Affiliate disclosure: VPN Vetted earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page, at no extra cost to you. That includes Proton VPN, Surfshark and NordVPN. Surfshark and NordVPN both belong to Nord Security (Surfshark merged with Nord Security on February 1, 2022), and we flag that where it matters. We compare on facts from official pages (free-plan limits, trial terms, device counts, refund windows), not on what we earn.
Prices checked October 26, 2026. All prices are US prices in USD before tax, read from each company’s official pages that day. Surfshark’s and NordVPN’s pages showed Black Friday promotions that day, so their intro prices are promotional and may change.
“Free VPN” can mean two different things. A free-forever plan costs nothing, now or later, but comes with limits. A free trial is a paid VPN you can use for a few days before your card is charged. Both can be fine, as long as you know which one you are signing up for. This guide separates the two. It covers the free plan we can document in detail, Proton VPN Free, and the trials Surfshark and NordVPN offer on their own sites.
Quick picks: free forever vs try-before-you-buy
- Free forever: Proton VPN Free. $0 with no end date. Proton’s pages say it has no ads, no logs and no data limits. It covers one device at a time and connects to servers in 10 randomly selected countries.
- Try before you buy: Surfshark. A 7-day free trial on 12- or 24-month plans, on up to three devices. After that, the 30-day money-back guarantee starts. Starter costs $67.23 for the first 27 months, then $79 a year.
- Try before you buy: NordVPN. A 7-day free trial on 1- and 2-year Prime plans for new users in the US and a list of other countries. NordVPN has no free VPN plan.
A trial is not a free VPN. If you forget to cancel, you pay for a year or two.
What “free VPN” usually costs you
Running servers costs money, so a free VPN is paid for somehow. Proton says plainly that its free plan “is supported by paying users.” Other free services may pay their way with ads, data caps, upsells or, in the worst cases, by collecting and using your browsing data. Before you install any free VPN, check these points on its own website:
- Who owns it? Look for a named company and a country on the terms of service page. If you cannot find one, skip it.
- What does the privacy policy say about logs? Look for a clear no-logs statement, ideally backed by an independent audit the company names.
- Does it show ads? Ads in a privacy tool mean someone else is in the loop.
- What are the limits? Data caps, device limits, server choice and speed tiers.
- Does it ask for a card? A free plan should not. A free trial usually does.
- Where did you download it? Use the official app store listing or the company’s own site, not a re-uploaded file.
Best free forever option: Proton VPN Free
Proton VPN is made by Proton AG, a Swiss company in Geneva whose primary shareholder is the non-profit Proton Foundation, according to Proton’s About page. Here is what Proton’s own pages say about the free plan:
- Price: $0, “free forever,” with no credit card required.
- Data: “no data or time limits.”
- Ads: none. Proton says it will never show you ads.
- Logs: Proton states a strict no-logs policy.
- Devices: one device at a time.
- Servers: servers in 10 countries, randomly selected. You do not pick the country.
- Speed: Proton’s pricing page labels the free plan “Medium VPN speed” and its paid plans “Highest VPN speed.”
- Security features: Proton’s free VPN page lists Kill Switch and its Stealth protocol among the features available to free users.
That makes Proton VPN Free a reasonable everyday layer for one phone or laptop on public Wi-Fi at a café, hotel or airport. The VPN encrypts traffic between your device and Proton’s server, so others on the same network see less of what you do. For more on that setup, see our guide to the best VPN for public Wi-Fi.
The limits matter. You cannot choose a server country, and only one device can be connected at a time. If you need the VPN on a phone and a laptop at the same time, Free will not cover it. Proton VPN Plus costs $3.49 a month: $83.76 for the first 24 months, then $83.88 every 12 months. It adds up to 10 devices at once and servers in 140+ countries, per Proton’s pricing page, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Our Proton VPN review covers the paid plan.
Other free tiers. Windscribe, PrivadoVPN and hide.me also advertise free plans. We did not check their current limits for this guide, so we are not ranking them. If you consider one, run it through the checklist above using its official pages: windscribe.com, privadovpn.com, hide.me.
Try-before-you-buy from trusted paid VPNs
A trial gives you the full paid product for a few days, then charges you unless you cancel. Both of the trials below need a payment method up front.
Surfshark money-back and trial
Surfshark has no free plan. Its free-trial page offers:
- 7 days at $0.00 upfront, available when you choose a 12-month or 24-month plan.
- A payment method is required: credit card, PayPal or Apple Pay.
- Up to three devices during the trial. Paid plans have no device limit.
- All features during the trial, per Surfshark.
- After 7 days the plan converts to paid, and the 30-day money-back guarantee starts. Surfshark calls this “a total of 37 days” to try it.
To avoid a charge, Surfshark says to turn off auto-renewal in your account dashboard or app store settings before the 7 days end. Its Terms of Service say the money-back guarantee covers only the first purchase, once per service.
On price, Surfshark Starter is $2.49 a month: $67.23 for the first 27 months. Surfshark’s renewal page lists $79.00 a year after that. The pricing page also showed a Black Friday banner and a “Black Friday deal” label on the Surfshark One plan, with no end date stated. Surfshark’s contract entity is Surfshark B.V. in the Netherlands.
NordVPN free trial or refund
NordVPN does not have a free VPN plan. Its own FAQ, under “Can I get NordVPN for free?”, lists only Meshnet (free with the app), referral credit and emergency access in certain extreme cases. What it does offer:
- A 7-day free trial on 1-year and 2-year Prime plans, for new users with no previous NordVPN subscription.
- Available only in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Italy and Poland.
- Payment by credit card or PayPal. Other methods grey out the trial option.
- Not available when buying through the App Store or Google Play. NordVPN mentions a separate 3-day trial run by Google Play for first-time Android users, outside Bangladesh, India, South Korea and Sri Lanka.
- A separate 30-day money-back guarantee for first-time customers on all plans.
Note that the trial covers Prime, NordVPN’s top plan. Prime costs $6.99 a month: $188.73 for the first 27 months, renewing at $296.28 a year. If you would rather skip the trial, Basic costs $3.49 a month: $94.23 for the first 27 months, renewing at $139.08 a year. NordVPN’s pricing page lists up to 10 devices. It also showed a Black Friday banner that day. NordVPN’s terms name nordvpn S.A., Panama City, Panama, as the contracting company.
Because Surfshark and NordVPN share an owner, trying one and then the other gives you two products from the same group, not two independent opinions.
Comparison table
| Proton VPN Free | Surfshark (7-day trial) | NordVPN (7-day trial) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Free forever | Paid plan with trial | Paid plan with trial |
| Cost after trial | $0 | Starter: $67.23 for first 27 months, then $79/year | Prime: $188.73 for first 27 months, then $296.28/year |
| Card needed | No | Yes (card, PayPal or Apple Pay) | Yes (card or PayPal) |
| Data | No data limits | Full access during trial | Full access during trial |
| Devices | 1 at a time | 3 during trial; unlimited when paid | Up to 10 |
| Server choice | 10 countries, randomly selected | All VPN features during trial | All servers in the chosen plan |
| Ads | None, per Proton | Paid service | Paid service |
| Refund after paying | 30-day money-back on paid plans | 30 days, first purchase only | 30 days, first-time customers |
| Company and country | Proton AG, Switzerland | Surfshark B.V., Netherlands (Nord Security group) | nordvpn S.A., Panama (Nord Security group) |
When to upgrade to paid
Stay on a free plan if you need privacy on one device at a time, mostly on public Wi-Fi, and do not care which country your server is in. Consider paying when:
- You need more than one device connected at once. Proton Free covers one. Proton VPN Plus covers 10, NordVPN up to 10, and paid Surfshark has no device limit.
- You want to choose your server location, for example a nearby server.
- You want faster tiers. Proton labels Free “Medium” speed and paid plans “Highest.”
- You want extras such as the antivirus or identity tools in Surfshark One or NordVPN’s higher plans.
If price is the main concern, our best cheap VPN guide compares paid plans by renewal cost, and NordVPN vs Surfshark goes deeper on those two. If you are weighing Cloudflare’s free WARP app instead, see Cloudflare WARP vs a VPN. For the legal side, see is using a VPN legal in the US.
How we evaluated
We did not install, run or speed-test these services for this guide. On October 26, 2026, we read each company’s official US pricing, free-plan, free-trial and terms pages, and recorded the time of each reading. We compared the same fields for each: cost, card requirement, data limits, devices, server choice, ads, refund terms and the company named in the terms. Where pages disagreed or did not say, we used the most specific official page and noted it. No-logs and no-ads statements are each company’s own. We did not audit them.
FAQ
What is the best free VPN in 2026?
Of the services we checked, Proton VPN Free is the only free-forever plan. Proton says it has no ads, no logs and no data limits. It is limited to one device and servers in 10 randomly selected countries. Surfshark and NordVPN offer trials, not free plans.
Is Proton VPN Free really unlimited?
On data, yes. Proton says the free plan has “no data or time limits.” It is limited in other ways: one device at a time, 10 randomly selected server countries, and a speed tier Proton labels “Medium.”
Are free VPNs safe?
Some are and some are not. A free VPN is only as safe as the company running it. Check who owns it, what the privacy policy says about logs, whether it shows ads, and where you download it. Use the checklist above.
Does NordVPN have a free plan?
No. NordVPN offers a 7-day free trial on 1- and 2-year Prime plans for new users in the US and some other countries, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. The free part of the app is Meshnet, not the VPN service.
Free VPN vs free trial: what’s the difference?
A free VPN plan costs nothing and has no end date, but has limits. A free trial gives you the full paid product for a short time, usually needs a card, and becomes a paid subscription unless you cancel in time.
When should I pay for a VPN?
When you need several devices connected at once, want to pick your server location, or want faster tiers or extra security tools. If one device on public Wi-Fi is your main use, a free plan may be enough.
Verdict
For a VPN that stays free, start with Proton VPN Free. It is a documented no-ads, no-data-cap plan, with clear limits: one device and no country choice. If you want the full paid experience first, use Surfshark’s 7-day trial (three devices, then a 30-day refund window) or NordVPN’s 7-day Prime trial if you live in a listed country. Set a reminder to cancel before day 7 if you do not want to pay. Remember that Surfshark and NordVPN share an owner.
Check Proton price Check Surfshark price Check NordVPN price
Sources
All sources checked October 26, 2026 (America/Sao_Paulo). Prices are USD before tax.
- Proton VPN free plan: https://protonvpn.com/free-vpn
- Proton VPN pricing: https://protonvpn.com/pricing
- Proton terms: https://proton.me/legal/terms
- Proton about: https://proton.me/about
- Surfshark pricing: https://surfshark.com/pricing
- Surfshark renewal prices: https://surfshark.com/terms-of-service/pricing
- Surfshark free trial: https://surfshark.com/vpn-free-trial
- Surfshark Terms of Service: https://surfshark.com/terms-of-service
- Surfshark and Nord Security: https://surfshark.com/blog/surfshark-merges-with-nord-security
- NordVPN pricing: https://nordvpn.com/pricing/
- NordVPN free trial: https://nordvpn.com/risk-free-vpn/
- Nord Terms of Service: https://my.nordaccount.com/legal/terms-of-service/