The Best VPNs for Mac of 2023
Our VPNs for Mac reviews are the result of over 40 hours of research on 16+ VPNs for Mac companies from across the web. These reviews and our VPNs for Mac guide help small businesses and startups find the best VPNs for Mac for their business.
Written by: Owen Dubiel, IT Security and VPN Expert
Updated July 18, 2022Our Top Picks
- Great long-term pricing
- Strong Global RAM-only server presence
- Unlimited connections
Some of the specific features that come with the utilization of Surfshark include being able to hide your internet protocol (IP) address exclusively for Mac. Surfshark also has a built-in feature called CleanWeb, which allows users to surf the internet clean from any ads, trackers, malware, or phishing attempts. Lastly, Surfshark includes a bypass feature that enables users to select specific sites for all struggling with the Surfshark VPN compatibility.
Surfshark's pricing is pretty straightforward, offering three different package plans. The monthly plan is $12.95, the 12-month plan is $2.49 per month, and the 24-month plan is $3.99 per month. It saves money to stick with Surfshark for the long haul. Surfshark offers a 30-day free trial of its solution as well before committing to a long-term deal.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great long-term pricing
- Strong Global RAM-only server presence
- Unlimited connections
Cons
- Customer service can lack or be unresponsive
- Expensive monthly plan
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $12.95
- 24-month plan: $2.49/month
- 12-month plan: $3.99/month
- Free Trial/Demo30-Day Free Trial
- Large Infrastructure
- Great two-year pricing plan
- Stable speeds
To start, NordVPN is best known for novice users. It has an easy-to- use interface and is very easy to set up on a Mac machine. Secondly, from a security perspective, NordVPN is taking it to the next level with its custom NordLynx, a next-generation encryption protocol. NordLynx optimizes the best of both worlds between speed and security.
As far as pricing goes, NordVPN is right up there with ExpressVPN. Its monthly plan is around $12 per month. NordVPN has a yearly plan and a two-year plan that cost $6.99 and $3.49 per month, respectively. One major differentiator between ExpressVPN and NordVPN is that Nord offers a 30-day free trial of its product before purchasing.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Large Infrastructure
- Great two-year pricing plan
- Stable speeds
Cons
- OpenVPN configuration isn’t easy to set up
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $11.95
- 1-year plan: $6.99/month
- 2-year plan: $3.49/month
- Free Trial/Demo30-Day Free Trial
- Fast speeds and anti-throttling
- Large infrastructure
- Network lock feature
ExpressVPN supports gaming on your macOS by protecting you from online distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks as well as lowering the ping times during gaming to give you the competitive edge. Sometimes, ISPs throttle your bandwidth without you knowing. ExpressVPN has a feature that automatically bypasses these throttling restrictions to ensure you get the bandwidth you're paying for.
Pricing for ExpressVPN isn't cheap as it's one of the more expensive VPN solutions on the market. Its Monthly plan starts at $12.95. Then, the cost goes down depending on how long you're willing to sign on for. $9.99 for a six-month plan and then $8.32 for a 12-month agreement. Unfortunately, ExpressVPN doesn’t offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Fast speeds and anti-throttling
- Large infrastructure
- Network lock feature
Cons
- Only five simultaneous connections
- More expensive than leading competitors
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $12.95
- Six months: $9.99
- 12 months: $8.32
- Free Trial/DemoNot Provided
- 10 simultaneous connections
- Excellent long-term plans
- Security-first approach
PIA comes prebuilt with MACE, a domain name system (DNS)-based ad blocker to help safeguard its users while online. PIA also only used Secure VPN protocols as well as WireGuard to help keep your data secure. Lastly, PIA includes advanced split tunneling, including a bypass feature, unlimited bandwidth, and up to 10 simultaneous connections.
The best part about PIA is that it's somewhat cheaper than the plans we have covered so far. Its monthly plan starts at $11.99 per month, then the one-year program jumps down to $3.33 per month, and lastly, the two-year plan is 2.69 per month. Its tool does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee as well to ensure its clients are happy.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 10 simultaneous connections
- Excellent long-term plans
- Security-first approach
Cons
- Streaming services take buffer time
- Could be faster
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $11.99
- 2 years plan: $2.19/month
- 1 year plan: $3.33/month
- Free Trial/Demo*30 Days Money Back Guarantee Only
- 10 simultaneous connections
- Free trial and low pricing
- Easy to use
BitDefender Premium VPN includes a very effective killswitch to ensure if your VPN goes down for some reach, the internet will be disconnected to keep your privacy intact. BitDefender also takes a more secure approach to handle how it assigns IP addresses. By utilizing dynamic IPs to its end users, they are guaranteed a new VPN every time they log in to BitDefender Premium VPN.
Just like the platform services are straightforward, so is the pricing. BitDefender comes with two basic plans, a monthly plan that is $6.99 per month and then a yearly plan for $2.49 per month. Compared to most of the competition, even the monthly plan is hard to beat. It also offers a free seven-day trial of its product beforehand as well. Lastly, each program includes 10 simultaneous connections to 10 different devices.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- 10 simultaneous connections
- Free trial and low pricing
- Easy to use
Cons
- Nomultihop technology
- No advanced options
- Weak offline security
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- 1 Year plan: $2.49/month
- 1 Month plan: $6.99/month
- Free Trial/DemoFree Trial
- Worldwide presence
- Priced for long-term account holders
- Stable speeds
On top of the apparent features like a one-click connect option and secure file sharing, CyberGhost also includes some of the best speeds globally. It's so confident with its offering that it's one of the only vendors that provide a 45-day money-back guarantee on its services.
CyberGhost’s monthly plan is right up there, with some of the most expensive plans coming in at $12.99. To get a benefit, you'll want to go for its 36-month plan at $2.29, 24-month plan at $3.25 per month or its one-year plan at $4.29 per month. CyberGhost does offer a free trial, but it's a limited one-day-only trial. Then, you have to purchase one of its plans, which is backed by its guarantee.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Worldwide presence
- Priced for long-term account holders
- Stable speeds
Cons
- Doesn’t work out of the box
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $12.99
- 1 year plan: $4.29/month
- 2 year plan: $3.25/month
- 3 year plan: $2.29/month
- Free Trial/Demo1 Day Free Trial
- Unlimited speed and connections
- Owns its own infrastructure
- Top-notch forced security best practices
IPVanish takes end-user privacy very seriously by keeping a strict zero traffic logs policy and utilizing 256-bit encryption for communication tunnels. Regarding performance, IPVanish is also unmatched with its unthrottled speeds and an unmetered number of connections. Lastly, IPVanish has 24/7 customer support to ensure that it can handle any issues that arise with your experience promptly.
IPVanish offers several pricing plans starting with its monthly plan of $10.99 per month. It also offers a yearly and two-year plan, with the two-year plan coming in around $4 per month for the first two years. Compared to the competition, IPVanish is a bit on the pricey side. But one great incentive is that IPVanish offers a 30-day free trial for iOS users only.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unlimited speed and connections
- Owns its own infrastructure
- Top-notch forced security best practices
Cons
- Not all servers are fully optimized
- Client application needs work
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- Monthly: $10.99/month
- Quarterly: $5.32/month
- 1 year plan: $3.99/month
- Free Trial/Demo30 Days for iOS Only
IVPN has a slew of features that can be enabled easily to enhance your VPN experience. Some of the top features include its support of Wire Guard protocols and privacy controls, its Anti-Tracker solution that acts as an advanced ad blocker, and its ability to multihop VPN routes. Overall, IPVN looks to have more advanced feature options available than its competition.
IVPN offers an attractive weekly feature starting at $2 per month. From there, IVPN has a monthly plan at $6, a yearly plan at $60, and a two-year plan at $100. The two-year plan comes out to around $4 per month. On top of its multitude of plan options, IVPN also offers a limited free trial.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Flexible pricing plans
- Multiple hop support
- Open-source
Cons
- Limited server infrastructure
- Limited reviews
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- 1 Week: $2
- 1 Month: $6
- 1 Year: $60
- 2 Years: $100
- 3 Years: $140
- Free Trial/DemoFree Trial
- Free trial and 30-day money-back Guarantee
- Excellent pricing options
- Advanced features
PrivateVPN offers IPv6 leak protection to ensure that your identity remains protected if you disconnect from the internet. Private VPN also supports all protocols, including OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, IPsec, and even open-source protocols, if desired. Lastly, its support staff is composed of actual developers for the project. This way, you're getting real-time answers from those who contributed to the product.
PrivateVPN offers a one-month package at $7.67, a three-month package at $4.88, and a 12-month deal at $3.82 a month. These price points provide a competitive approach and plan structure to IVPN and ProtonVPN, the other two privacy-first VPNs on this list. It also offers a seven-day free trial of its VPN to test before purchasing. Lastly, PrivateVPN does provide a whole 30-day money-back guarantee if you're not happy with its product.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Free trial and 30-day money-back Guarantee
- Excellent pricing options
- Advanced features
Cons
- Live chat is haphazard
- No WireGuard support
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One month: $7.67
- 3 months: $4.88/month
- 13 months: $3.82/month
- Free Trial/Demo7-Day Free Trial
- Strong privacy first features
- SecureCore technology
- Varying price models and free version
ProtonVPN offers a unique service called Secure Core VPN. The objective of Secure Core VPN is to route your connections through multiple servers within data centers located in countries that are backed by strong privacy laws. This process helps to promote security and privacy standards for end-users. ProtonVPN also has a built-in ad blocker called NetShield. NetShield has a feature that speeds up your connection by filtering out images automatically, scripts and refocusing if they revolve from a destination known for malware.
ProtonVPN has several different plans and packages that you can subscribe to for its services. Each plan builds upon the one before it and adds some additional features. The Monthly plan for basic is $4 per month, the Plus plan is $8 per month, and then the Visionary plan is $24 per month. ProtonVPN also offers a free version, but it's severely limited on resources and should be treated as a free trial.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Strong privacy first features
- SecureCore technology
- Varying price models and free version
Cons
- Only email support
- Top plan is the most expensive in the industry
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- Free version available
- $4/month for Basic
- $8/month for Plus
- $24/month for Visionary
- Free Trial/Demo7 Days Trial
How We Chose the Best VPN for Mac
We needed to tailor our criteria to the users of Mac devices and what would work best for this operating system. These criteria are the ones that we felt best addressed Mac users and would ensure a better overall VPN experience if the solutions had at least the following four features. A large infrastructure and solid support team offer a higher number of connections per account, and usually have a strong stance on privacy.
Large Infrastructure
For a VPN solution to be effective, it needs to have a significant server presence around the globe to support it. This is the backbone of what a VPN is made of and determines things like speed, performance, and privacy. Users will be limited to options without a solid infrastructure and constantly suffer slow buffering times or lagging rates. Security shouldn’t be a limitation on performance and speed but live together in harmony.
Support
Support is crucial for Mac users as it seems few solutions want to work natively out of the box on a Mac. We prioritized having a solid support team-high when making this list to ensure that if end-users have technical questions or need help installing the VPN solution, the service is available quickly.
High Number of Connections
Mac users are loyal, so it's safe to say that they would want their VPN solution to be able to not only work on all their Apple devices but also do it simultaneously under one account. Apple has some sharing features built-in that help inter-connect Apple devices together for a seamless experience. All these connected devices need to have a VPN solution that can support them flawlessly.
Privacy
As you have noticed, a lot of the VPNs in this list are privacy-focused. First, this was done intentionally. Mac users tend to be drawn to the fact that overall, Apple is highly concerned with the security and privacy of its users’ data. We needed to consider only looking at solutions that offered solid privacy options and features, supported under the apple umbrella. What would be the point of having a VPN solution on a Mac that doesn’t prompt privacy first?
Related Posts
What Is Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) Software?
We know what you're probably thinking or have thought at some point. "Yet another security tool that my business needs?"… Read MoreWhat Is Spear Phishing and How To Avoid an Attack
Contrary to popular belief, most cyberattacks don't rely on some distant attacker "hacking their way into the mainframe" or whatever… Read MoreHow Do I Disable My VPN?
Using a virtual private network (VPN) is a great and relatively easy way to hide your online activity from third… Read MoreDoes a VPN Protect Your Business From Trojans?
I love Greek mythology. The "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are some of the most interesting pieces of literature of all time.… Read MoreThe Best Free VPNs of 2023
Looking for a free VPN is a confusing process. There are some reputable providers out there, but free VPNs often… Read More© 2019 Digital.com
- 600 Stewart St, Ste 400, Seattle, WA 98101