Best Free VPN for Europe in 2026

Hundreds of free VPNs list European servers. Very few of those are worth connecting to. Most free plans cover 2 or 3 countries, cap the month at a few gigabytes, and get turned away by every streaming platform. Three exceptions do the job at no cost, and two premium services give a month of full European access through their refund windows. We tested over 50 free plans to reach that list. The section below sets out which European countries each free plan covers.

Free European VPNs Compared

VPN	Free access	Monthly data	European locations	Streaming
NordVPN	30-day refund	Unlimited	The full network	Yes
Proton VPN	Free plan	Unlimited	5 countries	No
ExpressVPN	30-day refund	Unlimited	The full network	Yes
PrivadoVPN	Free plan	10 GB a month	4 countries	Some
Hide.me	Free plan	Unlimited	6 countries	No

Best Free VPN for Europe in 2026

1. NordVPN: Best Free European VPN for 30 Days

NordVPN reaches more of Europe than any other pick, with servers in around 46 European countries out of 149 worldwide. That includes the places free plans miss: the Baltics, the Balkans, Portugal and Ireland. It isn’t free. A 30-day money-back guarantee makes the first month cost nothing, and the refund is processed on request. Android accounts can also start a 3-day trial through Google Play.

For the month it lasts, nothing is restricted. Unlimited data, streaming that opened every European catalog we tried, servers for safe torrenting, and NordWhisper for networks that filter VPN traffic. NordLynx keeps speeds high on long connections, and the IP address change takes one tap. Encryption is 256-bit, alongside a kill switch, leak protection, RAM-only servers, and Double VPN.

Outside auditors have examined the no-logs policy six times (including Deloitte at the end of 2025). It’s also a strong pick for travelers. Long-term pricing starts at $3.49 a month for 10 devices.

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2. Proton VPN: Best Permanently Free European VPN

Proton VPN’s free plan covers 5 European countries: the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Norway, and Switzerland. Data is unlimited on all of them, which no other permanently free plan matches without throttling the connection. Switzerland gives the company a base outside EU data-retention rules. Its paid European coverage extends across 20,000+ servers in 148 countries.

The free apps include a kill switch, split tunneling, WireGuard, and DNS leak protection, with no advertising and an audited no-logs policy that applies to non-paying accounts on the same terms. The trade-offs are clear. Proton assigns the server, so picking Poland over the Netherlands requires a paid plan. P2P is refused, streaming stays closed, and only a single connection works at once.

NetShield ad filtering and Secure Core routing stay behind the subscription, which starts at $2.99 a month. The Plus plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee, great if you want a free VPN for Europe for a trip.

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3. ExpressVPN: Fastest Risk-Free VPN for Europe

ExpressVPN connected faster than the other four in our European testing, which places it alongside NordVPN instead of below it. The head-to-head comparison covers where they separate. Its 214 locations span 113 countries, with European representation and several servers in the larger markets. Lightway offers post-quantum encryption, and Windows adds a Turbo toggle for extra throughput.

Speed shows most on streaming. European Netflix catalogs, BBC iPlayer and Hulu opened during testing, and torrenting is permitted on every server. Advanced Protection filters ads and trackers, and Network Lock severs the connection the moment a tunnel fails. The no-logs policy has been through more independent audits than any rival’s, and the company answers to British Virgin Islands law.

A 28-month Basic subscription is refundable in full for the first 30 days, then costs $2.99 a month. There’s a 3-day free trial on iOS and Android, though the 30-day guarantee makes more sense for longer testing.

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4. PrivadoVPN: Best VPN for Europe for Streaming

PrivadoVPN offers 13 locations across 10 countries, with the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom among them. It’s the only permanently free plan that opened streaming platforms during our testing, including a Netflix region and BBC iPlayer, and it also provides free US servers for reaching American catalogs from Europe. Torrenting is permitted on free servers.

This puts it first in our free torrenting rankings. Speeds were the quickest of the free plans we measured, running WireGuard over 10 Gbps hardware. Free accounts also get Scramble, PrivadoVPN’s obfuscation setting, plus a kill switch and split tunneling. Free accounts get 10 GB per 30 days on a single connection.

When that runs down, the app moves to a slower unlimited server, which is more forgiving than most caps. PrivadoVPN moved its registration from Switzerland to Iceland in 2026 and has never published an independent audit.

5. Hide.me: Most Free European Countries

Hide.me gives free accounts the widest European choice of the permanently free plans: the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland, plus one US location. Data is uncapped, and no payment details are requested at signup. Protocol support goes further than rivals allow on a free tier. OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2 and SoftEther are selectable, and SoftEther tunnels over SSL, which handles networks that filter VPN traffic without separate obfuscation.

Malaysia is the company’s legal home, outside both the EU and the major intelligence-sharing arrangements, and outside firms have audited the no-logs policy more than once. The free apps include a kill switch, custom DNS, and leak protection. What it won’t do is stream or torrent. Netflix stays closed on free servers, P2P is blocked, and 1 device connects at a time. Shared free servers also slow during European evenings.

Free European Server Locations

• Hide.me: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland and the UK.
• Proton VPN: the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Norway, and Switzerland, assigned automatically.
• PrivadoVPN: the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK, selectable by name.
• NordVPN and ExpressVPN: the full network during the 30-day refund window, covering nearly every European country.

Southern and Eastern Europe are thinly covered on free plans, so a Spanish, Italian, or Greek IP address effectively requires a paid subscription. And latency from Portugal or Finland to a Dutch server adds enough delay to matter on video calls, even though the country is technically European.

What a Free VPN for Europe Costs You

• Data: PrivadoVPN allows 10 GB a month, roughly 4 hours of HD video. Proton VPN and Hide.me are uncapped, and throttle instead.
• Streaming: only PrivadoVPN opened a Netflix region on a free server. Platforms blacklist shared free addresses within days.
• Devices: every permanently free plan here allows 1 connection, so a phone and a laptop can’t run at once.
• Country choice: TunnelBear covers 45 countries on paper, then removed free country selection in January 2026, so free users take the location they’re given.

Our free and paid VPN comparison sets those trade-offs out in full.

Free VPNs to Avoid in Europe

A free app without subscribers behind it pays for its servers some other way. A study of 800 free VPN apps by Zimperium’s research team found excessive permissions, leaked personal data, and outdated code across a large share of them. These four come up most often:

• Hola VPN: builds its network from users’ own connections, so a stranger’s traffic can leave through your address while yours leaves through theirs.
• Urban VPN: a long European location list and no data cap, paid for by harvesting what its users browse.
• Turbo VPN: repeated findings of adware and tracking components bundled with the client.
• Betternet: popular and ad-heavy, logging enough to defeat the point of installing it in the first place.

Read the privacy policy of any free app before installing it, and look for evidence that an outside firm has reviewed the claim. Our ranking of the most secure VPNs covers what auditors check.

How We Tested

Each plan ran on a European fiber connection and a mobile network. We measured download loss against an unprotected baseline, tested every server for DNS, IPv6, and WebRTC leaks, and read each privacy policy. Streaming was tested against European Netflix catalogs, BBC iPlayer, and foreign TV channels. Server location decided the ranking. A free plan without a European server fails the basic requirement.

The Bottom Line

NordVPN takes the top spot for Europe. It covers around 46 European countries, streams everything we pointed it at, permits torrenting, and costs nothing for 30 days through the refund. The free option is Proton VPN, covering 5 European countries with no limit on data, against a single device, and no choice of server.

ExpressVPN is the faster of the 2 risk-free options and suits people who want the simplest apps. Hide.me provides 6 European countries and no cap, and PrivadoVPN has 4 plus the streaming access neither rival manages, inside 10 GB a month.

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