Whether you’re looking to bypass geo-restrictions on Canadian streaming sites, websites or TV, or you just want to take extra measures to protect your data, a virtual private network (VPN) is your best bet. If you’re on a budget, you’re also likely considering a free Canada VPN.

Key Takeaways:

• Choosing a free VPN for Canada can be tricky because there are only a few trustworthy free VPNs that can protect your privacy and security. 
• We’ve recommended eight of the best free VPNs for Canada, and Windscribe is the best free VPN service with excellent security features and a decent monthly data limit.
• Most free VPNs come with restrictions to incentivize users to sign up for the premium VPN version.

In this article, we’ll recommend some of the best free VPNs that value your online privacy and security and allow you to connect to Canadian servers, free of charge. 

The Top Free VPNs for Canada

The Best Free VPN Canada: Options at a Glance

Chances are good that you want a free VPN for Canada, but it’s not all sunshine and roses with free VPNs. Some free VPNs have earned a bad reputation due to collecting and selling data on their users and even going so far as to unload malware to user devices. However, you can trust the following free VPN services for Canada to protect your security and privacy.

1. Windscribe — Generous free plan and streaming-optimized servers for Canada
2. hide.me — Great free data options, plus free Canadian server locations
3. TunnelBear — Great user interface, plus free servers in Canada 
4. Proton VPN — Unlimited data but no free servers in Canada
5. PrivadoVPN — Secure, generous free plan, plus servers in Canada
6. Speedify — Stellar speeds and virtual servers in Canada, but less security
7. Atlas VPN — Affordable VPN but only two server locations
8. Hotspot Shield — Easy-to-use VPN but only one free server location

You don’t have to worry about these VPN providers spying on you, infecting your personal data with malware or logging your online activity while you’re streaming with a Canadian IP address. 

However, most of these VPNs come with restrictions to incentivize you to opt for the premium VPN version instead. We explain what you can expect with each free VPN vs the paid VPN services.

How to Choose the Best Free Canada VPN

A lot goes into finding the best free VPN for Canada. You have to consider many factors even with the best free VPNs — including factors that won’t necessarily be considered with a paid VPN. For starters, not all free services have Canadian VPN servers. Moreover, some of the ones that do can fail to access geoblocked content. You’ll also likely not get unlimited free data. 

Thankfully, there are free VPNs that offer Canadian IP addresses, bypass geoblocks well and safeguard your data with due diligence. 

The 8 Best Free Canada VPN Choices

Here are eight free VPNs we recommend for Canada, starting with our top choice, Windscribe.

1. Windscribe

More details about Windscribe:

• Pricing: Free; $5.75 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: windscribe.com

Windscribe is the best free VPN for Canada, thanks to its generous free plan and streaming performance that measures up to many paid options. Windscribe is also the fastest free VPN on the market, and it lets you access geoblocked content on popular streaming sites. 

The free plan starts with 2GB of data, which gets upgraded to 10GB when you confirm your email. Windscribe will give you an additional 5GB of free data if you post on Twitter about it. 

It also comes with a referral program whereby you can refer friends and get an additional 1GB of data for each friend you refer. Interestingly, if any of these friends upgrade to the monthly or yearly Pro plan, you’ll get the Pro plan for free, too.

Windscribe offers unlimited simultaneous connections and bandwidth on the free plan. The free plan also offers 10 servers, including multiple Canadian cities: Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Each server location comes with a unique Canadian IP address that lets you access geo-restricted content.

Streaming-Optimized Servers 

We have Windscribe’s streaming-optimized servers to thank for its stellar streaming performance. Although Windscribe used to offer specialty servers, called “Windflix,” for streaming, now every server is optimized for streaming.

Windscribe uses the best VPN protocols, enabling you to connect to Canadian servers securely. Additionally, Windscribe’s privacy policy clearly states that Windscribe takes the necessary measures to protect user data. (you can learn more about this in our Windscribe review). 

Beyond standard security features — including a kill switch, IP leak protection, an ad blocker and reliable servers around the world — Windscribe uses impressive technology like the Stealth and Websocket (WStunnel) protocols. 

Stealth is Windscribe’s obfuscation tool, which wraps your OpenVPN connection within an SSL layer via Stunnel. This makes your VPN traffic look like regular HTTP traffic to internet service providers and restrictive countries. Unfortunately, Stealth is not available for iOS users.

WStunnel also encapsulates your OpenVPN connection, but uses a websocket to do so. These two protocols help you bypass internet censorship in restrictive countries, such as China.

Windscribe has an attractive pricing model beyond the free plan. Windscribe offers the build-a-plan option that lets you buy access to server locations for $1 per server location. There’s a $3 minimum purchase, so you can choose three server locations, or two servers and unlimited data. Otherwise, you can get the one-year plan for $5.75 per month.

3-days money-back guarantee

Free

• Up to 15 GB free with email confirmation and Tweet
• 15GB
• Unlimited

FREE

Pro Plan

• Unlimited GB
• Unlimited
• Yes

1-month plan

1-month plan

$9/month

1-year plan

$5.75/month

$69 billed every year

Save 36%

2. hide.me

More details about hide.me:

• Pricing: Free; $4.57 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: hide.me

Hide.me is a free VPN with a monthly allowance of 10GB of data. It is very secure and features five free server locations — including a Canadian server — on the free plan. 

hide.me mostly offers the security that all top-tier VPN services require, but loses some points for using SoftEther, an unsafe protocol. SoftEther uses six different encryption algorithms, four of which are the previously broken RC4 and DES algorithms. However, the other hide.me protocols are strong: OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2 and SSTP. 

Despite the SoftEther flaw, hide.me is a highly secure VPN. However, it’d be nice to see it do away with the less-secure SoftEther protocol and use just the other four secure protocols. 

Privacy-wise, hide.me gets a lot of things right, but has a few shortcomings. It’s based in Malaysia, a country known for monitoring online activity and restricting internet freedom. In its privacy policy, hide.me expresses its willingness to comply with a court order from “a recognized legal authority with jurisdiction over hide.me.” 

However, we know for a fact that hide.me sticks to a strict no-logs policy and has never been caught compromising user data. It also publishes annual transparency reports that show the data requests it has received. So far, it hasn’t granted any of them, which backs its no-logging claim. 

We hope things remain this way, and Malaysia doesn’t pass laws that would force hide.me to start logging user information. 

A Feature-Rich VPN

While hide.me can’t match Windscribe for availability of features on different platforms and operating systems, it’s a feature-rich VPN nonetheless. Besides basic features like a kill switch and split tunneling, there’s an auto-connect feature that deviates from the norm, in a good way. 

This feature allows you to automatically connect to the app as soon as it launches. You can also specify the kinds of networks where you want your VPN connection to take effect. 

Another area where hide.me shines is its user interface. With great aesthetic appeal and well-structured designs, you won’t have a problem navigating the apps or accessing Canada servers.

While hide.me’s free plan is quite solid, the paid plans come with a lot more goodies, including unlimited data, access to all its servers and 10 simultaneous connections. The best deal is paying $4.57 per month for the two-year plan. You can read more about it in our hide.me review.

30-days money-back guarantee

Free

• 5 servers
• 10GB
• 1

FREE

Premium

• Unlimited GB
• 10
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$9.95/month

1-year plan

$4.57/month

$54.84 billed every year

Save 54%

$2.69/month

Save 72%

3. TunnelBear

More details about TunnelBear:

• Pricing: Free; $3.33 per month (three-year plan)
• Provider website: tunnelbear.com

TunnelBear’s unique offering among the free VPNs is that its free plan can access all servers, including its Canada servers. It also allows all five simultaneous connections on the free plan, rather than restricting it like others on this list. 

Like some of the other best free VPN services for Canada, TunnelBear takes the necessary measures to provide its users with a secure connection. It comes with the best VPN protocols like OpenVPN, WireGuard and IKEv2. Unfortunately, WireGuard is not available on Android. 

TunnelBear is perhaps the closest option to being completely free — the only restriction is the amount of data. Unfortunately, TunnelBear offers only 500MB of data per month (which can be increased to 1GB by tweeting about the service). 

With regard to streaming, TunnelBear helps you get into most streaming sites, including Netflix. However, the low monthly data limit means TunnelBear won’t be the best free VPN for streaming.

TunnelBear is on top of privacy, and has gone the extra mile to show its transparency by publishing three annual independent audits. The privacy policy is concise and explains what TunnelBear collects and why. 

Best-in-Class User-Friendliness 

With the way the TunnelBear UI is laid out, you won’t have any issues navigating the app to find Canadian servers. It takes a matter of seconds to download and launch the TunnelBear apps. TunnelBear’s user interface is also pleasing to the eye. Once you launch the desktop version, a map appears, giving you a bird’s eye-view of all the server countries. 

TunnelBear also has affordable paid plans: Unlimited and Teams. The Unlimited plan costs $3.33 per month, while the Teams plan costs $5.75 per month. The Unlimited plan gives you unlimited data, while Teams — which is tailored toward organizations — also comes with a centralized system for billing and management, and a dedicated account manager.

Read more about it in our TunnelBear review.

Free

• 2GB
• 2GB
• 5

FREE

Individual

• Unlimited GB, five devices, priority customer service
• Unlimited GB
• 5
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$9.99/month

1-year plan

$4.99/month

$59.88 billed every year

Save 50%

3-year plan

$3.33/month

$120 billed every 3 years

Save 66%

Teams

• Unlimited GB, five devices per user, centralized billing, account manager, price per user per month
• Unlimited GB
• 5
• Yes

1-year plan

$5.75/month

$69 billed every year

4. Proton VPN

More details about ProtonVPN:

• Pricing: Free; $4.99 per month (two-year plan)
• Provider website: protonvpn.com

Since our last review, Proton VPN has added more servers to its network. The premium version now offers servers in 64 countries around the world, including Canada servers located in three cities: Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. 

Unfortunately, though, ProtonVPN has no free server in Canada, but it has free servers in three countries: Japan, Netherlands and the United States. This doesn’t get you a Canadian IP address, but users in Canada can connect to nearby servers located in the U.S. 

Proton VPN also offers great streaming performance to match its large server network. It has no problem getting into Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the likes. 

The only issue that stops ProtonVPN from making our best VPN for streaming guide is its inconsistent speeds. If you have a fast enough connection that you’re not so concerned about speed, then you’d be fine using ProtonVPN for streaming. 

Proton VPN is based in Switzerland — a privacy-friendly jurisdiction — and sticks to a no-logs policy (you can read more about its privacy policy in our Proton VPN review). Proton VPN also excels at security, employing the best VPN protocols OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard. However, IKEv2 is not available for desktop users.

Advanced and Unique Features

For a free VPN, Proton VPN comes packed with lots of features. It has all the basics like a kill switch and split tunneling, but also has some advanced features.

Proton VPN offers specialty servers called secure core servers, which boost privacy and security by passing user traffic through multiple servers. At least one of these servers will be stationed in a highly secure data center in the privacy-friendly countries of Switzerland, Iceland or Sweden.

The user profiles feature lets you create connection profiles that save your ProtonVPN custom settings, so you can automatically enable those settings anytime you launch the app. For example, you can create a streaming profile comprising Canada servers that are optimized for speed. 

In addition to offering a free plan, Proton VPN is priced fairly, costing $4.99 per month on the annual plan. Proton VPN also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee that lets you get a feel for the service without limits. However, if you request a refund, it will be prorated for the unused portion of the term you purchased. 

30-days money-back guarantee

Free

• Unlimited GB
• 1
• Yes

FREE

Plus

• Unlimited GB
• 5
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$9.99/month

1-year plan

$5.99/month

$71.88 billed every year

Save 40%

2-year plan

$4.99/month

$119.75 billed every 2 years

Save 50%

5. PrivadoVPN

More details about PrivadoVPN:

• Pricing: Free; $2.50 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: privadovpn.com

PrivadoVPN’s free plan is quite similar to those of Windscribe and Proton VPN — it offers 10GB of data per month and servers in nine countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, France, Switzerland, Mexico, UK, Brazil and the U.S. 

At the moment of writing, PrivadoVPN states that it has hundreds of servers in 47 countries and 61 cities, which doesn’t sound like a lot. However, all the servers are physical, bare-metal servers, which are more secure and trustworthy (you can read our virtual server vs physical server guide to learn more). 

Unfortunately, PrivadoVPN lacks advanced features, so you won’t find the secure core servers of ProtonVPN or the SafeSwap servers of Atlas VPN.

At least PrivadoVPN checks all the security boxes. It uses only the best encryption protocols — OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard — and doesn’t have any subpar extras, like the outdated PPTP protocol. 

Premium-Level Streaming 

PrivadoVPN gets you into all the major streaming platforms and has decent speeds to complement this access — assuming you’re connected to a server close to home. The HD quality is not that great, but if you’re more concerned about getting a Canadian IP address to bypass streaming geo-restrictions, you’ll have no issues with PrivadoVPN. 

PrivadoVPN claims to only collect data that can’t be used to identify you, which includes your email address, username and payment information. So far, it hasn’t been caught doing otherwise. It’s based in Switzerland, which is one of the best jurisdictions in the world for privacy. 

Add to the fact that PrivadoVPN complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — a law that protects the data privacy rights of individuals residing within the EU — and you have a VPN with excellent privacy. 

The monthly plan costs $10.99, and you can get a better deal by paying annually, which works out to $2.50 per month. PrivadoVPN also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

30-days money-back guarantee

Free

• 10GB
• 1

FREE

Premium

• Unlimited GB
• 10
• Yes

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$10.99/month

1-year plan

$2.50/month

$30 billed every year

Save 77%

2-year plan

$1/month

$23.88 billed every 2 years

Save 90%

6. Speedify

More details about Speedify:

• Pricing: Free; $5 per month (three-year plan)
• Provider website: speedify.com

Speedify is a free VPN with superb speeds and a comprehensive suite of features, making it a great choice for streaming, though it has some flaws, which we’ll get into below. 

The last time we checked, Speedify had around 200 servers in 59 locations spread across 55 countries — however, all are remote VPN server locations, not physical. It has two virtual server locations in Canada, including Montreal and Toronto. You can get a Canadian IP address by connecting to any of the servers in these locations. 

Interestingly, Speedify gives free users access to the same server locations as paid ones — so you get access to Canadian IP addresses on the free plan as well. The only caveat is that some servers within a particular location may be unavailable sometimes due to high loads. 

As the name suggests, Speedify promises ultra-fast speeds via channel bonding (see below). We were able to verify this claim through the automated speed tests we run daily on top VPN providers. Speedify tops our U.S. charts for upload and download speeds. It also maintains minimal latency.

Even better, Speedify is the fastest VPN service among our free VPNs for Canada. With speeds of this quality, you can binge-watch films on streaming sites without experiencing any interruptions. 

In terms of security, Speedify stands out, but not in a good way. It’s the first VPN service we’ve seen that lets you turn off encryption for the sake of speed. This puts unwitting users at risk, who may decide to disable encryption and still think their internet connection is protected. 

If you do choose Speedify, turn off encryption only for low-risk activities like streaming, and remember to turn it back on for more high-stakes activities.

A Host of Innovative Features 

Speedify uses an innovative channel-bonding feature to achieve its high speeds, which lets you combine multiple internet connections. 

This means that you can connect to two or more WiFi networks or 4G dongles simultaneously, for a more stable and reliable internet connection. Other cutting-edge features in Speedify’s arsenal include the “header compression” feature, which decreases the rate of data consumption, and “Jumbo MTU,” which lessens the load on your CPU. 

Speedify is more expensive than the average VPN. The paid plans are grouped into three categories: Individuals, Families and Teams. 

With the Families plan, you can share your connection with a total of five users, each of whom get five device connections. The Teams plan is tailored for businesses and includes features like dedicated IP addresses. Besides the free plan, Speedify offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

30-days money-back guarantee

Speedify Free

• 2GB
• 1

FREE

Speedify for Individuals

• Unlimited GB
• 5

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$14.99/month

1-year plan

$7.50/month

$89.99 billed every year

Save 49%

3-year plan

$5/month

$179.99 billed every 3 years

Save 66%

Speedify for Families

• Admin dashboard, 5 users
• Unlimited GB
• 5

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$22.50/month

1-year plan

$11.25/month

$135 billed every year

Save 50%

3-year plan

$7.50/month

$270 billed every 3 years

Save 66%

Speedify for Teams

• Price per user, Pay per number of users, 5 devices per account, $120 per month for a dedicated server; $900 per year
• Unlimited GB
• 5

1-month plan

1-month plan

$14.99/month

1-year plan

$7.50/month

$89.99 billed every year

Save 49%

7. Atlas VPN

More details about Atlas VPN:

• Pricing: Free; $1.99 per month (three-year plan)
• Provider website: atlasvpn.com

Atlas VPN is a great free VPN for Canada, thanks to its streaming-optimized servers in Canada. Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t come with any Canada servers, but you can connect to servers in other countries from Canada. Atlas VPN comes with 2GB of free daily data, which is four times as much as Hotspot Shield or Windscribe. 

If you go for the premium plan, you get more than 43 server locations. However, all the servers are physical, and most importantly, there are streaming-optimized servers that give you a Canadian IP address.

On the streaming front, Atlas VPN gets into major streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Max, Disney Plus and BBC iPlayer. Atlas VPN also has high download speeds, so you shouldn’t experience interruptions when streaming. 

Even better, the VPN service allows unlimited simultaneous connections, making it possible to enjoy borderless streaming with as many people as you want. 

For optimal security, Atlas VPN uses IPsec/IKEv2 and WireGuard. Unfortunately, we turned up DNS leaks on four of Atlas VPN’s servers when we tested the provider’s encryption standards. This means that your internet service provider can track your website visits, so you shouldn’t use this VPN service for anything that requires security. 

SafeSwap Servers

Atlas VPN also has specialty servers, called SafeSwap, that increase your online anonymity by rotating your IP address. This makes it harder for websites and internet service providers (ISPs) to track what you’re doing online. SafeSwap servers are located in the Netherlands, the U.S., and Singapore. 

Atlas VPN’s paid plans cost $4.08 per month on the annual plan — or $1.99 per month on the three-year plan — you can get access to VPN goodies like unlimited simultaneous connections and unlimited bandwidth. These deals are the cheapest we’ve seen for free VPNs. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

Atlas VPN Plans

• Yes

30-days money-back guarantee

1-month plan, 1-year plan

1-month plan

$11.99/month

1-year plan

$4.08/month

$49.01 billed every year

Save 65%

3-year plan

$1.99/month

$71.52 billed every 3 years

Save 83%

8. Hotspot Shield

More details about Hotspot Shield:

• Pricing: Free; $8 per month (one-year plan)
• Provider website: hotspotshield.com

Hotspot Shield has a considerably large server network, with servers in 80 countries — including 35 cities around the world. You can get a Canadian IP address by connecting to any of the servers in Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver. 

On the free plan, the VPN provider offers only one server location in the United States. While you can’t get a Canadian IP address on the free plan, you can connect to a server in the U.S. close to home. 

Luckily, it does have a very generous free plan. The free plan gives you 500MB daily, totaling about 15GB per month (the same amount you get for tweeting about Windscribe).

Hotspot Shield has quite decent speeds, though they’re faster on the premium version. The speeds improve when you use Catapult Hydra, the Hotspot Shield proprietary protocol. Hotspot Shield claims this protocol is faster than OpenVPN.

To verify this claim, we tested Catapult Hydra and it turned out to be twice as fast as OpenVPN. Unfortunately, Catapult Hydra is not open source, so volunteers can’t search for bugs or exploits like they can with OpenVPN or WireGuard. You can learn more about this in our Hotspot Shield review.

User-Friendly Apps

Another area where Hotspot Shield excels is its user-friendliness. The apps are easy to install and have a clean, attractive user interface. Hotspot Shield has dedicated apps for Mac, Windows, Android, iOS, Linux, smart TVs and routers, making it possible to access Canadian servers from any device.

However, accessibility depends on the plan. Hotspot Shield allows only one device connection on the free plan, but the Premium Family plan offers 25 simultaneous connections.

Unfortunately, Hotspot Shield’s premium plans are more expensive, with the best deal costing $8 per month on the annual plan. However, there’s a 45-day money-back guarantee — more than the typical 30-day money-back guarantee — which gives you ample time to see if the service is your cup of tea.

45-days money-back guarantee

Free

• 500MB/day
• 1

FREE

Premium

• Unlimited GB
• 5

1-month plan

1-month plan

$12.99/month

1-year plan

$8/month

$95.99 billed every year

Save 38%

Premium Family

• Unlimited GB
• 5

1-month plan

1-month plan

$19.99/month

1-year plan

$11.99/month

$143.88 billed every year

Save 40%

How to Get a Canadian IP Address Free

Once you’ve found a good free VPN for Canada, you should have no problem getting a Canadian IP address for free. We’ll use our top choice, Windscribe, as an example. 

1. Create a VPN account

   Go to Windscribe’s website and create an account.

   

2. Download the VPN App

   Visit your account page to find the available Windscribe apps for all major platforms and devices. Pick the relevant app for your device or platform and install it. An installation wizard will appear on the screen and guide you through the installation process. When you’re done with the installation, launch the app.

   

3. Find a Canada VPN Server

   On the home screen, you will see “locations” at the bottom right-hand corner. Click on it and locate a Canadian server by either scrolling down or using the search bar.

   

4. Connect to the Canada VPN Server

   Connect to the Canadian server and it will automatically assign you a virtual location with a free Canadian IP address. That’s it! You should now be able to unblock Canadian content on any of the popular streaming service sites.

   

Final Thoughts: Free VPN Canada

There are lots of free VPNs on the market that can get you a Canadian VPN, but only a few are worth your time. Thankfully, we’ve listed eight of the best free VPNs for Canada in this ranking. Our top choice is Windscribe, but the other free VPNs are worth considering, as well. 

For more related articles, check out our guide on how to get a Canadian IP address.

Have you tried any of the free Canada VPNs? Do you have more recommendations? Have you been able to get a Canada IP address to access Canadian Netflix or other streaming services? Let us know in the comment section below, and as always, thanks for reading! 

FAQ

• Is There a Free Canada VPN?

  Yes, there are many free VPNs for Canada. Windscribe, Proton VPN, TunnelBear, and hide.me are examples of free VPNs that have servers in Canada, and thus change your IP location to Canada.

• What Is the Best Free VPN to Use in Canada?

  Windscribe is a great free VPN for Canada. In addition to Canadian servers, the Windscribe free plan comes with several features and performs excellently in terms of speed, security and privacy. It’s our favorite free VPN.

• Are There 100% Free VPNs?

  Most free VPN service options run on a freemium model and come with restrictions to encourage users to subscribe to the paid version, so they are not completely free.