The answer can be found in our ranking of the best VPN services, which we’ve compiled based on our testing.

Best VPN Services

This year, the following VPN services performed best in our tests:

While there is no one-size-fits-all VPN service that will be perfect for everyone, you can’t go wrong by purchasing one of the VPN services listed above. Any of the recommended VPN services in our review may be the best one for you – it all depends on your unique needs.

The goal of creating this review was to identify the best VPN services on the market that meet at least the following criteria:

• Passed all tests with no data leaks detected (IP address leaks or DNS leaks)
• Excellent performance across the entire server network (connection speed and reliability)
• High quality VPN applications with all functionalities working properly
• Supports WireGuard, OpenVPN and other robust and proven data encryption standards
• Provides a money-back guarantee (from 7 to 30 days)
• Trusted and proven VPN service providers with a good reputation
• Located in a secure privacy jurisdiction (outside of the Five Eyes Alliance countries – USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand)

Here is our ranking of the best VPN services:

1. NordVPN – the current market leader in VPN services

Service name: NordVPN
Jurisdiction: Panama
Logging: none (audited)
Price: from 2,99 €
Support: live chat 24/7
Refund: 30 days
Website: NordVPN.com

NordVPN has maintained its high standards for quite some time, but in recent years it has already firmly established itself as one of the top virtual private networking services and has even increased its lead over a number of competing services.

It was one of the first VPN services to implement the NordLynx protocol into its products, built on the modern and fast WireGuard security protocol. This has given NordVPN (and its users) a huge advantage over other leading services. Unsurprisingly, it was among the fastest VPNs in almost every country in our tests.

NordVPN has many other privacy features (and even higher levels of security) in its offering:

• Threat Protection feature to block ads, tracking codes, malware, and phishing domains
• Double VPN servers for encrypting data transmissions across two servers (without significant loss of data transfer speed)
• Tor-over-VPN servers that add an additional layer of encryption over the Tor network

The service has a very fast and secure server network at its disposal. All servers run in RAM-disk mode (no physical hard disks, only server memory is used).

Another huge benefit is the fact that NordVPN recently announced that it is gradually rolling out high-speed dedicated servers for its entire network. These servers will have up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth assigned to them, and will gradually replace all the servers that the company has been leasing from third parties.

At the moment, NordVPN has around 5,400 servers in 59 countries around the world.

NordVPN has also successfully passed several independent security audits, which have confirmed that its operations comply with the rules it states in its terms of use. It has an ongoing partnership with the auditing company Versprite, which conducts product security audits and penetration tests.

With top speeds and strong security, NordVPN is a top-rated VPN service for torrenting, and it also works very well for all the major streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus, and more. You can also use the NordVPN app if you need a VPN for Firestick, Smart TVs, or gaming consoles.

NordVPN also offers a service called obfuscated servers, which obfuscate data traffic over VPNs, much like regular HTTPS encryption does. This is a useful feature for circumventing censorship in countries that prohibit VPN use (for example, when using VPNs in China). However, this functionality can also be used in school networks or in workplaces that try to block traffic over VPNs.

All NordVPN subscriptions come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. In addition, with a long-term subscription, you get a discount of up to 74%, which works out at only 2,99 € per month of use. That’s excellent value for money.

There’s great round-the-clock support via live chat available 24/7.

You can read a detailed review of NordVPN by clicking here.

NordVPN

★★★★★

2,99 € 12,99 €

Discount of 74% for VPN365 readers

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2. Surfshark VPN – rising star among VPN services

Service name: Surfshark VPN
Jurisdiction: British Virgin Islands
Logging: none (audited)
Price: from 1,99 €
Support: live chat 24/7
Refund: 30 days
Website: SurfShark.com

Surfshark VPN, which only officially launched in 2018, has taken the world of VPN services by storm. Despite being a relative newcomer, Surfshark offers a lot of interesting features, great data leak protection settings, access to many streaming services, and excellent performance, all at a great price. What’s more, Surfshark comes with one big advantage you won’t find with most other VPN services – it provides unlimited connections.

Surfshark is based in the British Virgin Islands and logs absolutely no data about your internet activity, which has been officially verified by the independent auditing company Cure53. Surfshark apps include a good data leak protection setup to ensure that data remains encrypted and secure, even in the event of any outages in your connection to VPN servers. There’s also a CleanWeb feature to block ads, tracking codes, and malware domains.

Similar to our other top recommended VPN services, Surfshark now runs all servers in RAM-disk mode (without physical hard drives) for added security. It offers multiple server configurations with dual protection, allowing you to encrypt data traffic across up to two VPN servers simultaneously.

Additionally, Surfshark uses a modern and highly secure version of the WireGuard protocol, and connection and data transfer speeds were at least as good as NordVPN’s.

If you want to stream media or unblock websites, Surfshark is a great choice with over 3,200 servers in 63 countries around the world. It currently supports more than 16 regional Netflix libraries, as well as most other streaming services including BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and Disney Plus. It’s also a great VPN for Android and iOS.

Surfshark continues to gain widespread popularity, and is a strong competitor to the NordVPN and ExpressVPN pair. It is also one of the cheapest VPN services on the market with a long-term subscription. You can get the service with a discount of 87%, which is just 1,99 € per month of use. This is another option offering an excellent performance/price ratio.

All Surfshark subscription plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. There is also round-the-clock support via live chat.

You can read a detailed review of Surfshark VPN by clicking here.

Surfshark VPN

★★★★★

1,99 € 15,45 €

Discount of 87% for VPN365 readers

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3. ProtonVPN – the VPN service with the most progress

Service name: ProtonVPN
Jurisdiction: Switzerland
Logging: none (audited)
Price: from 2,49 €
Support: live chat, email
Refund: 30 days (partial refund only)
Website: ProtonVPN.com

ProtonVPN has had a quality few years since its launch in 2017, regularly ranking in the top ten VPN services we’ve recommended to our readers. In past years, it was the secure email service ProtonMail that always excelled in Proton Technologies’ product portfolio. However, recent years have changed everything, as the service has come up with a number of innovations that have taken it to the highest level.

Right at the beginning of January 2021 came the NetShield function, which is tasked with blocking malware, ads, and tracking codes on websites. NetShield is available on Android, iOS, macOS and Windows, and offers two levels of protection. The first level prevents your browser from loading resources from domains that host malware, spyware, or other malicious software. Malware protection is enabled by default. The second level of protection available blocks ads and tracking codes.

In June 2021, a new application was released for Linux systems. It features a sophisticated and fully-functional graphic user interface that makes it much easier to use. ProtonVPN is the only VPN service that offers a full-featured and free open-source Linux app.

In July 2021 the company launched the VPN Accelerator function, which improves VPN connection stability and can increase data transfer speeds by more than 400% in certain situations. VPN Accelerator is a technology unique to ProtonVPN, and should better leverage the capabilities of the large network of VPN servers at the company’s disposal. If you’re the technical type and are interested in learning more about this service, you can find more information here.

In October 2021, the company incorporated the advanced, fast and secure WireGuard protocol into its products. The benefits of this protocol are faster speeds, near instant connections to servers, better performance, and increased battery life for your devices. WireGuard is extremely fast and lightweight, open source, and, combined with VPN Accelerator technology, is another major performance leap forward. WireGuard is the default protocol via Smart Protocol technology for all ProtonVPN users on Windows, macOS, iPhone/iPad, Android, Chromebook and Android TV.

By the end of October 2021, ProtonVPN had already expanded to 63 countries worldwide, with the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, Nigeria and Georgia being added in succession. For these servers, Smart Routing technology has been used, where the server is not physically in the country, but a virtual location is used. Similarly, connectivity in other problematic countries such as Brazil, South Korea and Taiwan are also being addressed. The network has also been expanded with four new servers at the Limassol data centre in Cyprus.

Also in October 2021, ProtonVPN launched a live chat. Users no longer have to rely solely on an online form and subsequent email communication. Any user with a subscription to the service can now get help and answers to their questions in real-time via a live chat with the support team. Support is available on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

ProtonVPN has eliminated almost all of the issues that we have faulted it for in the past, and the VPN apps themselves have also undergone several improvements over the years. They are the best we can currently find among VPN services in terms of functionality, design, and ease of use.

The measured data transfer speeds were competitive with the best players on the market, which was also not the standard in the past.

In April 2022, the service passed an external audit by the renowned Securitum company, which confirmed that ProtonVPN is indeed a service that does not log its customers’ activities.

The service is available for a long-term subscription with a 75% discount, which is only 2,49 € per month of use.

You can read a detailed review of ProtonVPN by clicking here.

ProtonVPN

★★★★★

2,49 € 9,99 €

Discount of 75% for VPN365 readers

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4. ExpressVPN – a quality stalwart among VPN services

Service name: ExpressVPN
Jurisdiction: British Virgin Islands
Logging: none (audited)
Price: from 4,99 $
Support: live chat 24/7
Refund: 30 days
Website: ExpressVPN.com

In a crowded market of VPN providers, ExpressVPN maintains a very high standard and has long maintained a top position in anonymity and security on the internet. While a number of VPN services struggle with multiple bugs and issues, ExpressVPN has been providing consistent quality service for several years now.

ExpressVPN offers its own Lightway protocol, unlike other services that rely on the widely available WireGuard protocol. However, Lightway is open source, so anyone can check it. However, Lightway is open source, so anyone can use it. In benchmark tests, we found that the Lightway protocol offers both higher speed and reliability than OpenVPN, as well as very similar results to the popular WireGuard.

ExpressVPN provides a network of high-security servers in 160 locations in 94 countries around the world (more than 3000 servers). Like NordVPN and Surfshark, ExpressVPN runs all servers in RAM-disk mode (without physical hard drives) with TrustedServer for data security. This technology has been independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has also verified and successfully confirmed compliance with the service’s policy of not logging user activity.

In addition to security, ExpressVPN also excels in streaming. It is one of the best VPN services for Netflix and provides uninterrupted access to its many regional libraries. ExpressVPN equally does well with Disney Plus, Hulu, and the BBC iPlayer service.

Additionally, it offers minimalist VPN apps with a clean design that are very reliable. Although ExpressVPN is slightly more expensive than some of our other recommended VPN services, it remains a safe and reliable choice for all users.

All subscription plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. ExpressVPN provides round-the-clock live chat support and many video guides.

You can get a long-term subscription service at a discount 61%, which is only 4,99 $ per month of use.

You can read a detailed review of ExpressVPN by clicking here.

ExpressVPN

★★★★★

4,99 $ 12,99 $

Discount of 61% for VPN365 readers

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Surfshark VPN

★★★★★

1,99 € 15,45 €

Discount of 87% for VPN365 readers. The discount coupon is activated automatically by clicking the button below.

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Surfshark VPN, which only officially launched in 2018, is a rising star among VPN services. This newcomer to the VPN service market is gaining more and more attention each year. Impressive test results with great server speeds and advanced security features only underline the excellence of this young service, which is now under the protective wings of the prestigious company Nord Security.

9.6

Verified VPN service

Surfshark VPN

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WHAT WE LIKED

• Support for all operating systems and devices
• Unlimited connections
• WireGuard support with excellent speeds
• Has passed an independent security audit several times
• Large, secure server network running on RAM disks
• Works well with Netflix and other streaming services
• Dynamic MultiHop, CleanWeb and Bypasser functions
• Great pricing and money back guarantee
• Excellent 24/7 chat support

WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED

• Lack of an app for routers
• Jurisdiction in the Netherlands

Surfshark VPN has had a stellar run since its launch in 2018. Over the years, the popularity of this VPN service has steadily increased as it offers excellent features, secure apps, and great performance, all at a low price.

In 2022, Surfshark teamed up with the renowned Nord Security. Fortunately, we can see that Surfshark continues to operate independently, but now also with the support of a major security company, giving the VPN a very good vision and stability towards the future.

In addition, we see that Surfshark continues to innovate with new products and services. In addition to the VPN, it now offers a new antivirus product, as well as a private search engine, ad blocking, and a tool that alerts you to potential online identity theft.

Surfshark is doing a great job of ensuring customer privacy. In the past, this VPN service was based in the British Virgin Islands, just like ExpressVPN, for example. However, in October 2021, Surfshark announced that it would be moving to the Netherlands, primarily for business reasons.

We strongly recommend avoiding jurisdictions like the US or the UK (and other Five Eyes alliance countries). Jurisdictions in Europe are less of a concern, despite the Netherlands being part of the Nine Eyes alliance. The Netherlands has no data retention laws and Surfshark states on its website:

After reviewing Surfshark’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, we found that the service does not keep any logs that could identify the user or their online activities.

Another great news is that Surshark has undergone multiple external security audits. The company is thus progressing along with this (positive) trend. The first audit was carried out in 2018 by Cure53, a renowned cyber security firm based in Germany. The audit focused on Chrome and Firefox browser extensions.

Surfshark underwent a much more significant audit in 2021, when Cure53 audited the company’s complete infrastructure. Commenting on the audit, Surfshark CEO Vytautas Kaziukonis said:

The service underwent the biggest audit so far in January 2023, when Deloitte, one of the big four audit firms in the world, confirmed that the Surfshark service complies with all principles of not logging the activities of its users.

Surfshark also offers a Bug Bounty program to reward users who find any security weaknesses in their apps.

Although Surfshark is a young service, it currently has more than 3200 servers in 100 countries. It is the first ever VPN service that supports at least 100 countries. On the other hand, we have to mention that a number of servers are only virtual.

Let’s first define what we are talking about. A virtual server is when a VPN server lists its location as being in Chile, for example, when it is actually located somewhere else, such as the USA. There are several advantages and disadvantages associated with this.

However, Surfshark is very transparent in this regard and clearly identifies in its application the countries (with a V icon) that use virtual locations for their servers. When we went through the list of countries, we counted over 30 countries that use virtual servers.

On the other hand, we have to mention that this is nothing groundbreaking in this regard. For example, even ExpressVPN, the veteran among VPN services, uses virtual locations to support remote regions in a limited number of cases.

All servers run in RAM mode, without the use of hard disks.

Surfshark VPN achieved fantastic results in our speed tests, often outperforming even the stellar NordVPN and ExpressVPN services. We tested the service on a Windows system with the WireGuard protocol set up. All tests were performed on a dedicated 500 Mbps network located in Hungary at different times.

The measured speeds were great, whether we connected to a server in the USA, England or other countries. In addition, we did not experience any significant speed fluctuations or dropouts.

Nearest / recommended server (Slovakia)

• Lowest measured speed: 322,04 Mbps
• Highest measured speed: 453,74 Mbps
• Average measured speed: 415,23 Mbps
• Average PING: 21,40 ms

England, London

• Lowest measured speed: 158,04 Mbps
• Highest measured speed: 370,07 Mbps
• Average measured speed: 347,60 Mbps
• Average PING: 36,23 ms

USA, New York

• Lowest measured speed: 83,26 Mbps
• Highest measured speed: 205,59 Mbps
• Average measured speed: 191,73 Mbps
• Average PING: 114,09 ms

Australia, Melbourne

• Lowest measured speed: 28,97 Mbps
• Highest measured speed: 101,84 Mbps
• Average measured speed: 93,55 Mbps
• Average PING: 259,71 ms

We don’t have much to complain about with Surfshark’s security.

For encryption, Surfshark uses the industry standard AES-256-GCM (Galois/Counter Mode) cipher with RSA-2048 key exchange. In addition, Surfshark offers the following VPN protocols:

OpenVPN – generally considered the “gold standard” of VPNs because it offers good performance, is open-source, and is considered very secure.
WireGuard – is the latest addition to Surfshark’s applications and is open-source, while offering the highest speeds and the latest encryption technologies. WireGuard is supported directly in the Surfshark VPN apps (no extra configuration required).
IKEv2 – is considered to be a highly secure protocol with excellent performance. While it usually outperforms OpenVPN, it is not open-source, which is a drawback.

Depending on which Surfshark app you’re using, you can choose one of the available VPN protocols directly in the app’s settings. Surfshark currently supports the WireGuard protocol on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, and iOS.

Of course, there is the Kill Switch function, which blocks data transfers if your VPN connection goes down. This ensures that your location and IP address remain protected even if the VPN connection fails (for whatever reason).

For this Surfshark review, we tested the Windows, Mac OS, and Android clients through some basic tests and checks. We have not been able to find any IP address leaks or DNS data leaks. In short, everything with Surfshark worked well in our tests.

Surfshark VPN also offers a Bypasser function that can split the VPN tunnel. You can thus choose which applications will be encrypted (internet traffic will pass through the VPN server) and which will not (standard internet connection).

Surfshark supports almost all operating systems available on the market:

• Windows
• macOS
• iOS
• Android
• Android TV
• Amazon Fire TV
• Linux
• Add-ons for all the most common browsers (browser extensions)
• SmartDNS for smart TVs and game consoles
• settings for routers

Surfshark does not offer an application for routers.

Note: Do not confuse browser extensions or SmartDNS with a dedicated VPN client on your operating system. In short, browser extensions only work in the browser and do not encrypt all communications on your operating system. Smart DNS simply just modifies your DNS settings instead of encrypting all traffic.

The applications are very simple, straightforward, and easy to use by virtually anyone without technical knowledge. Below is the application for Windows.

If you need a good VPN service for Netflix, Surfshark is a solid choice. They offer access to over 16 regional Netflix libraries, including all of the most popular regions such as Netflix USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Korea, and more.

We decided to test Surfshark’s ability to unblock US and UK Netflix libraries and everything worked perfectly.

The streaming quality was also perfect without any interruptions. This is to be expected given the high speed and reliable connection. Surfshark certainly outperforms several competing VPN services in this regard.

In addition to Netflix, Surfshark was also able to work well with many other streaming services including BBC iPlayer, Disney Plus, Hulu, DAZN, and more.

Surfshark also handled torrenting with flying colors, which is no surprise with the measured speeds in our tests. The service doesn’t restrict torrenting in any way.

Dynamic MultiHop

The new Dynamic MultiHop feature, introduced by the company in January 2023, gives you full customisation of your connection across up to two VPN servers. The old MultiHop offered several preset pairs of servers. Now you can choose any pair of countries from over 100 server locations that Surfshark has to offer.

In addition to full customisation and better security, Dynamic MultiHop will give you even better connection speeds. This is because you can now create your own server pairs that work best for you based on your current location.

It’s a good feature if you’re looking for an even greater level of encryption and privacy beyond a one-hop connection.

Additionally, the measured speeds were very good even with this connection. Below you will find the results for MultiHop connections across Great Britain and France.

• Lowest measured speed: 223,89 Mbps
• Highest measured speed: 352,88 Mbps
• Average measured speed: 333,49 Mbps
• Average PING: 62,79 ms

Static IP address

Surfshark offers several dozen servers with a static address (Germany, Japan, USA, Singapore, Great Britain). You can use them if you need to keep your IP address from changing after every single connection to the VPN server.

CleanWeb feature

Surfshark also offers a useful filtering function called CleanWeb. This feature blocks ads, tracking codes, malware, and phishing domains, as well as “suspicious links” that are blacklisted.

This feature is available in apps for Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iOS.

NoBorders feature

Surfshark has a built-in feature called NoBorders, which it developed to help users bypass blocking VPN services. This will be especially useful in China or other censorship-ridden countries.

Rotating IP addresses

A special feature at the end – you can start rotating IP addresses in the application. IP addresses will keep changing even if you are connected to one server.

Surfshark also currently offers three extra paid services:

• Surfshark Alert – real-time alerts when your email addresses and/or passwords are at risk of being hacked (identity theft)
• Surfshark Search – truly anonymous internet search
• Antivirus – custom antivirus solution

We have no reservations about the support on the site. Live chat is available 24/7, and can be used even by users who are not logged in. The response from support was very quick and our questions were answered satisfactorily.

There is also a very rich library of tutorials and guides on the site, as well as a blog where you can find a lot of interesting information.

If you were expecting Surfshark to have high prices given the service options offered, we have a surprise for you – the service is one of the cheapest on the market. The performance/price ratio is simply fantastic. You can request a refund within 30 days of purchasing the service.

Payment is available via credit cards, PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay and cryptocurrencies.

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