Best 100% Free VPNs of 2024 (Fast & Totally Free) (2024)

You can use the free version of Proton VPN securely on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Fire TV devices.

All apps use AES-256 encryption, the OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, and have a built-in kill switch for added IP leak protection.

Moreover, Proton VPN is one of the very few free VPNs for Android and iOS that comes with a kill switch called ‘Always-on VPN.’

Proton VPN’s free apps have undergone full third-party security audits, and are open-source to allow the public to scrutinize them for vulnerabilities.

This level of transparency is the gold-standard in VPN security.

Proton VPN is an excellent free VPN thanks to airtight security and a privacy-first logging policy. The VPN doesn’t monitor or collect any usage data that can be used to identify you.

Being based in Switzerland also helps with the company’s position on privacy, since the country has strong privacy laws outside of the reach of the EU.

Sadly, the VPN’s unlimited data can’t be used to stream unlimited video content. The free VPN failed to unblock region-locked streaming services in our tests. These include Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and more.

Proton VPN doesn’t allow torrenting, either. When we tried downloading a file using qBittorrent, the VPN actively blocked our P2P connection.

Proton VPN Free is very quick across short distances. To get the fastest speeds, we tested OpenVPN against WireGuard and found that the latter delivers the best results.

While in the past international speeds slowed down, recent tests show long-distance speed performance has improved significantly, with an average international download speed of 98Mbps.

This is despite a small range of free server locations. Currently, Proton VPN only offers free VPN servers in the US, Japan, Netherlands, Romania, and Poland.

Frustratingly, Proton VPN no longer allows users to choose their preferred country for connection. Instead, you are automatically connected to the nearest available server. This change is a significant downgrade.

Furthermore, you can only use Proton VPN Free on one device at a time. Windscribe, by comparison, allows unlimited simultaneous connections.

Windscribe is the only free VPN that consistently streams BBC iPlayer.

The VPN service also unblocks the American platforms Hulu and HBO Max, in addition to 5 international Netflix libraries.

We were pleased with Windscribe’s success rate unblocking streaming services. Apart from PrivadoVPN, all other safe free VPNs are unable to bypass most video geo-restrictions.

Keep in mind that the 10GB data cap will restrict the number of movies and TV shows you can watch. Plus, US Netflix is no longer available.

You can stream content in 10 free server country locations: Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.

Windscribe also allows P2P and torrenting traffic on most of its free servers, which is rare.

The VPN software uses secure AES-256 encryption and offers OpenVPN, WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols.

In particular, Windscribe’s free PC VPN client, and a free Mac VPN app too are highly secure, thanks to the ‘Windscribe Firewall.’

The Firewall tool prevents your real IP address and data packets from leaking outside the VPN tunnel in the event of a connection drop.

Windscribe has never leaked IP or DNS data in our tests, and it doesn’t store any logs that would compromise your identity.

Windscribe Free works well on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Fire OS devices.

It’s by far our favorite free iPhone VPN, with a well-designed interface.

The VPN has browser proxy extensions for Chrome and Firefox, too. Both browser extensions work with BBC iPlayer, but no longer with US Netflix, which is a shame.

We tested Windscribe Free’s ability to unblock websites in China, and it’s still working.

This is thanks to its ‘Stealth’ connection protocol, which uses the open-source ‘Stunnel’ algorithm to obscure your VPN traffic.

The Stealth protocol is only available on the Windows, macOS, and Android apps, though.

Windscribe Free works best in China when you connect to the nearby Hong Kong server. It will also work in other censored countries like the UAE.

Hotspot Shield Basic is the fastest free VPN available.

We regularly register a marginal 3% speed loss, with local download connections running at 97Mbps.

For international connections, the results are equally impressive: only a 3% speed loss on average when connecting to distant global servers.

Hotspot Shield’s free apps have been clearly designed for simplicity and maximum ease-of-use.

Once you connect to a server by clicking/tapping the large ‘On’ button on the home screen, the interface displays your new IP address, server load, the amount of data transmitted, and your speed performance.

Like most free VPNs we recommend, you don’t have to submit your email address or payment details in order to use Hotspot Shield Basic.

Security-wise, all apps use AES 256-bit encryption and include integrated ad, tracking, and malware blocker.

In our tests, the ad blocker only worked on Chrome and Firefox, and blocked only 46% of ads and trackers. It’s not as effective as other VPN ad blockers we tested, but at least you’re not paying for it.

In addition, all free apps other than on macOS come with a VPN kill switch, which you must actively enable.

There’s also the option to automatically connect to a VPN server when the app detects an unsafe WiFi network.

Hotspot Shield’s privacy and logging policy is rather disappointing. Despite recently improving its logging practices, the VPN still logs too much personal internet data.

The VPN collects the your IP address, the domains you visit, and your approximate geographical location.

We’ve been informed by Hotspot Shield that it logs this data to prevent fraud. The data is aggregated, encrypted, and not tied to specific accounts. IP addresses are deleted at the end of each session.

Despite the good intentions, we don’t think Hotspot Shield should be logging all this data.

Although Windscribe unblocks the largest number of Netflix regions, PrivadoVPN is the only top free VPN to work with US Netflix.

Here’s a video of us unblocking American Netflix using the free version of PrivadoVPN:

The free service is also great for streaming HBO Max, Hulu, and Disney+ / Star. Access to BBC iPlayer is less consistent, though.

Similarly to Windscribe Free, there’s only so much you can stream with 10GB of free data. Only Proton VPN offers unlimited data, but it doesn’t unblock any streaming platforms.

PrivadoVPN is based in Switzerland, a good country for a VPN company to operate within because there are no data retention laws.

Furthermore, PrivadoVPN doesn’t log any personally-identifiable internet data. It only collects total bandwidth used.

The VPN uses industry-standard AES-256 encryption, the OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols (absent from macOS, though), and a functioning kill switch.

Unlike Windscribe, PrivadoVPN’s free apps don’t come with any customization options, though.

The free version of PrivadoVPN is particularly well-suited for anonymous torrenting and P2P file sharing.

Every free server allows P2P traffic, which combined with fast download bitrates and privacy-friendly features, make PrivadoVPN an excellent free VPN for torrenting.

PrivadoVPN Free lets you connect to 14 cities in 11 countries. The US is the only country with more than one city location: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.

PrivadoVPN’s free VPN apps are very fast. Surprisingly, the free VPN recorded a similiar download speed of 96Mbps as the premium VPN. Connecting to the UK from the US, we recorded impressive average download speeds of 89Mbps.

ZoogVPN enforces a no-logs policy across its service. It therefore it doesn’t monitor or keep records of your web activity or your true IP address.

In order to maintain the service running smoothly, ZoogVPN collects and aggregates all data transferred by all users on its servers.

The only personal data the service does collect is your email address, which is common among most VPN companies.

Furthermore, ZoogVPN performed very well in our VPN leak tests and we didn’t record a single IP or DNS leak while the VPN was running on our test devices.

ZoogVPN operates free VPN servers in five locations: Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, the UK, and the US.

Connection speeds to all free servers have so far been consistent and reliably quick. Connecting to nearby servers you should expect a download speed loss of just 5%.

Torrenters can use dedicated servers for P2P file sharing on the Amsterdam connection.

ZoogVPN’s free service allows up to 10GB of free data each month, the same as Windscribe and Hide.me. This is enough data for quick web browsing and the occasional file download.

ZoogVPN has two major drawbacks: it doesn’t bypass streaming geo-blocks, and it only allows one simultaneous connection per free account.

We tried accessing popular platforms like Netflix, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ with no luck. Even ZoogVPN’s premium service struggled to unblock many streaming services.

The VPN’s one device policy means you can’t use the same free account on all your devices.

Unless you upgrade to the paid service, you’ll have to create a new account for each device you want to use the VPN on.

TunnelBear operates one of the largest free VPN server networks.

With servers in 47 countries, including the US, the UK, and Australia, the VPN offers access to significantly more locations than Proton VPN and PrivadoVPN.

Like Proton VPN, TunnelBear has commissioned independent audits into all its VPN apps. In fact, TunnelBear was one of the first services to do this.

It has also taken other important steps towards user privacy. This includes the use of first-party DNS servers, a VPN kill switch, and the release of an annual transparency report.

The free VPN apps protect connections with AES-256 encryption on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

While the apps have limited security settings, we can confirm they are secure. we didn’t detect IP address leaks and the kill switch prevented sudden IP exposures.

Another shortcoming of TunnelBear is that it lacks the device compatibility offered by higher-ranked free VPNs.

There is no Fire TV Stick app and no possibility of router setup. Moreover, the service caps free data usage at 2GB per month. This is highly limiting, especially compared to the 10GB allowances we expect.

Overall, we found that the free version of TunnelBear mainly exists to trial the premium service before you subscribe.

Hide.me Free works on most devices, including home routers. This lets you use the VPN on devices like Fire TV Stick, games consoles and Apple TV.

The software’s apps are reasonably secure, too. They use AES 256-bit encryption and secure protocols like IKEv2, OpenVPN, and Wireguard.

In addition to its 10GB data cap, Hide.me free can only connect to 7 server locations: Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, USA.

This is a problem if you’re in India, Africa, South America or Australia. Speeds will be very slow because there are no nearby servers.

Unfortunately, Hide.me Free caps your speed at 2Mbps, no matter which server you connect to. This is very restrictive. We suggest using Hotspot Shield Basic instead.

While Hide.me Free doesn’t collect personal web data, it does keep temporary logs of your internally-assigned IP address (for the duration of your connection) and the total amount of bandwidth used per month.

This isn’t perfect, but it’s a good logging policy that protects your identity and activity.

Hide.me’s free VPN app doesn’t bypass geographic restrictions on streaming services reliably and it no longer permits torrenting.

It very occasionally works with US Netflix and BBC iPlayer, but it can’t unblock Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, or Disney+.

Despite its limitations, Hide.me is a good free VPN to secure your free public WiFi connections, as long as you don’t mind slightly slower speeds.