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Best Free VPN in Australia

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) have become the go-to solution for bypassing geographic or content restrictions. They are also used for maintaining privacy and encrypting data transferred over the internet. This privacy and security is especially important when connecting to public WiFi networks to prevent third-parties from potentially hacking your computer.

VPNs function by transmitting your data to private servers spread out across the globe and then connecting you to your destination. This masks your IP address so you cannot be detected since you’re functioning through an intermediary.

A lot of people seem to believe that VPNs are extremely expensive. However, that is not true. In addition to some very reasonable VPN services, you also have access to a number of free VPNs in Australia.

In this article, we’ll explore the benefits and drawbacks of using free VPNs and the best free VPNs to be used in Australia.

Overview of Free VPNs in Australia

FreeVPNs come in many forms. Some VPNs are free in their entirety. And some free VPNs are only free provisionally. For instance, some VPNs might be free when used for a single device or for a limited time period. Some VPNs are completely free, but they lack certain features available in paid VPNs. The following are some of the main advantages and disadvantages of free VPNs.

Advantages

  1. They’re free!
  2. They require minimal setup. You can simply launch and use them, no purchases, no provision of information.

Disadvantages

  1. Lack Security: VPNs are meant to protect your privacy and prevent hackers from getting you. However, a number of free VPNs can put you at greater risk of being hacked. This is because free VPNs rely extensively on pop-up advertisements for their revenue. And many of these ads carry malware that can infect your device. If you’re not VERY careful while selecting a free VPN, your device can be hacked.
  2. Invasion of Privacy: VPNs are meant to keep your activities anonymous. Paid VPN services often maintain a strict No Logging policy and can be held accountable. However, there’s no accountability with free VPNs. They have to make their money somehow. So they embed the VPN with third-party trackers that collect your information and sell it off to bidders.
  3. Inability to Bypass Geographic Restrictions: Most free VPNs are fairly basic. They don’t have the tools to successfully change your IP address and are unable to unblock Netflix or other similar services.
  4. Slow Speed: Using free VPNs can drastically slow down your internet connection. Even paid VPNs slow down your speed, but only negligibly. But with free VPNs, you might as well be using a dial-up connection.
  5. Advertisements: Free VPNs bombard you with so many ads on every screen that you will inadvertently end up clicking on several of them. Not only is this annoying, but many of them — as already mentioned — carry malicious malware.
  6. Lack of Crucial Features: Paid VPNs come with several crucial features to protect your privacy and anonymity. One such feature is Kill Switch. If you’re accessing a site that your government doesn’t permit, this feature can be extremely useful. If your VPN connection is lost for some reason, this feature can immediately shut down all your pages, protecting your privacy. However, with free VPNs, you don’t get access to this feature. As such, if the VPN should suddenly shut down, your activity — at that moment — will become completely visible.
  7. Sale of Bandwidth: Various free VPNs drain their free users’ bandwidth and they divert it to their paying customers.

All of the aforementioned drawbacks render free VPNs to be quite harmful if you’re not careful. As such, if you need to use VPNs on an extremely infrequent basis, you can use them. However, if you use VPNs with any degree of frequency, you should get a paid VPN service, especially since there are a lot of cheap options out there. Most VPN providers also offer a money back guarantee.

NordVPN has a 30 day money back guarantee. Get up to 75% off with this offer.

Top 3 Free VPNs in Australia

Now that you’ve been warned about the drawbacks of free VPNs, the following are the 3 best free VPNs in Australia. We’ve vetted them to make sure that they don’t carry malware or other malicious intent.

1. Hotspot Shield – Visit HotSpotShield.com

Update: As checked on 17 July 2019, Hotspot Shield has made it a little bit trickier to use the free version. Read our guide below to use Hotspot Shied for free.

Hotspot Shield is one of the most popular free VPNs with servers in Australia. They are a legit VPN service with a paid version, but the free version also grants users limited access.

The free version of this VPN can grant users up to 500MBs per day. That’s not enough for streaming, but it’s enough for casual browsing or bypassing specific site restrictions. In addition to space limitation, the free version can only be used on one device. Another limitation, which was the most troublesome in our testing was that you can only connect to their US server meaning relatively low speeds. In our speed testing carried out on a connection in Perth we saw a 40% decrease in speed when connecting to the US based Hotspot Shield Server.

Despite the limitations, it is still highly recommended because they have great data encryption and are fast. As such, they don’t compromise security, even in the free version.

How to use Hotspot Shield Free Version

  1. Go to www.hotspotshield.com/free-download and download their software for free. This step is easy.
  2. Follow setup instructions on your device.
  3. On computers you will see the below screen presented with different plans which gives the impression that there is no free plan. The trick is to click the little left arrow button in the top left corner (highlighted below)
Click on the small left arrow on the top left corner to be taken to the connection screen.

2. TunnelBear

Update: As checked on 17 July 2019, TunnelBear is now only giving 500mb free data per month. This is almost not worth it so we recommend you sign up with HotSpot shield instead who are providing 500mb per day. Of course you can use them in combination.

TunnelBear is an extremely basic free VPN with no additional feature besides simply hiding your IP.

They have been bought by McAfee so you know they can be trusted. They currently have around 1,000 servers spread out across 20 server locations, including Australia. Furthermore, they take privacy and security very seriously. As such, they don’t even collect first names when signing up.

The free version of this VPN limits you to 500MBs per day,per month and that’s the only drawback here, other than the limited suite of features. If you choose to upgrade to a paid plan, you can get it for as little as $4.99 a month.

3. Hide.me

Hide.me is a Malaysia-based VPN service available in over 50 geographic locations, including Australia. They have a monthly limit of only 2GB, which is hardly enough to stream a single movie on Netflix. The connection speed isn’t great either. However, they have zero ads, they follow a strict no logging policy, and they offer full customer support even to free users.

So now you know all about the best free VPNs on the market. As already mentioned, you should be extremely cautious while using free VPNs. The ones we’ve mentioned are generally considered to be safe, but there are a lot of malicious free VPNs out there as well.

Other Paid Options

Currently, our top-rated VPN provider is NordVPN who provide top-notch security at an excellent price. Through this link, you will receive up to 75% off the plan cost.

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How to get US Netflix in Australia?

Netflix has been available in Australia since it launched in 2015. Since then, they have been steadily adding content to their media library every month. Netflix has already established itself as the staple means of consuming movies and TV shows across the globe. 

However, a lot of people have expressed frustrations with the limited content in Netflix Australia. As a result of licensing restrictions, a lot of the content available in US Netflix is not available in Australia.

If you want to access American Netflix content, you’ll have to bypass Netflix’s geographical restrictions. In this article, we’ll show you how to get American Netflix in Australia.

Benefits of Accessing American Netflix

The greatest advantage of accessing American Netflix in Australia is gaining access to a much wider library of content. As of December 2018, American Netflix has a library comprising 1157 TV shows and 4593 movies. Australian Netflix, in comparison, only streams 443 TV shows and 1583 movies. Australian Netflix users can essentially access only one-third of the content available to their American counterparts.

And if you think the content you’re missing out on is only US specific, you’d be wrong. The following is a list of popular TV shows and movies available on US Netflix but not on Australian Netflix.

American Horror Story, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Friends, Frasier, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, Supernatural, The West Wing, The Walking Dead, iZombie. Beauty & the Beast, American Crime, Scandal, Dexter.

As you can see, you’re missing out on some incredibly popular and critically-acclaimed TV series and movies! If you want access to them, you’ll have to access US Netflix.

How to access American Netflix in Australia?

Netflix has a traveler-friendly policy. It uses your IP address to determine your current location. As such, if you leave the country and travel elsewhere, you’ll be able to access that country’s Netflix library instead of your own.

As such, to access content from US Netflix, you need to fool Netflix into thinking you’re currently in the US. And that’s where VPNs come in.

You need to find a suitable VPN service, sign up with them, and install it in the device from which you’re accessing Netflix. It will allow you to bypass the geographical restrictions and access American Netflix even from Australia.

What is VPN and how can it bypass Geographical Restrictions?

VPN (Virtual Private Network) essentially creates a private network for you from the public internet connection. These private servers are distributed across the globe. As such, you can access the internet by “tunneling” through a private network of another country.

You get to choose the network you’d like to access. As such, you can choose a network located in a US city, like New York, California, San Francisco, etc. When you do this, all your traffic will be processed through that American Netflix.

This will allow you to fool Netflix into thinking you’re in the US even if you’re halfway across the world in Australia. There are a number of other advantages of using VPNs as well. But this is the one most relevant to accessing American Netflix.

Netflix Cracking Down on VPN Services

In 2016, Netflix released a statement addressing the rise of VPN services and their ability to bypass their geographical restrictions:

Some members use proxies or “unblockers” to access titles available outside their territory… in coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are.

Since then, Netflix has cracked down on those using VPN services. As such, several VPN services are incapable of bypassing Netflix’s geographical restrictions. 

However, there are still plenty of VPN services you can use to access American Netflix in Australia. You just have to be careful with your selection.

Which VPN Service can be used to access US Netflix from Australia?

In order to access US Netflix from Australia, you need to use reliable paid VPN services. Currently, the two best VPNs to bypass Netflix’s geographic restrictions are NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

NordVPN has approximately 1900 servers in the US. ExpressVPN has approximately 224 servers in the US. Both are perfectly capable of bypassing Netflix’s restrictions and granting you access to American Netflix.

How to use VPN to Access US Netflix in Australia?

  1. Sign up with either NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
  2. Download and install them in your device of choice.
  3. Launch the application and sign in.
  4. Connect to one of the US VPN servers.
  5. Access Netflix, either through the web browser or an app.
  6. Get access to US Netflix.
  7. If you want to revert to Australian Netflix, simply turn off the VPN and log into Netflix again.

With these simple steps, you’ll have the world’s largest media library at your fingertips! Now feel free to watch US Netflix and Chill!

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Why should I use a VPN?

In recent years, the term VPN has become a common part of the internet vocabulary and general public consciousness. Regardless of whether you’ve ever used a VPN or even know what it is, you’ve probably heard about it.
In this article, we’ll tell you what exactly a VPN is and give you all the reasons why you should start using it.

What is a VPN?

VPN, short for Virtual Private Network, creates a private network for you from the public internet connection. This allows you to surf the internet and conduct your activities anonymously without being traced and without your information being tracked. They essentially mask your IP address so that all your online actions are untraceable.

Why you need to use a VPN?

The following are some of the primary reasons to start using a VPN service.

  1. Anonymity and Privacy: This is the most obvious advantage of a VPN service. Internet providers around the world keep your internet usage metadata on their servers which can be accessed by anyone. As such, information regarding your internet usage can be leaked online, can be hacked, and it can even be given to the government. However, with a VPN, all of your data is encrypted so no one can access them, not even the VPN service company.
  3. Bypass Government Censorship: Various governments around the world enforce strict censorship on the internet. Some governments block torrent sites, some block porn sites, some block LGTBQ content, and some even censor media that’s critical of the government. Using a VPN, you can bypass all of those restrictions and take complete control over the internet, that too away from the government’s prying eyes.
  4. Bypass Netflix/Streaming Geographic Restrictions: Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services limit their programs when broadcasting outside the US. As such, if you’re anywhere else in the world, based on your login IP address, you don’t have access to Netflix’s entire directory of content. However, a VPN service allows you to manipulate your IP address so it seems like you’re accessing Netflix from a server within the USA. This will give you access to all the content available to users in the USA.
  5. Securely Accessing Public WiFi: We often find ourselves connected to public WiFi, be it in a coffee shop, hotel, airport, or other similar public locations. These WiFi networks are notorious for being unsafe and they do not follow any encryption protocols. As such, even a basic hacker will be able to access your online activities without breaking a sweat. If you often find yourself accessing public WiFi, you need to secure yourself with a VPN.
  6. Privacy during Video Calls: Voice-over-IP, i.e., video calls conducted over Facetime, Skype, etc, are extremely unsafe. Any hacker can access your camera and gain access to your visuals and microphone to either record you secretly or simply eavesdrop. If you often use these VOIP services, you need a VPN.

While the aforementioned reasons are some of the most pertinent, they don’t even scratch the surface of all the reasons you can benefit from a VPN service. Suffice it to say, if you value privacy at all, you need to invest in a reasonable VPN service.