Darcy Bacon
Darcy Bacon is an advocate of online privacy for over 8 years. Her additional experience in IoT helps to thoroughly contribute to the development of the vpn-lab.com project and find safe and well-performing VPN services.
– Turn all activities on your smartphone incognito.
– Protect your Android device from malicious software and viruses.
– Stream favorite movies and shows on the phone or tablet with little or no constraints.
– Keep your network connection nice, steady, and fast. FOR FREE!
If you do a lot of stuff online, whether surfing or streaming, you will agree that finding the best free VPN to use on your Android devices is essential in today’s digital world. So, what are the things to look out for, and how do you choose the right VPN without reaching for the wallet?
Pay attention here because many free VPN apps have downsides that they will, of course, not advertise. These could range from in-your-face ads to breach of privacy and data leaks. You do not want all that headache; it is like bargaining one trouble for another.
What you want is to get free versions of Premium VPN apps. Although the free VPNs will not have as much functionality as the paid ones, you are sure you are getting excellent service. Keep reading to find out more about some of the best and most reliable free VPN for Android apps there is:
NordVPN is one of the best free VPNs for Android out there that operates over 5,600 servers in over 60 countries worldwide. These servers include P2P-Optimized servers and streaming servers. It means that this free VPN service can unblock many of the major streaming services like Netflix and Hulu.
Another vital feature of NordVPN is that it can help you unblock some international apps on the Android Play Store. Additionally, Nord can be used on up to 6 devices at the same time.
For security, NordVPN uses 256-bit military-grade Encryption Standard (AES), which is the gold standard in VPN encryption. There is also an additional level of protection with the PGP keys. These are used for encrypting communication between the user and NordVPN.
There is a kill switch that allows you as a user to immediately close down any app or just shut down your internet connection if there is any unexpected dropout.
Pros
Cons
Nord comes with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee. And if you want to go premium, they have affordable and flexible plans.
The software costs $4.99 a month for a 2-year contract plan. For the one-year plan, you can pay $83.88, and if you can spring for just $12 more, you can get premium NordVPN for an additional year. One small disadvantage here, though, is the fact that you might have to pay VAT, depending on your country, and that could be a bit pricey (up to 20%).
Hotspot Shield is free but quite nifty. You can pay for the service to get to use some pretty powerful functions like split tunneling, for example. The free version gives you a data allowance of 500MB per day, which runs to about 15GB of data per month.
On the free plan of Hotspot Shield Free, you get to connect up to 5 devices simultaneously. You are also limited to locations that the company decides to open up on the free service, and you will have to endure ads. To eliminate all these restrictions, you can simply upgrade to the elite version.
Hotspot Shield Free has over 2500 VPN servers in over 70 countries all over the world. The security is also perfect; 256-bit encryption and a strict no-logs policy keep your privacy safe online.
Pros
Cons
One of the not so impressive features of this free VPN app is the sign-up process. To use the free version, you would have to sign up for a 7-day free trial of the premium version first (Elite Plan). This means that you would need to input your credit card details. However, you can discontinue the premium version and go on with the free version after that. All in all, a great option.
For a free VPN service, Windscribe gives you the best free data. You get 10GB data per month. With a simple tweet about the company, you can get an additional 5GB of data.
Besides, you can “win” 1GB of data every month whenever you invite your friends to install the app. Taking this one step further, Windscribe will upgrade your subscription to unlimited status if just one person that you recommended subscribed to their premium service.
Windscribe has over 400 servers located in over 60 countries worldwide. Unlike others, Windscribe allows you to connect to an unlimited number of devices.
Security-wise, this VPN doesn’t store your connection logs, IP stamps, or even a record of sites you have visited. The app also supports multiple VPN protocols, including OpenVPN, IKEV2, and so on.
One extra security feature that could make you opt for Windscribe is the fact that it allows you to use its in-built ad and malware blocker on the free subscription.
Pros
Cons
The free version of Windscribe provides access to 10 servers all over the world, including the US, UK, and Canada. To have access to all their servers, you have to pony up a few dollars. Their yearly plan goes for $4.08 per month, while their monthly plan will set you back $9.00. You can pay with PayPal, Credit Card, and Bitcoin.
You can request a refund if you decide it isn’t the best fit for you, but it has to be within 72 hours of purchasing your plan, and you can’t have used more than 10GB of data within this period.
Speedify like its name implies speeds your connection, for free too! The platform boasts of about 200 server locations in over 50 countries. It uses a technology that passes your data or traffic over two different simultaneous connections, which makes browsing that much faster.
Speedify supports up to 5 devices and also provides up to 2GB free data monthly, although it drops to 1GB after the first month.
The app uses a 128 GCM encryption, which is admittedly not as secure as the 256-bit encryption that most other free VPNs use but still works for the everyday user. Speedify’s unique ChaCha encryption cipher, coupled with its firm no-logs policy, helps keep your information safe.
Pros
Cons
You can use Speedify for free, but if you would rather have the full experience, you can go for their basic monthly subscription, which will set you back about $9.99. You will get a discount if you decide to pay for a whole year, and it comes to about $5.99 monthly. Speedify offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Proton VPN offers you access to unlimited data, no cap. This gives this provider a unique edge over other free VPN services. There are some limitations though: free users can only connect 1 device as opposed to 10 devices that paid users can use. Also, free users can only access servers in the US, Netherlands, and Japan, and there is a speed tradeoff.
ProtonVPN boasts of over 628 servers in about 44 locations. The service is based in Switzerland and, as such places, a premium on security, 256-bit encryption, DNS leak protection, zero-logging policy, and an automatic kill switch.
Pros
Cons
You get a 30-day money-back guarantee if you opt for the paid version. The basic paid version will cost you about $4.38. You can connect 2 devices at the same time and have access to all the servers and torrenting. If you want more functionality, then go for the visionary package, which costs about $26.30 per month. This gives you the fastest VPN speeds, 10 devices, and access to the company’s proprietary ProtonMail.
Hide.me is synonymous with stripped down and reliable. This particular app is very concerned with your privacy. The provider proves it by putting multiple security measures in place, including secure AES-256 encryption, strict no logs policy, an automatic kill switch, and secure VPN protocols.
Hide.me is deployed in 70 different locations where you can access up to 1,700 worldwide servers. If you are on a free subscription, you will be provided with 10GB every month to access these servers, 1 device to connect with, and free access to just 5 locations.
Pros
Cons
You can sign up for the free Hide.me version without your credit card details. If you need more functionality, the monthly plan goes for $12.95. There is a 2-year plan that costs only $4.99/month.
You can pay with credit cards, PayPal, and bitcoin. Hide.me offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
SurfEasy is a free VPN that is built into your Opera browser. It is an extension and needs to be activated, but it cannot protect you if you use any other browser or app.
For the free SurfEasy plan, you can connect and use up to 5 devices concurrently. In addition, you have the opportunity to employ over 1,500 servers in 30 different countries all across the globe.
One major downside here is that you only get 500MB data available to you monthly, which is very little compared to others (this applies to the standalone VPN, you have unlimited data if you are browsing with Opera).
Pros
Cons
For a fixed price of $1.99, you can subscribe to the paid SurfEasy version. The subscription also comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee in case you change your mind.
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is kind of like a cloak of invisibility. It basically masks your digital footprints online.
Having the protection of VPN services is not something you want to thumb your nose at. You probably make some decisions on the web without giving it a second thought. You join that free Wi-Fi; you enter your banking data to pay for something; you download files from unknown sources.
These online activities, even though regular, could pose a significant security risk for you. To ensure you don’t leak private and sensitive information, you need a VPN.
An Android VPN keeps your private information safe from hackers as well as helps you bypass restrictions on certain types of content. It does this by concealing your IP address and then making it look like you are browsing from another country.
It is super easy to do, follow some simple steps, and you are done. Go to Google Play Store and search for your Android VPN of choice, then download it. Then all you have to do is sign in if you already have an account with that platform or sign up if you are new, and Voilà! You are all set.
Using a VPN application on your Android phone is just as easy as installing it, most times. Different apps have different user interfaces, but they all follow the same progression. You will have to activate the VPN by toggling a switch. The app will automatically connect you to the best available server. If you need to connect to a server from a particular country, you can search for it from the list of countries (servers) on the app. Easy-peasy!
This article has taken an in-depth look into several free Android VPN apps and their premium subscription plans. The apparent trend is that free VPNs usually have some way through which they get some kind of value for their free service, generally in the form of ads.
For those that don’t bombard you with ads, there is usually a tradeoff that makes paying for their subscription the better option for you like: reduced speed, blocked access to streaming services, and so on. In effect, you will be hard-pressed to find a genuinely free Android VPN.
There are indeed many Android VPNs on the market, and they all come with their own pros and cons. Our experts have carefully looked through the available VPNs, and two apps emerge as the best options in terms of functionality, ease of use, and how much bang for your buck you get. These are NordVPN and Hotspot Shield.