The best free VPN in 2025

You can read more about that in the Windscribe Free product section lower down▼.

The last of our free VPN comparison tables outlines the security smarts of each of our recommended products.

Each category has a considerable bearing on how safe you'll be online using them.

You'll notice that Proton VPN Free stands out as the most secure VPN of the bunch with a tick in every box.

Again, you can read more about Proton VPN's security offer in its product section lower down on the page▼.

Then we dig into the software for ourselves on the four major platforms (Android, iPhone, Mac and Windows) and check for any old and unaddressed VPN vulnerabilities. We examine the configuration files for the VPN protocols, check that appropriate encryption is present, and that each protocol works as expected.

Once up and running, we make sure that the VPN connects when it says it does and that there are no local IP address leaks when we trigger its kill switch.

We ping all the free VPN servers to check that their real locations match those advertised by the service provider.

We run any anti-malware features through our custom tool which serves up the 50 most recent phishing attack sites, and we score how many it can spot.

We also test any ad blockers up against third-party ad-serving websites to see if it can blot them all out.

For speed testing, we use a lab-based cloud computer set-up to ensure that our results aren’t affected by any local traffic demands on our ISP. We use a 1 Gbps line and take speed measurements for both WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, at different times of day, for both local and trans-Atlantic server connections.

That allows us to create a more representative picture of each VPN provider's infrastructure in terms of both hardware quality and server capacity. We take an average of the speeds measured for our overall performance score.

Finally, we perform live tests of the VPN’s help and support. We contact the live chat, if available, with a complicated query. We sift through the FAQs and troubleshooting sections of their websites and we email customer service to see how quickly they get back to us and how much help they offer.

Outside of the lab environment we perform real-world user testing of each free VPN. All team members use them on their own devices and check usability. We meet as a group to reflect on our personal experiences with these products and to highlight any common concerns or perceived advantages.

If we’re unsure about how a feature works, then we contact the VPN companies for clarification. We have good lines of communication with most free VPNs companies who are usually happy to supply the details.

We do receive affiliate payments from most VPN companies should our readers click through and subscribe. Between this and display advertising, this is how we are able to keep TechRadar free to read.

Affiliate payments for free VPN companies are small. Windscribe does not pay at all. We nonetheless recommend it as one of the best free VPNs because it's an excellent free product.

Below are the only five free VPNs that we would suggest to use and why we've chosen them.

You’ll need good, uncrowded 1 Gbps service from your ISP and you’ll need an up-to-date device that’s powerful enough to handle the encryption/decryption processes of the VPN, otherwise you’ll experience some performance lag.

This is why we perform our lab testing in idealised cloud computer conditions to highlight best possible performance and on recent, high spec devices.

That said, we’re very happy with our VPN testing process and we're confident that these are the best free VPNs available right now.

Part of PrivadoVPN’s handy streaming package is that there are 10 different countries with free servers, all of which we could choose from as we pleased. Only Windscribe Free equals that, although the locations themselves are a little different.

These include India, Mexico and Canada as well as European and US locations. It’s also the only free VPN here with servers in South America (Argentina and Brazil). That meant access to Canadian Netflix and local streaming, as well as sport-heavy services in India, Mexico and Brazil with boxing, football and cricket all on the schedule.

On a practical level, this spread of servers is particularly good for those based in south Asia and the Americas who should have optimal performance with less distance for their data to travel to their nearest PrivadoVPN free server. In fact, it's the only free VPN on this list to cover India and South America.

Kill switch and split tunneling

We ran successful tests of PrivadoVPN Free's kill switch in our lab. It's a feature that drops the connection to the internet every time the VPN is disabled. We didn't register any leaks of our home IP each time we tried.

We also really like the split tunneling feature called Smart Route. Making lists of apps that we did and didn't want to route through the VPN tunnel was simple. It's a great way to save your monthly data allowance, particularly if you make sure all of your video and audio services don't have to go through PrivadoVPN's servers, for example.

We were able to do the same thing using Windscribe but there's no split tunneling available on Proton VPN Free. There’s no data cap to worry about either but it’s useful to have the option to pick and choose what goes through the VPN tunnel to maximize performance as much as anything else.

No hard data limit

Unlike Proton VPN, PrivadoVPN Free does have a 10 GB per month data limit on the free plan – and we’ll get to that just below when we discuss this VPN’s downsides – but, unlike Windscribe, which also has a usage cap, PrivadoVPN Free never truly cuts you off if you go over it.

We received a message saying we'd exceeded our data limit at around the 11 GB-mark and a button to upgrade to the premium plan. Once we said no, our speed was throttled to between 2 - 4 Mbps each time we connected.

Something else to consider, should streaming be a priority, is that PrivadoVPN Free doesn’t have any servers in Oceania. While this is the case across most free VPN services, that did mean we were mostly kept to accessing UK and US streaming services. If you want to watch the free sports and TV on Australian services like 9Now or 10Play, then a paid VPN is really the only option.

Aside from this, the most significant drawback is that you can only connect one of your devices to your PrivadoVPN Free account. Obviously, you can make up another set of credentials for every device you have but none of the settings would sync across, of course. If that’s a red line for you, then try Windscribe and its unlimited device connections instead.

App deficiencies

Outside of that, the only gripes we have are with some of the apps. Linux users need to install their own OpenVPN configuration from PrivadoVPN onto a third-party client.

People installing PrivadoVPN Free on desktop might also complain that the app feels as though it’s more of a mobile port, rather than a desktop app in its own right but it’s only Proton VPN on this list that looks slick from top to bottom.

Aside from that, PrivadoVPN poses no reason for concern. Having only entered the VPN market in 2019, it has yet to have any incidents with the law that might have put the service under unwanted scrutiny or caused any handovers of user data. Long may that last.

Plus, since it’s based in Switzerland, PrivadoVPN is not required to share data in the same way as other providers due to Switzerland’s separation from most intelligence sharing agreements across the NATO and EU nations. So, should an agency or government from another country come asking for PrivadoVPN’s user data, it’s highly likely to be denied.

One of the biggest attractions of Proton VPN Free is its user-interface. After a recent overhaul of the Proton VPN mobile and Windows apps the service is a premium experience from top to bottom in a way that none of the others on this list can really match. You get the same look, feel and features as the paid Proton VPN Plus plan which we rate as one of the best paid VPNs too.

Apart from the look and feel, it's the scope to learn that's appealing, certainly on the desktop apps. Almost every setting and slider comes with a pop-up explanation of what it does which we found encouraging as a way to explore the features.

You don't get quite the same on mobile, unfortunately, but the app is at least consistent in the way it's laid out and there is still some good information in important areas. The protocol menu, for instance, does an excellent job of outlining when you might want to choose UDP over TCP and how WireGuard, OpenVPN and Stealth all differ.

Unlike most of the free VPNs on this page, Proton VPN doesn’t push too hard to get you to upgrade and we like that. Compare that to Hide.me Free which has a banner at the top of the screen at all times telling you that ‘Your experience is limited’ and we found that gets a bit tiresome pretty quickly.

It’s part of Proton’s core mission to offer its product for free and it opens up servers for free access in regions that are in crisis where there are high internet restrictions and people who may not have the money to pay.

Customer and community support

Lastly, if you're looking for a free VPN with excellent support, then Proton VPN is the best of the bunch.

Proton has a status page where you can view any known system problems over the past few days. For example, at the time of writing we can see that the free servers and all the mobile and desktop apps, and browser extensions are all listed as operational.

If that still doesn't explain your issue, the in-app help menus are actually pretty comprehensive. After that, we'd jump straight to the 24/7 live chat customer service. There's also email ticket support and the best VPN subreddit you'll find.

When we last looked in there were 80 new posts over a 7 day period. Only 4 of them had no replies. Windscribe's 22 posts with 2 no replies is closest of those on this list but far less impressive. You want a VPN with a seriously useful and engaged community? Proton VPN is it.

On the topic of connections, something we noted during our testing was that after around 4 GB of data usage, our speeds became significantly slower than the 335 Mbps we’d peaked at. After reaching this limit, we saw speeds drop to below 10 Mbps, making it much more difficult to go about more connection-intensive online activities and effectively dismissing any thoughts of streaming while connected.

This meant that we couldn't really stream for long with Proton VPN's free tier, and the same was true for P2P support when we gave that a shot. It all ground down to a very low speed once we got a few GB in. If you want a VPN for torrenting, then you need to look elsewhere.

Very few features

Another downside to Proton VPN Free is the lack of extras included in the free package. With the no-cost plan, what you get is the VPN with kill switch functionality, full protocol access (WireGuard, OpenVPN and Stealth), auto-connect – and that’s it.

It’s not uncommon to get a pretty bare experience with a free VPN but Proton VPN Free is particularly stripped back. Even split tunneling is missing which is a shame because it’s an excellent way to exclude apps from your connection should they not function properly when connecting via a VPN.

For a feature-packed VPN with a full suite of ad-blocking, malware blocking and more, Windscribe is the one to choose.

This is the kind of level of attention to security that we trust. While Windscribe has taken part in sporadic auditing, with sometimes quite alarming results, it's only Proton VPN that does things properly from top to bottom on this list.

Alongside this, Proton VPN Free doesn’t skimp on the protocols offered either. Included in the free plan are OpenVPN and WireGuard over both UDP (for speed) and TCP (reliability) and, crucially, Proton VPN’s proprietary Stealth protocol.

Launched in 2022, it is custom built and what the company claims as an "undetectable VPN protocol that can bypass most firewalls and VPN blocking methods".

Most users won’t need Stealth but it will be a life-saving protocol for journalists or civilians in areas of strict internet restrictions who need access to the web privately and securely.

If you need a free VPN you can count on for security, then we believe it's Proton's.

One reason behind this consistent performance is that the 13 servers that Windscribe Free users get to enjoy are some of the same ones that the paid subscribers use. So, there’s no second class treatment of free customers, just a more limited selection of locations.

According to Windscribe, all of the servers available to free users are physically in those places and not virtual. We checked the 13 listed cities for their likely true locations and they all very much lined up.

Those server locations are pretty comparable to PrivadoVPN and Hide.me – the only other VPNs on our list with a decent number of choices – with plenty of options in North America and Europe but Windscribe does also have its Hong Kong service for a closer connection for those in Asia and, to an extent, Oceania too. That means that users in those continents have a decent chance of a good connection speed rather than having to access the internet via servers all the way over in Europe.

Rarely denied access

For part of our VPN testing we navigate to 15 sites that we know are excellent at spotting and blocking VPN usage. Windscribe successfully avoided detection by 7 of them. That’s better than most VPNs manage – paid or otherwise – and that’s impressive for a free product. That indicates to us that you’ll not only be able to access most services you need when using Windscribe Free, but you’ll also be less likely to run into CAPTCHAs and other security hassles as well.

To get the best of this, we manually selected Windscribe’s obfuscation-focused protocols. These are WSTunnel and Stealth protocols which try to conceal your VPN traffic by further tunneling it through an extra layer (web sockets or SSL.)

Obfuscation features

There’s also a Circumvent Censorship feature which you can toggle on and off. How does it work? “If we told you, we would have to kill you,” says the Windscribe website and it has a point. You’re not likely to remain obfuscated much longer if it gives away its secret sauce. What Windscribe does say, though, is that it’s designed to help bypass blocking and censorship in countries that aggressively block VPNs.

Finally, it’s worth checking out the Decoy Traffic experimental feature. It aims to prevent traffic-based detection for its users because, even when encrypted, it’s possible to identify a person behind a VPN by matching your data usage (exact upload and download volumes and the times at which it’s done) with your ISP’s records.

So, Decoy Traffic generates random traffic through the VPN tunnel, adding noise to the picture and ensuring that no match can be made.

Watch out if you do use Decoy traffic, though. We noticed it ate through our data allowance at an accelerated rate.

You can set it to three different levels ranging between 1.74 GB – 16.6 GB per hour! So, definitely not something to engage in heavily on the free plan.

Unblocks streaming services

We use an automated test rig to see if VPNs can access paid global streaming services as well as local free ones too. We were able to unblock all the Netflix libraries of the countries where Windscribe Free has a server. That includes the US, UK and Canada.

We found the same with Prime Video, Disney Plus and YouTube in the same regions. Windscribe’s UK server allowed us to stream from BBC iPlayer, ITV and Channel 4 as well.

Windscribe Free is actually slightly ahead of PrivadoVPN Free for streaming given PrivadoVPN struggled with Prime Video. Neither VPN has servers in either Australia or Japan, though, which are both popular destinations for unblocking Netflix libraries and local free streaming services.

The actual streaming quality of the two is very similar – both are good once connected with no drop-outs or serious picture quality squeezes.

It’s very difficult to fault Windscribe Free VPN at a streaming performance level. It’s only the hard 15 GB data limit that will stop you from getting more out of it.

Split tunneling

Split tunneling is available on Windows, Linux and Android and is excellent with more configuration on offer than most of the competition. In our tests we chose to create an ‘Inclusive’ list of apps which use the VPN tunnel, as well as an ‘Exclusive’ list of apps that don’t and that saved us a lot of time when we only wanted to route Netflix through Windscribe’s servers, for example, while still getting our local headlines delivered by our news app.

Don’t be put off if these features sound like more than you want to get into. Despite what you might read elsewhere, we think that Windscribe Free VPN is actually pretty easy to use. Almost every feature and option has a nice, short explainer of what it’s all about and there’s a very friendly tone to the product (from the website to the apps).

R.O.B.E.R.T. ad-blocker and antivirus

You get some excellent advert, pop-up, and tracker-blocking through R.O.B.E.R.T. with Windscribe Free VPN. It’s a customizable DNS blocking tool that we found protected us from malware more successfully than many dedicated antivirus apps. Windscribe Free blocked 46% of the 50 malware hosting links that we ran its way. VIPRE Antivirus Plus (a dedicated AV) only blocked 34% in our recent review.

R.O.B.E.R.T. is a long way behind the Bitdefender, one of the best antivirus suites, with its 80% score but Windscribe is designed to run alongside a specialist antivirus tool, not replace it entirely.

You don’t need to know much to use R.O.B.E.R.T.. Just toggle the things you don’t want to see (malware, ads, social networks, porn, gambling content and any specific domains) and you won’t be bothered by them.

Reading the normally very ad-heavy national news sites became a much better experience when we tried it with R.O.B.E.R.T.. There were still big gaps in the copy of the articles but they were simply blank rather than covered in flashy adverts and videos.

Pro tip: It’s well worth using the ad blocker on the Windscribe Free plan. Ads use more data, so it saves you a little on your monthly limit. Cutting out the ads, trackers and all the rest of the filler on a typical daily newspaper web page (we used a sports story on The Mirror) saved us about 1 MB each time. It may not sound huge but it quickly adds up.

The instructions on the Windscribe website asked us to write something funny on X. We wrote something pretty straight and got the extra 5 GB all the same, and in an instant too. Head to your Windscribe account online and look for the Tweet 4 Data button on your Account Overview page.

Data doesn't last long

We switched on Windscribe on our Android test device with just the 2 GB data limit and left it running as we went about our regular internet use of browsing, emails, messaging, streamed music and the odd short video and that 2 GB did not last long. We were down to 0.33 GB after day 2. If you’re going to add TV and movie streaming to that, then you really should use a paid plan of some sort or be prepaid to use Windscribe only very sparingly.

The only other missed opportunity is that you can’t install Windscribe on your router with the free tier because you can’t download the configuration files without a Pro or Build-A-Plan subscription but that’s less likely to be a deal-breaker for most.

Windscribe’s desktop apps were last audited in 2021, and the Android app in 2022. On both occasions the auditors, Leviathan Security Group, reported findings that pointed towards a less than professional set-up involving just a single developer, a lack of comments through the codebase and a custom-built system dependent on Python 2 which was past its end-of-life date.

Those issues were addressed by Windscribe but it underlined a feel of an approach that’s not quite as professional and rock solid as some others on the market, particularly Proton in this comparison.

Jurisdiction

The other mark in the negative column for privacy is that Windscribe is based in Canada which is a member of the Five Eyes international information sharing security alliance, but arguably that doesn't matter.

Windscribe was recently required to hand over its user data after a two-year-long legal battle. As it turned out, there simply was no data that it could submit, proving both Windscribe's no-logs credentials and its security at the same time.

Data security

Free tier users specifically have nothing further to worry about either. Like PrivadoVPN and Proton, Windscribe operates a freemium financial model. It doesn’t sell your data or serve ads to make money from the free plan customers. It just hopes they will upgrade to the paid version at some point. You can read more about its ethics here.

Customer support

You’re even covered pretty well by customer support on the free plan if you do have any difficulties with the product. Garry the chatbot was our first port of call when we struggled to blacklist individual domains using R.O.B.E.R.T.. It pointed us to some actually pretty helpful information in Windscribe’s on-site FAQ and knowledge base.

We raised a ticket for support too. We got a response with similar instructions 22 hours later. Windscribe states that paid customers don’t wait as long.

Not sure about the distinction between IPv4 and IPv6? Don't worry – it won't matter too much if you're totally new to the world of VPNs. Essentially, an "IP" is an internet protocol, a numerical tag assigned to every device that can access the web, and every website. "v4" and "v6" refer to the version of these protocols – and we needed a new version because, believe it or not, we're actually running out of IPv4 addresses to hand out to our devices! Most of the internet still uses IPv4, however, some devices are now compatible with shiny new IPv6 addresses.

So, if you know your device uses an IPv6 address, Hide.me Free allows you to select IPv6 right out of the box without worrying about leaks. This is even a deeper level of control than our top paid VPN provider of choice, NordVPN.

As for the VPN protocol itself, it’s pretty standard stuff with OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2 and a protocol of obfuscation. What is a little different though is the in-app “fallback protocol” option (not available on mobile). We chose the SSTP stealth protocol as the fallback choice should the default or our first choice protocol fail.

That meant we didn’t have to fiddle around too much when WireGuard got spotted when we tried to connect Hide.me to the NHS free Wi-Fi on a visit to hospital. Hide.me just went straight to SSTP and got us protected and online without having to think about it.

Programmable Auto Connect

Our favorite Hide.me Free feature, though, has got to be Auto Connect. It’s got to be one of the best auto connects on a VPN anywhere and it’s something that, unlike tunnel protocol, most people are really going to use, and enjoy.

Naturally, it meant that Hide.me would leap into action whenever we switched on our test devices. What we loved, though, was that we could set it to auto connect based on which network we were using (Connect or Disconnect) and, better still, that we could set what action we’d like it to take.

So, for example, we set Hide.me Free to Ignore Network whenever we were on an Ethernet network, because we felt safe enough. We set all Unsecured Wi-Fi to Enable VPN and all Secured Wi-Fi to Ask, so that we could make our own decision depending on where we were and whether we trusted the infrastructure.

We noticed that Hide.me Free actually integrates with Siri on iOS too. So, we even tried connecting and disconnecting with voice commands on our test iPhone. It felt a bit silly and not really something we could see ourselves doing much but it’s certainly unique among the VPNs on this page and it definitely works.

The Auto Connect feature is available on desktop apps as described, and on Android and iOS apps with one mobile-oriented variation: they drop the choice for Ethernet Networks, but they add a choice for Mobile Networks.

On top of this, every time Auto Connect learns that you consider a specific network safe, it adds it to a Trusted list. We really like this feature. Having the VPN curate the list itself is a massive timesaver. Other apps expect you to build the list manually yourself.

Once Hide.me Free has built up a decent record of your most-used networks, you can just toggle on the Auto-Connect tool and let it take care of the rest.

Configurable kill switch

True to form, we like the Hide.me’s kill switch too. Why? Yes, you guessed it. Because it’s highly configurable in a way you simply won’t find with other best free and paid VPNs.

It’s called Network Protection and it shut down any possible home IP address leaks whenever we pulled down the VPN tunnel, on all four major platforms that we test on, including iOS.

Where it gets clever is that you can configure a script that the app launches if the kill switch is triggered or disabled. So, it might send you an alert or message to let you know it’s been disabled or force the closure of a certain process that you really don’t want to risk any data leaks from. It’s up to you.

Obviously, this is not a beginner feature. You’ll need a lot of technical skills to make it work but if the thought of that gets your mind whirring with ideas, then Hide.me Free is probably a great choice for you.

All those toys can be quite overwhelming for new users but you do get a handy tutorial tour when you first install the app. When we did inevitably forget most of what it showed us, we were grateful to the search box feature in the desktop apps which made finding each setting a whole lot simpler. Again, that’s not something we’ve seen in many other VPN services, and certainly no others on this page.

Once we had every setting the way we wanted, we used Hide.me Free’s Lock feature to make sure no one could tinker with it, even if they did manage to get onto our devices. Obviously, there are third-party PIN locks you can use on mobile but it’s particularly welcome on the desktop apps.

Works well for P2P

If you're looking for the best free VPN for torrenting, then Hide.me is a solid option choice.

That's because it has seven carefully placed P2P servers spread over Europe and North America to make sure most customers have one nearby for optimal torrenting performance. You don't even need to give away your personal details when you sign up. Just an email address will do.

Be warned, though: Hide.me apps are quite complex. Newbies might want to opt for something a little more beginner-friendly.

That’s because Hide.me Free is bare. If the Spartans used VPNs it would be this one. On mobile, it’s a list of servers, a list of settings, a big blue screen with a button and a permanent yellow banner at the top of the screen urging you to upgrade. There are scam VPNs with UIs that look less suspicious.

On desktop, Hide.me is more interesting. There’s a screen where you can customise widgets for your use but, really, it’s not much help. This VPN just isn’t aesthetically a work of art, and that’s fine. You just need to be prepared for that.

Slow speeds

The data may be unlimited but we found Hide.me Free's speeds the slowest of all the free VPNs here. Most of the time, we clocked it in at around just 25 Mbps. Now, that's not actually as bad as it sounds given that a lot of people's internet connections aren't much quicker.

The real trouble was that we found ourselves throttled all the way down to 1 Mbps after a few speed and torrent tests. It seems likely that we overstepped some kind of invisible data use threshold. Hide.me Free used to have a data limit of 10 GB, so it could well be that it dropped us down once we passed that.

Hide.me doesn’t advertise to its free users in the apps. It doesn’t sell any user data either, because it doesn’t keep any. It generates a random username and internally-assigned (not public) IP address, when users connect, and any data related to the session links only to that ID. The company says that means ‘All the usage data is anonymous and not connected to your real, public IP address..’ and that very much tallies with how this system is set up.

Like most VPNs, Hide.me apps do save information on crash reports and related telemetry around app and server usage, and troubleshooting information back to base but this is anonymized and not linked to you personally. It’s about Hide.me understanding and managing server traffic and any infrastructure problems that arise. None of it relates to your browsing and, as such, we’re happy to count Hide.me Free as a no-logs service.

No post-quantum encryption

Hide.me Free offers a respectable choice of protocols, including: OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, and SoftEther. OpenVPN is the best choice for obfuscation but you’d be better placed to go for Proton VPN if that’s a key consideration for your

WireGuard with AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption is the regular Automatic choice for Hide.me Free. The company told TechRadar it was working on delivering a post-quantum encryption solution in 2024.

While these measures haven't arrived yet, the custom dynamic WireGuard configuration provides at least some resistance in the meantime, which is more than any other free provider in our list (aside from Windscribe Free) can claim.

Neither is a patch on NordVPN, though, which has recently extended its PQE (post-quantum encryption) across all of its apps. If you’re looking to stay super-secure into the next generation of computing, then do go straight to NodVPN.

That said, the distance between servers might only have a nominal impact on internet speeds – something we put to the test during our real-world testing. From our UK base, we connected to a Hotspot Shield Basic server in the UK and recorded speeds of 12.08 Mbps. Repeating the test and, instead, connecting to a Singapore-based server, we saw speeds dip slightly to 11.09 Mbps. It's not a massive difference, but perhaps something to factor in if you’re looking to optimize your online connection performance.

The good news is that all of Hotspot Shield Basic’s servers are located exactly where they’re advertised – unlike Hide.me Free, where we can’t tell if its Finnish server is really in Finland or Estonia. This means you won’t get any unpleasant surprises if you join a server, expecting to access specific regional content, only to find that the server is based in an entirely different country.

Easy to use apps

During our testing, we were impressed by Hotspot Shield Basic’s app interface. It looks great, and the black UI, combined with the colorful flags on the server list, gives it some stylish flair. It took us a while to get used to the layout on desktop at first. Hotspot Shield Basic displays server locations as tiles rather than a more traditional list – like you’ll find with PrivadoVPN Free and the rest of our top picks. Ultimately, this meant we had to scroll a little more to find the exact connection point we wanted, but the search bar also allowed us to punch in the name of the server directly, instead.

When investigating the Hotspot Shield Basic Android app, we found a surprisingly versatile feature. The Connection Center houses a ton of auto-connect options that we were able to tweak to ensure that the VPN was always active, and always protecting our data, without having to manually toggle it on or off.

So, for example, it’s possible to tell the VPN to automatically connect when the device boots up, when a particular app launches (like a torrenting client), when joining an unsecure network, or when joining a cellular network. Other than Hide.me Free, which has Hotspot Shield Basic beat in terms of granular control, this is a level of auto-connect customizability that's only matched by Windscribe Free. However, an important caveat to keep in mind here is that the Mac and iOS apps do not have any auto-connect options, which is pretty disappointing. If that's a deal-breaker, you should try Windscribe or Hide.me Free, instead.

Solid speeds

We were pleased by Hotspot Shield Basic’s speeds during testing, too. When using the WireGuard protocol and our 1 Gbps testing line, the VPN came in at 385 Mbps. That’s good for a free service, and is quicker than Proton VPN Free and Hide.me Free. At 900 Mbps, though, PrivadoVPN Free and Windscribe Free still lead the pack.

Still, Hotspot Shield Basic’s results, combined with the unlimited data, ensured that we never encountered any slow-loading pages or lag hiccups as we went about our usual browsing. And, ultimately, it’s important to remember that 385 Mbps is still way above most people’s home connection speeds anyway.

This wasn’t a one-off, either. We recorded similar results after multiple connections and sessions. Digging further, we noticed that Hotspot Shield’s UK server typically had a 95% load, compared to 70-80% for the USA. The UK free servers were just too busy to deliver high-speed results and, ultimately, meant Hotspot Shield Basic might not be the best choice for users in the UK or Europe. You're better off with PrivadoVPN Free or Windscribe Free.

Limited VPN protocols for iOS

On the subject of protocols, Hotspot Shield Basic only offers two to most of its free users: WireGuard and Hydra. You’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan to gain access to IKEv2 if you’re using anything other than a Mac.

This could be a red flag for folks who primarily use a VPN on their phone, as IKEv2 is quick and stable, keeping connections secure and steady even when switching between Wi-Fi networks and mobile data. Most of our top picks, like PrivadoVPN Free and Proton VPN Free, offer three protocols to their entire user base. So, Hotspot Shield falls behind, here.

There’s also an odd disparity across platforms - best illustrated in the table below.

This massive variation can be disruptive if, for example, you’re using Hotspot Shield Free on your iPhone and want to tune the service for maximum privacy and security by switching to the Hydra protocol. You simply won’t have the choice.

Hotspot Shield Basic comes with one single connection. Windscribe is the only one of our free VPN recommendations that comes with more. Given that we didn’t need any credentials to start using Hotspot Shield Basic in the first place, though, it wasn’t very difficult to just install the app on all of our devices anyway. The only downside, of course, is that any settings changes (switching protocols or adjusting auto-connect options, etc), didn’t sync across to our other pieces of hardware.

Windows kill switch incompatible with WireGuard

One of the biggest downsides to Hotspot Shield Basic’s entire offering is its core features. We always investigate a VPN’s kill switch. They prevent accidental data leaks if the VPN connection fails. Hotspot Shield Basic’s kill switch worked well enough during testing, cutting our internet connection reliably, but we encountered problems when attempting to customize it on our Windows machine.

On Windows, the kill switch only works with the Hydra protocol - it’s incompatible with WireGuard, and that’s an issue given that WireGuard is the one most users tend to choose for its maximal speeds.

It’s been years since we’ve seen a Windows VPN app without a WireGuard kill switch, and it’s especially surprising for a provider as big as Hotspot Shield. Worse yet, when we navigated to the settings, we found that the app will silently turn off the kill switch if you change the protocol to WireGuard later, leaving users unprotected from IP and data leaks without even realizing. This is very poor design.

It’s also worth noting that Hotspot Shield Basic does not offer kill switch support for iOS, unless you upgrade to a premium plan. In fact, the iOS app in general is pretty weak. It doesn’t come with IKEv2, a kill switch, or split tunneling.. If you’re on the hunt for a reliable free VPN for mobile, you’re much better off with Proton VPN Free and its sleek iOS offering.

Displays adverts to mobile users

Hotspot Shield Basic also holds a unique place in our rankings as the only service that displays ads, although this is only on its mobile apps – yet another reason for iPhone users to stay away.

On Android and iOS there are video ads on the app, and we found them to be just as disruptive as you can imagine. Our Android app displayed a permanent text ad in the Hotspot Shield Basic window while we were connected, which ate up screen space, and displayed a video ad when we disconnected from any server.

The only upside here is that it was a single video that we were able to mute with a tap, though we did have to wait around five seconds at the end before we could close out of it and continue using the app.

For us, this makes Hotspot Shield Basic more viable as a desktop VPN, but, even then, Windscribe Free has it beat in terms of features, UI, and speed.

Blocks streaming service sites

Finally, Hotspot Shield Basic failed to impress when we put its streaming capabilities under the microscope. We couldn’t unblock a single streaming service, including Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and ITVX. This is a stark comparison to PrivadoVPN Free, one of the only free services, besides Windscribe Free and Hide.me Free, that offers reliable access to the likes of Netflix and more.

On the subject of Netflix, we experienced an odd hiccup during testing. Hotspot Shield Basic actively blocks some streaming sites – Netflix included. While connected to a US server, we tried to visit Netflix and were greeted by a pop-up alert that said: “Oops! Access to this content is a paid feature”.

We can understand why Hotspot Shield Basic does this. It’s giving users unlimited data for free and doesn’t want to encourage folks to use more by supporting unimpeded streaming. Still, preventing us from even looking at the site is harsh, and certainly not what any user, free or otherwise, will expect.

Ultimately, then, we have to wonder what the unlimited data policy is all about – so that people can browse as much as they like with a VPN or so that Hotspot Shield Basic can serve as many video ads as possible?

When we investigated Hotspot Shield’s privacy policy, we didn’t find any reference to special infrastructure it might have to protect user data. Instead, we found a relatively generic claim that the service does not record any browsing activity in a way that can be traced back to the individual.

Hotspot Shield does collect domain names that users visit (not full URLs) but they aren’t recorded in combination with anything that might identify an individual or device, which means the service can still be called a no-logs VPN.

It’s also encouraging to see that Hotspot Shield invited an independent auditor, Aeon, to comb through its privacy policy in 2023. The results were positive but the scope of the review was small.

The audit didn’t dig into the source code or have full access to servers. Instead, it focused on logs and interviews with staff. That’s better than nothing but it’s no substitute for the kind of in-depth audit that Windscribe undertook in 2024 or the ones that Proton VPN undergoes every year.

Some data collected

We did notice that Hotspot Shield collects a lot of metadata from browsing sessions, including details like the length of the VPN session, the bandwidth used, device hashes, and unique identifiers that allow Hotspot Shield to see how we used the service across our devices.

As we mentioned earlier, Hotspot Shield Basic serves up adverts, too – and Android users will see targeted ads based on their browsing. This allows ad providers to see device advertising identifiers and the name of the site serving the ad. Theoretically, this would allow the provider to log some details of how that device is being used.

All in all, this creates a pretty spotty privacy picture for Hotspot Shield Basic, and, if that turns your stomach, we’d recommend checking out Proton VPN Free if you need a VPN with a proven and proactive interest in safeguarding your data.

Using an Android OnePlus 10 Pro smartphone, our speeds averaged around 40 Mbps on a single test of our connection. Hotspot Shield Basic, PrivadoVPN Free and Proton were the most faithful to that. A few speed tests with those enabled knocked off 5-10 Mbps. Windscribe was more like 10–20 Mbps, but do bear in mind that these measurements were made at a single time of day to the closest servers and very possible that Windscribe’s were particularly pushed for capacity at that moment. The point to make here is that you shouldn’t see a big difference.

What was really interesting, though, is that when we tried the same thing with a few of the paid VPNs, our speed actually improved a little. A connection with Proton VPN Plus to its UK server took our speeds to over 50 Mbps. With ExpressVPN it was the same story. So, perhaps there was some throttling that our ISP was doing.

This isn’t a blanket statement across all free services, however. Some, like PrivadoVPN Free and Windscribe Free, don’t appear to massively restrict speeds because they data caps, which means the providers don’t feel the need to bring the hammer down on performance too.

The issue of overcrowding plays a part in sluggish free VPN speeds, too. Nearly all of the VPNs on our list, aside from Windscribe Free, limit free users to a specific set of servers, reserving the rest for paying customers. So, do bear in mind that going with a free VPN doesn’t usually offer the same infrastructure privileges and that you’re more likely to come across capacity issues when the free servers get overloaded, and that means inconsistent speeds usually at popular times when you’re most likely to want to use your VPN too.

Crowding a large number of (free) users into a small selection of servers can lead to overcrowding and poor speeds. After all, lots of people trying to connect to the same handful of locations means there’s just not enough bandwidth to go around. Plus, if a free-only service isn’t receiving subscriptions from a premium user base, it has less overhead to spend on optimizing the efficiency of its server network.

If your free VPN inundates you with ads, it can also contribute to slowdown. Of the services we recommend above, only Hotspot Shield Basic serves in-app ads across its mobile clients so do watch out for this when you’re cruising the app stores for free VPNs to try.

All of the VPNs above have split tunnelling, though only Windscribe Free comes with an ad blocker. Generally speaking, though, these are good features to look out for in a free VPN, either if you find its free servers getting overcrowded or if you're up against a data cap.

Your choice of VPN protocol plays a part in the overall performance of your free VPN. WireGuard is the pick for all-out speed, but services that don’t offer it or any custom protocols (and rely on the super-secure but more resource-intensive OpenVPN), can be slower as a result. Most of our recommended free VPNs come with three protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN, and usually IKEv2 or a stealth protocol (designed to bypass VPN bans). Hotspot Shield Basic, however, currently lacks WireGuard support for its iOS apps. So, if speed is important to you and you use an iPhone, you’d be best to stay away from Hotspot Shield Basic.

Finally, the VPN encryption and decryption process can impact your connection speeds. Encryption is a core part of any VPN's package, but it adds extra steps to the process of connecting to the internet. Half of the encryption and decryption takes place on your device and half on the VPN company’s servers. Because of that VPN speed relies both on the quality and capacity of the VPN server network and also the quality of your device.

In other words, you might experience slow speeds because your mobile phone or laptop isn’t very powerful or because the VPN company you’re using hasn’t invested very well in its network.

A good, free VPN shouldn’t slow you down much at its end of things. If it also has a premium plan, then it should have the funds to invest in a proper infrastructure. Your only enemy there is how overloaded its free servers are with non-paying customers that it might not feel are quite so important to look after.