There’s something so truly appetising about the promise of a free VPN. Why pay for a VPN when there are hundreds of free VPNs on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store? Unfortunately, like a lot of things, when it comes to VPNs, free rarely means free.
Just scroll through the list of VPNs available on the App Store and you’ll see how little information there is about each one. I wouldn’t voluntarily hand over my browsing data to any of them, and you shouldn’t either.
In the past, some have been caught hijacking browser traffic and redirecting users to partner websites, while others haven’t published a transparency report or audit in years. A few of the top free VPNs on the charts right now don’t even say who owns them. They don’t have a developer website, never mind a privacy policy.
In fact, plenty of free VPNs will log your activity and inject ads into your browser sessions. Worse, some will sell your browsing data to advertisers, which kind of defeats the whole point of using a VPN in the first place. Below, I’ve explained why you shouldn’t trust a free VPN and why going paid is always better.
Read more: Best cheap VPNs
Why I don’t use a free VPN
As the adage goes: if you’re not paying for something, you might be the product.
When you use any VPN, free or paid-for, you’re trusting a private company to look after your data responsibly. You’re trusting a service with your browsing activity, so it’s important to know who’s actually handling it. It’s a bit like trusting a stranger with the keys to your house.
The best VPNs don’t keep a log of your online activity. We know this thanks to the independent no-logs audits they regularly undergo. This means that even if they’re compelled by law to hand over information about you, there would simply be no useful data to reveal.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a free VPN. The problem is how it’s funded. If it’s backed by a reputable paid VPN provider, you can usually treat it like an extended trial. If it’s completely free with no obvious business model, that’s when the alarm bells start to ring.
Unlike paid-for VPNs, which make their money from subscriptions, free VPNs have to find other ways to survive. At best, that means offering a stripped-back version of a premium service in the hope you’ll eventually upgrade. Companies such as Proton, Windscribe and Hide.me, which all limit features, data allowances or server access to encourage users to subscribe.
The main problem is the hundreds of free VPNs that don’t have an obvious source of income. Some make money by selling your browsing data to third-party advertisers, replacing the ads you’d normally see on webpages with their own, or even using your device as a virtual server for other users to connect through. It’s generally not a good idea to have this kind of adversarial relationship with a service that’s handling the very data you’re trying to keep private.
There’s precedent for this. One of the most-cited studies on the subject is a 2017 report from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which analysed 283 Android VPN apps on the Google Play Store. It found that 72 per cent of free VPNs embedded third-party trackers, while many were flagged for requesting intrusive permissions or leaking user data.
Free VPNs have to make money somehow, and tracking user activity or injecting ads is one way to do that. The study also found that six of the 10 VPNs most likely to contain malware were free, and some, such as HotSpot Shield, were accused of hijacking users’ web traffic and redirecting them to partner pages.
Even the reputable free VPNs come with trade-offs. Most limit the amount of data you can use, reduce the number of available servers or reserve their fastest infrastructure for paying customers. Windscribe and Hide.me, for example, cap free users at 10GB of data each month. And while Proton VPN offers unlimited data on its free plan, streaming support is restricted, and you lose out on advanced features such as dedicated IP addresses, multi-hop routing and larger server networks.
The best VPNs cost money. Not just because servers are expensive to run, but because they don’t rely on ads or trackers to fund their business model. You’re not merely getting faster speeds, more servers and an extensive range of security features, but you’re not being used as the product, which will monetise you and your data.
How can you tell if a free VPN is trustworthy?
First, who owns the company? If you can’t easily find out who’s behind the VPN, that’s an immediate red flag. Some of the top VPNs on the App Store right now don’t even have a developer website – very dodgy.
Secondly, and I know this is something everyone scrolls past – does it have a clear privacy policy? A VPN should explain exactly what information it collects, how long it’s stored and whether it’s shared with anyone else.
Thirdly, make sure to check if it has undergone an independent no-logs audit. Many of the best VPNs pay third-party security firms to verify that they don’t log users’ online activity. If a VPN claims to keep no logs but has never had that claim independently verified, be very wary. I’d also check to see if they publish transparency reports, which show how many requests for user data a company has received from governments or law enforcement, and whether it had any information to hand over.
Lastly, think about how the VPN makes money. Reputable providers such as Proton, Windscribe and Hide.me use their free plans to encourage users to upgrade to a paid subscription. If a completely free VPN has no clear business model, I’d think twice before installing it.
The VPNs I recommend downloading
NordVPN
If you want a VPN that does everything well, NordVPN is my pick of the bunch. It’s fast, secure and has some really neat features. Things such as Double VPN, which routes your traffic through two servers instead of one for an extra layer of privacy, and Onion over VPN, which adds the anonymity of the Tor network, without needing a separate browser, are two standouts. I also really like Meshnet, which lets you create secure, encrypted connections between your own devices to help you securely access your files or share a private network when you’re away from home.
It’s also incredibly fast. NordLynx, the provider’s custom protocol built on WireGuard, gave me near-identical speeds to my regular connection, even when testing long-distance servers. I could stream UK content without buffering, and there are more than 9.500 servers across 149 countries to choose from. It’s kind of everything I need and want from a VPN.
Surfshark VPN
This is a really good VPN if you want a service with loads of features, but don’t want to pay extortionate prices. It’s owned by the same parent company as NordVPN but operates independently. The interface is nice and tidy, speeds are fast, and it’s got loads of features for which you’d expect to pay more. You get unlimited device connections on a single plan, plus split tunnelling, MultiHop and an effective kill switch. It also recently added split tunnelling to iOS, fixing one of my main gripes with the service.
My speeds only dropped by about 5 per cent on UK servers and 11 per cent on international ones. I also really like the camouflage mode, which enabled me to hide my VPN usage from my ISP, while the broader Surfshark One suite includes lots of add-ons, such as antivirus and breach alerts. Right now, Surfshark is the only premium VPN service with a free trial, meaning you can try before you buy. The free trial lasts for a whole seven days.
ExpressVPN
The easiest VPN I’ve ever used, making this the best option for beginners. The interface is the same across every device, with a big “on” button and a short server list that’s easy to follow. Speeds are really fast, too. The new Lightway Turbo protocol meant no slow-loading pages or buffering while streaming. There aren’t as many features as NordVPN, but it’s just so simple to use.
There’s also a built-in password manager, ad blocker and an ‘identity defender’ tool that helps you remove your personal data from broker sites. It’s also a lot cheaper now than it has been in the past.
Proton VPN
If you care about your privacy, Proton is the VPN to go for. It’s open-source, independently audited and based in Switzerland. On the paid plan, you get access to full-speed servers in more than 100 countries, streaming service support, secure core multi-hop routing, and advanced features such as split tunnelling, port forwarding and custom connection profiles.
It also includes services such as Proton Mail, Drive and Proton Pass, so it’s more than just a VPN subscription. But the best part is it’s much more transparent in terms of pricing than NordVPN and Surfshark. Unlike its competitors, Proton doesn’t increase the price astronomically when your plan renews, so while it might be more expensive at the start, it more than makes up for it when it comes to renewal.
