McAfee VPN free trial: 30 days, but only 500 MB a month

McAfee has no free plan, only a trial. You get it on the McAfee website together with the Total Protection package: 30 days, and the VPN inside works with a 500 MB monthly traffic limit. A bank card is required at signup, and once the trial ends the card gets charged.

What you can test with 500 MB

That is enough to install the app, connect to a few countries, and check speed and stability. For video streaming the limit is nearly useless: at HD quality it will not even last an hour. So the McAfee trial answers the question "does the VPN work for me", but not the question "is it good for streaming". McAfee also makes no claims about working with Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+ or Prime Video.

The card and when the charge comes

The main risk here is the card. If you do not cancel the subscription before the 30 trial days run out, the paid term begins. McAfee does not state in its terms how much will be charged after the trial, and the packages themselves cost roughly three times more to renew than in the first year: Basic is $29.99 and then $89.99. How to turn off auto-renewal in My Account is covered on the page about cancelling McAfee VPN.

Trial or purchase with a refund

Instead of the trial you can buy Basic right away for $29.99 a year: there is no traffic limit, and you can get your money back within 30 days of the first purchase. The downside is that Basic covers a single device. To test without a card, other services from the list of free trials with no credit card will do, and you can compare terms and durations for all of them in the general catalog of VPN free trials.