The Best VPN Free Trials

It is always better to choose a VPN service based on quality rather than price. Saving a few bucks each month shouldn’t mean putting your trust in an unreliable company. You should be able to use your VPN on both your laptop and phone without issues.

It might be convenient to use a free trial VPN to hunt for bargains and discounts, but recent security issues show that you should pay for secure encryption when you browse online. You can use the free trials or introductory versions of a trusted VPN provider on our list if you must use a free VPN version.

The best thing to do if you have to use a free VPN is to take advantage of a free trial offer from a paid VPN or make good use of a money-back guarantee. Therefore, we recommend VPNs that offer either a free version of the premium service or an evaluation period of 30 days. Below are our top best contenders.

The Best VPNs with Free Trials in 2021

• ExpressVPN (Best Trial VPN Fast Speeds)
• Surfshark (Best Trial VPN Overall)
• NordVPN (Best Trial VPN for iPhone)
• Hide.me (Best Free VPN With Limits)
• ProtonVPN (Best Trial VPN for Routers)

Detailed Overview of the Best VPNs with Free Trials

In addition to its home base in BVI, Surfshark hosts 3,200 servers in 65 locations worldwide. Contrary to the United States, the British Virgin Islands is not a member of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, or 14 Eyes international surveillance alliances. Thus, they would not be able to obtain your data legally from Surfshark in the future, making it the best trial VPN overall. In our opinion, this is a fundamental feature of a VPN since it ensures that your data is secure. We felt quite comfortable with the company itself because it maintains a spotless record in handling customer data.

Flawless encryption

Using an outdated encryption method is like using a broken lock on a safe; it has its benefits, but we want to secure our valuables better. Our analysis found that SurfShark encrypts data using AES-256 bits, the standard for VPNs in 2020. In addition, Surfshark encrypts your traffic through multiple servers, so even more of our web traffic is hidden. The best VPNs rarely offer this level of protection, so we are feeling totally secure with Surfshark.

Surfshark contains all main protocols required for quick surfing to full-stealth mode. They also enable our favorite one – OpenVPN.

Superb speeds

The speed of Surfshark is another advantage. It also offers one of the best VPN free trials for new users. The free 30-day trial was appealing to us, and we signed up. We went for it because it acted fine, and we didn’t notice any lag. Other people experienced it, however, and found Surfshark was rather fast compared to the competition.

It is fast to connect to any location. The Surfshark VPN works well for browsing, streaming, and gaming, though we cannot confirm gaming performance. Ping speeds are important, so we recommend you test this out.

When your computer sends a network request, ping speed records how quickly a response is received. In this case, lag is a result of the actual physics. It takes a lot longer to get a reply to an email packet sent across the globe than to an email packet sent across town.

Surfshark also offers a feature called Whitelister (split-tunneling) that lets you connect to private and public networks simultaneously, saving you bandwidth while watching Youtube at work.

Handy features

Several methods below demonstrated that Surfshark did its primary function of concealing our IP address and web activity while connected, including DNS leak tests and WebRTC leak tests. Apart from that, there were four key features we loved about Surfshark:

• Torrenting: While streaming services keep expanding, sometimes we want to watch a movie that’s unavailable on Hulu, Disney Plus, or any other service. Those situations typically require torrenting, which Surfshark can facilitate. Obviously, we can’t encourage illegal torrenting, but Surfshark is a good place for legal torrenting.
• Kill switch: There was one time when we accidentally disconnected from our VPN connection due to a woman bumping into us. Fortunately, our web traffic was not exposed. The kill switch on Surfshark kicked in and closed all our web browsers.

A few drawbacks are the following – the range of options offered by browser extensions is limited. Several features, such as kill switch and CeanWeb, do not work with browser extensions. And finally, the minimum subscription to unlock low price requires a 24-month subscription.

NordVPN company originates from Panama, which doesn’t fall under any surveillance jurisdiction. Furthermore, we know it has a reputation for reliability in the past. Look at how NordVPN compares against the other top VPN services and see if the service is still as good as it seems. We will show you why we think NordVPN is one of the best trial VPNs for iPhone.

Strong Encryption

Our online activities are protected by encryption, so no one can see them except authorized users. NordVPN’s standards have impressed us, and it has a key component that has led us to use VPNs.

This encryption standard meets or exceeds the standards that governments and cybersecurity professionals recommend. Another top VPN, Surfshark, also used the same encryption standard, so it’s a standard used by the top VPNs. Even though NordVPN and SurfShark gave us the same security level, we found SurfShark to offer fewer services than NordVPN, which meant connection times were a bit slower depending on where we were located.

Located in Panama

According to NordVPN’s registration information, it is based in Panama. As a result of their strong privacy laws, NordVPN does not have to log its users’ activities.

NordVPN runs diskless RAM servers to prevent server hacks and follow its “no logs” policy. Servers of this type do not have the capacity to store data, so it is not possible to store sensitive data. It is nearly impossible to steal information if there are no data files or configuration files to steal in the event of a hack.

Features for privacy fanatics

As a VPN mainstay, NordVPN comes with a kill switch. When our VPN went out during a storm, the kill switch came in handy while we were downloading a large file using our iPhone.

The kill switch automatically quit our mobile apps and stopped our download. We might have been watched online if it hadn’t done that. To protect our privacy, our VPN connections drop simultaneously with our internet connections.

Split Tunneling – NordVPN automatically encrypts all of our web traffic and routes it through a secure VPN server. It is also known as a full-tunnel mode. Are you aware that NordVPN also supports split tunnelling?

Our Windows laptops, Macbooks, and iPhones were easy to set up in split-tunnel mode, which allowed us to route traffic simultaneously to a VPN server and public Wi-Fi network. We can control how we surf the web with split tunnelling, but it is always more secure to use full tunnel encryption.

Apart from something having connectivity issues that require a hard reset, NordVPN is a great overall choice for any type of user.

As a Malaysian-based VPN provider, Hide.me VPN would probably be considered an attempt to crack the market for online security providers with second-rate services, unbelievable prices, and poor performance.

Despite that, who would have guessed that this would actually be a fairly good VPN? I firmly believe the product’s features justify its price, even though it is pretty pricey. However, you can choose between free VPN free trials and a premium plan.

Average speeds

Hide.me provided fast and reliable service. For local connections, the download speed was 93Mbps, exceedingly fast. In particular, we noticed that long-distance connections had a greater loss of speed.

There were no speed limitations on users within the data limit of 10GB for the free version of hide.me. Therefore, free customers will still receive the same level of service and performance as paid customers. The speed of the Internet is limited to 3mpbs once you reach the 10GB cap per month, making it one of the best free VPN with limits. So, choosing between a free and paid version is largely based on its suspected use.

Supports P2P

In our opinion, hide.me is the best torrenting service. The privacy policy is safe, security is strong, and speeds are consistent. On the free version, P2P activity is allowed on three of the five servers available.

Its 10GB data cap is more than generous for free VPN, and there are no speed limits for torrenting traffic.

If you intend to use hide.me for torrenting, we recommend using the Stealth Guard feature. This option makes it possible to connect certain apps and services to your VPN, adding another layer of security.

Additional features

Almost all VPN services advertise a kill switch that will disconnect you from the VPN server if your connection is interrupted. To see how the client would react, we blocked access to the server’s IP address and forcedly closed the app processes.

Mixed results emerged from the first test. The ping command was still running after the IP address was blocked, showing that not everything was blocked. It would display timeout or unreachable errors if the switch worked, but it does not. It was quick and easy to disable the DNS functionality. While it covers some possible vulnerabilities, it does not cover all.

It also took a short period of time for the kill switch to be triggered after killing the process. However, this window of risk is still relatively small. Compared to the previous test, the opportunity window was very small.

We tested it on a few devices and operating systems, and we found it very easy to install on them. In addition to Linux, Blackberry, Kodi, and more, it can also be configured to work effectively with most routers. All you need to do is to create an account, download the file, and install hide.me. Then connect and enjoy!

Besides ProtonMail, ProtonVPN is another project of the same corporate entity. Their previous product can be relied upon to guarantee your online anonymity with the highest level of security.

However, the most important thing for VPN users isn’t anonymity. Speed, Netflix unblocking, and torrenting compatibility are other important characteristics.

That’s one side of the VPN coin, so what about the other? ProtonVPN appears to be quite fast, but is it secure?

Secure Core Servers

By contrast, the ‘Secure Core’ service offered by ProtonVPN is much like what most VPN providers refer to as a ‘multi-hop solution.’

A VPN server will route your connection through several domains to enhance your privacy. ProtonVPN draws upon their ‘Secure Core,’ which is made up of servers in Switzerland and Iceland.

By enabling the ‘Secure Core’ option in your VPN client, your connection will pass through one of these three countries before connecting to whichever server you choose as your VPN destination making it one of the best trial VPNs for routers.

Present In 41 Countries

In addition to having a presence in 41 nations, where they maintain over 500 servers, ProtonVPN has a good reputation amongst good VPN providers. Although not the biggest number of servers and countries, it’s still quite good.

Creating an infrastructure (both hardware and bandwidth) that offers a massive number of servers at rock-bottom prices is almost unthinkable, and I would be very suspicious of such a provider. Only a few can do this.

Over average performance

When using a VPN, performance may suffer slightly. This dip depends, however, on how sophisticated and large the service’s network is. What are Proton’s strengths and weaknesses? Honestly, it’s not bad.

Download speed decreased a little, and upload speed actually increased a little. Please keep in mind that that our point-in-time test; speeds vary according to various factors. Having said that, it never changed significantly in our tests unless we engaged the Secure Core function or connected through Australia deliberately.

The Proton connection still experienced faster speeds than dial-up.

Why Do You Need A VPN Free Trial?

In addition to securing all of your valuable data, you also need to ensure that no one else can access it with unauthorized permission. It’s impossible to be sure of who or what is collecting your data and for what purposes without a VPN, and a good one at that. Our list of VPN free trials has a strict policy against logging. To make sure your data is safe and secure, we went through each of their privacy policies.

To compile this list, we used the following methodology

Our process involved various tests in collecting data, ascertaining it, and then creating a list.

History and culture

Our study also focused on the history of VPN companies. We were able to eliminate dozens of VPNs after carefully reviewing each company’s history, structure, and how it functions, even though history doesn’t repeat itself.

Additionally, the VPN companies’ cultures were examined to ensure their attention is given to the needs of their clients first and foremost.

Jurisdiction

To ensure that your data is safe, we examined the privacy and security options offered by VPNs. The first step was to determine which countries the companies were based in, which allowed us to determine what jurisdiction they fell into and if they were part of any alliance to share information, such as 14-eyes.

We also had to examine the data breach laws of different countries. As a consumer of data and a user of privacy laws, you deserve a law that protects your privacy and sanctions those that breach said laws. We automatically eliminated VPNs from countries without data safety and security laws or with them but not to the level we required.

Speed

Speed evaluation involved taking into account three factors; download speed, upload speed, and ping speed. With a VPN, all your traffic flows through a virtual private network of servers rather than directly to and from your internet service provider. As a result, the download and upload speeds are bound to diminish. Thus, the fastest VPN-free trials are those that do not decrease connection speeds much.

As the traffic flows through an additional channel, the VPN, latency will arise when the VPN is configured due to the switch-on of the VPN. Milliseconds are the unit of measurement for latency.

A faster VPN has a lower increase in latency or ping. First, we measured the Chrome browser speed without using a VPN to obtain estimates of the VPN speed for various VPNs. We did our measurements after the turning on of the VPN, and we measured the traffic.  This was followed by a comparison of the two speeds and a calculation of the percentage drop.

ExpressVPN has the lowest increase in latency and the fastest ping. SurfsharkVPN is the best in both upload speed and download speed, as it experiences the least amount of degradation. The latency of SurfsharkVPN is considerably higher than that of NordVPN.

NordVPN has a perfect balance; low pin increase and low download and upload speeds decrease, and that is why we found it to be the best VPN free trial for new users.

User experience

Referrals and testimonials from users are the best way to gauge the quality of a VPN, and so when making this list, we considered how users felt about the product. Here, we consulted highly reliable sources like Google Play Store ratings and comments on Apple Store. In addition, we conducted a few physical interviews with VPN users that frequently used VPNs.

Customer support

User ratings were mainly based on customer experiences when ranking VPNs. As well as reviewing the VPN’s live chat feature and its email contact options, we also checked the time it took for a response to the emails sent.

Pricing

Every VPN has an official website containing all the features it offers and information about its pricing. Using this method, we were able to obtain the pricing metrics and identify VPNs that offered free trials.