You’re a proud Mac user, and we understand why. Whether it’s the beauty of the design or the unique user experience, you love your Mac and want to keep it safe. Sure, anti-virus software is a great start, but VPNs are the ultimate security tool. Quality VPNs protect your data from cyber attacks. They keep your private information, like credit card details, unreadable to hackers and spies. Encryption is especially important if you use the App Store or shop online. The right VPN will also bypass geoblocks and content filters, so you can watch exclusive content from around the globe, like Netflix and other streaming services.
Mar 28, 2017 Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network. Click the Add button in the list at the left, click the Interface pop-up menu, then choose VPN. Click the VPN Type pop-up menu, then choose what kind of VPN connection you want to set up, depending on the network you are connecting to. Give the VPN service a name, then click Create. To ensure complete protection, we added the 'Kill Switch' feature in our Mac VPN App that disconnects all your internet activities if the VPN connection drops.
Are you looking for a free VPN to get you started? Or maybe you just need a VPN for a trip or other temporary reason. Free VPNs can be a great solution, but you need to choose carefully to keep your Mac protected.
In fact, many free services don’t work on Apple devices, and some actually take advantage of you and harm your security. Our experts have done the legwork for you. We tested the top free VPNs for safety, speed, and compatibility. Below are our recommendations for the best VPNs to protect your Mac. Best Free VPNs for Mac—Quick Guide. The fastest VPN on the market. High-end security features and unlimited bandwidth on all its plans.
Great free-trial deal. Military-grade encryption and 500MB of free data per day. High-speed free plan with 500MB of data per month. Premium security features with 10GB of free data per month. Five high-speed virtual locations and 2GB of data per month on a free account. What Are the Disadvantages of Free VPNs?
There are hundreds of free VPNs to choose from, but how do you know which one to trust? Many of them don’t work on Macs, and even trustworthy services have some serious limitations in speed and data transfer. But that could be the least of your troubles. Some free VPNs use shady tactics to profit from you.
These providers may even compromise your security by planting trackers on your Mac or selling your data to third parties. A free VPN from a trustworthy company can be the perfect solution for short-term or occasional use, such as travel, or using public wi-fi at a coffee shop.
But if you need a VPN for regular, long-term use, a premium service might better suit your needs. The good news is that most top-rated VPNs offer a free trial period, a money-back guarantee, or both. This means you can test them out for free without committing to a subscription. You can also use the free trial period if you need your VPN for a short time, instead of gambling on a free service. Once you experience how easy life is with a premium service, you might never want to go back. So, is it possible to find a safe, free VPN? Here is our full list of the best free VPNs for your Mac.
The Best Free VPNs for Mac 1. Although ExpressVPN is a premium service, its free trials and 30-day money-back guarantee are perfect if you need a VPN for a short period, or want to see what a premium service is like. Unlike free VPNs, ExpressVPN is truly unlimited. It offers unlimited data and bandwidth, as well as high-speed access to 2,000+ servers in 94 countries. This makes it easy to bypass geoblocks and other content filters. It protects your data with state-of-the-art security features, like 256-bit encryption, a strict no-logs policy, and an automatic kill switch that stops unprotected data leaving your network in the rare event that your VPN connection fails. ExpressVPN offers outstanding 24/7 customer support via online chat, as well as a 30-day, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee and a 7-day free trial for the Android and iOS apps.
30-day money-back guarantee and free trials of up to 7 days. Easy-to-use app for Mac. Unlimited data and bandwidth To learn more, about ExpressVPN. Hotspot Shield is that offers both free and premium plans.
Its apps are easy to use, and it’s one of the fastest VPNs. While its free version provides military-strength security, it displays ads, and data transfer is limited to 500MB per day. This is fine for using Facebook and sending emails, but if you want a VPN for streaming, you’ll need to upgrade. The good news is that its paid plans are very reasonably priced. The premium version will give you access to a global server network on up to 5 devices simultaneously. All paying subscribers get a generous 45-day money-back guarantee, so you can give it a try risk-free and see if it’s right for you and your Mac.
Blazing-fast speeds. Military-grade encryption.
500MB a day 3. TunnelBear has a great app for Mac, and it uses 256-bit encryption to keep you safe from hackers and spies.
It’s perfect for beginners, but the free plan only offers 500MB of free data per month. Luckily, it’s cheap to upgrade to a plan with more data. Its GhostBear mode is useful if you’re trying to bypass censorship, as it makes your connection invisible to government surveillance and other trackers.
You can learn more about TunnelBear by reading. Superfast speeds. Servers in 20+ countries. 256-bit encryption 4.
Windscribe has a simple and secure app for Mac that come with 10GB of free data per month. Although this won’t be enough for serious movie marathons, you’ll be able to catch up on a few episodes of your favorite shows. Its servers support P2P, and you can access 11 virtual locations with the free plan. Unfortunately, this can cause the servers to slow down at times. You can upgrade to its Pro Account for a small monthly or yearly fee to unlock unlimited data and high-speed access to servers in over 50 countries. Find out here. 10GB per month.
Unlimited devices with one connection. 11 locations 5. Hide.me offers 2GB of free data every month and access to 5 virtual locations. There are no ads on hide.me’s apps, and free users have full access to its friendly customer support service. You can upgrade to hide.me’s premium plan to enjoy unlimited data and high-speed connections. All plans offer a 14-day money-back guarantee so you can try its service risk-free.
5 virtual locations. 2GB per month. High speeds Summary A VPN is the best way to protect your Mac while you browse, stream, and download. While our recommended VPNs are all trustworthy, they are best suited as short-term solutions because of their limitations. If you’re looking for a long-term solution, we recommend trying a premium, unlimited service like ExpressVPN. It’s important to remember that many free VPNs can’t be trusted.
Some don’t work, and others can compromise your security. They may even sell your personal information for profit. Many premium VPNs offer free trials and money-back guarantees. You can take advantage of these to test their service without making a commitment. They are also great if you only need a VPN for a short period of time. Further Reading Our budget-savvy experts have compiled a list of the to save you money. What’s a VPN, and why do you need one?
Read everything you need to know about in our.
Let's face it, if you're a Mac user you probably think your laptop or desktop is impregnable. Think again – Apple’s desktop computers are being increasingly targeted by cybercriminals, and it never pays to let your guard down. Getting the best Mac VPN you can is a good option to help give you extra online security. Online security is a big reason why downloading and installing a is becoming an ever more popular thing to do, but of course there are plenty of other reasons why you may be hunting for a Virtual Private Network. Whether it's because you're trying to use your Mac to access websites that are blocked by your office, school or ISP (or even your government!) or just want to watch foreign TV shows, getting a VPN makes sense.
Certainly, as well as competent, folks with a Mac need a quality VPN just as much as anyone on Windows – although not every one of the best-rated VPN options provides a client or satisfactory support for macOS users. However, if you’re stuck as to which provider to go with, help is at hand with TechRadar's dedicated best Mac VPN guide. Check out our guide to the overall service of the year The best Mac VPN 2019 1. Only 3 simultaneous connections is our top choice for the best all-round VPN on the Mac. The firm's dedicated app is intuitive and very user-friendly, featuring a one-click option for connecting, as well as some advanced options. It uses 256-bit encryption over OpenVPN UDP by default and the app comes with a kill switch and split tunneling functionality. There’s also a very good iOS app and Safari browser extension, so you get a complete Apple VPN experience.
Great speeds, a favourable privacy policy and 24/7 customer support round off an excellent Mac VPN product. ExpressVPN includes fast VPN servers across 94 countries and unlimited bandwidth. That makes for a solid choice for anyone using the VPN for P2P traffic or unblocking content on streaming services like Netflix. The provider is a tad pricier than most other VPNs, but may be a great fit for those who want the best experience for Mac. ExpressVPN doesn’t come with a free trial, but there is a 30-day money-back guarantee for reassurance. The company offers three price plans, with the 12-month plan offering the best value (you get an extra three months into the bargain).
The packages available are. Only works with the official apps The premium offering from is a great mix of price and privacy.
The prices start low and we found in our tests that its encryption was strict in ensuring your anonymity online will be protected. Plus, thanks to its pretty cool sounding Catapult Hyrda protocol, it recorded some of the fastest times of any VPN as well. So if the main reason for installing a VPN on to your Mac is for gaming or streaming, then you shouldn't be dogged with laggy interruptions that some lesser Virtual Private Networks can cause. And then there's the numbers.
For a start, you can connect up to 5 devices simultaneously from one account - so that's your Mac, smartphone (iOS or Android), Smart TV and games console with room for something else on top. Hotspot Shield has access to more than 2,500 servers across 25 countries and offers 24/ 7 support. The 7-day trial and 45-day money back guarantee makes Hotspot even more attractive to try, and these are its current plans in full: 3. Some irritations with the interface 'Digital anonymity especially crafted for your Mac'. It's a pretty enticing sell from VPN provider, which we've found has the smarts to easily back up its claims. Let's start with the basics: more than 3,700 servers spread across 60 countries, no bar on torrents and some really handy live chat support if you ever run into difficulties.
Guaranteed no logs, rigorous encryption and a trigger-happy killswitch for any breaches in security mean it's certainly strong. But it's the added little extras that make CyberGhost stand out from the rest. Wanting to unlock Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, YouTube or something else? No worries, as CyberGhost will automatically connect you to the server best poised for the purpose. It can also block ads, trackers and malicious websites. If we have one criticism, it's that the user interface could do with some tweaking and optimisation. Sometimes this VPN isn't the easiest to navigate around.
And there was the odd clogging, which lead to reduced speeds from servers in the far reaches of the globe. It's still well worth considering however, with these its best prices and plans: 4. Overly simple apps When it comes to security, does it like no other.
Its own ‘Double VPN’ technology encrypts data twice – in other words, it passes your data through two separate VPN servers to make things even more secure – while there are additional security extras such as encrypted chat, web proxy extensions and so on. NordVPN’s clients for both macOS and iOS are rather basic compared to others, but keeping things simple can be advantageous for novices. This provider is also P2P-friendly and has a strict ‘zero logs’ policy.
Performance was slightly above average in our testing. There's a free 7-day trial, and otherwise NordVPN is one of the most affordable VPN options for your Mac. The packages available are: 5.
No free trial The Mac app from features a nifty design and a few welcome options like a kill switch and automatic IP switching. The VPN is blazingly fast, and it’ll automatically hook you up to the fastest server available, a nice touch on the convenience front. Not only are download speeds fast with this VPN, it allows P2P. OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP protocols are supported, and there’s also decent iOS support and a wide coverage of servers, with no logging of the user’s activities.
However, it’s worth noting that when we contacted tech support, we experienced a sluggish response, and if you have a problem, this may prove a slight source of irritation. IPVanish doesn’t have a free trial, sadly, although there is a 7-day money-back guarantee with all three available plans. The 1-year subscription is clearly the best choice in terms of outright value. The packages available are: How to choose the best Mac VPN It’s not always easy to find a Mac-friendly.
Obviously enough, it’s important to choose a provider that offers a pre-configured client for its service. Having a good Mac client is a huge boon in terms of simply making things as easy as possible. Solid iOS support is also a welcome feature if you’re heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem and have an iPhone as well as a Mac. Next, you need powerful security with strong encryption, which goes without saying, and an easily understandable privacy policy that makes it perfectly clear what data is kept by the provider. Good performance levels obviously don’t hurt, either. Ready to make the switch from Mac?
Check out the. Looking for a freebie? Then here's our pick of the providers.