Proton VPN Free is undoubtedly among the best free VPNs available. Offering a broad spectrum of compatibility across devices, impressive speeds, and unlimited bandwidth, it would be easy for anyone looking for a free VPN to get started using Proton VPN Free.

That said, its apps aren't the simplest, you're limited to only one connected device at a time, and you can't choose which of its 10 available locations you connect to. Plus, our testing found some concerning throttling indicators which could make Proton VPN Free one to avoid should you be looking for a free streaming VPN or torrenting VPN.

Features

Proton VPN Free does exactly what a VPN needs to do and little else. Included in the free plan is your VPN connection, a kill switch, all of Proton VPN's protocols, and the ability to customise your app icon, in case you find yourself in a region with VPN restrictions.

Following recent updates, the app now offers 10 free servers and the company are developing a new, in-house VPN architecture that could lead to significant improvements in the future.

In our testing, we found no reason to be concerned about the kill switch. It was easy enough to set up, though it does require the VPN to be set as an 'always-on VPN' on Android devices.

Upgrading to a paid Proton VPN plan unlocks a plethora of further capabilities for the VPN.

For starters, NetShield, Proton VPN's ad, tracker, and malware blocking software. You can also access Proton VPN's Secure Core server network, which is its equivalent of multi-hop, use Proton for P2P downloading and file sharing, gain one-click access to Tor, split-tunnel your VPN traffic, and unlock Proton VPN's full suite of customization options.

These customisation options range from custom DNS to LAN connections, and even specific NAT types, plus you can set up specific profiles with tailored settings. Something to note is that while Proton VPN Free does allow you to create these fully customized profiles, you can only use them once you upgrade to a paid plan.

Features score: 4/10

Server Network

Proton VPN Free highlights one of the often overlooked benefits of paid VPNs, the ability to choose the server location you need, rather than simply being provided with one.

Proton VPN Free offers 10 server locations: the Netherlands, Romania, Singapore, Mexico, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, United States, Poland and Canada.

However, you do not get to choose which of these servers you connect to; instead, you are auto-connected to the fastest server available to you, which, more often than not, is the closest.

While not a big concern, should you plan to use Proton VPN Free just to secure your online traffic, it does limit Proton VPN Free's capabilities as a streaming VPN. Plus, you're likely guaranteed to have speed limitations if you're not close to any of the servers.

Choosing Proton VPN's paid version drastically increases the offering. Upping the countries available to a whopping 126, and, more importantly, you gain the ability to choose the exact location you want to connect to.

Server network score: 5/10

Apps

Despite being free, Proton VPN Free offers a good selection of apps. Free plan users can access Proton VPN on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, and Chromebook.

The biggest omissions from this list that you'd be able to access should you choose Proton VPN's paid plan are its smart TV apps. This includes compatibility on Apple TV, Android TV, and Fire TV Stick.

Generally, however, the spread of compatibility available is impressive. What's more, each of Proton VPN Free's apps closely resembles each other, and features that might be hidden on smaller screen devices, such as mobiles, are easily accessible should you be looking to use Proton VPN free on your tablet or computer.

Apps score: 8/10

Ease of use

Proton VPN across both its paid and free plans is not the simplest VPN to look at, though this doesn't make it trouble to use, even if beginners might need a touch more time.

What must be said, though, is that while Proton VPN Free isn't the simplest to look at, it is arguably the best free VPN to look at for sheer aesthetics. Its dark purple theme, partnered with a simple enough map interface, makes for extremely pleasant viewing, even if all you can do with the free plan is click the connect button before you set about your browsing elsewhere.

Setting up Proton VPN Free is appreciably simple. Most notably, you're not instantly pushed to make a paid plan account from the outset, unlike many free VPNs. Instead, should you need to sign up, you simply create your account by clicking the button on the login menu, and after going through the steps and signing in, you're greeted with the usual home screen, and a bar telling you what you're missing out on by not having the paid plan. No hidden free plan signup, no trial you need to navigate, just quick access to the free service, and easy ways to upgrade should you choose to.

Once in, there are only two buttons you need to worry about: connect, which you're greeted with on the main screen, and your kill switch. As mentioned already, given the lack of server choice, the connect button does everything for you once clicked, connecting you to the fastest server in a matter of seconds. Your kill switch can be found quickly via the settings tab on mobile phones and tablets, or via the kill switch icon on computers.

Ease of use score: 8/10

Speed and performance

Proton VPN Free is, without doubt, one of the quickest free VPNs available. However, our latest testing revealed a couple of unfortunate issues you may wish to consider before jumping to your own conclusions.

Firstly, in terms of speeds, Proton VPN free achieved a maximum of 335 Mbps, which is by no means slow. These kinds of speeds would comfortably allow you to stream, game, or browse without any major issues. Our concern with this comes from the fact that our previous round of testing saw the free service achieve around 900 Mbps, which is a concerning drop-off.

What's more, testing on an Android device saw our speeds when connected to the VPN halve when compared to what we saw without a VPN connection using either WiFi or a mobile data connection. While this still saw us achieve speeds well over 100 Mbps, it's a notable amount of speed to lose, depending on the tasks you're aiming to achieve.

A final concern we found was that there was evidence of substantial throttling of speeds after a certain amount of data was used. In testing, after using 3-4GB of data, we saw our speeds drop to only around 5 Mbps, which, while fine for browsing or emails, would leave you struggling should you wish to stream or download on your VPN connection.

Given the lack of server choice, it's unlikely you'd choose Proton VPN Free for streaming anyway, but this should definitely come into consideration. Should you be looking for a fast and simple solution to day-to-day internet needs, Proton VPN Free is a seriously strong option.

Speed and performance score: 7/10

Unblocking

Testing Proton VPN's ability to unblock content isn't a simple feat because, as we've mentioned, you don't get to choose the location you connect to.

This means seeing the full scope of Proton VPN Free's capabilities isn't possible from one testing location, like we have. What we can say is we were flawlessly able to access Dutch streaming services, including Disney+, Netflix, and Prime Video.

Although we cannot guarantee the same levels of success in other regions, our testing of Proton VPN's paid plan suggests you should have equal levels of success. This is because the paid plan was able to comfortably unblock all the streaming services we tested in all 126 regions, including Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, 10Play, 9Now, and more.

Unblocking score: 5/10

Privacy and security

Despite not being able to access Proton's full suite of security features with Proton VPN Free, you have no reason to feel as though your data is at any risk, thanks to how the service has been set up.

First and foremost, Proton VPN is constantly proving that it not only doesn't store your data, but also that it has no vulnerabilities that may put your online privacy at risk. An independent audit by Securitum in July 2024 marked the third consecutive year of Proton annually proving its claims, and, while at the time of writing, we're yet to see an audit in 2025, we expect this to continue.

When using Proton VPN Free, you can use any of its various secure VPN protocols, including OpenVPN, WireGuard, and its proprietary Stealth protocol. Both WireGuard and OpenVPN have long been common in the VPN industry, and both have been proven countless times to be secure and reliable protocols. WireGuard uses its traditional ChaCha20 encryption with Proton VPN, while Proton VPN's OpenVPN deployment uses AES-256, another impressively secure encryption method.

Stealth, Proton VPN's proprietary protocol, is an obfuscated version of WireGuard that runs over TLS. This makes your browsing data look like normal encrypted browsing data to anyone who might analyze your traffic to spot VPN usage. For most, this is a bonus that won't be entirely necessary, but should you be tackling enterprise rule-based firewalls or DPI-based firewalls, this protocol may prove to have better luck.

Key things missing from Proton VPN Free include Proton VPN's equivalent of multihop, called Secure Core, as well as its NetShield ad, malware, and tracking blocker, and any kind of split tunneling. While missing out on split-tunelling and multihop is unfortunate, we'd usually recommend running an external ad and malware blocker alongside a VPN anyway, so NetShield doesn't prove as big a loss.

Privacy and security score: 8/10

Track record

Given Proton's wide suite of security tools and claims to be a privacy-first company, it gets great attention when put under scrutiny. Luckily, for the most part, it has proven to be flawless. An instance in 2019 where Proton Mail was forced to log a climate activist's IP after a law enforcement request proves to be the only mark on an otherwise problem-free record across its product range.

It should, however, be remembered that Swiss law works differently for VPN providers. VPN providers cannot be compelled to carry out bulk surveillance by either Swiss or foreign law enforcement. This makes Proton VPN much less vulnerable to requests that might put privacy at risk. At an individual account level, Proton VPN does need to comply with legally valid cases brought by the Swiss court, even if made by foreign entities. However, Switzerland has no ties to the EU, US, or NATO intelligence sharing pacts, and often doesn't recognize requests from countries with a poor judicial reputation.

Track record score: 9/10

Customer Support

Proton VPN's customer support options are more limited than most, especially on its free plan.

Should you encounter any issues while using the free plan, you can either use its support site to browse articles that may help you fix your issue, or you can use a contact email address to get some form of support from a human, depending on your issue.

In practice, Proton VPN's support articles are impressively helpful, and there's more than enough of them to cover most issues you face, and while it can be slow to contact a human via email, it's at least a viable alternative should you run into any issues not covered.

The biggest omission for Proton VPN Free customers is no live support functionalities. Even paid Proton VPN customers aren't quite able to access 24/7 support, but the lack of any kind of live chat does mean beginners could be left in the cold if struggling to find the support they need early on in their time using a VPN.

Customer support score: 7/10

Pricing and plans

Proton VPN Free does lack a fair amount compared to what a paid Proton VPN plan can offer, but that doesn't mean it isn't a supremely capable free VPN, depending on your needs.

By choosing to upgrade to Proton VPN's paid option, you can access:

• 15,000+ servers across 126 countries – plus the ability to choose which server you connect to!
• Servers capable of speeds up to 10 Gbps with VPN Accelerator
• Netshield ad, malware, and tracker blocking
• Secure Core (multihop) connections
• P2P downloading and file sharing
• 10 simultaneous connections
• The Tor network within your regular browser
• Split tunneling
• VPN Profiles
• Advanced VPN customisation settings

Given Proton VPN starts from $3.59 per month, that is a lot to include in that cost. While it's not as cheap as Surfshark or NordVPN, its paid plan also proved to be capable of speeds which matched the very fastest VPNs throughout, and it also proved flawless at unblocking streaming services.

So, while Proton VPN Free is a great free VPN choice to secure your day-to-day online activities, upgrading to a paid plan could prove to be extremely beneficial depending on what you want to achieve with your VPN.

Pricing and plans score: 9/10

Should you use Proton VPN Free?

If you are looking for a free VPN to protect you while you’re out and about, working overseas, or on holiday, and you’re worried about privacy when you’re connected to public Wi-Fi or someone else’s network, Proton VPN Free is without doubt a good choice for you.

While it doesn’t have much in the way of extra features, you can install it on your device, connect to the VPN, and then pretty much forget all about it. With speeds that will comfortably handle most tasks, an easy-enough interface, and a simple setup process, it's a breeze to get connected in a matter of minutes without being pressed into upgrading to its paid option.

Overall score: 70/100

Alternatives

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Windscribe's free plan is one of the most popular options on the market – and it currently sits in the #3 spot in our best free VPN rankings. With plenty of monthly data, a decent spread of servers, and a long list of security tools, it's easy to see why.

However, Windscribe Free falls short when compared to premium alternatives, including the paid Windscribe plan. If you want a free VPN that'll add an extra layer of security to your browsing sessions, well, it'll do the job nicely, and even toss in an ad and malware blocker for free.

If you want a robust VPN with sleek apps and access to servers around the globe, you might be disappointed. Keep reading, and we'll dig into Windscribe Free's offering in more detail.

Features

Windscribe Free gives users 10 GB of data per month to use as they see fit. This is fairly generous and should be enough to get you through four weeks, but it will run out quickly if you use Windscribe Free for streaming or online gaming. However, there is the option to post on X for an extra 5 GB a month or upgrade to unlimited data for $3 a month.

If you’d rather not shout Windscribe Free’s praises from the rooftops or provide an email during signup, you’ll still receive 2 GB of data a month. It’s a great option for the more privacy-conscious who find themselves in need of a reliable free service.

We were also glad to see that Windscribe Free offers unlimited simultaneous connections. That means you can share your login details with friends and family without worrying about how many people are using the VPN at any one time. The same goes for Windscribe’s paid plans, too, if you choose to upgrade.

Windscribe Free does a good job of ticking off all the core VPN features you'd expect to see. The kill switch, called Firewall, is front and centre on the Windows, Android, and Linux apps, and we found it incredibly easy to toggle on (or off).

The firewall is set to "Automatic" mode by default. This activates the firewall whenever you connect to a Windscribe Free server, ensuring that you remain protected if the VPN connection drops out, but it deactivates when you manually disconnect from the server.

For folks who want maximum protection, it's possible to toggle the firewall to "Always On". This blocks the internet unless you're connected to the VPN. We didn't find this to be hugely convenient, but it did guarantee that we couldn't use the internet without first being protected by Windscribe.

The same goes for Windscribe Free’s auto-connect feature, which we were able to customize, alongside the split tunneling functionality. The latter is a nice addition that’s often neglected by other free providers.

Windscribe Free's version of split tunneling is far more configurable than a lot of the competition, though it currently isn't available on iOS. There are two modes to choose from: "Exclusive" allows users to build lists of apps that won't route traffic through the VPN tunnel, which is how most split tunneling tools work.

"Inclusive" works slightly differently, and lets you build a list where only the apps on it will have their traffic routed through the tunnel. It's a real time-saver if you only intend to use Windscribe Free for a few specific purposes (like unblocking streaming platforms) and aren't hugely concerned about your privacy.

The star of the show is Windscribe Free’s ad and malware blocker, R.O.B.E.R.T. There are no hidden fees here as it’s included in the app and works quietly in the background to clean up your browsing sessions. During testing on our Windows 11 Chromebook machine and iPhone 13, we found that it was effective at steering us away from malicious domains and removing invasive ads.

During our review process, we assembled a list of 50 brand-new malware-hosting links and pitted Windscribe Free against them. The provider successfully blocked 46% of these threats - a decent result that beats some dedicated antivirus tools. VIPRE Antivirus Plus, for example, only blocked 34%, but Bitdefender managed to stop 80%. Still, this underscores the fact that you shouldn't rely on Windscribe Free as your sole security tool.

We were intrigued by Windscribe Free's claim that none of its tools are hidden behind a paywall. That's not the norm, after all, and we just had to put the boast to the test. Windscribe Free says that its premium and free users have access to the exact same roster of tools and, well, we found that this is mostly true.

For a start, free users miss out on port forwarding, which is readily available to paid users. You'll also need to pony up for a subscription to take advantage of Windscribe's full server network spanning 69 countries - and not the meagre 10 that free users have access to. Similarly, some advanced aspects of R.O.B.E.R.T are only available to paid users.

Features score: 7/10

Server network

Free VPNs don’t offer as many servers in as many places as premium VPNs – and Windscribe Free is no exception.

All of Windscribe Free's servers run entirely on RAM. This ensures that no files are left to linger in its storage for too long. Better yet, Windscribe Free had its server setup audited in 2024 to confirm that user privacy is adequately protected.

There are currently 10 countries to choose from: the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.

This puts Windscribe Free on par with our top-rated free VPN, PrivadoVPN Free. The server distribution is heavily weighted towards Europe, which may be an issue for folks in Asia, Africa, or South America looking for a nearby VPN server to connect to in order to maximize their performance.

We think that including a free server in Hong Kong is a pleasant surprise, as very few VPNs typically offer servers in or around China, even if they charge a subscription fee. It’s also nice to see that Windscribe Free lets users actually choose which server location to join, unlike Proton VPN Free.

During testing, we found that Windscribe’s Free servers didn’t suffer from any discernible congestion, as the VPN doesn’t shunt free users into specifically designated free servers (which could cause slowdown).

Plus, Windscribe Free makes it perfectly clear which servers are restricted to paid users in the app, marking them with a star icon.

Server network score: 4/10

Apps

Windscribe Free is available for all of today’s most popular platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, and even Linux. In fact, we found Windscribe Free's Linux GUI to be one of the best on the market. It looks and feels just like the other desktop apps.

Additionally, Windscribe Free is compatible with Fire TV and Apple TV, and has browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Windscribe Free doesn't support routers, however, and you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan to download the necessary configuration files.

During our day-to-day use, we found Windscribe Free’s apps to be basic and serviceable. The core features, like the on/off switch and server list, are easy enough to navigate, but the layout proved to be unintuitive – especially compared to the polished offerings from PrivadoVPN and Proton VPN.

We did enjoy that the experience remained similar across all platforms, although there are a handful of key differences to point out. The iOS app, for example, lacks split tunneling, and the Mac app doesn't support split tunneling for apps (meaning you can only exclude specified IP addresses or hostnames).

Finally, Windscribe Free's Android and iOS apps don't have a standard kill switch/firewall, but they do come with an Always-On VPN option, which works in a similar way.

Apps score: 7/10

Ease of use

Windscribe Free’s apps, while easy enough to set up and navigate, were not our favorite to actually use.

We found that the installation process was a piece of cake, however. Simply download the Windscribe Free app from the website, run through the installation wizard, and log in with credentials when prompted.

Windscribe Free opens as a small tile, similar to ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access, and clicking on options, like the server list or settings, expands dropdown menus and new tabs to explore.

We found this to be relatively easy to navigate through – the large on/off button makes connecting to a server nice and quick, and it was great to see that Windscribe Free clearly states how much data remains for the month (and gives users the option to upgrade to a paid plan).

Some of the visual elements of Windscribe Free look pretty snazzy. When we chose a location, for example, the background of the app changed to a hi-res flag, and the location list drops down like a physical panel when you click or tap it.

During our testing process,, however, we did notice areas where the UI was not as intuitive as it could (or should) be – on both desktop and mobile.

For a start, changing VPN protocol isn’t signposted clearly. You need to tap or click the protocol to choose which one you use, and this might seem obvious, but VPN newbies may be unaware that this text is a clickable element at first glance.

Similarly, there’s an odd gap between the “Firewall” text and the actual toggle switch, which had us wondering, at first, if it was something else that wasn’t labeled.

Finally, Windscribe’s settings could be grouped more intuitively. Currently, users have to do a lot of scrolling to check out all of the options and toggles which, on a mobile device, gets tiresome quickly – especially when we were just looking for one setting in particular.

These are small design quibbles, but today’s top VPNs have truly mastered the art of crafting consumer-friendly apps that don’t raise these questions, which puts Windscribe Free on the back foot in terms of ease of use.

Ease of use score: 6/10

Speed and performance

Windscribe Free impressed us during our in-house performance tests. We recorded respectable speeds of 496 Mbps using the WireGuard protocol, marking it as one of the quickest free services available today. As you might expect, however, Windscribe's premium version was faster, clocking in at 785 Mbps.

We found that these speeds correlated to a smooth, seamless browsing experience where we forgot that Windscribe Free was even running in the background. This was the case regardless of whether we were connected to a local UK server or a transatlantic US server. This kind of consistency is fantastic, and even the lowest speeds we recorded, of 466 Mbps, are more than the average user needs for a stress-free browsing session.

One thing to note is that Windscribe Free did take over five seconds to connect to a server when we began our testing process. Subsequent connections only took a fraction of a second, however, which is what we’d expect to see, so we can’t totally knock the service.

Speed and performance score: 6/10

Unblocking

Free VPNs typically struggle when it comes to accessing streaming platforms, as they don’t have the resources necessary to evade VPN bans and blacklisting. Plus, with limited monthly data caps, free services aren’t all that suited to movie marathons or binge-watching.

The good news is that, for us, Windscribe Free accessed Netflix without any hiccups at all. We were able to browse through the UK, US, and Canada libraries without waiting an age for the page to load.

Similarly, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ worked like a charm alongside smaller regional services, including BBC iPlayer, ITV, Channel 4, and YouTube.

The picture quality of these streams was high-quality, too, and we didn’t experience any dropouts or stuttering, which is in large part due to Windscribe Free’s excellent speeds.

However, as mentioned earlier, streaming in HD or 4K gobbles up a lot of data, so you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan to really enjoy Windscribe’s streaming capabilities (and its dedicated Windflix servers).

If you're looking for a solid VPN for torrenting, however, Windscribe Free doesn't quite achieve a perfect score. While the service allows P2P traffic across all of its free servers, the port forwarding tool is reserved for paying customers, which means you may run into issues when seeding files.

Unblocking score: 7/10

Privacy and Security

Windscribe supports a variety of VPN protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. WireGuard uses ChaCha20 encryption, and OpenVPN and IKEv2 use AES-256 encryption. The WSTunnel (OpenVPN over web sockets) and Stealth (OpenVPN over SSL) are also included in the mix, and are designed to bypass VPN detection.

We were able to switch between them easily – although the app did fail to connect at first when using the WireGuard protocol. After switching to IKeV2 and back again, however, the issue resolved itself.

This selection of protocols is pretty par for the course, and we found we had the best overall experience with WireGuard, as it’s a fantastic blend of speed and security.

OpenVPN is a better pick for the security-conscious, though you can expect slower overall speeds. IKEv2, as it automatically reconnects, tends to be the option of choice for mobile VPN users.

During testing, we found Windscribe Free’s R.O.B.E.R.T. tool to be especially effective. We didn’t encounter any ads while going about our day-to-day browsing while it was enabled.

It won’t take the place of a dedicated ad-blocker, but it’s a nice additional layer of security that can help save that precious data by preventing ads from loading and eating it up.

R.O.B.E.R.T. is also customizable, though we found that free users can’t tweak it quite as much as its paid counterparts. For example, R.O.B.E.R.T. allows free users to create just 3 custom rules for blacklisting sites and IPs, and customizable blocklists can only contain ads and malware, and not the adult content, cryptocurrency, social media posts, and more that paid users can add to the mix.

Windscribe’s censorship circumvention tool claims to be able to evade VPN blocks in highly restricted territories – though the service is cagey about how it actually works.

We appreciated that Windscribe Free offers other options for privacy purists, like the ability to pay with cryptocurrency. Plus, users have the option of whether to hand over an email address or not during sign-up. This gives users more control over how much identifiable data they hand over to the VPN.

Finally, Windscribe Free is quietly preparing for a post-quantum world by boosting its KEM (Key Encapsulation Mechanism) in TLS and OpenVPN protocols. In Windscribe's own words, this means: "Our encryption covers more than a 14-year-old boy with a bottle of Axe body spray".

Privacy and security score: 7/10

Track record

Windscribe Free abides by a clear no-logs policy that, refreshingly, is easy to read through and digest. It makes it clear that the VPN isn’t interested in collecting or storing identifiable data.

However, it hasn't always been smooth sailing. Back in June 2021, two Windscribe servers were seized by Ukrainian authorities, though the VPN asserts that it has: "[....] no reason to believe that the servers were compromised or that there was any unauthorized access before seizure."

Given that, on the disk of these two servers, there was an OpenVPN server certificate and private key, a bad actor could feasibly impersonate a Windscribe VPN server and capture and decrypt traffic. This is, however, extremely unlikely, and Windscribe Free invited third-party auditors to comb through its infrastructure to confirm its safety.

This is exactly what we like to see, but this audit took a seriously long time. Windscribe intended to complete the audit in 2021, but the full audit wasn't released to the public until the summer of 2024.

It is also worth noting that, according to recent release notes, there's a "known issue" with the Circumvent Censorship feature – where it does nothing when using the TCP protocol. That could be a major issue for folks living under an oppressive regime who were drawn to this tool, and we'd prefer it if Windscribe Free warned users about the issue when they select TCP and enable Circumvent Censorship. Currently, the only way to figure out that this hiccup even exists is by reading the release notes, and not everyone is going to do that.

Windscribe is headquartered in Canada, a country that’s part of the infamous Five Eyes Alliance, an intelligence-sharing network. Windscribe claims that this “doesn’t matter”, but given the scope of past NSA surveillance, it’s something that users should decide for themselves.

Track record score: 6/10

Customer support

Windscribe Free offers all of the most common avenues of customer support you’d expect from a VPN: live chat, email ticketing, FAQs, and a knowledge base.

During testing, our first port of call was Garry, Windscribe’s AI chatbot. It was able to point us in the direction of well-written articles related to our problem. When it comes to responses from the support team beyond Garry, however, Windscribe warns that it ‘aims’ to reply to your initial ticket within "24 hours", and that "Free users might wait a little longer than Paid users."

Windscribe has also built a chatty userbase in its years of operation, and users have the option of joining the conversation on Reddit and Discord if they want to do some community troubleshooting.

Customer support score: 6/10

Pricing and plans

Windscribe Free doesn't cost a penny, though users have the option to upgrade at any time.

A monthly subscription costs $9.00, which makes the yearly plan a better budget-saving option at $5.75 a month. Windscribe also lets users create their own plan, if they're so inclined, charging $1.00 a month per location.

These prices are pretty steep. Even ExpressVPN, the most expensive VPN in our top rankings, comes in at $4.99 per month (for a 2-year plan). Ultimately, if you're after a feature-rich VPN service that can handle ads, trackers, and malware, it's worth checking out NordVPN, instead, which costs just $3.09 per month if you pick up a 2-year plan.

Pricing and plans score: 4/10

Should you use Windscribe Free?

Windscribe Free is a decent free VPN that has your back if you need VPN protection for absolutely no cost. The addition of R.O.B.E.R.T., a wide selection of server locations, and speeds that rival premium providers make it a fairly tempting option – but it’s let down by its apps.

We found Windscribe Free’s interface to be clunky, especially on mobile, which could be a deal-breaker for VPN newbies looking for the best VPN for beginners. In that case, you’d be better off with Proton VPN or PrivadoVPN, both of which offer more user-friendly apps.

However, if your main use case is scrolling through social media, checking emails, and other day-to-day activities, Windscribe Free will serve you well, so long as you're not using it for anything mission-critical.

Overall score 60/100

Windscribe Free alternatives

Windscribe Free FAQs

PrivadoVPN Free serves as an example of what free VPNs can, and arguably, should be more widely capable of. Unlike many of the best free VPNs, PrivadoVPN free offers not only a strong mix of locations, 13 to be exact, including 4 in the US, but also impressive speeds and even some capacity to unblock streaming content across streaming services such as Netflix.

While the 10GB data cap is a limitation, and it does lack any sort of feature offering, the performance you can expect from PrivadoVPN Free matches even some paid VPNs, making it a great entry point to VPNs should you be wary of paying. Plus, if you want to upgrade, PrivadoVPN is among the best cheap VPNs available.

The current Black Friday VPN deal means you can pick up the PrivadoVPN paid plan for a total of $30 for two years of service.

Features

PrivadoVPN Free doesn't excel at its feature offering as, frankly, it doesn't have one. That said, you do get a solid array of traditional VPN capabilities included in the free plan.

You can access OpenVPN, WireGuard, and IKEv2 protocols, you get access to a kill switch and split-tunneling capabilities, and you can use GeoJump to spoof your GPS location to the location of the VPN server you connect to.

The biggest omission from PrivadoVPN Free is Control Tower. Control Tower is PrivadoVPN's ad, malware, ransomware, and crypto blocker. It also serves as a parental controls hub, giving options to block adult content, substance-related sites, and social media sites, including Facebook, TikTok, X, and YouTube. Plus, it works to block any phishing attempts.

While full protective software is often omitted from free VPNs, PrivadoVPN's omission of Control Tower is made all the more noticeable by its lack of other features. There's no access to multihop or Onion over VPN connections, no password management capabilities, no encrypted storage, no data breach identifiers, nothing. But, this does make PrivadoVPN Free a strong option for value should you not need any of these extras.

Features score: 5/10

Server network

PrivadoVPN Free offers 13 server locations, dropping from the 67 listed as available on its paid service. Despite this, 13 locations is impressive for a free VPN service. Plus, when you consider those locations include the UK, India, Germany, Argentina, the Netherlands, Brazil, France, Canada, Mexico, and four locations in the US, you get a good spread of locations to choose from.

If you're looking for servers in the Middle East, Africa, or Asia, PrivadoVPN Free won't be a stellar choice, no, but for most unblocking needs, be that for streaming or general browsing, 13 locations more than have you covered. Especially when you consider many free VPNs won't offer more than five.

Server network score: 9/10

Apps

PrivadoVPN Free supports a good range of operating systems. It's available on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TVs, and Chrome. PrivadoVPN's most glaring limitation is Linux, where, instead of simply offering a Linux client, PrivadoVPN expects you to install your own OpenVPN configuration from PrivadoVPN onto a third-party client. If you're on Linux, then it's probably worthwhile looking at other free VPN alternatives.

Apps score: 7/10

Ease of use

PrivadoVPN Free is impressively simple to set up. Going through the steps to set up an account leads you to receiving an email to verify your email address and confirm your account – you're also provided with an extremely complex username which is completely unnecessary unless you were to completely lose access to the email account you use.

Once loaded into the app, PrivadoVPN Free offers little to be confused by. A large icon to connect dominates the view on mobile devices, and the desktop experience is almost exactly the same. While this does make the app impressively simple to navigate and understand, no matter what device you're on, it would be nice for the desktop experience to feel less as though the mobile app had been simply migrated over.

Finding the few customisations you can make is simple enough, icons direct you towards the necessary settings and options, and anything you need can be changed via toggles or selection boxes, making for quick and easy optimisation depending on how you intend on using the service.

Ease of use score: 9/10

Speed and performance

PrivadoVPN Free's performance is one of the biggest factors in its rise to the top of our best free VPN rankings. In our latest round of testing, PrivadoVPN Free was easily the fastest of all the free VPNs. We recorded an average local download speed of 564 Mbps.

That's down a little on last time's speed snapshot of 671 Mbps but still considerable faster than Windscribe Free (430 Mbps) and Hotspot Shield Basic (385 Mbps)

While it's likely these speeds won't consistently remain at these heights forever, achieving this puts PrivadoVPN Free among the fastest VPNs we've tested, including across paid providers.

So, if you're looking for the fastest free VPN available right now, PrivadoVPN Free is the clear winner.

Speed and performance score: 10/10

Unblocking

PrivadoVPN Free has a greater unblocking capacity than most free VPNs, mainly because it can manage it at all. On the free plan, we were able to access Netflix in the US and the UK. We had mixed results accessing Disney+, with some occasions of access and others without.

We were more successful accessing BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, and ITV, but had no success whatsoever with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, 9Now, or 10Play. Given that free VPNs often outright fail to unblock any streaming services, this result is seriously impressive.

It also proved to be pretty effective for torrenting. However, the combination of high-speed servers and a 10GB data cap means it’s pretty easy to churn through your allotted bandwidth for the month, so be careful how much you download.

Unblocking score: 8/10

Privacy and security

PrivadoVPN Free's biggest letdown is its lack of a third-party audit. Yes, it has a strong no-logs policy, and yes, it's in a privacy-focused jurisdiction, but the lack of a third-party audit means none of this can be wholly trusted quite yet.

Something that does come to its aid is that its no-logs policy is the same across both its paid and free options. This means PrivadoVPN isn't doing what many free VPNs do and uses its free status to find ways to monetize your data to cover the costs of running the service.

If you want to learn more about PrivadoVPN’s overall stance on security, you can check out our PrivadoVPN review here.

Privacy and security score: 8/10

Track record

Given that PrivadoVPN only entered the VPN space in 2019, there isn't a huge deal to talk about in terms of negatives, which is a good thing. So far, the service hasn't experienced any security breaches, nor has it had any concerning interactions with law enforcement, or had any serious flaws found.

The next step to solidifying this for PrivadoVPN will be the completion of a third-party audit and the publication of any kind of transparency report that can shed light on user data requests they may be receiving.

Track record score: 9/10

Customer Support

Customer support options for PrivadoVPN Free aren't extensive. While there is a live chat system, it's not staffed all day, meaning you can be left using its, admittedly extensive, knowledge base to try and find answers you might need.

Should this not give you the answers you seek, there's also the option for email contact with a support agent, which proved to be equally effective during testing.

Customer support score: 6/10

Pricing and plans

PrivadoVPN Free offers an impressive amount of value compared to its free plan. While you are limited to a single connection and you only get 10GB data per month, you can still use the service past this limit, just at 1 Mbps speeds rather than over 950 Mbps.

The biggest feature PrivadoVPN Free misses out on compared to its paid plan is Control Tower, which, as mentioned previously, serves as a protective measure and parental control hub for devices connected to PrivadoVPN. Alongside that, you also gain access to unlimited simultaneous connections, all 67 server locations, and the full suite of connection customisation options.

In reality, getting those added features from only $1.11 per month is a very good deal, but given how much you get with the free plan anyway, PrivadoVPN Free proves itself to be an impressive value for no money.

Pricing and plans score: 8/10

Should you use Privado VPN Free?

It's difficult to flaw the performance of PrivadoVPN Free as a free VPN service. Were it not for its 10GB data limit, PrivadoVPN Free would sit a a clear margin above other free VPNs, especially given its proven capacity to unblock some streaming services, which is a rarity among free VPNs.

If you're likely to go through 10GB quickly, the 1 Mbps throttled speeds thereafter should be something of a concern, even if it's welcome to know that you won't be cut off completely, but this does leave PrivadoVPN Free short of the likes of Proton VPN Free which offers a truly unlimited connection.

That said, PrivadoVPN Free stands above free VPN competition despite these flaws. Plus, the few features you miss out on mean realistically there's an audience of VPN users who could genuinely use PrivadoVPN Free day-to-day, without noticing its limitations, and without feeling insecure in a way often felt when using other free VPNs.

Total score: 79/100

PrivadoVPN Free alternatives

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Hotspot Shield Basic is a mixed bag of a free VPN. Offering differing experiences depending on the app you download, varying success at unblocking streaming services, and speeds that, while fast, can struggle to maintain a connection, it falls short of the best free VPNs.

Despite this, it has seen several improvements to its service since our last round of testing, and, while not perfect, proves to be a more than usable free VPN if you're willing to work within its limitations.

Features

Hotspot Shield Basic is by no means a feature-rich option. That doesn't mean, however, that you don't get a good suite of security tools in the free package. Together, these features provide the same sense of trust that you'd expect from the best VPNs.

Included with the free plan is anti-phishing protection, a kill switch, split tunneling, and IP and DNS leak protection. Plus, on mobile, you can access Hotspot Shield's secure browser from within the app.

Something that became a theme throughout our testing was inconsistency with Hotspot Shield Basic. For example, the iOS app lacks a kill switch on the Basic version, and it's missing entirely on macOS.

A bigger concern surrounding the kill switch was its lack of compatibility. It became apparent in testing that it only works when using the Hydra protocol; what's more, should you switch from Hydra to WireGuard, the killswitch silently deactivates.

This is a major security concern for anyone who relies on a kill switch, especially as users aren't warned about the deactivation, and it underscores Hotspot Shield's position behind the competition in terms of reliable features.

These incompatibility concerns extend to its split tunneling capabilities, too, which is only available on Hydra. Once again, the app doesn't make this clear, and, should you switch to WireGuard at any time, your split-tunneling settings reset. Given this continuous lack of warning and the numerous compatibility issues, it does raise questions surrounding what else may be hiding in the code.

Should you choose to upgrade to a paid Hotspot Shield plan, the only major feature additions to speak of are its streaming and gaming modes, which supposedly optimize the service for these use cases.

This is something most paid VPNs include as standard, so, given Hotspot Shield's steeper cost, I cannot imagine what it does differently to justify the price hike.

Features score: 4/10

Server Network

The ability to pick and choose servers is a fundamental aspect of a paid VPN. Even some free services offer a small, but varied, selection of server locations.

Hotspot Shield Basic has coverage in 4 locations in total, though its website only mentions one. These include the UK, Singapore, Los Angeles, and New York.

For comparison, Hotspot Shield Premium offers 115 locations (though its website claims 125) to choose from worldwide, which, while nowhere near some of the very best VPNs, is a much wider spread.

Server network score: 3/10

Apps

Currently, Hotspot Shield Basic is only available across four platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. This leaves omissions in compatibility, most notably, Linux and Smart TVs.

Hotspot Shield seems to have discontinued support for its Chrome extension, as it has been removed from the list of compatible platforms on its website. Plus, it's no longer available to download from the Chrome Web Store.

We've mentioned inconsistencies across apps already, but, as we'll delve into later, something to note is that there's a major disparity between platforms. Most notably, the lack of a kill switch on Mac and the lack of WireGuard, IKEv2, a kill switch, and split-tunneling on its iOS app.

Plus, in testing, we found that depending on your download location, you can find yourself looking at a completely different app. On our Windows testing machine, for example, the app we received from the Windows Store was totally different from the one we got from Hotspot Shield's website.

Upgrading to Hotspot Shield Premium fixes several of these availability issues, including adding Linux, Smart TV, and router compatibility, as well as adding WireGuard and IKEv2 to its iOS app, alongside the kill switch and split-tunneling.

Apps score: 5/10

Ease of use

Limited features mean that there are limited opportunities for confusion, and, in that way, Hotspot Shield Basic claws back some points. However, that doesn't mean its offering is totally simple.

Since migrating the Basic experience into the main Hotspot Shield app, finding your way to the free experience is far from easy on mobile. After loading the app, you have the option to sign up for a free trial (which isn't the Basic plan), and only when you scroll into the smaller print at the bottom of the screen can you find a way of accessing the free app.

Once you've signed in, Hotspot Shield is surprisingly easy to use and pleasant to look at. You're greeted by a black, grey, and blue interface, with icons along the bottom of the screen on mobile and along the left edge on desktop. It bears a resemblance to the layout of NordVPN (albeit without the stacked roster of features).

We found accessing the settings easy enough. The menu provides ample description of each option, allowing newer users to quickly get to grips with the functionality, even if these settings lack necessary warnings about silent deactivations (as mentioned earlier).

Our biggest gripe with the usability of Hotspot Shield Basic stems from its mobile apps, which are inundated with ads.

They're (almost) ever-present on the home screen in banner form, and you can be presented with sketchy ads at any given moment if you choose to hop between menus or toggle on features, which adds unwanted wait time to the overall experience. Luckily, using Hotspot Shield Basic on Mac or Windows allows users to avoid these ads.

Ease of use score: 6/10

Speed and performance

No free VPN can match the speeds of today's fastest VPNs, but that doesn't mean they can't impress. In our testing, Hotspot Shield surprised us, recording speeds of 385 Mbps using WireGuard, which is more than enough for stable streaming, searching, and gaming.

Hotspot Shield's proprietary Hydra protocol offered more confusing results. Given that it's based on OpenVPN, it is unsurprising that the speeds were slower than its WireGuard results, achieving a maximum of only 163 Mbps.

During testing, we achieved these speeds when connecting to the US, with slower speeds attained when connecting to UK servers.

Hotspot Shield Basic's UK servers appeared to have a much higher load than its US servers, and this isn't entirely surprising, but it limits your options should you be looking to connect to the UK specifically.

Something to remember is, as mentioned already, Hotspot Shield Basic's kill switch only works on its Hydra protocol, meaning that should you need it, you'll likely experience a slower overall performance.

Speed and performance score: 5/10

Unblocking

Most free VPNs struggle to unblock streaming services, and Hotspot Shield Basic is no different.

In our testing, we achieved mixed results. On Mac and Windows, we failed to unblock any streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, 9Now, 10Play, and BBC iPlayer.

Despite this, on mobile, we were able to access both Netflix and Prime Video without issue.

If you're looking for the best streaming VPN, we will always recommend you look towards paid services, as all the best VPNs we test proved flawless at unblocking streaming services in our latest round of testing.

Unblocking score: 4/10

Privacy and security

Since our last review, Hotspot Shield has made some headway in improving its security, but it hasn't plugged every hole.

To its credit, the Basic plan now includes a kill switch, and in 2023, the service went through an independent security audit.

That said, some things are still either missing or remain red flags. The issues we've raised already surrounding kill switch and split tunnelling support offer little reassurance or reason to choose Hotspot Shield, especially if your privacy is actively at risk. Plus, while its no-logs policy has now been audited, the use of ads in the mobile apps means there are some ways to identify how devices have been used.

In terms of VPN protocols, Hotspot Shield Basic offers its own Hydra protocol, alongside WireGuard and IKEv2, depending on the platform you use. The Hydra protocol uses strong AES-256 encryption to protect your data, while the WireGuard protocol uses the standard ChaCha20 for encryption.

Privacy and security score: 5/10

Track record

Hotspot Shield's track record isn't quite spotless. In 2018, an information disclosure vulnerability allowed a remote attacker to find out whether a user was connected to the VPN, their approximate location (country), and more. It required the user to visit a booby-trapped website, but the vulnerability was fixed after being disclosed to the company.

In 2020, an exploit allowed a local attacker to use Hotspot Shield to corrupt system files, which, while not a privacy concern, drew our concern.

It has been five years since Hotspot Shield reported any issues of the same magnitude, however, and recent security audits serve to further prove the steps the provider has taken to improve on previous errors.

Track record score: 5/10

Customer Support

Using Hotspot Shield Basic limits your customer support options to the support site, rather than also having access to full 24/7 assistance.

The support site, we found, can be somewhat limited. You can easily find yourself reading an article that's years old and now irrelevant or simply outdated, much like we found with some of the data surrounding locations. Plus, we found various instances of duplicated articles when searching for DNS.

We also found the chatbot to be almost humorously ineffective. When asking "how do I cancel my plan?" it responded "I'm sorry, I don't understand, I'm still learning. Give it another shot with different words". However, on trying "How can I close my account?" the chatbot simply gave up and transferred me to a support agent.

Customer support score: 4/10

Pricing and plans

Being Hotspot Shield's free plan, Hotspot Shield Basic is more limited than its paid counterpart, though not by as much as some of its competitors. The main omissions from the free plan include:

• Gaming and streaming modes
• Linux, Smart TV, and router support
• IKEv2
• 9 additional simultaneous connections (10 in total)
• An iOS kill switch
• Split tunnelling on iOS and Mac
• Full 24/7 support
• 111 more locations (115 total)

However, at $6.66 per month, it's arguably a better value choice to simply use the free version should you, for whatever reason, be set on using Hotspot Shield.

If you're looking to upgrade to a paid VPN, there are much better alternatives for much lower prices, such as Surfshark and NordVPN – it even makes ExpressVPN look cheap.

Pricing and plans score: 4/10

Should you use Hotspot Shield Basic?

Hotspot Shield Basic is an extremely limited free VPN, but that doesn't mean it isn't capable. All free VPNs lack features, but Hotspot Shield Basic's omissions, locations, and unblocking consistency leave much to be desired when compared to the likes of PrivadoVPN Free.

What's more, the inconsistencies across its apps, alongside outdated website information and alarming feature limitations, all leave us concerned about other issues lying in wait.

That said, its speeds are impressive for a free VPN service, and offering unlimited bandwidth is something free VPN users on desktop will be pleased to see, given the limited market across Mac and Windows.

Overall score: 45/100

Alternatives

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Hotspot Shield Basic is a mixed bag of a free VPN. Offering differing experiences depending on the app you download, varying success at unblocking streaming services, and speeds that, while fast, can struggle to maintain a connection, it falls short of the best free VPNs.

Despite this, it has seen several improvements to its service since our last round of testing, and, while not perfect, proves to be a more than usable free VPN if you're willing to work within its limitations.

Features

Hotspot Shield Basic is by no means feature-rich. That doesn't mean, however, that you don't get a good suite of security tools in the free package. Together, these features provide the same sense of trust that you'd expect from the best VPNs.

Included with the free plan is anti-phishing protection, a kill switch, split tunneling, and IP and DNS leak protection. Plus, on mobile, you can access Hotspot Shield's secure browser from within the app.

Something that became a theme throughout our testing was inconsistency with Hotspot Shield Basic. For example, the iOS app lacks a kill switch on the Basic version, and it's missing entirely on MacOS.

A bigger concern surrounding the kill switch was its lack of compatibility. It became apparent in testing that it only works when using the Hydra protocol; what's more, should you switch from Hydra to WireGuard, the killswitch silently deactivates.

This is a major security concern for anyone who relies on a kill switch, especially as users aren't warned about the deactivation, and it underscores Hotspot Shield's position behind the competition in terms of reliable features.

These incompatibility concerns extend to its split tunneling capabilities, too, which is only available on Hydra. Once again, the app doesn't make this clear, and, should you switch to WireGuard at any time, your split-tunneling settings reset. Given this continuous lack of warning and the numerous compatibility issues, it does raise questions surrounding what else may be hiding in the code.

Should you choose to upgrade to a paid Hotspot Shield plan, the only major feature additions to speak of are its streaming and gaming modes, which supposedly optimize the service for these use cases.

This is something most paid VPNs include as standard, so, given Hotspot Shield's steeper cost, I cannot imagine what it does differently to justify the price hike.

Features score: 4/10

Server Network

The ability to pick and choose servers is a fundamental aspect of a paid VPN. Even some free services offer a small, but varied, selection of server locations.

Hotspot Shield Basic has coverage in 4 locations in total, though its website only mentions one. These include the UK, Singapore, Los Angeles, and New York.

For comparison, Hotspot Shield Premium offers 115 locations (though its website claims 125) to choose from worldwide, which, while nowhere near some of the very best VPNs, is a much wider spread.

Server network score: 3/10

Apps

Currently, Hotspot Shield Basic is only available across four platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, and MacOS. This leaves omissions in compatibility, most notably, Linux and Smart TVs.

Hotspot Shield seems to have discontinued support for its Chrome extension, as it has been removed from the list of compatible platforms on its website. Plus, it's no longer available to download from the Chrome Web Store.

We've mentioned inconsistencies across apps already, but, as we'll delve into later, something to note is that there's a major disparity between platforms. Most notably, the lack of a kill switch on Mac and the lack of WireGuard, IKEv2, a kill switch, and split-tunneling on its iOS app.

Plus, in testing, we found that depending on your download location, you can find yourself looking at a completely different app. On our Windows testing machine, for example, the app we received from the Windows Store was totally different from the one we got from Hotspot Shield's website.

Upgrading to Hotspot Shield Premium fixes several of these availability issues, including adding Linux, Smart TV, and router compatibility, as well as adding WireGuard and IKEv2 to its iOS app, alongside the kill switch and split-tunneling.

Apps score: 5/10

Ease of use

Limited features mean that there are limited opportunities for confusion and, in that way, Hotspot Shield Basic claws back some points. However, that doesn't mean its offering is totally simple.

Since migrating the Basic experience into the main Hotspot Shield app, finding your way to the free experience is far from easy on mobile. After loading the app, you have the option to sign up for a free trial (which isn't the Basic plan), and only when you scroll into the smaller print at the bottom of the screen can you find a way of accessing the free app.

Once you've signed in, Hotspot Shield is surprisingly easy to use and pleasant to look at. You're greeted by a black, grey, and blue interface, with icons along the bottom of the screen on mobile and along the left edge on desktop. It bears a resemblance to the layout of NordVPN (albeit without the stacked roster of features).

We found accessing the settings easy enough. The menu provides ample description of each option, allowing newer users to quickly get to grips with the functionality, even if these settings lack necessary warnings about silent deactivations (as mentioned earlier).

Our biggest gripe with the usability of Hotspot Shield Basic stems from its mobile apps, which are inundated with ads.

They're (almost) ever-present on the home screen in banner form, and you can be presented with sketchy ads at any given moment if you choose to hop between menus or toggle on features – which adds unwanted wait time to the overall experience. Luckily, using Hotspot Shield Basic on Mac or Windows allows users to avoid these ads.

Ease of use score: 6/10

Speed and performance

No free VPN can match the speeds of today's fastest VPNs, but that doesn't mean they can't impress. In our testing, Hotspot Shield surprised us, recording speeds of 385 Mbps using WireGuard, which is more than enough for stable streaming, searching, and gaming.

Hotspot Shield's proprietary Hydra protocol offered more confusing results. Given that it's based on OpenVPN, it is unsurprising that the speeds were slower than its WireGuard results, achieving a maximum of only 163 Mbps.

During testing, we achieved these speeds when connecting to the US, with slower speeds attained when connecting to UK servers.

Hotspot Shield Basic's UK servers appeared to have a much higher load than its US servers, and this isn't entirely surprising, but it limits your options should you be looking to connect to the UK specifically.

Something to remember is, as mentioned already, Hotspot Shield Basic's kill switch only works on its Hydra protocol, meaning that should you need it, you'll likely experience a slower overall performance.

Speed and performance score: 5/10

Unblocking

Most free VPNs struggle to unblock streaming services, and Hotspot Shield Basic is no different.

In our testing, we achieved mixed results. On Mac and Windows, we failed to unblock any streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, 9Now, 10Play, and BBC iPlayer.

Despite this, on mobile, we were able to access both Netflix and Prime Video without issue.

If you're looking for the best streaming VPN, we will always recommend you look towards paid services, as all the best VPNs we test proved flawless at unblocking streaming services in our latest round of testing.

Unblocking score: 4/10

Privacy and security

Since our last review, Hotspot Shield has made some headway in improving its security, but it hasn't plugged every hole.

To its credit, the Basic plan now includes a kill switch, and in 2023, the service went through an independent security audit.

That said, some things are still either missing or remain red flags. The issues we've raised already surrounding kill switch and split tunnelling support offer little reassurance or reason to choose Hotspot Shield, especially if your privacy is actively at risk. Plus, while its no-logs policy has now been audited, the use of ads in the mobile apps means there are some ways to identify how devices have been used.

In terms of VPN protocols, Hotspot Shield Basic offers its own Hydra protocol, alongside WireGuard and IKEv2, depending on the platform you use. The Hydra protocol uses strong AES-256 encryption to protect your data, while the WireGuard protocol uses the standard ChaCha20 for encryption.

Privacy and security score: 5/10

Track record

Hotspot Shield's track record isn't quite spotless. In 2018, an information disclosure vulnerability allowed a remote attacker to find out whether a user was connected to the VPN, their approximate location (country), and more. It required the user to visit a booby-trapped website, but the vulnerability was fixed after being disclosed to the company.

In 2020, an exploit allowed a local attacker to use Hotspot Shield to corrupt system files, which, while not a privacy concern, drew our concern.

It has been five years since Hotspot Shield reported any issues of the same magnitude, however, and recent security audits serve to further prove the steps the provider has taken to improve on previous errors.

Track record score: 5/10

Customer Support

Using Hotspot Shield Basic limits your customer support options to the support site, rather than also having access to full 24/7 assistance.

The support site, we found, can be somewhat limited. You can easily find yourself reading an article that's years old and now irrelevant or simply outdated, much like we found with some of the data surrounding locations. Plus, we found various instances of duplicated articles when searching for DNS.

We also found the chatbot to be almost humorously ineffective. When asking "how do I cancel my plan?" it responded "I'm sorry, I don't understand, I'm still learning. Give it another shot with different words". However, on trying "How can I close my account?" the chatbot simply gave up and transferred me to a support agent.

Customer support score: 4/10

Pricing and plans

Being Hotspot Shield's free plan, Hotspot Shield Basic is more limited than its paid counterpart, though not by as much as some of its competitors. The main omissions from the free plan include:

• Gaming and streaming modes
• Linux, Smart TV, and router support
• IKEv2
• 9 additional simultaneous connections (10 in total)
• An iOS kill switch
• Split tunnelling on iOS and Mac
• Full 24/7 support
• 111 more locations (115 total)

However, at $6.66 per month, it's arguably better value to simply use the free version should you, for whatever reason, be set on using Hotspot Shield.

If you're looking to upgrade to a paid VPN, there are much better alternatives for much lower prices, such as Surfshark and NordVPN – it even makes ExpressVPN look cheap.

Pricing and plans score: 4/10

Should you use Hotspot Shield Basic?

Hotspot Shield Basic is an extremely limited free VPN, but that doesn't mean it isn't capable. All free VPNs lack features, but Hotspot Shield Basic's omissions, locations, and unblocking consistency leave much to be desired when compared to the likes of PrivadoVPN Free.

What's more, the inconsistencies across its apps, alongside outdated website information and alarming feature limitations, all leave us concerned about other issues lying in wait.

That said, its speeds are impressive for a free VPN service, and offering unlimited bandwidth is something free VPN users on desktop will be pleased to see, given the limited market across Mac and Windows.

Overall score: 45/100

Alternatives

On paper, Hide.me Free boasts an impressive offering – unlimited data, customizable tools, and a truly free VPN that’s more than just a trial. There are a handful of limitations – par for the course for a free VPN – but Hide.me Free’s strong core features and server array are strong counterpoints.

Ultimately, if you're on the hunt for a free service that has your privacy in mind and will watch your back as you go about your usual browsing, Hide.me Free has the right features and pretty nifty apps.

Features

Hide.me Free gets the VPN basics right - just like its paid counterpart. Users can take their pick of an impressive number of tried-and-tested VPN protocols, including OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, SSTP, and SoftEtherVPN. We also liked that we could select a “fallback protocol”, which the VPN used if our first choice failed to connect – which it didn't, incidentally.

However, the availability of these protocols varies depended on the platform we tried, which were Windows, Android, and iOS.

IPv6 support
All Hide.me Free apps come with full IPv6 support, setting them apart from other free providers that offer a simple checkbox feature that claims to prevent IPv6 leaks. More often, however, free VPNs typically ignore the issue of IPv6 leaks.

Hide.me Free is the only free service on our list that allows users to connect using IPv4, IPv6, or both. If you’re unfamiliar with IPv6, this won’t matter that much, but if you are – and if your ISP allows you to use IPv6 – Hide.me Free will work with it right out of the box with no risk of IPv6 leaks.

Still, this is way more control than we see even from the likes of our best VPN overall, NordVPN.

Auto-connect
Hide.me Free’s auto-connect tool is one of the best we’ve ever tested, too. Available on desktop apps and Android and iOS, we enabled it with a simple toggle we could further customize it to allow us to select different actions when connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi, secured Wi-Fi, or Ethernet networks.

The options for each are: “Connect or Disconnect”, “Ask what to do”, or “Ignore Network”. This is a nice array of options. So, if security is your primary concern, you could configure the auto-connect tool to ask whether you want Hide.me Free to automatically connect whenever you join an unsecure network – like the free Wi-Fi you find in cafes, airports, and hotels – so you don’t accidentally join a dodgy hotspot that lacks encryption or, in the worst case scenario, is a bogus connection monitored by a data-hungry bad actor. This is especially useful for folks who commute to work or have a vacation on the cards.

Each time the app made one of these automated decisions, it then added the name of the network and the decision it made to a list. That's better reporting than most VPN apps, which typically expect you to maintain that list yourself or manually add networks to a trusted list as you access them.

Split tunneling
We were glad to see that Hide.me Free offered split tunneling for Windows, Mac, and Android, though the feature is currently missing from iOS. Like the auto-connect tool, Hide.me Free’s split tunneling is highly customizable, allowing users to pick and choose which apps or sites use the VPN tunnel and which don't.

So, using the split tunneling tool, you could route traffic headed to your streaming app/site of choice through your regular internet connection, and not the encrypted Hide.me Free tunnel.

This will reduce the amount of traffic the VPN has to deal with on its limited data budget and ensure that you can actually enjoy your content without any buffering or lag.

Kill switch
Hide.me Free has a reliable kill switch that we weren't able to trip any time we tampered with the VPN protocol software to cause it to disconnect. Our real IP address was not leaked at any point during testing, which is a must-have factor for any VPN, and especially impressive for a free service.

The kill switch is available on all platforms, including iOS, unusually. It’s not always easy to find, though – it’s named “Network Protection” in the Android settings, for example.

In addition to a simple on/off toggle, users can also configure a script inside the app that’ll launch whenever the kill switch is triggered (cutting your internet connection) or disabled. You could use this to create an alert warning you that the kill switch was triggered, or forcibly close a process or launch an app.

Why is this useful? Well, imagine that you always leave your VPN on at home, connected to a nearby server. What happens if that connection drops out? Usually, a VPN will display a notification to let you know, but what if you wanted something else to happen?

If your VPN is connected to a local network, you might want to send a notification to other devices connected to it or, to prevent communication across a now unsecured connection, you might want to close some apps and programs. Hide.me Free makes this possible via scripts – a series of commands that give you more control over how the app responds to a kill switch failure.

Other features
Hide.me Free also boasts obfuscation – but we found that it was pretty basic. Still, it might help you establish a secure VPN connection if you live in a privacy-unfriendly country (like China or Russia) where VPNs are routinely sniffed out and blocked. If you’re looking for the most reliable VPN for China, Hide.me Free probably shouldn’t be your first choice, but it may help with less intensive VPN blocking, and we’re glad that the option is there for free users.

The lock setting allows users to lock the VPN app whenever it’s minimized or after a specified number of minutes has passed. It works like a mobile device App Locker: select a PIN and rest assured that, without this PIN, nobody will be able to unlock (and interfere with) your VPN.

It might seem like security overkill, but it ensures that friends, family, and other nosy individuals can’t happen across your device and adjust your VPN settings. You wouldn’t want a sibling to disconnect the VPN while you’re torrenting, right? Network Lock puts a stop to this kind of meddling.

As mentioned earlier, Hide.me Free gives users unlimited data to play with – there are no monthly caps and no hard limits. Admittedly, that’s a huge bonus that means you won’t have to carefully ration out your VPN usage over the month. Hide.me Free does have its hangups, however, that mostly hinge around the differences between its free and premium plans.

Missing features and hangups
Hide.me Free users are limited to a single simultaneous connection. That means only one person, on one device, can use the VPN at any given time. This is pretty much par for the course when it comes to free VPNs, although Windscribe Free is a notable exception to the rule, offering unlimited connections for free and paid users.

Free users won’t find support for port forwarding or SOCKS5 proxy, either. There’s no option for TOR over VPN, and multi-hop is restricted to paid users.

On a more technical note, Hide.me Free also lacks support for downloading OpenVPN or other manual configuration files (like WireGuard keys). This makes it a lot more difficult to use the VPN with a router. Lots of routers work with OpenVPN but, more often than not, they also require a configuration file that tells them exactly how to set up the connection and the IP address of the server they’re trying to access. Without this file, we can’t recommend Hide.me Free as a fully-fledged router VPN.

Features score: 7/10

Server network

We were unable to discern the total number of VPN servers in Hide.me Free’s network but, as free users are restricted to a small subset of locations, this isn’t a huge stumbling block.

Hide.me Free gives users access to servers in 7 countries: Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, USA. It is worth noting that Hide.me claims that free users have 8 locations to choose from but, on our Windows testing machine, we only saw the 7 listed above. Singapore is often listed as a free location, but during our testing, we saw it marked as Premium-only.

We took a closer look at the free locations to determine whether the listing in the app matches the likely real location of the server. We’re happy to say that all 7 locations are accurately listed, although the Finnish servermay be in Estonia.

As with other VPNs, Hide.me Free allows users to add servers to a favorites list for easy access and set specific servers as the default, so the VPN automatically connects to them when the big “Connect” button is clicked or tapped. It’s a nice time-saving measure we’re glad to see included.

One notable aspect of Hide.me Free’s server array is that 6 of its 7 locations are based in Europe, with the 7th being in the US. Lots of free VPNs have blank spots on the map, so this isn’t entirely surprising, but today, we find that most top-rated free VPNs have at least one server location in Asia.

For example, Windscribe Free has coverage in Hong Kong, and Proton VPN Free has servers in Japan. Extending the range of the server network benefits everyone, giving folks outside of Europe access to nearby servers, improving their overall browsing experience, and offering people elsewhere the opportunity to location-hop and check out a new region of local content.

Servers score: 6/10

Apps

Hide.me Free is available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux. This is a decent spread, and it’s nice to see that Hide.me doesn’t neglect its Linux userbase. We were also glad to see that Hide.me Free has its very own Firefox, Chrome, and Edge browser extensions, too.

There are also Hide.me Free apps for Apple TV, Android TV, and Amazon Fire TV. We’d like to laud this selection, but it is, unfortunately, irrelevant, as the free version isn’t quick enough to keep up with HD streaming.

Overall, nothing major is missing from Hide.me Free’s app offering, which is impressive for a free service, as are the three browser extensions.

The only hiccup to note is that the missing access to the OpenVPN files means that it's not going to work as a VPN for your router.

Apps score: 8/10

Ease of use

First things first, we were impressed that Hide.me Free doesn’t require any registration or sign-up to use. We simply downloaded the app from the provider's website and followed along with an installation wizard. In fact, across all platforms, we didn’t run into any trouble when installing Hide.me Free.

The more we dug into Hide.me Free’s usability, however, the more cracks appeared. We installed Hide.me Free on a device that we’d previously used the paid edition on, and it automatically logged in, presumably because it didn’t remove our old credentials when uninstalling.

The dashboard warned us that our plan had expired and that it was time to upgrade, and there was no obvious “use free version” button – or even a hint that a free version existed.

Eventually, we double-clicked a server location in the location list, and a new “Trial Expired” screen appeared. It gave us the option to “Downgrade to a free plan”. When we hit downgrade, we were finally able to use Hide.me Free.

Of course, most users won’t be affected by this issue as they’ll be installing the app on a device that hasn’t used Hide.me before. Still, if you’re one of the unlucky few who has, it’s an unnecessary hassle. Hide.me could make life way easier by offering a “Downgrade” button to everyone with an expired plan rather than forcing them on a digital goose chase.

We also experienced an odd quirk where, once the app had installed and displayed the “Finished” page, the app launched immediately. Most VPNs wait until you’ve closed the page to do this, so the app appeared before we’d even closed the installer. It’s odd, but it didn’t cause any issues.

Once the Hide.me Free Windows app was up and running, we were greeted by a quick tutorial that introduced us to all the most important sections of the app. If you’re an experienced VPN user, this won’t be all that useful, but anyone on the hunt for a good VPN for beginners will appreciate the easy-to-digest signposting.

Overall, we found Hide.me Free’s Windows app to be rather overcomplicated. It looks more like an operating system desktop than a simple app. The dashboard is designed to be customizable – it can contain all kinds of widgets that users can edit and reposition to suit their needs.

One widget displays the currently-selected location and connect button, another holds the map of Hide.me Free’s locations, and a third contains your account information. There are even widgets listing your favorite servers, streaming servers, account information, a “Privacy Search” button that allows you to make searches from within the app, and a long list of links to Hide.me Free’s social media channels.

It’s a great idea in theory, and we always like to see customization, but it’s also almost entirely unnecessary. We didn’t need the dashboard to constantly tell us that we were using the free version, and we didn’t find ourselves needing immediate access to Hide.me’s X account. Plus, there’s already a link to the map view in the left-hand sidebar, rendering the one in the dashboard redundant.

We didn’t see any massive benefit to the dashboard. If anything, it actually makes the app look worse than the competition because the widgets have fixed sizes, meaning there’s a lot of wasted white space. Compare that to the super-compact Windscribe Free VPN UI which takes up no more room on desktop that it does on mobile.

Still, there are plenty of ways to avoid the dashboard. Clicking the “Locations” option in the sidebar takes you to a simple location list. From here, you can double-click any free location to join a server and, once you’re done, double-click again to disconnect.

When we tried Hide.me Free on iOS, we found that the layout is much more conventional, which was a plus for us. The iOS app is well-designed and works similarly to premium mobile VPNs. Joining a server is as easy as tapping the “Connect” button, and users have the option of selecting “Best location” to choose another free location.

Regardless of the platform we used, Hide.me Free did a good job of underscoring which features are available to free users and which aren’t. We selected the SmartGuard ad blocker, for instance, and the app warned us that our experience was “restricted”.

Digging into Hide.me Free’s advanced tools, we found that they’re organized unusually. Almost every other app we’ve tested puts options like auto-connect and split tunneling in a settings menu, but Hide.me Free lists them (and other significant tools) in their own Features menu. If you’re used to diving into the settings to find these things, you might miss them at first, but it’s nothing a bit of exploration can’t fix.

Hide.me Free’s actual settings menu is nice and easy to parse. It mostly consists of simple on/off options. The technical settings, however, are laid out a little differently across platforms, which can make it difficult to find the specific setting you’re looking to tweak.

Fortunately, Hide.me Free’s menus have a search box – which we found rather unique. It’s a great addition to the mix that makes hunting down tools quick and easy, so long as you know what you’re looking for. So, if you’re searching for a DNS setting but can’t find it, just type “DNS” into the search box, and Hide.me Free will display every setting that includes “DNS”.

During our testing, when we went about our regular browsing, we encountered a lot of CAPTCHA tests. These tests went on for a long time, too, often cornering us into 7 or 8 rounds of selecting the squares containing motorcycles or chimneys. This ground our browsing to a halt – and given that Hide.me Free also throttles speeds, it makes for a less-than-ideal everyday experience.

More CAPTCHAs usually means that the IP addresses on Hide.me's free servers aren't as fresh as they might be – either through age or the number of customers on those free servers using them – and that's not a great sign.

Finally, when we weren’t using Hide.me Free and made a big change to our network configuration (by connecting to a second VPN, for example), the Hide.me Free dashboard would suddenly appear. We hadn’t clicked on it or switched to it – it simply popped up.

We can only assume that the Hide.me Free Windows app thinks it’s solely responsible for our network settings and, if something changes, it’s the app that’ll take charge. It doesn’t matter all that much, however. We simply minimized the dashboard and went about our business as usual. It’s another small interface irritation, however, and it could become seriously frustrating if it happens regularly.

Ease of use score: 5/10

Speed and performance

We put Hide.me Free's speeds to the test using our 1 Gbps connection and the WireGuard protocol. The service achieved pretty decent results, clocking in at 415 Mbps on our Windows machine and 25 Mbps on Android.

While this isn't quite as quick as Proton VPN Free and Windscribe Free, both recording 900 Mbps, it's still more than you need for easy-breezy day-to-day browsing.

It is worth noting that, during the course of our hands-on testing, we did notice inconsistencies in Hide.me Free's speeds. Initially, our testing machine reported that we had been throttled to a measly 1 Mbps, but subsequent testing proved more fruitful.

It's uncertain whether this vacillation in results will repeat but, if it does, it could cause issues for free users attempting to use Hide.me Free to stream, torrent, or check out social media feeds – as 1 Mbps just isn't enough to keep up with resource-intensive activities.

Speed and performance score: 6/10

Unblocking

As part of our real-world tests, we tried streaming Netflix and YouTube, and were successful on both occasions. The only caveat here is that we were forced to reload Netflix before the page loaded fully, and we did experience some buffering when initially tuning in to content. After about five minutes or so, however, the experience settled and remained smooth.

We'd still recommend looking to a paid service for the most reliable access to today's top streaming platforms (and smaller regional services), but Hide.me Free impressed us by holding its own.

Hide.me Free isn’t our first-choice torrenting VPN, either, despite the fact that all of its free servers appear to support P2P activity. You’re better off with PrivadoVPN or Proton VPN. Hide.me Free also lacks a port forwarding option – you’ll have to subscribe to the paid version to check it out.

Unblocking score: 6/10

Privacy and security

Hide.me Free uses AES-256 and ChaCha20 via WireGuard. There are a lot of protocols to choose from when you open up the app, though we typically recommend WireGuard, thanks to its blend of speed and security. We’re also glad to see that Hide.me Free ditched less secure options, like L2TP, a long time ago.

We also believe that Hide.me Free is geared more towards technical users and folks who want to learn about VPN technology and cybersecurity. This is most visible in the provider’s blog, where the company regularly posts in-depth articles covering essentials like encryption.

Digging into Hide.me Free’s server infrastructure, there was no real technical detail to be found, but the Network page on the provider site claims that: “Our servers are hand-picked, security-hardened and self-maintained… To protect our users’ privacy, we control and run a self-managed VPN network without any involvement of outsiders. Every server stores sensitive cryptographic keys in a temporary storage to minimize attack surface.”

Terms like “hand-picked” and “security-hardened” don’t raise any eyebrows. “Self-maintained” and “self-managed without any involvement of outsiders”, however, does. It seems unlikely or, worse, misleading. Unless Hide.me Free is running its own data centres, others will, at least, have physical access to the servers.

Servers storing keys “in a temporary storage” fit with them being RAM-based. We suspect that, if it’s true, Hide.me Free would simply claim as much. Instead, perhaps the provider means that the keys are stored in a folder of temporary files, which is always emptied when the server closes or starts.

Hide.me Free hasn’t implemented full post-quantum encryption, but it has achieved a degree of quantum resistance with its custom dynamic WireGuard configuration. Currently, Hide.me is working to deliver a better and more complete post-quantum solution.

Hide.me Free generates a random username and an internally-assigned (not public) IP address when users connect to a server. Any data related to their session links solely to that ID. The company says that this means usage data remains anonymous and unconnected to your real, public IP address.

Like a lot of VPNs, Hide.me Free’s apps include crash reporting and related telemetry features which might send app usage and troubleshooting information back to the company. This data is anonymized and not linked to you personally. It helps Hide.me determine if a lot of users are having problems connecting to a certain country – not that you, in particular, are.

Finally, as a cherry on top, Hide.me had its no-logs policy successfully audited in 2024. This is a good foundation to build on, and we’d like to see the service commit to annual audits of its policies, apps, and servers.

Privacy and security score: 6/10

Track record

Hide.me was founded over 13 years ago and is currently based in Labuan, Malaysia, and owned by a Malaysia-based IT security company, eVenture Ltd. The provider also has a second office in Zagreb, Croatia, according to its LinkedIn page.

The VPN makes some impressive claims, including that it was the first BSC VPN to offer IPv6 and WireGuard support, and that it was one of the first services to implement WireGuard in a privacy-friendly way.

In mid-2024, Hide.me published the results of a privacy audit conducted by Securitum. The security consultancy inspected server configurations, interviewed Hide.me staff, reviewed deployment procedures, and more. Hide.me didn’t publish the full report, unfortunately, and instead published a summary of the results. The good news is that the summary still contains plenty of detail.

Overall, the audit was positive with Securitum stating: “As a result of the audit, it was confirmed, that declared by Hide.me no-logs policy is indeed applied, and the audit did not reveal any issues on VPN container that could lead to a compromise of user privacy.”

We’re happy to see Hide.me invest in its transparency, but there’s more that could be done. We’d like to see Hide.me undergo more regular audits of different types (covering the provider’s apps, for example) and publish the full report afterwards.

The only blemish on Hide.me’s record we found was a Mac app bug discovered in 2019. The bug possibly allowed a privilege escalation, a type of exploit that malware could use to acquire extra rights on your system, perhaps infect your device, or cause other issues. This is bad as security vulnerabilities go, but it’s not uncommon; NordVPN had three of these reported in 2018.

Track record score: 7/10

Customer support

A lot of free VPNs don’t offer customer support to their user base. The good news is that Hide.me Free bucks this trend, and customers have access to 24/7 technical support.

There are also community forums. These are a handy resource for folks who prefer to do their own troubleshooting, and other users are generally happy to share their own experiences and ideas that you simply won’t hear from customer support. Unfortunately, these forums aren’t as active as they could be, so you may end up waiting a while for a response.

Hide.me Free’s support site contains a huge number of detailed articles, which is great, but there’s not a lot of material for beginners. The FAQ page warns that “port 25 is blocked for security reasons”, for instance, but doesn’t attempt to explain what port 25 is, why it matters, or why a user should care.

Fortunately, if you have any burning questions or want to clarify your confusion, free users get full access to the Hide.me Free support team. We opened a live chat session, reached position 1 in the queue, and an agent joined us within seconds. When we raised an email ticket, we received a helpful reply in under half an hour, which is impressively quick – and a much faster response time than we’ve seen with many paid VPNs.

Customer support score: 8/10

Pricing and plans

As Hide.me Free is the limited version of the full-fat Hide.me subscription, the plan naturally comes with notable omissions that are only available to paying customers. These include:

• Access to 91 server locations
• 10 simultaneous connections
• Port forwarding
• SOCKS5 proxy
• SmartGuard ad, tracker, and malware blocker
• Bolt "Fast Proxy" technology (speed booster)
• Multi-hop

A 2-year plan comes in at $2.69 a month - which makes Hide.me's premium offering one of the more reasonable options on the market. Still, Surfshark has it beat at $1.99 a month and a long list of innovative security-boosting tools. In comparison, Hide.me doesn't quite stack up.

Pricing and plans score: 5/10

Should you use Hide.me Free?

Hide.me Free does a decent job of holding its own against other free providers on the market, but the truth is that you can get a lot more for nothing elsewhere. The clunky Windows dashboard really lets the service down – other providers do it better.

On the other hand, if you can handle having a single device connection and deal with a few hiccups during setup, Hide.me Free’s customizable tools and features are some of the best on the market.

Being able to use the service without handing over an iota of personal information is an impressive plus, too. So, if you’re looking for a free VPN that’ll have your back during your day-to-day browsing, with an audited no-logs policy, Hide.me Free could be worth investigating.

Overall score: 64/100

Hide.me Free Alternatives