Which is the best VPN?
That is because VPNs offer so many different services and have so many options that as you would expect from there been so many different VPN providers out there, some excel at some aspects and some struggle.
The term best can also mean different things to different people as it could mean the Virtual Private Network with the most options, the cheapest price, the most well-known, the fastest servers, the widest choice of services, the most intuitive interface, the best streaming options, the provider that excels the most in the area you are most interested in, etc etc etc.
That makes it a difficult task to decide upon the best VPN and to tell you what it is but what we here at ThornVPN believe makes the best VPN is for a service to be a great all arounder.
Best VPN
In the table below, we rank the top VPN services and bring you what we believe to be the best VPNs on the market.
We take into account the overall service, the functionality of the VPN, the cost, the ease of use, the customer service and lots of other points covered by our in depth reviews.
Even if you are after a specific function offered by VPN’s and one provider is better than another one, we would recommend picking a great all rounder service as you never can be too sure when you will need another service and the best providers, such as those listed below, are continually changing and continually improving, unlike lots of over services.
ExpressVPN
Nord VPN
Surfshark
Ivacy VPN
Bitdefender VPN
How To Choose The Best VPN
When it comes to choosing the best VPN there are a number of things that you need to take into consideration and whilst it may seem to be confusing and overwhelming at the start of your search for a Virtual Private Network, if you keep in mind these points and know the answers to the questions that they bring up, your search will soon be over.
1. Price and offers
As is the case with the majority of things, your choice is most heavily influenced by the cost of the product or service that you choose and that is the case when it comes to VPN’s.
The majority of the best rated services offer fantastic value and will comfortably fit into most people’s budgets, especially when you consider the time and money that they have you in the long term from potential losses of credit card fraud, been hacked or the time need to deal with hacking and/or trojans etc.
Most services will be upfront with the cost and the ongoing cost but be wary of any services that hide the ongoing costs and when changes in price can happen and also be wary of any incredible special offers that you may receive as whilst the first month maybe a great discount, the cost can soon be bumped up and the overall cost can become more expensive.
2. Logs, logging, and storage
No we are not talking about heading out into the woods, chopping down and tree and finding some where to keep it but we are talking about the process of what information a VPN keeps on you, how they collect it and how and where they store it.
If you are searching a VPN and come across a service or review that claims that a VPN doesn’t log (or keep) are of your information, be very wary as in our opinion every single VPN takes some information.
Some simply keep a log of when you log in and for how long, or how much data you have used and taking that sort of information is completely understandable, they should still be upfront about it.
The question’s that you need to ask is what information is taken, why it is taken, how long is it stored and how is it stored? If a VPN cannot answer that or make you jump through hoops to find out, it is probably a service to avoid.
3. Check the protocols
A service is only ever as secure as the software and hardware is uses and supports and one key components involved in keeping you secure is the protocols that a VPN uses and/or supports.
It can be confusing to understand the small details involved in these but try to keep an eye out for VPN’s that use a number of protocols as that tends to be a sign that they are keeping up to date with the latest offerings and try to avoid services relying on outdated option such as SSTP and PPTP.
4. Use across the board
One big aspect of a VPN that often gets overlooked is the simultaneous connections offered. This is something that really makes or breaks a service as so many of use connect at the same time via a number of methods, from phones to tablets and pcs to streaming devices and that means you need a number of connections at the same time for the same single cost.
A number of providers charge extra for multiple devices or they ‘fair use policies’ in place to strangle your usage. If you have a family who will be suing your internet connection at the same, make sure your VPN provider allows it.
5. Extra! Extra! Read all about the extra’s!
When it come to VPN’s, all of the top rated services offer a very similar product so what can make or break your decision as to which is the best service for you is the extra’s that they offer.
This is often where the differences are found and whilst it may not seem that you will need many of the extra’s offered at the moment, it may come to the point that in the future that you will need them and by a service offering a diverse product, you are future proofing your use as much as possible and it is also the case that a service with a good range of extras is one that keeps ahead of or at least on top of future trends.
6. Location, Location, Location!
When it comes to VPN’s the motto of Location, Location, Location holds just as true as it does in the real estate world as the safety and security of your information is only as safe and secure as the law allows them to be in the country that your VPN’s servers and headquarters are actually located.
A VPN provider has to follow the laws of the country they are based in and whilst some countries allow for their citizens to have freedoms and for their personnel and private information to be theirs and not to be collected and up for sale by giant corporations, many feel that your information should be owned and controlled not just by corporations but by governments.
Countries such as the US and Britain give try to own every aspect of the internet, whilst many smaller island nations allow information to belong to its actual owner.
7. Speed isn’t everything
If a service offers slow speeds, it is of course a huge problem and will make your internet usage frustrating, so we are certainly not saying to save money by choosing a much slower product but what we are saying is that it is not always the service that promotes the fastest speeds that is the best.
Firstly, a service may be able to show that they can reach an incredibly fast speed, but the chances are that they will not reach that 100% of the time so the average overall speed been higher is much better than the top speed available and another issue is that the speed of a product and the servers that they use is often out of both the providers control and out of your control as there are some many aspects that much come together to reach top speed.
8. Number of servers
There are plusses and minuses to just about all aspects of the services that we feature on this site or that you may come across on a web search but one thing that you may think can only be a positive, can actually be a negative of sorts and something to understand.
We are talking about the number of servers that a VPN offers and in particular, the number of physical servers that a network offers.
Many promote the fact that they have x amount of 1000’s of servers in 1000’s of location’s but many of them are ‘digital’ locations and not physical locations but even then it can be an issue.
For most of us, the sheer number of locations is often too much more most users and you are not just paying for unnecessary functions but there is also a security risk in having so many servers in so many locations.
9. Not all reviews are created equally
As a VPN reviews and guides website, you may be surprised to read the following words- be wary of online reviews! We are not going to tell you, as many other websites do that you can trust our reviews but not others as whilst we offer independent reviews that stick to the facts as much as is possible, our reviews still feature out thoughts on a product and they may not necessarily match your thoughts.
The way that we, or other trusted and quality review websites, use a product may also vary to the way that you choose to use it and whilst that may mean that you don’t get the perfect VPN, you will still get a great product.
Unfortunately, there is another big downside to review website as many simply try to convince you to buy the one that pays them the most money (or commission) to feature on their site or they have other links to the product- such as working for them.
That can leave you buying at best a poor product or at work a dangerous product, so make sure you search a number of sites and use critical thinking as to whether a site can be trusted.
If a review is full of only positives thoughts, be wary as no product is perfect.
10. No such thing as a free lunch
If you have bene looking for a VPN we are sure that you will have come across a number of websites promoting ‘free’ VPNs or you may have even visiting one of the products on offer. Many have great websites, know how to promote their product, and make it seem that with a free VPN on offer, there is no need to splash the cash and spend money on a VPN.
That will get many people thinking, its free, it sounds great so why not download and use it.
Whilst there are numerous reasons as to why it is a bad idea to do so, many of which we list on this website, there is one thing to understand above all overs.
The whole point of using a Virtual Private Network is to keep your use of connected devices as secure as possible and if you use a free VPN, they just do not do that and many make things even more unsecure than not using a VPN at all.
Best Virtual Private Network
A VPN, which stands for Virtual Private Network, is at its basic form a piece of software that allows you to be anonymous online. This happens by encrypting your internet use and that allows you to be much safety and secure on all aspects of online use.
From using the your credit or debit card on websites to doing your online banking and from adding personal details into your doctors website to sharing sensitive work information, there is lots of our use on the internet that we really do not want to share and that we really do not spammers and criminals to get a hold of.
As more and more of us work from home and use the internet for every aspect of life, from home computers to tablets and from connected tv’s to mobile phones, we are never far from the dangers of the internet.
That is why so many of us are looking for a VPN and are looking for the best Virtual Private Network.
If you are just starting out on your hunt for the best Virtual Private Network, the chances are that it will be privacy that is the most important aspect of any VPN and that is something that goes both ways.
You not only need a VPN that keeps your data secure from others but that also keep your internet usage safe form the VPN service itself.
All of the top ranked Virtual Private Networks featured on this page have a number of features to keep you safe and your information safe including encrypting your data from the very moment you connects to the intent and also having a no logs policy so that the company know nothing about your usage, and cannot pass it on to anybody else most importantly.
With that in mind, you may believe that the best VPN is a free VPN but there is a reason that a VPN is free and that is because they are simply not as safe to use as other and they will keep some of your information to pass onto others. They still have to make money to exist and to provide there service so whilst they may come at no financial cost to you, the actually cost could be much worse.
Even the very best VPNs, the ones that offers a great services, lots of options and added benefits and that are amongst the most safe and secure to use only cost around the same as a cup or 2 of coffee a month to use, so whilst you can save by using the cheapest or a free service, why would you when you can get the best for a price you will not really notice?
Even better is the fact that all of the best VPNs on the market offer free trials and / or money back guarantees so not only do you have to take our word for which are the best, you can try out as many of the ones that we recommend yourself and if it doesn’t work out, you can simply move to the one you like the best at no cost to yourself.
So if you are ready to download your first ever VPN or of you are looking to improve on what you have and are looking for the best VPN to download or even if you have just heard all of the buzz surrounding Virtual Private Networks and are wanting more information, this page brings you the very best Virtual Private Networks from across the globe and to make things as simple as possible we rate and rank them for you.
We recommend reading through the in depth reviews that we have written for each of the VPN services featured on this page to gain a better understanding of what makes the VPN a good choice and why you may not want to download and when you have decided upon the best 2 or 3 services for you, simply download them and give them a trial run.
With the margins so fine between all of the top services, it can often come down to which you find the easiest to use and which you find works the easiest for how you use it.
