Paying for a VPN is always the best way to get a secure, fast service with all the bells and whistles. However, for iPhone users, there are some free VPNs on the app store that are trustworthy. So, if you are short on cash, you don’t have to miss out on the privacy, freedom, and security that a free iOS VPN can provide.
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Services that are free often impose restrictions on the amount of data you can utilize and the speeds, which makes them unsuitable for streaming videos, torrenting, or serving as an additional layer of dependable security in your everyday online activities. That’s why we’d always recommend a quality VPN service like [[post-object type=”gotolink” provider=”expressvpn”]]ExpressVPN[[/post-object]]for just a few dollars per month. You can try it risk-free with the [[post-object type=”gotolink” provider=”expressvpn”]]30-day money-back guarantee.[[/post-object]]
What are the Best Free VPNs for iOS?
In rush to find the best VPN for your iPhone and iOS devices? Here’s a quick run-down of our top picks for the job.
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The Best Free iOS VPNs in-depth analysis
Given just how many iPhone VPNs are on the App Store and the potential problems that come with them, finding the right provider can be difficult. Thankfully, our experts have compared the market to find the five best free VPNs for iPhones. In this section, you can read more about them. Alternatively, you can check our complete VPN reviews.
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How we pick VPNs for iOS – VPN testing methodology
The internet is jam-packed with competing VPN services. These providers are all competing for your attention, and many are willing to use unscrupulous methods to get you to subscribe. This makes it hard for consumers to trust what VPNs claim on their websites or in adverts.
Our team of VPN experts works tirelessly to compare and review market-leading VPN services
At ProPrivacy, we have a team of VPN experts who work tirelessly to compare and review market-leading VPN services. To achieve this, we use a review and testing methodology that we have perfected over the course of many years.
Our review process allows us to check how secure and reliable a VPN is. It also allows us to understand whether one VPN is better than another. As part of our testing, we check whether a VPN has a strong VPN tunnel and encryption you can rely on to keep your browsing habits safe.
We also check for DNS leaks to be sure the VPN is providing the privacy levels to claims. In addition, we check that the VPN is useful by testing its speeds, checking its server locations, and analyzing its software.
Below, you can see some of the features we looked for when picking the best free VPNs for iOS:
Custom apps for iOS that are secure and offer a varied feature set. Strong AES encryption to protect your data inside the VPN tunnel. A large global server network that works to access content and bypass censorship. DNS leak protection to prevent you from ever leaking your web visits to your ISP. A free subscription plan or a money-back guarantee to let you use the VPN for free on iOS. Plenty of advanced privacy protection features, including a kill-switch. The ability to access popular services like Netflix US and BBC iPlayer.
Are free VPNs for iOS safe?
There are a number of considerations you need to make before picking a free VPN. There are, of course, good free VPNs available, but there are also hundreds of bad ones too. So it’s important to do your research first. Here are some things that you should look out for.
Security issues
There are hundreds of free services on the market, and the vast majority of those are dubious services with poor privacy policies.
Many free VPNs have been found to lie about the level of encryption they provide – and studies have revealed that many of them have no encryption at all!
In addition, a CSIRO study carried out in 2017 revealed that out of 234 free VPN apps studied, more than a third contained malvertising and malware. For this reason, choosing a free VPN at random can be extremely dangerous.
To stay safe, we encourage you to stick to the providers featured on this page.
Privacy issues
Running a VPN is an expensive enterprise with a large number of outgoings. This makes it almost impossible to provide a good free service. Many cowboy VPN providers pull it off by collecting their users’ web data and browsing habits, selling it onto third parties such as data brokers.
A VPN that collects your data and sells it for a profit is the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do. A VPN is supposed to protect your privacy by encrypting your data and making it inaccessible to anybody but you. We urge you not to settle for this kind of free VPN when there are perfectly good ones on the market.
Limitations of free services
Some premium VPNs provide a free plan designed to advertise what they are capable of. The VPNs we have recommended in this article are both 100% safe to use and 100% free. However, these free plans do come with certain limitations.
Reputable VPN companies only provide a free version of their service to advertise the full premium VPN. In the long run, these companies hope that users will enjoy the limited free version of the VPN enough to upgrade to the full unrestricted version. It is for this reason that free plans have some or all the following restrictions:
Limited server locations Data limitations Bandwidth restrictions (speed cap) Inability to access certain services (such as Netflix)
Please bear in mind that download limitations and connection speed restrictions make free VPNs unsuitable for streaming. Streaming will cause you to use up your data allowance extremely quickly, and slower VPN speeds will result in buffering.
If you require a VPN for streaming, we recommend checking out our list of the best cheap VPNs.
Is a free VPN for iOS fast?
Unfortunately, the vast majority of free VPNs you can use on an iPhone or iPad will not be fast.
Many free VPNs have slow servers, badly designed apps, and inferior tunneling protocols that slow down the speed of your internet. This makes those VPNs unsuitable for gaming, torrenting, streaming, videoconferencing, and other data-intensive tasks.
While you can try a free VPN on any iOS device to see if it works to do the tasks you need to do privately, it is important to remember that, generally speaking, a free VPN will be much slower than a premium, paid VPN.
If you have never used a VPN before, using a free VPN may mistakenly give you the impression that a VPN will massively reduce the speed of your internet and have a negative impact on your internet experience.
In reality, free VPNs have fewer servers that are highly congested with users. This makes them much slower than premium VPNs. If you want to try a full speed VPN for free, the good news is that you can do so by making use of a VPN money-back guarantee.
This will let you see the difference between a high-speed premium VPN and a free VPN (which can be great for accessing blocked news websites and social media, but not so great for streaming, for example).
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Free VPNs iPhone users should avoid
There are many dodgy free VPNs on the market. Even some of the VPNs that appear high on the Apple app store – and have been given high star ratings by consumers – are actually very concerning when it comes to privacy and security.
Sticking to the advised free iPhone VPNs only will allow you to make use of cost-free VPNs without any concerns. However, to help we have included a list of iOS VPNs that have been found to have poor privacy policies, a lack of encryption, or apps that contain spyware to help you know what to avoid:
HolaVPN TurboVPN Stealth VPN Totally free VPN DotVPN FreeVPN – Unlimited OkVPN EasyVPN SuperVPN Betternet CrossVPN Archie VPN HatVPN sFly Network Booster One Click VPN Fast Secure Payment
Final word
Free VPNs come with some limitations, but, depending on your needs, free iPhone and iOS VPNs can come in very handy. Once again, these are the free services that we recommend. We hope our best buy table will help you decide on which free service suits you the best.
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The best free VPNs for iPhone and iOS – FAQs
[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Are free iPhone and iOS VPNs worth it?” answer=”Well, that mostly depends on your VPN needs and intentions. A reliable free VPN will suffice if you’re looking to secure your occasional browsing sessions, bypass censorship of the press in your county, or as a short-term solution for your other basic online tasks.
For more data-intensive tasks, however, such VPNs are more trouble than they’re worth. To <a href=’/vpn/comparison/vpn-for-streaming’>enjoy seamless streaming</a>, for example, you may want to look up some of the industry-leading VPNs that are much faster, more reliable, and come without data limitations. Or, at least, consider upgrading to a premium plan of any of the services from above.” /]]
[[post-object type=”accordion” question=”Which free iPhone and iOS VPN has the biggest data allowance?” answer=”Of all free VPNs compatible with iPhone and iOS devices (which are safe and advisable to use) ProtonVPN comes with the biggest data traffic allowance – unlimited. That being said, congestion on its free servers and some slowing down during peak hours are to be expected, so not even this free VPN is ideal for your demanding tasks, such as streaming, gaming, and torrenting.
Such data-intensive activities will, most likely, require an upgrade to a premium ProtonVPN plan, or, alternatively, a <a href=’/vpn/comparison/best-cheap-vpn-service’>good cheap VPN</a> – with more servers, better speeds, and unlimited data allowances.” /]]