9 Best VPN Free Trials in 2024

In this day and age, we are all becoming aware that we need to use a VPN if we want to access the Internet and all the best content from all around the world safely and securely. The problem is that there are so many options available that we tend to feel overwhelmed and we need help in deciding which VPN is best suited to our own particular needs and preferences.

The most effective way to decide which is the optimal VPN for your Internet needs is by trying one before committing to subscribe to it. Because they are aware of the need to provide potential clients with a “test drive” of their products, many VPN providers offer free trials, a 30–day money–back guarantee, or even a 45–day money–back guarantee.

There is a bewildering array of options and conditions associated with free VPN trials. Some VPNs offer you complete access to their services, absolutely free of charge, generally for about a week. Others only give you access to a limited version of their product for free. The majority require you to pay for the VPN but offer you a full refund if you do not like their VPN after a trial period, usually of 30 days.

To make things easier for you, we have done all the background checking, so read on to learn which are the 9 very best VPNs that offer you a VPN free trial or a reliable and simple money-back guarantee.

What Makes a Good VPN Free Trial?

In our view, it is not really worthwhile to have access to a free trial of a VPN and of its servers if it does not allow you to test every element of its functioning. This generally means that the best option is to pay for the VPN and then test it for 30 days (or 45 days), secure in the knowledge that claiming your money back if you are not satisfied is a simple and efficient process.

Our research convinced us that ExpressVPN provides the very best VPN trial as it offers you highly efficient, secure, fast, and outstanding service and you can also be sure that you will be promptly refunded if you are dissatisfied, essentially letting you use this VPN free of charge.

Below we will provide you with more details about ExpressVPN and its closest competitors in the VPN market, all of which provide some sort of VPN free trial. (There are other competitors too, like SaferVPN, but we have chosen the 9 that we feel will best serve your needs.) We hope that this article will enable you to make an informed choice based on solid and reliable information.

Importance of a Free Trial Product or Money-back Guarantee

Before making a commitment to one of the available VPNs, it is an excellent idea to try it to ensure that it meets your needs and provides you with the performance, speed, security, and support that you require. Also important, you need to ensure that whichever of the VPN services you choose will give you the access to geo-restricted content that you need in order to watch your favorite Netflix movie or access any other service that you may require.

Ideally, you would want to gain access to all the security features and safety mechanisms associated with the VPN, so you need unrestricted access to the VPN during your free trial. This will allow you to check that the VPN has servers in the areas in which you need them, high speeds, and security features like a no logs policy, a high level of encryption, IP leak protection, and a functional Kill Switch.

You need to bear in mind that not all of the free VPN trials allow you unrestricted access. They could connect you to a limited number of servers, block your access to some of their features, or limit your bandwidth, for example. This would impair your ability to accurately assess the service the VPN actually provides.

Also, be aware that almost all of the free VPNs available tend to have associated hidden costs; and may pose a threat to your online security. They are really not worth the risk, however tempting they may sound.

The only way to get a true reading on how well your VPN service performs is to subscribe to the plan and take advantage of the money-back guarantees offered.

How We Researched the Best VPN Free Trials

In order to be sure that we had identified the very best VPN trial, we did in-depth research into over 300 VPN products that advertised a free trial. Below we will share with you the 9 very best VPN services, based on the following 5 criteria:

 Guarantee: We checked to make sure that all the trials that advertised themselves as being free or as offering a full money-back guarantee were legitimate, and ensured that the refunds if desired, were prompt and simple to request.

 Security: We checked to see whether each of the VPNs that offer a VPN free trial provided adequate security features to ensure your anonymity and safety online and to protect your privacy.

 Access: We choose the VPNs that were best at unlocking geo–blocked content, even during their trials, testing the VPN server on a range of various streaming platforms around the world.

 Speed: We ensured that each VPN provider offered a speed that is adequate to ensure that you will be able to torrent, game, and stream effectively with no buffering.

 Ease: We looked at each VPN in terms of how easy it is to install and navigate the app, both on your desktop and on your mobile devices.

9 Best VPNs with Free Trials

Based on our research, here are the 9 best VPNs that offer free trials or money-back guarantees:

1. ExpressVPN

When you take the step of signing up for an ExpressVPN plan, you can be secure in the knowledge that you have access to a full, hassle-free refund if you are dissatisfied and that you get unlimited access to this premium VPN product with absolutely no restrictions or limitations. This allows you to take your time for a complete month so you can be completely sure that this is the correct VPN for your needs before making a final commitment.

Even more positively, if you then decide to sign up with ExpressVPN for a 1-year plan, you can save 49% and claim an additional 3 months free of charge!

ExpressVPN’s widespread network of servers in 94 countries around the globe guarantees excellent performance and allows you access to online content in any location, from Sri Lanka to South Africa and from New Zealand to Newfoundland. When we tested it, we found that we could speedily and efficiently download and stream content from Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime and also from Netflix libraries in over 20 different countries because ExpressVPN has so many servers all over the globe.

Thanks to this VPN offers lighting–fast speed and no limits on your bandwidth, you can connect to both local servers and ones in outlying areas very quickly. This will ensure that you will not experience any lag or buffering, whether you are streaming your favorite show on Amazon Prime Video, watching Netflix, surfing the web, or playing blackjack in an online casino.

A huge selling point for ExpressVPN is its exceptionally effective set of security features, which include an automatic Kill Switch (“Network Lock”), 256–bit encryption (military grade), and a choice of several security protocols like IKEv2, Lightway (unique to ExpressVPN), and OpenVPN. We tested Lightway and found it to be the fastest and most hassle-free way of browsing the Internet.

All of Express VPN’s servers are run on RAM, which means that every time the server is rebooted, your browser history will automatically be deleted. As a result, there is no way any of your personal information can be stored on the server or shared with anyone else.

The fact that ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, where privacy is highly protected, and that it has a very strict, proven no-logs policy, further guarantees your privacy. If you check, you will find that its no-logs claim has been independently audited and verified.

ExpressVPN’s split tunneling facility gives you the ability to choose which traffic you want to send through your VPN, allowing you to improve the functioning of your device by only sending traffic that requires it through the VPN and to use your usual connection for everything else. This improves download speed and ensures smooth functioning.

Yet another advantage of ExpressVPN is that it is extremely effective for torrenting, as its entire extensive server network supports P2P traffic.

It is also powerful enough to allow you free access to the Internet, even if you find yourself in a highly restrictive country, like China (though you should ensure that you are aware of the laws about using VPNs in that country, just in case).

A very useful aspect of Express VPN’s product is that it allows you to connect to devices that do not usually have the ability to be used with VPNs (e.g., PS4), and provides a simple outline on its website of the necessary process in order to do this. It is, obviously, simple to use on all of the usual operating systems and you can easily set it up on Apple TV, Xbox, or a smart TV, allowing you to watch Netflix, Hulu, or any other service you may want to access on your TV screen.

In terms of the Free Trial, it is highly recommended to sign up on ExpressVPN’s website, not through the Apple Store. This allows you to test it out for a full 30 days, secure in the knowledge that you can easily get a full refund if one decides that you do not want to use this VPN, without having to abide by Apple’s refund policy.

The 7-day free trial that ExpressVPN advertises, however, requires you to provide details for payment and you need to be alert because if you do not cancel it before it expires, you will automatically be charged.

Also, if you try the 7-day trial, there is no Kill Switch or split–tunneling for iOS and you will not be able to access MediaStreamer.

The full-time live chat offered by ExpressVPN is excellent and, if you decide you want your money back, you can simply connect to this service, answer a few simple questions, and then wait for a few days to receive a full refund.

2. NordVPN

NordVPN is another one of the well-known and extremely reliable VPN providers. Its plan offers a 30–day money–back guarantee so you can conduct a trial and see if it provides you with all the necessary features and the security that you require before you commit.

It also offers a 7–day free trial, but this is restricted to Android users since you can access it on the Google Play Store. It allows you to access all the features and to protect both your phone and your desktop computer. You can connect 6 devices to your NordVPN account (though you have to use different VPN protocols).

After the 7-day free trial, you can try the plan for another month, risk-free, thanks to the NordVPN 30–day money–back guarantee.

This VPN provider has over 5,100 servers in 60 counties, so wherever you are, you can be sure that you will get great speed.

The security features offered by NordVPN are highly impressive, including extremely high levels of encryption, a Kill Switch in case your connection drops, and reliable DNS leak protection. It also does not keep any activity logs at all.

This is one of the top VPNs in terms of unblocking geo-restricted streaming services, easily able to access Hulu, Netflix libraries, Amazon Prime Video, and pretty much any blocked service you are trying to reach.

Overall, we highly recommend NordVPN as one of the most reliable streaming VPN services and suggest that you conduct a trial, secure in the knowledge that you will have easy access to its 30-day money-back guarantee if necessary. Thanks to the responsive 24/7 live-chat customer support staff, you can cancel without even picking up a phone.

3. Surfshark

Surfshark is a reasonably priced VPN that undercuts the price of most of its competitors but still offers excellent performance and features in its plan.

Surfshark offers you access to over 3,200 servers in 65 countries, and you can download the app from the Google Play Store or App Store for macOS or iOS devices to get a genuine seven–day free trial. However, you will have to provide your credit card information to get this, and using this free trial will mean that you could miss out on a more beneficial rate that might be available on the Surfshark website. If you do not cancel the free trial before the seven days elapse, you could be charged.

If, alternatively, you register for your Surfshark trial account, you can test itsVPN service for 30 days, secure in the knowledge that you can get a 30–day money–back guarantee if you are not entirely satisfied. This applies regardless of whether you sign up on its website or through the App Store.

Surfshark is one of the VPNs that offer great security and privacy, including a Kill Switch, military–grade encryption, IKEv2 protocols, OpenVPN UDP, and TCP. It is fast and effective at bypassing geo-blocks, able to access popular blocked sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+, with only some minor buffering.

One of the greatest perks of this affordable service is that it allows users to connect an unlimited number of devices to one user account. Since Surfshark’s app is simple to use, even if you are not a tech expert. And, your kids can connect to their geo-restricted services while you are on your device.

4. Cyberghost

Cyberghost has a huge number of servers spread all over the world — over 7,200 servers in more than 90 countries worldwide — so it is likely to have a server in any relevant area, making it excellent at bypassing geo-blocks and accessing video content. You can use it for Hulu, US Netflix, and other great services in countries all over the globe.

It offers a genuinely free one–day test before you start paying for it, which allows you to access a free trial VPN very briefly to decide if it meets your needs.

Alternatively, you can access a 7–day free trial if you sign up via the App Store or the Google Play Store on your iOS or Android device.

The reason why this is a great VPN choice for people who like a free trial period is that, if you sign up for a regular CyberGhost plan, you actually get 45 days to test it with no strings attached, thanks to its 45–day money–back guarantee. We think that 45 days is a much more reasonable amount of time to test a VPN than a 1-day or 7-day period.

Cyberghost offers AES 256–bit data encryption, a no–logs policy, and a Kill Switch, as well as allowing you to customize your online safety with additional features.

CyberGhost supports up to 7 devices on a single user account, and provides you with quick and informative live–chat customer support for any troubleshooting needs, or to cancel your plan for a refund.

5. PrivateVPN

PrivateVPN offers a 7–day trial, without any commitment or any credit card details needed. This plan simply requires you to provide a valid email address. On top of this, the free trial allows you access to all of the regular VPN servers.

Our recommendation, however, is still to sign up and try the product using its 30–day money–back guarantee, since 7 days is simply not long enough, and why not get 4 times that amount for free if you can, right?

This VPN works well at accessing restricted content; it currently has servers in 63 countries around the world, and this network of servers allows its clients to get around restrictions to watch geo-blocked content in high definition (HD).

During our tests, it demonstrated the ability to unblock many of the popular streaming services (e.g., Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime). In addition, PrivateVPN allows you to access many of the international Netflix libraries from 15 different countries all over the globe.

PrivateVPN supports torrenting and also enables you to connect 10 devices at once with apps that are user-friendly on Android, iOS, and Windows.

Security features to protect your data are very strong, including powerful 256–bit encryption, a choice from several VPN protocols (e.g. OpenVPN and IKEv2), a no-logs policy, an auto–connect feature, and a Kill Switch that ensures that your IP address is hidden and that you can reconnect to the VPN quickly and easily.

It offers excellent customer service, and this can even be accessed by free trial users via live chat and email, 24 hours a day. If you want a VPN free trial of Private VPN’s service, all you have to do is contact Private VPN’s customer support service to request a code for your VPN free trial.

6. Hotspot Shield

In terms of VPNs with free trials, Hotspot shield has a bunch of offers available.

First, like the other VPNs on this list, Hotspot Shield gives users a money–back guarantee when signing up for any plan, and this guarantee is good for 45 days, so it is right up there with CyberGhost.

Hotspot Shield also offers a basic plan that is completely free and does not have a time limit to this free option, which is unique. The catch with this free plan is that is quite limited.

First, you can only connect one device to your account if you use this free plan. Next, you can only connect to 1 server location, and you are limited to 500MB of data per day. This is completely insufficient for most online activities, like streaming, gaming, or torrenting. This free option also excludes the option of chatting with a live-chat support representative, forcing free users to access the support center.

On the Hotspot Shield Premium (paid) Plan, you can connect your VPN to up to 5 devices, including Smart TVs, Chrome, and routers, which the free plan does not include. You also have access to 115 server locations instead of the 1 on the free plan; your connection speed goes up to 1Gbps from the 2Mbps on your free plan, and from 500MB of data to unlimited data allowance.

This paid plan also has an optimized streaming mode and gaming mode, and access to 24/7 customer support.

The paid plan also comes with a Kill Switch, Hydra, IPSec, and OpenVPN protocols, and built-in malware protection.

So, it is pretty clear that the better option with the more useful features is the paid VPN service. There is very little use for a VPN that has such little access to servers and countries, apps for limited devices, and likely poor performance due to its data and speed limitations. The smarter option is to take advantage of the Hotspot money–back guarantee and access all of this VPN’s services and features for a month and a half.

7. ZenMate VPN

ZenMate is one of the VPNs that gives you access to a free trial of its VPN for 7–days and you also do not have to provide any credit card details. It only requires an email address from you in order to sign up. The free trial allows you to try this service before committing to the paid version.

To access the ZenMate free trial, you can get the desktop and mobile apps for free for 7 days, or you can get a free browser extension for Google Chrome, Opera, or Mozilla Firefox.

The free trial option only offers you access to limited services. For one, your speed is limited to 2Mbps. Next, you only have 4 server locations/countries to choose from.

If you opt for a paid subscription, you will get access to servers in 80 countries, and you will get a money–back guarantee for 30 days.

Overall, Zenmate is a well-established VPN service that can be used with IOS, Android, Linux, Windows, and macOS, and it is uncomplicated and user–friendly.

Your online privacy and security when using this VPN are protected by military–grade encryption (AES 256–bit) and a zero–logging policy. Zenmate uses the OpenVPN protocol, which is excellent at ensuring your privacy. It also comes with an automatically enabled Kill Switch to protect your IP address in case of VPN dropout and protects you from DNS and IPv6 leaks.

The extensive ZenMate network consists of over 4,000 VPN servers in over 80 countries, which gives it the ability to unblock geo-restricted content pretty easily.

Our recommendation is to opt for the paid VPN instead of the VPN free trial, which gives you better performance and more VPN server options. This way, you can get a good feel for the full capability of this VPN and cancel within 30 days for a full refund.

8. Proton VPN

ProtonVPN is another VPN service that offers a completely free version of its plan. This free version offers access to 24 servers in 3 countries and lets users connect only a single device to your account.

If you upgrade to the ProtonVPN Basic paid option, you will then be able to access over 400 servers in 40 countries and use up to 2 devices on a single account. This will also give you an adblocker, and other securities and privacy feature not offered by the free version.

If you decide to further upgrade to the Plus paid option, you can then have access to over 1,500 server choices in 61 countries and use up to 10 devices on a single user account.

The free version does not include features like torrenting support, and streaming and the connection speed is far slower than that on its paid version (Plus) as it only allows you access to a server in one of three locations. On the free version, you also do not get access to Proton’s Secure Core servers.

Once you decide to sign up for 24 months, at a competitive price, you will also get a 30–day money–back guarantee and access to the full range of Proton’s Internet services.

ProtonVPN offers a full-time customer support service, but not on live chat. It unblocks Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube and is available on Linux, Android, Mac, and Windows.

Our recommendation is to skip the free trials and free plans and opt instead for the full access afforded by signing up for the premium option, which includes a money–back guarantee for 30 days, so there is no risk involved.

9. Hide.me

This is a newer VPN and it offers a useful, absolutely free trial as well as a 30–day money–back guarantee. On the free trial, you can use up to 10GB a month, which is generous compared to other free trials.

It has over 2,000 servers in more than 75 locations and offers server locations in Canada, the Netherlands, the US, and Singapore that support P2P if you want to Torrent.

On the paid version, you get access to unlimited data, a no-logs policy, 24/7 support, and 10 device connections on a single user account.

The free version only lets you connect a single device to your subscription, and you only get a 10GB bandwidth cap monthly.

On the free service, P2P sharing is supported on the 5 server locations that are permitted on this plan, and users are assured that there are no logs, no throttling, and no trackers or ads associated with this service, unlike many other free plans.

If you make the decision to subscribe to Hide.me, you will still be given a 30–day money–back guarantee, which gives you the option of canceling at no cost if you are not entirely satisfied.

FAQs

Conclusion

There are so many VPNs that we cannot possibly deal with them all in one article (e.g. SaferVPN, based in LA, which has great performance and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.)

We have done a huge amount of the legwork for you, carefully testing over 300 VPNs, using all the relevant criteria, to find the ones that offer the best free trial or are the most reliable and with a simple money-back guarantee.

When making your VPN choice, it’s a great idea to test a VPN relying on a money-back guarantee, even if it is not a free trial VPN.

You will want to check features like its service, customer support, performance, privacy, and security, as well as issues like bandwidth, ease of use, and activity logs; and make sure that the VPN you choose has a server in all relevant areas.

Whether you eventually decide that you should access a free trial or try one of the money-back guarantees, it is an excellent idea to conduct a trial of the VPNs before you commit to it. Good luck!

Happy viewing!