Overview
Best VPN for most people (and the best free VPN)
Proton VPN
Jump to Details
Table of Contents
Don’t let it go to your head, but everybody wants you — more specifically, your browsing data. Personal information about the links you click on and the sites you visit is highly valuable to third parties, including your internet service provider (ISP) and Google, who may want to share or monetize it. Certain government and law enforcement agencies may also be eager to peek at your activity online for their own surveillance purposes.
One way to reclaim some of your digital privacy is by getting a virtual private network, or VPN, a service that creates an encrypted connection between your device and one of the VPN provider’s private, remote servers before spitting it out onto the open web. In plain English, a VPN lets you browse the internet more stealthily than usual.
Why do you need a VPN?
Even the best VPNs can’t make you totally anonymous on the web — the VPN companies themselves can still see what you’re doing while you’re using their servers. But they can secure your personal info and hide your true IP address from prying eyes on the outside. The most trustworthy VPN providers operate transparently and abide by independently verified no-logs policies to prove that they don’t collect or store user data in this process.
Because VPNs conceal your real IP address, they’re also useful for spoofing one’s location. By connecting to a VPN server across a border or ocean, users can bypass geo-restrictions on content that’s not available in their own country or region. (This is pertinent intel for horny Floridians, South Carolinians, and Tennesseans now that a certain adult site is blocked in their states.)
Our top picks
After recent testing, I believe Proton VPN is the top VPN for most people. It’s the most privacy-forward VPN I’ve tried, with open-source apps, a proven no-logs policy, and a history of supporting digital freedom efforts. It’s also a stellar value: Paid Proton VPN users get full access to its huge fleet of reliable servers and useful features like multi-hop and split tunneling (on some platforms), with up to 10 simultaneous VPN connections per account. The free version of Proton VPN is extremely limited in comparison, but it’s the only free VPN I’ve encountered that doesn’t have any data limits. For all these reasons, Proton VPN is the first (and only) VPN to win a Mashable Choice Award.
My runner-up is TunnelBear, a veteran VPN service with a simple, adorable app that offers unlimited simultaneous connections with a paid subscription. (It also offers a free tier, but users are capped at 2GB of data per month.) TunnelBear supports some form of split tunneling on all platforms, and it’s been undergoing security audits longer than any other consumer VPN. It wasn’t able to unblock regional content in my testing, but it was sufficient for everyday browsing. Overall, I think it’s the best VPN for beginners and casual users.
In light of these new top picks, I’ve bumped NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and CyberGhost VPN off my list of recommended VPN services. You can read more about this decision in the section of this guide titled “What no longer makes the cut.”
Read on for Mashable’s guide to the best VPN services of 2025. FYI: Prices for most VPN providers’ long-term plans change frequently. The rates listed here were accurate at the time of publication.
The best VPN deals this week
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Surfshark VPN
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$1.99 Per Month + 3 Months Free (87% Off 2 Years Starter Plan) -
Norton VPN Standard
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$3.33 Per Month for 5 Devices (50% Off 1 Year Plan) -
ExpressVPN
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$4.99 Per Month + 4 Months Free (61% Off 2 Years Plan)
Our Pick
The Good & The Bad
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No-logs policy has been repeatedly verified by third-party audits (and in court)
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Transparency report reveals it’s denied all legal requests for info to date
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Supports online freedom efforts
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Open sources apps
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Offers bug bounty program
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Huge and globally diverse server network with city-level selection
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Can unblock regional content
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Solid, reliable performance
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Multi-hop (“Secure Core”)
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Kill switch
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Anonymous payment options
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Fast customer support via live chat
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30-day money back guarantee
- Offers free tier with no data limits
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Mac users miss out on split tunneling (for now)
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Has only audited its no-logs policy for the past three years
- Free servers can be crowded and unreliable
Performance-wise, the paid “Plus” version of Proton VPN felt great in my testing — mostly because it didn’t feel like I was using a VPN at all. All the servers I tried were reliable and fast, no matter where they were located. (I was also successfully able to skirt a geo-restriction on a UK streaming service from my home in Chicago.) Proton VPN’s gigantic server network now includes more than 12,000 locations in 117 countries as of March 2025; it’s currently unrivaled in size and geographic diversity.
Proton VPN’s sleek, cyberminimalist app contains a list of these servers and a map of them alongside some features to customize the type and extent of one’s protection, including multi-hop servers (“Secure Core,” aka double VPN servers), an ad/malware/tracker blocker (“NetShield“), a kill switch, Tor servers, and split tunneling. Plus, users get up to 10 simultaneous connections and on-demand support via live chat. There’s a 30-day money-back guarantee if you decide it’s not the right VPN for you or if you want to downgrade to Proton VPN Free.
As an aside, split tunneling is only available on Proton VPN’s Windows and Android apps right now. However, a spring/summer 2025 feature roadmap said macOS and Linux support is in the works. (This roadmap is quite extensive, by the way — it seems like Proton VPN will only get better with time.)
While Proton VPN’s free tier has its restrictions, there’s no limit on the amount of data you can use, which is really nice. It’s subsidized by the provider’s paid subscribers, so there are no ads, and you don’t need to fork over any credit card information at signup. You do forfeit access to most of Proton VPN’s features if you go this route, save for its kill switch and its proprietary “Stealth” protocol for avoiding censorship. You also lose out on full access to its server network, including the ability to choose which server you’re connected to (i.e. location spoofing and content unblocking). In my experience, most of Proton VPN’s free servers were pretty full and slow. This would be less forgivable if you were actually paying for the service, and ultimately, I think it’s usable for regular browsing if you can take the time to find a less congested server.
Details
The Good & The Bad
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Transparent, easily understandable privacy policy
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Regular security audits and transparency reports (available for anyone to read)
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Simple, adorable interface is very beginner-friendly
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Unlimited simultaneous connections
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Good-sized server network
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Some form of split tunneling (“SplitBear”) available on all platforms
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Kill switch (“VigilantBear”)
- Decent free tier for occasional use
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No money-back guarantee or on-demand support
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Not available on a ton of platforms
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No multi-hop connections
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Server network isn’t very widespread
- Couldn’t unblock regional content in testing
TunnelBear gives users the option of signing up for a free tier, which includes one connection, country-level server selection, and 2GB of browsing data per month. Free users are funded by the provider’s paid subscribers, per a TunnelBear rep, and there are no ads. If you decide to upgrade, a paid Unlimited plan unlocks unlimited bandwidth, unlimited simultaneous connections, and city-level server selection. Users should be mindful that TunnelBear doesn’t offer any sort of money-back guarantee, and refunds are only available on a case-by-case basis.
TunnelBear gets special props for its accessible, plainly written privacy policy and for its commitment to transparency: It was the first consumer VPN to publish a third-party audit of its infrastructure and technologies back in 2017. It’s done one every year since, and the seventh and most recent one was published in February 2024. (You can read it in full without needing to make an account.) The company also posts transparency reports about the government authority requests it gets. It’s twice confirmed that a user has a TunnelBear account, but it’s never coughed up any browsing data.
Details
Here at Mashable, we aim to review and recommend the best VPNs to our readers — and above all, a VPN needs to be trustworthy to get our seal of approval. The service gets exclusive access to all of your personal data and internet traffic, so a VPN that doesn’t prioritize user privacy is a nonstarter. However, we also need to make sure a VPN works. Therefore, our VPN reviews blend analysis of providers’ approaches to privacy and transparency with insights from real-world usage and performance benchmarks. We record the findings of our research testing in a rubric, and each VPN gets scored on a five-point scale on the basis of trustworthiness, performance, user friendliness, and value. Read our full VPN testing methodology.
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Trustworthiness: A good VPN won’t have a long rap sheet for mishandling users’ personal data or succumbing to server breaches. It’s also willing to open itself up to scrutiny. We pore over providers’ privacy policies and company histories, and find out how they make money. We then look to see if they publish independent security audits and/or transparency reports disclosing any data requests they’ve received from authorities. We award bonus points to VPNs that have open-source apps and bug bounty programs.
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Performance: We incorporate the VPNs we test into our daily workflows to find out how how well they protect users in practice. This includes running DNS leak tests, trying any advanced privacy features they support, and hopping around to different VPN servers throughout their networks. Speed isn’t a huge factor in our performance scoring, as a VPN connection will almost always be slower than one’s regular internet connection, but we’ll call out any VPN that’s sluggish to the point of being unusable. We also check to see if the VPN provider can unblock georestricted content, which is an important secondary use case for Mashable readers.
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User friendliness: A VPN app should be easy to navigate regardless of how many features or servers it includes, or the platform it’s being used on, so we evaluate a VPN’s design and interface as part of our user friendliness score. We also consider the VPN provider’s customer support options and money-back guarantees — you should be able to get help (or a refund) when you need it. A VPN gets extra credit if it accepts anonymous payment options, which ups the untraceability factor.
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Value: A VPN’s trustworthiness, performance, and user friendliness all contribute to its sense of “worth-it-ness,” so we determine its overall value by factoring in these scores on top of a few other metrics. One is the cost of a VPN’s subscription plans, which we compare to those of other providers, as well as the rate at which they renew — most VPN plans typically get dramatically expensive after your first term. We also look at the number of simultaneous connections the VPN allows and the platforms on which it’s available (the more, the better). We’ll give a provider a small score bump here if it bundles its VPN service with any useful extras, like an ad blocker.
What no longer makes the cut
As of March 2025, we no longer recommend NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or CyberGhost VPN. I was willing to overlook some of their issues in the past because we hadn’t tried any better options, but in light of testing (and loving) Proton VPN, I’ve relegated them to this metaphorical discard pile.
NordVPN used to be our “best premium VPN.” It has the same core security features as Proton VPN, including an anti-censorship protocol, multi-hop, Onion Over VPN, and split tunneling on all platforms. It also supports up to 10 simultaneous connections. However, its server network is smaller than Proton VPN’s, its plans are more expensive, and its record isn’t as clean. In 2019, NordVPN didn’t tell users about a security breach at one of its third-party data centers until allegations of it circulated on X. (In its defense, the company implemented network upgrades, better security standards, and bug bounty program in the aftermath.) I also don’t love that users need a NordVPN account to read the results of its no-logs audits.
ExpressVPN was previously our “best VPN for streaming or travel” because of its servers’ geographic diversity, but Proton VPN’s network is even more widespread (and it plans don’t cost as much). Also, ExpressVPN doesn’t offer multi-hop, supports two fewer connections, and restricts its split tunneling tool to Windows and older Macs with macOS 11 from 2020. Its ownership by Kape Technologies is a slight cause for concern — in a previous life, the company made software that bad actors used for adware injection — but it helps that Kape doesn’t touch ExpressVPN users’ personal information.
CyberGhost VPN was previously an honorable mention for streaming and travel, mostly because it was a cheaper option with the largest server network out of the VPNs we’d tested at the time (including locations optimized for streaming, torrenting, and gaming). Feature-wise, CyberGhost only offers split tunneling on Android, and multi-hop is a no-go across the board. CyberGhost is also owned by Kape, but unlike ExpressVPN, it states in its privacy policy that it may share users’ personal data with its parent company. It’s pretty new to independent audits, too, which you can only read by requesting a copy via email, filling out a contact form, or creating a CyberGhost account.
Frequently Asked Questions
In the simplest terms, using a VPN (which stands for “virtual private network”) lets you hide who you really are and where you really are while using the internet from everyone except the VPN. In less simple terms, a VPN is a service that sends your internet traffic through an encrypted connection to a remote server maintained by the VPN provider before it’s dispatched to the public internet. The encryption part makes it so your traffic is unreadable to third parties like your ISP and Google; routing that traffic through a VPN server then gives you a different IP address, which makes it look like you’re browsing from somewhere you aren’t actually located IRL.
Using a VPN is often likened to driving around in a rental car with tinted windows and a license plate that doesn’t match your home state, or arriving at a location via secret trapdoor and wearing a mask while you go about your day.
There are a few notable downsides to using a VPN, besides the obvious “it costs money” thing, one being the VPN’s affect on your browsing speed. It will virtually always be slower than your normal, unprotected connection.
Another issue is that sites may restrict your access to their content if they detect VPN usage. Some maintain blacklists of IP addresses that are known to belong to VPNs, including major streaming services like Netflix. If your IP address is frequently associated with multiple users, that’s usually what gives it away.
Finally, there’s always the risk that a VPN is shadily collecting and selling your personal information (see below) — hence the importance of picking one that’s transparent and trustworthy.
The answer is a little nuanced. VPNs that are completely free outright are generally not safe to use, as free VPNs have been known to secretly log and sell user data, bundle their apps with malware, and/or maintain poor security practices. (You know the saying about free lunch.) However, we do stand by certain premium providers’ free tiers or trials that are protected by the same vetted policies as their paid counterparts; these are safe to use. This includes Proton VPN Free and TunnelBear Free.
It bears mentioning that free versions of premium VPNs are quite limited in terms of their server selections, data allotments, available features, and abilities to unblock streaming services, so they’re best for situational or occasional use. Those who want a dependable, everyday VPN should opt for a paid subscription.
VPNs maintain separate apps for separate platforms, so no — you’ll need to install your VPN on every individual device you want secured. Most VPNs offer support for at least five simultaneous connections, for what it’s worth. (If you have a bunch of devices that need protecting or live in a larger household, look for a provider that offers unlimited simultaneous VPN connections — TunnelBear, for instance.)
Your browser’s Incognito/private mode only gets you so far — it’ll clear your history, searches, cookies, and login deets, preventing other users of the same device from seeing what you’ve been up to, but it won’t hide and secure your connection from your ISP and other prying eyes. Incognito mode is not a substitute for using a VPN.
Aside from the few countries that have restricted or outright banned them (including Belarus, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates), VPNs are perfectly legal in most of the world. But keep in mind that illegal activities like torrenting copyrighted material, buying prohibited goods, and hacking are still illegal even with a VPN. Let’s not get too brazen, here.
Along those same lines, using a VPN to unblock a streaming service in a country where it’s not available isn’t technically against the law, but it is a violation of the company’s terms of use — i.e., you may get slapped with a warning, IP ban, or error message if caught.
Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what’s actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons.