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12 Best VPN Free Trials (Oct. 2020 Updated) – Test before buy!

Wondering which VPN has the best free trial? Almost all VPN free trial providers limit you in one way or the other. Sometimes, they cut down on the features that are essential for streaming, gaming, or browsing in general, while at other times they throttle your speed or bandwidth.

Luckily for you, we’ve compiled a list of VPN free trial providers that offer the unrestricted version of their VPN services without asking for any upfront payment commitments. If you want, you can even try out their money-back guarantees to test the services risk-free for a full 30 days and get a quick refund later. What’s better than using a premium VPN for free for a month, eh?

VPN Free Trial Comparison Chart (October 2020 Updated)

Why VPN With free trials, anyway?

A VPN with a free trial can come in handy if you’re looking for a temporary VPN solution for your short-term internet needs. 

For example, let’s say you are travelling abroad, and you want to catch up on the next episode of your favourite show on Aussie TV. The problem is the stream is inaccessible outside Australia, and so you can’t watch it without removing the geo-blocks first. This is where a VPN can help you out. And if you can save money on your subscription, then why not?!

However, perhaps the most important use of a free VPN trial is to test-drive a VPN service before you actually go and buy it. This way you can get a fair idea of the service’s strengths and weaknesses, and make an informed purchase decision.   

So which VPN providers offer the best free trials?

Selection criteria for best free trial VPNs- (Updated October)

Finding the best VPN free trials wasn’t easy. We had to test over fifty VPN services to put our recommendations together. The main thing we looked at was the legitimacy of their VPN free trial offer. We had to make sure all the free trial VPNs we would list would be 100% free. 

We also checked for other factors, including:

• No bandwidth limits
• Reasonable download and upload speeds
• Servers in Australia
• Extensive server coverage (all VPNs in our list operate servers in twenty different countries, at least)
• No activity log policy
• Robust security protocols

Streaming was a part of our consideration too, but it wasn’t the most critical of requirements. That said, the majority of our listed trials do support streaming for American Netflix, Hulu, HBO, BBC iPlayer, and other blue-chip services geo-blocked in Australia.

So, without any further ado, let’s reveal our top picks:

Best VPN free trial offers for Australians (In-Depth Analysis)

Get unlimited bandwidth, friendly privacy policy, secure and leak-free connections, and up to 190 servers in Australia with these eight best free trial VPNs:

1) NordVPN (Safest VPN free trial with the strongest Netflix support)

NordVPN is a Panama-based VPN service that offers an unrestricted free trial for Android and iOS users. NordVPN free trial period extends to 7 days. It can be availed by downloading the NordVPN app on your mobile device and signing up to the service. 

During the sign-up process, NordVPN will ask you to provide your credit card details and choose a plan that you’d be interested in subscribing to after completing your free trial. There are three plans you can choose from: 1 month, 6 months, and 1 year. All three plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The 1-year plan is the cheapest, costing you USD 4.92 per month. To avoid getting billed, make sure to cancel your NordVPN free trial before the end of the 7th day.

NordVPN app dashboard

NordVPN operates over 5000 servers in more than 55 countries worldwide. All these locations are available in the free trial. There are five server locations for Australia that you can connect to. These include Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

NordVPN 7-day trial comes without any bandwidth or speed restrictions, providing you a premium experience over the internet. We tested the VPN’s speed performance by connecting to one of its US servers and found the results quite satisfactory:

In terms of security, the NordVPN free trial offers OpenVPN, IKEv2, IPSEC, and NordLynx tunnelling protocols to choose from. Additionally, it uses 256-bit ciphers to encrypt your web data. The service does not keep a log of your online activities. 

We accessed Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, BBC iPlayer, and Hotstar using NordVPN’s 7-day free trial and found them all to be working. It has got impressive support for torrents as well, maintaining a robust profile of more than 700 P2P servers.

Verdict

The 7-day free trial from NordVPN is our favourite VPN free trial. It is secure, fast and reliable. It has extensive server coverage and can unblock almost all premium streaming sites without any problems. You can even download torrents on it.  

2) Surfshark (Well-rounded VPN free trial service)

Surfshark is a British Virgin Islands-based VPN service, which like NordVPN, offers a 7-day free trial for iOS and Android users.  To get the free trial, you need to download Surfshark VPN app on your mobile device. After you have downloaded it, sign-up to the service, choose a plan (the cheapest plan costs $2.49/mo), enter your billing details, and enjoy unrestricted access to Surfshark for 7 days for free. If you don’t plan to continue beyond the 1-week trial period, you can cancel your free trial by simply going to your account settings from the app and opting out.

Surfshark VPN app dashboard

Surfshark operates 1000+ servers in more than 60 countries worldwide. You can connect to any of these servers in the free trial. There are five server locations available for Australia, including Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney. All five server locations are live and operational.

Throttling is never an issue with Surfshark’s 7-day trial period as you get unlimited bandwidth support. We tested the VPN’s speed performance by connecting to one of its US servers and found the download and upload speeds decent, if not blazing fast.

You can choose OpenVPN, IKEv2, or Shadowshocks as your tunnelling protocols to secure your web traffic. With encryption, you have got the choice between AES-256-GCM and Chacha20Poly1305 standards. The service does not keep a record of your online activities.  

We successfully unblocked Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, BBC iPlayer, and Hotstar using Surfshark’s 7-day free trial from Australia. The P2P servers also worked well, seamlessly connecting to BitTorrent and uTorrent, and PopcornTime and VLC streaming players.

Verdict

With decent server coverage, robust security, clean log policy, and solid streaming and torrenting performance, the 7-day free trial from Surfshark is one of the best free VPN trial offerings on the market. We would have preferred it if it was just a little bit faster and not limited to Android and iOS platforms only (you can get Surfshark on a desktop for free by using the 30-day money-back guarantee). However, other than that, we’ve got no complaints.

3) Avast SecureLine VPN (Generous free trial VPN provider)

Avast SecureLine VPN hails from the Czech Republic and offers a magnanimous 60-day free VPN trial with no credit card. You can avail the trial by downloading Avast SecureLine VPN app on your mobile device or desktop, whichever option you may prefer. After you have downloaded the app, click on “START FREE TRIAL” from the main dashboard. Enter your billing details and enjoy unrestricted access to the service for two full months.

Avast SecureLine VPN app dashboard

Avast SecureLine VPN operates more than 50 servers in 36 different countries worldwide. The free trial provides a server in Australia to connect to as well, which works fine without any problems. 

There are no speed or bandwidth limits. However, compared to NordVPN and Surfshark, Avast SecureLine VPN servers are a bit slower. We tested the service for its speed performance by connecting to one of its servers in the US and found the following results:

The 7-day free VPN trial from Avast SecureLine VPN uses OpenVPN tunnelling protocol to secure your web traffic. For encryption, it uses AES-256-GCM ciphers, which sets it on a good path in the privacy stakes. It also protects you well against IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks.

Verdict

There is a lot to like about Avast SecureLine VPN free trial. It is easy to set up, secure, offers good connectivity across the globe, supports torrenting, and lets you watch your favourite shows and movies on Netflix. Yes, it may not be as fast as NordVPN, or as stable Surfshark VPN free trial, but it does a darn good job of fulfilling your short-term VPN needs.

4) AVG Secure VPN (Easy to set up free trial VPN service)

AVG VPN is a Czech-based VPN service that offers a fully-functional 7-day free trial with no credit card to Windows and Mac users. To get the free trial, download the AVG VPN app on your preferred device. Once the download is complete, open the app, and select “START 7-DAY TRIAL” to begin your trial period. No need to create an account or provide your email address. 

AVG VPN app dashboard

AVG VPN maintains over fifty-five live servers in 30+ countries worldwide. All these servers are available in the free trial. For Australia, you get a server in Melbourne.

In terms of speed, AVG disappoints a bit. We connected to one of its US servers and noticed a significant speed drop of 43%. The complete speed test results are as follows:

The Windows version of AVG VPN app uses OpenVPN tunnelling protocol for securing your communications, while the Mac version relies on L2TP/IPsec tunnelling protocol. Encryption is achieved with the help of AES 256-bit ciphers.

Although the AVG VPN free trial does not log your online activities, it does keep a record of your connection time-stamps and the amount of bandwidth you use for maintaining the functions. Additionally, it stores the IP address of the servers you connect to as well as the subnet of your originating IP address. The company claims to delete this data after 30 days. 

Should you be worried about the intrusive aspects of AVG’s privacy policy? Not really, since they are not traceable to the user. However, we do believe AVG can do without them.

As far as streaming goes, the AVG VPN free trial works with most major OTT video platforms, including US Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, and BBC iPlayer. However, the torrenting support is fairly limited, with eight P2P servers available at your disposal. These servers are located in Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New York, Miami, Seattle, and London.

Verdict

Despite offering only a few P2P servers, a slightly invasive privacy policy, and slow upload and download speeds, AVG VPN free trial is still a very good option for those looking for a short-term VPN solution. It fulfils most of the needs for free. Beyond that, however, the service lacks in too many departments to be considered a viable permanent VPN solution for personal use.

5) CactusVPN (VPN free trial with no restrictions and decent speeds)

CactusVPN is based in Moldova, away from the influence of Five Eyes and Fourteen Eyes alliances. It offers a full-fledged 3-day free VPN trial with no credit card. To avail the trial, simply sign-up to the service, set-up your account password, download the CactusVPN app on your preferred device, and get unadulterated access to the service for three days for free.

CactusVPN app dashboard

CactusVPN operates thirty-four servers in 20+ countries worldwide. It also has a server in Sydney, Australia, allowing you to remain connected to the homeland while travelling abroad conveniently. Moreover, the 3-day free VPN trial comes with no data caps, making your internet experience thoroughly enjoyable and free of any restrictions.    

We tested CactusVPN for speed performance by connecting to one of its US servers. While the download and upload speeds weren’t amazingly fast, they were not slow either. Overall, we would say they are sufficient enough for regular internet users.

Let’s talk about security. CactusVPN free trial offers OpenVPN, IKEv2, SSTP, L2TP, and PPTP tunnelling protocols to keep your traffic data secure. For encryption, the service uses AES-256 ciphers.

Privacy is never an issue with CactusVPN as it maintains a guaranteed no-log policy. To quote the company:

CactusVPN has a guaranteed no-logs policy for our service. That means that we will not store any data relating to your activities while using any of our privacy solutions, and will not record, monitor, log or store any of your information. CactusVPN also guarantees that none of your information will be passed on to a third party. We do not store any IP addresses, traffic logs, connection timestamps, used bandwidth or session duration information that could be traced to a single person.

Unfortunately, the 3-day free trial from CactusVPN does not work with Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, or other blue-chip streaming services geo-blocked in Australia. Torrenting support is good, though. There are ten P2P servers that you can use with BitTorrent and uTorrent. 

Verdict

CactusVPN free trial is a good all-round option, especially if you’re looking for a temporary VPN solution. It has decent (but by no means extensive) server coverage, a strong no-logs policy, healthy P2P support, and doesn’t require a credit card to set-up. If you can live without streaming, it’s a decent option to have on your list.   

6) ibVPN (Free trial VPN with healthy P2P support)

ibVPN is a Romania-based VPN service that offers a 24-hour free fully-featured VPN trial with no credit card requirements. You can avail the trial by signing-up to the service and activating the link, sent by the company to your registered email address. The trial runs on both mobile and desktop devices, so you can choose whichever option suits you best.

ibVPN app dashboard

ibVPN operates more than 160 servers in over thirty different countries worldwide. It provides five servers for Australia as well, including three in Sydney and two in Melbourne. All five servers are live and operational.

The 24-hour free VPN trial from ibVPN carries no bandwidth or data transfer restrictions, providing you a premium VPN experience to enjoy. We tested the VPN for upload and download speeds and found the results more than satisfactory. Still, if you are looking for a fast VPN with a free trial, we’d recommend going for NordVPN.

In terms of online security and privacy, ibVPN uses the industry-standard OpenVPN tunnelling protocol to keep your web traffic secure. Additionally, it implements the robust Blowfish algorithm with 256-bit cipher keys to encrypt your data. The company believes in maintaining an uncompromising no-logs policy.  

We tried accessing Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, and BBC iPlayer on ibVPN but weren’t able to connect to any of those services. However, we did find strong support for torrents in P2P servers located across the Netherlands, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Finland, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Latvia, Russia, and Hong Kong.

Verdict

ibVPN free trial does a good job of meeting your regular internet needs and provides top-notch features with no payment obligations. However, the limited 24-hour availability and no streaming support go against it. If you are fine with that, then ibVPN free trial definitely is a viable option.

7) Ivacy VPN (Free VPN trial with dedicated streaming servers)

Ivacy VPN is a Singapore-based VPN company that offers a one-day unrestricted free VPN trial to allow users to test its services. The trial does not require a credit card to set up and can be availed by simply creating a free account on the company’s website. Once you’ve signed up to the free account, you can download the VPN app and enjoy full internet freedom without worrying about any bandwidth or data constraints.   

Ivacy VPN app dashboard

The company operates an impressive 2000+ servers in 53 countries worldwide. You can access all these servers during the free trial. In Australia, you get twenty-three servers for connection. These servers are located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, and Perth.

Ivacy has a decent reputation for speed, so we decided to put the service to test. We randomly picked three servers in the US and ran them on an online speed test tool. The results were surprisingly good, summarized in the table below:

To secure your web traffic, Ivacy uses OpenVPN, IKEv2, and L2TP tunnelling protocols. It further encrypts the data using AES 256-bit cipher keys. No connection or activity logs are recorded.

The Ivacy VPN free trial does a pretty good job on the streaming front too. You can watch US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Now, and Hotstar from Australia without any problems. That said, the service should work on adding more streaming servers if it wants to compete with the best VPNs in the market. P2P support is available with the free trial.

Verdict

The free trial from Ivacy VPN has many strong points. It is easy to set up, offers an unadulterated access to 2000+ servers, unblocks US Netflix and other streaming sites, and allows you to surf the web safely while keeping your online privacy intact. Unfortunately, it can only be availed for 24 hours, a bit underwhelming if you are travelling abroad or looking for a more long-term solution.

8) HideMyAss VPN (Free VPN trial with coverage in 190 countries)

HideMyAss is a UK-based VPN company that offers a 7-day unrestricted free trial to allow users to test its services. However, you need a credit card to activate the trial.

To set up HMA VPN free trial, go to the sign-up page and enter your billing details. Next, register a new account. Once the registration is complete, you’ll receive an email for account verification. Download the HMA VPN app and sign in with the activation code sent in the verification email. Cancel the trial by visiting HMA online login page before the end of the 7th day to avoid getting charged.

HMA VPN app dashboard

HideMyAss operates 1100+ servers in more than 190 countries worldwide. That’s quite an impressive coverage. You get access to all these servers in the trial period. In Australia, the company maintains a total of seven servers, all located in Sydney and Melbourne. 

The HideMyAss 7-day VPN free trial offers the same speed as what you get with the premium plan. Do we consider the service fast? Not really. We put a few of its US servers through a couple of online tests and found the upload and download speeds average. The tests results are summarized in the table below:

Security with HMA VPN is never a concern. You have robust tunnelling protocols like OpenVPN and IKEv2 protecting your web traffic. In addition, the company uses the military-grade AES 256-bit system for encryption.

Likewise, HMA does not keep any record of your online activities, which is good from a privacy standpoint. However, it does store your date of connection and the amount of data you use. 

As for streaming, the HMA VPN free trial works with all major US and UK streaming services. These include US Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, and more. The available servers for streaming are limited though and can cause buffering issues on busy days. The VPN service provides eight P2P-optimized servers located in the US, France, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, and the UK.     

Verdict

We like HMA free VPN trial; we think it’s a good offering on its own. However, when you put it up against the competition (NordVPN and Surfshark), it leaves you with a gaping feeling. Rest assured, we would definitely recommend it.

Other VPN free trial sign-ups (with limitations)

9) HideIPVPN (The free VPN trial that almost made to our list)

Based in Moldova, HideIPVPN offers a 24-hour unrestricted free trial to users to test its services. The trial works without a credit card and can be set-up on both desktop and mobile devices.

The HideIPVPN 24-hour free trial has got some of the best features on the market. It provides reasonably fast speeds, top-notch security, and unblocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Hulu with ease. The service does not keep a record of your online activities either and maintains decent support for torrenting. 

Where does it lack then? 

HideIPVPN currently provides only twenty-seven servers in eleven countries. That’s just too low. It leaves you limited in your server options and creates bandwidth issues on a high traffic day. 

10) SmartyDNS (Another free trial VPN with a below-average server coverage)

Founded in 2013, SmartyDNS is a relatively new entrant in the VPN industry. It is based in Seychelles and offers a 3-day unrestricted free trial with no credit card. The trial is available for both desktop and mobile users. 

The SmartyDNS free trial provides several promising features such as no activity logs, OpenVPN and IKEv2 tunnelling protocols, 256-bit AES encryption, and IP and DNS leak protection. It also works with Netflix, Hulu, and BBC. However, like HideIPVPN, it offers below-average server coverage. In fact, it has got only 17 servers in fifteen countries. That’s even lower than HideIPVPN.  

11) ProtonVPN (A mediocre free VPN trial)

ProtonVPN is a Swiss-based VPN service that offers a partially-functional 7-day free trial with no credit card. Both desktop and mobile users can sign up for the trial.

We found the Proton VPN free trial quite underwhelming and wouldn’t recommend it at all.

There are several reasons for that. First, you only get three countries with the free trial. Second, it does not work with Netflix, Hulu, or BBC iPlayer. Third, it is quite slow. 

Hopefully, the company will work on improving its services in the future, and we can then re-consider it for our list of best free trial VPNs for Australia.  

12) CyberGhost VPN (Please avoid it, you’d be wasting your time!)

Based in Romania, CyberGhost is one of our favourite VPNs for Australia. We have recommended it quite a few times in the past.

However, it’s free trial is a big disappointment.

Does CyberGhost have a free trial? Yes, CyberGhost offers a “so-called” 24-hour unrestricted free trial with no credit card. When you use the trial, you realize how limited it is.

CyberGhost offers a 24-hour “so-called” unrestricted free trial with no credit card. When you use the trial, you realize how underequipped it is.

Most of the time, the servers just don’t work. And when they do, they keep disconnecting frequently. Yes, it is free, but what’s even the use of a VPN service if it can’t even allow you to do normal browsing? We would say: simply avoid it. 

If you want to use CyberGhost VPN for free, subscribe to its monthly plan and cancel the subscription before the 14th day to get a full refund. That’s a much better option. Don’t worry; the company issues a refund without any hassles.      

VPN free trial offers that are no longer available

While doing our initial research for this guide, we came across multiple free trial VPN service recommendations on the internet. When we sat down to test them, we found that many of those trials had already expired. Frustratingly, it wasted quite a lot of our time.

We don’t want you to go through the same trouble. 

Here are a few, regularly mentioned, free VPN trials that are no longer available (we’ll keep updating this list from time to time):

• PrivateVPN – used to offer a 7-day free VPN trial with no credit card
• SaferVPN – had a 24-hour free VPN trial offer with no credit card
• VyprVPN – offered a 3-day free trial with credit card    

Few thoughts on completely free VPNs

Throughout our post, while reviewing the free trial VPNs, we emphasized their use for meeting your short-term internet needs. You may be wondering, why not simply use a free VPN if it’s only about fulfilling a temporary need?     

We can’t argue with the logic here. It’s on-point. 

But as we have repeatedly discussed in our previous posts, free VPNs are not safe to use. Most free VPNs log your data and sell it to third party companies, completely exploiting your online privacy. Furthermore, they may carry viruses and malware, which can put your security at risk too. 

Finally, free VPNs usually come with data caps or limited bandwidth support, rendering the service ineffective for proper internet use. 

Still, if you’d like to use a free VPN for Australia, we have compiled a list of safe and secure ones here.

Are free VPN trials secure?

A free VPN trial allows you to test a VPN service with all its bells and whistles. So, if you are trying a free trial from a premium VPN service provider, you can expect it to be fully secure like the paid version of the service. All the eight free VPN trials we have recommended provide excellent online security.

Do free VPN trials log my activity?   

The logging policy of a VPN service provider usually remains the same, regardless of whether you use its full premium service or free trial. So, if a VPN promises to keep no records of your online activities, you can expect it to honour its commitment with the free trial as well. The VPN trials we have recommended implement a strict no-logs policy. 

Can I watch Netflix with a free trial VPN service?

Most free trial VPNs do not work with Netflix. However, the ones we have recommended, the majority of them if not all, unblock Netflix and other blue-chip streaming services from Australia without any problems. 

Can I subscribe to a free VPN trial more than once?

That would depend on the VPN.  Some VPN providers will lock your email address when you first subscribe to their free trial. For these VPNs, you can subscribe to their free trial more than once by simply changing your email address. Other providers have more sophisticated systems to track your previous subscription and stop you from using their free trial more than once.    

Can a free trial VPN bypass censorship?

You can easily overcome regional censorship using a free trial VPN. Just make sure to choose a service that is well equipped to offer this feature. NordVPN, Surfshark, CactusVPN, Ivacy VPN, and ibVPN free trials all possess the ability to bypass censorship.      

Happy private browsing

This brings us to the end of our today’s post. We hope you found the information helpful. If you have any unanswered questions, please leave them in the comments section below, and we’d try to help you to the best of our knowledge. 

Stay safe and secure.