Raven Wu
Updated on: October 11, 2024
Short on time? Here’s the best free VPN for Firefox in 2024:
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🥇 ExpressVPN
: ExpressVPN isn’t free, but it’s the best VPN for Firefox — it has a fully-featured Firefox extension, offers super-fast speeds, provides strong security, and is easy to use. It also gives you unlimited data, access to servers in 105 countries, allows up to 8 simultaneous connections, and supports streaming. All of its plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out risk-free.
I generally don’t recommend using a free VPN for Firefox. Many free VPNs collect and sell user data to shady third parties, while others contain malware that could compromise your device and personal information. And, those that don’t pose a security risk often limit your data, speed, or server access, and lack streaming and torrenting support.
Paid VPNs save you all of the headaches and risks and provide a lot of extra benefits, including unlimited data, multiple simultaneous connections, streaming support, fast speeds, a strict no-logs policy, and advanced security features. My top VPN for Firefox in 2024 is ExpressVPN.
If you’re only looking for a 100% free VPN, though, check out my list below. The VPNs I recommend have been tested extensively to ensure your safety and have fewer limitations than most. Editors’ Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
Quick Summary of the Best Free VPNs for Firefox
🥇1. ExpressVPN — Best VPN for Firefox in 2024
ExpressVPN isn’t a free VPN, but it’s the best premium VPN for Firefox. It has affordable long-term plans and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee that lets you try it out risk-free.
My favorite part about ExpressVPN is that its Firefox extension includes all of the features in the ExpressVPN app. It basically acts like a remote control that lets you connect, disconnect, change locations, and modify other VPN settings conveniently from your browser window. This is great because a lot of VPN extensions for Firefox have significantly fewer features compared to an actual VPN app.
ExpressVPN’s Firefox extension isn’t just a remote control, either — by installing it on your browser, you get additional privacy and security features, like location spoofing, which changes your HTML5 geolocation data in Firefox to match your VPN IP address, preventing sites from detecting your real location or that you’re using a VPN or proxy. The extension blocks WebRTC leaks in Firefox, too — I ran 5+ leak tests and only ever saw my VPN IP address.
This provider has some other major advantages over free VPNs for Firefox, too, including unlimited data, no speed limits, no ads, a huge server network in 105 countries, support for up to 8 devices simultaneously, and streaming and P2P support (most free VPNs don’t support streaming or torrenting).
I like that ExpressVPN comes with an ad, tracker, and malware blocker (Advanced Protection), which blocked most ads and malicious sites in Firefox when I tested it — the only free VPNs on this list with an ad blocker are Windscribe and TunnelBear.
Every ExpressVPN subscription also comes with a password manager, called ExpressVPN Keys. It helps you generate strong passwords, secure them in a digital vault, and make managing your online accounts much easier by auto-filling login credentials.
ExpressVPN starts as low as £4.20 / month if you use our special 63% discount, and it frequently offers extra months for free.
Bottom Line:
ExpressVPN is the best premium VPN for Firefox. Its Firefox extension has all of the features of its VPN app, plus WebRTC leak protection and location spoofing, and it has none of the limitations of a free VPN. It also comes with extra features like an ad, tracker, malware blocker, and a secure password manager. ExpressVPN backs every plan with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it out risk-free.
Read the full ExpressVPN review
🥈2. Proton VPN — Free VPN App & Extension for Firefox With Strong Security Features
Proton VPN is a highly secure free VPN that works with the Firefox browser, and it offers a free Firefox extension. This provider is particularly good for browsing on Firefox more securely because it offers full leak protection in the Firefox browser. Additionally, it has a kill switch. I also like that all of its apps are open-source (so anyone can inspect its code for vulnerabilities) and have passed independent audits.
It also offers lots of perks as a free VPN — you get unlimited ad-free data to browse in Firefox, no speed limits, and access to servers in 5+ countries, including the US, the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, and Poland.
The biggest drawback of the free plans is that you can’t choose which server to connect to — Proton automatically connects you to the least crowded one that’s closest to your location. There’s also no streaming and P2P support, and you can only connect 1 device at a time.
Upgrading to a paid plan gets you access to its servers in 112 countries, streaming and P2P support, an ad, tracker, and malware blocker (NetShield), support for up to 10 devices simultaneously, and more.
Proton VPN starts at £2.75 / month, and it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. But this money-back guarantee is prorated, meaning you only get refunded for the remaining time in your subscription. Its competitors on this list all let you claim a full refund, no questions asked.
Bottom Line:
Proton VPN has a secure, free VPN app and browser extension for Firefox. It encrypts your internet traffic, has a kill switch, and all of its apps are open-source and have been independently audited. It also offers unlimited data, fast speeds, and servers in 5+ countries. Proton VPN backs all subscriptions with a prorated 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full Proton VPN review
🥉3. hide.me — Free Firefox App & Proxy Add-On + Good Server Coverage
hide.me has both a good free VPN app that works with Firefox and a free Firefox add-on. On top of offering unlimited data, what I especially like is you get access to servers in 7 countries in the VPN app (Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, and the US) and 3 in the proxy add-on (Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands) for a total of 8 different countries. This makes it a lot easier to connect to a nearby server for better browsing speeds and compares favorably to other free VPNs.
Its free Firefox add-on changes your IP address and stops WebRTC leaks, but be aware that it’s just a proxy and doesn’t encrypt your data — ExpressVPN encrypts your entire online traffic.
hide.me’s free VPN app is pretty secure — it encrypts your data, comes with full leak protection (stops DNS, WebRTC, and IPv6 leaks), and has a kill switch.
However, it comes with “restricted speeds”, so its free servers aren’t as fast as its premium servers — it took about 2–3 seconds for HD videos to load, though, there wasn’t any buffering. Also, it lacks streaming and torrenting support on the free plan.
hide.me’s premium plans start at £1.90 / month, and upgrading gets you access to its servers in 58 countries, streaming support, and more. All hide.me subscriptions are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
hide.me is a good free VPN for Firefox with great server coverage. You can use either its free VPN app or Firefox extension. Its app offers servers in 7 countries and encrypts your data. Its add-on only offers servers in 3 countries and no encryption. Both versions provide unlimited data. Upgrading to hide.me’s paid version gets you more servers and streaming support. Every subscription is backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
4. Windscribe — Feature-Rich VPN for Firefox (Ad Blocker + Streaming Support)
Windscribe is one of the most feature-rich free VPNs you can get for Firefox. Its Firefox extension can spoof your location, delete cookies when you close a tab, stop websites from sending you notifications, and more. Additionally, it’s one of the only free VPNs that comes with an ad, tracker, malware, and content blocker (via the R.O.B.E.R.T feature) and supports streaming.
Windscribe has a free VPN app that you can use together with its Firefox extension for maximum benefits. The extension, for example, doesn’t offer split-tunneling but the app does. And conversely, the app doesn’t have a WebRTC blocker, but the extension does.
This provider has no speed limits, allows unlimited simultaneous connections, and provides impressive server coverage in 10+ countries, including the US, Canada, Germany, and France, Romania.
But it limits you to 10 GB of data per month. In my tests, this translated to around 8 and a half hours of streaming time and approximately 50 hours of browsing time in Firefox. This is decent for browsing, but you get unlimited browsing hours with hide.me and Proton VPN.
Windscribe’s premium plans start at £2.29 / month and get you unlimited data and access to its servers in 68 countries. All subscriptions are backed by a 3-day money-back guarantee, which is a lot less than what most VPNs on my list offer on their paid plans.
Bottom Line:
Windscribe has lots of useful free features for Firefox, including an ad blocker and streaming support. Windscribe has no speed limits, allows unlimited simultaneous connections, and has servers in 11+ countries. Plus, it has both a free VPN app and Firefox extension, which work together very well. But it has a data cap of 10 GB per month and backs subscriptions with a 3-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full Windscribe review
5. TunnelBear — Beginner-Friendly VPN for Firefox
TunnelBear has both a free app and Firefox extension, and both are great for beginners. Its app lets you connect to a location by clicking it on the interactive map, which is very intuitive and saves you the hassle of scrolling through a server list. Its Firefox extension is super minimalistic, too — it’s basically just a server selection menu and a toggle to connect, so it’s easy to operate, even if you’ve never used a VPN before.
Free users get access to all of TunnelBear’s paid features, including servers in 47 countries, unlimited simultaneous connections, an obfuscation feature (GhostBear) that hides your VPN traffic so you can use the VPN in restrictive countries, split-tunneling, and more.
That said, it has a pretty restrictive data cap of 2 GB per month, so it’s only really good for casual browsing. If you need more, Proton VPN offers unlimited data for free.
TunnelBear’s paid plans start at £3.18 / month and remove the data cap. It doesn’t have a money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
TunnelBear is an easy-to-use & free VPN for Firefox that has all of the features of the premium plan, including 47 countries, unlimited simultaneous connections, and more. However, it limits you to 2 GB of data per month, so it’s not great for doing anything but browsing. TunnelBear has no money-back guarantee, so make sure you test its features on the free plan.
Read the full TunnelBear review
6. Hotspot Shield — Good Free Firefox VPN for Browsing
Hotspot Shield’s free plan is decent for Firefox browsing, but there’s no Firefox extension. The VPN does provide unlimited data through its app and free servers in 3 countries (the US, the UK, and Singapore).
However, you have to watch ads every 15 minutes to get free bandwidth, it collects your IP address, and it can only be used with a single device.
Hotspot Shield’s paid plans start at £2.29 / month and gets you servers in 85 countries, unlimited data with no ads, and up to 10 simultaneous connections. All purchases come with a generous 45-day money-back guarantee, and Hotspot Shield also offers a 7-day free trial.
Bottom Line:
Hotspot Shield is a decent free VPN for browsing on Firefox. It offers servers in 3 countries, unlimited data (with ads), and can only be used with a single device at a time. Its premium plans get you access to a lot more servers and more device connections. It also removes the ads and won’t collect your IP address. Hotspot Shield’s plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full Hotspot Shield review
Quick Comparison Table
Editors’ Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
Testing Methodology: Comparison & Ranking Criteria
For this article, I researched and tested all reliable free VPNs for Firefox using our proven testing methodology. In my tests, I paid particular attention to the strengths and limitations of each provider’s free plan and Firefox extension. I also took into account other key factors, such as the VPN’s speeds, security, and ease of use. Here’s how I ranked and compared VPNs to determine which ones to include on my list below:
- I evaluated each provider’s free plan for Firefox. Free VPNs usually come with some serious limitations, but the ones on my list have fewer than most. They all have generous data caps and decent speeds, plus other benefits like no ads, a good selection of server locations, and/or the ability to connect multiple devices simultaneously.
- I tested every VPN’s speeds. Using a VPN will always reduce your internet speeds slightly due to encryption. And free VPNs for Firefox are often slower because free servers are typically overcrowded, which slows them down even further. But all of the VPNs I recommend offer pretty good speeds on their free servers.
- I assessed each VPN’s security. I prioritized free VPNs that have industry-standard security features, like 256-bit AES encryption (highly secure encryption used by banks and militaries), a strict no-logs policy, which means the provider doesn’t collect data about your online activities, and a kill switch to prevent accidental data leaks if your VPN connection drops unexpectedly. I also checked to see if the provider’s Firefox extension encrypted your traffic or if it’s just a proxy.
- I picked VPNs with easy-to-use apps. I tested every free VPN on my list to ensure that they’re free of bugs and have intuitive apps and/or Firefox extensions.
- I looked for VPNs that have affordable premium plans. In case you ever want to upgrade to a paid plan, all of the VPNs on my list are budget-friendly and offer ways for you to test out their features risk-free.
Risks & Disadvantages of Using a Free VPN for Firefox
- Weak security — A lot of free VPNs for Firefox lack critical security features like strong encryption and kill switches, which leaves your data vulnerable to leaks and tracking by third parties. However, all of the free VPNs I recommend have strong privacy and security features.
- Limited server locations — Free VPNs for Firefox usually only give you access to a small number of servers, so your options are pretty limited.
- Slow connection speeds — Limited server options on free plans may lead to high user density on available servers and cause slowdowns. Plus, the free servers may not be geographically close to you, which can result in slower connection speeds. The VPNs on my list maintain fast enough speeds for a smooth browsing experience on Firefox.
- Privacy concerns — Some free VPNs for Firefox log your online activities and sell this information to third parties, like advertisers, who may then use this information to target you with ads. Top VPNs like ExpressVPN have strict no-logs policies that have been independently audited and confirmed.
- No streaming & P2P support — Very few VPNs allow you to stream or torrent on their free servers. Additionally, many free VPNs limit how much bandwidth you can use per month/day, so even if they did support streaming, you’d quickly hit the data cap. If streaming is important to you, I strongly recommend getting an affordable paid VPN for Firefox instead.
- Data caps — Some free VPNs limit how much data you can use every month/day. This may not be much of an issue if you’re only browsing, but it can be frustrating if you want to watch videos or download files. hide.me and Proton VPN are rare free VPNs for Firefox that offer unlimited data (without ads).
- No simultaneous connections — You may not be able to cover all of your devices using a free VPN because many of them don’t allow more than 1 simultaneous connection. Windscribe and TunnelBear are two free VPNs for Firefox that allow unlimited simultaneous connections.
- Ads & Malware — Some free VPNs come bundled with adware, bloatware, or have ads that show in the app or in your Firefox browser. Even worse, some free VPNs contain malware that could compromise your device and personal information (but I’ve confirmed that all of the VPNs on my list are safe).
- Blacklisted IP addresses — When you use a VPN, you share the VPNs IP addresses with many other users. These shared IP addresses are sometimes blacklisted by websites, such as streaming sites. Paid VPNs get around this issue by constantly refreshing their IP addresses. But free VPNs don’t refresh their IP addresses very often.
- Bad customer support — As a non-paying customer, you may not be the priority for the VPN’s customer support team. So if you run into any issues, you might have to wait a long time to get help. Some free VPNs don’t provide any customer support for free users at all.
Free vs. Paid VPNs for Firefox
The free VPNs for Firefox I recommend here are safe to use, but that’s not the case with lots of free Firefox VPNs on the market. Many of them lack industry-standard security features, such as 256-bit AES encryption, a strict no-logs policy, and a kill switch.
There are many other areas where free VPNs for Firefox fall short compared to premium VPNs as well. For example, free VPNs usually limit the number of servers you have access to, cap the amount of data you can use per month/day, allow fewer simultaneous connections, and have no support for streaming.
For example, Proton VPN’s free Firefox extension and paid VPN app don’t have data caps or connection speed limits, but the extension only offers servers in 5 countries and doesn’t let you choose which server location to connect to, whereas the paid app offers servers in 112 countries and lots of security features.
Overall, a good paid VPN will offer much more value and will get you a better browsing experience. Most top VPNs are also reasonably priced and back all subscriptions with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try them out risk-free.
Free VPNs for Firefox to Avoid
- Hola VPN. Hola VPN is a P2P VPN — when you connect to the VPN, you’re assigned another user’s IP address, and your IP address is assigned to someone else. This means if a user with your IP address engages in illegal activities, it could be traced back to you. Hola VPN also lacks encryption and a no-logs policy.
- Phone Guardian. Phone Guardian doesn’t work like your typical VPN. It won’t encrypt all of your data or hide your IP address, so it’s not a very secure VPN for Firefox at all.
- Hoxx VPN. Hoxx VPN leaked my IP address during tests, has slow speeds, and collects a lot of information about you, including your browsing history and IP address.
Top Brands That Didn’t Make the Cut
- Private Internet Access. Private Internet Access is one of the best VPNs on the market, with fast speeds, flexible apps, and a great Firefox extension, but it doesn’t have a free plan. That said, it’s an affordable choice if you decide to go for a premium VPN.
- PrivadoVPN. PrivadoVPN’s free plan is pretty good. It gives you access to servers in 10 countries and supports P2P file sharing on Firefox. However, it lacks WebRTC leak protection and limits you to 1 device and 10 GB of data per month.
- Bitdefender VPN. Bitdefender’s free VPN is secure but very limited — its WebRTC protection is only available on Windows, and the VPN limits you to 200MB of data per day.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best free VPN for Firefox?
Proton VPN is my top pick. Its free Firefox extension offers unlimited data, no ads, no speed limits, and servers in 5+ countries (US, the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, and Poland).
Does Firefox have a built-in VPN?
No. The company that owns Firefox, Mozilla, has a product called Mozilla VPN that you can use alongside the Firefox browser, but Firefox doesn’t come with a VPN.
Note that private browsing mode isn’t a VPN — it only deletes your cookies when you close the browser window. It doesn’t change your IP address, encrypt your data, or prevent IP leaks. I recommend getting a good Firefox VPN to protect your anonymity and privacy in Private Windows on Firefox.
How do I get a free VPN for Firefox?
It’s really easy — all you have to do is follow 3 simple steps. First, find a good free VPN — you can start from my list of the best free VPNs for Firefox. Second, download and install the VPN app from the provider’s official website and/or add the VPN extension to your browser. Finally, connect to a VPN server through the app/extension, and you’re all set!
Should I use a VPN when browsing on Firefox?
Yes, if you care about your online privacy and security. Without a VPN, it’s really easy for third parties to see your online activities and figure out your general location by finding your IP address. It’s also possible for hackers to intercept your data and steal sensitive personal information. A good Firefox VPN (I recommend ExpressVPN) can prevent all of this from happening by hiding your IP address and encrypting your internet traffic, which makes it unreadable to others.
