N.B. Some links in this article are affiliate links, and I may receive a commission for purchases made at no extra cost to you.
The USA gets most of the coverage when talking about VPNs, but what about their northern neighbor, Canada? What options are there for free VPN’s that also have servers in Canada, so users can get an IP address there?
The options I found were not quite as plentiful as the USA, but also better than lots of other countries. There’s a couple of good free VPN options open to Canadian browsers.
Also the search results on this topic weren’t great, with lots of non relevant results returning generic free VPN services that don’t have Canadian servers, VPNs labelled as “free” that actually aren’t, or just single companies promoting their own product only.
In this post, we’ll answer the exact query head on – giving you some legitimate 100% free (but not always unlimited) VPN services that also specifically have servers located in Canada, so you can have a Canadian IP address.
Here’s a quick summary:
- PrivadoVPN – 10 GB free data
- Hide.me – 10 GB free data
- Windscribe – 10 GB free data.
- Tunnelbear – 500 MB free data
This might not be enough for some users, so we’ll also list some viable Premium VPN options with Canadian servers that will give you totally unrestricted and unlimited use.
Free VPN Option #1 – PrivadoVPN Free Version (10 GB Allowance)
PrivadoVPN are my first and most recommended option, as they have an outstanding free server selection, including Canada.
Here are some features of PrivadoVPN free version:
- 10 GB data use per month on the free plan
- Free servers in 11 countries and 14 locations on the free plan – including Canada (Montreal)
- Other free server locations – USA (New York, Washington DC, Miami, Los Angeles), UK, Germany, Netherlands, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, India, New Zealand.
- Strict zero logs policy, even on the free version
- Based in Switzerland with strong privacy laws
- 1 connection allowed on free version
- Apps for all major devices.
- Email address only required to get free version.
- Paid plans start at $2.50/month for a 12 month subscription, with servers in 48 countries.
Click here to get started with the free version of PrivadoVPN – go to their Pricing page and select their Free Plan.
Free VPN Option #2 – Hide.me
This is another little free option that I just found. Hide.me are a Malaysian based VPN company that have been around since 2012, and I’ve just realized they do have a free version of their VPN with a very generous data allowance, plus a server in Canada!
Here are the key benefits of Hide.me:
- Totally free to sign up, with only an email required and no other personal details
- Free version offers a server in Canada, as well as Germany, Netherlands, USA, UK, France, Singapore (random server selection).
- 10 GB monthly data allowance on the free version. This is very generous for a free VPN. Once you breach this, you won’t be disconnected, but will connect to a random free server instead, which won’t be in Canada.
- Strict zero logs policy, including on the free version. No user data collected or stored.
- Fast servers
- Paid version also offers competitive plans.
Click here for more on the free version of Hide.me, plus how to get it.
It’s a great option if you specifically want a VPN that can give you an IP address in Canada, but on the downside, the free version doesn’t offer any streaming support, so you might not be able to get it to work with streaming services like Netflix (you might do with some persistence, but no way close to guaranteed).
Also, you can’t pick your server manually – it randomly connects to one of the free servers, so you might have to keep trying until it gives you the Canada server.
However, 10 GB per month (around 300 MB/day) is a very generous allowance and can literally sort a basic internet user’s entire monthly needs as long as there’s no streaming.
Free VPN Option #3 – Windscribe Free Version (10 GB Allowance)
This is basically a very close match to the Hide.me free offering, with Windscribe too offering a free version with 10 GB of monthly data to use.
Here are some features of Windscribe free version:
- 10 GB data use per month on the free plan
- Free servers in 10 countries including Canada.
- Other free server locations –USA, UK, Hong Kong, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Norway, Romania.
- Strict zero logs policy, even on the free version
- Canadian based company.
- Unlimited connections allowed even on free version
- Apps for all major devices.
- Only an Email address required to get free version.
- Paid plans start at $4/month for a 12 month subscription.
Click here to get started with Windscribe– go to their Features page and select their Free Plan.
This could be a great complement to Hide.me and PrivadoVPN – use all of them to get a combined 30 GB of free monthly data usage, which can cover the monthly needs of low to moderate internet users. When you run out on one service, switch to the other one.
Free VPN Option #4 – Tunnelbear Free Version (500 MB Allowance)
This is another possibility but for Canadian servers, it can’t match Hide.me or Windscribe or PrivadoVPN, with it’s 10 GB allowance. Tunnelbear also offer a free version of their VPN service, but you only get 500 MB of data a month – only around 5% of what you get with hide.me. The free version has a server in Ontario, Canada.
This means it really only is good for very basic surfing, and not any video streaming at all, but on the plus side it is a proper VPN service. They’re also based in Canada if you want to support local. It’s just quite limited on the free version.
Click here to visit Tunnelbear’s site. Click the Tunnelbear logo on the top left to go back to the homepage, and click on “Plans”. If you sign up for the Free account, you get 500 MB of data to use each month.
VPNs That DON’T Really Have Free Canadian Servers
As with much of the VPN market, the search results for this topic aren’t great, with lots of incorrect and non relevant information appearing on the first few pages.
Let’s correct this by listing some VPN services which, despite what may appear in the first few pages of search results for free Canada VPN’s, do NOT currently offer 100% free Canadian servers you can use:
- ExpressVPN – Are a great Premium VPN service with one of the best server selections on the market, but they DON’T offer any free VPN servers, in Canada or elsewhere. They do offer a 30 day refund guarantee, but all plans require upfront payment.
- CyberGhost – Do have a free version, but not with servers in Canada. You can sign up for 24 hours free access, but registration is required.
- NordVPN – Excellent Premium service, with great server choice, but they don’t offer any free servers or a free version. You have to register and pay to use them.
- ProtonVPN – Offer an excellent free unlimited version of their service, but only with servers in USA, Netherlands and Japan. They don’t have free servers in Canada; you need a paid plan for that.
A lot of VPN marketing and search results equates them having a 30 day money back guarantee to being effectively “free”, because you can pay for a month, and then claim a refund if you don’t like it. Or you can sign up and get 1, 3 or 7 day trial.
Whilst it’s a nice feature many VPN’s offer now, that’s not my definition of “free”. In this post, I’ve tried to keep it relevant and accurate by including ONLY VPN options which a) Are 100% free to sign up to and use, ZERO upfront payment, and b) Have 100% free Canadian servers that can be used on their free versions.
Some Premium VPN Services With Servers In Canada
For totally free, unlimited and secure VPN use, you need a paid plan. These all come with fast, reliable servers, unlimited use and zero-logs, meaning your privacy is more protected than with using a shared VPN/proxy service. They are also much more likely (though not certain) to allow you to access geo-restricted streaming services like Netflix, that will very often be blocked if you try and use a free VPN.
The good news is that almost all Premium VPN services will have at least 1 server in Canada, so you have an open choice between hundreds of options. We’ve listed some below for you to compare and contrast.
Comparison of VPN’s With Canada Servers (links are affiliate links)
Provider | Price (12 months paid in advance) | Number of servers in Canada | Number of Devices Allowed | Main Benefits |
---|---|---|---|---|
Private Internet Access (PIA) | $3.33/month | 4 (Ontario, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) | 10 | Best value for money |
VyprVPN | $5/month | 1 (Toronto) | 5 | Speed |
ExpressVPN | $8.32/month | 3 (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) | 5 | Good for streaming |
NordVPN | $5/month | 480+ (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) | 6 | Double Encryption & Server Choice |
AtlasVPN | $3.29/month | 36 (Montreal - Streaming Supported) | Unlimited | Cheap no nonsense VPN |