The Best VPN Services of 2025

Thousands of streaming tests confirm ExpressVPN is still the best VPN for streaming, unblocking 95% of the platforms we tested it with.

Its ability to reliably unblock geo-restricted content in 106 countries, paired with exceptional streaming speeds, is unmatched.

ExpressVPN’s US servers are great at unblocking the likes of HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. They bypass NFL out-of-market restrictions and other US sports blackouts, too.

These are the ExpressVPN servers we recently tested for unblocking popular content around the world:

• For Japanese content: Japan – Tokyo

• For American content: New Jersey – 1

• For Australian content: Australia – Melbourne

• For British content: UK – Docklands

• For Canadian content: Canada – Toronto

ExpressVPN is also the best VPN for bypassing the Netflix VPN ban, with an astonishing 100% reliability score. Plus, it also unblocks 17 other Netflix regions.

On TVs specifically, we enjoyed using the VPN’s simple yet effective Fire TV app, as well as its MediaStreamer (Smart DNS) solution to unblock apps on Smart TV and games consoles.

Be warned though, every once in a while a server will stop working with a streaming service.

When this happened to us, we tried a different server in the same country, which often worked.

Sometimes, we asked the 24/7 live chat support agents for an alternative server. They are formidably quick, and the servers they recommend almost always work.

ExpressVPN performed very well in our security and privacy tests, too.

The VPN routed our data transfers through secure VPN protocols (OpenVPN and Lightway) using AES-256 encryption and diskless (RAM-only) servers, which means the service physically can’t log any activity data.

In fact, real-world tests – including server seizures and independent audits – have confirmed this fact several times.

While ExpressVPN doesn’t offer many extra features, like multi-hop servers or GPS spoofing, it offers all the vital settings, especially a working VPN kill switch to prevent sudden IP leaks.

ExpressVPN is by far the easiest and most widely-compatible VPN we’ve used. It’s as close as you can get to a plug-and-play VPN.

All key preferences are preset for you on first load, including Automatic Protocol Selection (for best performance) and the VPN kill switch activation.

Every single app, even the router one, is incredibly well-designed, uncluttered, and homogeneous across platforms.

The red, green, and white color palette sits well against any device display and makes it very easy to read the app’s labels.

Using it on your computer is almost the same as on your smartphone, which is ideal for VPN beginners.

Plus, out of all the VPNs we tested, ExpressVPN was the quickest (within 3 seconds) to connect to server locations, whether nearby or far away.

ExpressVPN isn’t perfect, and its main drawback is its above-average subscription price.

At its cheapest, the VPN service costs $6.67 per month on a 15-month contract.

Despite the service being more expensive than many premium rivals, you get your money’s worth given its superior capabilities.

If you want to try the VPN first, ExpressVPN offers 7- and 30-day free trials, too.

What we love about NordVPN is how much it has improved its security standards since a very small server breach in 2018.

All apps now use NordLynx, a variation of the WireGuard protocol, and traffic is encrypted through the ChaCha20 cipher.

We analyzed the packets passing through our network using Wireshark, and NordVPN made all our traffic data completely illegible.

Alongside the mandatory kill switch (which successfully passed our penetration testing), NordVPN also offers a rare multi-hop (double VPN) feature, which routed our web traffic through two separate VPN servers and encrypting it twice.

And just like ExpressVPN, NordVPN uses RAM-only (diskless) servers, making it almost impossible for a third-party to extract user data from the server.

NordVPN doesn’t log any web activity data for that matter. It doesn’t record your IP address, browsing history, or bandwidth used.

However, it does keep a log of your username and the last connection date for 15 minutes after each session.

While we trust NordVPN, its logging policy hasn’t been categorically proven through a public court case or law enforcement request.

NordVPN continues to deliver very fast VPN speeds.

Across same-country connections, speeds only dropped by 5%, which was almost as good as ExpressVPN’s 3% slowdown.

On international connections, NordVPN roughly matched ExpressVPN, with an average download speed of 86Mbps (on a fixed 100Mbps base connection).

Connecting to specific locations, NordVPN did beat ExpressVPN for speed. For instance, speeds into its UK VPN servers and Canada VPN locations were superb and easily unblocked local TV services.

While we rate NordVPN very highly, we felt rather let down by the VPN’s less user-friendly and intuitive apps.

The VPN apps for Mac and Windows need particular design improvements. The apps are by no means hard to use, but the interfaces feel cluttered due to the many extra features available.

We enjoyed using NordVPN’s mobile apps a lot more, although on Android we found that the kill switch requires irritating configuration.

There are very few verified no-logs VPNs on the market, but PIA is one of them.

The provider’s logging policy has been externally verified several times, and the company releases regular transparency reports to support this.

Thanks to its strict no-logs policy and powerful security, Private Internet Access easily outperformed its rivals for anonymous torrenting.

We were even able to torrent on all of PIA’s servers, including US ones. This is refreshing, considering many VPNs often exclude servers from P2P activity for dubious reasons.

And unlike most VPNs, PIA also comes with port forwarding. This feature is useful to increase the number of peers you ‘talk with,’ which speeds up torrent speeds.

Using qBittorrent, we downloaded a file at a rate of 9.6MiB/s — a formidable download speed even faster than ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

Not only does PIA run the most servers, it’s also the only VPN covering every single US state.

Offering the largest pool of American IP addresses allows PIA’s American users to easily bypass sports blackouts or access local TV news within the US.

While PIA’s privacy and torrenting test results are unrivalled, and its subscription price very appealing, its usability needs work.

Simply put, PIA is not as nicely designed as ExpressVPN, and it’s not the easiest VPN to use. There are too many settings to tinker with for the typical VPN beginner.

The macOS software in particular was frustrating to use, taking over three seconds to load as a windowed app.

More usability woes included 75% of US server locations not working with streaming apps on Firestick, and the Smart DNS solution unblocking none.

On the plus side, PIA’s mobile apps are probably the nicest-looking and easiest to use in its arsenal.

Surshark is very secure, offering many of the essential security features we expect from high-quality VPN providers.

All its applications use ChaCha20 encryption, WireGuard as the default protocol, and include a VPN kill switch.

Of slight concern is the fact that the kill switch isn’t enabled by default. At least, you can easily turn it on from the settings menu. On macOS, the kill switch leaked our IP address when changing servers.

On the plus side, the VPN logs almost nothing about its users. Similarly to ExpressVPN, Surfshark’s servers are RAM-only, meaning no data can be extracted from them in the event of a breach or server seizure.

Additionally, Surfshark has introduced a ‘Rotating IP’ feature. When enabled, the VPN changes your IP address every five to 10 minutes without changing the server location you’re connected to.

The Rotating IP function, which worked smoothly for us, further increases your anonymity and security online without ever revealing your true location.

What is rare about Surfshark is its ability to spoof your GPS location on Android phones. Windscribe is the only other VPN able to do this.

The ‘GPS Override’ function prevents Android mobile applications using GPS to detect your real location. It’s very simple to use, and works as intended.

When activated, the integrated function spoofed our GPS coordinates on our Android mobile device to match our VPN server location.

This helps Surfshark bypass geo-restrictions on apps using GPS to detect your location, like ESPN+. Not even ExpressVPN or NordVPN offer this technology.

The issues we faced testing Surfshark revolve around its disappointing server connection times and speeds.

We often found ourselves waiting several seconds trying to connect to popular servers. Once connected, the speeds weren’t as fast as ExpressVPN’s or NordVPN’s.

On short-distance connections, our internet speed dropped by 5%. This isn’t bad by any means, but it’s worse than ExpressVPN’s 3%.

PrivateVPN’s applications are not only beginner-friendly, they’re also very secure.

Through a very simple interface, the VPN software encrypts internet connections using the AES-256 cipher and a 2048-bit RSA handshake.

By combining simplicity with good security, PrivateVPN is ideal for securing free public WiFi in airports, hotels, and coffee shops, where the risk of man-in-the-middle attacks is heightened.

The lack of advanced features compared to other top VPNs is very evident, though. For example, there’s no option to use multi-hop servers or split tunneling.

PrivateVPN is also the only VPN in our top 10 list that doesn’t use some form of the WireGuard protocol.

PrivateVPN is surprisingly good at unblocking websites and applications, despite its limited server park.

The VPN currently unblocks 10 Netflix regions as well as BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Hulu, to name a few.

Compatibility is limited, though. There is no Smart DNS tool so you’ll have to set up PrivateVPN on your router to use it with devices like games consoles, which don’t allow direct VPN app installs.

PrivateVPN’s main drawback is its small network of servers. It only offers 200 servers compared to ExpressVPN’s 3,000.

This limited server network often causes congestion issues on the network, which is why PrivateVPN’s long-distance connections are often slower than its competitors.

As an indication, we experienced speed losses of 39% and 24% connecting to South Africa and Australia respectively.

As a result, you can’t always expect 4K quality when streaming foreign video content.

IPVanish remains our highest-rated VPN for the very popular Amazon Fire TV Stick, and other Fire TV devices.

The app is very simple to use, and it records fast speeds connecting to nearby VPN servers. In recent tests, we only registered a 5% loss in our download speeds.

We found that the VPN works well with Kodi and IPTV apps.

The main downside of using IPVanish is that it can only unblock 4 Netflix regions, and it doesn’t work with Amazon Prime Video.

While IPVanish struggles to unblock streaming apps, we trust it a lot more for keeping internet data transfers private.

All 2,200 physical servers, entirely owned by IPVanish, are completely no-logs. They don’t monitor or store any of your internet activity.

What’s more, you’ll get access to over 40,000 anonymous IP addresses – a staggering number very rare among VPN companies.

In our security tests, we’ve never suffered an IP or DNS address leak using IPVanish, unless we were switching servers on the Mac app. The company needs to fix this small yet important issue.

Additionally, IPVanish needs to rectify the fact that the VPN kill switch isn’t enabled by default.

IPVanish’s Fire TV software works great but in general the service’s apps, especially those for desktop computers, suffer from an out-dated design.

Despite a redesign in 2023, the Windows and macOS apps still don’t look as pleasant and user-friendly as ExpressVPN’s.

There’s a lot of clutter on the homescreens such as a very prominent data waveform, which isn’t particularly useful and takes up a lot of space.

More frustrating is the fact there are no web browser extensions, Smart DNS, or a router app. The latter two omissions complicate unblocking content on Roku and games consoles considerably.

Not all is bad, though. We love that IPVanish was one of the first VPNs to release a rare app for Apple TV.

There’s also an apk file you can use to side load IPVanish on Android devices with no access to Google Play Store (e.g. Android boxes).

CyberGhost is the only top VPN to offer VPN free trials that don’t require upfront submission of payment details.

There are two free trials available: a 24-hour free trial on desktops and laptops, a seven-day free trial on iPhone/iPad, and a three-day trial on Android devices.

You can even combine these free trial periods with the VPN’s 45-day refund guarantee to use CyberGhost for free for over 50 days.

CyberGhost’s dedicated streaming servers are a lot more successful at unblocking streaming platforms than in the past.

CyberGhost’s past inconsistencies are now gone and it now unblocks all streaming services we tested it with, including 10 Netflix regions, Disney+, Prime Video, and Hulu.

The service’s Smart DNS tool is what really stood out in our tests, though.

In our experience, it’s the most effective DNS tool offered by a VPN, unblocking content in Germany, Japan, Netherlands, UK and US.

The tool even has specific configurations for Hulu as well as the American and British Netflix libraries.

CyberGhost’s features aren’t quite as plentiful as PIA’s or NordVPN’s, but they are sufficient for the average VPN user.

The most notable feature is the VPN’s dedicated IP offering. These single-user static IPs are available in Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US, but the cost extra.

These IPs allow you to use the same anonymous IP address every time. Thanks to a token-based system, the IP isn’t linked to your account to preserve your internet privacy.

One of CyberGhost’s main drawbacks is its speed inconsistencies, especially connecting to far-away servers.

CyberGhost’s international download speed of 81Mbps trails ExpressVPN’s 85Mbps and NordVPN’s 86Mbps by some margin.

International slowdowns have been happening for a few years now, but we haven’t seen much improvement on this front, sadly.

Hide.me isn’t the fastest VPN we’ve tested, but it’s tied with IPVanish as the fastest VPN in our top 10 VPN recommendations.

Wherever you are in the world, Hide.me delivers VPN connections fast enough for you to not even notice you’re using a VPN.

We were especially impressed with the VPN’s upload speeds, which resulted in lag-free video calling and improved P2P file sharing in our tests.

Its download speeds on close connections are also fantastic, losing just 4% connecting to the closest VPN server.

As a result, Hide.me is a good choice if you want VPN protection without having to frequently configure it. You can simply connect once and leave your VPN running 24/7 without any noticeable downsides.

In the past 12 months of testing, Hide.me’s premium version has been able to unblock international websites from China 84% of the time.

The VPN’s obfuscation and multi-hop tools now work to bypass strict web censorship, but you have request custom multi-hop servers from customer support.

If you connect to standard VPN servers then the VPN won’t bypass aggressive internet filters.

In terms of basic functionality, Hide.me is a good VPN. Having tested Hide.me for years, we particularly appreciate how much it has improved in recent years.

In the past, Hide.me’s apps suffered from regular crashes and abrupt disconnections, but they now offer a reliable experience.

They’re still not the best-looking apps, though, and they’re not as easy to use as we’d like them to be.

The Windows client in particular is overly-complex, with unnecessary protocols (SSTP) and adapter configuration options.

The free version of Proton VPN is the best free VPN we’ve tested. Thanks to its unlimited bandwidth policy, you can leave it running all the time.

In our latest tests, we recorded impressive speeds connecting to all 5 free server locations. With just 8% average speed loss, it even beats some paid VPNs.

However, we found 5 free server locations extremely limiting, compared to 112 using the paid plan.

Proton VPN Free also doesn’t let you choose a server location. We were disappointed to find you’re automatically connected to your nearest free server from the US, the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, or Poland.

The free servers also block you from torrenting and unblocking streaming websites, as confirmed by our tests. For these activities, Windscribe Free is a much better choice.

Proton VPN is synonymous with highly-secure and encrypted VPN connections.

You have the choice of using either OpenVPN or WireGuard protocols (hence AES-256 or ChaCha20 encryption), and it enforces Forward Secrecy (FS).

The VPN’s paid plan also includes Secure Core technology. Used on 40 of its servers, it further enhances security by tunneling traffic through servers in its own data center.

None of these security credentials impact Proton VPN’s usability, either. We found that the VPN’s apps look great on every platform, and even its most advanced features feel easy to use.

Though it’s still fast, the paid version of Proton VPN has fallen behind its main rivals in our latest speed tests.

Even using WireGuard, its local download speeds are consistently slower than ExpressVPN, NordVPN, PIA, IPVanish, and several other providers.

We’ve noticed speed deceleration connecting to both nearby and distant VPN servers. It’s unclear what’s caused this downtrend, but it’s affecting the VPN’s performance.

While Proton VPN is a very good VPN in general, it sadly doesn’t represent as good value for your money as the other paid VPNs ranked higher.

What sets Windscribe apart is how easily the VPN beats Netflix geo-restrictions around the world.

In our tests, we unblocked 32 Netflix regions, including:

The VPN also works with BBC iPlayer and popular platforms like HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.

While the free VPN no longer unblocks US Netflix, it still works with 5 other Netflix regions, HBO Max, Hulu, and more — a huge achievement for a free software product.

Keep in mind that Windscribe Free is limited by a 10GB monthly data cap, which equates to roughly four hours of HD streaming.

Windscribe’s great streaming capabilities are sadly hindered by its disappointing international speeds, which are much slower than ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

For instance, we measured losses of up to 20% and 16% when connecting to South Africa and Australia.

These slower speeds visibly affect the quality of the picture. We experienced a blurry broadcast several times in our recent tests.

Furthermore, connecting to certain Windscribe servers took many seconds at best, but many minutes at worst. Sometimes we couldn’t even connect at all.

Because of the lack of 24/7 live chat support, when we couldn’t connect to a server, we had to wait over 24 hours for a support agent to help fix issue.

To put that into perspective, with providers like ExpressVPN and PIA, our issues are typically resolved in under 10 minutes.

Windscribe is also one of the rare VPNs to offer American (Chicago, Dallas) and Canadian (Toronto) residential IPs. The US IP addresses are provided by AT&T.

Residential IP addresses make your VPN connection appear as a typical household/cellular one, so they’re far less likely to be detected and blocked by streaming services.

Since these IP addresses are static and never change, they’re ideal if you need to keep using the same IP address. They do cost an extra $8.00 per month, though.

Remember, these IPs are allocated to a handful of users (not just you), so you won’t be as private as using the dynamic IP addresses (shared by many customers) of the standard servers.

Astrill is an exceptional VPN for bypassing censorship in regions like China, but it’s just not good enough for other use-cases. In our testing, it performed poorly for streaming and it’s super expensive.

Avast VPN offers basic security, is poor at bypassing geo-restrictions, and it logs too much sensitive data. Put simply, it does not perform well compared to the top VPN services.

Hotspot Shield logs too much information. This includes your IP address, approximate geolocation, connection timestamps, bandwidth used, device information, and non-personal logs of the websites you visit.

Mullvad VPN is very secure, but it’s not able to bypass geo-restrictions. It doesn’t unblock most streaming platforms, and it doesn’t work in high-censorship countries.

Norton VPN doesn’t unblock geo-restricted websites, and it only allows torrenting on its server locations in the Netherlands.

PureVPN can’t unblock US Netflix, Disney+ or Prime Video, it can’t bypass strict web blocks, and its logging policy isn’t privacy-focused enough.

TunnelBear has a very limited server network and it can’t beat most geo-restrictions. This means it doesn’t work well for streaming or for use in high-censorship countries.

Betternet VPN is a bad VPN in every sense. It lacks adequate security features, suffers from slow speeds, and it leaks DNS requests.

Hola VPN is one of the worst VPN services we’ve tested. It’s slow, doesn’t unblock Netflix, blocks BitTorrent traffic, and logs all of your internet activity.

Super VPN has a vague logging policy, severely limited server locations, and apps that are riddled with advertisements. The app’s developer has questionable links to China, and it fails to unblock the simplest geo-restrictions.

Thunder VPN is a privacy and security risk. It logs your IP address, uses weak SSL encryption, and lacks a functioning kill switch. We also recorded massive speed losses while connected to all of Thunder VPN’s servers.

Touch VPN is a free VPN that logs your IP address, location, and ISP. It caps your data usage to 500MB, leaks DNS requests, and completely fails to establish a connection on Windows devices.

If you want a VPN to protect your internet traffic at home, on public WiFi, and on cellular networks, look for the following features:

• Leak protection for your IP address, DNS requests, WebRTC, and IPv6 traffic (since most VPNs don’t work on IPv6 connections).

• Secure connection protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard, and AES-256 encryption.

• A VPN kill switch to protect your real IP address in the event the VPN connection drops.

• Specialized servers that allow multi-hop, obfuscation, and even Tor over VPN.

To anonymize your browsing activity with a VPN, look for these key attributes:

• Independent audits of the VPN’s logging and security practices, or a real-world case that verifies the VPN’s claims.

• A no-logs privacy policy to prevent your internet activity being linked back to you.

• Company headquarters in a country with no data retention laws (i.e. a privacy-friendly jurisdiction).

• ‘RAM-only’ servers that never write data to hard disks.

If you want to use a VPN to access geo-restricted streaming services, here are the features to look out for:

• A large network of VPN servers in a diverse range of global locations.

• Unblocks US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

• Fast international speeds, especially into popular server locations like the US and UK.

• Smart DNS, Fire TV, and Android TV apps, to unblock content on different streaming devices.

• 24/7 live chat customer support to find working streaming servers more quickly.

If you want a VPN with the fastest outright speed, here are the more important factors to consider:

• Operates a large server network with minimal congestion, so you can always connect to a nearby server for the quickest speeds.

• Uses WireGuard or a proprietary VPN protocol optimized for speed.

• Offers VPN servers with high bandwidth, such as 20Gbps, for optimum speed performance.

If you own several computers and devices, consider the following compatibility criteria:

• Android APK file to sideload (install) the VPN on Android devices that don’t support native VPN applications.

• Native apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices.

• Native app for Fire TV devices, and the option to set the VPN up on routers.

• Smart DNS technology to use the VPN’s DNS credentials on Smart TV, PlayStation, and Xbox.

• Chrome and Firefox VPN extensions for controlling the VPN at browser-level, and to use on Chromebooks.

• Router compatibility for VPN use with Chromecast, Roku, and any other devices on your WiFi network.

If you’re an advanced VPN user, here are some other important features to get the most from your VPN:

• Multi-hop servers, dedicated or residential IP addresses, port forwarding, GPS spoofing, Tor over VPN, or other additional features.

• A high simultaneous connection limit, so you can use the VPN with every device you own on a single subscription.

• Split tunneling, so you can configure certain devices or applications to travel outside the encrypted VPN tunnel.

• An ad blocker to prevent adverts and trackers when you’re online.

It’s not always easy to understand how a VPN’s subscription price corresponds to its quality.

Based on our analysis, the cost of a VPN varies according to its quality and the subscription length.

On average, the month-to-month price of a good VPN is $11.77, but subscribing to a yearly or a multi-year subscription reduces the monthly cost to $4.11 per month on average.

The chart below compares the cheapest monthly price of each of our 10 recommendations against its overall rating. The VPNs towards the top-left provide the worst value, whilst those towards the bottom-right offer the best value.

As the chart illustrates, there is a strong correlation between price and performance, particularly among the five highest-rated VPNs. The more expensive the VPN, the better it performs overall.

A VPN’s logging policy indicates the amount of data it monitors and stores about your online activity.

If a VPN logs excessive data, like your browsing history or IP address, this information could be accessed by a hacker or law enforcement.

To evaluate this, we study every VPN’s privacy policy in-depth to understand its data handling practices.

We also research its ownership, history, and any privacy-enhancing features, like diskless VPN servers.

Given its importance in protecting user privacy, a VPN’s logging policy takes up 20% of our overall rating. We further break down the rating into subcategories, to give us a more comprehensive view of the VPN’s performance.

Our privacy and logging policy rating is calculated by the following subcategories:

• Data Logged: 60%
• History: 20%
• Jurisdiction: 10%
• Trustworthiness: 5%
• Privacy-enhancing Features: 5%

To ensure consistency and minimize bias, multiple testers review each VPN’s privacy policy to reach an agreed final rating.

Speed is a measurement of how fast a VPN can retrieve and transmit data to the internet. The primary benefit of a faster VPN is that you can access web pages quicker and stream geo-blocked videos in higher quality.

To measure each VPN’s speed, we conduct extensive speed tests by connecting to servers in five continents in a controlled testing environment.

To remove the possibility of inconsistencies, we manually conduct each test on our proprietary internet speed testing tool. No third-party software is used.

We use WireGuard, or the VPN’s fastest equivalent protocol, and perform these tests three times a week. We then calculate the VPN’s average speed, which reduces the impact of any anomalous results.

Our speed rating is calculated by the following subcategories:

• Download Speed: 80%
• Upload Speed: 10%
• Ping: 10%

Security measures the strength of the encrypted VPN tunnel while connected to a server. A secure VPN protects your data from potential threats, like hackers, that might attempt to intercept or steal it.

To measure a VPN’s performance in this category, we use a range of tests to evaluate the VPN’s technical features. Here’s a quick table of common technical features and how we evaluate them:

To score highly in this category, a VPN must offer many advanced technical features and pass stress tests proving their effectiveness.

While additional features are important, a VPN’s ability to adequately protect your data transfers is more important than the sheer number of features it has.

For this reason, a VPN that does the basics of securely encrypting web traffic using WireGuard or OpenVPN and the AES-256 cipher — even if it does not have advanced features — will score higher than a VPN with many features that don’t work effectively.

Streaming is an evaluation of how well a VPN can access geo-blocked streaming services like Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and BBC iPlayer.

To measure this, we spend dozens of hours each week testing every VPN by connecting to a VPN server and seeing whether we can access 20 different international streaming services.

We’ve developed a system to rate each VPN’s ability to unblock streaming services:

• 0.1: Doesn’t work with any streaming service
• Up to 4.0: Works with US Netflix or BBC iPlayer
• Up to 7.0: Works with both US Netflix and BBC iPlayer
• Up to 9.0: Works with multiple streaming services, such as Hulu, HBO Max, and Prime Video
• Above 9.0: Works with all tested services
• 9.9: Consistently works with every service

Ease of use refers to how intuitive the VPN’s software is and how easily a typical user can interact with it and configure its settings. The easier it is to use, the higher the VPN will score.

Our experts evaluate this category based on our experience with the product during testing, and how it relates to the other 60 VPNs we’ve tested.

This assessment takes into consideration the VPN’s download and setup process, with higher ratings awarded to VPNs with a clear download link and a useful onboarding screen.

After installation, we give more points to VPNs with features that make it easier and more convenient to use. These include an automatic server selection feature, clearly labeled buttons, and a consistent interface across devices.

We also factor in how pleasant the VPN feels to use in everyday situations, rewarding those with a minimalist and well-designed app, while penalizing those that suffer from CAPTCHAs and connection drops.

The server locations category refers to the diversity of IP address locations you can get by using the VPN. A wider range of locations allows you to bypass more geo-restrictions and achieve better speeds.

To evaluate a VPN in this category, we analyze the number and spread of server locations listed on its website. We then verify this information by testing the available geographic locations in the VPN’s software.

VPN services with a larger server network and a global distribution of servers receive higher ratings in our recommendations.

We’ve developed a scoring system to quantitatively rate each VPN’s server network:

• 0.1: Single fixed server location
• Up to 1.5: Single dynamic server location
• Up to 4.0: Up to 6 country locations
• Up to 6.0: Up to 12 country locations
• Up to 7.0: Up to 20 country locations
• Up to 8.0: Up to 40 country locations
• Up to 9.0: More than 40 countries, up to twenty city-level locations, up to 1,000 total servers
• Above 9.0: More than 40 countries, more city-level locations, more than 1,000 total servers

A VPN excels at torrenting when it offers both anonymity and fast P2P speeds. This ensures it will hide your torrenting activity from ISPs while delivering quick downloads.

We evaluate a VPN’s torrenting performance using a controlled test. This involves downloading a self-hosted 1GB torrent file from a private torrent tracker while connected to a local VPN server.

Our torrenting subcategories are as follows:

• P2P Speed: 30%
• Encryption & Security: 20%
• Logging Policy: 20%
• P2P Servers: 20%
• Additional Torrenting Features: 10%

Bypassing censorship evaluates how well a VPN can circumvent web restrictions to access blocked websites, like Twitter in Russia and China.

To gather these results, we test each VPN using a server in China. We record the success rate of each VPN over the past three and 12 months, with each VPN tested weekly.

This gives us an accurate reflection of how reliably the VPN works to unblock websites in China and other high-censorship countries.

Here are our bypassing censorship subcategories:

• Success Rate in China: 80%
• Nearby Servers to China: 10%
• Obfuscation Technology: 10%

As VPNs are advanced and technical pieces of software, it’s important that your VPN provider can provide prompt and effective assistance if you need it.

To evaluate the quality of a VPN’s customer support, we contact their support team via all available channels and fact-check their recommendations.

Our customer support rating is an objective measure of how well a VPN’s support team can address and resolve issues, taking into account both accuracy and response time.

We rate each VPN’s customer support offering based on the availability of support and the quality of assistance:

• 0.1 – 0.9: Doesn’t offer any support options.
• 1.0 – 5.0: Support is available through a single channel, such as online resources, email, or telephone.
• 5.1 – 8.5: Provides a combination of two support channels, such as online resources and email, or online resources and telephone.
• 8.6 – 9.5: Offers live chat as well as a combination of two support channels, such as online resources, email, and telephone.
• 9.6 – 9.9: Offers excellent support through online resources, email, and 24-hour live chat, with consistently knowledgeable and accurate agents.