The Best Free VPN for Gaming For 2023
Written by, Andriana Moskovska
Updated November, 28, 2022
If you’re looking to protect your IP address and your computer from swatting or DDoS attacks while gaming, you might want to consider getting a good VPN.
What is the best free gaming VPN?
Let’s find out.
Best Free Gaming VPN Services: At a Glance
- ProtonVPN: Best overall (Visit site)
- Windscribe: Best for security (Visit site)
- Hotspot Shield: Best for speed (Visit site)
- TunnelBear: Best for IPS Throttling (Visit site)
- Hide.me: Best for privacy (Visit site)
- Speedify: Best for number of servers (Visit site)
- Betternet: Best for ease of use (Visit site)
| In a hurry? Here’s a recap of our top 3 picks for the best free gaming VPNs. ProtonVPN — With military-grade encryption, an effective kill switch, and a strong DNS protection protocol, ProtonVPN is arguably the best free VPN for gamers. It’s compatible with all devices and offers unlimited bandwidth. Windscribe — Windscribe boasts a vast server network with great speeds and unlimited simultaneous connections. With a Firewall mode that guarantees leak protection and 6 different VPN protocols, it’s hard to find a free VPN that matches what Windscribe has to offer. HotSpot Shield — If you’re looking for a VPN with a generous daily data limit, look no further. HotSpot also relies on a fast protocol and has a zero-log policy, which is perfect for any gamer that wants to protect their privacy. |
Best Free Gaming VPN Services
ProtonVPN -Best overall
- Unlimited data
- Reasonable speed
- DNS leak protection
- Servers in 3 countries
- Rating: 10/10
- Data limit: Unlimited
- Number of servers: 24
- 24/7 support: Yes
- Supported platforms: iOS, Windows, macOS, Android, Linux, Chromebook
ProtonVPN is arguably the best free VPN that’s currently available on the market. What makes it an excellent VPN for gaming is its unlimited bandwidth and decent speed.
On top of that, the VPN comes from a company that prioritises privacy, has a strict zero-logs policy, and is router compatible, which is not the case with many VPNs on the market.
ProtonVPN further boasts military-grade encryption for extra protection, a kill switch, and DNS leak protection, making it a great Roblox VPN.
Windscribe -Best for speed
- Firewall mode
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Whitelisting option
- No live chat support
- Rating: 9.9/10
- Data limit: 2-10GB/month
- Number of servers: 10
- 24/7 support: Yes
- Supported platforms: Linux, iOS, macOS, Android, Windows, MS Edge, and other browsers
Windscribe is one of ProtonVPN’s biggest competitors when it comes to free VPN tools, mostly due to its fast speeds.
Windscribe is a top-notch VPN for games like PUBG. The game not only requires fast connections but is banned in China (the country has a special PUBG version that’s permitted), and Windscribe is one of the few VPNs that can circumvent China’s Great Firewall.
It has an effective Firewall mode, an option to kill the TCP socket after connection, an internal DNS, a network whitelisting option, and a kill switch feature.
This VPN is also compatible with routers, but only offers 2 GB or 10GB of free bandwidth a month if you create an account with an email address, which loosely translates to about 10 days of light gaming. However, the company offers its users the option to get 5 GB more by tweeting about the VPN.
Hotspot Shield -Best for data limit
- Reduces ping and lag
- Generous data limit
- Speedy connections
- 1 server available
- Rating: 9.5/10
- Data limit: 500MB/day
- Number of servers: 1
- 24/7 support: yes
- Supported platforms: iOS, macOS, Android, Windows.
Hotspot Shield is a superb free VPN for casual gamers who play games every day.
The free plan, unlike its paid plans, doesn’t have a gaming mode (which is optimised for games like Fortnite and Roblox), but it offers a generous amount of daily bandwidth compared to most free VPNs on the market.
With 500MB of free data daily, you can spend around 1 hour of quality gaming and reach speeds up to 44.63mbps on a 100mbps connection.
What makes this VPN secure is its Catapult Hydra protocol, which is also one of the fastest out there, allowing for impressive speeds and minimum lags.
TunnelBear -Best for IPS Throttling
- Reduces ping and lag
- Generous data limit
- Speedy connections
- 1 server available
- Rating: 9.5/10
- Data limit: 500MB/day
- Number of servers: 1
- 24/7 support: yes
- Supported platforms: iOS, macOS, Android, Windows.
Hotspot Shield is a superb free VPN for casual gamers who play games every day.
The free plan, unlike its paid plans, doesn’t have a gaming mode (which is optimised for games like Fortnite and Roblox), but it offers a generous amount of daily bandwidth compared to most free VPNs on the market.
With 500MB of free data daily, you can spend around 1 hour of quality gaming and reach speeds up to 44.63mbps on a 100mbps connection.
What makes this VPN secure is its Catapult Hydra protocol, which is also one of the fastest out there, allowing for impressive speeds and minimum lags.
Hide.me -Best for security
- Faster than competitors
- Advanced security features
- Stealth Guard tool
- Best for advanced users
- Rating: 9/10
- Data limit: 2GB/month
- Number of servers: 5
- 24/7 support: yes
- Supported platforms: Youtube, Kodi, Spotify
If you are looking for a free VPN with speedy connections that has a lot to offer, you might want to consider Hide.me.
This VPN is an excellent choice for advanced users that want to play around with features and modify settings to match their gaming needs.
Hide.me has an impressive security suite that includes a kill switch, DNS leak protection, military-grade encryption, and a Stealth Guard tool. The VPN doesn’t monitor or store browsing behaviour and has an almost zero-logs policy.
The best part about it? Gamers can connect the VPN to a console
Speedify -Best for number of servers
- Solid speed
- Transport mode
- Channel bonding feature
- Channel bonding feature consumes more data
- Rating: 8.7/10
- Data limit: 2GB
- Number of servers: 53
- 24/7 support: yes
- Supported platforms: Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Kodi
For gamers that prioritise performance over anything else, Speedify is the right choice.
This is the only free VPN that has a channel bonding feature (which not many VPN providers offer) that boosts speed and allows for a stable connection that’s lag-free, which is what most gamers are looking for in a VPN service.
The best part about the channel bonding feature is that it’s customisable. You can tweak it to optimise redundancy or speed, making this an excellent VPN for a quick Valorant game.
Free users also get features like transport mode and DNS leak protection, but the kill switch option is only available for paid users.
Betternet - Best for ease of use
- No registration required
- Good security features
- Generous daily bandwidth
- Automatically connects to a server
- Rating: 8.5/10
- Data limit: 500MB/ day
- Number of servers: 1
- 24/7 support: no
- Supported platforms: Android, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Chrome.
Betternet is a good pick for gamers that want a solid, free VPN for everyday gaming.
The VPN provider offers 500MB of daily bandwidth to its free users, which is just enough for an hour-long quality gaming session.
Free users get to choose between two protocols, Hydra and IKEv2, as well as IP leak protection, a kill switch feature, the option to create Safe and Unsafe Wifi HotSpot lists, and the ability to exclude certain domains.
One of the best things about this VPN is that the free plan doesn’t require users to register with an email address. There’s also an option to reach out to Betternet’s customer support team from the app.
Honourable mentions
CyberGhost -
- Supports WireGuard
- Large server fleet.
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Pricey
- Rating: 9.5/10
- Price: £9.99
- Number of servers: 6,000+
- 24/7 support: Yes
- Supported platforms: macOS, iOS, TV devices, consoles
CyberGhost is a privacy-focused VPN that doesn’t collect logs and is one of the most powerful VPNs available.
It has split tunnelling, a kill switch feature that offers DNS leak protection, and supports WireGuard across all platforms.
The VPN has dedicated P2P file-sharing servers and over 6,000 servers, which makes it one of the more diverse VPN products on the market.
Finally, the VPN allows for seven simultaneous connections, which means you don’t have to disconnect it from one device to play on another, making it a great choice for a gaming night with friends.
PrivateVPN -
- Unblocks geo-restricted content
- Fast connections
- Advanced privacy features
- No split tunnelling
- Rating: 8.7/10
- Price: $8.99
- Number of servers: 200+
- 24/7 support: Yes
- Supported platforms: macOS, iOS, Windows, Linux, routers
PrivateVPN is one of the best VPNs for gaming and streaming. It’s also a great choice for torrenting since it has dedicated torrenting servers and P2P file-sharing.
What’s more, PrivateVPN uses the latest AES 256-bit encryption and L2TP protocol. Users can also opt for OpenVPN, and there’s a kill switch on all of its apps.
One of its best features is its Stealth VPN mode which hides online traffic and bypasses geo-restricted content and censor-heavy locations. It also supports SOCKS5 and HTTP proxies.
ExpressVPN -
- 24/7 customer support
- Supports torrenting
- Advanced privacy features
- No kill switch on iOS
- Rating: 9.9/10
- Price: £10.15
- Number of servers: 3,000+
- 24/7 support: Yes
- Supported platforms: macOS, iOS, Windows, Amazon Fire TV, routers
ExpressVPN is the most popular VPN on the market that has a reputation for fast and reliable speeds.
The VPN reduces lag and secures your network and IP address during gaming, streaming, and browsing.
The best part about it is that it has a vast network of more than 3,000 servers in more than 150 locations and everything from WebRTC leak blocking to HHTS support and location spoofing.
ExpressVPN also has the most advanced VPN connection protocols and 24/7 customer support.
How to Choose a Good Free VPN for Gaming for You
Here’s what to look for when choosing a VPN for gaming.
Security
The main reason why gamers need a VPN is to protect potential vulnerabilities in their connection. As such, all VPNs, including free VPNs, should be able to successfully hide your IP address, have a feature that prevents leaks, and use good encryption.
Bandwidth
Free VPN plans usually come with limited data. Most offer 500MB a day, which is enough for light gaming but there are some like ProtonVPN that offer unlimited bandwidth.
Servers
Free VPNs also limit the number of servers you can connect to. Having fewer servers to connect to doesn’t necessarily affect your gaming experience, but it’s more likely that these servers get overcrowded, which can affect speed.
Compatibility
Most VPN services are compatible with most PC and mobile phone devices. However, there are some that don’t work on routers and consoles. If you prefer gaming on a console, you might want to consider ProtonVPN or Hide.Me.
Bottom Line
If you’re looking for a free gaming VPN, there are plenty available on the market, including some that offer unlimited bandwidth. However, since most VPN services have limited features, they are a good choice for people that prefer light gaming and don’t spend more than an hour a day playing games.
FAQ
Which free VPN is best for gaming?
That depends on where your priorities lie. If you’re opting for maximum gaming time, then ProtonVPN is a good choice since it offers unlimited bandwidth and works with a router. If you prefer speed, Windscribe is a better choice.
Which VPN is free for PUBG?
All free VPNs work with PUBG unless they’re blocked in the country where you live. Some of the companies that offer the best free VPN for gaming include ProtonVPN, Hotspot Shield, and Windscribe
Does a VPN improve gaming?
A good VPN can improve speed, stabilise your connection, and keep your IP protected from malware and similar attacks.