Running a VPN costs money: servers, bandwidth and staff. When an app is free, it is fair to ask how it pays for itself. Some free VPNs are honest, limited versions of a paid service. Others are not.
Data caps and slow servers
Honest free plans limit you instead of selling you. Windscribe gives 10 GB a month and TunnelBear 2 GB; Proton VPN has no data cap but allows one device and picks the server for you. None of them includes a Saudi server.
Ads and trackers
Free apps without a paid plan often make money from advertising, and adverts come with tracking code. That defeats the point of a privacy tool.
Logging
A VPN sees every site you visit. If it keeps logs, they can be sold, leaked or handed over. Even a respected free project like VPN Gate says it keeps connection logs, including your IP address, for three months or more and shares them with police and courts when asked.
Fake and copycat apps
App stores and download sites are full of apps that borrow the names and icons of well-known VPNs. A fake VPN can read everything you send through it. Install only from the official app store listing or the provider’s own site, and check the developer name.
Services that disappear
Atlas VPN, once a popular free VPN, shut down on 24 April 2024. Its paid users were moved to NordVPN; its free users were not. A VPN that closes can take your settings and subscription with it.
How to choose a safe free VPN
- Pick a provider that also sells a paid plan, so the free plan is not the product.
- Look for a published independent audit.
- Read what it logs, in its own privacy policy.
- Start with Proton VPN Free, Windscribe or TunnelBear: see the best free VPNs.
Sources
Checked on 29 October 2026. Found something out of date? Tell us and we will check it again.
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