Hey everyone, there are a TON of free VPN’s out there, but many of them are either malware
in disguise or simply do not work, so today I will be sharing with you my top two favorite
FREE VPN’s or virtual private networks that you can use without paying a cent. If you
like content like this, please do consider subscribing for more free tech videos! Now
I know your time is valuable so let’s just dive right into these picks.
Now having tested several free VPN options out there across different platforms, the
first service that I found that is both genuinely free and well trusted in the industry is ProtonVPN.
You might have heard of Proton products through their secure private emails service ProtonMail,
which I also love. While ProtonVPN does offer paid service plans, the free version is surprisingly
generous and unique, and you can sign up for free right now through the link in the description
and pinned comment below. Here’s why it’s a great service from my experience:
The absolute key value proposition is that the free version of ProtonVPN does not limit
your usage of data while using the VPN service. This may sound like a no-brainer, but many
if not most of the free VPN’s on the market today cap your data usage at say 500MB or
1GB per day, maybe even less, which you will find limits what you can do with the VPN.
Modern web browsing can be a very data intensive affair nowadays with all the video and image
content out there. Now, I will say that the free version of Proton VPN is not going to
be the fastest VPN in the world, particularly when the limited free servers are jam packed
with users, but I found the free version to work quite well when the servers weren’t
totally loaded. Speaking of server capacity, the free version gives you access to three
server locations in the world, which cover Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.
You are of course limited to a small subset of VPN servers because hey, it’s free! In
addition to that you are limited to using one device on the VPN service, which is no
surprise. The fact that you get unlimited data capacity for free is truly a differentiator,
and the three country options gives you some flexibility to work with. You might also be
wondering about the security and privacy part of this. From that perspective, ProtonVPN’s
locale for operations is a benefit here. ProtonVPN is operated from a very cyber security focused
and privacy-friendly jurisdiction, Switzerland, whose political stability and legal clarity
help provide a platform for cybersecurity focused companies. Swiss privacy laws are
your friend here. As a user of the free plan, your data is encrypted and your information
is not being logged, mined and sold for a profit, just like the paid version of ProtonVPN.
Furthermore, since Jaunary 2020, all of their apps are open source, meaning the code can
be and have been audited for backdoors, malicious code, and more, so you can feel safe knowing
that the application you’re trusting with your data is not an opaque, sketchy affair.
And finally, the free version of ProtonVPN was found not to be guilty of IP address,
DNS, or web RTC leaks during testing, which is a critical test for VPN’s on the market.
Naturally, this free VPN is not going to compare to paid VPN’s, it has limits in capacity
and server locations, and when there is heavy load, it might be less available than a paid
VPN. That being said, ProtonVPN does have a paid version of the service which expands
server locations to 55 countries, lets you use 10 devices on the plan, and will offer
you much faster speeds. That is the precise reason that ProtonVPN offers the free service
in the first place, so that users can try out the service without commitment and see
if they want to upgrade to a paid plan. Oh, and before I forget, when you first sign up
for the free version of ProtonVPN you will download the software and notice that you
have access to way more than three servers, why? Because every free version download now
comes with a limited free trial of the paid version of ProtonVPN, so once that trial ends
you will go back to the free version automatically! Do not worry, that’s to give you a taste
of what you COULD have with the paid version, but there is no commitment to buy. Again,
you can sign up for the free version of ProtonVPN through the link down in the description and
pinned comment of this video. Now, let’s jump into the second option here for those
of you who like to have options!
The other free VPN that I’ve used that I felt was both adequately performant and free
from malware was the Ontario, Canada-based Windscribe. Windscribe is a free VPN that
is available again across mobile and desktop platforms, but unlike ProtonVPN it DOES have
a limit on the data you can use on the service on a monthly basis with the free plan. However,
Windscribe offers more country server options for free users, so there is a balancing point
there. As of my last check, free servers are accessible in the U.S., Canada, U.K, Hong
Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and Romania for users of the free
VPN service with 10GB of data allowance per month across multiple devices. Those looking
for Netflix support can use the UK and US servers to access the platform even on the
free service as well. Windscribe overall offers a similar experience to ProtonVPN for the
free service, but I did end up hitting that 10GB monthly limit on data during testing
as I often found myself on Twitter or browsing media intensive pages like sports pages during
the Olympics that ate up my data allowance fast. However, again, this is a free VPN so
one should expect to run into limitations! Speed-wise, I felt that Windscribe was very
similar to ProtonVPN in overall, but it did have a slight edge because of the wider server
options across more countries, there is just more room for free users at peak times with
Windscribe. I was able to routinely get around 1/3rd to ½ of my total network bandwidth
with the VPN enabled, but my latency varied depending on how far away the server I was
connecting to was. However, one place where Windscribe is good, but not quite up to par
with ProtonVPN is in its approach to privacy, because Windscribe is in a less privacy friendly
jurisdiction in Canada, and because they log a small subset of information related to the
data usage of your session, I can’t say that Windscribe is totally log free like ProtonVPN
is even though it’s not necessarily personal data they are logging. That is not to say
Windscribe is insecure or completely lacking privacy features, it’s just that I would
prefer a privacy friendly jurisdiction and no logging of my data usage for a VPN personally.
To some, this won’t matter, because one just wants to hop traffic to another country
or obfuscate their IP address, but to others, it could be a dealbreaker so that’s totally
up to personal preference. And finally, in terms of the critical testing for a VPN that
I alluded to before, Windscribe did pass testing related to IP address, DNS, or web RTC leaks,
which is a good box to check. Again, I’ve left a link to Windscribe down below for anyone
who would like to try it out!
Now, free VPN’s are a great way for those on a budget to get just a little bit of security
for their internet browsing, but there are a few REALLY powerful paid VPN’s that can
cost as little as $2 a month to use and give you way better performance and features for
streaming video and the like. I have a video dedicated to my absolute favorite paid VPN’s
that are budget friendly and full of features, so if you have time, please do check out that
video linked here. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them here in the comments,
and as always, thanks for watching and until next time, cheers!