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Tom's Guide
29-07-2025
- Tom's Guide
Dangerous free VPNs rocket up UK App Store ranking as users look to bypass age verification laws – these are the ones to avoid
Potentially dangerous free VPNs have soared to the top of the free app charts of the UK Apple App Store following the introduction of age verification laws. The best VPNs are reputable and will securely protect your data online, but the same cannot be said for every free VPN. Many free VPNs collect, share, or sell your data. Most have questionable privacy credentials at best, and outright dangerous ones at worst. At Tom's Guide, we always recommend a paid service over a free one, but if you do subscribe to a free VPN, ensure it's one of the best free VPNs. These are PrivadoVPN Free, Proton VPN Free, and Windscribe Free. We've dug into the details in our reviews, and these are the top three we recommend. Many people in the UK are turning to VPNs in order to get around UK age verification laws. The new law came into effect on July 25, 2025, and proof of age is now required to access sites hosting "explicit content." Serious privacy concerns have arisen because of the information users are required to submit. Credit card checks, photo ID, and AI-powered age estimation are some examples, with highly-sensitive personal information being entrusted to third-party providers. But by attempting to avoid age verification with a dodgy free VPN, you might still be putting your data at risk. Here's how to stay safe. The table below is a quick way to compare the seven VPN apps that are currently in the top twenty. In the "Safety status" column: ✅ = is safe to use. ❌ = is a potential privacy and security threat. VPN Safety status Price (per month) Free trial? Proton VPN ✅ $3.59 / £3.59 / Free No VPN Super Unlimited Proxy ❌ Free N/A NordVPN ✅ $2.91 / £2.31 Yes – Android only Free VPN by ❌ Free N/A Free VPN: Unlimited VPN Proxy ❌ Free N/A Opera ✅ $4 / £3.33 / Free Yes Surfshark ✅ $1.99 / £1.49 Yes Surfshark: the best cheap VPN + 7-day FREE TRIALSurfshark isn't just the best cheap VPN – it also has an unmatched 7-day free trial. You'll get unlimited access to all of its features for 7 days, and then decide whether to stay or go. It offers top-quality privacy, can unblock streaming sites, and has unique features such as Alt ID. The 2-year deal starts at $1.99 / £1.49 per month ($53.73 / £40.23 up front). You'll also receive an extra 3 months of protection for free and a 30-day money-back guarantee. PrivadoVPN: Cheap and fast with a great free planPrivadoVPN is the cheapest VPN we recommend. Despite the price, it still packs a punch and is a great option if you're looking to spend as little money as possible. It's fast, great for streaming, and our tests showed it's safe to use too. The 2-year deal is $1.11 / £1.11 per month ($30 / £30 up front), with 3 extra months thrown in. There's also a 30-day money-back guarantee, and its free VPN version is the best of its kind. Seven of the top 20 free apps on the UK App Store are VPNs. But we'd only recommend downloading four of them. These are: As of Tuesday, July 29, Proton VPN tops the free apps charts. Proton VPN is highly secure and one of the most private VPNs. Its mission is to campaign for a free and open internet, and it boasts a host of anti-censorship features. One of those anti-censorship features is its free version, Proton VPN Free. It lacks the array of features included in the premium plan, but it's covered by the same high standards of encryption, security, and privacy. It abides by Proton VPN's strict no-logs policy and has a rock solid kill switch. It is a very reputable free VPN and Android VPN users don't even need to create an account to sign up. VPN is usage in the UK has spiked dramatically, with Proton VPN seeing a huge increase in sign ups – 1,400% over its baseline. However, sitting at #2 is VPN Super Unlimited Proxy – and we have concerns about this one. The free app features ads and it says your usage data is tracked. It has a rating of 4.6 stars out of 5 from over 100,000 reviews, but we'd recommend avoiding it. It claims to offer fast speeds, with unlimited bandwidth. None of the best free VPNs offer both of these features, and leaves us asking what's the catch. We also couldn't see any record of an independent audit. App #5 was Free VPN by Similar suspicions are raised with this app, despite its page stating no user data is collected from the app. We investigated its privacy policy and found it to be incredibly sparse and vague. This is a red flag and leaves us with more questions than answers. It's another free VPN app we recommend you steer well clear from. Free VPN: Unlimited VPN Proxy is #8 on the list and it appears to be the worst offending free VPN on there. It says it tracks users and collects location, identifiers, diagnostics, and usage data. Like the above free VPNs, its ratings are to be taken with a pinch of salt. It has a 4.7 star rating from 14,000 reviews but should be avoided. NordVPN was app #3 on the list. This definitely is a safe and secure VPN – in fact it's our #1 VPN overall. NordVPN isn't free, but it does offer a 7-day free trial for Android users. NordVPN is extremely fast, recording speeds of over 900 Mbps in our testing and now supports post-quantum encryption – the new industry standard – across all its apps. It can protect up to 10 devices on one plan and has recently completed its fifth independent no-logs audit showing it doesn't log your data. Tom's Guide readers can claim an exclusive NordVPN deal which sees you get an additional four months of VPN protection for free on all plans. Selected plans also include free Amazon gift cards worth up to $50 / £50. The two-year deal starts at $2.91 / £2.31 per month and you can compare all plans using our NordVPN prices and plans guide. NordVPN: the best VPN overallEXCLUSIVE DEAL: NordVPN is our #1 VPN overall. It's fast, secure, and unblocks all major streaming sites. Premium plans come with threat and malware protection and a password manager. With Tom's Guide's exclusive deal, 28 months of protection starts at $2.91 / £2.31 per month ($81.36 / £64.56 up front). All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. With selected premium plans you'll also get your hands on free Amazon gift cards worth up to $50 / £50. Opera is a secure browser with a built-in free VPN and the app has risen to #13 on the UK App Store rankings. Opera's VPN isn't a big hitter, but it's a solid option, with a free and premium plan. In 2024, Opera VPN published a successful no-logs audit, and this month Opera VPN Pro adopted ExpressVPN's Lightway Protocol. We rate Surfshark as the best cheap VPN and it's currently #19 on the UK App Store. It's one of the fastest VPNs on the market and one of the best streaming VPNs. At $1.99 / £1.49 per month ($53.73 / £40.23 up front) Surfshark represents excellent value for money. It's far better than any free VPN thanks to its speed, security, features, and unlimited device connections policy. The free VPNs we've recommended will protect your data and do the VPN basics. But if you can afford a premium VPN, Surfshark is a great, cheap option. Surfshark also offers a 7-day free trial for all platforms. No other leading VPN provider has a free trial as comprehensive as Surfshark's. Almost all of the best VPNs offer a minimum 30-day money-back guarantee, but very few offer a 7-day free trial. For more information about VPN free trials, check out our best VPN free trial page. If you're after some alternative cheap VPN options, it's worth checking out PrivadoVPN at $1.11 / £1.11 per month and Private Internet Access at $2.19 / £1.69 per month. Regardless of what you've downloaded it for, if you have one of these dangerous free VPNs installed on your device we'd recommend deleting it straight away. We'd encourage people to subscribe to a premium VPN, but you don't always need to. There is a VPN for everyone, with a range of price points covered. PrivadoVPN and Surfshark are both under $2 per month, while Proton VPN Free, PrivadoVPN Free, and Windscribe Free are all secure and reputable free providers. But if you want to spend a little more money, NordVPN, Proton VPN, and ExpressVPN are all great choices. Whichever provider you choose, ensure it has a proven no-logs policy, secure encryption, features such as a kill switch, and a varied server network. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
Tom's Guide
13-06-2025
- Tom's Guide
Is Hide.me Free actually worth using?
Not everyone can afford or needs a VPN. We'd always recommend a paid service above all else but choosing from the best free VPNs can be a handy alternative in a pinch. There are some fake free VPNs around, and not every free provider is reputable. But all the free VPNs we recommend are safe, reputable, and do the VPN basics well. Free features on our list of the best free VPNs. We don't rate it as much as PrivadoVPN Free, Proton VPN Free, or Windscribe Free, but it's a genuine free VPN that will protect you online. However, how usable is Free? The provider offers some strong positives, but also some very significant negatives. So, how does it stand up and can it be a serious free VPN option? Let's start with the positives of Free. Unlike some free VPNs, Free will protect your data. It shares the excellent privacy features of its paid version, including a functioning kill switch. Kill switches are a must-have for the most secure VPNs and they cut your internet connection should your VPN fail. Many free VPNs, and even paid VPNs, don't have a kill switch, so Free having one is a big plus – it even extends to iOS, which is even rarer. Just like many of the best VPNs, had its no-logs policy audited and verified in December 2024, meaning it won't share any of your data with third-parties. It also sits outside of European and Western data jurisdictions thanks to its Malaysian base – another strong privacy advantage. Free is available on Windows, Android, Mac, iOS, and Linux. With the exception of iOS, all these platforms support split tunneling – we'll explain why this might come in handy later. Windscribe Free and PrivadoVPN Free both impose data limits on their free plans. Free, alongside Proton VPN Free, doesn't do this. There are no restrictions on how much you can use the VPN – ideal for those who will regularly use the service. Other positives include customer support, for both the paid and free service, and decent enough app customisation. But it can't compare to Windscribe Free in this department, which restricts almost nothing except data usage on its free plan. So if you're a more seasoned VPN user, looking to customise your app, Free might not be the best choice. US Netflix can be unblocked by Free but its speeds, or lack of, make this achievement largely pointless. This is Free's biggest drawback and we'll explain more below. Free VPNs being slower than their paid counterparts isn't rare. The fastest VPNs can exceed 900 Mbps and only PrivadoVPN Free can hit that number. In our testing, PrivadoVPN Free clocked 950 Mbps, Windscribe Free hit 496 Mbps, and Proton VPN Free registered 335 Mbps. Many VPNs can go faster than this – as long as your internet can keep up – but they're like lighting compared to Free. Testing on Mac saw speeds of 25 Mbps when connected to the closest server. The tester's non-VPN internet connection was 690 Mbps, so this result represented a crippling speed reduction. What's more disappointing is that some of our testers reported speeds as low as 1 Mbps. This is unusable and could be seen as deliberate throttling to frustrate users and lead them to the provider's paid plan. In my personal testing, Free measured 44 Mbps when connected to a US server and 50 Mbps when connected to a UK server. This is manageable for general browsing, but bearing in mind my internet connection without a VPN hovers around 300 Mbps, this is another significant and disappointing reduction. 25 Mbps is reportedly fast enough to stream 4K Netflix but we wouldn't recommend Free for streaming – it's simply not fast or reliable enough. If streaming is your priority, you're better off going with one of the best streaming VPNs. You can make use of Free's split tunneling feature to exclude streaming sites from your VPN connection. But this will mean you can't access geo-blocked content and your data will be left unprotected. Free's server spread is limited. There are seven servers to choose from, located in Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Although you can select which server you connect to – unlike Proton VPN Free – there's nothing available outside the US and Europe. This will be disappointing for those in South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. An odd quirk is that Free "expires" after 30 days. You can continue using the app at no cost but having to renew every month can be irritating. You'll also be offered the option to upgrade to the paid plan – currently $3 per month. This is quite annoying, affects user experience, and something people would prefer not to deal with. Staying with user experience, Free's app design could be improved. It's blocky, outdated, and honestly not that nice to use. It's functional and fairly simplistic, but it leaves a lot to be desired looks wise. Other free VPNs have superior UIs and a better all-round app experience. It's not the biggest problem in the world, but if you're after a long-term, daily-use VPN, user experience and app design is important. How usable Free will be, depends on what you want to use it for. If you just want to occasionally browse the web, need a free VPN to bypass internet censorship, or need short-term protection, Free will do the job. However, if you want to unblock Netflix, stream videos, download files, and use a VPN long-term, then you'll want to look elsewhere. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
