If you want to keep your privacy in the digital world a VPN application is the most effective solution. You can find a lot of VPN’s in the market in a very good price.
To be honest i am not fan of a free VPN but i spend some days to find and test some of the best free vpn in 2021.
All of them has a lot of limitations and the most of the VPN can’t unblock the streaming platform of the Netflix
Is a free VPN worth it?
A free VPN connection you will give a basic functions with small changes in the features from vendor to vendor.
The question must be done by yourself base on what we want from the VPN. If you need a professional service with unlimited data because you will use it for you work very often then the free VPN it’s not the service that you need.
If you need a VPN for your home to use it once a day just to keep your privacy then you will find a VPN that match your criteria.
Something else that you must consider when you use a free VPN is from where make money the VPN company if give you for free the services?
Servers , Licenses Storage , Hardware equipment it’s a big costs for a company. How can support this cost in order to keep the infrastructure for the VPN Services? Is it possible to be the product and company make money while sell your personal data , web activity, history in a 3rd advertisement company?
I don’t want to say that all the companies will be done it but you never know with a free Service.
Best Free VPN
After few weeks of research let’s find out some of the free VPN Providers and the features that included in the free packages.
ProtonVPN
ProtonVPN is one of the most known VPN today. One of the big advantage is that give you unlimited data for the traffic compare it with the other vpn vendors in the free package.
They give you access in Servers of 3 countries which are US, Japan and Netherlands.
ProtonVPN works well in any device like Windows , Android ,iOS, Mac, Linux , Chromebook and Android TV.
Company located in Switzerland and it seems to take very serious security and privacy. Don’t forget that Switzerland has a strong data privacy law.
Unfortunately torrents are blocked in free version after try to download different torrent files.
You can use it only in 1 Device when you use the free version. But can be unlocked in premium versions.
Netflix in free version is blocked and can be unblock only in Premium Packages.
Let’s see all the Features together for the free VPN version
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Data | Unlimited |
| Server Locations | US, Japan and Netherlands |
| Connecction allowed | 1 |
| Netflix | Not Supported |
| Torrents | Supported |
| OS | Windows , Android ,iOS, Mac, Linux , Chromebook and Android TV |
| Encryption | AES-256 |
| Log Policy | Zero Logs |
Based on his Privacy Policy when you use the ProtonVPN Services they don’t collect any logs.
The common features in ProtonVPN that you will find in all the packages include the DNS leak prevention, No logs as wrote in the beginning and the Kill Switch which protect the IP Address even if lost the VPN Connection.
Hide.me
Hide.me is another one well known VPN with a good reputation in the market. It provides both paid and free subscriptions.
The free subscription gives you 10 GB data very month that it’s enough if you need the VPN for basic tasks. The data is allows you for a streaming but not every day.
You have access in Servers of 5 Countries which are Netherlands, USA (East and West) , Germany , Canada
Regarding the security it’s use AES-256 encryption for all the plans included the free one.
It’s a zero logs VPN which means that it’s not keep any logs in the Servers related with your traffic and personal data.
Unfortunately you can’t watch in Netflix because it’s blocked.
Also you can use the free VPN Connection only in 1 Device at a time.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Data | 10 GB per month |
| Server Locations | Netherlands, USA (East and West) , Germany , Canada |
| Connecction allowed | 1 |
| Netflix | Not Supported |
| Torrents | Supported |
| OS | Windows, Android, iOS, mac, android TV , Linux Amazon Fire TV |
| Encryption | AES-256 |
| Log Policy | Zero Logs |
However base on the Website Privacy Policy they maintain a non-persistent log of connection data for troubleshooting purposes but securely erase it every few hours.
Windscribe
One of the main advantages of the Windscribe is the Unlimited Connections from any device in the free edition.
You have 10GB every month for traffic which is not great but it’s more than enough if you will use it for basic things. But if you need streaming daily then 10 GB it’s not enough
After some tests Torrents allowed with the Windscribe. However you must remember that you have 10 GB per month.
Windscribe VPN works in all major OS like Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Blackberry.
They give you access in Server of 10 countries which are the US, Canada, UK, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Romania
Unfortunately It’s not support Netflix as many others free VPN but support Amazon FireTV and KODI.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Data | 10 GB per month |
| Server Locations | US, Canada, UK, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Romania |
| Connecction allowed | Unlimited |
| Netflix | Not Supported |
| Torrents | Supported |
| OS | Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Blackberry |
| Encryption | AES-256 |
| Log Policy | Zero Logs |
Base on the Website Privacy Policy It’s not collect records of VPN Session, Source IP and Websites that visit. It keeps the total amount of bytes transferred of your account and the last timestamp on the Windscribe network.
PrivadoVPN
It seems that has the most features in the free version.
Because we care more for quality instead to quantity as first major advantages is that PrivadoVPN protected by Swiss Privacy Laws.
It use AES 256-Bit Encryption
The big advantage of the PrivadoVPN is that support the Netflix which is uncommon for the most VPN on the free package.
Torrent downloads supported and works well without problems.
Furthermore a Kill Switch feature exist which protect your IP Address event lost the VPN Connection
It gives you 10 GB per month as usual and you have access to 13 Servers in 8 Countries which are Canada , US , Argentina , UK, Germany ,Switzerland, Denmark, Mexico.
Privado VPN can support the major OS which are Windows, Mac ,iOS , Android, Android TV.
Has a customer support 24/7 which is also unusual for the VPN Free Packages. To be honest i didn’t try to call but it’s an option.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Data | 10 GB per month |
| Server Locations | Canada , US , Argentina , UK, Germany ,Switzerland, Denmark, Mexico |
| Connecction allowed | 1 |
| Netflix | Supported |
| Torrents | Supported |
| OS | Windows, MAC, iOS, AndroidTV , Amazon Firestick TV |
| Encryption | AES-256 |
| Log Policy | Zero Logs |
Base on the website Privacy Policy collect only the following data for the Services
- mobile identifiers provided by iOS and Android devices
- Mobile analytics Software for crash reports
- collect anonymous, aggregate statistics, such as the type of operating systems and devices that are most commonly used, including total number of installs
Tunnelbear
The big advantage of Tunnelbear is that can connect from 5 different Devices at the same time.
You have access to Servers in 47 Countries which is also a big advantage compare it with the other VPN Vendors.
It has strong encryption of AES-256Bit.
Tunnelbear VPN support all the major OS which are Windows, iOS, Mac and Android.
It’s not support Netflix and Torrent downloads too.
But it gives you only 500MB data which are very limited. You can’t do a lot of things and from our tests it takes 5 -6 days with a very limited actions until finish your data.
| Feature | Status |
|---|---|
| Data | 500 MB per month |
| Server Locations | 47 countries |
| Connecction allowed | 1 |
| Netflix | Not supported |
| Torrents | Not supported |
| OS | Windows, iOS, Mac and Android |
| Encryption | AES-256 |
| Log Policy | Zero Logs |
Base on the Website Privacy Policy Tunnelbear collect the following data from the VPN services
- OS Version
- TunnelBear App Version
- Active this month
- Total data used this month
- Operational events for example when made a payment, upgrade to premium service, create an account
Conclusion
Even though getting free application is nice , however there are some disadvantages and VPN’s aren’t exception.
There are lot of limitations in free packages that sometimes can’t cover your needs. Usual the most important features it’s not included in the free packages.
But the most important is that while try to protect your privacy you have a big risk your data to be sell in 3rd parties advertisement companies from VPN Provider.
You must be very carefull when wants to use a free package in the VPN and don’t trust everyone that gives you a free version.
If you budget it’s not allow to pay for a premium version at least spend some time to do a research in order to find a provider with good reputation that give attention in the privacy/security.
