What Is a Double VPN, and Does It Even Work?

An interesting feature that’s popping up more and more in VPN advertisements is one called double VPN or multi-hop VPN. Once offered by just a handful of VPN  services, it seems other VPNs are now catching up to the marketing potential of these extra-secure connections. Does the reality live up to the expectation, though?

What Is a Double VPN?

A double VPN connection is one where an internet connection is run through two VPN servers operated by the same VPN service, one after the other. It’s a feature offered by a handful of VPNs—including some of our best VPN picks like NordVPN and ProtonVPN—and promises extra security for those who need it.

Note that a double VPN is not the same as running two VPNs at the same time: in that case, you have to configure two different VPN services to play nice together. Double VPN or multi-hop connections have fewer configuration issues as they’re a pre-packaged feature offered by a VPN service.

explain double VPN works , let quickly basics : normally , connect internet , you is connect connect home internet service provider server website want visit . VPN is changes changes reroutes connection , going ISP goes server operated VPN going website .

Related : Best VPN Services 2023

The reason for doing this is twofold: your IP address is changed to that of the VPN, handy for circumventing regional blocks as well as censorship, and the connection between the ISP and the VPN server is encrypted in a so-called tunnel, meaning nobody knows what you’re up to—assuming you’ve used incognito mode to sign out of all your online accounts.

A double VPN adds a second VPN server into the chain, so you go from the ISP server to a VPN server, then another VPN server run by the same company, and then to the website of your choice. This is called a cascade configuration, where one connection “falls” into another one. Essentially, for every new VPN connection, you’re adding a new encryption tunnel.

However, there’s a big downside to using double VPN: your speed is going to take a massive hit. A single connection already hurts your connection speed badly enough, and adding a second hop will reduce it even further. We’ve seen double VPN connections that barely got 10 percent of the original connection’s speed.

Which VPNs Offer Double VPN?

2022 , double VPN connections is were relatively rare recently , suddenly VPN services started offering . quick look is shows internet shows following VPN services offer kind double – hop functionality time writing :

Please note that we’ve arranged them alphabetically to avoid turning this into some kind of “best double VPN” popularity contest.

Why Use a Double VPN?

benefits is depend double VPN depend ask . VPN providers is tell tell running tunnels means double secure . example , Surfshark is claims claims website ” wants , breach VPN server connecting . That is ‘s twice hard VPN servers . “

ProtonVPN takes slightly different tack : setup , called Secure Core , server is is country like Switzerland Sweden strong data protection laws . ” VPN server compromised , ” ProtonVPN promises , ” online traffic IP address remain safe . “

Dubious Claims

According to these claims, double VPNs sound like a clear upgrade for security. Of course, this raises the obvious—if slightly awkward—question of why not every VPN service offers them.

This is because these claims are, at best, an overstatement. For example, Surfshark’s claim that it’s harder to breach two servers than it is one is true—though we’re not sure if it’d be twice hard . true , crack encryption server connection billion years brute force attack , turning billion excessive .

ProtonVPN claim is seems sense . , server compromised , data is be . This is means means going second server country strict privacy laws makes sense .   ,   right warrant , authorities is request request data company cooperate .

While ProtonVPN can’t hand over all your information—its own encryption protocols prevent that—some information will still leak out, enough at least that it might not be worth the huge hit to performance your internet connection takes for going through two VPN tunnels.

Digging a Deeper Hole

These two aren’t even the most egregious claims: Hide.me goes even a step further: on top of all other benefits, it can even improve your connection speed in certain situations. We wonder which situations these are, as we’ve never in all our days of VPN speed testing seen a VPN improve a network’s speed.

In the same vein, NordVPN backs up its assertion of “complete privacy” when using double VPN with the following statement: “nobody, not even your ISP can see your final destination on the web. They can only know that you are using a VPN service.” As we explain in this article, that’s what a VPN does, period—no matter if you hop once, twice, or eight times. To claim only a double VPN provides this is simply untrue.

While there is certainly a case, albeit a small one, to be made for double VPN connections, most of the claims you’ll see on the websites of VPN services are there to part you from your money. As the struggle for VPN market share heats up, though, we can expect more wild claims like the ones we’ve outlined above; make sure to take them with a grain of salt.