Free vs paid VPN

The short answer

The question that matters is who pays for the servers. A VPN sees all of your internet traffic, and running one costs money. A paid service is funded by its subscribers. A free tier from the same company is funded by those subscribers too, and exists to win new ones. A free app with no paid plan has to make money some other way, and research over the past decade found that some did it through ads, tracking or selling users' bandwidth.

So the sensible options are a paid plan or a free tier from a paid provider with a published record. This page sets out what five well-known free plans include, according to the providers, and what paying adds. Tunnelcheck hasn't tested any of these services. Every claim links to a source at the bottom. Read how we review for the method.

Who pays for a free VPN?

Our guide on whether free VPNs are safe covers the research in detail. In short:

• A 2016 study led by CSIRO's Data61 of 283 Android VPN apps found that 18% tunneled traffic without encryption and about 84% didn't send IPv6 traffic through the tunnel.
• In 2015 Hola, a free VPN extension, confirmed it sold access to free users' bandwidth through a separate business, Luminati.
• In 2020 researchers found that seven free VPN apps advertising no logs shared a database left open online that held connection logs and IP addresses.
• In April 2025 the Tech Transparency Project reported that 20 of the top 100 free VPN apps in the US App Store in 2024 were owned by companies in mainland China or Hong Kong without clearly saying so.

None of those problems showed on the app store listing. That's why the provider's business model and public record matter more than the price tag.

What the main free plans include

These plans differ more than the word "free" suggests. Proton stands out for having no data cap, though you get one device and no choice of country. Windscribe gives a usable 10 GB a month and has had its no-logs claim tested in a Greek court case, dismissed in April 2025. TunnelBear has a long run of published Cure53 security audits, but 2 GB a month only covers light use. Hotspot Shield pays for its free tier with ads, and its privacy label mentions tracking identifiers; we found no independent audit of its privacy claims. Opera's free VPN isn't a full VPN at all: it protects only traffic inside the Opera browser. See Opera's browser VPN vs a full VPN app.

What paying adds

• More devices. Proton's paid plans allow ten devices against one on the free plan. Hotspot Shield's paid plan allows ten against one.
• Torrenting. Proton allows P2P (peer-to-peer) traffic only on paid plans. Port forwarding, which helps a torrent client accept incoming connections, is a paid feature at Proton and Windscribe.
• Server choice. Free plans limit or pick your location. Paid plans open the full server list.
• More data. Windscribe caps free data at 10 GB a month and TunnelBear at 2 GB. TunnelBear's paid plan is called Unlimited; check Windscribe's plan page for its paid allowance.
• A refund window. Paid plans come with money-back terms, though these vary a lot, from Windscribe's 7 days with a 10 GB usage limit to Hotspot Shield's 45 days on direct purchases.

Paying doesn't buy trust on its own. Some paid VPNs have thin records too. What you want is a paid plan from a provider that publishes audits and has a track record you can check. Our VPN audits and who owns your VPN pages help with that.

What paid plans cost (checked 2026-11-13)

Hotspot Shield's plan page showed several inconsistent price versions without a currency, so we haven't printed one. Prices change by region and at renewal, so check the official page before you buy. Our checked VPN prices page has the full list.

When is a free VPN enough?

• Occasional public Wi-Fi at a café, hotel or airport, on one device. See public Wi-Fi safety.
• Trying a provider before paying, when its free tier runs on the same apps.
• Light browsing where a monthly data cap won't run out.

When should you pay?

• Daily use, or several devices in one household.
• Torrenting. Most free plans block or limit P2P. A VPN hides your downloads from your internet provider, but it doesn't make copyright infringement legal. See is torrenting illegal and best free VPNs for torrenting.
• Travel, when you need a specific country's server. See VPN for travel.
• Higher stakes, such as journalism or sensitive work, where you want the provider with the strongest audit and legal record you can find.

Whichever you choose, check it after installing with our leak test guide. For ranked options, see best free VPNs and best VPN.