Best Free VPN in 2026: I Tested 8 Free Plans and Trials

I expected every free VPN to be slow, and two of them proved me wrong. My connection measures 190.36 Mbps, and Windscribe took 10% of it, a smaller bite than CyberGhost took on a paid plan. Data allowance undone both. 10 GB a month is the Windscribe limit, and TunnelBear allows 2 GB. Uncapped plans pay for it differently. Proton VPN shed 19.3%, Hide.me 30.5%, and streaming failed on both.

That trade appears in every 100% free VPN I tested. Speed or data, never both. The free VPN alternatives in the first 4 places avoid it because a refund window hands over the paid product for nothing.

Best Free VPN Services Reviewed and Compared

I split this list into two. The first 4 are free VPN trials: paid subscriptions that cost nothing if the refund is claimed in time, with unlimited data, every server, and full streaming access. The last 4 are really free VPNs, and every one of them takes something away. Speed loss is my own measurement against a 190.36 Mbps connection, and 9 streaming platforms were tried against each entry.

VPN	Free Access	Data Cap	Locations	Devices	Streaming	Speed loss
NordVPN	30-day refund, 3-day Android trial	Unlimited	149 countries	10	9 of 9	3.8%
Proton VPN	30-day refund, plus a free tier	Unlimited on both	149 countries, 10 free	10, or 1 free	7 of 9 paid, 0 free	7.4% paid, 19.3% free
ExpressVPN	30-day refund, 3-day mobile trial	Unlimited	113 countries	10-14	9 of 9	4.7%
CyberGhost	45-day refund, 24-hour desktop trial	Unlimited	100 countries	7	8 of 9	9.3%
Windscribe	Forever free	10 GB a month	10 countries	Unlimited	6 of 9	10.0%
Hide.me	Forever free	Unlimited	8 locations	1	0 of 9	30.5%
TunnelBear	Forever free	2 GB a month	47 countries	1	0 of 9	31.2%
Hotspot Shield	Forever free	500 MB a day, unlimited on mobile	USA only	1	1 of 9	25.0%

1. NordVPN: Free VPN With a 30-Day Guarantee

NordVPN is the best VPN overall, and it was also the quickest. British and American servers took 3.8% between them, a figure no free tier approached, and every streaming platform opened. Data is unlimited, the network covers 149 countries, and 10 devices can connect, compared to the single device a free plan usually permits. I disliked its ping to London, at 60 ms, compared to under 55 ms with other VPNs. Occasionally, the VPN would refuse to connect when another VPN was installed.

The restart that cured it signed me out of my account. No really free VPN comes near it in terms of security. Double VPN chains two servers, Threat Protection blocks trackers, ads, and malware, and traffic disguising gets it through filtering, where NordVPN works well in China. Deloitte has checked the no-logging policy 6 times over. Live chat answered me in under 20 seconds, and it installs on a Fire TV Stick or an Apple TV. Making it free means claiming the 30-day refund.

But you can also take the 3-day NordVPN trial on Android, which does require a credit card, which may be inconvenient. I use it for Black Ops 7 in bot lobbies and for ordinary browsing.

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2. Proton VPN: The 30-Day Guarantee Beats Its Own Free Tier

The 30-day guarantee version is the better deal. Buy it, use it, then ask for the money back. That month includes 149 countries, 10 devices, torrenting, streaming, Secure Core routing, and NetShield ad blocking. American servers replied in 109 ms, quicker than the other 9 VPNs. British and US legs together cost 7.4%, and 7 of 9 platforms let it through. Among free plans, this one gives away more than most. Nothing is asked for at signup, no allowance expires, and no adverts appear.

The encryption matches the paid apps. Both plans fall under Swiss law, publish their source code, and have had the no-logging policy checked externally. Then I measured it. 10 countries make up the free pool, and the app picks for you. What it handed me twice over could not have been more different. One in the Netherlands hit 176.41 Mbps and replied in 32 ms. The American one dropped to 131.00 Mbps with a 253 ms reply, the sort of figure I associate with Tokyo.

That address failed on Netflix US, and since the country cannot be chosen, there was nothing to retry. A single device connects, with torrenting disabled. My Proton VPN review has the full picture.

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3. ExpressVPN: 30-Day Guarantee for Fast and Secure VPN

I turn to ExpressVPN when a VPN has to work without setup, and it beat everything else at distance. Nothing else got to Tokyo as quickly, at 163.94 Mbps, and the UK and US servers together cost 4.7%. All 9 platforms opened for me, and Netflix UK from the USA took one click. Its 113 countries stand on RAM-based servers, wiped clean by any reboot. KPMG audited the no-logging claim, the kill switch held my data in when I forced a drop, and Advanced Protection filtered trackers and ads across every site. The plan decides whether 10 or 14 devices connect (the Basic plan supports 10).

There is no Double VPN, and PIA hands over far more settings to fiddle with. Twice on Windows 11, I had to delete the app and install it again before it would connect. The 30-day refund makes it free for a month, and there is a 3-day mobile trial on top. Again, you will need a credit card.

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4. CyberGhost: 45-Day Guarantee Free VPN for Streaming

45 days is the longest refund window of any VPN I checked, which makes CyberGhost the pick if a month is not enough. Better still, the 24-hour desktop trial on Windows and macOS needs no card, and Android gets 3 days with iOS getting 7. London replied in 39 ms, the fastest response of the round, with the other 2 destinations costing 9.3% between them. 8 of the 9 platforms opened. Japan’s Netflix library was the failure.

Streaming servers are named for the platform, so picking one takes no guesswork, and 11,700 servers cover 100 countries. EU retention rules do not apply in Romania, and every quarter since 2011 has brought a transparency report. Against that, there is no traffic disguising, so heavily filtered networks block it, and only 7 devices can connect at once. Prices start near $2.19 a month.

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5. Windscribe: Top Really Free VPN for Multiple Devices

Every other really free VPN protects one device. Windscribe put no ceiling on mine. I had six connected before I stopped counting. Only one paid VPN beat its 182.21 Mbps to London, and across both legs the cost came to 10%. Three Netflix libraries and 3 other platforms let it in, 6 of the 9. ITV blocked it, as did Pluto TV and Prime Video. Torrenting works and works well. R.O.B.E.R.T., its ad and tracker filter, costs nothing here. For example, Proton VPN puts the equivalent behind a paywall.

Three more features surprised me on a free plan. Proxy Gateway puts a TV or console behind the VPN with no app installed, Secure Hotspot shares the connection wirelessly, and Decoy Traffic sends dummy data to frustrate traffic analysis. Two things count against it. No independent firm has ever checked its no-logging claim, unlike Proton VPN’s or TunnelBear’s. Authorities also took its Ukrainian servers in July 2021, and the disks were not encrypted, so traffic on them was exposed.

Servers that wipe on reboot came in after that. Verify an email address and the monthly allowance climbs from 2 GB to 10 GB. Spend it, and the tunnel closes.

6. Hide.me: Free, With Unlimited Data and Strong Security

Want a free VPN to change location with nothing to pay? Hide.me hands over unlimited data across 8 locations and lets me pick between them, which Proton VPN’s free plan does not. SoftEther got me past filtering on a trip to the UAE last month. It charges in speed instead. It reported 152.31 Mbps to London but only 112.48 to the US, averaging a 30.5% loss, triple what Windscribe cost.

Nothing streamed, and torrents are barred, which leaves only ordinary browsing. Only one connection is permitted, and paying unlocks double routing along with the malicious-site filter.

7. TunnelBear: Totally Free VPN With a Large Network

TunnelBear is a VPN from Canada with the friendliest app here and a genuine audit history. GhostBear disguises the connection, so strict firewalls let it through, and some users report the free VPN worked in China that way, though I have not tested that myself. My measurements were the worst here. London and the US cost it 31.2% between them, Tokyo 50.4% on its own.

WireGuard connections took 4 to 5 seconds here. Elsewhere, the free apps matched their paid versions for speed of connecting. No streaming platform opened, torrenting was OFF on all servers, and 2 GB a month buys about 2 hours of video. Support is email-only and actually one of the slowest I tested.

8. Hotspot Shield: Best Free VPN for US Servers

Hotspot Shield offers only US servers, which makes it the best free VPN for the USA and useless if you want another IP address. Hydra, its own protocol, matched the paid app on that server at a 25.0% loss, so no throttle is applied to free users. It was the only really free VPN to get into Netflix US. The refusals were HBO Max, Pluto TV, and Prime Video. I tested it on Windows and Android and hit different limits. On Windows, the daily allowance is 500 MB, and midnight erases the remainder.

Android lifts the cap if you watch an ad every 15 minutes, which I found more irritating than the limit. Privacy is the deeper problem. Read the notice, and the company admits to recording which domains its users visit, and the mobile app’s targeted ads depend on that. I wanted something reliable for unblocking online bookies and got plain browsing, but I can’t blame it since I paid exactly $0.00.

Best Free VPN Alternatives: Why Really Free VPNs Fall Short

The best free VPN alternative is a free VPN trial, and my figures explain why. A really free VPN is a cut-down build. A trial is the full paid product on a clock. When I reviewed VPNs for Windows, I noted CyberGhost hands over 24 hours of the premium app with no card required. Four limits showed up in every 100% free VPN I tested:

• Performance. Windscribe and Hide.me finished 21% apart on identical legs. TunnelBear allows 2 GB a month, which video eats in an evening. A small fee removes the ceiling.
• Security. The basics are covered, but Double VPN, ad filtering, and traffic disguising stay behind the paywall. VPNs that keep no logs exist for free, though Windscribe’s has never been audited.
• Usability. Only Windscribe and Hotspot Shield opened a streaming platform, and Hotspot Shield only from a US address. Torrenting works on Windscribe alone.
• Privacy. Somebody pays for the bandwidth. Where subscriptions do not, advertising and data sales generally do.

The 100% Free VPN Providers to Avoid

Not every service calling itself the best free VPN deserves installing. These are the ones I would keep off any device.

Hola: 100% Free VPN That Stores Logs

Hola looks unbeatable on paper, with no data cap, geo-blocked sites opening, and privacy promised. It also owns no servers. Traffic moves between users instead, so somebody else can borrow my IP address and I answer for the use they make of it, including illegal online activity. That design explains the enormous number of locations, and it is why I avoid it. The company also has a botnet incident in its history, and Hola VPN stores user information and sells it to third parties.

Betternet VPN: Really Free VPN With Weak Privacy

Betternet belongs to the same parent company as Hotspot Shield, and the logging behaves the same way. User information is collected and sold on to fund the free plan. Users have also reported repeated IP and DNS exposure, alongside the familiar slow speeds and small network. NordVPN or Proton VPN cost little and do none of that.

Urban VPN: Heavy Logging, No Features

Unlimited data and 80 or so locations read well until the privacy policy explains the funding. Urban VPN records IP addresses, browsing activity, and location, then sells the lot. Speeds are poor, P2P is unsupported, streaming does not work, and the security feature list is empty. There is no version of this worth installing.

Free Mobile VPNs on the App Store and Google Play

I tested dozens of free VPN apps for iOS and Android, and nearly all of them logged the sort of detail a VPN is installed to prevent. Ads appear every few minutes and use browsing habits to target you. A mobile VPN is worth paying for; NordVPN and Proton VPN are the ones to eyeball first.

My Verdict on the Best Free VPN

With no money to spend, Windscribe. It was the quickest free tier I measured; it covers every device I own, it allows torrenting, and it opened all 3 Netflix libraries. Those advantages cost you a 10 GB ceiling and an unaudited privacy claim. Unlimited data instead? Proton VPN’s free plan has no expiry and no adverts, but the country is assigned and a poor draw costs half the speed. Hide.me also removes the cap and adds a location list, charging triple the speed for it. A first-time user is TunnelBear’s audience.

Hotspot Shield answers one question only, which is American content. For heavier use, take the refund. NordVPN beats every free tier on speed by a distance and opens all 9 platforms. ExpressVPN was the quickest to Japan, and CyberGhost gives 45 days to decide instead of 30, so you have plenty of time to decide.

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