Its never too late to look for the best VPN in 2025.
Securing your online presence is a challenge for many, given the amount of ISP surveillance and online censorship.
In addition, people are bothered by geo-restrictions, as they prevent them from accessing more content.
© Gizmodo.com
The Internet, as much as its awesome and handy, can be a dangerous place.
Your private data will inevitably end up in the wrong hands and your privacy will be exposed.
The good news is that our top picks can and will alleviate all these terrifying issues.
A VPN is designed to keep your privacy intact by routing your traffic through an intermediary VPN server.
It hides your IP address and encrypts your traffic, making your online presence more anonymous.
Beware that this is only a theory.
What are the top VPNs to use in 2025 then?
Find out by reading further!
This is a comprehensive ranking based on at least 15 years of experience with VPN services.
Take note of these services.
This is easily our favorite paid VPN, offering a whopping7,110+ servers in more than 118 countries.
NordVPN is many peoples preferred choice for privacy and security.
As one of the leading services, it hasAES-256 encryptionto let you go online without ISP monitoring.
NordVPN proudly offers Threat Protection Pro on all devices.
It can block ads, malware, and viruses, swiftly providing 360-degree protection.
NordVPN is also a no-logging service from Panama.
It has several third-party audits from companies like Deloitte and PwC, some of the most renowned auditors.
The NordLynx protocol provides fast speeds, properly utilized by NordVPNs 10 Gbps servers.
Its technological prowess is reflected in P2P servers whose torrenting speeds are astonishing.
Better yet, NordVPN works with 20+ Netflix libraries for plenty of amazing content.
We love NordVPNs recent improvements, such as 10 simultaneous connections and more locations worldwide.
It even offers obfuscated servers that work in China thanks to VPN obfuscation forbypassing DPI and various firewall restrictions.
Visit NordVPN
As the best VPN in 2025, NordVPNs price is surprisingly low.
In our experience, NordVPN is the epitome of a leading VPN.
The company has a generous 30-day money-back guarantee to make your purchase risk-free.
ExpressVPN best for speeds and stability
Right behind our top VPN pick is ExpressVPN.
Its one of the best VPN services with state-of-the-art encryption and RAM servers for the highest level of security.
Our test of ExpressVPNshowed impressive performance for gaming, streaming on Hulu, and downloading torrents.
The VPN uses split tunneling and theres a kill switch to protect you from all sorts of leaks.
Were thoroughly impressed by this VPNs compatibility.
In particular, its tvOS app is amazing for streaming.
We should also mention its router support and 8 simultaneous connections per subscription.
Our team appreciates its built-in obfuscation and OpenVPN TCP support for added variety and bypassing censorship.
Being one of the best VPN services to use in 2025, ExpressVPN uses something called Perfect Forward Secrecy.
This allows it to keep no traffic logs or anything related to your IP and browsing history.
Besides, its one of the leading VPNs with a lot of security audits under its belt.
© Gizmodo
At the moment, were looking at over 18 but were sure therell be more in the future.
Visit ExpressVPN
ExpressVPNs only downside is the price, which can be hellishly expensive for some.
However, let us cheer you up with an amazing offer.
© Gizmodo
Or perhaps, a 1-year plan with 3 free months and a 48% discount?
Claim the desired deal below and test ExpressVPN now.
PIA is the biggest VPN with 30,000+ serversin nearly 100 countries globally.
© Gizmodo
While not the fastest paid VPN around, PIA is incredibly secure.
It doesnt store logs and offers advanced security features, such as bank-grade encryption and port forwarding.
We like its WireGuard inclusion, with the option to use a custom port and customize each protocol additionally.
© Gizmodo
Users appreciate PIAs MACE function, which is a renowned ad blocker.
PIA is torrent-friendly, which weve come to love after years of using it.
Streaming is also possible on a few Netflix catalogs.
© Gizmodo
Private Internet Access is our favorite choice or one of if were talking about logging.
Despite the US jurisdiction, PIA is a no-log VPN whose claims were proven in the audit by Deloitte.
At the moment, PIA isnt working in China NordVPN and ExpressVPN do.
© Gizmodo
This explains why this still respectable VPN isnt a #1 provider.
Proton VPN best VPN for privacy and zero logging
Proton VPNis for many the best overall VPN for privacy.
This comes down to its Swiss jurisdiction and a verified no-logs policy.
© Gizmodo
We appreciate Proton VPN for its free plan with unlimited traffic.
Paid users will get more, though.
The VPN is fast enough and theres the VPN Accelerator to speed things up.
© Gizmodo
The VPNs encryption is bank-grade and youll find its NetShield ad blocker pretty nifty for blocking ads.
Another perk of Proton VPN is the server park.
As a widely adopted VPN in 2025, it covers a whopping 117+ countries with9,900+ 10 Gbps servers.
© Gizmodo
Theyre optimized for streaming on a variety of services, with full support for P2P in any location.
Proton VPN even has onion over VPN servers.
They can beused with Tor to visit the dark web privately.
© Gizmodo
With 10 simultaneous connections, it protects all your devices with easy-to-use apps filled to the brim with features.
We should praise Proton VPNs port forwarding for speeding up your torrent downloads.
However, the fourth place is amazing and these few flaws dont negate Proton VPNs extraordinary service!
Visit Proton VPN
Proton VPN isnt very expensive either, at around $3/mo for the 2-year plan.
However, its a tad pricier than, lets say Private Internet Access.
This providers amazing security with features like MultiHop and 256-bit encryption make it special.
Even better, users get NoBorders, which adds obfuscation.
This allows Surfshark to work in China and get over stubborn firewalls.
This is the best VPN if you seek additional value inunlimited concurrent connections.
Surfshark is an incredible VPN for streaming.
We should point out its WireGuard support, which makes this providers performance stable.
Sure, its not the fastest but our tests showed its gaming and torrenting prowess too.
Paying slightly more for the One plan gives you access to Surfsharks Antivirus.
Better yet,youll get a superior private surfing app for going online without tracking.
We know that it uses RAM servers and keeps no logs of your IP address or DNS queries.
Visit Surfshark
Surfshark is flexible and affordable for pretty much anyone.
Its dedicated IP addresses are slightly expensive and NordVPN is better in this regard.
However, as one of the best-rated VPNs around, Surfshark is hard to blame for such small inconveniences.
You canget this highly-rated service at around $2/moand enjoy all of the features mentioned earlier.
It also comes with thousands of dedicated streaming and torrenting servers in each app.
Connect to a server for Hotstar, for example, and stream this platform anywhere!
As a service based in Romania, CyberGhost is free of logging and storing your private data.
This is complemented bytransparency reports published a few times a year.
CyberGhosts NoSpy servers are excellent for added privacy, too.
This VPN is characterized by exquisite performance thanks to WireGuard whose implementation is perfect.
Remember that CyberGhost has unmetered traffic, allowing for ideal gaming even on distant servers.
The service doesnt have obfuscation and isntthe best VPN for China.
It offers an array ofDedicated IP addresses in over 21 locationsfor cheap.
We also adore its Smart DNS support, with IP addresses in plenty of locations for superior streaming.
CyberGhost gives you an ad blocker, which can be handy on streaming or gambling sites.
Its a good VPN if you need all devices protected, as it offers 7 simultaneous connections.
Overall, its a pretty impressive option with intuitive apps, reliable support, and maximum transparency.
This is, in the end, why its one of our favorite VPN services.
Find out more about it inour comprehensive review of CyberGhost.
Visit CyberGhost
Like PIA, CyberGhosts long-term plans are killer deals, especially with a gargantuan45-day money-back guarantee.
Even if you decide to get an antivirus, the entire package wont cost you above $3.5/mo.
At such a price, its almost as if you were stealing the VPN from CyberGhost.
But dont worry CyberGhost wont sue you.
Hide.me best for advanced security features
Hide.me has seen some massive improvements lately.
This isnt our absolute favorite VPN but it does quite a few things right.
One is privacy produced by the Malaysian jurisdiction.
An off-shore country like this allows Hide.me to keep ZERO logs of your online activities.
Recent improvements to this amazing premium VPN include streaming, which makes Hide.me viable for Netflix or BBC iPlayer.
Torrenting works well, as Hide.me offers fast speeds to tackle your bandwidth-hungry needs.
No doubt, Hide.mes profession is security.
Hide.me comes with SmartGuard, which can block ads, trackers, and malicious sites.
Similar to Threat Protection Pro in NordVPN but slightly inferior.
Hide.me has around 2,600 servers in 90 locations, making it among the smallest VPNs on this list.
Like Proton VPN, this top VPN in 2025 has a free, unrestricted plan with respectable security.
Youll get the most out of its paid plans, however.
Its worth experiencing, let us tell you.
This VPN doesnt impress with speed or performance.
It is, however, pretty stable overall and offers above 2,400 servers in almost 140 locations.
Similar story to Hide.me.
IPVanish is streaming-friendly to an extent but we noticed great performance for torrenting.
Also, a recent addition ofThreat Protection made this VPN much better.
It can now block trackers, ads, and malicious sites but unfortunately, malware/virus protection is absent.
IPVanishs apps are intuitive enough but slightly outdated.
This is countered by many servers in the US usable for Netflix and Hulu.
A long time ago, IPVanish used to store logs under another owner.
In 2025, its one of the top VPNs for a reason it obviously doesnt store logs anymore!
With an external audit that it proudly bears, IPVanish is a100% safe VPN to use.
When it comes to advanced features, the provider doesnt offer many.
IPVanish supports theSOCKS5 proxy, which can be used for both safety and torrenting.
The good news is that the provider offers unlimited connections, making it a leader in equipment support.
Speaking of which,IPVanish works on all devices mobile, desktop, or TV.
This VPN doesnt offer a free plan but this isnt an issue in our book.
We expected a bit more generosity from this reputable VPN.
TunnelBear best for teams
We know TunnelBear as a popular free VPN.
Unfortunately, its free plan is purely average, with no excitement on the horizon.
Weve got to give some credit.
TunnelBear looks amazing, with beautiful in-app animations and the furry bear mascot.
No other devices are supported.
TunnelBear has been audited multiple times for storing no logs.
Yes, its a Canadian VPN but we know your private info doesnt linger on its servers.
This VPN uses a kill switch for additional security but theres GhostBear,obfuscation for circumventing firewalls.
TunnelBear habitually doesnt work in China, so dont expect miracles.
Its server fleet is unimpressive for a premium VPN.
It consists of a little over 3,000 servers in around 50 countries.
Think about NordVPN or ExpressVPN with over 105 countries on offer.
On the brighter side, the VPN has unlimited concurrent connections and supports P2P in the paid version.
We noticed below-average streaming performance, as Netflix and Prime Video usually wont work that well.
At least TunnelBear wont charge you much for its plans.
1-year and 3-year plans are just above $3.33 a month and TunnelBear has specialTeams plans for companies.
Hotspot Shield users get another unexpected perk Hydra.
This is the VPNs in-house protocol built on OpenVPN TLS for impressive performance and added obfuscation.
We tested it in China and its not working but milder firewalls can be bypassed promptly.
Our tests also demonstrated that the VPN works for streaming and watching live sports.
Torrenting is quite fast and the VPNsunlimited bandwidthresults in a staggering experience.
Its paid version is characterized by many servers around 800+ in 125+ locations.
Hotspot Shield also supports routers, allowing people to inadvertently protect gaming consoles.
The VPN allows for 10 simultaneous connections and properly supports Linux.
However, Proton VPN offers aGUI VPN for Linux distros, which youll find more pleasing.
Smart VPN is its name for split tunneling and the VPN stores no logs.
Beware that this isnt the case with its free plan.
Hotspot Shield is a US-based VPN, so its at the core of the 5 Eyes alliance.
Its history wasnt the best and some logging incidents were present.
Betternet, a VPN from the same father company, is also to blame.
Hotspot Shield is a tad expensive for what it offers but its 45-day refund policy is quite impressive.
We tested all of these VPN services and hundreds more!
Below are the most important VPN aspects we analyzed when making this comprehensive list.
We suggest you read them carefully to better understand the selection process.
Lets not forget their top-tier encryption standards that dont go below 256-bit.
Such features wont meet you in free providers or low-quality premium options we avoided.
Streaming & Torrenting
Streaming is paramount for many of the best-rated VPN services.
We wont name all of them here because it would take too much of your precious time.
Simultaneously, it offers thousands of P2P servers for anonymous, fast, and stable torrenting.
Its no coincidence that we thinkNordVPN is also the best VPN for torrenting.
Thats also because it has SOCKS5, which is frequently employed for P2P for better speeds.
All the VPNs are equipped with powerful 10 Gbps servers to take full advantage of your internet speed.
NordVPN and ExpressVPN lead the pack, with PIA and Proton VPN following closely.
This is important for a smooth browsing experience even on more distant servers.
Try NordVPN Risk-Free Now
Our experts performed a myriad of tests across thousands of servers for this purpose.
We wanted to provide you with thefastest VPNsfor every unit.
Fast internet connections are crucial and no one like slouches whose latency is through the roof.
Server Locations
Were huge fans of large server fleets among the most reliable paid VPNs.
NordVPN has 117+ countries and over 7,110 servers!
Think about PIA with 30,000 and more.
Then, we have CyberGhost with 12,000+ servers and Proton VPNs fleet that counts 9,900+ and more.
NordVPN has 2,000+ of them in this country, while PIA offers servers in every American state.
This tells a lot about the sheer quality of these services.
Always keep in mind that a large server data pipe doesnt not always mean high-quality VPN.
Indeed, the quality of the servers is extremely important, sometimes even more than the number.
But we dont think we need to repeat that the quality of these servers is unquestionable.
We tested ALL of them in China, Russia, Turkey, the UAE, and other censored regions.
While some are incapable of working in China, the majority will work.
Henceforth, these amazing VPNs can get over Deep Packet Inspection and provide a safe internet experience.
Compatibility & Ease of Use
This experience translates to any rig your mind can fathom.
Sure, your fridge wont support our favorite VPNs but other devices will.
They work on:
All great VPNs are designed with at least 7 simultaneous connections.
Many options, like PIA, Surfshark, IPVanish, and TunnelBear allow for unlimited connections per account.
All of them are easy to use, with one-click connections to get you safely online.
Customer Service
Customer support was important in our testing procedure.
The #1 rated VPN NordVPN excels in this regard, with round-the-clock 24/7 live chat support.
The same applies to ExpressVPN, PIA, CyberGhost, and other top picks on this list.
This is crucial if you run into problems and want them fixed promptly.
Their money-back guarantee and free trials in some cases make them pretty attractive and risk-free.
Take NordVPN our number 1 provider.
It costs just over $3/mo and provides all the benefits we mentioned.
Think of something more valuable than an excellent VPN like this one.
At a price cheaper than a Starbucks coffee, youre getting all the online protection youll ever need!
Why We Avoid Free VPN Providers?
We havea separate guide discussing free VPNs.
Our team opts for the best paid VPNs because theyre limitless.
Free services limit your bandwidth, theyre slower and usually dont offer impressive security.
Storing logs is another dangerous game theyre playing.
This is prevalent in low-quality and totally free options like Hola VPN or Urban VPN.
They admit tostoring logs regarding your IP address, location, traffic destination, and social-media-related data.
Streaming and torrenting are often problematic with them.
Many free options intentionally block P2P traffic.
They also dont work with Netflix or BBC iPlayer.
These providers are by no means the top picks if youre looking for an excellent premium experience.
However, we encourage your curiosity and want you to test them.
Just be aware of the lack of simultaneous connections, poor customer support, and other shortcomings.
Conclusion
With the 10 best VPN services to use in 2025, its time to sign off.
Its a no-brainer as a leader in the VPN industry and an exquisite paid service.
We shouldnt forget Private Internet Access as one of the most popular VPNs in the US and abroad.
Its perfect for unlimited connections, advanced security, and streaming on a few popular services.
Other options have their qualities worth looking into if youre curious.
Its your move now.
Which VPN provider are you going to choose?
Youre spoilt for choice at this point!
Still, we feel obligated to clarify things even more and address some of your burning questions about them.
No one got hurt by learning more!
Are VPNs legal?
In most other countries, VPNs are allowed.
Do I really need a VPN?
It depends on your needs and expectations.
But since youre reading this article, you likely do for one or more reasons mentioned earlier.
VPNs arent mandatory but they vastly improve your privacy and give you more internet freedom.
How to set up and use a VPN?
Like any other software.
After that, it takes one click or tap on the screen to connect and enjoy.
How much is the best VPN in 2025?
You dont have to splurge an insane amount of money on a leading VPN service.
Of course, there are more expensive options, such as ExpressVPN, whose price is about five bucks.
As you’re able to see, all the best VPNs are a few dollars a month.
The price goes up if you pay monthly.
The editorial team did not participate in the creation of this guide.
Gizmodo may earn a commission when you buy through links on the site.
