The Best VPNs to Protect Yourself Online

VPNsCompared

Other VPNs We’ve Tested

EventVPN is a freead-supported VPN from ExpressVPN. Ads and VPNs don't really mixbut EventVPN says it's able to offer a free service via Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA)basically allowing it to serve ads without harvesting your personal data. The problem is the pervasiveness of ads. A banner lives at the top of the app at all timesand you'll need to sit through a 30-second ad each time you connect or disconnect; a big problem when some servers posted unreasonably slow speeds. I'll admit that EventVPN is a unique conceptbut I see nothing about it that's better than ProtonVPN or Windscribe for a free VPN service. And when it comes to the inconvenience of sitting through adsit's straight-up worse.

IVPN is a privacy-focused VPN provider similar to Mullvad. It does not ask you to create an account with a usernamepasswordand emailbut instead generates a random IDwhich you use to log in. That helps preserve your anonymitysince that information can’t be tied to your usage even if IVPN suffered a security incident. IVPN also supports payment with cryptocurrency (bitcoin and monero). Unlike MullvadIVPN offers one-yeartwo-yearand three-year plan optionsas well as an unusual weekly optionwhich might be nice if you want a VPN while on vacation (IVPN standard is $2 per week). These can be more affordable than Mullvad’s monthly fee. HoweverIVPN lacks some privacy features you will find with Mullvadsuch as RAM-less servers. IVPN scheduled a security audit for 2025but as of January 2026the results have not been posted. IVPN also has a tight two-device limit on the Standard plan. The Pro plan raises that to sevenbut the Pro plan’s price is $10 per monthso it’s more expensive than Mullvadwhich has a five-device limit. That remains true even if you go with a multi-year IVPN plan. StillIVPN is a fine alternative if you want annual plan options. And while most VPN apps serve their purposeI do think IVPN’s app is both more attractive and easier to use than Mullvad’s. —Matthew S. Smith

Private Internet Access (PIA) has a long history in the VPN spaceand it's maintained a track record of defending user privacy—even in the face of actual criminal activity. In 2016a criminal complaint was filed in Florida against Preston Alexander McWaters for threats made online. McWaters was eventually convicted and sentenced to 42 months in prison. Investigators traced the online threats back to PIA's servers and subpoenaed the company. As the complaint reads“A subpoena was sent to [Private Internet Access]and the only information they could provide is that the cluster of IP addresses being used was from the east coast of the United States.” McWaters engaged in several other identifying activitiesaccording to the complaintbut PIA wasn't among them. Despite such a clear view of a VPN provider upholding its no-logging policyPIA didn't impress me during my tests. It delivered the worst speeds out of any VPN I testedwith more than a 50 percent drop on the closest US server. (Windscribefor contextonly dropped 15.6 percent of my speed.)

MysteriumVPN is the go-to dVPNor decentralized VPNas far as I can tell. The concept of a decentralized VPN has existed for a whilebut it's really gained traction over the last couple of years. The idea is to have a network of residential IP addresses that make up the networkrouting your traffic through normal IP addresses to get around the increasingly common block lists for VPN servers. Mysterium accomplishes this network with MystNodes. It's a crypto node. People buy the node to earn cryptoand they're put into the Mysterium network. It's not inherently badbut routing your traffic through a single residential IP is a little worrisome. Even without the decentralized kickMysterium was slowand it doesn't maintain any sort of privacy materialsbe it a third-party auditwarranty canaryor transparency report.

PrivadoVPN is a popular option to recommend as a free VPN. It offers a decent free servicewith a handful of full-speed servers and 10 GB of data per month. You'll have to suffer through four—yesfour—redirects begging you to pay for a subscription before signing upbut the free plan works. The problem is how new PrivadoVPN is. There's no transparency report or audit availableand although the speeds are decentthey aren't as good as ProtonWindscribeor Surfshark. PrivadoVPN isn't badbut it's hard to recommend when Proton and Windscribe exist with free plans that are equally as good.

VPNs to Avoid

You'll find dozens of free VPNs all claiming to protect your privacy. Most of them don't. There are plenty of VPNs I don’t recommendbut these are a few I've tested worth mentioning.

Hola is an infamous name in the VPN industrybut it's been close to a decade since its very public debacle. Hola is freeand it's able to stay free because it uses a peer-to-peer network. Hola also owns Bright Data (formerly Luminati)which is a data collection company. In 2015Hola sold access to the network of its free users (via Luminati)which was used in a distributed denial-of-service attack on 8chan. It's been a decade since that incidentbut Hola still operates in a similar way. If you don't payyou could be used as an exit node in Bright Data's networkand the privacy policy makes it clear that Hola logs data about your usageincluding your IP addressthe pages you visitand timestamps.

X-VPN is available on desktopbut it primarily shows up in results on the Apple App Store and Google Playtargeting mobile users with a free offering. X-VPN hasn't done anything explicitly wrong like Holabut it has way too many inconsistencies to recommend. For startersit uses a proprietary VPN protocolwhich it obfuscates within the app. Proprietary protocols like NordVPN's NordLynx and ExpressVPN's Lightway are based on existingopen source protocols. FurtherX-VPN was highlighted in a Tech Transparency Project report about free VPNs with links to the Chinese government; X-VPN is based in Hong Kong. There's no smoking gun with X-VPNbut there doesn't need to be. The speeds aren't the bestthe app lacks basic features like split tunnelingand the pricing for a paid plan is in line with top providers.

How We Test VPNs

Functionallya VPN should do two things: keep your internet speed reasonably fastand actually protect your browsing data. That's where I focused my testing. Extra featuresa comfy UIand customization settings are greatbut they don't matter if the core service is broken.

Speed testing requires spot-checkingas the time of daythe network you're connected toand the specific VPN server you're using can all influence speeds. Because of thatI always set a baseline speed on my unprotected connection directly before recording resultsand I ran the test three times across both US and UK servers. With those baseline dropsI spot-checked at different times of the day over the course of a week to see if the speed decrease was similar.

Security is a bit more involved. For startersI checked for DNSWebRTCand IP leaks every time I connected to a server using Browser Leaks. I also ran brief tests sniffing my connection with Wireshark to ensure all of the packets being sent were secured with the VPN protocol in use.

On the privacy frontthe top-recommended services included on this list have been independently auditedand they all maintain some sort of transparency report. In most casesthere's a proper reportbut in otherssuch as Windscribethat transparency is exposed through legal proceedings.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting and exclusive subscriber content that's too important to ignore. Subscribe Today.