You don’t need any old virtual private network: you need the best VPN possible because in our modern times, it seems like all the world’s massive corporations are queuing up for their chance to leer through the digital peephole at all of your private data.
Thankfully, as our internet privacy has eroded more and more over the years, the best VPN services have risen to challenge the invasive nature of certain algorithms and cookies. Nowadays, if you’re looking for a VPN provider, you’re almost spoiled for choice, with so many options and each of them providing a slightly different package. Deciding which to use might even be overwhelming.
If you’re struggling to figure out which one will be best for you, you’ve come to the right place. We give ExpressVPN our highest recommendation for reasons we’ll get into below, and we’ve got eight other top picks for you too, including the best cheap VPN, the best free VPN, and many others.
Our choice for the best VPN is ExpressVPN, which works out at $8.32 USD or £5.70 GBP per month.
Pros
Cons
With servers in 94 countries around the world, compatibility with most major streaming platforms, superb download speeds, and countless other benefits, ExpressVPN is our choice for the best VPN service overall. As it is a giant of the VPN world, there’s no doubt that many readers will already have heard of it.
Cyberghost is the best streaming VPN and it works out as $2.19 USD or £1.92 GBP per month.
CyberGhost features
Locations 7,400+ servers in 91+ countries
Services unblocked Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Hulu, Prime
Free trial length Card-free for 1 day
Money-back guarantee 45 days
Simultaneous connections 7
Router support Yes
Pros:
Cons:
Fans of streaming services know the pain of region locked content – thank goodness CyberGhost gives you a way to get around that. With more than 7,400 servers in over 91 countries, you can potentially gain access to a lot of film and movie content that would otherwise not be available.
NordVPN is the fastest VPN and will set you back $4.19 USD or £2.99 GBP per month.
Like ExpressVPN, you’ve probably heard of NordVPN before, as it is easily one of the biggest names in the VPN arena. When tested on the OpenVPN encryption (with the ProPrivacy VPN Speed Testing Tool), it had an average server download speed of 65.79Mbit/s, making it the fastest VPN on this list.
Private Internet Access (PIA) is the best cheap VPN and will work out as only $2.03 USD or £1.69 GBP per month.
Private Internet Access features
Locations 35,000+ servers in 78+ countries
Services unblocked Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube
Free trial length No free trial
Money-back guarantee 30 days
Simultaneous connections 10
Router support Yes
If you’re on a tight budget, but don’t want to go for a free VPN, then Private Internet Access might be a good choice. We’ve partnered with them in order to provide PCGN readers with an exclusive deal: for $79, you get 38 months’ worth of VPN cover, which works out as just $2.03 (£1.67 in the UK) a month, and then you don’t need to worry about internet privacy again for over three years.
Surfshark is the best option for anybody who wants to protect multiple devices in their home, and it works out as $2.30 USD or £1.87 GBP per month.
If you live in a household with lots of children and other family members, all of whom access the internet from different devices, then Surfshark will be an appealing option due to the fact that it allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous connections.
PrivadoVPN is the best new VPN on the market and it works out at $2.50 per month.
While it isn’t as well established as some of the other businesses on this list, we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge PrivadoVPN. With its no-logs policy and IP leak protection, it does a fantastic job of keeping all of your private data, well, private.
Ivacy VPN is the most private VPN and works out as just $1 USD per month.
Ivacy VPN features
Locations 5,700+ servers in over 100 countries
Services unblocked BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix
Free trial No – $0.99 seven day trial instead
Money-back guarantee 30 days
Simultaneous connections 10
Router support Yes
Ivacy VPN is another of the less well-known providers that we wanted to cast a light onto. Lesser brand-recognition does not equal lesser quality, especially not in this instance. In addition to the military-grade 256-bit encryption that will keep your internet search activity as private as possible, Ivacy VPN also boasts an impressive 5,700+ servers in more than 100 countries around the world. It’s an easy choice for the most private VPN.
AtlasVPN is the best free VPN.
AtlasVPN features
Locations 750 servers in 37 locations (paid) 3 servers in 2 countries (free)
Services unblocked Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube
Free trial length Free version available
Money-back guarantee 30 days
Simultaneous connections Unlimited (paid) Two (free)
Router support No
Though it isn’t the only VPN on this list to offer a free package, it has something that most other free VPN providers fail to offer: the ability to have simultaneous connection. Though it has a small cap (you can only have two) that still sets it quite far ahead of other free plans that only let you use them on one device at a time.
IPVanish is the best VPN for encrypted storage space and it works out as $3.33 USD per month.
Have you got a lot of media you want to keep safe on your computer? In that case, you might want to take a look at IPVanish, because it can provide you with up to 250GB of SugarSync encrypted storage and backup – allowing you to protect huge amounts of content.
