Proton (Yearly)
Hundreds of VPNs are at your disposal. They all want you to believe they’re the best VPN you can buy. All of them claim to have the biggest network or a no-logging policy. And they all promise your internet traffic is safe on the network of servers they’ve rented. Only some of them are telling the truth.
VPNs are only growing in popularity due to age-verification laws in the UK and in several states in the US. Even if you don’t want a VPN, you might need one. If you’re hesitant, I get it. VPN providers have been deep in murky waters for years, constantly caught lying about their practices, handing over user data that was never supposed to be logged, and serving as safe havens for large cybercriminal organizations.
I wanted to find the VPN services that actually work; the ones that keep their promises even in the face of potential prosecution, and the ones that have a proven track record of reliable performance. Some of the picks in this guide aren’t conventional, and some of the services I suggest you avoid might be controversial. But these are the top VPNs I’d use day to day.
Read our other VPN guides, including how to set up a VPN on your router and how to use a VPN to watch Netflix when you travel abroad.
Best VPN Deals for Black Friday 2026
If your looking to get a VPN deal, Proton, our top VPN pick (read more below), is running an early Black Friday sale: 75 percent off the regular price for two years. You can get Proton VPN Plus for $2.49 a month (regularly $10 a month); billed at $60 for 24 months. VPN Plus protects up to 10 devices and gives you access to more than 20,000 servers, plus it blocks ads, trackers, and malware. You can also snag one year of Proton Unlimited for $6.50 a month (regularly $13 a month); billed at $78 for 12 months, which adds Proton’s mail, calendar, and password manager software, plus 500 GB of cloud storage. We don’t know when this deal expires, but we imagine it will last through Cyber Monday.
What Does a VPN Do? And How Does It Work?
VPN stands for virtual private network. A VPN provides a tunnel through which all of your internet traffic passes. Instead of connecting to your internet service provider's servers, you connect to a VPN's server before connecting to the broader internet. Because most VPN services operate this way, your browsing data isn't stored, essentially making you anonymous online.
The linchpin in this system is a VPN protocol. Today, nearly all internet traffic is encrypted, but that encryption happens only after you've established a connection with a website. A VPN protocol encrypts traffic before it reaches the VPN server, adding extra security on untrusted networks like public Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or airport. It doesn't help much on your personal network unless there is an intruder.
Although VPNs are often marketed as security tools, they serve a better purpose for privacy and bypassing geo-restrictions. By anonymizing your traffic through a VPN server, your browsing can't be traced back to you. The internet is full of cookies, and you might be surprised by how much of your traffic online is tracked via browser fingerprinting. That includes hiding what sites you visit (and what you do on those sites) from your internet service provider (ISP).
By routing your traffic through a server in another location, you can also bypass geo-restrictions online, such as the content libraries available in different countries on Netflix or checking product availability in other regions of the world.
VPNs can also be important when connecting to public Wi-Fi. If you're doing anything remotely sensitive on your computer at a coffee shop, a VPN is a good idea to protect your personal data.
VPN prices vary widely, but most providers cost around $10 per month for a monthly plan. Pricing changes if you buy several months at once, and it gets even more complicated with full security suites, such as those offered by Nord Security and Proton.
Most prominent VPN services offer multi-month or even multiyear discounts. These plans are often the best way to get your foot in the door, but some VPNs have recently faced class-action lawsuits over their auto-renewal practices. Although a handful of lawsuits have been filed, that doesn't mean these services necessarily engaged in illegal practices.
Free VPNs exist, as well, but you should avoid most of them. Some restrictive free plans from Proton and Windscribe are useful, but you should approach most free VPNs with skepticism.
You'll come across a few of these terms in this guide as you generally shop for a VPN. Here's what they mean.
Double-hop: Connecting to two (or more) VPN servers in succession. This provides an extra layer of privacy if someone traces your network path, but it will vastly reduce speeds.
Split tunneling: Allows you to choose which apps use the VPN tunnel. Useful if you want some apps (like your browser) to use the VPN tunnel but not others.
Kill switch: A security feature in VPNs that will disable your internet connection if the VPN connection drops. A kill switch can prevent internet traffic from leaking if the VPN fails.
IP and domain block list: A list of IP addresses or domain names that are blocked inside the VPN tunnel. Some VPNs offer Domain Name System (DNS) blocking, too, which can block ads served from particular DNS servers.
Static IP: Most VPNs assign you a random IP address, or even rotate the IP address while you’re connected. If you need external access to your network with a network-wide VPN, you'll need a static IP address.
Port forwarding: Allows you to forward a port on your private network, bypassing the VPN tunnel. Useful when you need external network access with a network-wide VPN, such as running a media server.
NetShield: A feature specific to Proton VPN that blocks ads and trackers while connected to the VPN. Other services, such as Windscribe and NordVPN, offer similar features.
Dark web monitoring: A feature available in some VPNs, such as NordVPN and ProtonVPN, that will monitor the dark web for your email address or other personal information. You'll be notified if the information shows up on the dark web or as part of a breach.
DAITA: A feature of Mullvad VPN that will introduce background noise to your connection, combating AI-assisted network analysis. Windscribe, NordVPN, and ProtonVPN offer similar features.
Short of a few exceptions, VPNs are legal around the world. That includes the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the EU, South Africa, and many countries in Central and South America. Places such as North Korea and Turkmenistan have VPN bans in place, but due to the extreme censorship in those countries, it's hard to verify what laws are on the books (and how they're enforced). You can probably guess the North Korean government's stance on bypassing censorship, though.
For everyone else, VPN legality only comes into play based on which VPN you use and what you use it for. Countries such as India and Russia call for compliance with the government, forcing providers like NordVPN to shut down servers in those regions. And, regardless of what country you're in, engaging in illegal activity while connected to a VPN is still illegal.
Update November 2026: We’ve added a mention of an early Black Friday deal for Proton VPN.
Best VPN Overall
VPN Plus
Proton VPN (9/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best VPN you can buy. Its Plus service was the fastest I tested across the US and UK. It has a generous free plan if you'd like to try it out first. The features are unmatched, and the pricing is excellent, especially if you bundle Proton VPN with the company's other software (Proton Unlimited). After testing all of these services, Proton is what I personally use now.
What sent Proton over the edge was its commitment to transparency. It has maintained a transparency report since 2017, undergone third-party audits annually since 2022, and open-sourced its applications five years ago. That last bit is huge, as bugs within the application can pose a security risk, and handing those applications over to the open-source community can surface those bugs much faster. There are no real compromises here, with features like split tunneling, port forwarding, and double-hop connections.
Proton is a rare example of a VPN service that gets it. Every VPN engages in the same marketing practices, touting their security, speed, and privacy. But Proton puts its money where its mouth is, all while offering a remarkably easy-to-use and feature-rich VPN application.
Black Friday is a good time to sign up for Proton VPN. The company is offering 75 percent off the regular price for two years.
Best VPN Upgrade
Plus
NordVPN has a long history, and it's one of the most prominent VPN services on the market. It comes with one of the largest VPN networks available, enough features to make Surfshark blush, and decent (though not the best) speeds. It's a little more expensive than I'd hoped for, but that's the price you pay for such an extensive network and feature set.
That feature set is where NordVPN stands apart. Its Basic plan will get you access to the VPN, but I recommend going with at least the Plus plan. It opens up an ad blocker and gives you access to one of the best password managers around, NordPass.
Nord backs up security and privacy credentials with independent audits of the company’s no-log policy and the service’s security. Like Proton, Nord lets you scale up your protection with encrypted cloud storage, but Nord leans further into security while Proton focuses on privacy-focused productivity. With NordVPN, you can upgrade to unlock NordProtect, an identity theft protection service, as well as Incogni to remove your data online.
These extras wouldn't mean much on their own, but the core of NordVPN is still an excellent VPN service. It's been on the bleeding edge of VPN security and features for years, and that hasn't changed.
Best Free VPN
You should generally avoid free VPNs, but Windscribe is one of the few worth considering. You get 10 GB of data across 10 server locations and unlimited connections, and you can even unlock more data if you refer friends or post on social media about Windscribe. There are a few similar offers from services like Proton, but Windscribe provides a pleasant on-ramp for subscribing.
If you do decide to pay, you can build your own plan. Unlimited data runs an extra $3 per month, and you can add server locations for an extra $1 per server per month. It's fantastic. Most people don't need VPN servers in Ghana, Cambodia, and Peru, so rather than charge for all those locations, you can pick out your locations piecemeal. If you want everything, that's available at a discounted rate, too.
The pricing model is what sets Windscribe apart, but it's an excellent VPN in its own right. It offers additional packet obfuscation to combat network analysis, and it's loaded with features like split tunneling and port forwarding. It's fast, too, dropping just 15.6 percent of my speed when connected in the US.
Like the other providers I've included, Windscribe has undergone a third-party audit. But unlike the other options, it's also been taken to court. Windscribe CEO Yegor Sak was personally charged with a crime in Greece in relation to a user's activity on Windscribe-operated servers, essentially tying activity on the network to Sak personally. It was dismissed. VPNs are subpoenaed all the time, but the fact that Windscribe wasn't able to produce logs even when the CEO of the company was facing criminal prosecution speaks volumes.
Windscribe added random hashed login in December 2025, which makes it possible to create an anonymous account. Windscribe doesn’t record the random hash, so if you lose it, you’ll also lose account access—but it can help to keep your identity private. This is similar to how Mullvad and IVPN handle accounts. Windscribe accepts cryptocurrency payments as well.