Best Free VPN for Mac in 2026: Free Plans and Refunds Compared

Macs come with solid privacy tools built in, and if you pay for iCloud+, Safari already hides your IP address through Private Relay. It’s easy to assume that’s the same thing as a free VPN, but it does a different job.

On a Mac, you can either install a VPN with a free plan that never expires or use a paid one free for a month and claim the refund. The free plans come with limits, from data caps to a single device. After tests on a MacBook Air, six made our list, with the best free VPN for Mac overall first.

Free VPNs for Mac Compared

Speed loss comes from our own tests on a MacBook Air M1 in Europe, connected over Ethernet to a 190.36 Mbps connection. We tested free plans on UK and US servers, except Proton VPN’s, which assigned its own two. We tried 14 streaming services in the same tests, clearing cookies and cache before each session.

	NordVPN	Proton VPN	ExpressVPN	PIA VPN	Hide.me	PrivadoVPN
How It’s Free	30-day refund	Free plan, or 30-day refund	30-day refund	30-day refund	Free plan	Free plan
Data Limit	None	None	None	None	None	10 GB a month
Mac Speed Loss	7.2%	9.4% paid, 20.8% free	7.8%	12.7%	30.6%	9.5%
Streaming Services Unblocked	14 of 14	10 of 14 paid, none free	14 of 14	9 of 14	None	8 of 14
Torrenting	Allowed	Paid plan only	Allowed	Allowed	Blocked	Within 10 GB
Devices	10	10 paid, 1 free	10-14	Unlimited	1	1
Countries	152	149 paid, 10 free	113	91	7	10
Ad Block	Complete plan and up	Paid plan only	Yes	Yes	No	No

Paid Mac VPNs With a 30-Day Refund

All four paid VPNs charge up front, but a 30-day money-back guarantee lets you try them on a Mac and claim the payment back, in full on NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PIA. Subscribe, use the Mac app as you normally would, and request the refund before the window closes, as our VPN free trial guide explains.

During those 30 days, you’re a paying customer, with no data cap, the full server list, and streaming unblocked. Our premium Mac VPN ranking covers the paid side in more depth.

NordVPN: Best Free VPN for Mac for 30 Days

Subscribe on NordVPN’s website, where the two-year Basic plan is under $3.50 a month, and the 30-day money-back guarantee starts the day you pay. Its 3-day free trial is available only on Android, though the account it creates also works on a Mac.

Try NordVPN Risk-Free for 30 days

NordVPN on macOS

NordVPN lost only 7.2% of its speed across UK, US, and Japanese servers on our MacBook Air M1, the smallest drop we recorded on macOS. Its UK server came in at 183.97 Mbps, almost our full connection, so you wouldn’t notice the VPN while streaming or downloading. It unblocked the 14 streaming services we tried, Netflix US and BBC iPlayer among them. P2P works on every standard server, so there are no separate torrenting VPN servers to find.

Download the Mac app from NordVPN’s website. The App Store version has only a system-wide kill switch, which cuts all traffic if the VPN drops. The website version adds an app-level kill switch that closes only the apps you choose. NordLynx, NordVPN’s own protocol, uses post-quantum encryption, built to resist future quantum computers, and next-gen antivirus on the Complete plan blocks malicious downloads and ad trackers.

Onion Over VPN servers help with accessing the dark web through Tor Browser. Outside firms have audited the no-log policy six times. Our NordVPN review goes through each feature. One subscription protects 10 devices, and for the refund, the NordVPN trial guide walks through each step.

Proton VPN: Best Free Plan for Mac, Plus a 30-Day Refund

On a Mac, Proton VPN’s free plan never expires, and its paid plan comes with a 30-day guarantee, refunded pro rata. We’d start on the paid plan, then switch to the free plan and claim back the unused part if you don’t want to keep paying.

Try Proton VPN for Free for 30 Days

What Proton VPN’s Mac App Includes

On our Mac, the paid plan lost 9.4% of its speed across three server locations and unblocked 10 of our 14 streaming services. Proton VPN is based in Switzerland, its apps are open source, and Securitum has audited its no-log policy five years in a row. Secure Core sends traffic through a hardened server in Switzerland, Iceland, or Sweden first, and NetShield blocks ads and trackers. It lacks post-quantum encryption, which NordVPN and ExpressVPN include, so pick one of those if you want it.

Our Proton VPN review goes deeper. The free plan sets no data cap and follows the same no-log policy as the paid plan. It’s limited to one device and ten countries, and the app assigns the server. It assigned us Amsterdam and a US server, losing 20.8% of its speed across the two, with the US server at 129.18 Mbps. It couldn’t unblock Netflix US, torrenting is blocked, and NetShield and Secure Core require a paid plan.

For Netflix on a free plan, PrivadoVPN is the better bet. The same account works on Android phones and iPhones. Proton VPN also appears in our best free VPN for Windows ranking.

ExpressVPN: Best Plug-and-Play Mac VPN (30 Days Free)

ExpressVPN’s price makes little difference if you use the refund. Every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee, and the 28-month Basic plan costs under $3 a month. Its Mac app is ready to use as soon as you sign in.

Try ExpressVPN Risk-Free for 30 days

ExpressVPN’s Mac Features

On our Mac, ExpressVPN lost 7.8% of its speed and came in at 166.51 Mbps on its Japanese server, the best Japan result we recorded on macOS. Like NordVPN, it unblocked every one of the 14 streaming services, and every server allows P2P. Its obfuscation, which disguises VPN traffic, works automatically on networks that block VPNs. Low ping, the round-trip delay to a server, also makes it a solid VPN for gaming on nearby servers.

The Mac app offers Lightway and WireGuard, and Lightway uses post-quantum encryption. Its kill switch is called Network Lock. Advanced Protection blocks ads, trackers, and malicious sites on the Advanced plan, while the Basic plan’s version doesn’t block trackers. KPMG was the latest firm to audit its no-log policy, in 2025.

You can connect 10 devices on the Basic plan and 14 on the Pro plan. There’s no multi-hop, so use NordVPN’s Double VPN or Proton VPN’s Secure Core if you want one. Renewal is the weak point: the Basic plan renews at about $100 a year, a steep jump from the first-term price. Our ExpressVPN review covers the rest.

Private Internet Access: Best Mac VPN for Ad Blocking and Unlimited Devices

PIA is the cheapest of the four paid VPNs. Its two-year plan with two extra months costs just over $2 a month, refundable within 30 days.

Try PIA VPN Risk-Free for 30 days

PIA on a Mac

Private Internet Access sets no limit on simultaneous connections, so one subscription covers every Mac, iPhone, and PC in a household. On our Mac, it lost 12.7% of its speed on WireGuard, with the Japanese server the weakest at 141.61 Mbps, still far more than 4K streaming requires. It unblocked 9 of the 14 streaming services, though it couldn’t unblock Netflix Japan or HBO Max.

On d3ward’s ad-block test, MACE stopped 96% of the ad and tracker domains, more than any other VPN’s blocker we tested. Shadowsocks disguises traffic on filtered networks, though it works only on OpenVPN. For torrenting, port forwarding lets other users connect to you directly, and the SOCKS5 proxy hides your IP address in a torrent client. Our PIA review walks through the advanced settings.

Subpoenas in US court cases produced no user logs, and Deloitte has audited the policy three times. Dedicated IP addresses are available in 26 locations. PIA’s antivirus add-on is for Windows only, so Mac users can skip it. The Mac app looks as dated and cluttered as the Windows one, so set it up once and leave it alone. For Netflix Japan or HBO Max, choose NordVPN or ExpressVPN instead.

Best 100% Free VPNs for Mac (No Credit Card)

If you’d rather not pay first, these two never charge. Expect fewer locations, no streaming on Hide.me, and a data cap on PrivadoVPN.

1. Hide.me: Best Free Mac VPN for Choosing a Location

Hide.me‘s free Mac app offers unlimited data and a choice of eight locations in seven countries. The company is based in Malaysia, its no-log policy has passed an outside audit, and the app supports WireGuard and OpenVPN. Free accounts don’t include MultiHop, ad blocking, or the Bolt proxy. On our Mac, the free plan came in at 155.74 Mbps on the UK server and only 108.31 Mbps on the US one, a 30.6% average speed loss that shows on large downloads.

It couldn’t unblock Netflix or the other streaming services we tried, and P2P isn’t allowed on the free plan. It works as a backup to Proton VPN’s free plan when you want to choose a location. For streaming or torrenting, use PrivadoVPN’s free plan, and for speed, NordVPN and ExpressVPN lost less than 8% on the same Mac.

2. PrivadoVPN: Best Free MacBook VPN for Streaming and Torrenting

PrivadoVPN‘s free plan lost only 9.5% of its speed on our Mac, with 180.15 Mbps on the UK server, close to NordVPN’s 183.97 Mbps there. A free account unblocked Netflix US and BBC iPlayer, and torrenting is allowed. The free plan also keeps the kill switch and split tunneling, which lets chosen apps skip the VPN. There are 13 free locations to choose from, spread over ten countries. Free data stops at 10 GB a month, about 5 hours of HD video, and you renew the allowance by hand each month.

Only one device can connect at a time, so the free plan suits a single MacBook. After the cap, you stay on 1 Mbps emergency servers until the next allowance, too slow for video. The company is based in Iceland, and its no-log claim hasn’t been independently audited, so we’d keep it for streaming and leave sensitive logins to Proton VPN. Our PrivadoVPN review covers the paid plan, which costs about the same as NordVPN and PIA.

Other Free Plans We Tested on the Mac

Three more free plans went through the same Mac test. Windscribe‘s free plan lost 10.2% of its speed on UK and US servers and covers unlimited devices, within 10 GB a month. Hotspot Shield‘s free plan offers one US location, where it lost 25.3% of its speed. TunnelBear‘s free plan now picks the location for you, Romania and the Netherlands in our test, and allows 2 GB a month.

Where Free Mac VPNs Fall Short

Next to the most dependable premium VPN services, free Mac plans trail in five areas:

• Streaming and torrenting. Proton VPN’s and Hide.me’s free plans block torrenting and couldn’t unblock streaming services in our tests. PrivadoVPN’s free plan allows torrenting and unblocks Netflix US until its 10 GB is used up. NordVPN unblocked the full set of 14 streaming services and allows P2P on any server.
• Speed. On our Mac, the free plans lost 9.5% (PrivadoVPN) to 30.6% (Hide.me) of their speed, compared to 7.2% for NordVPN. Each free server has more users on it, and paying customers come first.
• Privacy extras. Proton VPN, Hide.me, and PrivadoVPN publish no-log policies, while Hola VPN and Turbo VPN log activity, and Hola sells data. The safe free plans still keep extras for paying users, such as Secure Core on Proton VPN and MultiHop on Hide.me.
• Devices. The free plans from Proton VPN, Hide.me, and PrivadoVPN protect one device, so connecting an iPhone disconnects the Mac. The paid VPNs cover at least 10 devices, and PIA sets no limit.
• Locations. The free plans cover seven to ten countries, while the four paid VPNs cover 91 to 152.

iCloud Private Relay Isn’t a Free VPN

Private Relay comes with Apple’s paid iCloud+ plans. It covers Safari, DNS lookups, and unencrypted traffic from other apps, while a VPN encrypts everything the Mac sends. Websites see a different IP address, but it stays in your general area, and there’s no country to choose. When we tried it on an iPhone, Private Relay changed the IP address but still showed our location, so it can’t unblock another country’s catalog.

How to Set Up a Free VPN on a Mac

Both methods take a few minutes, whether you use a refund on a paid VPN or a free VPN service.

Try NordVPN Risk-Free for 30 days

Free Mac VPNs for up to 30 Days (Refund)

• Subscribe to one of the paid VPNs. NordVPN is our top pick.
• Download the setup file from the VPN’s website to your Mac.
• Open the pkg file and follow the steps on screen to install the VPN.
• Open the app and sign in with your email and password.
• Open the server list and click the location you want.
• Wait a few seconds for the connection.
• Contact the VPN’s support within 30 days and request a refund if you decide against it.

Free Plans With No Credit Card

• Go to the Proton VPN, Hide.me, or PrivadoVPN website.
• Download the setup file for free.
• Install the VPN by following the steps on screen.
• Launch the app and create an account with your email and password.
• Connect to a server and start browsing.

Free plans involve no refund to remember, and Proton VPN, Hide.me, and PrivadoVPN stay free for as long as you use them.

Summary

What you do on your Mac decides which free VPN makes sense. For a month of streaming and big downloads, take NordVPN on its money-back guarantee. It lost the least speed on our MacBook Air M1 and unblocked our full streaming list. If you often connect to faraway countries, ExpressVPN had the fastest Japanese server. PIA costs less and covers every device you own. For everyday browsing with no end date, install Proton VPN’s free plan, which comes with unlimited data and a Swiss no-log policy.

You can’t choose the server, and it couldn’t unblock Netflix, but for email, banking, and social media, it does the job. If you want Netflix US or BBC iPlayer without paying, PrivadoVPN’s free plan unblocks them within its 10 GB a month. If you stream or torrent most evenings, skip the free plans and start NordVPN’s refundable month from its website, where the Mac app includes the app-level kill switch.

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FAQ About Free VPN for Mac