Best Free VPN According to Reddit

Cryptofree is a free variant of the popular Cryptostorm VPN. While it markets itself as a way to earn free Bitcoin, Cryptofree functions as a decent free VPN service for users.

Unfortunately, it has some pretty nasty data caps and minimal features. Granted, this is to be expected with all free VPNs.

Cryptofree can absolutely hide your IP, but it’s not built to stream videos, download torrents, or for similar uses. Its software is relatively simple to maneuver, and if all you need is the bare basics, Cryptofree might be a pretty good solution for you.

The program isn’t quite user-friendly. The interface lacks that nice coat of paint to keep it from looking like a command console. Besides looking like a programming terminal, the software occasionally had some freezing up when we tested it and didn’t feel particularly optimized. Some users report poor customer service and long waits for responses. It gives the VPN a feeling that it was made for techy know-it-alls only, especially since most people don’t participate in the big cryptocurrency craze that this company focuses on.

The provider has no singular base of operation, and their information page states that they do not keep any logs on the data of their users. Even if the VPN is limited, at least the security is solid. That said, you only have one VPN option on the free version: a single server in France. Limitations are to be expected, but this can be a serious deal-breaker for some people.

The software works with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

SecurityKiss definitely has one of the more generous offers on this list. While they offer several different paid plans, they proudly display that their free service provides all the features as their standard packages, but with a 300MB data cap per day.

All things considered, that’s not a bad deal at all for a free VPN. While it’s not exactly going to be sufficient for watching videos and torrenting files all day, this should be more than enough to browse sites safely and get all the basic functions that you would need out of a VPN service.

While this might not seem like a raving review from Reddit, one thing to consider is how much Reddit seems to disdain free VPN software for the most part. So even getting a recommendation on most subreddits for a particular free VPN is quite rare. And, on that same note, there are very few actual, genuinely negative reviews of the software.

The software itself isn’t the prettiest. While it doesn’t look like a Windows command prompt at least, it certainly doesn’t feel like an official VPN client. It’s a bit difficult to maneuver and find the right options that you’re looking for, especially if you don’t know what option you’re looking for. It stuttered and got stuck a few times in testing, but from what we saw, it had no outright crashing.

The service has a strict no-logging policy and is based in Ireland. The provider promises all users complete anonymity and freedom from having their data stored or the possibility of being accessed.

Their VPN servers are located in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, their software only supports use on Windows systems.

VPNGate is a fascinating experiment from a university in Japan. It was made with the intent of unblocking websites and services in restrictive countries. While it is certainly unorthodox, it is one of the best options out there if you don’t intend to use a VPN for suspicious activity.

First off, let us make one thing absolutely clear: this VPN keeps logs of user activity.

Essentially, the VPN works on volunteers who offer their own IPs and bandwidth to the pool. It’s a community of users who voluntarily provide their own IPs to other users in order to bypass walls and geographical limitations.

It is not intended for torrenting, pirating, etc.

Laws concerning the use of this software vary from country to country. We do not encourage or condone the use of this program if it is in violation of these laws. The regulation about the use of VPN services varies per country; If the Law of your country forbids or limits its usage, don’t download. Any unlawful behaviour of this software is not permitted. You are solely responsible for any use of the service.

That being said, it is one of the most generous free VPN services out there and one that even Redditors seem to be able to trust. Trust us, Redditors are picky when it comes to privacy. Which, in all fairness, is reasonable. Privacy is what a VPN’s whole purpose is at the end of the day, right?

The software is open source and was essentially put together by college students. Which definitely shows in its software. It’s by no means a beauty. The program is full of eye-straining data that you have to swim through to find what you’re looking for. However, if that doesn’t bother you, the rewards are worth it in the end.

This free VPN has 235 countries in total as of current. Yes, you read that correctly. 235. That’s more than a substantial majority of paid VPN services can provide, and free users have access to all of them with no limits on bandwidth and data caps.

The software works for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

Speedify markets its services as a way to make your internet connection faster, and while this may be the case, their software also doubles as a free VPN. Hiding your IP coupled with quick speeds makes for a simple VPN service that, if the limitations it imposes aren’t an issue for you, could be one of the smoothest free services out there.

Speedify has select servers that allow for processes like torrenting, but unfortunately, these servers tend to be the most popular, and you can occasionally be denied access when they are at their user limit.

However, despite this server capping, the 2GB per month limit on their free plan is actually quite generous. While performance varies heavily depending on what you’re trying to access and where you are from, Speedify, as the name suggests, also offers a much higher speed than most other free VPNs. So if speed’s your game, this might be a mean contender.

The Speedify software is straightforward, with a clean UI and basic sliders and buttons to get you around different options. That is at the core of what Speedify aims to be: lightweight and quick. And for the most part, it succeeds, making it an excellent choice for a free VPN.

Speedify’s software works with Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux.

If it sounds like the right choice, you can download Speedify here.

ProtonVPN offers a premium VPN service, as well as their free plan, which seems to strive to put those provided by other services to shame. They have no data or time cap on usage as most free packages do. The only features that free users don’t get to experience are the high server counts they usually offer, meaning a lot fewer countries to choose from and only a handful of servers, so your connection may have to be further than you’d want. But that’s standard practice for most VPNs, making ProtonVPN’s free service quite a solid offer.

One thing we need to give ProtonVPN credit for is that it’s one of the few services on this list that can keep you secure and allow you to download torrents. We wouldn’t recommend that with most on this list except for one other (spoiler alert: it’s the number one spot). If you plan to use a free VPN to hide your IP for torrenting files, we cannot stress enough to use one of these two.

Remember when we said how much Reddit hates free VPNs? ProtonVPN has somehow even managed to get Redditors to give it credit for its free package.

The software that ProtonVPN uses is excellent. Its interface is intuitive and easy to maneuver and gives you all the information you need to switch servers and enable or disable features. It also seemed very reliable in testing, having had no problems with crashing or endless loading.

One of the few major downsides to ProtonVPN, however, is their support. Unlike the overwhelming majority of VPN providers, they offer no live chat support, instead requiring you to browse help archives or fill out a form in order to get a solution to a problem.

The software is available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Chromebook, and Android TV. Download ProtonVPN.

TunnelBear is another excellent option with a very fair free package. Originally meant as a free trial version, the free package has become a valid option for those who enjoy TunnelBear but who can’t/don’t want to buy their premium packages. You get full access to all of their servers, countries and no limit on speed.

You are given a monthly data cap of 500MB, meaning that this free VPN is essentially intended for going around firewalls and geographical limitations, not for video streaming and mass-downloading, though very few free VPNs are.

Many Reddit reviews sing TunnelBear’s praises for being a simple, easy-to-use free VPN that can smoothly do everything one would expect. While it doesn’t offer any insane, unique features to its free users to set it apart, it does what it needs to, and it does it without flaw.

Some of the highest reviews for TunnelBear regard its software. It’s incredibly simplistic and well-designed, with an excellent user interface and ease of access to anything you need to get to. It’s also well-optimized and never crashed or stuttered in our testing.

TunnelBear has a strict no-logging policy, and from what we could tell, this has never come into question in the past. Their website proudly displays this bold claim to its users, and the service’s free version seems to share the same standard. TunnelBear is a great free option that will respect your privacy. If the data limit isn’t a concern for you, then you’ll get to enjoy the same security as any premium user.

The software works with Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. Download TunnelBear for free.

Hide.me is a highly-rated VPN service that offers a free package that caps their data usage at a generous 10GB per month. That’s certainly enough to do a bit more than just the occasional site browsing and is one of the more generous offerings for free VPNs.

Unfortunately, the only countries you will have access to are their Germany, Canada, Netherlands, and US servers. However, all other expected features will be given to you the same as any premium user.

Reddit’s big focus on hide.me seems to be on their privacy policies. One of their biggest credits being that hide.me appears to have one of the most well-tested and well-proven no-log policies of any free VPN available.

Their software is extremely simple and easy to use. In testing, we had a bit of a problem with sudden crashing, and on occasion, the kill switch had a few issues. Overall, though, it wasn’t anything that made the service unusable by any means. Their customer support was also swift and responsive to help with any issues we presented to them.

The software works with Windows, MacOS, Chromebook, Linus, iOS, Blackberry, and Android.
Download hide.me software.

While Opera VPN isn’t at the top of our list, we just want to say that if you are looking for a free VPN service to use, Opera VPN is absolutely one of the best you’ll find. It’s not just a free package of a premium VPN. Opera VPN is created for free users. It’s an in-browser add-on that hides your IP and offers all the same features as your standard VPN.

You have access to five countries’ servers: US, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, and Singapore. While speeds are occasionally reported to drop with Opera VPN, we had no notable cases in our testing. Opera VPN also has absolutely no limits on usage, a huge feature for a free VPN service.

Behold, one of the only free VPN services that Reddit seems to quite like. With most others, Redditors have their fair share of undesirable opinions on them, but from what we can tell, Opera VPN is given the Reddit equivalent of a begrudging nod of approval.

Their software isn’t completely independent but rather an extension for browsers. It’s simple and easy to use, and it gets the job done without too much slow loading and no crashing from our tests.

One important thing to mention about Opera VPN is to be careful how you use it. It is known to keep some logs of user activity and has no tunneling protocol to pair with its encryption. While it is still safe and secure with your data, it doesn’t add that extra layer of protection that most VPNs, even the free ones, tend to.

The extension is available for desktop and mobile browsers.

You can find Opera’s custom browser and if you’re on Android, you can download Opera VPN APK.

Here is our top spot. If you’re looking for the absolute best free VPN out there, then in our opinion, and in Reddit’s, Windscribe is the way to go. It has a data limit of 10GB, but that’s quite a generous cap. On top of that, all of its features are available to free users, as the service is essentially built to cater to its free package.

You can upgrade to a premium account, but other than for the data limit to be removed, you don’t need any features. You get access to all servers, in all countries, at the same speed as any other user.

Remember when we said how there are two spots on this list that were solid free VPNs for torrenting? This is the other one. If the data limit is acceptable, Windscribe is the most secure option you can find for torrenting files. Most wouldn’t recommend using a free VPN of any kind for this sort of use, but if it’s absolutely necessary, you can be secure with either of these options.

Reddit has some pretty positive reviews from actual users of this free VPN service. While you’re not going to find any of them campaigning for its celebration, there is wide respect for Windscribe’s free service, seeming to be more secure and generous than any other free offering by a wide margin in just about every aspect.

Their software has a brilliant design, excellent user interface, and excellent maneuverability. In testing, it was extremely fast and didn’t so much as stutter for us when we were using it. Occasionally, it would make our browser trip for a second, but that was about the only issue we found.

If you’re looking for a fast, fair, and secure VPN and don’t want to shell out for the premium services, Windscribe might just be your best bet. They’re a friendly service with a generous wealth of features for their free users all across the board.

Their software works for Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and FireTV. You can download Windscribe for free.