In this article, we have evaluated and selected the best free VPNs in 2020 to help you choose among the secure and reliable alternatives.
What is a VPN?
A VPN or Virtual Private Network connects a computer to another computer (a server) somewhere on the Internet, allowing the connecting computer to communicate (such as browsing) securely. The encryption helps ensure that sensitive data is securely transmitted over an unsecured channel, that is the Internet. It prevents unauthorized parties from eavesdropping and making unauthorized modifications on the traffic communicated.
VPNs also serve to hide the IP address of a computer by replacing it with the address of the connected computer that could be located even in another country. In this sense, VPNs not only ensure confidentiality and integrity of a communication, they also protect the privacy by hiding the source IP of each packet transmitted over the Internet.
VPN technology is widely used in corporate environments to enable the employees to connect to the corporate servers securely or to secure traffic exchanged between servers located at different corporate sites. Though VPNs were originally created for this corporate use case, they are also popular for personal use, such as to secure browsing activity from prying eyes on a public Wi-Fi.
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How does a VPN Work?
When a computer (such as a laptop, tablet or smartphone) is connected to a remote server over VPN (Remote Access VPN), the computer acts as if it is on the same local network as the connected server (thus the name Virtual Private Network). After establishing a VPN connection, all the network traffic of the connecting computer is sent over a secure connection to the remote server.
Are There Any Downsides to Using a VPN?
For the downside, the benefit of confidentiality, integrity and privacy on a VPN connection does not come free. The underlying mechanism of encryption that provides these features could also add a bit of load on the computer processor, resulting in a little bit slow down on the connection. However, thanks to the improvements in both computers and VPN technology, this negative impact is almost unnoticeable today.
Common Uses for Personal VPNs
- Accessing a Corporate Network from a Remote Location: Employees can connect to corporate resources through VPNs in remote access mode while working from home or while traveling.
- Accessing a Home Network from a Remote Location: Similar to accessing to the corporate network, it is possible to set up a VPN connection to a home network while traveling.
- Hiding Your Activity from Your Local Network or ISP: Your traffic is visible to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or to the eavesdroppers on a network (local network or Internet) if it is not encrypted. For instance, web browsing activity can be seen by anyone on a local network (as in the case of using a public Wi-Fi connection) when connecting to non-HTTPS websites. In such cases, VPNs can help individuals hide their traffic from preying eyes.
- Access Region Restricted Services: VPNs can help to access the same services offered at your home location when traveling. It could also be the case that you would like to access a service or content offered at a different location than your home location. This is possible via a VPN service, because a computer connected to a remote server over VPN can use the Internet as if it were present at the remote server’s location.
- Bypass Internet Censorship: VPNs can also be used to get around the restrictions or censorships imposed on your local area network or ISP (restrictions by governments).
- Prevent Price Discrimination: Price discrimination is offering different prices to different people based on their perceived ability to pay and this discrimination is usually made according to the location of the customers. A user can check if they are subject to a price discrimination by reconnecting to the same site, but this time using a VPN connection.
- Bypass Download Restrictions from Certain Sources: Similar to the above use case, ISPs or local network administrators can prevent users from downloading from certain sites or deny using certain applications/protocols like BitTorrent. Or, they can throttle your download speed when using certain application/protocols. Such restrictions and regulations can be bypassed by using VPNs.
- Bypass Download Count Restrictions: Last but not least, some sites may limit downloads per user based on download counts. Such sites usually check the IP addresses of the users to track the download counts. It is possible to get around this limitation by establishing a VPN connection after reaching a download limit. Since the new connection will have the source IP of the VPN server rather than the connecting computer itself, the user’s download limit shall reset instantly.
Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn’t be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet.
Gary Kovacs
Read more educational and inspirational cyber quotes at our page 100+ Best Cyber Security & Hacker Quotes.
Should I Use a Free or Paid VPN Service?
The short answer is, no free VPN can match paid VPN services. But for day to day uses, if you can bear speed throttles and a few GBs of data limits do not pose a holdback for you, free VPNs could be an option. However, there is more to it that you need to know before making this decision. While trying to be anonymous using a free VPN, you could totally lose it or even be targeted by numerous threat vectors.
Here are some of the potential threats that you can be exposed to while using a free VPN service:
- Unsolicited Ads: Some free VPN services inject unsolicited ads on your browser and sell them to others.
- Privacy Compromise: A more serious threat is the fact data most free VPN providers log your usage data (such as source/destination IPs, connection dates, websites surfed, type and content of data transferred etc.) and sell them. Such a threat actually invalidates the whole purpose of using a VPN, that is anonymity.
- Security Compromise: Some rogue VPN services could sniff your network traffic and steal your credentials or other personal data for malicious purposes. Even worse, some products could contain backdoors or Trojans that could lead to a total compromise of your computer by the attackers.
- Using You as a Proxy: For another threat, you could be an exit node for others using the same VPN service. Such a threat shall consume your network bandwidth and eat up your CPU cycles, without your knowledge and consent. More seriously, you will be hold responsible for any malicious activity conducted over this connection, since your computer and your IP is what the others see as the source of the malicious traffic.
- Utilizing Your CPU Power: Last but not least, your computer and CPU power can be used for purposes other than VPN tasks. One common case is using your computer’s precious processing power for crypto currency mining, resulting in significant slow downs in computer speed and incurred higher electricity bills.
So, if you are determined to use a free VPN service, then you should avoid using untrusted and unreliable ones. For this purpose, we have evaluated and selected the top 5 free VPN services for you.
Best Free VPN Services in 2020
First of all, not to misguide you, this list does not contain any paid VPN services with trial periods. Instead, we list only services that could be used for prolonged periods.
Secondly, prioritizing these VPN services actually depends on personal needs and preferences. So, we provide the following criteria that we have used in our evaluation to help you choose a VPN according to your personal needs.
- Security and Privacy: The main reason for using a VPN product is the security and privacy service it delivers. Mainly, a VPN product is expected to keep your communication secret, ensure the integrity of the communication and hide your IP to protect your privacy. In providing these features, the technologies and algorithms being used should ensure a reasonable level of security.
- Logging: While keeping your communication secure and private for the third parties, a VPN service itself is also expected not to be an exception about this matter.
- Open Source: Open source software and technologies are more secure than proprietary ones in general since they are evaluated by more people to discover any vulnerabilities on them. Thus, this feature is highly critical for any VPN product that offer a high level of security.
- Performance: Some free VPN services throttle connection speeds significantly compared to their paid counterparts while others still offer the same connection speeds.
- Data Limit: The main restriction you will encounter while using a free VPN service is the amount of data that you can transfer daily or monthly. In most cases, you are restricted to use only a few GB of data monthly.
- Maximum Devices Supported: The number of devices on which a VPN application can be installed and used simultaneously is another restriction imposed by many VPN services.
- Kill Switch: Kill switch is the mechanism to prevent your connection from accidental exposure. This happens when your connection drops and and the computer defaults back to a non-VPN connection. This feature is highly critical and should be supported by any top quality VPN products.
- Countries and Servers: Providing a VPN service with a high number of servers on many countries simply means there are more alternatives for a user to choose from to connect to a server. In free services, both the number of countries and servers are reduced compared to their paid versions.
1. Proton VPN
- Security: Excellent
- Logging: None
- Open Source: Yes
- Performance: Good
- Data Limit: Unlimited
- Maximum Devices Supported: 1 Device
- Kill Switch: Yes
- Countries: 3
- Servers: 16
Proton VPN has been established with the goal of protecting the communication of journalists and activists. It offers robust encryption with a kill switch feature. Moreover, it is located in Switzerland, where strong privacy laws are enforced. In this regard, Proton VPN values total anonymity, meaning no logs are kept (zero logging) and shared with third parties, even in the free version. Proton VPN is also the only service that is open source and can be audited by anyone. For another unique feature, it offers unlimited data usage with a lower speed prioritization compared to paid users. The downside is, it has a very limited number of locations and servers that you can choose from. Also, you can use Proton VPN for free on one device at a time.
2. Speedify
- Security: Very Good
- Logging: None
- Open Source: No
- Performance: Excellent
- Data Limit: 2 GB (Monthly)
- Maximum Devices Supported: 1 Device
- Kill Switch: No
- Countries: 35
- Servers: 400+
If high connection speed with excellent security is the top priority for you, then you should opt for Speedify VPN. For the pros, it offers a generous number of locations and servers (over 400) that you can connect. The major hindrance is that, you are allowed to use only 2 GB data monthly. Regarding privacy, as being a US-based company, Speedify is subject to federal search warrants. Adding to the cons, you can use Speedify VPN on one device at a time.
3. Windscribe
- Security: Excellent
- Logging: None
- Open Source: No
- Performance: Good
- Data Limit: 2 GB (Monthly)
- Maximum Devices Supported: 1 Device
- Kill Switch: No
- Countries: 12
- Servers: 26
Windscribe is a powerful free VPN service with state-of-the-art security. For the bonus, free users are not restricted from utilizing its ad and malware blocker features. Moreover, it prevents unexpected data leaks with its built-in firewall that blocks all traffic outside the VPN’s secure connection. It allows 2 GB data usage monthly, or 10 GB monthly if you provide an email address. Connection speed is a little bit throttled and for this reason, it is not the best option for watching videos. Though significantly lower than Speedify, numerous countries and servers are provided for connection. For the limitations, it can be used on only one device at a time.
4. TunnelBear
- Security: Very Good
- Logging: None
- Open Source: No
- Performance: Very Good
- Data Limit: 500 MB (Monthly)
- Maximum Devices Supported: 1 Device
- Kill Switch: No
- Countries: 26
- Servers: 26
TunnelBear is a VPN service owned by McAfee. It is mostly known for its reliable VPN service with high level of security and guaranteed no data logging policy. However, you need to provide your email address and verify it before using the TunnelBear VPN. For the pros, free version does not limit the connection speed. It also does not restrict the server locations for the free users. However, you can’t specify specific servers for the each server location. A major drawback is that it only allows 500 MB data usage monthly, which is the most restricted of all the other services available. Similar to the previous alternatives, it also restricts using the service on only one device at a time.
5. Hotspot Shield Free VPN
- Security: Very Good
- Logging: Some
- Open Source: No
- Performance: Very Good
- Data Limit: 15 GB (Monthly)
- Maximum Devices Supported: 5 Devices
- Kill Switch: No
- Countries: 1
- Servers: 1
Hotspot Shield Free VPN is a popular VPN service with strong encryption and offers fast connection speed. It allows for 500 MB data usage daily, summing up to a total of 15 GB monthly. For the cons, it logs the time of connection, bandwidth usage, user’s operating system etc. Moreover, as being a US-based company, Speedify is subject to federal search warrants. Another major drawback is that there is only one server location to choose from.
To learn more about VPNs, you could also read our articles What Is a VPN? or Best VPN Services.
