The best free VPNs for Google Chrome. Virtual private networks (VPNs) are becoming more and more popular. They have hundreds of uses, from businesses or organizations looking to provide functionality for employees working from home, to regular internet users looking to circumnavigate geo-blocking restrictions.
Here are the best free Chrome VPNs to try.
Free or Premium VPNs pros and cons
Free VPNs are good, but they don't compare to a premium VPN service in terms of quality, speed or security.
For example, many free VPN services only offer the PPTP protocol. This is as secure as other VPN protocols such as L2TP / IPSEC, OpenVPN, SSTP, or SSH, most of which are offered by major paid services.
You also need to consider the browsing speed. VPN servers are very expensive to run. If you're on a free service, it's probably already overloaded with other users. Conversely, premium providers reinvest a lot of their income on servers and bandwidth.
Finally, ask yourself this: Why is it free? At best, it is because the service is full of advertisements. In the worst case, the provider is stealing your connection and using the bandwidth for other users.
In conclusion: a free VPN is better than none. But if you have the money, invest in a higher paid membership.
One of the best premium VPNs is ExpressVPN. Supports OpenVPN, L2TP / IPsec, SSTP, PPTP, includes unlimited speed and bandwidth, has servers in 94 countries, and allows up to three simultaneous connections.
The best free VPNs for Google Chrome
DotVPN
has been around since 2014 has over 800.000 users according to the Chrome Web Store and has an average review score of 4 stars.
Some of its best features include:
- Unlimited Bandwidth.
- 12 virtual offices (Canada, Germany, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom).
- Unlimited switches between positions.
The developers are also keen to point out the security benefits. DotVPN uses 4096-bit key encryption, which is twice as much as modern banking standards.
ZenMate VPN
calls itself an "information security solution". They have a worldwide network of highly secure proxy servers that encrypt your information and protect you from malicious websites.
The ZenMate VPN service can be broken down into three parts: internet privacy, Wi-Fi security, and unlimited internet access.
Regarding privacy, the service will block ad trackers, third-party analytics tools and social media pixels. From a Wi-Fi perspective it will add an extra line of defense when you are on unsecured public networks and from an unrestricted Internet perspective, it will help you to overcome geo-blocking.
ZenMate VPN also offers a premium service that improves speed, adds extra locations, and offers 24/24 support.
Hotspot Shield
Before discussing the features of, it is important to note that the service is managed by Anchor Free.
Anchor is widely regarded as one of the most trusted companies in the industry; is over 10 years old, has seen over 400 million downloads across its different apps, and currently has 20 million active users in 190 countries.
In terms of service, it's free and unlimited, and has versions available for iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows.
Like ZenMate, there is also a premium version of Hotspot Shield.
Browsec VPN
claims to be "an advanced analog of ZenMate, Stealthy, Hola and friGate".
The main benefits of the application are to allow users to access any site from anywhere, improving online user privacy and protecting user data from sniffers and trackers.
It makes a big push on geo-blocking, but rather than focusing on opening up to different countries on Netflix or BBC, Browsec VPN instead mentions services like Spotify, Pandora, and SoundCloud, some of which are completely blocked in some countries.
Browsec VPN also advertises its service as a way to access blocked sites on office or school computers, such as Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube.
TunnelBear VPN
Of all the services we've talked about on this list, TunnelBear has the best reviews - an unprecedented five stars from nearly 10.500 individual ratings at the time of writing. Rather than being a real VPN, this service is actually an encrypted proxy.
Readers who have worked with VPN for a long time know the brand name well; TunnelBear has been around for many years and has released highly successful desktop products for both Windows and Mac.
There is a key difference between this Chrome extension and desktop offerings, and it's important to understand that it encrypts alone your browser traffic, while TunnelBear VPN for desktop encrypts the 100 percent of your data.
TunnelBear is one of the fastest VPNs on this list and has servers available in 20 countries around the world.
Betternet
offers unlimited free VPN. There is no need to pay a cent or even create an account.
The app also does not include ads and does not collect logs. The VPN itself can be turned on and off with the click of a button. In fact, that single button is the entire extension of the user interface; it's super easy to use even for people who have no previous experience using a VPN.
Go VPN
The app specializes in allowing access to geo-blocked content. The developers specify the name of Netflix, Pandora and Amazon in their description.
offers users 1000 Mbit servers and proxies, one-touch activation, and an easy-to-configure user interface. It is also safe, every time you use Gom, all your traffic is encrypted via SSL HTTP2.
Finally, Gom does not track your activity, thereby protecting you from governments and ISPs.
Conclusions
VPNs have many benefits for end users. It can be something as simple as improving your privacy, but it could also allow you to navigate to sites that are blocked on the web or for different geographic locations.
