It advertises on TV, sponsors sports teams and has been a leader in the market for over seven years. Then look no further than Surfshark.
It offers most of the same features as the other top services, just for less money. The premium version of Hotspot Shield takes its place among the top paid-for services on the web and, indeed, near the top of our fastest VPN countdown. So it's little surprise that its free option is so popular.
Those on the free plan are limited to MB of data per day so around 15GB per month. That may sound restrictive, but compared to one or two on this list, it's actually one of the more generous limits although, of course, not a patch on the unlimited data you get with paid-for services. If security is your sole aim, then Hotspot is on the same wavelength, boasting the same 'military-grade encryption' that most premium VPNs shout about.
In addition to security, Hotspot Shield Free also won plaudits in our testing for being so friendly to use. Whether on its mobile version or on desktop, you won't find it the hair-pulling user experience offered by some competitors. In the past we've seen the odd issue around the free Hotspot Shield download. For the period of a few weeks at the start of , Hotspot was completely killing the ability to search on Google when switched on. All we got was an error - and we tried this out a lot from a variety of locations and devices.
Thankfully this issue appears to have been sorted now. We're looking at how our readers use VPNs, in order to help improve our coverage and make sure we're giving the best advice. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the survey below. It won't take more than 60 seconds of your time. While the stand-out feature is undeniably that it offers zero limits on the amount of data you can use with your VPN use , there's plenty more to admire outside that alone. It would be remiss of us not to begin with that headline selling point, though.
The free version of this service has servers in three locations, spread nicely around the world: in the US, Japan and the Netherlands. There are clients for Windows and Mac, of course, as well as apps for Android and iPhone. On desktop, we like the option to toggle on automatic connections when you start up your computer. And some unusual features for a freebie are included, too, like split-tunnelling and DNS leak protection.
There are, naturally enough, limitations for the free plan to incentivize upgrading to a paid-for offering. We think the most notable is the fact that free users get a lower priority when it comes to speed compared to paying subscribers. And Proton makes it very clear that you'll need to upgrade to its Plus tier if you want to use your VPN for streaming.
But if you can live with all that, this is an impressive provider with a strict no logging policy, and you can sign up with nothing more than your email address and a username of your choosing.
The folk at Windscribe are vigorously and vocally proud of their free VPN offering It's a really strong option thanks to its generous data allowance and commitment to protecting your privacy.
You get 2GB bandwidth per month as standard - so not much. But that is easily upped to a more palatable 10GB if you're happy to give Windscribe your email address. It's a 'freemium' model in play here, so there are some gentle nudges to get you to sign up to the unlimited version if you like what you see, but the upselling isn't too annoying or aggressive.
Getting started with its desktop clients or super useful Chrome extension is easy - you'll be jumping around the world on different servers in no time. We actually don't expect free VPNs to help us get around region blocking from certain apps, sites and streaming services.
So we were delighted when Windscribe went above and beyond the call of duty in our Netflix VPN testing. Of course the data limit is going to stop you from too many massive binges, but good to know for the odd show on your travels or commute. A word on speeds though. We found Windscribe to be less consistent them some competitors and at times it took a while to even connect to a server.
But they're fairly minor complaints in the grand scheme of things TunnelBear might have something of a cutesy design, but it's a serious free option, especially after its acquisition by security giant, McAfee. There are free and paid-for subscriptions to choose from. The major restriction with the free plan is that you are limited to MB of traffic each month. That really is a tiny amount and means you can only really use it at those times when you feel like you need a little extra protection and want to go down the free route.
You won't be able to keep it on all the time and you can forget using this VPN for torrenting and streaming. Speedify , as the name suggests, has one main aim as a free VPN provider: to ensure that while you benefit from encryption, your internet connection remains as speedy as possible.
To that end, this provider will make use of all available internet connections to get the best possible performance, potentially combining, say, an Ethernet connection fixed broadband with a tethered mobile connection. Even if you only have one type of internet connection, the firm claims its turbocharging technology will still help speed things up.
Free users get 2GB of data each month. And this provider is definitely worth a look on the performance front, as during our testing, the aforementioned speed-granting technologies did actually prove themselves to have a positive effect. There are no adverts here, either, and it even offers P2P support on its five available free VPN servers. Performance was impressive in our testing, too.
Overall, then, this is a more-than-solid free offering which tries to maintain your privacy, without too many restrictions. Honestly, there isn't one easy answer to this question. It depends on what you want to use your free VPN for. If it's just about having a bit more security on your laptop or mobile when using public Wi-Fi, they can be just the ticket. Jump on the service, turn on an encrypted server connection and crack on with your online activities safe in the knowledge that no prying eyes will be able to see your private information.
But if your main purpose is to have a streaming VPN say, or want to use it while downloading terabytes of torrent files, a free VPN just isn't going to do the trick. If your connection is interrupted, Kill Switch blocks all network traffic to keep your IP address safe. Using ProtonVPN allows you to benefit from Swiss data protection laws, which are among the strongest in the world. Simply install the app and connect with one click. We handle everything else automatically.
Proton is used by journalists and activists worldwide, supported by the European Commission, and recommended by the UN. Without paying anything at all, you can get an ad-free VPN with no data logging and no bandwidth limits. To access even faster speeds, premium features, and support online privacy around the world, consider upgrading to a paid plan.
Access your favorite content anywhere in the world with support for streaming services. Prevent malware, ads, and trackers from slowing down your browsing. Send your traffic through multiple VPN servers to protect against advanced network attacks. Using any VPN will slow down your internet speeds a little, but we impose no artificial speed restrictions on users with a Free plan.
These servers often have more users than our other servers, which can impact speed performance. However, free users often report higher speeds than are available with other VPN services. Learn more about how latency, bandwidth, and throughput impact Internet speed. However, we only guarantee access to a range of streaming services to users with our Plus plan. Our strict no-logs policy, which is backed by strong Swiss privacy laws, applies equally to all ProtonVPN users.
We also use the same strong encryption protocols for all our users. You can use the Free plan indefinitely, and many ProtonVPN users find our Free plan, with no logs, no data limits, and no artificial speed restrictions, provides them with everything they need from a VPN service.
0コメント