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In a Walmart commercial, Sam Cooke says that “the best things in life are free.” While the lyric was referring to the store’s free two-day shipping deal, it really applies to so many other things, including totally free online dating sites.
Who says you have to spend your hard-earned money to find your perfect match? If you’re wondering which dating sites are completely free, then take a look at our list of the top free online dating sites where registration, profile browsing, and private communication don’t ever cost a thing.
Read on to see our reviews on the best free dating resources as well as some bonus answers to frequently asked questions by online daters like you.
Elite Singles may be be free, but it doesn’t skimp on quality. The site is dedicated to college graduates who are over 30 and looking for a serious relationship. Approximately, 82% of its members hold at least a bachelor’s degree, and approximately 2,500 of its members find love every month. On Elite Singles, more features won’t cost you anything, including registration, browsing, and certain forms of communication. However, you do have to upgrade if you want complete access to your inbox and other members’ photos.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
All Singles* | 44%* 56%* | 2 Million* | Sign Up Free |
Founded in 2000, eharmony is a well-known name in the dating industry, but it’s also known for its affordability (a basic membership is 100% free), ingenuity (the one-of-a-kind 32 Dimensions of Compatibility Quiz), and simplicity (the site does all the searching for you). The brainchild of clinical psychologist, Christian theologian, and seminary professor Dr. Neil Clark Warren, eharmony is the mastermind behind 2 million relationships in the United States, and it creates a new match every 14 minutes, so you’ll be in good hands if you join.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
All Straight Singles* | 48%* 52%* | 4.1 Million* | Join eharmony FREE |
Not only does Zoosk have a $0 price tag, but it also has one of the largest and most diverse user bases of any dating site — 40 million+ members from 80+ countries speaking 25+ languages. Plus, 30 million+ app downloads and 3 million+ messages exchanged every day. Pretty impressive! Once you create a dating profile (which you can do via Facebook or Google+), the Carousel is where you’ll want to head because that’s where you can start liking potential matches and getting people’s attention.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
All Singles* | 48%* 52%* | 28.9 Million* | Start Zoosk for FREE |
If we’re talking about free stuff, Match.com is like the free food of dating sites — it’s the best. It’s absolutely free to fill out a profile (with info about yourself and your ideal date or partner), browse through members, receive at least five matches a day, flirt (e.g., like people and send winks), receive Yes Ratings (those who’ve said yes to being interested in you), and hear about exclusive Match events. Plus, you can’t go wrong with the free dating site that’s responsible for creating more long-term relationships and marriages than its competitors.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
All Singles* | 49%* 51%* | 39.7 Million* | Get 3 Days FREE |
Many Christian singles’ idea of the perfect match is usually someone who has the same beliefs, values, and lifestyle, but they also do want to spend an arm and a leg while finding like-minded people. That’s why they turn to ChristianMingle — it’s among the most reputable and popular Christian dating sites, and a standard subscription is totally free. As a basic member, you can upload information and photos, search for date prospects, receive match suggestions, and communicate in a variety of ways.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
Christian Singles* | 44%* 56%* | 3.5 Million* | Free Search, Then $14.99/Mo. |
According to Business Insider, people over 60 make up 11% of the world’s population, and that number is estimated to grow to 22% by 2050. This is a huge demographic that deserves special attention, particularly the singles. OurTime is our top recommendation for older people in the dating scene for many reasons. 1) It’s just for senior singles. 2) It’s safe and easy. 3) It’s free. Just provide your gender, the gender you’re looking for, hair color, eye color, height, ethnicity, body type, marital status, how many children you have, how many children live with you, your smoking habits, country, zip code, age, username, and password.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
Mature Singles (50+)* | 48%* 52%* | 8.9 Million* | Over 50? Start FREE |
BlackPeopleMeet is a People Media site, which means it can be trusted to connect you to that special someone. The niche site’s focus is on biracial and black singles. Launched in 2002, BlackPeopleMeet sees more than 1.4 million visitors a month and has a four-star rating on Google Play. Whether you’re looking for casual dates, pen pals, love interests, or a husband or wife, BlackPeopleMeet can help you make the right connections quickly and simply.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
Black Singles* | 47%* 53%* | 5.7 Million* | FREE Trial for New Users |
SilverSingles is another terrific option for single seniors, especially those who aren’t tech savvy or feel nervous about online dating. The site has a clean, intuitive layout that anyone can pick up on, and the features are all streamlined for easy navigation (e.g., filtering searches, receiving compatible profiles, and sending messages). Most importantly, SilverSingles doesn’t charge you to test out the site and see if it’s a good fit for you.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
Mature Singles (50+)* | 41%* 59%* | 800,000* | Sign up for FREE |
For hookup-minded singles, BeNaughty is where it’s at. This free sex site has millions of frisky men and women from all over the world looking for all kinds of sexual encounters, including one-night stands, threesomes, affairs, and swinging partners. You can rest assured that you’re safe while using BeNaughty because the site verifies its members and uses SSL encryption to protect your personal and financial information. Plus all chatting and instant messaging is completely free on this dating site.
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | Today's Deal |
All Singles* | 48%* 52%* | 13.3 Million* | Browse Profiles Free |
OkCupid
Since its launch in 2004, OkCupid has been been completely free, and the team says it’ll stay that way as long as the site is running. That’s right — you don’t have to pay to create a dating profile, search for compatible dates, receive a potential match, flirt, send and receive messages, or anything else. OkCupid is most known for its proprietary matching algorithm — you’ll answer numerous questions, specify how you want your potential dates to answer the questions, and then rank the importance of each question. That’s how the free dating site calculates your compatibility ratings with other members. A match percentage of 85% or higher means you’ve got quite a lot in common!
URL:https://www.okcupid.com/
Plenty of Fish
Plenty of Fish (POF) is another free dating site that promises to never make you pay to send or receive messages — and that’s a really good thing because POF users have more conversations than those on any other dating site and exchange 1 billion messages a month. Some other impressive numbers include that 70,000 new people join the site every day, and it’s available in 11 languages and more than 20 countries. One user named Simon Whitelock wrote on Google Play: “Been on a couple of other sites a week now and had absolutely nothing at all. Cast my net on POF and, within 48 hours, I’ve had some contact. Proves that POF does work.”
URL:https://www.pof.com/
Mingle2
Mingle2 says that it’ll only take 30 seconds for you to set up an account, and then you’re on your way to meeting a lot of authentic people. The team monitors the site to ensure that all the profiles are real and to keep scammers away. One helpful feature is the Members Online Now section, where you can see who’s logged in at the same time, which makes for even quicker connections. Mingle2 says you can put away your credit card as well because they won’t ask you for it.
URL:https://mingle2.com/
DateHookup
Founded by Dustin Weirich, DateHookup has so many free features that we can’t possibly list them all. Some of the best include signup, viewing profiles (filters include gender, age, and location), saving your searches, seeing who’s online now, liking profiles, posting and replying to threads in the forum, and chatting in real time. In addition, the Articles page offers free advice on a bunch of topics, including date ideas, dating when on a budget, and protecting yourself from catfishers and fake profiles.
URL:https://www.datehookup.com/
Which Online Dating Site Offers Completely Free Messaging?
Most people assume that a free online dating site will offer a free chat room for singles seeking dates, but sometimes the free services include only profile browsing and virtual liking — not the ability to send, read, and receive messages. This is a pretty big let down for some online daters, but luckily they don’t have get a paid membership to meet new people on a totally free dating site like OkCupid.
OkCupid offers 100% free communication between all its users, and they don’t have to pay a thing to access the messages in their inbox and greetings on other people’s dating profiles.
We’ve consistently ranked OkCupid as one of the best completely free dating sites because it has everything you need to make a great match.
OkCupid operates under the motto “Dating deserves better.”
We’ve already covered the basics of how OkCupid works and all the free dating services it can provide to support local singles, but a low price tag isn’t the only thing this totally free dating site and dating app have to offer.
The OkCupid match formula can direct users to the ideal first date and empower a single person to find their perfect match within no time. Every year, the OkCupid site and app create over 91 million matches between real people seeking the real deal.
Is Tinder the Best Dating App for a Casual Fling?
Most online daters are familiar with Tinder. It’s pretty much the most popular dating app on the planet, after all. Tinder launched in 2012 back when online dating was still very much stigmatized and underutilized by most people — but Tinder’s revolutionary swiping feature changed all that.
Best Totally Free Dating Apps
Tinder is a free dating app where users can express their likes and dislikes without holding back. By swiping on profiles, a single person can generate a potential match list comprised solely of people who turn them on. Plus, messaging is totally free between all users who like each other’s profiles.
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There’s no denying that Tinder is a great hookup app where it’s easy to flirt with a stranger and pick up a hot date, and you can start chatting people up as soon as you create a profile connected to your phone number or Facebook account.
Tinder arranges over 1.5 million first dates every week, so it can definitely introduce you to some sexy local singles in the dating scene.
What Is Coffee Meets Bagel?
Coffee Meets Bagel is a free dating app where a single person can build a serious relationship with a potential soul mate. The app promotes authenticity, selectivity, and serious dating, so it’s a natural vehicle for single men and women who are tired of the traditional swiping scene.
By taking a quality-driven approach to online dating, Coffee Meets Bagel has changed the way local singles engage with one another online.
CoffeeMeetsBagel began as a passion project of three single women in Silicon Valley.
Coffee Meets Bagel limits the number of likes and matches a person can review each day, and that gives single people an incentive to slow down and consider each potential match more carefully and thoughtfully.
If you’re looking for true love, you should consider downloading this dating app for free and using its match capabilities to meet the person of your dreams.
How Do I Spot Fake Profiles on a Dating Website?
Spotting fake profiles is a regrettably necessary skill for any single guy or gal surfing on a free online dating platform because such free services tend to attract a few bad apples and unsavory characters.
As you chat with people online, you may start to pick up on certain warning signs and red flags that your online crush has something to hide. Things like speaking broken English, pressuring you to meet up right away, and making too-good-to-be-true boasts can all indicate that something fishy is going on.
Online daters should always do their research on a person before agreeing to meet up in person. You can do that organically by asking questions and carrying on a conversation in a private chat room — or you can straight up look that person up on Google, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Searching for someone by name, occupation, and location is useful because it can give you some good background information and pictures. This online footprint can verify that a person is exactly who he or she claims to be.
You can always trying using an online dating service like DateID to automatically screen your potential match and dig up the dirt before your first date.
Which Hookup Website Has No Hidden Fees?
An online dating site with no hidden fees can offer a great chat opportunity to singles looking to hook up right away, and that’s probably why almost 50% of singles under 30 have used a dating site or app to meet new people.
BeNaughty is one of our favorite 100 percent free dating sites for hookups because it doesn’t charge a penny to send and receive messages on the website — you can even send a mass text message to everyone who meets your dating criteria. BeNaughty is an incredibly fast-paced and sex-forward dating scene where singles can come into their own.
All you need to do to get access to free chatting on BeNaughty is upload a profile picture that clearly shows your face. As soon as the moderators approve your photo, you’ll be good to mix and mingle as much as you please.
Our expert ratings are based on factors such as popularity, usability, value, and success rate of each site.
Relationships:Hookups, Chats
Match System:Search by encounter, location, and more
Our Experts Say:“BeNaughty is a premier hookup app where you can feel comfortable expressing your desires. Plus, it's free to join, browse, and flirt...” Full Review»
Browse Free:View Photos Now
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | |
All Singles* | 48%* 52%* | 13.3 Million* | Browse Profiles Free |
As you can tell from our review, BeNaughty can give you a lot of bang for virtually zero bucks. It’s free to create a dating profile and send messages on this hookup site, and you don’t have to worry about your free membership ever expiring or tacking on hidden fees. In fact, you never have to give BeNaughty your credit card information or PayPal account at all if you’d rather mingle for free.
However, some singles find it useful to upgrade to a paid BeNaughty subscription because they’d like extra perks and security features. This is completely optional, but it can up your odds of meeting someone special online.
What Is Facebook Dating & How Does It Work?
Facebook Dating is a free dating service that launched in the U.S. in September 2019. Anyone with a Facebook profile is eligible to join Facebook Dating and expand their reach in the local dating scene. You can only access this free dating service through the Facebook app, and you’ll have to create a new dating profile to get started.
Your activity on Facebook Dating will not be visible anywhere on your Facebook profile or newsfeed. Users aren’t even allowed to take screenshots in the app, so you can rest assured your secret crushes will stay secret.
Our Facebook Dating review goes into more details about how the dating service works and what it can offer singles — as well as some alternative free dating websites and apps worth giving a try.
Which Online Dating Site Works Best for a Serious Relationship?
This is an easy one. Only one dating website has been around since the early days of the internet and created more relationships and marriages than any other dating service in the world — and it’s Match.com.
Match has spent years perfecting its algorithm, honing its search filters, and streamlining the online dating process, so now it can offer a no-muss and no-fuss dating solution for anyone looking for the perfect match. This smart matchmaking website has a lot of great bells and whistles — including a fully functional dating app — so singles can build a relationship that lasts.
Our expert ratings are based on factors such as popularity, usability, value, and success rate of each site.
Relationships:Friends, Dates, and Relationships
Match System:Browse by zip, age, appearance, more
Our Experts Say:“Match has facilitated the most dates and relationships of any dating site, and its large audience and high success rate make it our top review...” Full Review»
Browse Free:View Photos Now
User Base | Gender Ratio | Popularity (Visits/Mo.) | |
All Singles* | 49%* 51%* | 39.7 Million* | Try Match.com FREE |
Match is by far our favorite dating website for finding true love and happiness because it looks at personality traits, educational background, family values, and other important factors when creating matches and recommending date prospects.
Plus, a majority of Match users are over 30 and willing to pay for a monthly subscription package, so it’s a more serious dating crowd than you’ll find on the typical free dating site or free dating app.
Love Shouldn’t Come With a Price Tag!
Sam Cooke didn’t have online dating on his mind when he was singing about life’s free treasures, but his catchy tune still applies to the modern dating experience. You don’t have to pay for swiping and matching with a free site or app in hand, and that can make your journey all the more enjoyable.
Totally free online dating sites have definitely become one of the most popular ways to meet new people and build relationships. So take advantage of the free sites we’ve just told you about — and put your credit card away!
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Our Editorial Review Policy
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: No VPN is truly “free“. While you may not have to pay for the subscription, these VPN companies need to make their money from somewhere. Most of the time, they will take your data, and sell it to the highest bidder (advertisers, law enforcement, even governments).
ExpressVPN allows you to pay a super low subscription fee, with all the peace of mind that comes with a no-log, completely anonymous VPN service.
Best Free VPNs Quick View
- Windscribe – A generous free plan with excellent features.
- Proton VPN – Top-notch security features that go above and beyond protecting your online activity.
- TunnelBear – Uprunning free VPN
- Hotspot Shield – Limited free version available
- HideMan – Limited but great for mobile
- Hide.Me – No logs free VPN client
Top Picks for Best VPN Free Trial with No Credit Card Needed
#1 Windscribe
This VPN has software for platforms like Windows, Android, Mac, iOS, as well as extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, with beta versions for Linux. Windscribe allows users 2GB of VPN-protected data, with users able to amp that up to 10GB per month by providing their email address.
The free plan includes servers in countries like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and Romania. In general, there are servers in over 60 countries in 110 cities all over the globe.
When it comes to logging your information, everything is clearly listed in the privacy policy. Long-term logging looks at the total bandwidth that you have used in a month, which is needed to keep track of the free plan. Otherwise, a timestamp of your last activity is also recorded.
There is no logging of your connections, timestamps, browsing history or IP addresses. In terms of security, Windscribe uses AES-256 cipher with SHA512 auth and a 4096-bit RSA key, and generate OpenVPN, IKEv2 and SOCKS configs for all your devices.
Windscribe is a great service that provides a generous amount of bandwidth each month for people who might work on online from public places.
Return Policy:“In case you are not satisfied with the commercial Service, once you have subscribed you have the right to obtain a full reimbursement, given that your request a within 3 commercial days from the subscription payment.”
For more information on Windscribe features, read our extensive Windscribe review.
#2 Proton VPN
ProtonVPN has a freemium service that offers users three location connections including the United States, Japan, and the Netherlands. The best thing about the free ProtonVPN plan is that it comes with absolutely no bandwidth restrictions. The speeds are slower than the paid options and you can only secure one device, but the fact that there are no bandwidth restrictions means that you can use ProtonVPN whenever and however much you want.
Another excellent thing about ProtonVPN is the fact that this company has years of experience behind it, especially in terms of user security. This is because the people behind ProtonVPN are also the people that created ProtonMail, the world’s largest encrypted emailing service.
ProtonVPN is based in Switzerland, which has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, meaning that ProtonVPN follows a strict privacy policy and is very transparent. It will never log information about your connection, IP address, session bandwidth or other identifying information.
You can upgrade to one of the paid plans and enjoy Secure Core, one of ProtonVPN’s biggest selling points.
“ProtonVPN’s Secure Core architecture gives our secure VPN service the unique ability to defend against network-based attacks. Secure Core protects your connection by routing your traffic through multiple servers before leaving our network. This means an advanced adversary who can monitor the network traffic at the exit server will not be able to discover the true IP address of ProtonVPN users, nor match browsing activity to that IP.
Secure core servers are located in hardened data centers in Switzerland, Iceland, and Sweden, protected by strong privacy laws, and operated on our own dedicated networks.”
Return Policy:“You may cancel your account with a refund for any unused portion of the service period within 30 days of the initial purchase. Refunds or credits beyond the 30 days window will be considered, but at the sole discretion of the Service. The Company is only obligated to refund in the original currency of payment and refunds will be processed within 30 days of the request”.
Please Note!
In order to activate the free VPN account, follow these instructions:
For more information on ProtonVPN features, read our extensive ProtonVPN review.
#3 TunnelBear
If you are new to the world of VPNs, TunnelBear provides a great free VPN service which includes a user-friendly interface complete with animated grizzly bears. This Toronto-based service has hundreds of servers around the world, and while many VPNs will limit their free servers to just a few, TunnelBear allows users to use many of them and enjoy excellent speeds.
The great thing about TunnelBear is that it will not collect the following data:
- “IP addresses visiting our website
- IP addresses upon service connection
- DNS Queries while connected
- Any information about the applications, services or websites our users use while connected to our Service”
OpenVPN and IPSec/IKEv2 provide 256-bit AES protection, though the IPSec protocol offers still-respectable 128-bit AES encryption.
The free services are limited to just 500MB of data each month, but you can always post a tweet about them on Twitter and you will be provided with an extra 1GB. Again, not mind-blowing, but it’s better than nothing.
Return Policy: “Many issues can contribute to sub-optimal performance (ISP, location, censorship, settings, etc.). The TunnelBear team goes to exceptional lengths to satisfy users who experience sub-optimal performance or the occasional outage. However, TunnelBear does not offer financial reimbursement due to these issues.”
In other words, they don’t offer refunds.
For more information on TunnelBear VPN features, read our extensive TunnelBear review.
#4 Hotspot Shield
Hotspot Shield made our best free VPNs list as it offers a reliable connection complete with military-grade encryption and doesn’t come with any DNS leaks.
This VPN service provider has more than 650 million users around the globe with servers in more than 55 countries. Hotspot Shield works with Netflix and allows users 500MB of free data per day, meaning you get 15GB free a month.
You might be wondering why it isn’t higher on our list and it all comes down to the privacy policy. Let’s start with the good news. Hotspot Shield doesn’t keep any usage logs of your online activity, however, it does collect the following information:
- Username
- Email address
- Unique mobile ID
- Hardware model
- Email address
- Real IP address (this is deleted after each session)
- Operating system version
- Language
- Network information
- MAC address
- Wireless carrier
- Your city-level location
- Unique advertising ID
While Hotspot Shield claims you are not identifiable by the information that is collected, this is still a little too much in our opinion. While Hotspot Shield has more than 3,200 servers around the world, free users are only able to connect to US servers.
Users should note that they will be blocked by a Premium Payment Wall if you attempt to access streaming content with your VPN enabled.
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Please Note!
Due to an interface update, users had difficulties to activate the free VPN option. After downloading the free VPN client, press the back arrow on the upper left side of the screen that will pop. This action will take you straight to the free VPN interface.
Return Policy:“Customers can request a refund within 30 days from the purchase date.”
For more information on Hotspot Shield VPN features, read our extensive Hotspot Shield review.
#5 HideMan
This is another VPN that has a reliable free VPN, however, there are some restrictions that come with the free plan. The first is that you cannot choose your server location, rather it gets allocated to you, and your speed might drop during peak times. Hideman offers four sessions that last up to an hour per week, and there is also a little logging that we’re not too happy about.
This is what we found in HideMan’s privacy policy,
“Protecting personally identifiable information about clients is an important part of our business. We share and disclose such information only as described below. The company sends personally identifiable information about you to other companies or people:
When we have your consent to share the information;
When we need to share your information with third parties, such as banks and credit card processors, to provide the product or service you have requested;
When it is appropriate to comply with law;
When it is necessary to enforce or apply the terms and conditions of our license agreement;
When it is necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of the company, our users, or others, which may include the exchange of information with other organizations for fraud protection and/or risk reduction.”
If you are patient enough to work with the restrictions that HideMan has, you might want to consider this your next free VPN option.
Return Policy:“The company will return the client’s funds within 21 business days but no more than 30 calendar days.”
For more information on Hideman VPN features, read our extensive Hideman review.
#6 Hide.Me
This VPN service offers users 2GB of free data per month with server locations restricted to five countries such as the Netherlands, Canada, the United States East and West as well as Singapore. Premium users are allowed access to more than 60 server locations around the world.
The free plan is only available on one device, but if you transfer to the paid plan you can connect as many as 10 devices at the same time. The great thing about Hide.Me is that the performance will not suffer just because you’re using a free VPN. There is 99.9% uptime and absolutely no ads.
Here is what Hide.Me said about storing user data,
“In order to make a quick buck, other free VPNs sell your data. hide.me is audited by independent security analysts certifying that our system can’t store user data. So when we can’t store your data, how could we sell it?”
One of the best things about this VPN free trial, no credit card information is required.
Return Policy:“There is no minimum contract term or notice period, you may cancel it at any time. Just contact our support and give them a short notice that you want to cancel your account.”
For more information on Hide.me features, read our extensive Hide.me review.
Why ExpressVPN Is a Smarter Choice Than a “Free” VPN
ExpressVPNis technically a paid VPN, however, you can use the service for thirty days completely free by taking advantage of ExpressVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee. While with many VPNs this will come with some sort of catch, ExpressVPN will refund your cash without any questions asked.
This is in our opinion the best premium VPN service currently available on the market. It comes with more than 3,000 servers all across the globe in 160 locations. ExpressVPN has jurisdiction in the British Virgin Islands which is a place that doesn’t have any data retention laws, meaning your online movements always remain private.
This is reinforced within ExpressVPN’s privacy policy,
“We do not collect logs of your activity, including no logging of browsing history, traffic destination, data content, or DNS queries. We also never store connection logs, meaning no logs of your IP address, your outgoing VPN IP address, connection timestamp, or session duration.”
If you’re afraid of having your online security breached with your free VPN, you don’t have to stress with ExpressVPN. This is because you have an array of protocols on offer, including military-grade encryption, OpenVPN, DNS leak blocking, five-party DNS, IPV6 leak blocking, webRTC leak blocking, as well as a Network Lock. The latter will stop all of your online activity should your VPN connection drop.
You can use ExpressVPN on all major platforms including Windows, Mac, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire, and this is one of the few VPN services that have no issues getting around Netflix regional restrictions.
ExpressVPN allows for five simultaneous connections as well as providing users with round the clock customer assistance. All you need to do to get help is head over to the ExpressVPN website and use the online chat platform. It is available 24/7 throughout the whole year. If you can’t chat, you can submit a ticket or send an email and someone will get back to you shortly.
Lastly, ExpressVPN has an uptime guarantee of 99.9% which means it’s really fast. In fact, ExpressVPN has a worldwide reputation of being the fastest VPN on the market. If you want a free VPN, you won’t go wrong by testing out ExpressVPN for thirty days. Be warned though, once you use ExpressVPN, you probably won’t ever go back.
Returns Policy:“You may cancel your account with a full refund within 30 days of your initial purchase (“Money Back Guarantee”). Refunds are generally processed within seven (7) days, and are made to the original form of payment used for purchase. All refunds are sent in USD and therefore the refund amount could differ from the amount originally paid in local currency or bitcoin.”
Want to know more about ExpressVPN? Find out everything you need to know in our detailed review.
What is a Free VPN
Free VPN services are generally subpar when compared to premium providers, or they’re posited as a ‘trial’ version of the service.
Most aim to retain their customer base by getting them to upgrade to the full-fat version, but a free version is still better than browsing without one. On the other hand, lots of free users also help to give a company legitimacy; especially if they’re dropping down five-star reviews like it’s going out of fashion. Offering a solid free service is a great way to get some positive attention, and the market is fairly crowded.
If you’re strapped for cash, or you’re just unsure whether a VPN will be right for you, it’s a great way to see what they have to offer without committing to a contract.
What are the Drawbacks of a Completely Free VPN
As we’ve mentioned, free doesn’t always mean ‘free’. Given the sensitive nature of your personal information, it’s tough to trust any company that is willing to waive a charge. The best free secure VPN will keep your information safe, without outrageous limitations to their speeds and features. Essentially, trust is the most important aspect, and you could end up being burned if you go with a dodgy provider.
Then there are issues in terms of speed and server locations. A free provider will always struggle to match a paid alternative when it comes to either, which can have a major impact in terms of buffering or general lag. Overall, a free VPN is better than none at all, yet it’ll never match up to a premium service.
Take it as a rule of thumb, when comparing a free VPN vs paid VPN, forever, the paid version would be faster, safer and more reliable.
If you are a heavy user and in need for a fast and unlimited VPN service, you should check out our best VPN service ranking.
Free VS. Paid VPN
If VPNs are available for free, why would anyone pay for them?
There are two major downfalls with a free VPNs, that might not be worth the few dollars a month you’d be saving by opting out of a paid subscription.
Not Secure
Although these free VPNs aren’t taking payment directly from their users, they need to make their money somehow. This is why, oftentimes, these providers take your internet data and sell it to the highest bidder.
It’s important to understand why this is a dangerous catch.
Firstly, these free VPN providers can sell all of your data (search history, online purchases, frequently visited websites, etc.) to advertising companies who will mercilessly target you if they think you might be interested in their product. It’s not just coincidence that you seem to get shown ads for things you are genuinely interested in/have searched for recently. While this might be a nice way to make the purchase you’ve been looking for, most likely you will become very annoyed very quickly.
Even more frightening though, if you happen to be located in a country with very strict internet censorship laws, this can put you in danger of having your internet activity discovered by the authorities, and could land you in some serious trouble.
Additionally, because of the low quality of service, their VPN connection often drops out, exposing your true identity in an instant.
Not Enough Servers
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Free VPN providers typically do the bare minimum for their users, because they are not being compensated for their services. This often means that they have a minimal amount of servers available, so all of their users have to share the same few.
This makes for super-slow connection speeds, so be prepared to view streamed content with pixelation and constant buffering. Not to mention the annoyingly long wait time, just to load a page.
Because of these reasons, we strongly recommend that you go with a paid VPN service.
ExpressVPN is one of the best VPN providers on the market today. With its super-fast speed, mobile accessibility, an easy to use app, and access in censorship-heavy countries, you’ll find all you need in a VPN, without payment too much.
For more information on ExpressVPN’s features, read our extensive ExpressVPN review.
Free VPN Benefits
A free VPN will be able to protect you in a range of different situations like we’ve discussed above, while some use adverts as a revenue stream instead of limiting their service.
At the very least, a decent VPN will ensure information about your online movements will be safe behind their encryption protocols, and you’ll be able to access geo-restricted content.
Best of all, they’re free! It might not be the most powerful version of the software, and it won’t come with the full range of features, but it’s a decent alternative if you can’t (or won’t) pay.
While your security is definitely more compromised while using a completely free VPN, you can still use it for accessing all sorts of geo-blocked sites and services. You can watch all of your shows on Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer and more.
Different Applications Used with a Free VPN
Free VPN for Kodi
When it comes to streaming on Kodi, many free VPNs will fall short, mostly because they are in some way restricted, usually in terms of bandwidth. This is why the best free VPN for Kodi has to be ExpressVPN. Although it has a 30-day restriction, at least you will be able to access Kodi without any trouble for a whole month. For more best free VPNs for Kodi, check out our list here.
Free VPN for Mac
If you want to keep your online movements protected while using your Mac, you can always go with ProtonVPN as there is no bandwidth restrictions. You will not be able to stream your favorite shows as your speed is limited, but you can check your emails and perform simple tasks securely.
Free VPN for iPhone
Windscribe is great for your iPhone or iOS devices when looking at free VPNs. It cannot compete with ExpressVPN, so if you’re looking to keep your iPhone secure and access Netflix from your device, you will want to make use of the 30-day money-back guarantee.
Free VPN for Torrenting
Again, when it comes to torrenting, you will need to use a VPN service that comes without bandwidth restrictions as well as fast speeds. ExpressVPN is the best option for this.
Free VPN for Firestick
ExpressVPN comes with a 99.9% uptime guarantee as well as constant customer service support. If you have any issues installing ExpressVPN on your Firestick you can contact the team which will help you out, night or day.
Conclusion
Using a free VPN has many benefits, one of which is not spending a dime on protecting your online activities. On the other hand, using a free VPN often comes with restrictions including server locations, bandwidth restrictions as well as drops in speed.
If you’re looking for a reliable free VPN you should always go with a premium service that also offers a free service. This will usually ensure that your data is not shared with third parties and your privacy remains protected.