The best free VPN services

The best things in life may be free, but when it comes to virtual private network (VPN) services, we’re big believers in paying for the extra features. Still, for those keen to try before they buy, big names like NordVPN and ExpressVPN require an exchange of payment details before being able to use a “trial” that’s effectively tied up in a money-back guarantee.

That’s not exactly free. Of the almost 20 VPNs we’ve reviewed, there are nine that offer some form of free version, whether that’s a free VPN trial or a completely free version. Admittedly, free VPNs tend to be limited in one way or another: data, speed, locations or the number of simultaneous connections.

We cover all of that and more below in our top picks of the best free VPNs in Australia.

As a free service, PrivadoVPN ticks a lot of the right boxes. Where most free VPNs restrict server locations to a handful, PrivadoVPN offers 12 locations in a range of countries, including the US, UK and Switzerland. Sign up and verify your email address. PrivadoVPN then offers a unique username and secure password, which you should absolutely save with a password manager. Automatically connect to a recommended server or select from the list of free options. You’ll get 10GB to play with each month, and there’s even an internet kill switch to ensure your data is protected whenever you’re connected to a PrivadoVPN server.

For alternatives, consider any of the options listed below or Proton VPN, which has unlimited data.

There are better-ranked VPN trials available, from the likes of NordVPN and ExpressVPN, but they all have one detractor in common: you have to buy before you can try. In VPN land, there’s an unfortunate trend towards making users exchange credit card details to access a trial, which is effectively a money-back guarantee rather than a free trial. VPN Unlimited bucks this trend by offering a truly free trial. While restricted to five devices, you otherwise get access to a speedy VPN service for a full week. It’s a great first-time VPN for newcomers and easy to use for everyone else. If you end up loving VPN Unlimited, hold out for the lifetime subscription to get a discount for lifelong protection.

Alternatively, Surfshark VPN has a seven-day trial on Mac, Android and iOS devices, but you do have to set a calendar reminder as it will charge after the first week. As a workaround, enter an email address and get up to the part where Surfshark asks for money, and you may receive an email shortly after with a discount.

Not so long ago, the free version of Hotspot Shield was (rightly) under scrutiny because of a shaky policy surrounding user data. These days, Hotspot Shield is a great free VPN service that offers the most data of all the options on this page. You get 500MB of data per day, which translates to around 15GB per month if you use up that daily limit. The 2Mbps speed cap for Hotspot Shield free will curb any high-res streaming desires, but if you’re after military-grade encryption with enough data to protect the internet goings-on of one device, 500MB of data per day is plenty to protect browsing, SD video playback and some downloading. If you do like your time with Hotspot Shield, it’s also worth buying a subscription and taking advantage of the generous 45-day money-back guarantee for a more fully featured trial. Note that if you’re a Dashlane Premium or Friends & Families subscriber, you have access to the full version of Hotspot Shield.

Alternatively, go with the VPN Unlimited seven-day trial for unlimited data or Windscribe for 10GB per month.

The truth is most free VPNs don’t have the best speeds. Usually, this is because the limited server selections aren’t particularly close. While that’s true of Atlas VPN—its free servers are in the US, UK and Netherlands—there aren’t any cap speeds, so you can still expect decent download speeds, upload speeds and latencies whenever you’re connected. There’s 5GB to work with each month, too, and you can use your Atlas VPN free account on as many devices as you like. The unlimited devices also mean Atlas VPN is a great choice for protected browsing on supported devices.

Alternatively, connect to an Australian server with the VPN Unlimited trial for the fastest speeds, or pick ones closer to home from PrivadoVPN and Windscribe.

There’s a lot to love about the free version of Windscribe. For starters, you can use it on unlimited devices and there’s a generous-by-free-standards option of 10 locations, including the US, UK and Switzerland. That’s great for privacy and security considerations with everyday browsing. But Windscribe is also our top pick as the best VPN for streaming. We test VPN streaming with US and UK services, and Windscribe is the best of the dozen-plus VPNs we’ve tested. You might have to do some server jumping to get Windscribe free to work, but it will play typically geoblocked content. A word to the wise: while Windscribe free starts with 2GB of data, the quota jumps to 10GB if you add your email address. There’s also bonus data for tweeting, plus Discord and Reddit promotions, which can lead to even more monthly streaming.

Alternatively, consider PrivadoVPN or Atlas VPN for occasional streaming.

TunnelBear doesn’t have bragging rights to consistently great connection or download speeds, nor is it great at tackling international streaming services. But what it lacks in those areas, it more than makes up for with a free version that actually offers Australian servers. This is, unfortunately, a rarity among the VPNs we’ve reviewed, so this is more of a default win than anything else. The free version of TunnelBear comes with 3GB of data but you can tweet to get an extra 1GB. There aren’t any location choices for Australia, so you’re stuck with Sydney. But there are, impressively, 48 other countries to choose from in a slow-to-connect but easy-to-use VPN service.

For free VPN alternatives with Australian servers, there’s only one other option: Speedify (which we haven’t reviewed).

The first thing to look for in a free VPN is whether it’s actually free. Starting with the bigger names in the biz is where you’ll find the unfortunate trend towards paid trials, encouraging users to reactively take advantage of money-back guarantees in lieu of truly free trials.

We don’t recommend starting with those. Instead, look for a VPN with a truly free version. Some of those are ad-supported (like Hotspot Shield), and all will be limited in one way or another. Hola VPN, for instance, trades free access for sporadically using device system resources. That’s not ideal.

Next ensure that a free VPN gets the basics right: namely, military-grade encryption and a transparent no-long privacy policy. Then see which locations the free VPN offers, as some offer only one option while others offer a better selection. Finally, check how much data you get with the free VPN relative to what you want to use the VPN for. Most free VPNs are great for browsing, some file downloading and basic streaming, but don’t have data caps for a whole lot more.

Our comparisons for the best free VPNs are taken from our growing list of full services we’ve reviewed (17 at the time of writing). Because there are lots of dodgy free VPNs out there, we stick to recommending free options that are linked to trusted brands.

While most VPNs offer a money-back guarantee, we restrict our best free VPN picks to those that offer a truly free version where you don’t have to provide payment details. For our specific categories, we compared the eight eligible VPNs across speed, data and location restrictions.

Our top pick is a mix of speed, location count and data allowances, while the more focused categories are representative of the best picks in those areas. We download and test the category winners to confirm their eligibility and ensure they can do what’s advertised.