Our team tested over 50 VPNs to narrow down the five you see above. A few other standouts barely missed our top five, including these three below.
Norton Secure VPN – Great VPN to Bundle With Other Security Tools
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Norton Secure VPN is great, but it’s better when you bundle it with Norton security suite. For example, you can bundle it with Norton Antivirus. You can even include LifeLock, which is one of the best identity theft protection services on the market. However, Norton’s VPN didn’t make the cut because has servers in only 30 countries, which is low compared to our top five picks that each he servers in 100+ countries.
>> Find Out More: Norton Secure VPN 2025 Review
IPVanish – Affordable VPN for Torrenting
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IPVanish maintains very good download and upload speeds, and even rivals NordVPN and Proton VPN. It also has a huge server network that covers 112 countries. Plus, it’s an affordable VPN that allows P2P traffic, making it great for those who need a VPN for torrenting. Just note that we found its streaming capability spotty. For example, it was able to bypass Netflix’s VPN block only five times out of 10 tries.
>> Read More: IPvanish 2025 Review
ExpressVPN – VPN with Optional VPN Router (Great for Gaming)
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ExpressVPN has servers in 105 countries, maintains very fast speeds, and has user-friendly and feature-rich apps. It’s also great for gaming since it offers a router with the VPN built in. We think it’s great for console gaming because of that. Consoles don’t support VPN apps, so a VPN router is pretty much the only reliable option for connecting them to a VPN. That said, ExpressVPN’s pricing is steep. It starts at $4.99 per month when paid two years upfront, and the router (called Aircove) costs $190.
>> Find Out More: ExpressVPN 2025 Review
TunnelBear – Another Great Free VPN
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Two of our top picks, Hotspot Shield and Proton VPN, offer excellent free VPNs. TunnelBear is another option with premium and free offerings. We don’t recommend the premium plans due to their higher price, but we liked the free plan with 2 GB of monthly data allowance. What sets it apart is that it allows free users to connect to TunnelBear’s servers in 47 countries. Hotspot Shield let us choose from only three server locations with the free plan, and Proton didn’t let us choose at all. It automatically picked the fastest (nearest) free server.
>> Learn More: TunnelBear 2025 Review
CyberGhost – Dependable Everyday VPN
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CyberGhost is a privacy-focused VPN with affordable pricing that matches Surfshark and Private Internet Access. It costs $2.19 per month with a two-year subscription. It has almost all core features we want to see in a good VPN, except double VPN (multi-hop). But again, that’s not a feature even the most privacy-conscious users need on a daily basis. Our main concern is that it allows only up to seven simultaneous connections, even lower than NordVPN’s 10-device limit.
>> Read More: CyberGhost 2025 Review
Mullvad – Reputable VPN for Privacy-Conscious Users
Mullvad is a well-regarded VPN among the most privacy-conscious users. While its VPN apps look dated, they offer strong security and privacy features that can rival our top picks, especially NordVPN and Proton VPN – two other popular VPNs for privacy. However, Mullvad charges a flat fee (around $5.80 per month when converted to USD) whether you’re signing up for a month or a decade. We wish it were a little more affordable, for users looking for a VPN they can use in the long term. NordVPN, for example, offers its VPN for as low as $3.39 per month if you sign up for two years.
>> Compare: Mullvad vs. NordVPN