Free VPNs are probably worse, the companies behind them sell your data. I'd rather have my ISP see my furry midget porn as opposed to some foreign VPN company. I use NordVPN though I reckon Mullvad is probably the best. Here's a site I reccomend to see what VPN best suits your needs. https://thatoneprivacysite.net/. It's pretty informative. If there's no chance you'd pay for one, it's probably best you'd not use one at all.

Here is a site that also tells you how to browse securely, what operating systems to use and useful sofwares. https://www.privacytools.io/