What Are Free VPNs? Although these are often limited, their use can be very useful. Discover their advantages and disadvantages in our guide to free VPNs.
VPNs have taken a place comparable to that of antiviruses in our digital lives. And as with antivirus, most VPN services are paid, but some offer free services. This can be tempting: if you need a VPN for a specific purpose, such as quickly making a purchase or a transaction on a secure connection, to watch a particular program on a service blocked in your country, it is necessarily interesting not to not have to pay a monthly or even annual subscription for that.
Also check out paid VPNs:
Even more than for paid VPNs, on the other hand, it is necessary to know what these offers contain, because a VPN may not be suitable for all users. Do you want to use a VPN without having to pay a dollar? Discover all the information you need to know!
Free VPN: does it really exist?
VPNs have mainly developed as paid services and there is an obvious reason for this: a VPN is an expensive infrastructure, and to guarantee the development of new servers that provide excellent speed, the creation of new innovative services or customer service available in several languages and continuously, it is obviously necessary to be able to generate income. Nevertheless, free VPNs exist, it’s a fact! Some are free offers from well-known vendors, others are for example integrated into free security suites.
We tend to think that a free service is unreliable and in the case of VPNs, this is not necessarily the case, far from it. Simply, these free offers are often more limited. For example, they can limit usage to a certain number of gigabytes per day or per month. Servers can also run at a lower speed. Some providers also limit the possibilities of choosing your own server, only offering the possibility of automatically connecting to the geographically closest one. Depending on its uses, these limitations could be prohibitive or, on the contrary, suitable for the occasional use that one wishes to have of a VPN.
The Cons of Free VPNs
We often hear the maxim “When it’s free, you’re the product”. And that may unfortunately be true. This is the first question you can ask yourself when using a free VPN: why is it free? If it’s a free offer from a big name or an actor known for its commitment to user privacy, no problem. On the other hand, it can happen that we are faced with a VPN whose reputation is unclear, and wonder if it does not collect data. This fortunately does not apply to most known free VPNs, but it is important to find out about the privacy policy of a VPN, whether it is free or paid for that matter. That is why a paid VPN can be more “secure”.
A free VPN can also be limited, and most often it is. You don’t have all the features offered by a paid VPN, the number of servers is more limited, you can’t connect in the country of your choice. These are points to check: what does the free offer include and what are we deprived of?
Finally, performance can also be limited, and this is important if, for example, you want to use a VPN to download files or connect to video streaming services. In this case, the speed may be insufficient and you will need to go through a paid VPN.
Take advantage of the trial periods of the great VPNs!
A tip, if one needs one-time VPN access, is to go through the paid VPN trial periods. That said, the idea has its limits. First, the VPN service may not offer a “free” trial, and requires paying for a subscription for which you can get a refund within 30 days.
It is already more restrictive, and you have to think about canceling. Then, this will force you to change provider regularly and therefore to reinstall all your applications on your PC, Mac, smartphone… It may be more interesting to go through a real free VPN knowing their limitations.
3 Free VPNs: Proton VPN, Windscribe & AtlasVPN
Some VPNs offer a free plan and even make it their main strength. This is the case of Proton VPN, a VPN of Swiss origin and created by the Proton company which already manages the Proton Mail or Proton Drive services. The idea is the same: to offer a service aimed at protecting privacy for free. Proton VPN offers 100 servers with one connection and medium speed servers in free version with strict privacy policy.
Atlas VPN is another VPN offering a free plan, and it is interesting if you do not necessarily want to choose your location, because it does not limit access in the number of simultaneous devices or connection speed. On the other hand, you only benefit from 3 different slots against 750 for the paid version.
Finally, Windscribe offers a free plan limited to 2 GB per month, with the possibility of increasing to 10 GB per month if you agree to provide your email address. Le VPN offers apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iPhone and Android and extensions for major web browsers.
BFMTV’s editorial staff did not participate in the production of this content. BFMTV is likely to receive compensation when one of our readers makes a purchase via the links included in this article.
