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.
Portugal is a really beautiful country, with lots of visitors every year, plus a substantial expat community, so there’s a real need for encrypted, secure internet connections, especially for people on the move.
But are there actually any totally free VPN options that also have servers in Portugal? Is it possible to get an IP address in Portugal for free using a VPN?
As is so often the case with VPN’s in general, the current search results for this are not exactly on point, returning results to VPN’s that are labelled as “free” but actually aren’t, or single companies promoting only their own product.
In this post, I’ll try to stay more relevant by listing only VPN’s that are totally free to install and use (no upfront cost at all), and also specifically have servers in Portugal that can be used for free. Unfortunately, your actual legit free VPN options are very limited.
PrivateVPN offer a 7 day unlimited free trial of their service with no payment required with a server in Lisbon. Tunnelbear also offer a free server in Lisbon but with only 500 MB of data per month.
I’ll cover both these options in more detail, before covering some less ideal proxy/shared solutions, and then moving onto some good premium providers that you’ll realistically need for longer stays in Portugal.
Free Option #1 – PrivateVPN Free 7 Day Trial
I’ve updated my article to include this option because it’s the only option that allows you to try a fully fledged, legitimate AND unlimited VPN program with Portugal servers, even if it’s only for 7 days initially.
PrivateVPN are a Swedish based VPN provider who offer an excellent value Premium service, but they also offer customers the chance to try their product out completely for free for 7 days:
Visit PrivateVPN’s free trial page here. Email their support at support@privatevpn.com to receive a gift code to activate a 7 day free trial of the full service.
Here are some good features of PrivateVPN:
- 200 high speed servers in 63 countries (including Portugal – Lisbon)
- Unlimited server use
- Based in Sweden with strong privacy and consumer protection laws.
- No nonsense, user friendly interface.
- Also despite the cheap price, has an excellent reputation for accessing streaming services.
And also if you decide to upgrade to their Premium version, here are some benefits:
- 36 month plans currently at $1.61/month (effectively 12 months + 24 extra months free). The best long term value on the market.
- 30 day money back guarantee.
For sure it’s only a temporary free trial, but it will give you a good look at how a proper VPN service works, plus their paid plans are the best value on the VPN market. Give them a try and see what you think.
Free Option #2 – Tunnelbear Free Version
Another viable but extremely limited option is the Tunnelbear VPN service, who do have a free version of their product and also a server in Lisbon, Portugal – perfect!
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.
The Free plan is buried away somewhat in the menus and not heavily promoted, as for obvious reasons, they’d prefer customers used paid plans, but you can still find it by clicking back to the homepage and finding the Plans page.
Tunnelbear’s got servers in 49 countries, including in Portugal (Lisbon), so it can be a great option for very short term/basic usage.
It also feels and works like a proper, secure VPN service, with your own IP and no data logging, unlike some other shared VPN services that I’d never use to enter personal data on. It’s not a cheap VPN/proxy hybrid that’s built into a browser and isn’t really secure – it is a fully separate software program you load up and activate, just like a Premium VPN.
However, with the free version, you only get 500 MB of data to use per month. You can tweet at them for an extra 1 GB, but this is your main limitation with this service – you don’t get much data/bandwidth to use. Once you open the interface, there is a data counter so you can see how you’ve got left this month. But 500 MB won’t go very far – even for basic use. And certainly no video or streaming.
Some Less Good Portugal Free VPN Options
If neither of these options really works for you, you can pivot to more of these shared/proxy style “VPNs”, but I wouldn’t class them as truly legit, secure, private services.
Alternative Option #1 – Urban VPN – This works as a kind of shared or “pooled” VPN, with users around the world effectively sharing each other’s locations/IPs/connection. Can offer you a server in Portugal for free, and is unlimited use, but it’s definitely NOT a private VPN. They specifically state that they collect and store user info, including browse history, so it’s not for privacy conscious users.
Alternative Option #2 – DewVPN – Does also offer a free server in Portugal with unlimited use. Comes across as slightly more watertight that UrbanVPN, but still leans more towards the side of being a shared or “proxy” style VPN, with users pooling connections. Also some problems reported with speeds and reliability. I would not use myself, but might work for basic light use for some readers.
Alternative Option #2 – VAP LAT – Does appear legit, but is only available for Android/iOS (App), and comes across again as one of these shared and not fully watertight private free services. Wouldn’t use myself.
Some Portugal VPN Options That Aren’t Really Free (Or Have Catches)
Let’s clear up some of the inaccurate information that’s currently showing up in search results for “free” VPN’s with servers in Portugal. We’ll quickly list some VPN services that are showing up on the first page, but don’t meet this criteria, or have significant catches:
- UFO VPN – Again shows up a lot and is titled as a “Free” VPN but you can’t get an server in Portugal for free with them; you have to pay for a Premium account. There is a free version but it’s very limited in features and doesn’t have Portugal servers. See here for the differences between their plans.
- VPN Unlimited – Again shows up on the first page, but they don’t offer any free plans. All plans are paid.
- NordVPN – Only offer Premium plans. No free plans available.
- ExpressVPN – Same as NordVPN – only Premium plans available
- ProtonVPN – Have an excellent free version with servers in Netherlands, USA and Japan, but not in Portugal. You need their paid plans for Portugal servers.
We’ve tried to stay directly relevant in this article – only suggesting VPN’s that are 100% free, with zero upfront cost, as well as having servers in Portugal on their free versions.
To get a proper, unlimited, fully secure VPN service, where you know your connection is going to be fast, unlimited and reliable, and your personal data is going to be safe and private, you need to pay for a Premium service.
Some Premium VPN Options With Portugal Servers
If at some point you decide you’d like to use a VPN in more locations and have unlimited use and better support, you might want to consider upgrading to a paid VPN plan. Users in Portugal are spoiled for choice here, because there are literally hundreds to choose from, all with servers there.
Firstly, Tunnelbear and PrivateVPN have a Premium plan (with more countries/servers and unlimited use) you can upgrade to for very reasonable prices.
However, we’ve also listed some other Premium VPN services for you to browse through, that also offer Portuguese servers (almost all Premium VPN’s offer IP addresses in Portugal), plus unlimited use and 24/7 support.
Some Premium VPN Services With Portugal Servers (links are affiliate links)
| Provider | Price (12 months paid in advance) | Number of locations in Portugal | Number of Devices Allowed | Main Benefits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private Internet Access (PIA) | $3.33/month | 1 (Lisbon - geo-located)* | 10 | Great value |
| VyprVPN | $5/month | 1 (Lisbon) | 5 | Speed |
| ExpressVPN | $8.32/month | 1 (Lisbon) | 5 | Good for streaming |
| ProtonVPN | $6/month | 1 (Lisbon - 20+ servers) | 6 | Double Encryption & Server Choice |
| ZoogVPN Server List (Premium & Free) | $2.99/month | 1 (Lisbon) | Unlimited | Cheap no nonsense VPN |
*Uses a geo-located server, meaning that the exit node is located in Portugal, but traffic is routed through a server in Madrid, Spain instead. You still get a Portuguese IP address.
