During the period of our existence, VPN Creative has reviewed 200+ VPN providers and found the best VPN with the longest free trial period.
A VPN trial is great if you are interested in testing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and would like to trial VPN before committing.
Here’s a quick-and-dirty guide on how to signup to a free VPN trial in five minutes or less. But first, here’s a basic explanation of what a VPN is and how it works to make sure you are understanding the fundamentals.
Simply put, VPN is a technology with which computers can connect to remote servers through encrypted connections.
Traditionally, VPN is used by companies to let their employees login to local servers from remote locations. So when employees are on the road or working from home, they can still access their work emails and files stored at the company’s servers.
However, over the past years VPN technology has been commercialized and “re-packaged” for regular consumers. Lead by numerous horror stories in media describing online security breaches, Internet surveillance, scams and even identity theft, folks have an increased awareness about the necessity of online security.
So what was once a mostly enterprise-oriented technology, VPN today is a commoditized product relevant for the average Joes around the world.
As it turns out, using a VPN has a number of other benefits beyond simply connecting to a remote server through an encrypted connection.
Let’s take a look at three different use-cases for VPN.
Encrypted connection through VPN
With a regular Internet connection, the data you send and receive runs between your computer and the websites you visit unencrypted. Between these two endpoints are, among others, your Internet service provider (ISP). Your ISP will effectively be able to see all traffic running to and from your computer.
This should be reason enough for everybody to stay connected to a VPN all the time. While using a VPN does not give you a carte blanche to perform illegal activities online, it will definitely provide you with a much higher degree of anonymity. For instance, if your ISP does not not allow you to download torrents, you can find a VPN which allow for torrents, connect to their server and you’ll be able to download all the (legal, obviously) torrents your heart desire.
Security whilst on public Wi-Fi
While you’re sipping your Frappuccino and surfing at Starbucks’ free Wi-Fi, or any other public Wi-Fi connection in the world for that matter, you’re running a huge risk if you’re not encrypting your Internet connection. It happens everywhere, even the European Parlement’s Wi-Fi was recently hacked. There are several clever yet evil ways hackers can dig their way into your computer or sniff up your passwords and other personal data whilst you’re using a public Wi-Fi. Two notorious methods are called Evil Twin and man-in-the-middle attacks. Google it!
Access content from other countries
Another hugely popular use of VPN is to access otherwise geo-restricted content. The most popular example is to access a streaming service like Netflix from a country where Netflix is not yet available (here’s a guide on how to unblock Netflix).
The Netflix movie catalogue varies from country to country, and while they potentially will change that in the future, today you have to use a VPN to watch a movie or TV show on Netflix if it’s only available in a different country than the one you’re connecting from. In those cases you simply connect to a VPN server in the country you wish to pretend situated in and then load up Netflix subsequently. Netflix will think your physical location is where the VPN server is.
Getting a free VPN trial
As a result of it’s popularity, today you’ll find hundreds of VPN providers available to serve you. The core product of each of them are fundamentally the same, but factors such as numbers of servers, server locations, encryption protocols, customer service and price are all variables to compare and consider.
Running a full-blown VPN service is expensive and for that reason they charge typically between $5-10 per month for a VPN subscription. As we’ve preached many times: do not sign up for a free VPN. If the VPN is free, then you are the product! If they don’t have revenue from user subscriptions, they are without doubt making money in another way – typically by throwing ads at you or reselling you’re profile to third party.
Instead, what you want is a reasonable priced, premium VPN. And to lure you in, many such VPN providers offer a free trial period through which you can get a sense of their product. Other VPN providers offer a money-back guarantee which effectively works like a free trial. During that trial period you can cancel your subscription to receive a full refund.
We’ve taken a closer look at the best VPN trials available today and here’s what we found.
The best VPN trial is: VyprVPN
VyprVPN is one of the biggest VPN providers out there. We’ve reviewed VyprVPN in depth and found their service to be very stable, very high standard. They offer a free 3-day trial. You’ll have to enter payment information, but they’ll only charge you if you continue to use the service after the 3-day period expires. To receive a free trial, simply visit the VyprVPN website.
Best VPN trial runners up
Other VPN providers who deserves notably mentioning are:
NordVPN (3 days free trial). NordVPN are highly regarded among tech community and never log your activity when using their servers, which are operated under the jurisdiction of Panama, where there are no mandatory data retention laws.
BolehVPN (1 day free trial). BolehVPN is another favorite in the tech community. Search for BolehVPN on Reddit and you’ll find a lot of people recommending it. They are operating out of Hong Kong but have servers across the world. A key to their popularity is they because they do not log internet activity and support P2P. Their website is not particular handsome, but they deliver on the product and support.
SaferVPN (1 day free trial): SaferVPN is a new player on the market. In our reviews their service is very good and they also have good feedback from other users as far as we’ve seen. Their website and apps are neatly designed and on pair with bigger players like VyprVPN and HideMyAss. With a 1-day free trial you can test them without commitment and see for yourself.
The best VPN with money-back guarantee is: HideMyAss VPN
If three days are not enough for you, we’d recommend you to try HideMyAss (review). They offer a generous 30-day money back guarantee which essentially works as a free testing period. If you are not fully satisfied with their product you can cancel the subscription during this period and receive a full refund. To claim this offer simply visit the HideMyAss website.
Best VPN with money-back guarantee runners up
Other VPN providers who deserves notably mentioning in this category are:
ExpressVPN (30 days money-back guarantee). ExpressVPN is a great, solid VPN provider whom we’ve recommended for years.
IPVanish (7 days money-back guarantee). IPVanish is growing rapidly. Included in their package is SmartDNS which has same functionality as VPN for accessing geo-restricted content, but without the encryption which can slow a connection down. They have a huge community of fans and slick apps for all devices.
IronSocket (7 days money-back guarantee). Previously, IronSocket was called HideMyNet, but was recently rebranded. Today it’s services and appeal is globally recognized and they offer a great product. Definitely worth a try.