PrivadoVPN Free review: the best of the no-cost bunch

The cheapest PrivadoVPN plan comes in at $1.11 per month for 2 years of coverage. Plus, it also gives users access to the Control Tower, which is unavailable in the free version. Control Tower is PrivadoVPN's ad, malware, ransomware, and crypto blocker. It also houses some parental control features.

The full-fat version of PrivadoVPN includes unlimited simultaneous connections, too, servers in 67 locations, and various connection customization options.

Below, we've included a table detailing the difference in feature parity between PrivadoVPN's free and paid plans.

These are nice extras to have for more advanced users who want to tailor their VPN connection and protect multiple devices. If not having these extras isn't a deal-breaker for you, however, then PrivadoVPN Free is still a solid option that can do more than most free VPNs.

Score: 10/10

Something to keep in mind is that, unlike other free VPNs that limit user data (like Windscribe Free), PrivadoVPN Free's allowance isn't updated automatically each month.

During testing, we logged into our PrivadoVPN Free account after not using it for a while, and the app told us that our free account was ready to be "refilled to 10 gigs".

We were prompted to click a link. It opened a PrivadoVPN webpage where we logged into our account, then followed another link that opened a "Buy" page. We ignored the paid options and clicked the "Refresh Data" button under the free plan info.

This isn't a big deal, as the process was simple enough, but it's a hassle that other free VPNs don't have. Plus, if you live in a country where you can't access the PrivadoVPN website because of nationwide VPN blocks or bans, it might preclude you from using the service at all.

If you exceed the 10 GB monthly cap, PrivadoVPN Free doesn't cut you off entirely. You can still use the VPN in Lite Mode. Lite Mode users can't choose their server location (the VPN automatically selects the closest server) and are subject to throttled speeds (we saw speeds of 1 Mbps).

It's not ideal, but we're glad that some VPN access is permitted, as it'll no doubt come in handy to users who can't risk accessing the internet without protection.

PrivadoVPN Free supports the OpenVPN (UDP and TCP), WireGuard, and IKEv2 VPN protocols on all platforms. This is a pretty standard spread that gives users some flexibility.

OpenVPN provides tried-and-tested security, WireGuard is quick and ideal for streaming and gaming, and IKEv2 is well-suited for mobile devices, seeing as it remains especially stable when switching between networks (like Wi-Fi and mobile data).

During testing, we did notice an issue with the macOS implementation of WireGuard. In theory, the protocol is supported on the platform, but the app told us that we had to approve a network extension before it'd work. We followed the instructions, but couldn't find the extension.

We didn't troubleshoot the issue further to diagnose the problem, so it's possible that the issue was with our device, but we haven't experienced this with other Mac VPNs. They typically support WireGuard in full with no extra steps required.

A kill switch is an important part of any VPN's toolkit, free or paid, and PrivadoVPN's kill switch is a mixed bag (which we'll dig into in the Security section). PrivadoVPN Free also has a split-tunnelling feature called SmartRoute.

We're also glad to see that PrivadoVPN Free offers a basic auto-connect feature. It's available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices, and automatically connects the user to a server when the app starts.

It's more configurable than most free auto-connect tools, too. We were able to connect to one of four options when using Windows and Android devices: a recommended country, the last used location, a random location from our favorites list, or a random location from the full server list. The same applies to Mac devices, though iOS users miss out on this configurability.

Unfortunately, this is where PrivadoVPN Free's feature toolkit comes to an end. There's no Tor over VPN functionality that'll let you access Tor sites while also benefiting from VPN protection, and no multi-hop tools that route your connection through two (or more) VPN servers for an extra layer of encryption and security.

Again, this is what we expect from a free service. Proton VPN Free, for example, restricts its Tor over VPN and multi-hop tools to paying users.

If these features are a must-have, you'll be better off subscribing to a premium service like NordVPN or Surfshark. Both of these VPNs also come with built-in ad, tracker, and malware blocking tools.

PrivadoVPN's premium plan has its own DNS-based version of ad and malicious site protection, called Control Tower, but it's not available to free users.

Score: 5/10

These server locations are spread across 10 countries, including 4 locations in the US. There's also coverage in Europe, Asia, and South America.

Considering that there are so few options available, PrivadoVPN Free has done a good job of distributing them as evenly as possible around the world.

Another thing to keep in mind is that, during our investigation, we didn't see any mention of servers having specific limits for free users. We weren't told that free users can't stream or torrent. As far as we can tell, all free servers appear to support the same core features as those in the paid network.

PrivadoVPN Free doesn't make it clear whether it uses virtual locations. We couldn't see any icons in the server list that indicated whether a server location was real (physically hosted in that country) or virtual (physically hosted elsewhere). When we visited the Network page on the PrivadoVPN site, we couldn't find any mention of virtual servers at all.

This meant that we had to do our own hands-on testing. We tested 13 server locations to confirm that they returned IP addresses from the location they were listed under.

We found that PrivadoVPN Free makes heavy use of virtual locations. 6 of its 13 locations are really hosted in Amsterdam, 4 are hosted in Washington DC, and the 13 locations are hosted via only 7 data centers.

Some of these data centers are far from the supposed location of the server. For example, the Argentina, Brazil, and India locations are really hosted in Amsterdam. This can have a negative impact on your speeds.

If you're in India and connect to the free India server to access a local website, for example, routing your traffic to the Netherlands and back will take a toll on your overall performance.

Neither PrivadoVPN Free nor its paid alternative uses RAM-only servers, unlike ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark, and that has privacy implications. More on that in a moment.

Score: 5/10

The Data Retention clause in its privacy policy states: "We store the data we collect about you for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we originally collected it."

We've seen other VPNs say similar things, but they'll typically provide a timescale, too, like deleting your custom records two years after you delete your account. PrivadoVPN Free doesn't provide any limits, so there's no way of knowing how long it keeps hold of user data. A month? A year? Forever?

Users do have the right to contact PrivadoVPN Free and ask for the company to delete their data, but they shouldn't have to. We'd rather PrivadoVPN Free set clear limits for how long it takes for different types of data to be erased.

PrivadoVPN Free's Windows client includes an OpenVPN setting called Scramble. Once enabled, it claims to "[add] obfuscation capability to OpenVPN, allowing it to bypass network traffic sensors which aim to detect usage of the protocol and log, throttle or block it".

PrivadoVPN Free doesn't provide any information about how Scramble works, though we suspect it's a straightforward implementation of a standard OpenVPN feature.

Scramble isn't innovative, but it will come in handy to anyone who needs to conceal their VPN traffic – especially if they live in a country where VPN usage is banned, or if it's prohibited by their network administrator. We're glad to see that it's included in the free offering.

We do prefer Proton VPN's Stealth protocol, however, which is included in its free plan. Stealth is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, and is fully open-source – so there's no mystery about how it works or what it's doing to your data.

As I said in the Server Network section just above, PrivadoVPN doesn't use RAM-only servers.

We dug into the privacy policy to see if PrivadoVPN offered any justification for this decision (Proton VPN, for example, chooses not to use RAM-only servers, claiming that they offer no real security benefits). We found a relatively generic clause:

"Our infrastructure and secure servers are contained in fully locked and 24/7 monitored data facilities that are best in class.

Even if a regulatory authority physically seizes a PrivadoVPN server (assuming it could break the disk encryption) there would be no logs or information that could be tied [to] an individual user."

The second paragraph revealed a new detail to us: PrivadoVPN Free's server disks are encrypted. This is an encouraging security measure, but we need more (or any) articles detailing how it works, as well as annual audits of the infrastructure to confirm that PrivadoVPN Free is doing everything it can to safeguard user data privacy.

In happier news, PrivadoVPN Free is headquartered in Switzerland. This means that there are no mandatory data retention laws that would require it to store and log user data, and users are protected by strong Swiss privacy laws.

PrivadoVPN's split tunnelling feature is called SmartRoute. During our testing, we found that it was a very complete implementation of split tunnelling that can apply to apps, websites, and IP addresses.

It also supports Bypass (where items in a list are excluded from the VPN tunnel and use the regular, unencrypted internet) and Tunnel (where items in the list exclusively use the VPN tunnel, not the regular internet).

Split tunnelling is a useful VPN feature that allows you to pick and choose which sites, apps, and services make use of VPN encryption and geo-spoofing and which don't.

If you're connected to a VPN server but want to tune in to a local streaming platform, for instance, you can add the URL to the Bypass list (or otherwise exclude it), and you'll access the site using your original internet connection.

The implementation of split tunnelling differs depending on which device you're using PrivadoVPN Free on. The Windows and Android apps support SmartRoute for Apps, IPs, and sites. iOS supports SmartRoute for IPs and sites only.

Finally, macOS doesn't support SmartRoute at all. If you upgrade to a paid PrivadoVPN plan, you can use SmartRoute with apps, but not with IP addresses and sites, and only while using the IKEv2 protocol.

Score: 7/10

We couldn't find any evidence that PrivadoVPN Free has implemented any post-quantum encryption measures. This tracks, however, as PrivadoVPN Free is still using outdated setups for its OpenVPN encryption.

This is something we'd like to see change. VPNs like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Proton VPN have all introduced some form of post-quantum encryption into their products.

This protection is a proactive measure that'll ensure that user data isn't left vulnerable to the fallout of Q day, when quantum computers are finally able to decrypt traditional encryption methods.

PrivadoVPN Free also includes a kill switch. It's available on Windows, Mac, and Android – though this version just displays instructions on how to turn on the regular Android kill switch. There's no kill switch support for iOS unless you subscribe to a premium plan.

When we used it on Windows, we saw that there were two kill switch options, and that they work differently from most other VPNs.

Most kill switches attempt to block your device's access to the internet if the VPN connection drops. PrivadoVPN Free instead tries to suspend apps using the internet.

That's an immediate concern for us. In addition to the vague definition of what it means to "suspend" something, we can't be sure that PrivadoVPN Free can identify all "open internet applications and browsers" to suspend them. Even if it can, what about apps that aren't "open" when the VPN fails, but that try to connect later?

The usual approach of blocking internet access is simple and should work for everything; trying to identify ‘all open internet applications and browsers’ and ‘suspend’ them is complex and very unlikely to work for everything.

We decided to test this for ourselves, and we use a variety of methods. These include switching our router on and off, leaving the range of a Wi-Fi signal, and force-closing apps and processes on our devices. We then monitored what happened next.

In this instance, we connected to PrivadoVPN Free's Windows app using WireGuard. Then, we crashed the WireGuard connection to prompt the VPN connection to close.

The kill switch kicked in immediately and blocked our internet access, but the app automatically disconnected and reconnected moments later. The kill switch also stopped working for a few seconds during the reconnection process, exposing our IP address.

This is the second time we've tested PrivadoVPN Free's kill switch, and the second time we've seen this happen.

While the kill switch was down for just a few seconds, it's still long enough for someone to capture a real IP address if they were monitoring logs to see who is carrying out an internet action.

Worse still, we repeated our test with IKEv2 and OpenVPN connections with the same result. If the VPN fails, the Windows app closes the current connection and reconnects, and the kill switch isn’t active for a few seconds during the reconnection process.

We tested this for ourselves on Windows by adding Chrome to the app exclusion list, then connecting via IKEv2 and forcing the VPN to close. PrivadoVPN successfully prevented Chrome from accessing the internet in any current or new tab.

Our concern about other apps was confirmed, through. Despite the fact that our VPN connection was down and access to Chrome was blocked, we could launch Edge and immediately access the internet via our usual connection.

When we combine the results of all this testing, we have to say that PrivadoVPN Free's kill switch functionality is partial at best. There is no guaranteed way to block all internet traffic until the VPN reconnects.

If you're looking for a free VPN with a more reliable kill switch, Proton VPN Free's iteration of the tool worked like a charm – and Windows and Linux users also get access to a stricter Advanced mode.

Score: 6/10

So, PrivadoVPN Free remains the quickest free VPN we've tested. Windscribe Free is the closest runner-up at 430 Mbps, with Hotspot Shield Basic (385 Mbps) and Proton VPN Free (339 Mbps) trailing further behind.

PrivadoVPN Free's impressive performance is more than enough to keep up with daily browsing; think checking emails, scrolling through social media, and quick calls with friends or family. It'd be enough for smooth streaming, too, but the 10 GB cap doesn't really allow for this.

Once you've reached the monthly data cap, PrivadoVPN Free switches to Lite mode.

Users can still connect to a server, though they can't manually choose it themselves, and speeds are throttled. We recorded a grim performance of 1 Mbps during Lite mode – but we prefer this to being cut off entirely.

Still, as we say, this is more than fair for a free product with speed an area at which PrivadoVPN Free very much excels.

Score: 7/10

We were able to unblock UK Netflix, BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Channel 4. We were also able to access Canada and US Netflix and Disney+, and US YouTube.

We're also happy to report that PrivadoVPN Free unblocked these platforms first time, every time. At no point did we need to switch servers or locations.

There were a few stumbling blocks, however.

For a start, we were only able to access US YouTube while we were signed out of our account. When attempting to access the site while logged in, YouTube threw a "VPN/Proxy detected" notice at us no matter which US location we were connected to – and we tried with the New York, Miami, and Washington locations.

This YouTube warning also cropped up when we put Windscribe Free to the test, but only for one of the three US test locations we tried. The other two returned a sign-in request – which is YouTube's way of confirming that we weren't a bot.

This warning isn't as serious, as it means YouTube is only suspicious, and not certain, but it's still a fail overall.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to access Amazon Prime Video with any of Privado VPN Free's US servers. Seeing as Windscribe Free also failed to unblock the service, it might indicate that Amazon is harder to access at the moment.

There are no streaming-optimized servers. PrivadoVPN Free states that users should upgrade to get "enhanced streaming support", which suggests that paid users get a better experience, somehow, but even they don't have access to streaming-specific servers.

Paid and free users both choose their preferred location and hope that the streaming platform of choice works with it.

All in all, we're still impressed by PrivadoVPN Free's streaming results. They're especially impressive for a free service, with many of the best VPNs recorded very similar results when trying to access US YouTube and Prime Video.

The only real difference between PrivadoVPN Free and the best paid products is the limitation of its server network.

We couldn't use PrivadoVPN Free to unblock free streaming services and Netflix libraries in the likes of Australia, New Zealand and Japan because it doesn't have any servers there to connect to.

If that's what you need, then you need to put your hand in your pocket for a VPN instead.

Score: 7/10

PrivadoVPN Free has apps for all major platforms. This includes Windows (and Windows ARM), macOS, Android, and iOS, which covers the most popular devices.

There are also PrivadoVPN Free apps for Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV. Most VPNs now offer browser extensions for the likes of Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, but PrivadoVPN now restricts access to them for its paying customers.

Its closest competitors, Proton VPN Free and Windscribe Free, both let free users install Firefox and Chrome extensions. We'd like to see PrivadoVPN Free reverse its decision to lock browser extensions behind a paywall – after all, they're a great and lightweight way to benefit from VPN protection and geo-spoofing.

It's technically possible to set up PrivadoVPN Free on a router, and there are even a handful of setup guides on the support site. However, when we dug into them, we saw warnings that manual router configuration was only available to premium users.

Score: 3/5

This link will take you to the download page. Input your email and click the orange button, and the download will begin.

Alternatively, in your search engine of choice, searching for "PrivadoVPN Free" and selecting the link to the free VPN landing page will take you to the same place.

Thankfully, we found the download and installation process to be much more straightforward.

After creating our profile (and verifying our email address), we downloaded the installer (or the app from the App Store), punched in our login details when prompted, and PrivadoVPN Free launched without a hitch.

User experience

PrivadoVPN Free's apps all use a simple mobile-type design – even on Windows and Mac. The apps open up as a small, portrait-oriented window that tends to look better on Android and iOS.

The home panel of the app displays everything you might need access to within a few clicks. The big connect button is front and center, over the selected server location, the current IP address sits above it, and a row of icons at the bottom of the app pointed us to various key functions (kill switch, protocol selection, split tunneling, and the Control Tower – which free users don't have access to).

Hovering over these icons displays a pop-up panel with some extra information, including whether the feature is enabled or not, and which protocol is currently selected.

We liked this quickbar. It's a small quality-of-life feature, but it meant that we didn't have to search through a settings menu to find and enable the kill switch. New VPN users taking their first steps will especially appreciate these shortcuts.

All in all, we found PrivadoVPN Free much easier to navigate than Windscribe Free. While the latter is more compact, finding your way around the the various features and options takes a little longer, and there's no quick access to the tools that you'll likely use regularly.

If you want a free VPN that's as unobtrusive as possible, taking the form of a small tile until expanded, Windscribe Free could be ideal, but PrivadoVPN Free's layout is more centralized and intuitive.

The home panel clearly displays a reminder of how much data remains in the month. There's also an ever-present option to upgrade to a paid plan.

We saw this number tick down as we browsed and did our speed and torrenting tests. It's a useful bit of UI, but we noticed that different apps sometimes displayed different numbers. At one point, we saw 2.3 GB remaining on Windows and 2 GB on our iPad.

The mobile app is virtually identical to its desktop counterpart, though we felt like the long and tall design worked better on a phone screen. We saw the same connect button and IP information, and the same selected server location.

The only major difference is the tool quickbar at the bottom of the screen. It's much simpler, with shortcuts to the main VPN, Control Tower tool, and account information. Ultimately, we prefer the desktop version.

Pivoting back to the home panel and clicking the currently selected location displays PrivadoVPN Free's full location list. Unlike ExpressVPN, it doesn't pop out in a new tab – it's contained in the same slim window.

The free servers are listed right at the top, which we liked, as it meant we didn't have to sift through the entire list looking for free options.

The location list only displays country names, though. To connect to a server, we had to click a country, then choose a city from the menu that expands out. Once we clicked that, PrivadoVPN Free connected us to it.

This system isn't cumbersome, but joining a server does take one more click than it does with most other VPNs. With NordVPN, for instance, it's possible to connect to the fastest server in a country by clicking the country name and nothing else. You only have to expand the country menu if you want to choose a particular city.

The location list is sorted by latency but defaults with the closest geographical servers at the top of the list. That's useful in theory but, in practice, there's a problem.

As we mentioned in our Servers section, most of PrivadoVPN Free's servers are located in just a handful of places: the Netherlands and Washington, US. It meant that, in the UK, when we opened our location list, we saw India ahead of the UK.

This makes some sense, as both servers are hosted in the Netherlands, and ping times are likely so similar that the servers could be listed in any order. For first time users accessing PrivadoVPN Free's location list, however, it might look like nonsense. There's no way, geographically, that Indian or Brazilian servers should have lower latency for a UK user than the actual UK server.

Fortunately, it's possible to sort the servers alphabetically, which is far more logical.

We were also glad to see that the location list has a Favorites system. Adding servers to this list is as simple as tapping the star next to the individual server you'd like to include. Then, they're accessible via the tab at the top of the app.

The options menu expands the PrivadoVPN Free app on desktop, which we appreciated, as it gave the UI more room to breathe.

This is where you'll find the auto-connect, kill switch, and account options, and most of them are formatted as a simple checkbox.

For instance, we when wanted to switch protocols, we unchecked the box that had PrivadoVPN Free automatically choose one for us, then checked the box next to WireGuard.

On mobile, the settings are where PrivadoVPN's Free features are housed. It generally takes an extra tap or two to find a feature and enable it than it does on desktop. Auto-connect, for example, is listed under the "VPN" settings, and after tapping on the feature, we're taken to another menu where we can toggle it on or off.

Most mobile VPNs work this way, though, in order not to overload the user's screen with text, checkboxes, and toggles.

Despite the extra legwork, we preferred PrivadoVPN Free's mobile apps, though they work just as well on desktop.

Score: 3/5

It is worth noting that this test only covers a single page on the provider's website and, as a result, only gives us a general indicator of a VPN's accessibility credentials.

PrivadoVPN also has no accessibility-specific features that we could find. Plus, its free plan lacks some of the most useful automation options – like the option to automatically connect when accessing potentially dangerous free Wi-Fi hotspots. Like most of PrivadoVPN's most powerful tools, it's restricted to paying customers.

We were also disappointed to see that PrivadoVPN Free has no support for Siri Shortcuts to enable voice control on Apple devices.

PrivadoVPN Free does, however, have decent language support, offering 16 in total. It's a number that still trails behind other providers, like Proton VPN (28), but it's on par with leading premium services. ExpressVPN, for instance, has 17 languages, and NordVPN and Surfshark both offer 13.

Popular languages are readily available, like English, Chinese (simplified and traditional), French, Spanish, and Russian. We'd like to see more included in the future, though, like Japanese, Arabic, and Korean.

Finally, we tested PrivadoVPN Free's keyboard support. This is an important part of app accessibility. If a user can't operate a mouse, they should still be able to access every feature of a VPN app with their keyboard.

We stopped using our mouse in favour of our keyboard, and used standard Windows keypresses like Tab and Enter to navigate the app, open lists, and click buttons. We aimed to see what we can and can't access.

PrivadoVPN Free did not perform well here, either. We were unable to do virtually anything. After hitting Tab and the arrow keys multiple times, we managed to reach the location list, but little else.

The PrivadoVPN Free app doesn't display a consistent focus rectangle to highlight the active part of the window and guide navigation, and it doesn't appear to support standard Windows keyboard navigation rules in any consistent way.

Score: 1/5

We found the support site nice and easy to search through, too, and it did a good job of sorting results into a sensible order.

When we searched for speed, for example, the first three hits were practical and relevant: a guide on performing a speed test, another on how to speed up the VPN connection, and an explainer covering the differences between UDP and TCP.

As we dug deeper, we did notice questionable information in some articles.

‘How to speed up my PrivadoVPN connection’ suggested users try another protocol, for instance, but suggested that IKEv2 was the fastest option. In our experience, WireGuard is much faster, and telling users otherwise is likely to cause problems. It also leaves us wondering what other dubious recommendations the database might contain.

All in all, the support site doesn't compare to the polished and in-depth libraries of NordVPN and ExpressVPN. Still, most articles contain genuinely useful content, although it helps if you’ve the experience to spot poor advice like ‘IKEv2 is fastest’ and focus on the quality information.

Score: 3/5

It's also worth noting that these Trustpilot ratings pertain to the entire PrivadoVPN service and not just its free tier.

PrivadoVPN's mobile app ratings are good. We interpret this as meaning that people who are expressing their experience with the service are reasonably happy. We also think that low scores are more likely to come from paid users who have higher expectations of what they want for their money.

When we looked at the latest one-star reviews, they do seem to mostly come from paying customers.

One of these reviews says: ‘I needed a VPN and tried the Free tier. It seemed to work fine, but a lot of websites (Google, YouTube, Reddit) are "blocked due to abuse," as you'd expect from a free VPN’, before going on to say that they signed up to try and fix the issue, but it didn’t help.

We also noticed that other one star reviews claimed that PrivadoVPN's locations were "fake", claiming to be in one place but giving a location in the Netherlands, for example.

PrivadoVPN does host a lot of locations in the Netherlands, true, but users are heading to sites like iplocation.net, reading that the location is supposedly in the Netherlands and assuming that’s true. But it’s almost certainly not; it’s just that these sites don’t have the latest IP data yet.

We experienced this for ourselves during this testing period. We saw a Netherlands location when it shouldn't shown somewhere else, and only updated after we tried other sources.

Overall, while PrivadoVPN Free's Trustpilot scores aren't great, they're not a disaster, and there are strong reasons to believe free users are happier about the service.

We also took a look at the US ratings in the Google Play, the App Store and the Chrome Extension Store.

PrivadoVPN lags behind the majority of the competition across the board. However, like its Trustpilot rating, these scores cover the entire service, including the paid VPN plans. It's possible that free users rate PrivadoVPN far higher than the scores we see here.

Still, an Android app score of 3.5 is very low. When we studied Android ratings previously, the middle 50% of Android VPN apps rate between 4.0 and 4.5, and the bottom 10% score 3.5 or lower. We don’t blindly trust reviews, but this is bad, and it’s getting worse.

The percentage of one star reviews also looks significant. PrivadoVPN has three to five times as many one star reviews (as a proportion of the total) as the other providers here. Users aren’t just gently deciding PrivadoVPN isn’t quite right for their needs; they seem to actively dislike it.