Free VPN Market Status
Years ago Baidu from time to time can still be found in the free VPN download articles, that time the boundless, free door, HotspotShield, StrongVPN genuine and cracked client prevalent, that time the wall is still just a short fence. A few years later almost overnight, free VPNs completely disappeared from the Chinese Internet. Then came the shutdown of GreenVPN and the invitation to tea for some other VPN developers, and people in the tech community were afraid to develop benefits for everyone anymore anyway. There are free VPNs abroad, and many of them, Google Play Store (if you’re lucky enough to be able to get on there) has dozens of pages of results for searching for Free VPNs, so if readers have the patience, they might as well try them out one by one:)
There is nothing on the market that can satisfy both 1. Ability to climb over the wall from China 2. Fast and stable 3. Totally Free For these 3 conditions, if long term wall flipping experience is important to you, paid VPNs like ExpressVPN, AstrillVPN are still the best choice.
You over you have an Apple US ID, you can also search for many, many free VPN Apps.
VPN services under the “free” model will soon run into a paradox: because of the free, the number of users grows rapidly, if the product can really continue to be free, vendors can not proportionally expand hardware and software to improve the level of service, the result is only one, that is, when the number of users of the free VPN exceeds a certain threshold, the quality of service will begin to exponentially! The result is that when the number of free VPN users exceeds a certain threshold, the quality of service will start to exponentially decline, and vendors will either start charging or stop playing. So free VPNs will eventually either have to start charging or become completely unavailable. That “good free VPN” you’ve spent so much time trying to find may start charging or become unavailable tomorrow, next week or next month.
Free VPNs may be useful, they help us to quickly achieve temporary wall flipping and there are many options, but the free model will eventually be unsustainable, most free VPN Apps will start charging at some point, and if they can’t, they will have to monetize themselves through grey tactics, giving you unnecessarily bad experiences and security risks.
Temporary wall surfing – useless
So if a free VPN is so unreliable, what else is it good for? The answer is to temporarily go over the wall.
With all the major paid VPN vendors closing down their domestic mirror sites ( Astrill, ExpressVPN, etc.), using a free VPN to temporarily flip over the wall to surf the Internet and then purchasing paid software with more guaranteed service is becoming the key to whether or not domestic users can successfully flip over the wall. But the free VPN market is full of choices, good and bad, is there any good free VPN on the market, I think there must be, just so far, I haven’t been able to find too much. If readers don’t want to go down this road of tossing and turning, there are still paid VPNs that can be purchased domestically.
Another way to temporarily go over the wall is to set up your own node, either by purchasing a commercial SSR service or by using a private VPS, which will not be discussed here due to space constraints.
Free VPN Roundup
Free VPN for computer side (Windows PC, Mac).
VyprVPN: There is a 3-day free trial. Even among the paid VPNs, it’s one of the more conscientious ones, and we recommend its paid version. I’m 100% sure VyprVPN is available, but you have to set the protocol to “Chameleon” before connecting.
Blue Lantern: Blue Lantern provides PC, Mac client, high availability, although only 500M traffic per month, but office use may be able to, I also recommend it in the back Android free VPN.
NordVPN: 30-day free trial. I’ve read on countless websites that it works in China, but I’ve never connected to it myself. I’m not sure if it’s just my exceptionally bad luck, or if those who say NordVPN works in China are full of shit. I’ve seen articles that say NordVPN is available in China, but you need to do a little bit of configuring manually, so I’d say forget about it, and don’t waste your time with it.
Other: Other tested free VPNs for computers: Hotspot Shield, WindScribe, ProtonVPN, TunnelBear, Hide.me … Don’t try it, it doesn’t work.
Free VPN for iOS mobile.
TunnelBear: The free version offers 500M of traffic per month, and if you post it on twitter you get 1GB of extra traffic, offering nodes in the US, Switzerland, Sweden, etc. I’ve tried this app many times and it works great in the US, but when I return to China and it doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to waste my time trying it.
BetterNet: The free version of BetterNet offers 8 nodes in the U.S. It can be upgraded with in-app purchases, and will offer faster connection speeds. I downloaded it to my iPhone when I was in the US and brought it back home to use it, and it works.
VPN Master Free: Many of my friends in Taiwan use this a lot, many of them go to school in the mainland, they recommended to me to use, the free version only provides 7 nodes, China can be used, but after all, it is a free version, can only barely open a Facebook.
Hotspot Shield: Years ago this was a very good VPN, when the domestic wall was not very high when I used it, very good, but now it does not work. The free version provides 500M traffic per day, and only provides U.S. servers, I last installed a good test back home did not connect, basically sure not to use, but I have heard that some people use it in the country for a long time to go over the wall, as for how to do it, I’m not sure, the probability of buying a paid version of the bar, that I do not have the time to test.
WIndscribe: this free VPN offers 10GB of traffic per month, but unfortunately when I tested it last time I was back home, none of the nodes offered could connect.
Hide.me: 2GB of traffic per month, tested it, doesn’t work. And I always feel like there’s something fishy about this app, it’s fine on iOS but I’ve tried it on Windows PCs and it causes other VPNs to not work, I don’t have the time to dig deeper to find out what it is.
ProtonVPN: ProtonMail — an encrypted mail tool developed by the same company, once available, the technology is mainly SSL traffic to disguise the traffic over the wall, but later because the GFW upgraded the DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) detection capabilities, the technology is basically useless. This technology is basically useless, but unfortunately this is the market a few unlimited flow of free VPN, domestic should have its paid version of the user, I myself have not had time to use, but before the night to see a more detailed review, this VPN in China is basically dead.
Free VPN on Android phones.
Blue Light: I recommend Blue Light as a free VPN on Android, technically it’s not a VPN but a SOCK5 encrypted proxy, but who cares what the technology is as long as you can go over the wall. I have Blue Light installed on my Android phone until now, but of course it’s the paid version, which I use as a backup. The free version of Blue Light offers 500M of traffic per month, which is enough to send and receive emails.
Speedify: 4G traffic for the first month, 1G per month thereafter. Can’t speak to the features, it worked when I tested it, but it’s been a while since I last tested it, so I’m not sure it’s still working now.
SurfEasy: probably the free VPN that offers the most nodes, 1000+ servers, 25+ countries, although the vast majority of server nodes are actually not practical for Chinese wall-flipping users, it is one of the few free versions that does not limit servers. Only the traffic is still 500M per month, which is a bit pathetic. Measured, it works.
BetterNet VPN: Mentioned earlier in iOS Free VPN, this is a good app that works on Android as well.
Private Tunnel: 200M traffic per month, 9 nodes, kind of stingy one, measured, can not be used.
Other: the previously mentioned Hide.me, ProtonVPN, TunnelBear, WindScribe … None of them work on Android.
Featuring reader-recommended free VPNs
herald
- Completely no money VPN most of the survival of the period are not long, many are technicians on a whim to set up a temporary product, may be closed at any time, taking into account the official website of these services at any time may be offline or change, this site no longer provides a link to the official website of the service, you can Google the name of the service to find the official website (if it is still in operation)
- Limited by time and energy, most of the free VPNs listed here I have not been able to test, good and bad all depends on the description of the enthusiastic readers, for VPN services are very important security, stability and speed can not be guaranteed, the use of these services please readers bear the responsibility for the use of the process of encountering any problem, naturally, I am also unable to solve!
- Some free VPN also provides paid version, have spare money friends can try, the new service in order to meet the needs of Chinese netizens over the wall, generally make the payment more smooth, such as many of them provide Alipay payment, but the purchase of a free VPN may lead to personal information leakage, halfway to run out of the road is also quite a lot of readers have to distinguish for themselves, be careful with the payment!
Mistletoe
Recommendation from user wms.x, thanks.
- The author developed a VPN against firewalls (PHD at the University of Waterloo in Canada, his award-winning thesis was all about flipping walls), the author and the team have fleshed out flipping walls, and the company is registered in Estonia, an EU member state.
- The free version has a speed limit of 800kb/s, the paid version is €5 per month with no limit. Paypal is available but requires a 5% handling fee.
- It is claimed that the blocking of a few days to compensate for a few days, the use of cutting-edge anti-blocking technology, not afraid of October 1 and other sensitive date blocking.
- One click to connect, with options to intelligently separate traffic inside and outside the wall and manually set up proxies, easy to use.
- Support Windows, mac, ancestor, linux, not support ios and browser plugin, there are android apk available for download.
- It is currently a niche VPN and is not recommended for mass distribution. The official website and product support Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese and English.
- Better privacy protection (no storage of user traffic, DNS requests, connection statistics, IP addresses, less risk)
- Some negative reviews exist, but overall user reviews are good.
- The free version can be used as a backup similar to Blue Lantern (which is basically dead and unsafe), and the paid version is fast.
Seagull Accelerator
- Free usage hours per day
- Support IOS Android PC/MAC,WIN
- unlimited flow
- Global nodes (US, Hong Kong, mainland IP, etc.)
- Supports 2 devices
- No leakage of personal IP
- Freedom to go over the wall without lagging
- For currency trading, office, learning, community, video, etc.
- Monthly packages, quarterly packages, yearly packages, low prices/$0.50 per day, bulk discounts for seconds
- Payment method: Alipay, bank card
Banana VPN
- Developed by Dr. Silicon Valley, Pennsylvania, headquartered in Singapore, the account registration on the first day there is 420M free unlimited traffic, so as long as there are enough email links can be used unlimitedly. With nodes in nearly 100 countries around the world, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and other foreign sites can be directly connected. Intelligent traffic diversion, traffic consumption will not be very fast!
Flash VPN
- Has been running for 5 years and is an established VPN merchant reputation new over the
- Stable service with 80+ nodes, mainly in Asia-Pacific, Europe and America.
- You can try us for free, you can try us for free, you can pay for us if you think we’re good.
- Support windows, android, apple system, linux based operating devices For high level players Soft routing system can also be applied.
- Streaming unlock support , for those who like to watch videos outside the region We support streaming unlock lines such as Nefi HBO HULU
- Excellent transit lines, for users within the walls of the excellent domestic transit can greatly enhance the experience, we are different from other V2 nodes of the airport own control of the source transit servers, can be better avoided by network fluctuations!
- aws hinet HKT GMO USA CN2 and other excellent landing line, our station selected the market connectivity better line has to provide users with a better network experience!
- Regular monthly node checks, in addition to special reasons for node problems caused by our station will have regular and irregular node checks, is committed to bringing users a more stable node experience!
Fill out the inclusion form
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Security Risks of Using a Free VPN
Not all free VPNs are insecure, in fact there are many products on the market developed by tech enthusiasts that are not malicious and are clean shareware or freeware.
However, the average user can’t tell if the free VPN program is clean or not by looking at the app’s name, author, description, and other information, and it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to read the code, and the vast majority of free VPNs don’t open up their source code to users.
And it’s impossible to screen hundreds of VPN products for bad code implants – the time cost is too high. Free VPNs are undoubtedly valuable for temporary use, but for long-term use, readers must be wary of their security risks.
Surreptitious collection of users’ personal information
In 2013, Facebook bought a free VPN service and opened it up to the public with this privacy clause:
The personal information that we collect and store includes your name, IP address, email address, your use of moblie applications and data, and can include the combination of said information (including identity information) with information that we receive from business partners or third parties ; said information can be used to offer market analyses and related services to business partners or third parties, and to operate services, such as virtual private networks and device tracking.
The information we collect includes your name, IP address, e-mail address, the mobile app you use, the data transferred by the app, and (perhaps) information about your use of third-party services (e.g., shopping sites); the information we collect is used for market analysis …
It means that our service is free, free vpn you can use it as much as you want, but we collect the information we want to collect, and use that information in the way we want to use it.
“Use” means that the owner of the free VPN is free to sell their privacy to third parties who are willing to pay for it without notifying the user.
compulsory advertising
Here’s another service statement for free vpn:
X may share anonymous data with third parties, including their affiliates, advertisers and current and future business partners. X can use anonymous data collected for the administration of websites, advertising and other promotional purposes, and may share said information with X may use anonymous data collected for the administration of websites, advertising and other promotional purposes, and may share said information with diverse affiliated and non-affiliated entities to those ends. It may also establish agreements with external companies, which permit the personalization of advertising and marketing messages to users while they It may also establish agreements with external companies, which permit the personalization of advertising and marketing messages to users while they use X, and these external companies may access the anonymous data collected from users.
In addition to the “honest” statement that he will collect information about you, notice the part I bolded, which means that the service will be able to push relevant services to you based on the information collected, as long as there is a need to do so. How? In the form of advertisements. Although he doesn’t explicitly say how to show you the ads, he usually hijacks your traffic, modifies its content, and injects ads into it.
A number of telecom users should remember that for a long time (and probably still do), telecom broadband hijacked users’ traffic, modified web pages, injected ads into it, and forced it to bounce (regardless of whether the web page content was related to ads or not).
Because a VPN is an underlying network protocol, once connected, your network traffic is forwarded to a server set up by the free VPN vendor, and if they wanted to, they could hijack and tamper with the traffic to your computer without your knowledge, stuffing it with nonsense ads.
Traffic hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks
Here’s a statement from another free vpn service provider:
X is a Peer-to-Peer VPN community, where users help other users make the web global again. This means that X redirects traffic through other nodes (Peers) in its network, as opposed to routing via expensive servers.
We are a P2P VPN community where user nodes access the blocked internet through “mutual help”. This means that we redirect your traffic to other users’ nodes and access the internet through their nodes, so that we don’t have to bear expensive server costs.
It’s even more brilliant. To put it simply, you don’t even know which user’s machine your Internet traffic is going through, and you can’t even tell who’s hijacking who. How can you expect this service to be fast and secure? If I were one of those unsuspecting users, I could be the “middleman” for free and do what I want with the traffic that passes through my machine.
You probably think it’s nothing.
But what if one day you open your online banking with this service on and then realize that the account has an inexplicable WITHDRAW?
Once you log in to online banking, the banking system usually sends specific tokens to your browser or app that are encrypted in order to identify your subsequent actions.
Your subsequent actions, such as requests to view your account, send these tokens to the bank’s servers, and the bank checks them and responds to your request.
Now because all your traffic goes through the free vpn service, he can see every request you make and can get every security token.
Because the owner of the free vpn service is 100% in control of your traffic, no matter how many security measures the bank has in place, the owner of this seemingly conscientious free vpn service can masquerade as you.
Becoming a fraudulent tool
Trojan horse (type of computer virus)
If one day your computer inexplicably receives an e-mail and you click on it as if nothing happened. If one day your computer suddenly pops up:
If you are planning to use a free VPN, here are a few words of advice:
- Don’t download so-called free VPNs (or cracked VPNs) at random from unknown third-party websites, for reasons I won’t bore you with. Free VPN downloads should only be made in two places: firstly, the official website or mirror site of the VPN software, and secondly, the app store (Apple App Store, Android Play Store, Windows Store)
- You don’t have to expect to download any free VPNs on the official domestic app store, you can of course choose to go to a foreign app store and register and log in to download from there, but this path can be more troublesome than you can imagine, and you may end up having to Root your phone in order to install the basic services required by the app store, and then find that it still won’t open from home, nor will you be able to download anything!
- The only truly reliable and labor-saving way to download a free VPN is also the official website of the VPN vendor. Not all free PNs have an official website, in fact the majority of them don’t, they only have apps and they can only be downloaded from app vendors, but there are exceptions, such as VyprVPN, and BlueLight which both offer direct downloads!
- If you are in a position to do so, it’s better to consider a paid VPN, which costs money but saves you tons of time!
