Find free Wi-Fi hotspots with these tips

Wi-Fi hotspots are great when you want to check that email, or look something up, but you don’t want to use data from your bundle. When you use free Wi-Fi you can use the internet on your phone without worrying about the costs. Most of us have Wi-Fi hotspots at home and at work. But when you’re traveling or on your commute and you need to use the internet now, you’ll need to find a free hotspot.

Many places have Wi-Fi hotspots these days. Sometimes they’re free, sometimes you need to pay to use them. You can find them in trains and buses, in cafes, libraries and shops. Some cities even provide their own free Wi-Fi in certain places.

Wi-Fi hotspots can help you cut back on expensive phone costs. They could even help you get rid of your phone contract and go prepaid instead.

What is a free WiFi hotspot?

Free Wi-Fi is exactly what you think it is. It’s an alternative to using the 4G or 5G connection on your phone. Those can be quite expensive if you use a lot of data. On the other hand, if your phone still uses 3G internet speeds can be slow. Then, Wi-Fi will help you to get faster speeds.

It’s an alternative to paid hotspots as well. Internet cafes, those that still exist from their heyday in the 90s, often offer paid Wi-Fi hotspots. These sometimes have a higher bandwidth, so you can have faster internet than you have on free Wi-Fi. Then again, most public and free hotspots are fast enough for most tasks. So you probably won’t need it.

What are the countries with the most public free WiFi hotspots?

There are about half a billion free Wi-Fi hotspots around the world. Of course, these aren’t distributed evenly across the world. Some places have more hotspots than others. So what are the best places to be when you need free public Wi-Fi?

Comparing countries on this level is difficult. For example, Russia has the most free public Wi-Fi hotspots in Europe, with 276,439 hotspots. It also has the highest population, with 144 Million people. So the people per hotspot ratio isn’t going to be as good as it is in smaller countries. There is a difference in speed as well. Not all hotspots are created equal. Some offer faster upload and download speeds than others.

For this reason, we’ll look at the places with the highest density in Wi-Fi hotspots and those countries that offer the highest speeds.

Top 5 countries with the highest density of hotspots:

1. France (2.8 people per public hotspot)
2. Belgium (2.9 people per public hotspot)
3. Denmark (4.3 people per public hotspot)
4. Austria (4.6 people per public hotspot)
5. South Korea (5.6 people per hotspot)

Top 5 countries with the fastest Wi-Fi hotspots:

1. Lithuania
2. Croatia
3. Estonia
4. Ireland
5. Romania

If you’re looking for a holiday destination with plenty of free Wi-Fi hotspots, then Europe and East-Asia (South Korea and Japan) are both perfect options. France and Belgium offer the most hotspots per person and Lithuania and Croatia the fastest.

But what if you’re looking for a good city trip? Which cities have the best free public Wi-Fi?

Top 5 cities with the best Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide

1. Seoul; South Korea – If you are not just looking for free Wi-Fi everywhere, but also for fast internet, then Seoul is the place for you. The capital of South Korea has the fastest internet speeds in the world. Free public Wi-Fi hotspots are dotted around the city and marked with a red sign.
2. Paris; France – There are over 200 free public Wi-Fi hotspots available in the capital of France. It’s run by the municipality of Paris and available for Tourists. The network is simply called “Paris Wi-Fi” and enables the connection for 2 hours.
3. New York; USA – New York has many free hotspots, mostly run by the many restaurants and cafes in the city. Public spaces and parks, such as the Public Library and Central Park have public Wi-Fi spots as well.
4. Barcelona; Spain – Barcelona has more than 700 hotspots all over the city in museums, parks, buses and more. It’s not the fastest internet in the world, but it’s enough to send messages or surf the web.
5. Osaka; Japan – There are more than 2000 free Wi-Fi hotspots in Osaka. You can register to the city-wide network “Osaka Free Wi-Fi” and get internet for 1 hour.

Where can you find a public free WiFi hotspot in the United States?

Now you know which places in the world have the most and the best free Wi-Fi hotspots. But this doesn’t help you to find a free hotspot near you. There are a couple of strategies to use if you’re looking for a good free hotspot right now.

Look for places known for free Wi-Fi

There are a couple of places that are known for their free Wi-Fi. Most restaurants and cafes offer free Wi-Fi these days. Best known among them is Starbucks. It’s not just limited to these places though. Public spaces, like Libraries, universities, train stations and parks, often have a free public hotspot. Look around and you might already see a place where they have free Wi-Fi.

Use a Wi-Fi map app

If you’re not interested in looking around for a free Wi-Fi hotspot you can use an map app. These will show all the free public hotspots in your area. We’ve listed some of these apps below.

• Wifi map – The most popular hotspot finder app on iPhone and Android. It has a map that shows you the Wi-Fi hotspots in your area. With millions of hotspots in their database it’s likely you’ll find a hotspot near you.
• Wifi finder – Like Wifi map, Wifi finder works with a map that lets you find hotspots near you. It also allows you to download maps so you can use them offline.
• Wifi analyzer – This app just shows you the hotspots near you. Additionally it also gives you information about the internet speeds of those hotspots. Handy if you’re looking for the fastest internet around.