as they are safe and 100% trusted globally-> Get the best deals on NordVPN
In addition to this, if our main objective is to avoid regional blocks, it is also recommended that we review how many different locations the service offers.
The Best Free VPNs: Our Top 9 Selection
That said, let’s see what the most appetizing free VPNs that we can find on the market today are.
#Techrechard Recommendation: iTop VPN
iTop VPN is a functional VPN service from IObit partners that allows you to encrypt all your traffic, change the country of connection and protect your traffic from tracking. The free version includes 700 MB of daily Internet traffic and a choice of 16 connection servers.
iTop VPN includes many servers in various countries around the world. You can connect to a server in the country you want or use auto-connect to the fastest server. Additionally, iTop VPN includes servers to access video streaming services and social networks that may not be available in your region. Also, servers with low ping are available in some online games.
Additionally, iTop VPN includes protection of DNS requests from leakage or interception by intruders. You can choose one of the recommended DNS providers or manually specify the required DNS servers. Also, in the program settings, you can specify the connection protocol: TCP, UDP, HTTPS, or auto-selection.
1. ProtonVPN
The excellent star feature of ProtonVPN is that it does not have any monthly data limit, so we can use it as long as we want. The consideration – as you can imagine – is that free users have less priority in terms of bandwidth during traffic peaks, so at certain times of the day, we can notice certain speed drops.
Another positive point is that we can register only with an email address. However, only one device can be connected simultaneously, and the number of available locations is limited to 3. There’s also no support for P2P, but on the plus side, it should be mentioned that ProtonVPN has a strict “no logs” policy. Nor are ads displayed on the web or on any of its clients for PC or mobile devices, which is not bad at all.
2. Windscribe
Windscribe is a reasonably recent VPN service and has attracted much attention thanks to its generous free plans. We have access to 10GB of data per month, although they often publish offers of up to 20 gigabytes per month. It even offers the possibility of earning more gigabytes by sharing tweets about the company and similar shares.
Windscribe also does not store connection logs, IPs, or logs of the pages we visit. While we are connected to a server, it retains our username, but once we disconnect from the session, all the data is automatically deleted after 3 minutes. As far as security is concerned, it uses a 256-bit AES encryption protocol and a 4,096-bit RSA key. One of the most recommended free VPNs of the moment.
3. Hotspot Shield VPN
Hotspot Shield is one of the few VPN companies that offer both paid and complimentary services. One of its significant advantages is that we can use it on up to 5 devices simultaneously. It also has a much more generous data limit than most, with a maximum consumption of 500MB per day (15GB/month).
The app is straightforward to use and has more than 2,500 servers spread around the planet (more than 70 locations available), although with the free plan, we can only connect to a certain number of servers. There are also ads, but not being very annoying, they are not a big problem.
Of course, an important detail to mention is that if we enter the Hotspot Shield page, we will see no “free plan” that we can choose from from the start. First, we must register for the 7-day free trial period of the “Elite” subscription, cancel the subscription, and continue with the free plan (which also implies having to provide a payment method). In any case, one of the most powerful free VPNs that we can currently find.
4. Turbo VPN
A fast and unlimited VPN compatible with Android, Windows, iOS, and macOS and offering up to 8 different locations within its free plan: Netherlands, UK, USA (New York), USA (San Francisco), Canada, Germany, India, and Singapore.
The mobile application has some exciting features, such as filtering which apps connect using the VPN and which do not.
5. Hide.me
The significant advantage of using Hide.me is that it doesn’t save logs of any kind, and even the free version is ad-free. The company currently offers 10GB of data per month with the free plan, although the number of servers is restricted to 5 different locations.
Therefore, if we want to connect to servers in particular countries, we may not go very far with Hide.me. Now, we are facing an alternative of the most recommended to add that layer of extra protection when we surf the Internet or are connected to the wifi of the library, the airport, and the like.
6. Speedify
Speedify has several factors in its favor. With the free plan, we get access to one of the fastest VPN services of the moment, with many servers available (more than 70). The same as premium subscribers of the platform get.
On the other hand, data consumption is limited to 5GB in the first month. From there, the limit is lowered even more until we leave a maximum of 2GB of data per month. An excellent VPN if what we are looking for is speed and speed above all.
7. SurfEasy
SurfEasy is developed by the same team behind the Opera browser. It is for that reason that we can find it integrated within the browser itself, although they also have an independent app that we can use for other things than just browsing the Internet.
While the data consumption of the VPN is unlimited if we use it through the Opera browser when we move to the surfeasy app version, this limit is set at 500MB per month.
8. Cloudflare WARP
The first thing to clarify about WARP is that it is not designed to hide our IP. Instead of a tool to facilitate access to regionally blocked content, WARP presents itself as “a VPN for people who do not know what a VPN means” (this is its slogan). Its objective is to shield our privacy and security when connecting to the Internet. That is, it does not allow you to choose any location or server if that is what we are looking for.
The app is entirely free and unlimited, although there is also a paid service called WARP+ that offers more speed and more robust data encryption for 3.99 Euros per month. We can download the Android app from the Play Store or set up Cloudflare’s free DNS using a PC.
9. TunnelBear
TunnelBear is one of the highest quality and “user-friendly” VPN services that we can find. However, although it has free and premium plans, with the free plan we will only have access to 500MB of data per month. It is a reasonably small figure, although the number of available locations amounts to more than 20.
The connection is very stable, and over time the company has been reducing the requirements to register so that now they do not even ask us for the name to start using the application. Minimal service in terms of traffic volume can be excellent if we only need it for specific occasions traveling or similar.
Conclusion
I hope this list of Top 9 Free VPN Services was helpful. I will still highly recommend using a paid VPN for security and privacy concerns. I personally use NordVPN as they are safe and 100% trusted globally-> Get the best deals on NordVPN
You can get more information on diebestenvpn and reviewsdir.