If you live in Canada, chances are you’re enjoying free internet with a plethora of great online content. Canada isn’t a censored country, so you’ll not have any issues with website blocks. Unfortunately, the country isn’t without its issues, so users look for the best free VPN for Canada.
You see, Canada belongs to the 5 Eyes alliance. This is a group of countries that includes the US and the UK, which are known for government surveillance and data collection. This means you’re under constant surveillance from your ISP and the authorities!
Another issue is the presence of geo-restrictions. Some streaming services will be restricted to you but a free Canada VPN will change your IP address and let you access some of them – not all of them. Finally, a good free VPN for Canada will also protect your privacy on public WiFi.
Recently, we did a full, detailed guide on the best paid VPNs for Canada and we invite you to check it out. For now, we’ll focus on a few free services that we think are decent, albeit, not better than the premium ones.
Best Free VPNs for Canada for 30 & 45 Days
Okay, so before discussing 100% free Canadian VPN providers, let’s talk about premium services first. You see, a great benefit of a premium service is that it can be used for FREE for 30 days. Some providers also offer a 45-day variant, which we’ll explore in this section.
How to take advantage of it? By using the free trial offered by VPNs. We will explain everything in the following lines.
ExpressVPN: The #1 Free VPN for Canada for 30 Days
ExpressVPN is known for extremely reliable performance and security. This provider offers a special 49% discount and 3 free months for its annual plan, which is also backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee. In fact, ALL plans have a 30-day refund policy.
This means you can use ExpressVPN for free for 30 days, as you’ll get a refund either way. First of all, we recommend clicking on the red button below. This button will take you to ExpressVPN’s site where you can claim the cheapest deal – mentioned above – or simply get a monthly plan, your choice.
Get ExpressVPN for Free for 30 Days
Select the plan you want, enter your email address, and choose the payment method from PayPal, credit cards, crypto, or anything you wish. Once the payment is complete, install ExpressVPN on up to 5 devices at the same time and use it limitlessly.
Right before the first 30 days expire, contact ExpressVPN using the live chat widget (it’s available 24/7), say that you want a refund, and they’ll give you your money back immediately. That’s how you use the absolute best risk-free Canada VPN in 2024 for 30 days.
Why Use ExpressVPN Instead of 100% Free Services?
ExpressVPN comes with 3,000 servers in 105 countries and it even offers dozens of them in Canada. This provider is great for people living in Canada and those living abroad. It’s streaming-friendly and as such, you can use it to unblock pretty much any streaming service on your mind.
Our team successfully unblocked Canadian TV channels, for example, but other streaming services outside of Canada will work. We love ExpressVPN for its security as well. It has 256-bit encryption, a kill switch, and even Lightway – a proprietary VPN protocol for ultimate security and speeds.
In fact, ExpressVPN has 10 Gbps speeds that’ll allow for fast and secure torrenting but also for 4K streaming if you’re into that. To avoid the prying eyes of Canadian ISPs, you also get Private DNS along with RAM-only servers that’ll give you privacy a boost.
The best of all is a no-logging policy with an audit from KPMG. This ensures ExpressVPN stores no logs of your browsing history, IP address, DNS requests, or any other information. Being a great free Canada VPN for 30 days, it works on all devices, so installation shouldn’t be an issue.
You can use it on Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, and even Fire TV Stick, gaming consoles, and routers. ExpressVPN truly has no downsides, except for the lack of an ad blocker, which isn’t a big deal considering how safe and secure this provider is.
The bottom line is that you’ll enjoy this service to the fullest in the first 30 days. If you want a VPN that stores no logs and is secure, all while providing above-average performance, this is the one to go for.
CyberGhost: You Can Use This VPN in Canada for Up to 45 Days for Free!
CyberGhost has been one of our favorite free VPNs for Canada for quite a while. No, it’s not 100% free, as we’re talking about a premium provider, but hey, you can use it the same way as ExpressVPN for 45 days. That’s 15 more days than the previous VPN – think about that!
The principle here is the same, and once again, you can get a special discount through our site. Use the red button below to go to CyberGhost’s website and you’ll see that it’s actually very cheap. Its cheapest, longest plan comes at less than $2.5 a month and you get 2 free months.
Try CyberGhost for Free for 45 Days
CyberGhost changes its prices from time to time, so make sure you get the cheapest deal available at the moment. Choose your plan, provide your email address, and pay using one of the payment methods. After that, install CyberGhost on your devices and you’re all set.
The provider has 7, instead of 5 simultaneous connections so that you can protect 2 more devices. Now, you can use it and enjoy unlimited bandwidth and excellent performance for 45 days, right before you get a refund the same way you did with ExpressVPN – through live chat.
Keep in mind that CyberGhost has a 14-day refund policy for the monthly plan, while all other plans have a 45-day refund policy. Thus, if you choose the monthly plan, you have 14 days of risk-free use.
Why Use CyberGhost Instead of 100% Free Services?
Aside from being a great VPN provider for Canada, CyberGhost is also one of the top VPNs for India, as indicated by our experience with it. Nevertheless, you get 9,100+ servers in 90+ countries here, and all servers support WireGuard, which ensures excellent 10 Gbps speeds across the entire network.
The provider has streaming and torrenting servers as well, and as a free VPN for Canada for 45 days, I think this is a welcome addition. Streaming servers can unblock a good number of platforms while torrenting servers allow for fast and secure P2P activities.
One thing to mention is that CyberGhost includes an ad blocker – unlike ExpressVPN – and you get IPv6/DNS leak protection, a kill switch, and AES-256 encryption. Split tunneling is another great feature and CyberGhost makes sure you can enjoy additional privacy with NoSpy servers.
Much like ExpressVPN, CyberGhost uses RAM-based servers and another perk is a no-logs policy. Based in Romania, this provider keeps absolutely NO logs of your activities and Deloitte proved that in a recent audit. What’s more, the company even publishes transparency reports, which is something rare.
CyberGhost supports a wide array of devices and platforms and it’s pretty easy to install and use. Compared to ExpressVPN, it’s not for getting over censorship and its Windows app is a bit complex for beginners. Albeit, that’s all forgotten when you see how well it performs.
For more information about this service, check our in-depth CyberGhost review.
Best REALLY Free Canada VPN Providers: Our Top 3 Choices
If you don’t like the two aforementioned providers or you simply won’t bother getting a refund and all of that, we understand. For that reason, we wanted to give you our top 3 really free VPNs for Canada in 2024 that won’t require any payments.
They also won’t require you to leave your credit card information, as they’re 100% free forever. What’s the catch? Well, you’ll see soon enough, but let’s just say you’ll be pretty limited in terms of performance, bandwdith, servers, and security features. Here are our top 3 free Canadian VPNs:
1. Atlas VPN
Atlas VPN is a fantastic free VPN that offers plenty of good stuff if you’re looking for a reliable option to use in Canada. For one, it’s actually safe and secure and supports WireGuard/OpenVPN protocols. Even in its free version, the provider comes with AES-256-bit encryption, so you browse the web safely.
We like that you also get an automatic kill switch as a part of the free plan, so if the connection breaks, you’ll not leak your IP address accidentally. This provider is also reasonably fast for a free Canada VPN, and while you won’t get 10 Gbps speeds, the performance is decent.
Our tests showed that Atlas VPN offers 1 Gbps speeds but for a free service, that’s not bad. Atlas VPN is a subsidiary of NordVPN and as such, it’s known for offering a no-logs policy. It won’t store any compromising information despite its notorious US jurisdiction.
Still, Atlas VPN has a security audit from VerSprite and that means a lot in 2024. What are its downsides? Well, the most obvious one is the bandwdith limit of 5 GB a month, which won’t be enough for active internet users. Or, to be honest, for anyone who uses the internet for more than an hour a day.
Another glaring issue is that you don’t have any servers in Canada here! Atlas VPN has servers in 49 countries but in the free version, you get 3 server locations that include Amsterdam, New York, and Los Angeles. Moreover, Atlas VPN isn’t great for streaming.
It says that the two US servers are streaming-friendly but they don’t work. When using them, we couldn’t unblock and watch HBO Max abroad, for example, and none of the popular platforms worked. Torrenting is possible but with 5 GB of data, you won’t get very far.
Atlas VPN also offers subpar customer support, one connection per account, and it lacks some of the advanced security features like SafeSwap and MultiHop+ servers. All in all, a pretty basic and limited experience, which is to be expected from a free VPN for Canada.
Pros
- Reasonably fast speeds
- 256-bit encryption
- Audit from VerSprite
- No-logging policy
Cons
- 5 GB of bandwidth a month
- Not great for streaming
- Only 3 server locations (no Canada)
- The US jurisdiction (5 Eyes)
2. ProtonVPN
ProtonVPN is a premium provider by default. However, it’s also very popular due to the free plan that the provider proudly offers. This 100% free VPN for Canada offers unlimited bandwidth along with an impressive array of security features.
For example, it supports WireGuard in the free version and you also get split tunneling, a kill switch, and even port forwarding. Another great feature is VPN Accelerator which aims to boost your speeds but unsuccessfully, as the free version of ProtonVPN can be extremely slow.
Regardless, ProtonVPN is based in Switzerland and that’s great from a privacy standpoint. Its no-logging policy is impeccable and the provider stores no data related to your IP address, DNS queries, geolocation, and other compromising bits of information.
Aside from its audit from SEC Consult, it’s good to know that it uses RAM-only servers and a self-operated DNS service. On the bad side, ProtonVPN has no servers in Canada and you’re limited to locations like the US, Japan, and the Netherlands.
It has no streaming support and P2P traffic is prohibited, so this VPN won’t work with uTorrent or BitTorrent (check out the best uTorrent VPNs here). ProtonVPN’s free version lacks Secure Core servers and you don’t get NetShield, which is an ad blocker.
For us, one of the most annoying things about it is lackluster customer support. It’s not available through live chat, so you’ll have to wait for quite a long period to get a response. ProtonVPN’s free version is decent overall, but when compared to paid VPNs for Canada, you’ll see a big difference.
Its paid version is expensive, on the other hand, so it’s not worth a shot compared to ExpressVPN or CyberGhost, both of which are more affordable.
Pros
- Uncapped bandwidth
- VPN Accelerator
- RAM-only servers
Cons
- 3 server locations only
- No P2P support
- Bad for streaming
- Poor customer support
- Very slow speeds
3. PrivadoVPN
The last pick on the list of the most reliable free VPNs for Canada in 2024 is PrivadoVPN. PrivadoVPN isn’t a particularly popular provider but it packs quite a punch in both free and paid versions. Most notably, it offers 12 free server locations, which is more than ProtonVPN and Atlas VPN combined.
Does it have Canadian servers? Unfortunately, no, but you do get servers in the US, Mexico, the Netherlands, France, and many other countries. Much like Atlas VPN, PrivadoVPN is reasonably fast and you’ll enjoy smooth browsing and watching YouTube videos.
PrivadoVPN is based in Switzerland, and this is, for us, impressive. First of all, it stores no logs and second, it’s very secure. The free version supports WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols and users can enjoy a kill switch and IPv6 leak protection coupled with 256-bit encryption.
Sure, PrivadoVPN offers limited bandwidth and that’s one of its main downsides. Unlike the 5 GB you get in Atlas VPN, here, the service gives you 10 GB of bandwidth each month, but if we’re being honest, this is far from what we’d call enough.
The provider won’t work with streaming services either and torrenting will be possible but you’ll be limited to just 10 GB of monthly data, with no flexibility. PrivadoVPN is easy to use and its apps can be installed on a variety of platforms, such as Windows, Linux, macOS, and iOS.
Still, the free version has just one connection per account, so you can protect only one device and not 3, 4, or more of them. All in all, PrivadoVPN is a solid pick if you aren’t too demanding and you don’t mind being limited in terms of servers, performance, bandwidth, and a few security features.
For more details, head over to the PrivadoVPN review.
Pros
- WireGuard support
- 12 server locations
Cons
- 10 GB bandwidth cap
- It can’t unblock Netflix
- No simultaneous connections
- No servers in Canada
How to Use a Free Canada VPN?
With our list out of the way, let’s talk about how to set up and use a VPN. This is fairly simple and if you’re using one of our really free VPNs for Canada, it’ll take you less than two minutes to set up a VPN and enjoy its benefits. Here’s how to do that.
- Go to the site of any free VPN from our list.
- Download the application to your device (it’s free!).
- Install the VPN and sign up by providing an email address.
- Once that is done, the VPN will be ready to use. You might need to confirm your account via your email address, actually, so go to your inbox and do that.
- Connect to a VPN server of your choice.
- Go online and enjoy browsing the web safely and securely in Canada (or elsewhere).
Are Free VPNs for Canada Worth It?
As you can see, the free VPN services we presented have both good and bad sides but the bad sides will overwhelm the good ones. You’ll be annoyed by limited monthly bandwidth, slow speeds, and the inability to stream on Netflix or download torrents.
Free services that you see above are safe and secure but their limits are simply too much for someone to handle and live with daily. We presented the 3 free VPNs for Canada that we used personally but bear in mind that there are a lot more of them on the market.
These services, however, aren’t proven to be safe and secure and we strongly advise avoiding Hola VPN, Urban VPN, and other similar services. They’ll collect and sell your personal data to third parties, which ruins the purpose of using a VPN and breaks your privacy.
For us, free VPNs aren’t worth it for many reasons but one of them is the price of some premium choices. For example, CyberGhost will cost you a bit over $2 a month, which pretty much anyone can afford, but you’ll get a LOT more compared to Atlas VPN, PrivadoVPN, or ProtonVPN.
With a provider like this available, we simply don’t see a good enough reason to go for 100% free VPNs for Canada.
Summary
Canadian residents and those who are looking to obtain a Canadian IP will benefit from a VPN greatly. Sure, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost are the best choices, as they have plenty of Canadian servers that will be suitable for people living abroad.
On the flip side, Atlas VPN, ProtonVPN, and PrivadoVPN are solid free VPN options only if you live in Canada, as they don’t have servers there. They also limit your bandwidth and impose other restrictions that can be removed if you go for a premium service.
Our recommendation is to use a free VPN for Canada for 30 or 45 days, which is to say ExpressVPN and CyberGhost respectively. And if you don’t have a single dollar in your account and you’d rather use a forever-free service, then the 3 aforementioned providers will have to do the job.
Either way, all 5 providers we have featured today are safe and secure, so if you want to at least preserve your privacy, that’s entirely possible. Well, until you run out of bandwidth with 100% free VPNs and have to spend the rest of the month with ISP throttling, surveillance, and geo-blocks…
