Choosing the right VPN from the hundreds available can be tough, but our picks offer top-notch security, ease of use, and great value. We've put them through the wringer to find the best options for you.
Surfshark is a personal favorite, praised for its incredibly user-friendly interface and affordable two-year plans, starting around $54. It packs a punch with features like double-hop connections, split tunneling, an ad blocker, and email masking. While its no-logs policy and transparency reports are solid, the lack of open-source applications means a bit more trust is needed compared to some competitors.
For a free option, EventVPN, an ad-supported service from ExpressVPN, is an interesting concept but falls short due to intrusive ads and slow speeds, making ProtonVPN or Windscribe superior free choices. IVPN offers strong anonymity with random IDs instead of accounts and accepts crypto payments. While it provides flexible plans, including a weekly option, it limits connections on its standard plan and lags behind competitors in features like RAM-less servers. Its app, however, is noted for being more attractive and easier to use than Mullvad's.
Private Internet Access (PIA) has a strong history of defending user privacy, notably in a 2016 case where it upheld its no-logging policy. However, PIA disappointed in testing, delivering the slowest speeds among all tested VPNs, with over a 50 percent drop on nearby US servers.
MysteriumVPN, a decentralized VPN (dVPN), uses a network of residential IP addresses routed through its MystNodes. While innovative, routing traffic through single residential IPs raises privacy concerns, and Mysterium was slow in testing without any privacy documentation like audits or transparency reports.
PrivadoVPN offers a decent free tier with 10GB of data and full-speed servers, but it comes with multiple subscription prompts. Its newness means a lack of transparency reports or audits, and its speeds, while okay, don't match top-tier free options like ProtonVPN or Windscribe.
When it comes to VPNs to avoid, Hola is a notorious example. It operates a peer-to-peer network and is linked to data collection company Bright Data, having been involved in a DDoS attack in the past. Its privacy policy confirms data logging, including IP addresses and visited pages. X-VPN, while not explicitly wrong, suffers from inconsistencies, uses a proprietary protocol, and has been linked to the Chinese government. Despite paid plans matching top providers, its speeds and feature set are lacking.
