Proton VPN
Free tierA free VPN tier with no data cap — nearly unique in this industry
A VPN from the Swiss company Proton, with all clients open source and independently audited. The free tier has no data cap, no speed limit and no ads, allows one device at a time, and offers a limited set of server countries. It operates under a no-logs policy and does not record your browsing activity.
Why we picked it
"Free VPN" is usually a warning sign. In this industry the free product's business model is often you: selling your browsing data, injecting ads into pages, or reselling your device as an exit node. The list of free VPNs caught doing this is long.
Proton VPN deserves separate mention because its free tier has a property that is rare in the category: no data cap. The official page states plainly that it is "unlimited and free forever" with "no data or speed limits". Most competitors' free tiers either allow a few gigabytes a month or throttle to the point of uselessness.
It can afford this because revenue comes from paying subscribers rather than from free users' data. The company is Swiss, with its relatively strong privacy law, and is the same organization behind the encrypted mail service Proton Mail.
Verifiable points:
- All clients are open source (GPL-3.0, code on GitHub) and have undergone third-party security audits with published reports. That is worth considerably more than a verbal "we never log" promise.
- A no-logs policy, with the company stating it does not record browsing activity.
- The free tier carries no ads and injects nothing into your pages.
The free tier's real limits, stated plainly:
- One device at a time. Switching between phone and laptop means disconnecting one.
- Few server countries (paid plans advertise 110+). Free servers get crowded at peak hours and speeds fluctuate.
- No P2P or streaming-oriented features, and multi-hop Secure Core is paid.
So it suits: occasionally protecting traffic on public Wi-Fi, reaching content temporarily, and anyone who wants privacy without paying for it. For sustained high-speed use across several devices, either pay, or consider self-hosting — WireGuard or Tailscale on your own server gives full control for the price of a cheap cloud VM.
One more caution: a VPN is not anonymity. It hands your traffic to a VPN provider instead of your ISP — that is a transfer of trust, not its elimination. For genuine anonymity, look at Tor Browser or Tails.