5 Best Free VPN Service For 2016
With the government blocking and monitoring your logs, and the security and privacy at stake, the VPN had never been much of an importance. Sadly, not many free VPN services are convincing, secure, and reliable. So, we have hunted the web for some of the best free VPN that are top of their game.
Click here if you are looking for a simpleVPN extension for Google Chrome browser.
Table of Contents
How VPN Works?
A VPN creates a private, encrypted “tunnel” over the internet to a server. Imagine, you are in China and want to browse BBC UK, then instead of accessing BBC’s server from China’s IP address, you’ll first connect to VPN, which will change your IP address to UK IP address. And the website will think you are a local visitor.
Related:What is VPN, and Why You Should Use it?
Why use VPN?
Using a VPN service has several benefits, but the overall advantage is theenhanced securitythrough data encryption between you and the target’s server. Using a VPN, you can improveprivacy,stay anonymouson the Web, and lets youaccess Geo-restricted content.
Though keep in mind, that being free VPNs makes them somewhatbounded and restrictive. Either the speeds are slow, weak data encryption, limited monthly data caps, or the ads spoil the browsing experience. Hence we highly suggest using a fully featured VPN service if you are a power user.
Also See:How to access blocked websites in college
Best Free VPN Service of 2016
HideMe is the only free VPN service that allowstorrents P2P, and the company claims to be the fastest VPN among all. It possesses all the latest VPN protocols like PPTP, L2TP, SoftEther, OpenVPN, SSTP all up to 256-bit AES encryption and store no online log records, which is really great! At least this is what they claim.
You get2GBof user data, which is worth it. Since you can always disconnect the VPN once the downloading has started. Overall, if you use HideMe wisely, you can download 100s of GB of data from torrents, from just 2 GB limit.
Related Post:How to download Torrents blocked by your ISP
Bottomline
Need a VPN for downloading torrents, then Hide.me VPN is the best choice.
Zenmate VPN encrypts all your browsing data and tunnels them through its own cloud. It comes along with a smart feature called EverSecure, which is mostly offered by some reputed VPN providers. It also supports a simplebrowser-based extensionrather than installing a software on the computer. The controls are simple and user-friendly.
However, they are really pushingintrusive adsthese days, prompting you to buy Zenmate premium.
If you are not concerned about features and want a simple browser based extension rather than installing a desktop client, then Zenmate is a perfect choice.
3.Hotspot Shield
Hotspot Shield VPN is a popular free VPN service with some additional features like malware and phishing protection. The free version is funded by lots ofadvertisingand many users find it annoying.
However, there is no limit on data usage and speed is also fine.
Hotspot shield force you to buy their elite service and with so many ads you may not be satisfied by your browsing experience, but if you prefer downloading rather than browsing than it’s a great tool to use. Also, they have built quite a reputation over the years, so if you can live up with the Ads, it’s good for security and privacy.
4.CyberGhost
CyberGhost is the next best VPN service with no usage capped and the company has recently introduced free version. Like TunnelBear, they also use strong military-grade encryption and keeps no user’s log records. And you get an extensive range of servers to select.
Unfortunately, you may face some speed issues or some queues to connect to a particular server, but this problem is rare and unlimited bandwidth you get is something to keep in mind.
This is for people who frequently change their servers, have no priority for speeds and can live with ads.
5.TunnelBear
This is what I regularly use. It’s an excellent free VPN service with a really simple user-interface. The company’ssecurity policyis really tight, with no user’s logs recorded and strong AES 256-bit encryption – making it the best free VPN with extra privacy and security.
Sadly, there is only500MBdata cap which is very less, not even sufficient for videos. Yes, you get 1 GB extra by doing some social sharing, but again that extra bandwidth can not be used for video sites.
However, like HideMe, you can disconnect the VPN once you are connected to video sites, and it’ll continue playing the video. Though, this doesn’t work for some sites (like AMC) which check the IP address periodically.
With just 500MB per month, if you watch movies or play online games a lot, you should probably go for non-usage capped free VPN’s. But if you just need to browse or send emails, then tunnel bear is reliable.
Comparison Table:
How to tell if my VPN is secure or not?
While using a VPN, any website you visit should be unable to identify your real IP address. So, one way to check the reliability of a VPN service is by visitingIPLeak.netorDoileak.com. If you see your real IP address, while connected to the VPN, then there is an IP leak.
Final Verdict
All of the 5 VPN services in this list are meant for different users. Each one of them has pros and cons.
The best in our view is TunnelBear, with its secure encryption and no logs stored policy. However, if data-cap is something bothering you then you might try CyberGhost but then you’ll have to face some ads.
Similarly, if your ISP has blocked torrents, then HideMe, with its 2GB user data should work fine for you.
Did we miss something? Do let us know your favourite free VPN in the comments.
Mrinal Saha
Mrinal is a tech geek who spends half of his day reading and writing about tech. While the nights are spent on shooting or editing YouTube videos. Feel free to geek out with him on-
