Outright free trials aren’t so common with VPN providers. Most offer a money-back guarantee where they’ll refund your money if you pay for their service and cancel within a specific time-frame.
CactusVPN is one of the rare providers who offer a free trial of their service without you having to even give up your credit card details.
The VPN provider offers a full 3 day trial so you can test out their VPN and Smart DNS service which doesn’t have any limitations and is the same as if you had a paid subscription.
On top of this they also offer a 30 day money back guarantee if the service does not work as advertised.
CactusVPN allows you to unblock websites and bypass restrictions while protecting your privacy. They may be small, with only 39 VPN servers in 22 countries but their service works as well as the top-tiered VPN providers.
Below, I’ll walk you through getting started with your CactusVPN 3 day free trial.
Just follow the instructions and you’ll soon be browsing anonymously on your favorite device.
How To Start Your CactusVPN 3 Day Free Trial
CactusVPN previously offered a 1 day free trial but now offer a 3 day free trial going forward.
However, they don’t make it so obvious on the website that they’re offering a free trial as they’d probably want you to take the 30 day money-back guarantee instead. In the VPN industry, this is just as good as, if not better than, a free trial.
To start your free trial though, you just have to check the footer links and you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Here are the steps to activate your free 3 day trial with CactusVPN.
1. Click “Free Trial” in the website footer links
Once you’re on the CactusVPN website, scroll right down to the bottom of the website and look for the footer links.
You’ll find the link to their free trial page as shown above. Click the link to begin the sign up process.
2. Enter your email address to sign up
All you need to provide is your email address to sign up. They’ll send you a link so that they can verify that it’s a working email address.
Check the box to confirm that you’ve read and agree to the Terms of Service and also the box to confirm you’re not a robot.
It’s also probably a good idea to read the Terms of Service especially the refund policy section if you plan to use the money-back guarantee. It’s really not that hard to read or browse through.
Click on the create button to continue.
3. Your trial is active.
You’ll get this confirmation page telling you that your VPN trial is active and what you should do next.
You’ll get two emails – one to confirm your email address and the other to set your password.
I suggest confirming your email address first then head back to your email address to check the other email.
4. Check the welcome email
The CactusVPN welcome email prompts you to set up your password so that you could log into your account using your email address.
Click on the button to go to the password form.
5. Set your password
Choose a secure password and enter it again to confirm it. I use a password manager so it just let it pick something for me and then save it.
Click the button to save the changes. You’ll see the following confirmation.
You’ll now be able to sign into your account.
6. Explore your dashboard
Now that you’re logged in, you’ll see your dashboard which has links to manage your settings, your subscription, submit tickets and more.
7. Follow the set up instructions
To set up CactusVPN on your favourite device, check out the instructions by clicking on “How to Start” in the sidebar links under Support.
You’ll find instructions for installing the app on Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and more devices such as a router.
I used the Windows instructions to test CactusVPN on my laptop and setup was a breeze.
8. Download and install the application
CactusVPN has a step-by-step tutorial linked under the download button for installing the app on your device.
However, you can just open the file on your computer and just click the relevant buttons to get the job done.
Windows may warn you that the app you’re about to install isn’t in their app store or something to that effect. Just install it anyway.
9. Login and connect
Once you’ve installed the application, you’ll find it in the tray of your taskbar when you need it.
Log in with your email address and password. You’ll then be able to select a server location from the list and connect. Your status will change to protected once you’re connected to the new server.
I had trouble connecting on my first try so I opened the dashboard on the CactusVPN site and started a chat with the friendly 24/7 support. All I had to do was change something in settings and everything worked fine after that.
Using the 30 Day Money-Back Guarantee To Test CactusVPN
Another great way to test CactusVPN’s service is to just sign up for a subscription as you’re protected by their 30-day money-back guarantee.
They’ll refund your money if you cancel within 30 days from your sign up.
Most VPN providers will offer a money-back guarantee because it’s just as good as a free trial. The only downside is that you’re going to get billed initially.
However, you will have a longer trial period to test CactusVPN and in the case of the other providers who don’t offer a trial, at least you’ll get your money back if you decide you don’t want to keep the service.
With CactusVPN, you’ll need to read their refund policy though as there are a couple of things in their that could exempt you from getting a refund. For example, if you paid with Bitcoin or you violated their policies and they ended up terminating your subscription as a result. You’ll find the refund policy inside their Terms of Use page.
To use the 30-day money-back guarantee, just pick a subscription plan, sign up and cancel the service before the 30 days are up.
You can contact support via chat to let them know you’re cancelling and you’d like to use the money-back guarantee.
How To Cancel CactusVPN
From looking at online feedback and reviews from regular people using the service, CactusVPN seems to work for most people and they’re generally satisfied with the service.
For example, on Google Play, the Android app has a 4.3 rating out of 5 which is really great.
You may however wish to cancel your subscription after you’ve exhausted the 3 day free trial and used the app for less than 30 days which qualifies you for a refund under the 30-day money-back guarantee.
To cancel, log into your dashboard and follow the instructions:
- Go to Subscriptions.
- Click on Request Cancellation.
- Fill the questionnaire and submit.
You can also contact support and request a refund as per their 30-day money-back guarantee. I would advise you to do this at least 3 days before the end of your 30 days.
How Much is CactusVPN After the Trial?
When your CactusVPN free trial is over, you’ll be faced with the decision of whether to subscribe or not.
CactusVPN has 4 standard plans which include everything and also some smaller plans if you don’t need the full package.
The plans start from $9.99 for a month-to-month subscription.
For a quarterly subscription (paid every 3 months), you save 44% by paying $16.79 which equates to about $5.59 per month.
A one year subscription (billed annually) is for $48.99 while a 2 year subscription gives you the most savings of up to 72%. Billed at $66.49, you’re essentially paying $2.77/month.
All plans come with the 30 day money-back guarantee.
Should You Get a CactusVPN Subscription?
CactusVPN has everything you need in a VPN provider. Whether you want to torrent or just stream movies and music from geo-blocked websites, you find the features you need.
You can hide your ip address so you can stop advertisers from tracking you while browsing the web. CactusVPN also does not collect logs.
With military-grade encryption, you can browse securely and privately stopping ISP’s, the government or hackers from spying on your activity.
And if you just want to visit the popular websites to stream or bypass restrictions, you can do that too. The SmartDNS service unblocks more than 340 popular websites all without slowing down your original ISP’s speed.
Though they don’t have as large a network as some of the other top-tier VPNs, their service is pretty solid with just 36 VPN servers in 22 countries worldwide.
You’ll be able to use CactusVPN on unlimited devices and if you encounter a problem, you will get it solved in no time with their 24/7 customer support via live chat.
Your subscription is protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee where you can claim a refund if the service doesn’t work for you during your first month.
CactusVPN Free Trial Limitations?
If you’re going to use the free trial, you’d probably want to know if there are any limitations.
Many services will normally place restrictions and limitations when they offer a free trial. For example, they might limit the servers or cap your bandwidth or even limit how many devices you can use.
So is this the case with CactusVPN?
CactusVPN offers a pretty solid 3-day trial and there are absolutely no limitations during the trial. Their 3-day trial works the same as if you bought a subscription and lets you preview the premium service.
You’ll get all the servers and get to use the VPN and Smart DNS on unlimited devices.
Not many other VPN providers will allow you to do so much with their service for free.
