This article has been just updated:
Your Mac is only as secure as your internet connection. The sad truth is that only one-half of the million most visited websites worldwide redirect to the secure version of the HTTP protocol, HTTPS. That means that if you don’t actively secure your internet connection with a virtual private network (VPN), unauthorized third parties may get hold of your personal information, including your IP address, chat history, and passwords.
In 2019, you can choose from many different VPN services. However, not every VPN service works on Mac computers, so it’s important that you choose carefully to avoid paying for something that doesn’t actually help you in any way.
We’ve done the research for you and identified the top 7 best free VPNs for Mac in 2019. Some of the VPNs below don’t even require your credit card information to work, and all can be used for at least 7 days with no strings attached.
1. NordVPN
The Liverpool Football Club would never choose NordVPN as its official cybersecurity partner if it wasn’t for NordVPN’s excellent reputation as a trusted virtual private network service provider.
Features:
Since its launch in 2012, NordVPN has scored countless 5-star reviews, with reviewers repeatedly praising the speed and availability of its global network of over 5,200 servers in 62 countries. The company itself is headquartered in Panama, a country with no mandatory data retention laws that would otherwise force NordVPN to store logs of its users’ activity.
Here you can find a detailed NordVPN review.
Free version:
You can try a 3-day trial and use NordVPN for free, download only from the official website: www.nordvpn.com
Price:
If you manage to purchase a NordVPN subscription when it’s on sale, you can pay as little as $2.99 for a month of service.
Considering that NordVPN allows its users to secure up to 6 devices with a single subscription, we think that you would be hard-pressed to find a better deal.
2. Hideman
Hideman is an easy-to-use VPN service that you can download right from the Mac app store and use it to access all blocked websites, games, and services without speed or bandwidth restrictions.
The service is torrent-friendly, and it even supports .onion and .i2p resources without additional configuration.
Free version:
Hideman gives new users 7 hours of free access, and all users receive an extra free hour each day. If you want to, you can purchase one of three available premium subscriptions to enjoy Hideman without any limitations and access additional features.
Price:
You can pay with PayPal, credit and debit cards, Bitcoin, and other payment methods. The company behind the service is based in the United Kingdom, and the service itself is available in multiple languages.
3. Hotspot Shield
Apart from Mac computers, Hotspot Shield also works on Windows, Android, iOS, and other devices. So far, over 650 million users have used Hotspot Shield to enhance their security and enjoy the internet without any roadblocks. The Hotspot Shield application feels very polished, and you should be able to figure out how to use it easily.
Free version:
Hotspot Shield is known as a reliable free VPN service that gives all users 500MB of data per day.
That may not sound like much in the era of high-definition online streaming and HTML5, but it’s actually plenty for mobile users who want extra security when not connected to a trusted Wi-Fi network.
Price:
Everyone else can upgrade to a Hotspot Shield Premium plan for as little as $3.49 per month.
4. Hide.Me
If there’s one thing Hide.Me is dead serious about, it’s the company’s no logging policy. Even if Hide.Me was contacted by law enforcement and asked to pass logs onto law officials, the company couldn’t comply with the request because it doesn’t have any logs to share, which is exactly how it should be.
Hide.Me believes that the internet should be an open place that can be enjoyed by anyone without any limitations. Hide.Me users can download torrents, bypass geo-restrictions, and surf from anywhere.
Free version:
Free Hide.Me subscription includes 2 GB of data, and you don’t need to share your credit card information to sign up for it.
Price:
If you need more data than what the free subscription offers, you can purchase either Hide.Me Premium for $6.50 per month or Hide.Me Plus for $3.32 per month.
5. Goose VPN
Goose VPN offers excellent value at an unbeatable yearly price.
You can use Goose VPN on all your devices at the same time to redirect your internet traffic through a heavily encrypted tunnel that even your internet service provider can’t access.
Peer-to-peer sharing is allowed, and there are absolutely no limitations to worry about. The Goose VPN app works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and iOS devices, and it takes just a minute to set it up.
Free version:
You can try all Goose VPN subscription plans for 30 days for free. The company behind Goose VPN is headquartered in the Netherlands, which means that it falls under EU’s Data Retention Directive—something to keep in mind.
Price:
The basic unlimited package costs $12.99 per month. You can get 60% Discount if you pay annually.
6. Windscribe
Windscribe is a rock-solid VPN with fair pricing and excellent customer support.
The paid version of Windscribe unlocks 45 additional server locations, including South Korea, New Zealand, Japan, India, and Russia, just to name a few. In addition to protecting your online privacy and unlocking geo-restricted websites, Windscribe also blocks ads, trackers, and malware with its Remote Omnidirectional Badware Eliminating Robotic Tool, or R.O.B.E.R.T. for short.
Free version:
With the free version of Windscribe, you can connect to the following server locations: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, and Romania.
7. Speedify
Speedify is an innovative VPN service that lets you combine your Wi-Fi and cellular connections into one super-fast and super-reliable connection. We highly recommend it to anyone with an unlimited mobile data plan, but it’s also great for people who want to keep their information private when browsing, streaming, chatting, or playing online games. Speedify doesn’t keep any logs, solving the issue of trust in the best way possible.
Conclusion
Think of a VPN as a safety net that can catch your personal information from falling into the wrong hands even when you accidentally visit a website that completely neglects basic security measures, such as HTTPS. Even if you’re on a very tight budget, you can still secure your internet connection with a free VPN service, but the chances are that you’ll gladly pay a few dollars every month for a VPN subscription once you discover how useful it can be.
