The Best Mobile VPNs of 2023
Our mobile VPN reviews are the result of over 40 hours of research on 25+ mobile VPNs from across the web. These reviews and our mobile VPN guide help small businesses and startups find the best mobile VPNs for their business.
Written by: Digital.com Staff
Updated November 21, 2022Our Top Picks
- Secure 256-bit encryption
- Offers a 30-day free trial before purchase
- 24/7 support
NordVPN takes its security very seriously and is currently performing its second independent audit of these servers compared against its privacy policy to ensure robust security compliance. Some unique features to NordVPN are its Onion over VPN browser that protects you on the go when surfing the web, and it also offers a Double VPN feature to double the obfuscation.
Similar to the competition, NordVPN offers a monthly ($11.95), yearly ($6.99), and two-year deal ($3.49) for its services. Each agreement includes six simultaneous connections as well as a 30-day free trial beforehand.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Secure 256-bit encryption
- Offers a 30-day free trial before purchase
- 24/7 support
Cons
- Not all servers share peer-to-peer (P2P) functions
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $11.95
- 2-year plan: $3.49/month
- 1-year plan: $6.99/month
- Free Trial/Demo30-Day Free Trial
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Double-hop feature
- User tailored mobile application
Surfshark isn't for those who want advanced configuration options at a base level. Surfshark is an excellent value of options and functionality, in our opinion, without overwhelming the end-user. Some of its more intelligent features include a double-hop option that allows privacy-minded users to choose two different servers to jump through when extra security is required. Surfshark is also known for having a tremendous built-in ad blocker and one-touch connection option for users on the go.
Surfshark has one of the better two-year pricing plans to date, coming in at around $1.99 per month. Surfshark has a yearly ($5.99) and monthly plan ($11.95) that fall in the standard range of some of the competition. Lastly, Surfshark offers a 30-day limited free trial of its product.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Double-hop feature
- User tailored mobile application
Cons
- Weak social media presence
- Customer service is lacking
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $11.95
- 24-month plan: $1.99/month
- 12-month plan: $5.99/month
- Free Trial/Demo30-Day Free Trial
- Extremely large infrastructure
- Killswitch option
- Security-focused and advanced options available to end-user
PIA VPN has been around since 2009 and is considered well-established at this point. One of the more recent updates to PIA is its massive increase in infrastructure server count. With around 34,000 servers worldwide ? 17000 in the United States alone ? PIA is one of the more prevalent VPN infrastructure providers. PIA also ensures security best practices by removing support for old authentication options to avoid the risk of compromise. Lastly, PIA's Android support has passed certification by the ioXt Alliance.
The pricing breakdown for PIA is one month for $9.95, one year for $3.33 per month, and a two-year plan for $2.69 a month. These price points put PIA at the lower end of the spectrum for mobile VPN solutions. Included with the three advertised plans is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Extremely large infrastructure
- Killswitch option
- Security-focused and advanced options available to end-user
Cons
- No free version
- No double-hop feature
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $9.95
- 2 years plan: $2.69/month
- 1 year plan: $3.33/month
- Free Trial/Demo*30 Days Money Back Guarantee Only
- Extensive infrastructure (more than 160 locations)
- Fast connections (tap to connect feature)
- Government-grade encryption
ExpressVPN includes a single tap connect option that attempts to connect you to the best compatible, preselected server. Using this tap feature, you can join your known, trusted list of preferred servers within seconds of starting the application. Another sound offering is ExpressVPN has an extensive infrastructure with more than 3,000 servers in more than 160 locations. Having a wide global presence helps create a seamless VPN experience no matter where you might be located. Lastly, ExpressVPN offers support on all major mobile devices, including Android, iOS, Windows, and Blackberry.
ExpressVPN offers three different pricing packages that are more toward the top end of the market as far as cost is concerned. The month-by-month plan comes in at around $12, and then the yearly plan is $6.99 per month. The best bang for your buck is the r2 year agreement, which gets you access to five consecutive devices for $3.50 per month. Based on these numbers, it's evident that users should pursue ExpressVPN only if they plan to use it long-term and on several devices. Unfortunately, ExpressVPN doesn't offer a free trial of its solution at this time.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Extensive infrastructure (more than 160 locations)
- Fast connections (tap to connect feature)
- Government-grade encryption
Cons
- Limited simultaneous connections
- One of the more expensive solutions
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $12.95
- Six months: $9.99
- 15 months: $6.67
- Free Trial/DemoNot Provided
- High-performance servers
- Slick-looking application
- Pricing is doable
HotSpot Shield is known for making infrastructure improvements consistently to ensure its performance is top-notch. One factor that's holding the provider back from taking the lead in the mobile VPN market is that it still utilizes advertisement money to pay for the free version of its client. That can be a hard sell to private customers looking to try your product out, knowing that your personal information could be leaked to a third-party advertisement company while using a so-called secure VPN. Most would understand throttling the performance of your free offering to entice users to the paid version, but built-in ads on the Android side just don't sit well with us.
In addition to the free version being paid for by ads, it's also limited to one connection and 500 MB bandwidth. The paid version is $7.99 a month for five simultaneous connections. This price point drops HotSpot Shield to about the middle of the pack as far as monthly pricing goes. For the money, it's a pretty good deal compared to ExpressVPN's $12.95 per month plan.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- High-performance servers
- Slick-looking application
- Pricing is doable
Cons
- Free version exposes ads
- Limited support on free version
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- Free for Basic
- $7.99/month for Premium
- Free Trial/DemoNot Provided
- Totally free version
- Multiple plans and pricing options
- Open-source and user-friendly
ProtonVPN offers one of the most considerable simultaneous connection limits, which sits at 10 total. When combined with its split-tunneling feature, ProtonVPN provides maximum security on all mobile devices, including some TV options. ProtonVPN is updating its infrastructure presence constantly, with the latest edition being the Cyprus location, pushing its total number to more than 1,200 servers worldwide. Its streaming support bars none as it recently announced Android TV support for integrating all your streaming services on Android TV devices.
ProtonVPN's mobile solutions offer a different structure for pricing compared to its immediate solution. It has its free open-source solution available, but then outside of that, it offers three additional plans (Basic, Plus, and Visionary). Each plan offers incentives for upgrading. The plan pricing goes as follows: Basic at $4 per month, Plus at $8 per month, and Visionary at $24 per month. On top of the free version, you can also get a seven-day free trial of the paid versions.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Totally free version
- Multiple plans and pricing options
- Open-source and user-friendly
Cons
- Support is limited to email
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
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Only use self-owned Infrastructure
- Working and reliable killswitch
Outside of having a wide range of support on all types of unconventional mobile devices, such as Android TV, or Fire TV, IPVanish uses its server infrastructure to back its services. This allows it to set the unlimited connections threshold because it isn't relying on a third party. Lastly, another unique feature is 24/7 live customer support via chat. Many people appreciate being able to ask a question about its solution quickly instead of troubleshooting on their own.
The one-month pricing for IPVanish comes in on the higher end at $10.99 per month. It often offers yearly discounts that bring that price down drastically if you can catch the deal. Given that you have unlimited connections, it may be worth the price, seeing that its competitors like NordVPN and ExpressVPN limit your connections between five and 10 and charge a couple of bucks more per month. Lastly, IPVanish offers a 30-day trial for the iOS platform only.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- Only use self-owned Infrastructure
- Working and reliable killswitch
Cons
- On the pricey side
- Inconsistent update process
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $10.99
- Free Trial/Demo30 Days for iOS Only
- Extremely large infrastructure
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Split-tunneling/port switching for improved security
Its split tunneling and port switching abilities are prominent features to call out. CyberGhost will switch your ports constantly during split-tunnel sessions to increase overall security. One downfall observed here is that since CyberGhost doesn't offer a killswitch option, you may not notice if your connection fails while using the internet and could be surfing unprotected. Lastly, the protocol choice is limited to OpenVPN only. The overall app experience is OK but not the most polished we have seen.
Unlike ExpressVPN, CyberGhost does offer a free trial, even though it's only one day, and provides a 45-day money-back guarantee. The pricing structure is designed to benefit dedicated users of the platform, with a two-year deal at $2.75 per month. It also offers a six-month subscription for $8 per month and a month-by-month plan for $12.99.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Extremely large infrastructure
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- Split-tunneling/port switching for improved security
Cons
- Expensive monthly plan
- User interface (UI) application is lacking
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- One-month: $12.99
- Six-mont: $7.99/month
- 1 year plan: $2.75/month
- Free Trial/Demo1 Day Free Trial
- Flexible, weekly payment options
- Multihop for anonymization
- Straightforward privacy policy
IVPN has a detailed, clear, and concise privacy policy that lays out everything around what data is collected and for what reasons. There's also a list of optional collections that can take place with the end-users permission to enhance the product further. Other attention to privacy features includes a multihop system and anonymized internal system IDs, which are assigned to users' accounts to avoid having to gather and keep sensitive information like internet protocol (IP) address, domain name system (DNS) information, and bandwidth usage.
IVPN's pricing model is unique to its platform. It tries to allow flexibility to the end-user to allow them to pay in ways that work best for them. IVPN offers a weekly plan starting at $2 per week, a monthly plan at $6, yearly plan for $60, and two-year plan for $100. Lastly, IVPN does offer a free trial of its product as well. Ideally, users can start with the free trial and slowly transition into the solution on the weekly plan if that works best for its payment lifestyle.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Flexible, weekly payment options
- Multihop for anonymization
- Straightforward privacy policy
Cons
- Limited infrastructure
- Privacy settings may be confusing to some user
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
- Enhanced privacy
- Uses its own Infrastructure
- Long-term plans to make it affordable
On top of offering an informative and easy-to-read privacy policy, VyprVPN provides a no-log policy that states it won't log your actual IP address and the start/stop time of your VPN sessions. The parent company is also located in Switzerland, free of any data retention laws like most of the world is. Lastly, VyprVPN has stated that it requires a subpoena to identify information only for criminal cases issued by law enforcement. Civil cases require further court appeal to obtain sensitive information from VyprVPN. VyprVPN fights for your rights.
The monthly subscription for VyprVPN is expensive, coming in at almost $13 per month. To get the best bang for your buck, subscribing to the 18-month plan at $2.50 per month or the 36-month plan at $1.67 per month is your best bet. If you can't commit to a long-term plan, it also has a six-month deal at $6.47 per month, which still provides some financial value. Lastly, VyprVPN offers a 30-day free trial of its solutions as well.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Enhanced privacy
- Uses its own Infrastructure
- Long-term plans to make it affordable
Cons
- Expensive monthly costs
- More expensive than leading competitors
What Customers Are Saying
Summary
- Starting Price
- 36 Months: $1.67/month
- 18 Months: $2.50/month
- 2 Months: $6.47/month
- Free Trial/Demo30-Day Free Trial
How We Chose the Best Mobile VPNs
We evaluated mobile VPN solutions for this article, we took several factors into account. Overall performance was imperative, and a good balance of security and privacy features, payment options, and mobile support were all highly regarded when reviewing. The following features stuck out the most to use and were used most frequently when reviewing the mobile VPN solutions.
Large Infrastructure
Most of the solutions in our assessment were included because they contained a large infrastructure. Having a large selection of servers to choose from in a VPN provides several benefits on multiple fronts, including anonymization, regional-specific services, speed, performance, and regulation. Most of the solutions we observed with a significant server presence tended to have a better overall rating and customer approval.
Flexible Payment Options and Free Trials
A hidden feature quality that we included was the benefit that derives from attending to the individual customers' onboarding process, which pertains to features around payment options. Overall, VPN solutions tended to have a better review when they offered one or more of the following options:
- Flexible payment options like weekly plans
- Money-back guarantees
- Free trials of premium product
- Free throttle version of the product
Customers feel drawn to products that can stand behind their offering by providing some sort of assurance to the end-user that "if you don't like our product, no harm, no foul."
Privacy
With users doing a lot of sensitive activities on their phones like mobile banking or shopping, it's expected that a mobile VPN solution should come with some level of privacy as it pertains to their sensitive information. While privacy features aren't as fancy, it's essential to those users who take privacy seriously to have skin in the game. For privacy, we utilized the usability and understanding of the solutions privacy policy as the primary motivator. What good is a privacy policy if it cannot be interpreted correctly?
Usability on Mobile Devices
Last but not least, and hopefully the most obvious, is compatibility with mobile devices. As a Mobile VPN solution, having support for all sorts of devices is key to overall adoption. Users don't want to pay for mobile VPN solutions for their cellphones and tablets, only to find out that this solution doesn't support their smart VPN and router. It was important to consider solutions that were currently full-bodied or had plans to support unconventional mobile devices soon.
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