Best Free VPN of 2021

We all like a free lunch, and the same can definitely be said when you download a VPN. Why bother paying for yet another piece of software when there are so many free VPNs out there for desktop and mobile? We certainly understand the temptation, but it's worth exercising some caution, too.

If your reason for having a VPN is just about having a bit more security on your laptop or mobile when using public Wi-Fi every now and then, a freebie can do a decent job. And with more and more people needing to work safely and stay entertained at home, it's no surprise free VPN users are growing in number.

On this page, you'll find our pick of the best options available to download today. We've assessed the ability of the top free VPNs to see which will keep your online activity anonymous without you having to spend a thing. ExpressVPN might take the crown of our favorite premium provider in the world, but the best free VPN at the moment is ProtonVPN - we explain why below.

If free VPNs are so handy however, why did our recent survey find that less than half of users opt for a freebie over a paid-for service? That's because they do have their limitations, and you should really be aware of them as they could significantly restrict what you were hoping to use your VPN for...

The problems with free VPNs

Free VPN services may cost nothing but there is usually a good reason for that - it means the provider will be turning a profit in some other way, usually with invasive advertising or by selling your browsing data to third-parties (rather defeating the whole drive for privacy in the first place).

Plus, free services tend to limit the amount of data you can use and the speed you can use it at, rendering them practically useless for streaming video, torrenting or as an extra layer of reliable security in your day-to-day online life. And don't expect the kind of easy access support or server range that you get with the paid services, either.

So before we get stuck in to our list of the best free VPN downloads, it's worth knowing that a paid-for version can cost as little as around $2/£2 per month and will give you much better performance and protection.

The best free VPN of 2021:

Hotspot Shield Free is not only one of the better-known free VPNs in our ranking, but we also think it's the best. 

Users with the free plan can protect up to five devices at once, and are limited to 500MB of data per day (about 15GB per month). That may not sound like much, but compared to TunnelBear below, it's actually one of the more generous free VPNs. 

If security is your priority, Hotspot is on the same wavelength, with military-grade encryption.

Hotspot Shield Free scored well in terms of security and was also very easy to use. Whether it is the mobile version or the desktop version, you will find that the user experience here is much more pleasant than with many competitors.

You can choose to surf the web from any of the 70 countries when you pay for the Elite version of Hotspot , which gives you access to just about everything. In the free version, you are limited to locations that Hotspot Shield chooses and you will see ads on Android.

If you couldn't afford to miss those few bucks a month for the best paid VPN , Hotspot is a solid alternative.

TunnelBear may have a really cute design, but it's a really decent free VPN, especially after its acquisition by security giant McAfee. There are free and paid plans to choose from. 

The only limitation with the free plan is that you are limited to 500MB per month. This isn't a huge amount, so you won't be able to use TunnelBear all the time without paying, but it's great for those times when you feel like you need a little extra protection in the form of a free VPN. 

Finally, TunnelBear recently changed its privacy policy so that the VPN now collects even less user data, eliminating the need to provide a first name when you log in, and removing maximum total lifetime connections.

ProtonVPN is another provider that offers a free VPN in addition to a paid option. The free VPN stands out here because there is no data limit. In other words, you can use as much data as you want every month. There are, of course, enough limitations to the free plan that you are encouraged to move to the paid plan. 

The limitations of ProtonVPN Free are use on only one device, only three locations, and lower speed priority over paying customers. There is also no P2P support. But if you can live with that, this is an impressive provider with a strict no-logging policy. You can also sign up with nothing more than your email address. There aren't even any ads on the website, let alone in the client itself.

Speeds may drop at peak times when many users are active and paying customers will be prioritized. At that point, you can easily be tempted to upgrade to a paid plan. If you're looking for a free VPN with unlimited data, this is still the best option.

With Windscribe VPN you get 10GB bandwidth per month as standard and you can choose from ten remote server locations. You only need to create a username and password to log in (an email address is optional, but can be useful if you forget your password).

Windscribe does not store connection logs, IP markers, or sites visited. When you are actively connected to a server, it stores your username, the VPN server you are connected to and the amount of data used, but this is cleared within three minutes of the end of the session. 

If that's not enough to tempt you, there's even a built-in ad blocker and firewall.

As the name suggests, Speedify has one main goal as a free VPN: to keep your internet connection as fast as possible while taking advantage of the encryption. Therefore, this VPN will use all available internet connections to obtain the best possible performance, for example by combining an Ethernet (fixed broadband) connection with a 3G/4G fixed mobile connection. Even if you only have one type of internet connection, the company claims its turbo technology will still help speed everything up.

The free plan has full access to those servers (just like the subscription options), with the only limitation of the free offering being that you are limited in the amount of data you can download. Free users get 2GB of data every month. That's not a huge amount, and certainly not as much as some of the other rivals you see elsewhere on this page, but it's enough if you want to quickly check your emails or surf to a website. 

This VPN is definitely worth it in terms of performance, as the turbo technologies have proven themselves in our testing.

Hide.me offers both paid and free VPNs, with the free version giving you 2GB of data per month. There are other limits as well: you can connect a maximum of one device, and are limited to three server locations (Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands) instead of the 50+ locations that paying subscribers get. On the other hand, this provider will not reduce the connection speed of free users, and Hide.me further promises that it does not keep any logs and does not store any user data. So it doesn't pass data to third parties for profit (simply because it has no data to pass on). There are no ads here either. 

You get native software for Windows PC and Mac, Android and iOS, with the Windows client being cleverly designed. There's also 24/7 technical support (available even to free users). Performance was also impressive in our testing. Overall, this is a more than solid free offering that tries to preserve your privacy without too many restrictions.