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Atlas VPN is an excellent freemium VPN that's easy to use and has lots of extra features. The free version is one of the best free VPNs we’ve tested. It's safe, secure, and works with all torrent clients. The premium version is faster, and even unblocks US Netflix. Overall, Atlas VPN is perfect for beginners that want to bypass internet geo-blocks.
Atlas VPN is one of the fastest-growing VPNs on the market, having launched in January 2020. Its success led Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, to purchase Atlas VPN in 2021. We examined every feature of Atlas VPN to see whether it’s worth using over the other options on the market. We tested Atlas VPN’s speeds, security, streaming ability, logging policy, and more. Our tests reveal that Atlas VPN’s free app works in China, it can download torrent files quickly, and it has a private logging policy. The free version of the VPN has gotten worse recently, though. Its monthly data cap has been halved to 5GB from 10GB. It also now requires an email address to sign up, which is worse for privacy. For US Netflix, we had to upgrade to Atlas VPN’s premium tier. This tier gives you access to most geo-restricted streaming platforms, 30 more server locations, and faster speeds. Both free and premium versions of Atlas VPN come with identical apps that are simple to install and use.
Users who want a 100% free VPN. Atlas VPN can be used without entering any payment details. You just need to provide your email address.
People who haven’t used a VPN before. Atlas VPN is a basic service that’s perfect for beginners. The simple apps are easy to use, even if you have no experience.
Users who want good value. Atlas VPN’s paid-for subscriptions are very cheap. Although FastestVPN is the cheapest VPN available, it’s much lower quality than Atlas VPN.
Anyone who needs to connect to the internet from China. Atlas VPN is reliable at bypassing China’s internet blocks. While connected to the VPN, you can access Instagram, YouTube, and more.
Using Atlas VPN we were able to stream US Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and many other streaming services. Speeds remained fast in all locations, with videos displayed in HD and 4K. However, Atlas VPN doesn’t have a Smart DNS tool, and its free tier doesn’t work with any streaming sites.
Streaming Service
Test Result
US Netflix
✓
HBO Max
✓
Hulu
✓
Amazon Prime Video
✓
DAZN
✗
For premium subscribers, Atlas VPN includes streaming-optimized servers in 12 countries. Although Atlas VPN says they are tuned “to tackle buffering, lags, and other issues,” we found them to be functionally identical to its other servers. We tested Atlas VPN’s streaming performance on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android TV. In each case, the VPN service’s performance was the same, meaning you’ll get the same decent experience across all of your devices. You can see a more detailed view of our Atlas VPN streaming tests in the following sections.
Tested: Atlas VPN Streams US Netflix
In our tests, Atlas VPN unblocked American Netflix on all 8 of its US servers. We found the New Jersey server to be the fastest and most reliable. Although Atlas VPN claims it can stream 11 other Netflix libraries, we found it works with just five more.
After testing all of its server locations, we found Atlas VPN works to access Netflix libraries from:
Australia
France
Poland
Singapore
Spain
This means Atlas VPN doesn’t work with most popular Netflix libraries, including the UK, Italy, Canada, and Japan. If you need access to these regions, we recommend you consider PrivateVPN. PrivateVPN is similarly priced to Atlas VPN, and it always works with the main Netflix libraries. As for other US-based streaming sites, Atlas VPN works as well as any VPN in its price category. In our tests, the VPN worked every time with Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hulu.
Using Atlas VPN, we could bypass BBC iPlayer’s geo-blocks. We were able to stream TV shows, like Top Gear and Doctor Who, without any buffering. We also found the VPN to be a good choice for other UK streaming services. It worked with ITV Hub and All 4 without any issues. The only downside is that Atlas VPN has just one server location in the UK. If the server stops working with UK streaming sites, you can’t try a different server in the country.
Atlas VPN Free Streaming Tests
Like the vast majority of free VPN services, Atlas VPN Free doesn’t work with any streaming services. When connected to its free New York server, we were blocked from accessing Hulu and HBO Max, and we could only stream Netflix originals. As there’s no free server in the UK, we couldn’t even attempt to access BBC iPlayer. Atlas VPN says the free VPN should be used to improve security, and not for bypassing geo-restrictions.
Fast Speeds Across All Server Locations
PN download speeds are very fast. Using the WireGuard protocol, we saw it match the performance of top VPNs like Hotspot Shield and Proton VPN. On our 100Mbps baseline internet connection, we recorded a download speed of 97Mbps when connected to both a nearby UK server and a faraway US server.
When reviewing every VPN service, we always follow the same scientific speed-test process. We also perform the tests using the VPN’s fastest protocol. This makes our tests fair and representative of what you’ll experience at home. Here are our results when we tested speeds on a local premium Atlas VPN server:
Local Speed Test results before using Atlas VPN:
DOWNLOAD SPEED100Mbps
UPLOAD SPEED100Mbps
PING1ms
Local Speed Test results with Atlas VPN:
DOWNLOAD SPEED97Mbps
UPLOAD SPEED96Mbps
PING29ms
Download speed loss when Atlas VPN is running: 3%
With these results, you won’t notice any download or upload speed loss in regular use. Atlas VPN is more than fast enough for streaming and torrenting large files.
EXPERT TIP: Unlike most other VPNs, Atlas VPN doesn’t have an option to automatically connect you to the fastest server. Instead, connect to the nearest server to you for the best speeds.
International Speed Test Results
We also measured Atlas VPN’s speeds when connected to premium servers in different continents around the world. In general, the further away a VPN server is, the slower the speeds will be. However, we make sure to measure these as international speed performance is key for unblocking geo-restricted content libraries.
Here are the full results we recorded when connecting to premium Atlas VPN server locations from London, UK with a 100Mbps internet connection:
US (New York):
Download: 96.59Mbps (3% speed loss)
Upload: 66.43Mbps (34% speed loss)
Germany (Frankfurt):
Download: 95.31Mbps (5% speed loss)
Upload: 95.80Mbps (4% speed loss)
Japan (Tokyo):
Download: 68.89Mbps (31% speed loss)
Upload: 68.31Mbps (32% speed loss)
Australia (Melbourne):
Download: 75.74Mbps (24% speed loss)
Upload: 20.99Mbps (79% speed loss)
As you can see from our results, Atlas VPN is fast in every location. Its performance in the US was particularly impressive, with barely any speed loss. This meant we could stream US Netflix with ease.
Atlas VPN Free is fast for a free VPN service. In our tests, we measured a speed loss of just 3% when connected to our nearest server location in the Netherlands. As it stands, this is the fastest local speed result of any free VPN we’ve tested. However, as there are only two countries that you can connect to, your experience will vary significantly based on where you are. For example, if you’re located in Japan, your nearest Atlas VPN free server is 8,000 miles away, which will cause slower and less reliable speeds. Here are the full results we recorded when connecting to all three Atlas VPN Free server locations from London, UK with a 100Mbps internet connection:
Server Location
Download Speed (Mbps)
Upload Speed (Mbps)
Ping (ms)
Distance (miles)
No VPN
100
100
1
0 mi
Netherlands
96.61
95.72
17
328 mi
US (New York)
49.63
22.66
115
3,459 mi
US (Los Angeles)
72.75
18.10
148
5,437 mi
Atlas VPN Free’s international speeds are above what we expect from a free service, but it doesn’t come close to its premium speeds. Atlas VPN told us that it does not throttle its free servers and that all of its free servers are identical to its premium ones. As a result, the slower speeds we experienced can only be down to server congestion. This is when too many people have connected to a server at once. What stood out from our results is that, despite being further away from us, the Los Angeles server repeatedly outperformed the New York server. As more users instinctively connect to New York, this further suggests that Atlas VPN’s free servers have an issue of overcrowding. Unfortunately, unlike other free VPNs, like Windscribe and Proton VPN, the Atlas VPN app doesn’t provide any information about server load nor does it have multiple servers to connect to in these locations. In a future update, we’d like Atlas VPN to provide more server options for free users. Or at the very least, provide information about server load so users can manually connect to a less-congested server.
Atlas VPN Free
Atlas VPN is one of only a few safe VPNs to offer a free tier. It can be used without having to create an account and without entering any payment details, which is great for privacy. It’s one of the best free VPNs we’ve tested, beating out established services, like Avira and TunnelBear, in our testing. Disappointingly, the VPN recently halved its free data allowance from 10GB to 5GB. This is still higher than the 500MB restriction imposed by many free VPNs. But lower than top free VPNs, like Proton VPN and Windscribe, that offer unlimited and 10GB free data respectively. As with all free VPN services, Atlas VPN comes with significant limitations. Here are the key drawbacks of Atlas VPN Free compared to its premium alternative:
Atlas VPN
Atlas VPN Free
Unlimited bandwidth
5GB monthly data cap
750 servers in 34 countries
3 servers in 2 countries
24/7 live chat
Email support
Streams US Netflix, BBC iPlayer & more
Doesn’t work with streaming sites
More positively, Atlas VPN Free can be used for torrenting and even works in China.
Prompt replies via email. Easy to use online chat, hardly any wait to converse. Staff attentive, courteous and efficient at problem solving. Excellent experience
mori** on 06/09/2022
Sean was a great help! He stuck with me and helped try every single possible thing to help me out. His customer support skills were so great that even though I had problems because of how good he was I felt safe to buy the 3 year plan as I knew if I had any problems I could talk to them and the problem would be resolved!
Brbour** on 05/09/2022
I tried AtlasVPN and the speed and overall performance was great, but for privacy I still think that ProtonVPN and Windscribe are better!
Brholomo** on 04/09/2022
Try Atlas and its latest update I had problems before and now the kill switch is now working for me. I was also told in the future they will be adding multi-hop but could not give me a time to when it would be added. Just remember they are new but one thing I got to say is they do listen to customers.
