Best free VPN software for Windows 10 PC to protect yourself online

Here are our picks for the top best VPN for Windows 2018.

Let’s face it: The Internet is no longer safe to use. Our privacy on the Internet has become a joke with hackers and Internet services constantly spying on our data usage and personal information. This is where a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, comes to play. It basically masks your IP (Internet Protocol) address that is provided to you by your ISP (Internet Service Provider). Well, that also means your original IP address is not visible online, protecting you from possible DDoS attacks and hacking. Talking about the best VPN Softwares available in the market, most of them actually comes at a price. However, there are a bunch of free VPN software as well. But, it is to be noted that the free VPN applications do not provide as many features and goodies as those supplied by the paid ones.

What is a VPN?

Virtual Private Network, or VPN in short, is a technology that creates a safe and secure connection over a less secure network. Originally developed as an idea for allowing remote users and branch offices to securely connect to corporate applications, VPN is now used on a wider scale by the users of the Internet to protect their personal details from the dirty hands of hackers, ISPs, and Government organizations.

Speaking of which, a VPN software blankets your original IP address and provides you a different one that may reflect a different geographical location. After connecting to a VPN, all your data is encrypted and they travel through secure tunnels, making it rather unlikely to be tracked by others.

Why is VPN used?

There are a plethora of reasons why people use a VPN software on their Windows PC. While the primary use is to hide the real IP address, it is often used to gain access to restricted apps and websites. And that’s not it! The VPN tricks the Internet by altering your geographic location virtually, thus letting you freely access Geo-blocked websites and applications without any restrictions. Speaking of which, it is particularly useful in countries such as China and Russia, that maintains a strict policy over the usage of the Internet.

Now suppose you are connected to a public WiFi hotspot, it is something worth remembering that all your browsing activity may be visible to other users on the network while you are on a non-HTTPS website. And, that definitely doesn’t sound any good! This is where you have to use a VPN and protect yourself from the risk of being watched by the others.

Torrenting: If you tell me that you don’t download files using BitTorrent protocol at all, then chances are you are either an enormous liar or you are not connected to the Internet. And, that second option seems highly unlikely. Legal or illegal torrents, it’s always recommended that you use a VPN service while downloading them, for both protecting your privacy as well as save to get rid of the dirty throttling trick that your ISP might come up with.

Talking about throttling speeds, your ISP never likes you surfing high bandwidth sites like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, so on and so forth. So, what they do is throttle your speeds so that they don’t consume much data. Enabling a VPN will help you bypass this issue, and provide a seamless connection while watching your favorite videos in high resolution.

Note: The list has been updated to include the best VPN applications in 2018 that are free to download on any Microsoft Windows-powered machines.

Best Free VPN for Windows 10 PC 2018 (updated)

• WindScribe VPN

If you ask to recommend the best free VPN for Windows for you, the first name that would come to my mind has to be the WindScribe VPN. WindScribe, in case you didn’t know, gives you 10GB for absolutely free — provided that you give your email address while signing up. In addition to that, you can get more free data just by doing simple tasks. For instance, if you tweet that you are a regular user of WindScribe, the free data available to you gets topped up by 5GB. Moreover, the free version of the software supports up to 11 server locations including, but not limited to, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

• CyberGhost Secure VPN

CyberGhost VPN is one of the best free VPN software for Windows 10 operating system. It provides a simple user interface and comes packed with several features to let you surf anonymously on the Internet. As with every freebie, the free version of CyberGhost VPN also comes with limited features as well: 1GB traffic/month, and limited bandwidth (up to 2Mbps).

• TunnelBear VPN

TunnelBear is yet another wonderful VPN for the Windows users. Sporting a very user-friendly interface, this one lets you choose an alternate geographic location for yourself. All you have to do is click the connect button on the top of the applications, and let the TunnelBear take care of your online privacy for you. By default, it provides 500MB traffic/month, however, you can add a 1GB to it by tweeting about your experience with the software. So you’re getting 1.5GB per month, which is pretty sweet for a free VPN software.

• SurfEasy VPN

Coming next is a Canadian-based VPN service called SurfEasy VPN. The software is easy to setup and the free version offers monthly data limits of 500MB/month. The SurfEasy VPN also provides torrenting protection, thus taking care of your privacy while sharing and downloading files using a P2P software. And, that’s always a good feature to have! The number of locations provided by the service is rather low when compared to the TunnelBear or the CyberGhost VPN, but the connections are solid with the 13 countries on board, including the US, France, UK, Australia, and Singapore.

• Avira Phantom VPN

And at last, but not the least, we have the Avira Phantom on the list of best VPN for Windows 10 (2018). Yes, you guessed that right! The service is owned by Avira, the AntiVirus company. Available on multiple platforms including Android, Windows, and iOS; the VPN service provided by Avira is trust-worthy and something worth giving a try. It’s easy to use and provides a monthly cap of 500MB data, which is pretty decent. However, you can double that size up, for up to 1GB/month, simply by registering an account on the application. Also, the service lets you choose your location from 13 servers located around the globe.

It is worth noting that all of the above VPN services also comes with a premium variant that you can use after paying a certain amount. After using the free version, if you think it’s worth investing some dollars on it, then go forward and try out the premium version as well. Needless to say, the premium version will come with additional (or unlimited) data cap per month and several other features to play with. So, which VPN service are you planning to use? Or if you already use one, do let us know about it in the comments below.

So, which VPN service are you planning to use? Or if you already use one, do let us know about it in the comments below.