Best VPN Free Trials in 2023

1. VPNSecure - Best VPN with Free Trial Overall

Editors Rating:

8.5 /10

View Packages

How We Review

No Logging of Web Traffic

People have a bunch of different reasons for trying out VPNs, but according to our VPN consumer usage research, four out of 10 VPN users do so for general privacy reasons. If that’s the case for you, then you’ll appreciate the fact that VPNSecure won’t collect any of your web activity or your device’s private IP address. Rather, they only kept our username and password, both encrypted, plus our email address. So although the company is based in Australia, a member country of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance, even if the government asked VPNSecure for our data, they’d have very little to give over.

Affordable Subscriptions

Sure, this isn’t our VPNSecure pricing page, but we want you to know that even after our week-long free trial ended, we didn’t pay too much for VPNSecure. We signed up for a month for $9.95, but if we were willing to commit to three years, that monthly fee would’ve gone down to only $2.99 a month, or a one-time payment of $107.64.

We figure, if you like VPNSecure during the trial and know you’ll need a VPN for a while, it makes sense to sign up for long term lengths as you can lock in low rates.

2. Surfshark - Best VPN with Free Trial for Android

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

View Plans

How We Review

Try for 37 Days Risk-Free

The purpose of a free trial is to let you get a feel of the VPN before making any purchase, so the longer the trial, the better. On Android devices, and even iPhones, Surfshark offers a total of 37 days free trial. The first seven days are completely free; your payment method won’t be charged. If you don’t cancel, Surfshark will automatically sign you up for a subscription. You will be charged for this, but there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you come to the conclusion that Surfshark isn’t for you, you can cancel within the first 30 days and get all your money back.

Full Features

If you sign up for the seven-day free trial, you’ll get the full Surfshark experience. That means you’ll have access to all of its over 3,200 servers, features like split tunneling, kill switch, multi-hop, and Camouflage mode, and Surfshark’s premium, 24/7 live chat support. We suggest exploring all of Surfshark’s features during the free trial period, so you can make an informed decision on whether or not it’s the right VPN for you.

Strict Logging Policy

Surfshark is one of our top VPNs, partly because of its privacy-friendly logging policy. Surfshark doesn’t keep logs of anything that might be used to identify what you’re doing online, like IP addresses and browsing data. Plus, the data it does collect, like connection timestamps and device IDs, are deleted within 15 minutes after your session ends.

3. IVPN - Best Free Trial VPN for iPhones

Editors Rating:

8.1 /10

See Our Top 10 VPNs

How We Review

Three days is more than enough time for you to download IVPN and see if you like it. Although you’ll have to enter a credit card, you won’t be charged within this period, and even if you sign up for a subscription, you’ll have a seven-day buffer to cancel and receive a refund.1

Works on Routers

Think of a router as an umbrella covering all of the devices on its network, from your smart light bulbs to your cell phones to your laptops, tablets, and smart locks galore. If you connect your VPN to your router, it will automatically encrypt the IP addresses and web activity of all of your devices, a one-stop-shop for web privacy. Fortunately, IVPN works with routers in addition to devices from Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and Linux, so securing your smart home can be done in a snap.

Multi-Hop

If you’re part of that 40 percent of people using VPNs for privacy purposes, then you’ll appreciate the fact that IVPN encrypted our web traffic and IP addresses not once, but multiple times through multiple servers. On top of that, we got a new IP address every time we logged on, which is sort of like wearing a different wig every morning on your commute. Blonde hair, brown hair, straight, curly, frizzy, wavy, you name it; no matter the wig (standing in for the IP address in this metaphor, if you were sleeping in lit class), we can’t be tracked.

4. Trust.Zone VPN - Best Free Trial VPN for Routers

Editors Rating:

7.9 /10

View Packages

How We Review

Need a VPN with a free trial for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Windows phones, Linux devices or wireless routers? Meet Trust.Zone, a VPN based in the Seychelles Islands off the coast of Madagascar and Kenya.2 Why does it matter, you ask? Because these tropical islands aren’t part of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes alliances that we’ve alluded to, alliances that make it legal for governments to get customer information from companies. Essentially with Trust.Zone, any data they collect from us stays with them.

Great for Gaming

It’s rare we find a VPN we can use to encrypt our gaming consoles, but Trust.Zone worked not only on our router but also on our Xbox 360, our Play Station, our Amazon Fire TV and even our Fire TV Stick. Especially if you’re a Windows user, you’ll appreciate Trust.Zone’s device compatibility and lack of latency. With the VPN connected, we only saw latency increase by about 54 percent, while upload and download speeds were only impacted by about 13 percent, much lower than the industry average.

No Payment Information Required For Free Trial

We know the drill: you sign up for a free trial, putting your credit card in after being promised it won’t be charged for a certain time period, and then the date finally arrives and you’ve forgotten to cancel. Now you’re locked into a subscription you were just trying out (and may not even like). But with Trust.Zone, that won’t happen, as we didn’t have to enter any payment information whatsoever to sign up for their three-day trial. This made signing up as easy as choosing a username and password, downloading the apps onto our laptops and clicking “connect”, without risking a recurring payment that we can’t seem to escape.

5. HMA VPN - Best Free Trial VPN with Dynamic IP Addresses

Editors Rating:

8.3 /10

See Our Best VPNs

How We Review

Perhaps the VPN with the most memorable name we’ve come across, HMA is more than just an effective marketing ploy. This London-based VPN comes with torrenting and Netflix access, split tunneling for Android-users plus a kill switch on Windows, Mac and Android devices. But all users will benefit from HMA encryption methods, namely AES-256.

Individual, Family and Business Plans

While some VPNs only cater to individuals, HMA has options for individuals, families, and businesses. While the individual plans allow for five simultaneous connections, the family plans bump it up to 10, which should be about enough for your tech-connected household. And for businesses, you can get 30 or more simultaneous connections, plus the option to customize a plan for your whole team. No wonder HMA is one of the best VPNs for business!

Great for Apple Users

Got an iPhone? How about a Macbook? We do, and our experiences testing out HMA iOS and macOS apps were smooth sailing all the way. On our 2011 Macbook Pro specifically, we saw average speed differences of around 70 percent, and while that may seem like a lot, it was hardly noticeable when we had HMA connected and disconnected. The iOS app, on the other hand, had a 4.6 rating, which we wholeheartedly agreed with; it was super easy to sign in and connect to our private network on the go with HMA.

6. BlackVPN - Best Free Trial VPN for Privacy

Editors Rating:

7.8 /10

See Our Top 10 VPNs

How We Review

If you’ve ever been to China, you probably visited the Great Wall, and you probably experienced the Great Firewall, meaning, the country’s ban on the websites its citizens can access.3 VPNs are actually illegal in China, and while Hong Kong is technically part of the People’s Republic, it has its own government and economic systems.4 Why are we giving you a geo-political history lesson? Because BlackVPN is based in Hong Kong, and while China is not a member of any surveillance alliances, their website restrictions can be, well, restrictive. That’s why VPNs like BlackVPN are so important, and the best part is you can try it out for three days, totally on the house.

Fast Speeds

$2.99 a month, or a one-time payment of $107.64.

If you’re at all familiar with our VPN guide, then you know that we do speed tests on all of our VPNs on Mac and Windows laptops. As you can see in the above table, BlackVPN didn’t slow us down too much on either computer, which is good as we’re incredibly impatient when it comes to technology.

Choose Your Encryption and Protocols

If you’re more tech-savvy, then you’ll definitely enjoy choosing your encryption methods with BlackVPN. Here are your options:

• OpenVPN: OpenVPN is the one-size-fits-all encryption method known for its unique combination of strength and security. If you’re not sure about which is which, OpenVPN is always a safe bet.
• L2PS/ IPSec: Want an easy setup and don’t care as much about a secure connection? Use L2TP or IPSec, Internet protocols that are easy to set up, but may include some insecure encryption methods like 3DES instead of the secure AES-256.
• PPTP: Can’t get anything else to work? Go with PPTP, a backup option if IPSec and OpenVPN aren’t functioning correctly. However, note that this isn’t the most secure method, although they may not matter to someone just bypassing government restrictions.5