A VPN, or a virtual private network, is a little tool that masks your internet identity inside a virtual tunnel, hiding your IP address from your internet service provider, websites and other prying eyes. When you use one, an encrypted connection is established between your device and a server somewhere in the world, tricking everyone into thinking you’re browsing from a different location.

The use of VPNs has been growing astronomically over the past few years for a number of reasons – to help skirt censorship (in Russia and China) for one, but also because of the rise of home working.

VPNs are a pretty big deal for organisations needing to protect their sensitive information. “Businesses use VPNs to grant access to networks remotely, as well as to protect their data traversing across multiple networks and boundaries across the internet,” explains Rick McElroy, a principal cybersecurity specialist at cloud computing company VMware. “For people who are concerned about governments around the world infringing on their privacy and security, VPNs create a great way to prevent this behaviour.”

But the adoption rate is also growing because of another (less privacy or security-focused) reason. People want to watch films and TV shows that they can’t get on their streaming service of choice, so are using VPNs to access international versions of the platforms instead.

While accessing streaming services in this way normally violates content provider’s terms, it’s one of the most common reasons why people use VPNs today.

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The world of VPNs can be a confusing, messy place, and because of the continuing consolidation happening in the industry, it’s getting even more complicated. Kape Technologies – which already owned CyberGhost and Private Internet Access – took control of ExpressVPN in September 2021. And earlier this month, Nord Security (who owns Nord VPN) recently acquired Surfshark. This means that your data is now in the hands of fewer and fewer companies – which is something to be aware of as it pertains to ownership of your data. However, that doesn’t make these VPNs bad.

There are hundreds of free and paid-for VPNs out there, and they’re not all created equal. Lots of free VPNs are ad-supported, while others claim to protect your privacy while selling off any data gleaned from your browsing history.

Thankfully, there are indeed some stand-out, trustworthy VPN providers out there. Most of the best VPNs charge for their services, but they also have free trials. If you want to save money on a VPN, check out our round-up of the best VPN deals. To help you sort through the glut of virtual private networks, we’ve rounded up all the best VPNs for Android, iPhone, PC and more below. 

We tested these VPNs on an iPhone 12 pro, a Samsung Galaxy S20 FE and a MacBook pro laptop. In each case, we trialled how speedy each VPN was when pitted against their competitors, looked at their level of security and whether they kept logs of our browsing data, and we investigated what features they each had, such as support for split tunnelling or the inclusion of a kill switch.

To see how well these VPNs performed when it came to bypassing geographic blocks, we took them for a ride through Netflix’s US library as well as Amazon Prime Video in the US on our Android, iOS and Mac devices.

Best: Overall VPN for PC, Mac and Fire Stick devices

Rating: 9/10

ExpressVPN is the best all-round VPN for any consumer user. It’s flaming fast, is simple to use and runs on a laundry list of operating systems and devices – whether that be Mac, Windows PC, Linux, Android, iOS, Kindle Fire stick or even your PlayStation console or home router.

All the main requirements of a good VPN are checked off. It’s speedy thanks to its “lightway” protocol, masks your IP address and has a nifty kill switch (preventing network data from leaking out if the VPN fails). It also has features like split tunnelling, which lets you route a portion of your traffic through the VPN while other devices use the internet directly from your service provider.  

ExpressVPN encrypts your data using AES-256, the military-grade encryption standard for complete protection, but also supports “perfect forward secrecy”, automatically assigning you a new secret key every 60 minutes. Plus, if you’re ever confused about anything, ExpressVPN has a 24-hour live support team.  

It’s also one of the best VPNs in terms of security and privacy. ExpressVPN doesn’t keep logs of any of your internet activity, your IP address, how long you’ve connected to the server or even what time you’ve connected. They are marvellous claims that have actually been proven true – a Turkish server was seized in 2017 and no logs of any user activity were found.

In terms of streaming, ExpressVPN passes the US Netflix test, giving us access to the streamer’s broad catalogue, as well as Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max and Disney+. The only downside is that ExpressVPN is pricier than much of its competition, probably because of how feature-packed it is, and that it makes all of its revenue from subscriptions. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are unhappy, however. 

Read the full ExpressVPN review

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Best: VPN for security

Rating: 9/10

NordVPN is the service provider you’re most likely to have heard of. It’s one of the most reliable VPNs on the market and works especially well on desktop. NordVPN works with six devices at a time.

It uses a map-based interface, which we found a little bit cumbersome to navigate. making it easy to navigate, but thankfully, there’s also a server list on the left side of the screen. Like with most VPNs, Nord offers a kill switch feature, your choice of protocol and that same military-grade encryption, keeping your internet data safe and secure. NordVPN’s killer feature, however, is its offer of a dedicated IP address, just for you. It costs $70 (£50), but if you need one, it’s well worth the money.

NordVPN has a great reputation for its focus on security and, strangely enough, that’s because it was the victim of a data breach in 2018. One of the company’s servers was accessed without permission, leading to the company launching an independent audit, reinforcing server security and creating a bug bounty programme. Like ExpressVPN, no user logs had been stolen – simply because NordVPN doesn’t keep any.

On top of the beefed-up security, NordVPN is also pretty darn fast. It has an Android and an iOS app that use the same map-based interface, and its servers allow you to stream American Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

Read the full NordVPN review 

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Best: Free VPN

Rating: 7/10

As mentioned above, free VPN service providers can always be a bit hit and miss, especially in terms of your privacy and security. Not ProtonVPN, however, which you might recognise from the secure email client Proton Mail.

ProtonVPN comes with uncapped data usage, meaning the VPN won’t stop working when you hit a limit. There aren’t any ads involved and you still get that same AES-256 military-grade encryption. Sounds great, right? Well, as with most free products, there’s a catch – but the catch isn’t your data being sold.

With the free version of ProtonVPN, you only get access to three servers, despite Proton having 800. These are in the US, Japan and the Netherlands. That means speeds aren’t the fastest. And although you get access to US servers, you can’t actually use ProtonVPN free to access streaming services. That feature is reserved for the paid-for version, and if that’s your main goal, we’d opt for a different VPN over Proton.

So what’s it good for? Essentially what a VPN was intended for in the first place – browsing on the web securely and privately, especially when using public networks. It’s not packed full of features, but it gets the job done and the iOS and Android apps work really well.

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Best: VPN for large households 

Rating: 7/10

If you have a large family or you live in a big house share, and you’re all wanting to hop onto one single VPN at the same time, then IPVanish is a solid choice. The US-based service used to give its users a great deal on its generous 10 device plan, but a year ago the company got rid of their device cap altogether. 

A big draw of IPVanish’s uncapped device limit is its extensive range of apps. You can download it on Kody, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, a Fire TV Stick and Linux, meaning you’ll always be able to make use of its limitless access.

On top of that, it delivers everything you expect from a virtual private network, making it a solid VPN in its own right. Your speeds aren’t throttled, it has AES-256 encryption, you get a 24/7 live chat support service and it doesn’t store any traffic logs. It works especially well for American Netflix, but less well on further international Netflixes and other streaming services.   

Read the full IPVanish review

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Best: VPN for Android and iPhone 

Rating: 8/10

For such a low price and the perk of unlimited simultaneous devices, Surfshark is one of the best VPNs around. The user interface is nice and approachable, it unblocks all the major streaming services and has the security chops to back it up thanks to its RAM-only servers.

While speeds are a little slower than we’d like, with pages sometimes taking a long time to load, our experience when streaming content wasn’t hindered at all. In fact, it unblocked every streaming service we tried. We didn’t experience any buffering issues at all when accessing US servers either.

Android and Windows users are definitely getting the better deal in terms of Surfshark’s feature set, gaining access to the Whitelister and things like GPS spoofing and small packets, but it works reliably no matter what OS you’re accessing the VPN from, including the iPhone app. With such an affordable price tag, we’d recommend Surfshark to anyone looking for a simple, no-nonsense VPN that does the job of unblocking region-locked content.

Read the full Surfshark VPN review

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Best: VPN for Netflix and streaming

Rating: 8/10

If you’re just looking for a VPN to access international Netflix, we’d recommend CyberGhost. The service claims that it can unblock over 35 streaming services. We weren’t able to test them all, but for the major ones like Netflix and Disney+, it did a splendid job at giving us access to content restricted to the US.

What we really like about CyberGhost compared to other VPNs is that it makes it incredibly easy to find the right VPN server for a particular streaming service. For a lot of the VPNs above you still have to click around and try out different servers before you land on one that works with your service of choice. But in the CyberGhost app, you’ll find a ‘For streaming’ tab, which has a list of up-to-date servers tested to work with specific streaming services. Underneath each server, there will be a little description of what streaming service and country it is optimised for.

CyberGhost also has optimised servers for gaming, P2P torrenting and security. It’s pretty secure overall, using RAM-based servers that aren’t able to store any data if those servers are disconnected from power, and there’s a kill switch plus split tunnelling. Best of all, it’s super cheap.

Read the full CyberGhost review

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Best: VPN for accessing American streaming services

Rating: 8/10

We rarely see new VPN providers make this much of a splash, especially when it comes to accessing streaming services, but the fairly young Atlas VPN has been a surprise hit.

Bought by the owners of NordVPN in late 2021 (yep, Nord is snapping up every good VPN on the market), Atlas VPN isn’t merely the cheapest VPN provider on this list at the time of writing, but it’s packed with competition-smashing features, such as support for split-tunnelling and multi-hop, WireGuard protocol support, streaming optimised servers, rotating IP addresses and an in-built kill switch.

Atlas VPN doesn’t have a lot of servers (around 750 right now), but the provider does a lot with what it has. It was able to unblock streaming services like American Netflix and Disney+, but even more surprising was that it unblocked services like HBO Max and Hulu – two services that other smaller VPN providers struggle with.

Weirdly, while Atlas VPN is actually blazing fast when it comes to browsing the web from any of its servers generally, it seems to slow down massively when it comes to streaming content – particularly when using the desktop applications, even when connected to the streaming servers. It also doesn’t have the neatest-looking user interface either – it all feels a little cluttered and not very well-optimised. You can’t quick connect to a US server, for instance – you have to connect to a specific server (like Dallas or Los Angeles), rather than just the fastest United States server.

Atlas VPN runs an interesting freemium model, so you can use Atlas VPN for free, but with certain limits. If you’re accessing the VPN via an iOS device, a Mac or Android, you only get 2GB of data per day, while Windows users get 10GB per day. You can also only access three servers – New York, Los Angeles and Amsterdam, with no support for streaming services. If opting for Atlas VPN, we’d recommend paying for the premium version.

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Best: VPN for server hunters

Rating: 7/10

Private Internet Access has been around for a long old time. If you frequented internet message boards in the late 2000s, you’ll have heard the term PIA being banded around a lot when it came to talk of VPNs. Since 2009, Private Internet Access has been superseded by services like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, but that doesn’t mean it’s no longer good.

In fact, PIA has an enormous number of servers for you to choose from. There are 32,000 in its arsenal – that’s the most of any commercial VPN we’ve seen. A large majority of them are in the US, but still.

As its name suggests, PIA puts a huge emphasis on privacy. The Windows application has the kill switch turned on by default, so your internet traffic will be automatically blocked if you are disconnected. It also supports split tunnelling, and the Android app is able to route specific apps through PIA.

The company doesn’t keep logs of your activity – something evidenced in several court cases when authorities have demanded them. PIA isn’t great when it comes to accessing region-locked streaming services – we had limited success – but for security and the sheer number of servers it has, it’s a worthy choice. 

Read the full Private Internet Access review

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Best: VPN for multiple platforms

Rating: 6.5/10

PureVPN isn’t one of the most well-known VPN providers around, but it’s actually pretty old, having launched in 2007, and it’s slowly rising in popularity. It’s one of the cheaper VPNs we’ve tested, and it works on a mind-boggling series of different devices, browsers and platforms, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Windows, iOS, Android, Android TV, Amazon Fire Stick, Kodi and Linux. A real highlight is the fact that you can use it on 10 devices simultaneously, with PureVPN even recommending you share the login credentials around with the family.

It supports the ultra-fast WireGuard protocol on all of its apps as well as split-tunnelling. You can also pay extra for a dedicated IP address and port forwarding, and the really intriguing paid feature is DDoS protection – you don’t see that one on many VPNs.

However, PureVPN is a little hit and miss when it comes to accessing streaming services. We successfully accessed US Netflix using an Android device, but we weren’t able to do the same on an iPhone or a Mac. That said, we were able to access Canadian Netflix and BBC iPlayer on all devices, but not Disney+, HBO Max or Hulu – it really seems to struggle with US-based streaming services, even when using a dedicated US IP address. Connecting to BBC iPlayer was also surprisingly laggy.

While we did run into a few errors and connection problems swapping between servers, and the pop-ups asking if PureVPN was “helping us out” every time we connected got annoying fast, the ability to unblock certain Netflix regions and the number of platforms supported had us coming back for more.

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In simple terms, a virtual private network is a bit of software that masks your identity, hiding your data in a virtual tunnel. A secure, encrypted connection is formed between your device and a server somewhere in the world. Doing this hides your public IP address and tricks websites into thinking that you’re actually browsing from a different location.

It works a bit like a filter, converting all your internet traffic and browsing data into nonsense. Third-party websites and even your internet service provider won’t be able to see what websites you’re visiting because everything is rerouted through a remote server that’s run by the VPN provider.

When you connect to the internet, your internet service provider (ISP) will be able to monitor everything you do via your IP address. Although it might seem unlikely, your ISP could sell your data on to advertisers or share it with the authorities.

The other main reason for using a VPN is to access streaming services that you can’t view from your current location, like US Netflix. This is the main reason why consumers use VPNs – although do keep in mind that using a VPN to access foreign content normally violates the content provider’s terms of service.

A VPN means you can access blocked websites. So, if you’re in a country where internet access is heavily censored, like China, for instance, you’ll be able to access Facebook using a VPN. If this is what you’re planning to use the service for, it’s important to download it before you travel to the less internet-friendly nation.

In October 2020, Google launched a new VPN service called Google One VPN. It was made free of charge for any subscribers to the Google One cloud 2TB subscription plan in the US using an Android device. On 10 August 2021, Google finally rolled out the VPN to the UK, Mexico, Canada, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, and in February 2022, Google One rolled out to iPhone users. But is it any good?

It’s not a comprehensive VPN like many of the ones above. You can only use it in one of the supported countries, for instance. Travelling abroad? You won’t be able to connect to the VPN. Secondly, it’s pretty much just an extra layer of security. In other words, no spoofing your location so that you can stream Netflix from a different country.

When you connect to the VPN, you’ll be assigned an IP address in the country from which you’re using the Google One VPN. All online traffic from any application or browser will be encrypted on unprotected networks, with your IP being hidden from view. It has had a third-party audit of its systems. When the VPN rolled out to iOS users, Google wrote in a blog post that the Android version would also be getting new features, such as a “safe disconnect” feature, which automatically stops your connection if you lose internet access. You can also toggle off Google One VPN for certain apps in the latest update.

ExpressVPN is our all-around favourite service provider, delivering reliable speeds, good apps and solid security. The only downside is that it’s on the expensive side. If you want a similar VPN in terms of performance that costs a little less, go for NordVPN.

If you want to watch content from streaming services in other geographic locations, we’d recommend CyberGhost – it makes the process of finding a good streaming server easy peasy, and also happens to be really affordable for what it offers.

For the latest discounts on NordVPN and other tech offers, try the links below:

For more, why not check out our round-up of the best VPN deals?