The Best VPN Services for 2024

Is a VPN Worth Getting?

The simple answer to whether you need a VPN is yes. Using a VPN is a simple way to protect your privacy online and can help circumvent unwanted internet restrictions, too. None of the services listed here is perfect, and there will surely be times when using a VPN won’t make sense. All that said, a VPN is undoubtedly a valuable tool. It’s well worth having one in your personal security toolbox.

Why Do I Need a VPN?

A VPN routes your internet traffic through an encrypted connection to a server controlled by the VPN provider. From there, your traffic exits onto the web as usual. If you only connect to websites secured with HTTPS, your data remains encrypted, even after leaving the VPN. It sounds simple, but VPN usage can improve your online privacy.

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Likewise, no one snooping around your network can see what you’re doing when you use a VPN connection. Convenient public Wi-Fi networks are also convenient for attackers. How do you know, for example, “starbucks_wifi-real” is the coffee shop’s actual Wi-Fi network? A prank popular among security researchers is to create a network with the same name as a free, popular service and see how many devices automatically connect. 

VPNs protect your data using a variety of publicly available and proprietary encryption protocols, including OpenVPN, WireGuard, L2TP, IKEv2, and others.

Even if you’re trusting, you might not want to trust your internet service provider (ISP). In the US, your ISP has enormous insight into your online activities. To make matters worse, congress has decided your ISP is allowed to sell your anonymized browsing history. Selling your data seems egregious since you are already paying for the service. A VPN prevents even your ISP from keeping tabs on you.

Another benefit of using a VPN is that your true IP address is hidden behind the address of the VPN server. This makes it harder to track you. Even dedicated observers have trouble telling which internet traffic is yours because your data is mixed in with everyone else’s using the server. 

Hiding your IP address has another benefit: It makes it harder for snoops to figure out your location. You can use this to your advantage and connect to distant VPN servers to spoof your location.

It’s important to understand that if your VPN connection goes down, the privacy protection you rely on goes with it. For this reason, most VPNs offer a kill switch, which shuts off your network traffic when your VPN connection drops. The only catch? A kill switch is generally turned off by default, so you might want to toggle yours on in your VPN app when you set it up—or at least familiarize yourself with how it works and turn it on when your privacy is critically important. You can read more about this essential security feature in our kill switch explainer.

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What Can’t VPNs Do?

VPN services, while helpful, don’t provide every kind of threat protection. A VPN can’t help you if you download ransomware nor if you give up your data in a phishing attack. We strongly recommend using local antivirus software, enabling multi-factor authentication wherever available, and using a password manager to create and store unique, complex passwords for each site and service you use. Those are all good security measures you should take in addition to using a VPN.

There are also limitations to how anonymous you can be with a VPN. Advertisers have tactics, such as online trackers and browser fingerprinting, to gather data on you and track your movements. We recommend using your browser’s anti-tracking features and installing dedicated ad or tracker blockers.

Many VPN services also provide their own DNS resolution system as a security feature. Think of DNS as a phone book that turns a text-based URL like “pcmag.com” into an IP address computers can understand. Savvy snoops can monitor DNS requests and track your movements online. Greedy attackers can also use DNS poisoning to direct you to bogus phishing pages designed to steal your data. When you use a VPN’s DNS system, it’s another layer of protection. Read how (and why) to change your DNS server for more.

There’s debate among security experts about the efficacy of VPNs. Since most sites now support secure HTTPS connections, much of your online experience is already encrypted. Secure DNS products like Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 exist precisely because some feel VPNs are overkill. Still, a VPN covers the information not already protected by HTTPS, places a buffer between you and the people controlling internet infrastructure, and makes online tracking harder. 

Some security-conscious industries, like banking, are confused by or suspicious of VPNs. If your bank sees you logging in from what appears to be another US state or even another country—or if it simply detects that a VPN may be in use—it can raise red flags. That’s because if a hacker were trying to get into your bank account from another country, they’d use a VPN, too. Expect to see captchas and more frequent multi-factor authentication requests when your VPN is on, or be prepared for your bank to block you from logging in at all.

What Is the Best Free VPN?

Not all VPN services require payment. There are, in fact, many excellent free VPNs. But every free VPN we’ve tested has limitations. Some limit you to a few simultaneous connections or devices. Others restrict your data or limit you to a handful of servers. Still others do all of the above.

Finding the best free VPN is an exercise in balancing those restrictions. Windscribe, for example, lets you use any server on its network but limits you to 500MB to 1GB per month. Proton VPN has the unique distinction of placing no data restrictions on free users, but it does limit which servers you can access.

For those of you who are at least willing to put down some cash, we also have a roundup of the best cheap VPNs.

What Is the Best VPN for Mac?

While this list is for the best VPNs we’ve tested, you may be looking for a VPN specifically for Mac. You can read our story the best VPNs for Macs for complete details. That said, based on our testing, the best are Proton VPN and NordVPN.

What Is the Best VPN for Torrenting?

When you use BitTorrent, you should absolutely consider using a VPN. Many ISPs and network managers block Torrenting altogether, and a VPN can prevent them from seeing that you’re connecting to a peer-to-peer sharing service. Of course, torrenting certain files may get you in trouble, whether they are bootlegged or even banned in your area, and a VPN can protect you here as well. To find the right service for staying safe while torrenting, head over to our roundup of the best VPNs for torrenting.

What Is the Best VPN for Gaming?

Gamers need privacy protection, too. While the idea of using a service that can increase your latency and generally interfere with your connectivity may not appeal to you, you might want to play a game that isn’t available in your area, or you might not want to expose your real IP address to other gamers. VPNs might even make it more difficult for rivals to use distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to knock players offline. Read our story on the best VPNs for gaming for help picking the VPN that strikes the right balance between productivity and privacy.

What Is the Best VPN for China, Russia, or the Ukraine?

VPNs are useful for improving individual privacy, but there are also people for whom a VPN is essential for their safety. Journalists and activists often rely on VPN services to circumvent local government censorship and safely communicate with the outside world. Check the local laws before using a VPN in China, in Russia, or in any country with repressive internet policies. Another place people might want to use a VPN is in a war zone such as Ukraine, where hiding locations might well be a matter of life and death.

To fully and comprehensively anonymize your traffic, use the free Tor network. While a VPN tunnels your web traffic to a VPN server, Tor bounces around your traffic through several volunteer nodes, which makes it much harder to track. Using Tor also grants access to hidden dark websites, which a VPN cannot do. Some services, such as NordVPN and Proton VPN, offer Tor access on specific servers. Note that Tor slows down your connection even more than a VPN.

A VPN protects you against mass data collection and casual criminals who vacuum up user data for later use, but a determined adversary will almost always find a way to breach your defenses. If this does happen to you, read our story on what to do when you’ve been hacked.

How to Get a VPN

The VPN market has exploded in the past few years, growing from a niche industry to a highly crowded and competitive one. Many VPN service providers are capitalizing on the general population’s growing concerns about surveillance and cybercrime, which means it’s hard to tell when a company is providing a useful service and when it’s selling snake oil. Fake VPNs have even popped up, so be careful. 

When you read reviews looking for a good service, don’t just focus on connection speed since that’s the factor you (and the VPN) have the least control over. Since nearly all VPN companies offer some mixture of the same technologies, consider value when looking for your best VPN service. How can you get the most for the least? Look for extra VPN features like split tunneling, multi-hop connections, and so on. You may not always need them, but they’re helpful when you do.

Nearly every VPN service provider has its own app with an interface for managing connections and settings, and we recommend using it. You might dismiss such things as mere window dressing and prefer to manage your VPN connections manually, but it’s tedious, requires manual updating, and doesn’t give you access to the additional privacy tools many VPNs provide. So when considering a VPN, decide whether you can stand looking at it.

The best way to know if a VPN works for you is to try it in all the environments where you plan to use it, like home, work, and school. Some VPN services provide free trials, so take advantage of them. See if you can access all the sites and services you need. Find out if the interface is usable and if the speeds in your area are acceptable. Make sure you’re happy and use any money-back guarantees if not. 

In fact, we recommend starting with a short-term subscription to ensure you are happy with the service. Yes, you may get a discount by signing up for a year, but that’s more money at stake should you decide the service doesn’t meet your needs.

Sometimes, a VPN is tacked on to another service as a sweetener. Such services are tricky to compare since they often have features different from those of the average VPN. For example, Norton 360 Deluxe is a full security suite with a VPN thrown in for good measure. In cases like this, it’s best to consider what you want to use a VPN for and whether the VPN you get as part of the package meets those needs.

How Do I Set Up My VPN?

Getting a VPN is easy; getting one set it up on your machine can be a bear, however, if you don’t know what you’re doing. What server should you connect to? Should you let the software choose for you? What security features should you enable?

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Can I Trust My VPN to Protect My Privacy?

If you’re using a service to route all your internet traffic through its servers, you have to be able to trust that service. It’s easier to trust companies that have been around longer because their reputation is likely to be well-established—and it’s what’s at stake should the company do you wrong. The trouble is that the VPN industry is young, and some VPN companies play dirty. Figuring out who to trust is difficult.

At PCMag, we give special attention to the privacy practices of VPN companies and not just the technology they provide. We read the privacy policies as part of our testing procedure and discuss company practices with company representatives. We look for a commitment to protecting user information and practices that gather and retain as little user information as possible.

As part of our research, we also determine where the company is based and under what legal framework it operates. Some countries don’t have data-retention laws, making it easier to keep the promise of “we don’t keep any logs.” It’s also useful to know under what circumstances a VPN provider will hand over information to law enforcement and what information it would have to provide (and what it could provide ) happened . , story VPN logging .

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What Are the Best VPNs for Streaming?

Netflix and other streaming services often block VPNs since a VPN can access region-locked content. And a service that works today may be blocked tomorrow. That could be an issue for many readers because while the preponderance of you appear to use VPNs to protect yourselves, nearly a quarter use VPNs primarily for streaming.

In general, we find VPNs have improved their ability to access streaming content. In previous years, it was unusual to find a VPN that could stream Netflix content from outside the US. Keep in mind that accessing region-locked streaming content can breach terms of service, and PCMag cannot supply legal advice for such situations.

What Is the Best VPN for Pornhub?

As more states pass age-restriction legislation, another kind of region-locked content that may increasingly require a VPN to watch is porn. For example, Pornhub is blocking visitors from Utah and also anyone trying to connect from larger markets such as Texas. For a guide to watching adult content despite such blocking, check out our guide on how to watch porn safely, as well as our picks for the best VPNs for viewing Pornhub.

What Is the Best VPN for TikTok?

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Most VPN services let you connect up to five devices with a single account. Any service offering fewer connections is outside the mainstream. You need to connect every device you wish to protect to the VPN service, so a mere two or three licenses often is barely enough for one person, let alone a connected couple or family.

This paradigm may be changing, however. Many services now offer far more than five simultaneous connections. Some have even done away with the restriction entirely, offering protection for unlimited devices. Avira Phantom VPN, IPVanish VPN, Surfshark VPN, and Windscribe VPN all place no limit on the number of simultaneous connections. (Note: IPVanish is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com’s parent company. For more, see the ethics policy in our Editorial Mission Statement.)

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Where Are My VPN’s Servers?

The distribution of VPN servers is a key consideration. Having numerous servers in diverse locales means that, no matter where you travel, you should be able to find a nearby VPN server. The closer the VPN server, the better the speed and reliability of the connection it offers. Remember, you don’t need to connect to a far-flung VPN server to gain security benefits. Depending on where you live, a server down the street is as safe as one across the globe.

We also look at how many virtual servers and virtual locations VPN companies use. A virtual server is just what it sounds like—a software-defined server running on server hardware that might have several virtual servers onboard. A virtual location is a server configured to appear somewhere other than where it is physically located.

While neither approach is inherently problematic, it’s worrisome to choose one location and discover your server is somewhere else entirely. Some VPN companies take a smart view of virtual servers, using them to provide VPN support for regions where it might be too risky to house a server physically. When VPNs use these technologies, we prefer they be transparent about it.

What’s the Fastest VPN?

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When we test VPNs, we use the Ookla speed test tool. This test provides metrics for latency, download speeds, and upload speeds. Any one of these can be an important measurement depending on your needs, but we tend to view the download speed as the most important. After all, we live in an age of digital consumption. See our story on how we test VPNs for the full details. (Note: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com’s parent company. For more, see the ethics policy in our Editorial Mission Statement.)

The chart above shows our most recent speed test results, and we have an entire piece dedicated just to the fastest VPNs we’ve tested.

What Is the #1 Best VPN?

You have plenty of choices when it comes to picking a VPN—so many that we have Editors’ Choice-winning VPNs for several use cases. Our current overall favorite is Proton VPN, which gets a rare 5-star rating along with an Editors’ Choice award. It takes a strong privacy stance, is fast in our testing, and has an impressive collection of advanced tools, as well as an excellent free tier. NordVPN may cost a bit more, but it offers a ton of security tools and extras, including built-in antivirus tools, earning it a 4.5-star rating for premium VPNs. Windscribe ties NordVPN’s score (and also wins an Editors’ Choice award) thanks mainly to its radical privacy and transparency policies—getting started doesn’t even require an email address (or any account information)—along with its feature-packed apps across all the platforms we tested.

Max Eddy contributed to this story.