The Fastest VPN Services of 2023

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SurfShark

63 countries offering coverage
extensive offering of ports and protocols
Smooth user experience

Summary

Starting Price
- One-month: $11.95
- 24-month plan: $1.99/month
- 12-month plan: $5.99/month
Free Trial/Demo
30-Day Free Trial

Support
Email
Number of Countries Available
63+ countries

SurfShark is a new player on this stage, making its way onto the scene in late 2018, but don't let its lack of experience scare you. SurfShark has much to offer as far as features, speed, and security go. Offering comprehensive coverage of devices and operating systems, SurfShark came out swinging to capture a share of the market. Lastly, Its flexible payment options may make you reconsider some of the veteran solutions in the industry.

Starting with the obvious, it is fast and offers unlimited bandwidth, which is a huge plus. SurfShark offers strong encryption and guarantees that it sticks to its "no logging sensitive information" policy. Streaming services have been tested and confirmed with SurfShark to work flawlessly ? only having a 12% decrease in speeds within the United States. Lastly, SurfShark claims to be Cure53's independent audit compliant.

Surf shark's month-to-month pricing is comparable to its competition, and truthfully it is warranted with its service offering. A few things to note is that SurfShark offers a 30-day free trial of its product and flexible yearly and bi-yearly subscriptions. When you subscribe to the two-year plan, you can get its VPN for as low as $1.99 per month. The yearly plan averages around $6 per month.

Pros & Cons

SurfShark offers a robust global server infrastructure presence to ensure that it can keep up with its fast speeds and unlimited bandwidth demands. Offering a wide variety of protocols and a smooth user experience makes SurfShark an attractive choice for all users.

Pros

63 countries offering coverage
extensive offering of ports and protocols
Smooth user experience

Cons

Customer service is lacking
Erratic peer-to-peer (P2P) behavior

What Customers Are Saying

After reviewing various sources of feedback for SurfShark, the consensus is that it is a feature-packed VPN for the price. Some of the more negative reviews have reported that the customer service tends to lack their responses, and the overall P2P behavior can be erratic at high peak times.

NordVPN

Military-grade security
Unlimited bandwidth
Enhanced privacy features

Summary

Starting Price
- One-month: $11.95
- 2-year plan: $3.49/month
- 1-year plan: $6.99/month
Free Trial/Demo
30-Day Free Trial

Support
24/7 Live Chat
Number of Countries Available
59 countries

NordVPN is one of the more popular amongst general users. It's best known for its top-of-the-line encryption methods as well as unlimited bandwidth plans. If your main concerns are online privacy and fast speeds, then NordVPN is worth looking at. Comparable to ExpressVPN, NordVPN is just as expensive, to say the least, although Nord offers a two-year plan that brings the monthly cost down to a considerable level.

NordVPN sets itself apart from the competition by offering the best security and privacy in the industry with military-grade encryption. A newer feature offered is Onion over VPN, which provides users with a double VPN to emphasize security further. Lastly, Nord supports all major operating systems, including the top mobile brands, to ensure users have a streamlined experience across all devices.

To own the best, sometimes you have to pay a pretty penny for it. NordVPN is one of the more expensive solutions in the market, charging $11.95 a month for its services. Nord offers several other plans, including a two-year plan that helps thwart the monthly cost by bringing it down to $2.69 a month. Unlike its competition, ExpressVPN, NordVPN offers a 30-day free trial of its solution to allow users to experience all it has to offer before committing to a payment plan.

Pros & Cons

For NordVPN, the pros outweigh the cons. While the monthly price upfront may be scary, features like unlimited bandwidth and enhanced privacy are worth every penny. Lastly, there were some self-reported issues of slowness by NordVPN itself, expressing that it may experience some latency at peak times.

Pros

Military-grade security
Unlimited bandwidth
Enhanced privacy features

Cons

Monthly price
Sometimes slow internet at peak times

What Customers Are Saying

Most of the feedback and reviews online are positive, stating that after trying numerous other VPN solutions, they landed with NordVPN due to both performance and customer support responsiveness. Also, there was a lot of good feedback on its custom NordLyn>protocol across all major devices.

hide.me

Totally Free Version without Ads
Independently Owned
10 simultaneous connections

Summary

Starting Price
- 1 Year: $8.32/month
- 2 Years: $4.99/month
- 1 Month: $12.95/month
Free Trial/Demo
Yes

Support
Best Free Option
Number of Countries Available
Yes

Hide.me VPN is a solution that is supported in the Microsoft store specifically for Windows. This VPN offers both paid and free versions. The paid version is advertised as a lifetime plan with no ads, trackers, or logs. Their paid version is highly touted by Microsoft, Forbes, PCmag, Techradar, and Trustpilot.

Hide.me claims to be a 99.9% uptime remark and a 100% independent ownership for ensuring a privacy-first approach. Hide.me claims to have support gigabit speeds and unlimited bandwidth as well. Lastly, They offer ten simultaneous connections to co-inside with their unlimited speeds.

Outside of their free basic plan, Hide.me offers three premium plans that include a 2-year plan for 2.45 a month, a 1-year plan for 3.66 a month, and a monthly plan for 9.95. Their model provides a sound system for gradually shifting from the free version to the paid version at a price model that works for the individual.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Totally Free Version without Ads
Independently Owned
10 simultaneous connections

Cons

More on the expensive side for Premium
Speeds tend to Suffer at times

What Customers Are Saying

Most of the customer reviews state that Hide.me provides everything that is advertised, and most were happy to pay the expensive premium version because of this. Many of the customers also started with the free version. It is indeed lifetime (some of these users stated they have been using the product for over seven years). Lastly, new users expressed how easy and quick the solution was to get up and running.

TorGuard

Best pricing model
24/7 customer support
Strong infrastructure presence (60 countries)

Summary

Starting Price
- Monthly: $9.99
- Quarterly: $19.99
- Semi-Annually: $29.99
- Annually: $59.99
Free Trial/Demo
Free Trial

Support
24/7 Live Chat
Number of Countries Available
50 countries

TorGuard is not a VPN in the top five most popular, but it offers a solid solution with four different flexible pricing options. Outside of pricing, TorGuard offers a unique anonymous opportunity that still allows for speed and protocol options. Lastly, its speed is definitely worth the price of admission. Paired with the unlimited bandwidth, it offers you can't go wrong.

One of the most infamous features of TorGuard is its ability to support a plethora of tunneling protocols. These include OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, IKEV2, and SSTP, to name a few. By keeping these protocols, TorGuard can provide Socks5 and HTTP proxies as an additional offering as well. Lastly, one important detail to note is that even though TorGuard has legitimate anonymous features, it is located in a five-eyes country, which means if required, it could be subpoenaed for its users' information.

TorGuard is competitive with its pricing model and uses its specialized packages to encourage different users and use cases to go with its solution. It offers Standard and Pro packages at monthly and yearly billing cycles. Each package provides a free trial, with the yearly package being $59.99. There are also business VPN services available, with pricing based on the number of users and email accounts needed. Compared to ExpressVPN or NordVPN, the price is about $20 cheaper per year, and TorGuard's price includes a 24/7 customer support line as well.

Pros & Cons

TorGuard offers some pretty good incentives, including a worldwide presence and a versatile price model. To be a bit cheaper on the pricey side, the speeds will suffer a little bit, but keep in mind that unlimited bandwidth is also crucial to consider. Lastly, if you are big on privacy, remember it's located in a five-eye country where authorities can summon records if needed at any time.

Pros

Best pricing model
24/7 customer support
Strong infrastructure presence (60 countries)

Cons

Speeds aren't the fastest
Subject to subpoena

What Customers Are Saying

TorGuard has several reviews stating how good its customer support is, including timely responses. One of the negative reviews indicated from time to time is that specific VPN locations randomly stop working; more notably, during video streaming sessions, the connection tends to seem slow at times for brief periods before correcting itself. Overall, the summary of the reviews was positive from long-time customers.

ExpressVPN

Wonderful customer support
Many protocols to choose from
Torrenting is allowed

Summary

Starting Price
- One-month: $12.95
- Six months: $9.99
- 15 months: $6.67
Free Trial/Demo
Not Provided

Support
24/7 Live Chat
Number of Countries Available
94 countries

ExpressVPN is rated one of the best overall virtual private network (VPN) solutions for several reasons. We have found that a combination of speed, reliability, and security features play into why ExpressVPN is rated number one. While its price is more on the high side, users are getting the best bang for their buck with an easy-to-use interface, multiplatform capabilities, and generous coverage across the world. Whether you are a newbie to VPNs or a veteran user, Most will find that ExpressVPN suits all their needs.

ExpressVPN has recently released a brand new VPN protocol called Lightway, this protocol was created to help remove weaknesses and bugs that may reside in some of the legacy protocols. Lightway focuses on using a minimal code base, which allows for faster and more reliable performance as well as enhanced auditing. Lightway also includes a feature that allows for seamless transitions between VPN connections to provide persistence and uninterrupted service.

ExpressVPN is one of the more expensive VPN solutions out there, but it is not without warrant. ExpressVPN backs its one-month price point of $12.95 with top-of-the-line features, security, and speed. ExpressVPN offers incentives for signing long-term agreements, including a six-month ($9.99 a month) and a 15-month ($6.67 a month) deal. As always, ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on its services.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Wonderful customer support
Many protocols to choose from
Torrenting is allowed

Cons

More expensive than leading competitors

What Customers Are Saying

We have seen, for the most part, users of ExpressVPN are delighted with the product overall. There was a wide range of reviews from all operating systems and professional backgrounds with the same messagePeople overall are satisfied with the speeds, security, streaming capabilities, and privacy controls of ExpressVPN.

ProtonVPN

Leader in privacy with ProtonMail Package
Large infrastructure
Tiered pricing (free version)

Summary

Starting Price
- Free version available
- $4/month for Basic
- $8/month for Plus
- $24/month for Visionary
Free Trial/Demo
7-Days Trial

Support
Email, Ticket
Number of Countries Available
44 countries

You may have heard of ProtonMail, the free and secure email service that claims "privacy first." The creators of ProtonMail have now created a VPN solution called ProtonVPN. ProtonVPN, as you might have guessed, is one of the more popular services due to the success that ProtonMail has seen over the past decade. One of the expressed features is that ProtonVPN offers a free version for public use. Let's take a closer look and see if ProtonVPN is everything it is cracked up to be.

One of the more startling details is that ProtonVPN only offers a couple of Protocols for use (OpenVPN and IKEv2), which seems low for a VPN service priced towards the higher end of the spectrum. Many review sites have given ProtonVPN a lower rating because of this. Two things that ProtonVPN does have going its way: its claim to unlimited bandwidth and its server infrastructure presence in over 44 countries.

ProtonVPN offers several pricing options for its professional product as well as a free version. The basic package is around $4 per month, then $8 per month for the plus account, and $24 per month for the individual license. Each license offers additional features. ProtonVPN does offer a seven-day free trial as well. Comparing even the introductory price to those of NordVPN and ExpressVPN, it is clear that ProtonVPN may be trying to ride on the success of ProtonMail to make some extra money. The lack of features and protocol support in ProtonMail are signs of being wary of.

Pros & Cons

While ProtonVPN has flexible pricing, the features included may not be worth the money paid when compared to competitors. Its global presence is an advantage, but the solution can be hard to configure as well.

Pros

Leader in privacy with ProtonMail Package
Large infrastructure
Tiered pricing (free version)

Cons

Prone to VPN blocks
Lacking support
Tough to configure

What Customers Are Saying

Most public reviews on ProtonVPN touted its security and privacy first approach. Obvious complaints were around the pricing for the plus plan, but some stated that the free version is great for the everyday user. Lastly, as of yet, ProtonVPN doesn't include an ad blocker that is effective.

TunnelBear

Offer free version
Easy to use
Proprietary kill switch and IP mask

Summary

Starting Price
- Free for limited usage (500mb of secure browsing)
- Unlimited $3.33/month
- Teams $5.75/user/month
Free Trial/Demo
Not Provided

Support
Email
Number of Countries Available
22+ countries

TunnelBear is for users who want to check the box of having a VPN service that does the bare essentials like Security and Privacy for basic tasks like web searching and checking email. TunnelBear is supported on all major operating systems ? excluding Linux ? and is best known for its simplicity. It has a decent worldwide presence and uses top-of-the-line AES-256 military-grade encryption.

Unique to TunnelBear are its proprietary features for paid subscriptions. These features are called VigilantBear and GhostBear. VigilantBear is essentially an internet kill switch that can automatically kill your internet connection if you are disconnected from the VPN. GhostBear can hide the fact that you are using a VPN by preventing internet protocol (IP)-based tracking. This feature can be handy in countries where the use of a VPN is frowned upon. Lastly, while TunnelBear is an easy solution to set up and use, it can also be a disadvantage in the future as it does not have the advanced configuration options compared to its competition.

One of the nice perks of choosing TunnelBear is that it offers a limited free version for one device, unlimited individual license, and a Teams package for up to five devices. The individual unlimited package is priced at $3.33 a month, which is currently below the average per month for a VPN solution. One thing to consider with the free version is that you are limited to 500 MB of bandwidth per month, which most users blow through quickly and can be misleading.

Pros & Cons

While it is nice to have a free version to try out, it may not suffice for the long term as the bandwidth will be throttled. For an easy-to-use VPN, TunnelBear fits the bill and has some excellent unique features.

Pros

Offer free version
Easy to use
Proprietary kill switch and IP mask

Cons

500 MB bandwidth for free version
Unstable speeds at times

What Customers Are Saying

Most public reviews of TunnelBear are positive for users performing simple tasks like web surfing. There were several complaints from users on the Apple products side stating that the VPN can be patchy and flake out. Another complaint was that it tends to want to block access to more sites that are not malicious than its competition.

PureVPN

Largest worldwide infrastructure coverage
Excellent VPN protocol support
Free version and money-back guarantee

Summary

Starting Price
- One-month: $10.95
- 6 months plan: $8.33/month
Free Trial/Demo
Free Trial

Support
24/7 Live Chat
Number of Countries Available
140+ countries

PureVPN overall offers a significant amount of functionality, services, and features for the price. Some of the high-level incentives include having one of the giant footprints as far as infrastructure goes, with more than 6,500 servers in 140 countries. Its plans can support up to 10 devices, and it offers a good balance of speed and security. Let's dive into some of the details to get a good understanding of what PureVPN brings to the table.

PureVPN offers Military-grade encryption alongside its killswitch and split tunneling capabilities. Video streaming on all major platforms is supported and encouraged with up to 10 GB a month in bandwidth. The service is relatively easy to set up and use, but if users have trouble, there is a 24/7 support line and a set of excellent installation guides. As it pertains to speed, PureVPN tested excellent, including higher than average upload speeds across the globe. Lastly, all major protocols are well-supported security and privacy ? OpenVPN, L2TP, SSTP, PPTP, and IKEv2. PureVPN is located in Hong Kong, a country outside of any privacy laws nationwide.

PureVPN offers a monthly, biyearly, yearly, and two-year subscription plan. The best deal is the two-year plan totaling $3.33 per month and slightly lower than its competitors like ExpressVPN and NordVPN. PureVPN does offer a free trial of its services and is currently supported on all major PC and mobile operating systems. Lastly, it also offers a 31-day money-back guarantee if you aren't fully satisfied with its solution.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Largest worldwide infrastructure coverage
Excellent VPN protocol support
Free version and money-back guarantee

Cons

Customer service lacks technical knowledge
Unreliable at times in China

What Customers Are Saying

Overall, the customer reviews seem very focused on how stable and reliant the platform is. It has a long list of reviews from long-time customers over five years. Only a handful of issues reported short time server errors that are usually resolved in a few days.

PrivateVPN

Strong zero-log policy
Unblocking streaming services
Flexible pricing tiers

Summary

Starting Price
- One month: $7.67
- 3 months: $4.88/month
- 13 months: $3.82/month
Free Trial/Demo
7-Day Free Trial

Support
24/7 Live Chat
Number of Countries Available
60 countries

PrivateVPN has a firm "zero logs" stance regarding its end users' privacy concerns ? hence the name PrivateVPN. It offers several different purchasing options and supports multiple logins up to six devices per plan. In many ways, PrivateVPN is very similar to the offerings provided by PureVPN. Its infrastructure is extensive ? 60 countries ? but, unlike PureVPN, it has no cap on bandwidth.

PrivateVPN is great at unblocking streaming services quickly and is known for having fast-performance servers. Similar to its competition, PrivateVPN mimics the military-grade encryption standard and supports five protocols ? OpenVPN, L2TP, IPsec, PPTP, and IKEv2. Its killswitch also allows the end-users to select specific devices to apply the killswitch to ? not just a one size fits all approach. Lastly, PrivateVPN offers an obfuscation mode called StealthVPN, which helps with IP masking and tunneling practices.

PrivateVPN offers several subscription plans, all offering a 30-day money-back guarantee. Monthly, quarterly, yearly, and two-year plans are even spread apart to provide a good spread of pricing options. The monthly is a bit expensive, running around 11 dollars a month, and the best deal is the two-year plan coming in at $2.55 a month. One of the most extraordinary things about PrivateVPN is that it is one of the only VPN providers that accept Bitcoin as a payment option, along with all major credit cards and PayPal.

Pros & Cons

PrivateVPN is very similar in many ways to its competition like PureVPN. What makes it stand out is its strong stance on zero log privacy. It's known for being good at streaming services and has decent pricing tiers as well. On the flip side, its customer support live chat feature tends to be faulty, and it has been reported that specific servers are under-resourced, resulting in slower speeds.

Pros

Strong zero-log policy
Unblocking streaming services
Flexible pricing tiers

Cons

Live chat feature is faulty
Slower speeds on specific servers

What Customers Are Saying

Honestly, despite the live chat feature not always working, most of the customer reviews are very positive towards PrivateVPN's support time and its timeliness over email exchanges. It sounds like it has a pretty solid process in place to address most issues customers have over email.

Windscribe

Unlimited bandwidth (10 GB free version)
Unlimited connections with Pro
Strong and customizable security

Summary

Starting Price
- Monthly plan: $9.00
- 1 year plan: $4.09/month
- Build a Plan: $1/location/month
Free Trial/Demo
1 Day Trial

Support
Email, Ticket
Number of Countries Available
60 countries

Windscribe is a unique VPN solution as it dabbles in the Internet of Things (IoT) space and specifically Google Chrome extensions. It also offers unlimited simultaneous connections (which is rare amongst the competition) and supports the military-grade encryption that most markets do. Pricing tends to lean towards the higher end with the monthly plan, but it offers a different "build your plan" approach that is sure to entice.

Windscribe takes internet security to the next level with its one-of-a-kind R.O.B.E.R.T. solution. R.O.B.E.R.T. is a server-side domain and IP blocking service that allows end-users to customize different online security actions per device, including blocking ads and trackers, infections alerts, and even access rules for visiting specific online resources.

The pricing plans with Windscribe are pretty straightforward at $9 monthly or $4 per month for a yearly plan. It also offered an attractive "build your own plan" pricing where, if you meet the criteria of several locations, you get bulk pricing for as little as $1 per month, per location. This offering may encourage large organizations to make the switch.

Pros & Cons

Windscribe has a great offering, including unlimited bandwidth and connections with the pro version, which is unheard of, and even its free version offers 10 GB bandwidth. On top of its fast speeds and performance specs, it offers the ability to customize your overall security experience with the web-based security tool R.O.B.E.R.T. Windscribe is against the provider because it isn't worldwide and doesn't have 24/7 support in place currently.

Pros

Unlimited bandwidth (10 GB free version)
Unlimited connections with Pro
Strong and customizable security

Cons

Servers infrastructure not worldwide
No 24/7 live support

What Customers Are Saying

Overall, customers love the free version of the tool and state it is one of the best offerings in the market. Some of the reviews even stated that if you reach out to the team at Windscribe on Twitter and ask for more bandwidth, it will give it to you.

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How We Chose the Fastest VPN Services

When we evaluate VPN solutions to determine the fastest, we take several factors into account other than fast speeds. As an end-user, you shouldn't need to buy an expensive solution thinking, "Well, it must be good if it's costly."

There should be a balance between price and features that offer a solid all-around product as the outcome. We consider the four following attributes as major deciding factors when picking out the fastest VPN solution.

Bandwidth Consumption Limit

Overall speed is excellent but, if you don't have high bandwidth usage, fast speeds will burn through your bandwidth and contribute to overall poor performance. When you load websites or watch videos, it is essential to have a large bandwidth to allow all that data to be sent over in a large group. This allows for faster loading times; with a lower bandwidth amount, it is like filling up a pool with water through a straw. It doesn't matter how fast the water is going through the straw as it still takes a while to fill up.

Infrastructure Capacity

Having an extensive infrastructure of servers around the globe is critical to several different functions on a fast VPN. As an end-user, you want to be able to switch to another country's server quickly if, for some reason, you are experiencing slowness. Also, options for different countries play into various features like tunneling, streaming, and privacy controls within each platform. We always consider the number of supported countries when evaluating VPN solutions.

Supported Features/Systems

If you purchase a VPN service, you want it to work on your device. More times than not, we have seen users get used to a VPN and would like to stick with that service but expand it out to all of its devices after some time. We want to highly regard VPNs that support a vast majority of the popular features and operating systems in the market to ensure overall user satisfaction. Users shouldn't have to choose between different VPNs because one supports features like streaming or proxying, which the user wants to use, but then find out it doesn't help all of their device operating systems.

Speed Output

Last is overall speed output. There is nothing worse when using a VPN service to stream a movie or download files, and your general internet speed is nullified once you turn on the VPN. We reviewed the advertised speed and tested these speeds from different countries around the globe to ensure that once the VPN is enabled, these speeds do not vary from what is advertised. Speed sells when it comes to VPNs, and it is not hard to test.

The Fastest VPN Services of 2023

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How We Chose the Fastest VPN Services

Bandwidth Consumption Limit

Infrastructure Capacity

Supported Features/Systems

Speed Output

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