Top 5 Blazing-Fast VPNs That Make Online Privacy Effortless

Introduction

In today’s digital world, your privacy and security are constantly at risk. Every time you browse the web, connect to public Wi-Fi, or even just check your email, you expose yourself to hackers, snoopers, and data-hungry corporations. Without a VPN (Virtual Private Network), your personal information, browsing history, and even your identity could be open for anyone to access.

A VPN acts as a secure tunnel between your device and the internet, encrypting your data so no one else can access it. With a VPN, you’re not just securing your connection—you’re reclaiming control of your online life. Below, we’ve rounded up the top 4 reasons to use a VPN, as well as a list of the Top 5 Best VPN Services that deliver the best in privacy, speed, and reliability. Whether you’re new to VPNs or looking for an upgrade, these services have got you covered.

Top 5 Reasons to Use a VPN

1. Enhanced Privacy and Security

One of the biggest reasons people invest in a VPN is to protect their personal data. VPNs encrypt your internet connection, shielding you from hackers, government surveillance, Internet Service Provider (ISP) surveillance, and cybercriminals. Whether you’re browsing at home or using public Wi-Fi, a VPN ensures your sensitive information—like passwords, financial details, and browsing activity—remains secure and private.

2. Access to Geo-Restricted Content

Many people use VPNs to bypass geographical restrictions imposed by streaming services, websites, or online platforms. With a VPN, users can change their virtual location to access content from different regions, such as Netflix libraries in other countries, live sports, or blocked websites. This global accessibility makes VPNs a go-to tool for travelers and entertainment enthusiasts alike.

3. Avoid Bandwidth Throttling

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) sometimes slow down your internet connection when they detect high data usage by certain types of applications, like when streaming or downloading large files. By masking your online activity, a VPN prevents ISPs from detecting what type of internet traffic you’re generating and discriminating against your usage, ensuring you enjoy faster, uninterrupted browsing, gaming, or streaming experiences.

4. Maintain Online Anonymity

As tracking and data collection become more pervasive online, people are increasingly paying for VPNs to preserve their anonymity. A VPN conceals your true IP address, stopping websites, advertisers, the government, and even your ISP from tracking your online behavior or compiling your browsing data for targeted advertising, surveillance, or other nefarious purposes.

VPN Ranking Criteria

Each VPN review is ranked based on the following key criteria to help you understand what makes each service worth your investment: 

• Jurisdiction: The country where the VPN is headquartered, impacting privacy regulations, the legal environment, and the potential for government surveillance.
• Audited No-Logs Policy: Whether the VPN company has undergone independent audits to verify its no-logs policy, ensuring it doesn’t store user data. 
• Speed: The overall connection speed of the VPN based on speed tests, crucial for streaming, gaming, or other high-bandwidth activities. 
• Privacy Technologies: The security features the VPN uses, such as encryption protocols, DNS leak protection, and whether it has RAM-only servers to safeguard user data. 
• Additional Features: Advanced features such as split tunneling, ad blocking, or the ability to connect an unlimited number of devices.
• Customer Support: The quality and availability of support channels provided by the VPN, such as 24/7 live chat, email support, or a knowledge base for troubleshooting on their websites.
• Pricing: The cost of the VPN software.

Our recommended top VPN service list will help you find the right match to ensure your online activities remain private, secure, and unrestricted. All price quotes are for first-time customers as of October 2024. All VPN services in this list include at least a 30 day money-back guarantee. Currency fluctuations may cause prices to vary. 

How are Reviews Composed?

Our reviews are carefully crafted to provide a well-rounded perspective on each VPN service. We combine our personal hands-on experience with insights gathered from user feedback across platforms like Reddit, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and other social media channels. We also collect product information from the VPN’s official website. Additionally, we draw on information from other trusted VPN content sites to ensure our reviews are thorough, balanced, and reflect a wide range of user experiences.

Detailed VPN Reviews

How ProtonVPN Excels

ProtonVPN is the strongest choice for privacy-focused users. It’s based in Switzerland, a country notorious for neutrality, banking secrecy, and strict privacy laws. The VPN’s unique Secure Core technology adds an extra layer of protection by routing your internet traffic through its server network in privacy-friendly countries, further complicating any efforts to spy on or track you. ProtonVPN’s free version lets users browse securely without spending a dime, making it one of the few trustworthy VPNs offering a genuinely free service.

The paid VPN plan significantly boosts features and performance, providing high-speed connections, streaming capabilities, and enhanced privacy technologies like its Secure Core VPN servers. You can also bundle additional Proton services like Proton Drive (Cloud Storage), Proton Mail (secure email) and Proton Pass (password manager) for a discount. It’s often the VPN Reddit users recommend when asked for VPN recommendations, thanks to its advanced security features and smaller marketing footprint compared to more mainstream choices. If you prefer the flexibility of a monthly plan, ProtonVPN offers the cheapest option on our list.

Jurisdiction

ProtonVPN is based in Switzerland, known for having the strongest privacy laws globally. Switzerland is not part of any international surveillance alliances, making it an excellent choice for privacy-focused users. It’s also not a member of the European Union, maintaining autonomy over its privacy laws. 

Audited No-Logs Policy

ProtonVPN’s no-logs policy has been independently audited, assuring users that their data and activities are not collected, stored, or shared. This transparency makes ProtonVPN a trusted name in the VPN industry.  

Speed

ProtonVPN provides blazing fast internet speeds for paid users. The speeds on the free version can be limited due to server load. The premium VPN server network offers much faster speeds, suitable for streaming, gaming, and other high-bandwidth activities. . 

Privacy Technology

ProtonVPN is built on advanced privacy technology, including the Secure Core server network that routes user traffic through privacy-friendly jurisdictions for enhanced internet security. It operates on RAM-only servers, ensuring that no user data is stored on physical hard drives. It has an optional protocol feature called Stealth, making it extremely difficult for snoops to tell that you’re using a VPN. This comes in handy in restrictive regions where internet freedom is limited and VPN traffic is blocked. ProtonVPN provides advanced DNS leak protection by routing all DNS queries through encrypted tunnels, keeping your browsing private and free from leaks.

ProtonVPN employs PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) to ensure that each VPN session uses a unique encryption key. This means that even if an encryption key is compromised, past sessions cannot be decrypted, keeping previous communications secure. ProtonVPN also supports Tor over VPN, optionally routing your traffic through the Tor network after passing through the ProtonVPN network, adding an extra layer of anonymity.

Streaming

ProtonVPN’s premium plan enables access to popular platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. With premium VPN servers optimized for streaming, users can enjoy seamless viewing experiences across multiple devices. The free version does not support streaming.

Additional Features

Both the free and paid plans of ProtonVPN include unlimited data, Split Tunneling, and a kill switch to ensure maximum privacy and security. The Paid plan provides additional features like faster speeds, more VPN server locations, Secure Core, Tor over VPN, and the Stealth protocol. It also includes NetBlock, which blocks ads, malware, and trackers.

Customer Support

ProtonVPN provides email support, and while they do not offer 24/7 live chat, their responses are detailed and helpful. They also have a well-organized support center with FAQs and guides, though customer service response times can be slower compared to others.

Cons

The free version of ProtonVPN comes with several limitations, such as access to only three server locations and reduced speeds due to high server loads. The free plan also lacks support for streaming, making it better suited for basic browsing rather than entertainment or heavy downloading.

Pricing

Monthly Plan: $9.99
1-Year Plan: $3.99/month ($47.88 for the first 12 months) 
2-Year Plan: $3.59/month ($86.16 for the first 24 months)

How NordVPN Excels

NordVPN shines as an all-around top performer in privacy, speed, and streaming. Its focus on providing blazing-fast VPN connections, robust privacy tools, and seamless streaming access makes it a great choice for users who want the best of everything. With the proprietary NordLynx protocol, NordVPN delivers some of the fastest internet speeds in the VPN industry, making it ideal for high-quality streaming and gaming. Its advanced privacy technologies and jurisdiction further ensure that your internet connection remains secure at all times. 

Jurisdiction

NordVPN is headquartered in Panama, a country with no mandatory data retention laws, making it highly privacy-friendly. Panama is not a part of any international surveillance alliances, allowing NordVPN to maintain a strong no-logs policy. 

Audited No-Logs Policy

NordVPN has undergone several independent audits, all confirming its strict no-logs policy, ensuring users can trust that their data and online activities are not being tracked.

Speed

NordVPN might be the fastest VPN available, thanks to its proprietary NordLynx protocol, which is based on the WireGuard protocol. It ensures minimal speed drops, making it an ideal choice for streaming, and gaming. Speed tests on NordVPN usually reveal internet speeds close to the max possible provided by the internet service provider.

Privacy Technology

NordVPN offers advanced privacy features like Double VPN, which routes traffic through two VPN servers for enhanced online security, as well as RAM-only servers, which ensure that no user data is stored long-term, so there’s little risk of your personal information being released in a data breach. NordVPN’s Obfuscated Servers are specially designed to bypass network restrictions and VPN blocks by disguising VPN traffic as regular internet activity. This feature makes NordVPN a strong choice for users in restrictive regions where VPN use is heavily monitored or blocked. NordVPN also offers Onion over VPN, allowing you to route your internet traffic through the Tor network after it’s been passed through the NordVPN network. NordVPN offers robust DNS leak protection, ensuring that your DNS requests are securely routed through its own encrypted servers to prevent leaks.

Streaming

NordVPN is well-suited for streaming, easily bypassing geo-restrictions on platforms like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, and provides high-quality viewing without interruptions. 

Additional Features

NordVPN includes Meshnet for connecting multiple devices securely, creating their own virtual Local Area Network (LAN). It also includes Split Tunneling to specify which specific apps on your device should be routed through the VPN. The Plus plan includes Threat Protection to block ads and malicious sites at an additional cost.

Customer Support

NordVPN offers 24/7 live chat support, a comprehensive knowledge base, and email support. Users often praise the responsiveness and helpfulness of their live chat agents.

Cons

NordVPN charges extra for malware and ad blocking, which are included in the price of ProtonVPN. Additionally, Reddit users have reported minor VPN app issues, such as delayed connections or trouble connecting to certain VPN servers, although these issues are generally rare. 

Pricing

Monthly Plans: $12.99 – $15.99
1-Year Plans: $4.99 – $7.99/month ($59.88 to $95.88 for the first 12 months)
2-Year Plans: $3.59 – $6.49/month ($96.93 to $175.23 for the first 27 months)

How CyberGhost Excels

CyberGhost VPN excels in providing high-quality streaming at a budget-friendly price. With streaming-optimized VPN servers and a wide selection of geo-restricted services, it’s a great choice for those who prioritize accessing content globally. CyberGhost also provides strong encryption and an audited no-logs policy, making it a solid VPN for both privacy and entertainment purposes. 

Jurisdiction

CyberGhost is based in Romania, a country known for its strong privacy stance. There are no mandatory data retention laws, which means CyberGhost can effectively protect user privacy.

Audited No-Logs Policy

CyberGhost has an audited no-logs policy, ensuring user data is not collected or stored. 

Speed

CyberGhost provides consistent internet speeds, especially on its streaming-optimized VPN servers. It’s more than adequate for HD streaming with devices like Apple TV or Android TV and everyday use. 

Privacy Technology

CyberGhost offers a feature called NoSpy Servers, which are servers hosted in a private data center in Romania, providing an additional layer of security by ensuring no third-party involvement. These servers are specifically optimized for enhanced privacy, reducing potential risks related to data access or compromise. Additionally, RAM-only Servers are used across the CyberGhost network, meaning that all user data is wiped upon every server reboot, ensuring that no information is ever written to a physical hard drive. These privacy-focused features make CyberGhost an appealing choice for users seeking strong data protection and anonymity. CyberGhost uses AES-256 encryption and supports secure VPN protocols like OpenVPN and WireGuard protocol. CyberGhost VPN includes DNS leak protection as a core feature, preventing your DNS requests from bypassing the VPN tunnel and maintaining user anonymity.

Streaming

CyberGhost excels in streaming, with dedicated VPN servers optimized for platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer, making it easy to access geo-restricted content at high download speeds. 

Additional Features

CyberGhost has a user-friendly interface and includes features like streaming-optimized VPN servers, Split Tunneling, and an Ad Blocker. These make it a well-rounded choice for those new to VPNs. 

Customer Support

CyberGhost has 24/7 live chat support and email support. Their customer service is responsive, and the knowledge base includes step-by-step guides that are easy to follow. Most users report a positive experience when contacting customer service. CyberGhost is the only VPN company on this list to offer a 45-day money-back guarantee, rather than a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Cons

CyberGhost is slightly slower compared to other options like ProtonVPN or NordVPN. While its privacy features are strong, it lacks some of the more advanced privacy options like double VPN or Secure Core servers found in NordVPN and ProtonVPN. 

Pricing

Monthly Plan: $12.99
6-Month Plan: $6.99/month ($41.94 every 6 months) 
2/1-Year Plan: $2.19/month ($56.94 for the first 26 months, then yearly thereafter)

How Surfshark Excels

Surfshark VPN offers a comprehensive suite of features for an affordable price. It’s the only VPN on this list with support for unlimited simultaneous device connections. Additionally, high speeds and strong privacy measures make Surfshark stand out as a versatile VPN option. Its streaming capabilities are well-regarded, allowing users to bypass geo-blocks on popular platforms.

Jurisdiction

Surfshark is based in the Netherlands, a country that’s part of the 14 Eyes Alliance. However, Surfshark has a strict no-logs policy, verified through third-party audits, that ensures user data is not stored or shared. 

Audited No-Logs Policy

Surfshark has undergone third-party audits confirming its no-logs policy, reassuring users about their privacy. 

Speed

Surfshark VPN offers very high speeds, capable of supporting streaming, and gaming. While not the fastest, the performance is sufficient for most online activities.  

Privacy Technology

Surfshark offers a comprehensive suite of privacy technologies designed to enhance user anonymity and bypass restrictions. Camouflage Mode disguises VPN traffic as regular internet activity, making it difficult for even ISPs to detect that you’re using a VPN. Surfshark also operates on RAM-only servers, ensuring that no data is permanently stored, with all information wiped on each reboot.

For users looking for an extra layer of privacy, MultiHop allows you to connect via multiple servers, adding another layer of encryption to your connection. The NoBorders Mode feature enables users to access the internet freely even in restrictive regions where internet use is controlled. Additionally, Surfshark’s IP Rotator regularly changes your IP address without disconnecting you, making your online presence harder to track. Surfshark’s DNS leak protection automatically routes all your DNS requests through its secure servers, reducing the risk of unintentional exposure.

Streaming

Surfshark provides access to multiple streaming platforms, including Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. It’s particularly good at bypassing geo-restrictions and offers optimized servers for these activities. 

Additional Features

Surfshark VPN supports unlimited devices, Split Tunneling, and an Ad Blocker called CleanWeb, which blocks ads, malware, and phishing attempts

Customer Support

Surfshark offers 24/7 live chat and email support. Their live chat agents are known for being quick, friendly, and knowledgeable. The VPN also has extensive online guides and FAQs to help users troubleshoot issues themselves.

Cons

Surfshark’s jurisdiction in the Netherlands may be a concern for those who prefer locations outside the 14 Eyes Alliance. Additionally, while it offers great download speeds, some VPN servers can be inconsistent, leading to occasional slowdowns during peak hours. 

Pricing

Monthly Plans: $15.45 – $17.95
1-Year Plans: $2.99 – $6.06/month ($44.85 to $91.35 for the first 15 months) 
2-Year Plans: $2.19 – $4.29/month ($59.13 to $115.83 for the first 27 months)

How PIA Excels

Private Internet Access (PIA) is a reliable and cheap VPN option. Based in the United States, PIA provides decent privacy and online security features without breaking the bank. While PIA doesn’t boast as many advanced privacy technologies as some other VPNs, it has proven its no-logs policy in court, which is reassuring for privacy-conscious users. Its customizable encryption levels offer users the ability to balance download speed and security as needed, and it’s an affordable option for those seeking basic privacy enhancements. At only $2.03 per month when purchasing the 39 month (3 Year) plan, it offers the least expensive VPN option on our list. 

Jurisdiction

PIA is based in the United States, which is part of the 5 Eyes surveillance alliance. This jurisdiction is not ideal for privacy as the country is known for extensive surveillance. However, PIA has a solid reputation for standing by its no-logs policy. 

Audited No-Logs Policy

PIA has not undergone third-party audits like some of the other VPNs on this list. However, its logging policy has been verified in court multiple times, lending credibility to its data protection claims. 

Speed

PIA offers download speeds that are sufficient for browsing and light streaming. It may not be the best choice for VPN users seeking ultra-fast speeds for high-bandwidth activities, but it performs well for most tasks. 

Privacy Technology

PIA offers customizable encryption settings, allowing users to choose between stronger encryption or faster speeds. PIA’s Multi-Hop Proxy feature adds an additional layer of protection by routing internet traffic through SOCKS5 or Shadowsocks proxies. This extra “hop” enhances anonymity, making it significantly harder for anyone to trace or intercept user activity, especially in restrictive environments. It also includes DNS leak protection and a kill switch, providing solid privacy features for its price point.

Private Internet Access (PIA) uses RAM-only servers, meaning all data is wiped with every reboot, ensuring that no user information is ever permanently stored and enhancing overall privacy and security. Private Internet Access (PIA) features strong DNS leak protection, using its own encrypted DNS servers to ensure that no DNS queries are exposed to third parties, maintaining user privacy and security.

Streaming

PIA can unblock some streaming services, including Netflix US, but is not as consistent as others on this list. It may struggle with certain platforms and lacks dedicated streaming servers, which limits its overall streaming capabilities. 

Additional Features

PIA includes Split Tunneling and an Ad Blocker known as MACE, which helps in blocking ads and trackers. These features, combined with customizable encryption, make PIA a practical option for those who need a basic, low-cost VPN. 

Customer Support

PIA provides support through live chat, though not always 24/7, and email support. They also have a large support library with FAQs and guides. While their support is generally effective, users have reported occasional delays in response times compared to competitors like NordVPN or Surfshark.

Cons

PIA’s primary drawbacks are its jurisdiction in the United States, which is not ideal for privacy-focused users, and its inconsistent ability to unblock all major streaming services. Additionally, the absence of an independent audit may be concerning for some VPN users who prioritize transparency. It also doesn’t offer as many advanced privacy features as other VPNs higher on our list.

Pricing

Monthly Plan: $11.95
1-Year Plan: $3.33/month ($39.95 for the first year)
3-Year Plan: $2.03/month ($79 for the first 3 years + 3 months) 

Conclusion

Each of the VPN companies on this list offers a unique set of strengths. Depending on your priorities—whether it’s privacy concerns, streaming, browsing on public Wi-Fi networks, or affordability—these top VPNs of 2024 will keep your online activities secure and unrestricted. We hope we’ve helped you identify the best VPN for you!