Hundreds of VPNs are at your disposal. They all want you to believe they’re the best VPN you can buy. All of them claim to have the biggest network or a no-logging policy. And they all promise your internet traffic is safe on the network of servers they’ve rented. Only some of them are telling the truth.
VPNs are only growing in popularity due to age-verification laws in the UK and in several states in the US. Even if you don’t a VPN, you might need one. If you’re hesitant, I get it. VPN providers have been deep in murky waters for years, constantly caught lying about their practices, handing over user data that was never supposed to be logged, and serving as safe havens for large cybercriminal organizations.
I wanted to find the VPN services that actually work; the ones that keep their promises even in the face of potential prosecution, and the ones that have a proven track record of reliable performance. Some of the picks in this guide aren’t conventional, and some of the services I suggest you avoid might be controversial. But these are the top VPNs I’d use day to day.
Read our other VPN guides, including how to set up a VPN on your router and how to use a VPN to watch Netflix when you travel abroad.
Best VPN Deals for Black Friday 2026
If your looking to get a VPN deal, Proton, our top VPN pick (read more below), is running an early Black Friday sale: 75 percent off the regular price for two years. You can get Proton VPN Plus for $2.49 a month (regularly $10 a month); billed at $60 for 24 months. VPN Plus protects up to 10 devices and gives you access to more than 20,000 servers, plus it blocks ads, trackers, and malware. You can also snag one year of Proton Unlimited for $6.50 a month (regularly $13 a month); billed at $78 for 12 months, which adds Proton’s mail, calendar, and password manager software, plus 500 GB of cloud storage. We don’t know when this deal expires, but we imagine it will last through Cyber Monday.
What Does a VPN Do? And How Does It Work?
VPN stands for virtual private network. A VPN provides a tunnel through which all of your internet traffic passes. Instead of connecting to your internet service provider's servers, you connect to a VPN's server before connecting to the broader internet. Because most VPN services operate this way, your browsing data isn't stored, essentially making you anonymous online.
The linchpin in this system is a VPN protocol. Today, nearly all internet traffic is encrypted, but that encryption happens only after you've established a connection with a website. A VPN protocol encrypts traffic before it reaches the VPN server, adding extra security on untrusted networks like public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or airport. It doesn't help much on your personal network unless there is an intruder.
What Are VPNs Used For?
Although VPNs are often marketed as security tools, they serve a better purpose for privacy and bypassing geo-restrictions. By anonymizing your traffic through a VPN server, your browsing can't be traced back to you. The internet is full of cookies, and you might be surprised by how much of your traffic online is tracked via browser fingerprinting. That includes hiding what sites you visit (and what you do on those sites) from your internet service provider (ISP).
By routing your traffic through a server in another location, you can also bypass geo-restrictions online, such as the content libraries available in different countries on Netflix or checking product availability in other regions of the world.
VPNs can also be important when connecting to public Wi-Fi. If you're doing anything remotely sensitive on your computer at a coffee shop, a VPN is a good idea to protect your personal data.
How Much Do VPNs Cost?
VPN prices vary widely, but most providers cost around $10 per month for a monthly plan. Pricing changes if you buy several months at once, and it gets even more complicated with full security suites, such as those offered by Nord Security and Proton.
Most prominent VPN services offer multi-month or even multiyear discounts. These plans are often the best way to get your foot in the door, but some VPNs have recently faced class-action lawsuits over their auto-renewal practices. Although a handful of lawsuits have been filed, that doesn't mean these services necessarily engaged in illegal practices.
Free VPNs exist, as well, but you should avoid most of them. Some restrictive free plans from Proton and Windscribe are useful, but you should approach most free VPNs with skepticism.
You'll come across a few of these terms in this guide as you generally shop for a VPN. Here's what they mean.
Connecting to two (or more) VPN servers in succession. This provides an extra layer of privacy if someone traces your network path, but it will vastly reduce speeds.
Split tunneling: Allows you to choose which apps use the VPN tunnel. Useful if you want some apps (like your browser) to use the VPN tunnel but not others.
Kill switch: A security feature in VPNs that will disable your internet connection if the VPN connection drops. A kill switch can prevent internet traffic from leaking if the VPN fails.
A list of IP addresses or domain names that are blocked inside the VPN tunnel. Some VPNs offer Domain Name System (DNS) blocking, too, which can block ads served from particular DNS servers.
Most VPNs assign you a random IP address, or even rotate the IP address while you’re connected. If you need external access to your network with a network-wide VPN, you'll need a static IP address.
Port forwarding: Allows you to forward a port on your private network, bypassing the VPN tunnel. Useful when you need external network access with a network-wide VPN, such as running a media server.
A feature specific to Proton VPN that blocks ads and trackers while connected to the VPN. Other services, such as Windscribe and NordVPN, offer similar features.
Dark web monitoring: A feature available in some VPNs, such as NordVPN and ProtonVPN, that will monitor the dark web for your email address or other personal information. You'll be notified if the information shows up on the dark web or as part of a breach.
A feature of Mullvad VPN that will introduce background noise to your connection, combating AI-assisted network analysis. Windscribe, NordVPN, and ProtonVPN offer similar features.
Are VPNs Illegal?
Short of a few exceptions, VPNs are legal around the world. That includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the EU, South Africa, and many countries in Central and South America. Places such as North Korea and Turkmenistan have VPN bans in place, but due to the extreme censorship in those countries, it's hard to verify what laws are on the books (and how they're enforced). You can probably guess the North Korean government's stance on bypassing censorship, though.
For everyone else, VPN legality only comes into play based on which VPN you use and what you use it for. Countries such as India and Russia call for compliance with the government, forcing providers like NordVPN to shut down servers in those regions. And, regardless of what country you're in, engaging in illegal activity while connected to a VPN is still illegal.
Update November 2026: We’ve added a mention of an early Black Friday deal for Proton VPN.
| Number of Devices | Number of Locations | P2P Support | Kill Switch | Split Tunneling | Double Hop Connection | Ad/Tracker Blocker | Packet Obfuscation | WireGuard Support | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 127+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Secure Core | NetShield | Yes | Yes | |
| 10 | 178+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (NordLynx) | |
| Unlimited | 69+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 10 | 100+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 5 | 50+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (via Extension) | Yes | Yes | |
| 14 | 170+ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (Lightway) |
: I've used Surfshark personally for a few years, and I'd still be using it if Proton didn't impress me so much. Surfshark is dead simple to use. It pops up and connects before swiftly getting out of my way so I can get on with my day. If you spring for a two-year plan, it's cheap. You can score over two years for around $54 with the Starter plan.
If you want to dig in deeper, you can. Surfshark is one of the most feature-rich VPNs I've used, sporting the basics like a double-hop connection and split tunneling, as well as an ad blocker and email masking. Like Proton, Surfshark offers other security tools like antivirus and dark web monitoring if you pick up a more expensive plan. Surfshark loses out just a bit when it comes to privacy, however. It has a no-logs policy, and it maintains a transparency report and a warrant canary, so it’s not bad in this regard. However, it doesn't have open-source applications, so you’ll need a bit more faith in Surfshark’s app security than with some other VPN services.
: This is a free, ad-supported VPN from ExpressVPN. Ads and VPNs don't really mix, but EventVPN says it's able to offer a free service via Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), basically allowing it to serve ads without harvesting your personal data. The problem is the pervasiveness of ads. A banner lives at the top of the app at all times, and you'll need to sit through a 30-second ad each time you connect or disconnect; a big problem when some servers post unreasonably slow speeds. I'll admit EventVPN is a unique concept, but I see nothing better than ProtonVPN or Windscribe for a free VPN service. And when it comes to the inconvenience of sitting through ads, it's straight-up worse.
: This privacy-focused VPN provider is similar to Mullvad. It does not ask you to create an account with a username, password, and email, but instead generates a random ID, which you use to log in. That helps preserve your anonymity, since that information can’t be tied to your usage even if IVPN suffered a security incident. IVPN also accepts cryptocurrency payments (Bitcoin and Monero). Unlike Mullvad, IVPN offers one-year, two-year, and three-year plan options, as well as an unusual weekly option, which might be nice if you want a VPN while on vacation (IVPN standard is $2 per week). These can be more affordable than Mullvad’s monthly fee. However, IVPN lacks some privacy features you will find with Mullvad, such as RAM-less servers. IVPN scheduled a security audit for 2025, but as of January 2026, the results have not been posted. IVPN also has a tight two-device limit on the Standard plan. The Pro plan raises that to seven, but the Pro plan’s price is $10 per month, so it’s more expensive than Mullvad, which has a five-device limit. That remains true even if you go with a multi-year IVPN plan. Still, IVPN is a fine alternative if you want annual plan options. And while most VPN apps serve their purpose, I do think IVPN’s app is both more attractive and easier to use than Mullvad’s. —Matthew S. Smith
: With its long history in the VPN space, PIA has maintained a track record of defending user privacy—even in the face of actual criminal activity. In 2016, a criminal complaint was filed in Florida against Preston Alexander McWaters for threats made online. McWaters was eventually convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison. Investigators traced the online threats back to PIA's servers and subpoenaed the company. As the complaint reads, “A subpoena was sent to [Private Internet Access], and the only information they could provide is that the cluster of IP addresses being used was from the east coast of the United States.” According to the complaint, McWaters engaged in several other identifying activities, but PIA wasn't among them. Despite such a clear view of a VPN provider upholding its no-logging policy, PIA didn't impress me during my tests. It delivered the worst speeds out of any VPN I tested, with more than a 50 percent drop on the closest US server. (Windscribe, for context, only dropped 15.6 percent of my speed.)
: This is the go-to dVPN, or decentralized VPN, as far as I can tell. The concept of a decentralized VPN has existed for a while, but it's really gained traction over the last couple of years. The idea is to have a network of residential IP addresses that make up the network, routing your traffic through normal IP addresses to get around the increasingly common block lists for VPN servers. Mysterium accomplishes this network with MystNodes. It's a crypto node. People buy the node to earn crypto, and they're put into the Mysterium network. It's not inherently bad, but routing your traffic through a single residential IP is a little worrisome. Even without the decentralized kick, Mysterium was slow, and it doesn't maintain any sort of privacy materials, be it a third-party audit, warranty canary, or transparency report.
: A popular option to recommend as a free VPN, offering a decent free service, with a handful of full-speed servers and 10 GB of data per month. You'll have to suffer through four—yes, four—redirects begging you to pay for a subscription before signing up, but the free plan works. The problem is how new PrivadoVPN is. There's no transparency report or audit available, and although the speeds are decent, they aren't as good as Proton, Windscribe, or Surfshark. PrivadoVPN isn't bad, but it's hard to recommend when Proton and Windscribe exist with free plans that are equally as good.
You'll find dozens of free VPNs all claiming to protect your privacy. Most of them don't. There are plenty of VPNs I don’t recommend, but these are a few I've tested that are worth mentioning.
is an infamous name in the VPN industry, but it's been close to a decade since its very public debacle. Hola is free, and it's able to stay free because it uses a peer-to-peer network. Hola also owns Bright Data (formerly Luminati), which is a data collection company. In 2015, Hola sold access to the network of its free users (via Luminati), which was used in a distributed denial-of-service attack on 8chan. It's been a decade since that incident, but Hola still operates in a similar way. If you don't pay, you could be used as an exit node in Bright Data's network, and the privacy policy makes it clear that Hola logs data about your usage, including your IP address, the pages you visit, and timestamps.
is available on desktop, but it primarily shows up in results on the Apple App Store and Google Play, targeting mobile users with a free offering. X-VPN hasn't done anything explicitly wrong like Hola, but it has way too many inconsistencies to recommend. For starters, it uses a proprietary VPN protocol, which it obfuscates within the app. Proprietary protocols like NordVPN's NordLynx and ExpressVPN's Lightway are based on existing, open-source protocols. Further, X-VPN was highlighted in a Tech Transparency Project report about free VPNs with links to the Chinese government; X-VPN is based in Hong Kong. There's no smoking gun with X-VPN, but there doesn't need to be. The speeds aren't the best, the app lacks basic features like split tunneling, and the pricing for a paid plan is in line with top providers.
Functionally, a VPN should do two things: keep your internet speed reasonably fast, and actually protect your browsing data. That's where I focused my testing. Extra features, a comfy UI, and customization settings are great, but they don't matter if the core service is broken.
Speed testing requires spot-checking, as the time of day, the network you're connected to, and the specific VPN server you're using can all influence speeds. Because of that, I always set a baseline speed on my unprotected connection directly before recording results, and I ran the test three times across both US and UK servers. With those baseline drops, I spot-checked at different times of the day over the course of a week to see if the speed decrease was similar.
Security is a bit more involved. For starters, I checked for DNS, WebRTC, and IP leaks every time I connected to a server using Browser Leaks. I also ran brief tests sniffing my connection with Wireshark to ensure all of the packets being sent were secured with the VPN protocol in use.
On the privacy front, the top-recommended services included on this list have been independently audited, and they all maintain some sort of transparency report. In most cases, there's a proper report, but in others, such as Windscribe, that transparency is exposed through legal proceedings.
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