Free VPN: which free VPNs are safe and why most don't work in Russia
The four kinds of free VPN, how they make money, which are safe and which to avoid, and what actually works in Russia.
Four kinds of free VPN: 1. Freemium — a paid service's free tier with limits (traffic, locations, speed). The safest kind: the company earns from subscribers. 2. Trial periods — the full service for a few days. 3. Ad-supported free VPNs — free forever, but ads and often data collection. 4. Free proxies and keys from channels — die within hours or days, overloaded, and the owner sees your traffic.
How a free VPN can hurt you: selling browsing history, injecting ads, using your device as an exit node, malware, and a false sense of security — check with our IP page.
Why free VPNs fail in Russia: protocols are detected and cut; only HTTPS-disguised protocols (VLESS Reality, XHTTP) work, and free services rarely use them. On whitelisted mobile networks they almost never work.
Choosing a safe one: it has a paid version, a clear privacy policy, asks for no extra permissions, states its protocol and has real support.
Surok's free options: trial days in the apps, a no-sign-up free mode in the browser extensions, a 3-day free Accelerator for YouTube and referral bonus days — the same service as paying users, no ads, no data selling. See the download page.