The Best Free VPN Services

Today we will take about few of The Best Free VPN Services. Let’s start

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is normally offered as a paid service, but there are also some free VPN services online.

VPN has the property of hiding IP addresses. This means that it is not possible for the owner of the website you are viewing to retrieve this information. This applies not only to the IP address, but also to the name of your internet provider in Norway and the location you are surfing from.

The difference between paid VPN services and the best free VPN services can be capacity (several free services have a more limited offer), speed or the display of advertisements on the free versions.

There are also free VPN services that actually sell information about you and what you do online.

 

If you want a VPN service that you are happy with, we would probably suggest one of the established payment services. It’s not that a free VPN is necessarily always bad, but you probably have to expect some shortcomings.

It’s also helpful to know that paid VPNs don’t have to cost that much.

In the following, we will go into more detail. what you should know about VPN services, and what the differences between the paid and free services are. In conclusion, we have reviewed a selection of free VPN services and looked at what they have to offer.

The Best Paid VPN Services

Nordvpn

NordVPN is an affordable VPN service with excellent speed and an easy-to-use application. NordVPN lets you use all kinds of streaming services at a more affordable price. Read in detail

Surfshark

Surfhark is an affordable VPN with many advanced features. It is ideal for streaming and works great with both Netflix USA and Hulu in Norway. Here you get a lot for your money. Read in detail

Expressvpn

ExpressVPN is one of the best VPN services for Norway in 2023. Very fast, secure and allows you to use streaming services without any problems. It costs a little more than the competition. Read in detail

That’s why people use free VPNs

Quite apart from the fact that a free VPN service is expected to be free of charge, the same reasons as getting a paid VPN service make people use it.

The establishment of the Internet has been a blessing in so many ways, but it also works so that Big Brother sees you.

Regardless of whether one does not feel that it is being used in any fraudulent way by the authorities or others, it often causes discomfort. It’s the feeling that someone is spying on you. We know that the telephone companies can map your movements, and Google and Facebook know exactly which product groups or products they can tempt you with in their targeted advertising.

We also read all the information the police can extract by accessing your internet logs. Norway and the EU try to keep up with developments by creating guidelines and restrictions for those who collect personal information online, but there is no guarantee for the user that these will be observed. Regardless, the potential for privacy surveillance is great when you surf the Internet.

With a VPN service, you will be able to feel safer.

Accessing TV shows and streaming services abroad with a free VPN

For rights reasons, TV programs and streaming services will be geoblocked. This means that they can only be streamed from the country for which the sender has paid rights.

The same applies to NRK. Just by traveling to Sweden, you will be deprived of your favorite programmes, documentaries, TV series and other things from the old country. Remember that the VPN service must then offer a server in Norway for it to work. There are not many completely free VPN providers who have taken the trouble to put one out.

A disadvantage of free VPN services is that they do not always have the capacity and speed needed to stream movies.

Some offer limited monthly usage (which is often exceeded in the middle of an exciting movie), or that the transfer is slow with several stops along the way.

Services such as Netflix and Hulu are also constantly working to close these holes in geoblocking by blocking VPN servers they can identify.

How a free VPN works

Technologically, there is really no difference whether you pay for the VPN service or not. The principles are the same.

To use VPN, you need to download a VPN program to your computer. If it is a mobile phone or a tablet, there will usually be separate apps that can be downloaded from the Play Store or App Store.

However, it is not a given that all free VPN providers have prepared apps for all types of devices. Check this before downloading anything.

When you open the VPN program or app you want to use, you connect to a server provided by the VPN service. This server may be located in another country so it looks like you are browsing from there. It is important that the service disposes of a good selection of servers, and that they cover as many states as possible. At the very least, it should have the country you want it to look like you’re in.

Now comes the big point. A secure tunnel is established between you and this server . This means that everything that goes back and forth of data between them is encrypted .

You then connect to the Internet via the server. Everything you do from then on can’t be traced back any further than to this server. It will also equip you with a new IP address registered in the country it is located.

By hiding your real IP address in this way, you can travel completely anonymously. You can be sure that no one will be able to monitor you, or that someone will collect data about you (with the caveat that the free VPN service itself does not).

You also get access to websites that are blocked or censored in various countries. From China, the flow of information from the outside is often throttled with the blocking of many foreign news sites. You will also have problems opening your Facebook page in countries with a lot of censorship.

Remember that the pages of the VPN services are also blocked here. You must therefore have VPN installed on your device before you travel.

Paid VPN costs very little

When considering a free VPN service, it might be interesting to see how much you’re actually saving.The prices will vary based on the length of the subscription period you commit to.

From these VPN providers, you will also usually be offered a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you take advantage of this, you’ve suddenly got 30 days of free VPN.

Here is an overview of the best VPN services recommended by us, and the prices they currently operate at.

But money is money, even if it’s not much. If you still want to try out a free VPN service, you can go to the bottom of the page where we have selected some of the ones we consider usable.

1. NordVPN

NordVPN is always a top scorer on tests that deal with VPN services. The service is well known in Norway, and the functions are well tested.

Pros

• Very fast speed
• 5,533 high-speed servers in 59 countries
• Try free for 30 days
• Works with Netflix, NRK, TV2 sumo and more
• Verified “zero-logs policy” and no IP or DNS leakage.
• Very good prices on longer plans
• Excellent 24/7 support with live chat

Cons

• Slow response to server leaks
• Limited VPN protocol selection on Windows and Android
• Hulu does not work on desktop.
• Requires manual setup to work in China

Rating 5 / 5

Buy Now

NordVPN offers 24-month and 12-month subscriptions, as well as monthly billing. Converted to a monthly cost, the prices for these amount to $3.71 USD, $4.92 USD and $11.95 USD.

NordVPN focuses especially on the Nordic market. Hence, there is a solid selection of servers available in these countries. It is good for Norwegians abroad with NRK abstinence. With a total of 5,500 servers, there is also enough for the rest of the world. Streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu run smoothly. Regular updates on the servers mean that NordVPN is at the forefront of geoblocking attempts.

NordVPN is particularly good at security. They use something called double encryption. That means they send your traffic through two servers instead of one. The encryption is also according to the latest technological innovations, also called 456-bit AES encryption.

Looking at what you get for the price, we’d say that overall NordVPN is perhaps the most affordable of the paid VPN services. It is also possible to get a free trial with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Surfshark

If you are looking for a free VPN, we would recommend Surfshark

Pros

• Very good price
• Works with Netflix, BBC player, Amazon Prime +
• Supports torrents
• Many advanced features and protocols
• Privacy Friendly Jurisdiction
• Unlimited devices

Cons

• Small delay when connecting to some servers
• Not a very transparent company
• No port forwarding
• No audit to confirm logging policy

Rating 4.9 / 5

Buy Now

Surfshark is one of the best new VPN services. They challenge the others by keeping a low price level.

You get the best offer from Surfshark if you sign up for 24 months. The price will then be $49.29USD. That corresponds to an expense of only $2.05 USD per month . After the 24-month subscription expires, you will be billed annually.

You can also choose a 6-month subscription for $32.12 (equivalent to $5.35 USD per month) or a monthly billing system. Then you pay $10.68 USD a month.

Surfshark also has a 30-day money back guarantee if you are not satisfied.

If we take a closer look at what you get for your money, we see that Surfshark has servers in 65 states and counting. The average among other VPN services is around 30. Good servers in key countries such as the USA and Norway (for Norwegian users abroad) are a matter of course.

The total number of servers at Surfshark is over 3,600 which are spread around the world. Here you can always use the fastest servers with the most uptime for high-quality streaming services.

Speed ​​is not a problem here either. Streaming films and series in HD quality, gaming or normal surfing will be almost unaffected by the fact that it is loaded through a VPN server.

A unique special offer from Surfshark is that you can use your subscription on all your devices, from computer to tablet, iPad and smartphone to whatever else you have in the house with internet access. Everything is included in the price. Any app or program suitable for the devices can be downloaded free of charge.

 

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is the service that most often tops the list after testing the best VPN services. Here there is a lot of security and quality for the not very high price after all.

Pros

• Very good speed
• Works with all known streaming services
• Very good security
• 3000+ servers in 94 countries
• AES-256 encryption and no personal data logging
• Works with Netflix, NRK, TV2 sumo and more
• Excellent 24/7 support with live chat

Cons

• More expensive than the competition
• No VPN kill switch on iOS
• No Linux GUI

Rating 4.7 / 5

Buy Now

For 12 months, six months and one month respectively, ExpressVPN charges prices equivalent to $8.32 USD, $9.99 USD and $12.95 USD per month. When signing up for a twelve-month subscription for the first time, they offer an extra three months, i.e. a total of 15 months.

ExpressVPN is extremely focused on security. The encryption they use guarantees the highest degree of security.

However, it is because of speed that ExpressVPN defends its top position among VPN services. Tests show that hardly any loss of speed can be measured as a result of the intermediate link through an additional server before you get online. At the same time, it is experienced as very rare that the connection fails.

Furthermore, ExpressVPN has a built-in speed meter so you can check for yourself. If there is a faster server to bring up, you always get a suggestion about this.

The large selection of servers combined with the speed makes ExpressVPN probably the best option if you want to stream American Netflix.

Netflix will always try to block VPN services. They demand that they manage to identify them. With the large selection of US servers, ExpressVPN will always be ahead.

What these three services we have mentioned here have in common is a large number of high-speed servers that cover most countries, 24/7 customer service and guaranteed discretion. You can also use them on multiple devices at the same time. This cannot automatically be expected from a free VPN service.

What’s more, they all offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. It is therefore possible with a 30-day free VPN.

Differences between free services and paid services

What do you actually lose by choosing a free service over a paid service?

If we compare with the best paid services, such as those we have discussed above, there are normally a number of important points where the free services do not reach.

The most important areas are:

• Limited number of countries included
• Limited number of servers
• Limited offer
• Advertising
• Sale of information
• No customer service

Now, not all of the points apply to all of the free VPN services, but you will certainly find one or more on all of them.

When considering a free service, you should always try to find the answer to the questions: Why is it free? And if so, what do they make money from?

But let’s go into more detail on these areas that separate free VPNs from other VPNs.

Disadvantages of a free VPN

Free VPNs will often have servers in fewer countries

It’s actually quite natural. If you do not pay for the service, it will be difficult for the supplier to make the investments needed to deploy equipment in several locations.

When you see the reach of services like ExpressVPN and NordVPN with servers in 94 and 59 countries respectively, most free VPN providers by comparison will barely cover 10-15.

In that case, Norway should be one of them.

If that is not the case, you can forget about streaming NRK abroad.

If an international actor selects 10 nations, it is far from a foregone conclusion that Norway will be included.

Unfortunately, we are nowhere near being the center of the world.

Therefore, first check whether the free VPN service has servers in Norway and other places that interest you.

Free VPNs often offer fewer servers overall

It’s not just that a VPN should cover as many countries as possible. It should also have a large number of servers. For example, NordVPN has more than 5,500 servers around, and Surfshark has over 3,000.

There is hardly any free service that comes close to a fraction of this. Often it is not disclosed about the number of servers they have at their disposal.

A large number of servers help maintain security and ensure good speed, without interruption.

The authorities in some countries will try to block VPN services. It includes those countries that try to limit information to the population.

The same applies to streaming services that use geoblocks. Licensors of services such as Hulu and Netflix are constantly pushing for these companies to identify VPN servers and block them.

A large number of servers will mean that you can easily jump to a new one if this happens.

The same can be done if a server fails for one reason or another.

If the VPN service does not have enough servers in relation to users, the ones they have will be overloaded. This leads to slower speed and perhaps also breaks several times.

With ExpressVPN, the service will find the fastest available server for your purpose at all times.

Everything is not necessarily completely free with free VPN

Some of the services that market themselves as free VPN services also have a paid version.

The difference between these is that the free version offers limited traffic. Once you have exceeded a certain limit of data that you can use for free, often 500 mb, in the current month, it will suddenly stop. You will then (of course) get an offer to pay to continue using their other VPN service with unlimited bandwidth. They like to call it premium VPN.

If you are in the middle of an exciting film, it can be difficult to refuse.

The monthly limit varies with the service, but is very often 500 mb for a period of 30 days. It can last for a bit of surfing on websites per day, but will be very scarce if you want to use it to stream films and TV series. Then it only lasts a short period before you run out of data.

In general, free VPN services that combine the offer with paid VPNs will maintain higher quality and have much better capacity than other free services. They will normally also have a better economy.

The disadvantage for you as a consumer is that you do not make a real choice. You take the bait of free VPN and become addicted to it. Then you have to pay.

This is of course a completely normal marketing trick. But as with any other shopping, it’s best to spend some time, analyze your needs, gather product knowledge, and then choose the VPN service with the offer that suits you best.

Free VPN means advertising

If you pay nothing, expect more advertising. If the provider of the service is not 100% idealistic, they would like to have some left over for the work they do in creating the VPN for you. Of course they want to make money from this.

One of the advantages of VPN is that there will be less targeted advertising. When the websites you surf on are unable to identify you, they get less information they can use to push themselves with their marketing.

Perhaps you are so used to advertising in all contexts that a little bit or a bit doesn’t matter? Then a free VPN may be fine if it otherwise meets your needs.

However, if you find that the VPN service is showing you targeted advertising (such as hair products for men experiencing hair loss), they may also be selling information about you to third parties.

Free VPN services that sell information about you

One of the most important purposes of a VPN is to hide your IP address, so that you can travel safely and anonymously online. A paid service guarantees this. They will be able to confirm that they do not log or otherwise store your activities.

But there are some free services that do this. Nor do they settle for that. They also sell it on to third parties. They can also do that with your e-mail address if you provide it.

It must be mentioned in the terms you accept when you download the service you wish to use. The boring thing is that most of us can’t bear to go through long legal forms, usually in English, before we are allowed to use a VPN.

What is not always said, however, is who they sell it on to. This is what we in law call a general power of attorney.

Normally, it will be to companies that will use the information to sell you goods or services in the form of targeted marketing. However, there is no guarantee that they will limit themselves to this. Some free VPN services have actually sold information about who you are and what you’re up to

Internet to unauthorized third parties. Hexatech and Psiphon are examples of VPN services where this has been demonstrated.

It is clear that in such cases, the privacy you dreamed of when you acquired the VPN becomes only an illusion.

If, on the other hand, you choose one of the good payment services, you will be safer. They only make money from what customers pay them.

No customer service for free VPN

It’s probably quite natural. You’re not really a customer when you don’t pay anything for the service. Most of the free VPN services do not have any customer support, unlike the paid VPN services.

The user support that exists is normally in the form of a frequently asked questions section in English. What you don’t get an answer to there, you have to find out for yourself.

It normally requires some technical knowledge. It is also not certain that there is a solution to your particular problem. Then you will risk spending a lot of time in vain, and of course accumulate quite a lot of irritation.

The procedure for various functions on the payment services is usually thoroughly explained, in addition to the pages being user-friendly and intuitive. It shouldn’t be difficult to use a VPN. They also have a 24/7 customer service.

They will of course want to keep you as a customer. Then they know they have to help you solve problems when something doesn’t work. If you have problems with American Netflix during the night movie, you can therefore get immediate assistance.

If you still have the plan to use The Best Free VPN Services. Let’s take a look some of the secure ones

The best free VPN services

It’s not just about choosing a free VPN service. You should know what you are doing. The questions you should ask are:

• Does the service sell information about you to others?
• How many servers does it have?
• In how many countries does it have servers?
• Does it have the capacity to stream movies and series?
• How much data is offered per month?
• Is it advertising?

We have selected a bunch of suppliers who are relatively good in relation to these questions.

ProtonVPN

Proton VPN has a paid premium service, but also has a somewhat limited free service.

Conclusion

Proton VPN has a paid premium service, but also has a somewhat limited free service.

The positive thing about this free service is that you get an unlimited amount of data. Where other free services stop performance once you’ve passed 500mb in a month, ProtonVPN lasts the whole month.

The downside is that the free service only includes a limited number of servers located in Japan, the Netherlands and the USA.

When all the free users crowd around these locations, the servers quickly become overloaded and the speed reduced, which hardly works with Netflix. (But you don’t do that with the other free services we mention here either).

Several good things about ProtonVPN are that it is ad-free, and it has a very clear policy of no logging of users’ activities.

The security features are the same as in Proton’s premium VPN service. It includes 256-bit AES encryption and features such as Kill switch and DNS leak protection.

With free ProtonVPN, you thus get a functional tool with unlimited data during the month, but which is not powerful enough to stream movies and series with. On the other hand, it can bypass censorship and provide access to geo-blocked social media platforms and messaging apps.

If you want to pay for ProtonVPN, there are various packages starting at $4 USD per month.

Windscribe

Windscribe also operates both paid and free VPNs.

Conclusion

Windscribe also operates both paid and free VPNs.

The good news is that the free package also has servers in Norway. Of a total of 55 states included in the premium version, Norway is therefore among the ten selected in the free version.

Windscribe also offers 2 gigabytes of data per month, compared to the usual 500 megabytes for free VPNs. You can get more data as a prize if you register with an e-mail address, tweet about the company, recruit friends or participate in various competitions.

Security is ensured with AES encryption.

There are also a number of useful functions such as blocking advertising and malware. Windscribe also has a clear policy that they do not log your traffic.

Other nations you can access with the free service include Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and the United States.

A paid subscription to Windscribe costs $4.09 per 30 days if you commit for a year.

Tunnelbear

Tunnelbear also operates both paid and free VPNs.

Conclusion

We cannot avoid mentioning Bjørnen himself when we talk about free VPN services. This is admittedly a bear in sheep’s clothing as it gives you 500 mb of data a month to make you want more and buy a paid package.

However, Tunnel Bear are open that they consider this a “taster”.

The good thing about this free package is that it includes servers in 26 countries, including Norway. It also has the good security packages with 256-bit encryption and no logging.

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