What is the meaning of VPN? 10 best free VPN

VPN is the abbreviation of Virtual Private Network. If you talk about its definition or meaning, VPN is simply an encrypted connection between your device to a network or a server. It is like a tunnel, dug to get transferred from one place to another without getting noticed by others. When we get connected over the internet, it’s like you are sailing a boat in a vast sea, where other sailors can snoop over your boat. But imagine that a tunnel is dug underneath the sea. And you are using that tunnel to move from one place to another.

VPN is somewhat like that tunnel underneath the sea, where your ISP or others can’t track your activity over the internet. Because the data you are transferring in the route will be encrypted. I hope, you understood the meaning of VPN with this example. If you have any doubt in understanding the meaning of VPN please let us know in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of using a VPN?

Besides understanding the meaning of VPN you need to know about the benefit of using this tunnel or VPN? When you are using a personalized tunnel, then no one else will be able to snoop on you, when you are moving through this tunnel and what you are carrying with you through this tunnel. I mean to say, the data or information you are carrying to and fro through this tunnel.

Thus most IT companies use their personalized VPNs for sending or receiving data or information from their servers. The companies use paid VPN services where the connection is more secure. Thus the chances of stealing data from the midway of the connection are none or very minimum.

And secondly, some sites or apps are restricted in certain geographical areas, you can also bypass that restriction too. Because, when you are using any VPN on your device, then your ISP (Internet Service Provider), can not trace out which site or domain or app you are accessing via the VPN. For example, you want to make new friends all over the globe, and certain sites may be restricted to certain geographical locations only. You use the VPN server to that location to access that social media site.

There are several VPN service providers available online, some are paid and some are free. But in most cases, the free service of the free providers is limited and stuffed with lots of ads. Thus apart from discussing the definition and meaning of VPN, we will further bring forward a list of the 10 best free VPN service providers.

10 Best Free VPN Service Providers

Only the theoretical explanation regarding the meaning of VPN is not enough, unless and until you experience it practically. Thus to make you experience, we put forward a list of the 10 best free VPN service providers, to make you more understand the meaning and usability of VPN.

1. ProtonVPN

This VPN is the most popular free VPN service provider among others. ProtonVPN offers unlimited data transfer, however, the speed is restricted to medium for the free plan. And if you are planning to use the free plan only, then you can access servers of 3 countries only, namely Japan, Netherlands, and United States. The encryption level it offers is AES 256-Bit. And most importantly it provides VPN service for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux, Chromebook, Android TV. But, the free plan lacks a P2P transfer service.

Although, if you choose the paid premium plans, then you can enjoy more features, in terms of servers, speed, P2P transfer service, and lots more.

2. PrivadoVPN

PrivadoVPN offers a good speed, however, the data transfer limit is restricted to 10GB per month for the free plan. The free plan has access to 12 global servers, also has P2P support. The application of PrivadoVPN is developed for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Android TV, and Firestick TV. So, if you are concerned about speed, then you can choose PrivadoVPN. You can watch the Netflix USA version while connecting to the US server using PrivadoVPN.

PrivadoVPN also offers paid premium plan, which has more leverage on the number of global servers along with an unlimited data transfer limit.

3. TunnelBear VPN

The free plan of TunnelBear does not offer too many privileges. The file transfer limit is restricted to the 500MB limit only, while the speed limit is fine enough. There are 49+ global servers, and has support for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and also has browser support for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

However, if you choose the paid plan, then you will be able to access unlimited secure browsing, which is most significant. Other parameters remain the same.

4. Hide.me

Similar to the other VPN providers mentioned above, Hide.me do have limitation in its free plan. The total file transfer limit is restricted to 10 GB per month and with an unrestricted data speed limit. And you will have access to 5 global server locations only. No ads are being served even in the case of the free users. It has support for almost all kinds of devices, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Amazon Fire TV, Router, Chrome, Firefox, Edge.

However, if you opt for the paid premium plan, you will have access to 2000 servers, distributed over 75 countries and an unlimited data transfer limit.

5. Hotspot Shield Free VPN

The free plan of the Hotspot Shield does have lots of restrictions such as the data transfer limit being restricted to 500MB per day. And connection speed is limited to Mbps, with only one virtual location. It has support for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Chrome.

However, on the other side, the premium plan has 115+ server locations, and speeds up to 1 Gbps, with no data transfer limit. The paid plan is optimized for Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, and so on. It is also optimized for gaming mode for Fortnite, Roblox, and lots more. It includes support for Smart TVs and routers.

6. Windscribe VPN

This VPN service is not truly free, however, the charges are nominal. For each server location, they charge you $1 with a 12GB monthly bandwidth limit. And if you want to use unlimited bandwidth, along with other ad-blocking and security features, you have to pay another $1 in addition. At present, there are a total of almost 63 server locations all over the world. If you opt for a paid pro plan, then you will be able to access all its servers along with all other premium features.

The application of Windscribe VPN has been developed for a wide range of platforms such as Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Blackberry. It has also developed extensions for browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, MS Edge. And has support for Smart TVs such as Amazon Fire TV, Nvidia Sheild, KODI. It has ready-made support for routers and even configuration generators such as OpenVPN, IKEv2, SOCKS5, WireGuard.

7. Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection

Kaspersky is a brand name in the field of antivirus and security. This company has brought forward VPN service both free and paid plans. However, the subscription of the paid plan is too nominal. For the free plan, the connection bandwidth is just 200MB per day and will connect to the nearest server location. However, for the paid plan you can enjoy unlimited traffic, with the leverage to choose the server location as per your choice. It is also optimized for Netflix US and UK. Kill switch option is present for the prevention of data leakage.

It has support for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. It has 2000+ servers situated in 30+ countries. So, you can enjoy its VPN service with the security feature of Kaspersky.

8. Speedify VPN

Like the other members in the list, Speedify has both free and paid plans. And the feature of the free plan is restricted to 2GB bandwidth per month. However, if you choose the paid plan, then loads of other features are waiting for you. Most importantly there will be no restriction for traffic and is optimized for live streaming.

It has support for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

9. ZoogVPN

The free plan of ZoogVPN has a limitation of 10GB bandwidth and is allowed to use only 3 servers of US, UK, and Netherlands. Of which only the Netherlands server has the P2P torrenting support. ZoogVPN has developed apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Fire TV & Stick, Android TV. It has support for Blackberry, Linux, Routers, and other devices. So you need not have to worry about it. Kill switch option is also provided for better security for Windows and Mac users. For the free account, it provides 128-bit encryption.

However, if you opt for a paid premium plan, you can connect over 1000 IPs situated in over 50 locations. And there is no bandwidth barrier and full-fledged P2P service. 20 Netflix regions, along with Hulu, Disney+, Player, and so on are included in the paid plan with 256-bit encryption level security.

10. atlasVPN

The last name in our list is atlasVPN which offers both free and premium services. However, the free account has some restrictions imposed on it. If you are planning to use its free account, then you would be able to access its only 3 servers situated two in the USA and one in the Netherlands. However, you can use unlimited bandwidth in its free account. And encryption and encapsulation are also added within the free account. It has support for Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV.

But the main difference with its premium account is, you can access its 750+ servers situated at 30 locations worldwide, with streaming optimization features. More security is offered with the Tracker blocker feature and data breach scanner.

Sometimes NRIs over the globe, are not able to view contents as per your requirement, because streaming sites feature content as per the geographical locations. For that, they need to use a VPN with an Indian server. There are many VPN providers mentioned above in the list that do has support for Indian server such as ProtonVPN, TunnelBear VPN, Hotspot Sheild, Hide.me, Windscribe, Kaspersky Secure Connection VPN, Speedify, ZoogVPN. But unfortunately none of the Indian servers are provided in the free plan. So, you need to spend some penny out of your pocket if you are planning to use the Indian server based VPN service.

Conclusion

Thus in this article we tried to give a brief explanation on the meaning of VPN and bring forward 10 such VPN service providers which offer free VPN service to its customers or users. However almost all free account have some limitation in terms of its features. But, if you can condone the speed issue, then you can go for ProtonVPN mentioned above with no bandwidth issue. Many such cases have been noticed where user are using VPN service for the download or sharing of pirated software or doing illegal things. TechiTweet never recommend such piracy of software or any illegal activity.

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