Friday, 29 November 2019 23:28

Best VPN services in 2019

VPN Reviews last updated on November 18th, 2019

 

"We’ve started reviewing VPN services a few years ago. For today, we already tested more than 70 different VPN providers as there are new ones coming in every week."

There are around 250+ different commercial VPN’s. Each of them should serve for same purpose – keep your online identity secure and private. But  some are great at doing this job, others – do fail miserably and don’t get any love.

Our mission is to put every VPN service provider for serious stress test, review it and to give honest feedback which ones are reliable, safe and trustworthy.

How do you know which VPN is good?

There are many VPN and cybersecurity review related websites and each of them have different opinions.

vpnroom.com specialists did detailed reviews with their own hands using constant software and hardware settings. With each VPN provider, we’ll give you quick product overviews, main features, speed tests, and final verdicts.

Reviewing criteria:

  • Log policies/jurisdiction
  • Connection speeds
  • Customer support
  • Ease of use
  • Cost of the product

A good VPN service has to.

As we know, a VPN app should not just change your public IP address. Premium VPN providers should encrypt your cyber identity, allow you streaming services such as Netflix US and it should provide you complete privacy on the web.

Below you will find our TOP VPN list:

NordVPN – #1 VPN overall

NordVPN is one of the most known VPN providers in the market. With their headquarters in Panama, it falls behind the 14 eyes jurisdiction and offers complete privacy and anonymity to their users.

NordVPN offers nearby 6000 servers in 60 countries around the World. That is the biggest number of offered servers among all VPN providers. Also, some of the countries have “Connect to a specific city” feature, which is quite a nice option.

NordVPN is compatible with all major operating systems and devices, such as Windows (from Windows 7 and up), macOS, iOs, Android and Linux. They also have two nice extensions for Google Chrome and Firefox browsers.

While connected to NordVPN, you can use Double VPN or Onion over VPN features. Onion over VPN gives you all the advantages of The Onion Router combined with the extra security of a VPN tunnel. Double VPN simply means that your internet connection and history goes through two different servers.

NordVPN has a brilliant customer support not only in English but in German and French languages as well. Their support team can be reached 24/7 through live chat or email.

NordVPN pricing starts from $3.49 a month for a 3 year plan. We think that the pricing is truly decent for quality service like NordVPN.

 

 

#2 ExpressVPN – still one of the best

ExpressVPN is one of the oldest and most known names in cybersecurity field. Based in British Virgin Islands, it also falls behind 14 eyes jurisdiction.

In our opinion, ExpressVPN is the main competitor for NordVPN and it truly is a great VPN service for beginners and advanced users.

We spent big loads of time trying to see if ExpressVPN has any IP or DNS leaks, but fortunately this provider is reliable when the question comes to data logging or IP/DNS leaks.

ExpressVPN offers 3000 servers in 94 locations – an incredible amount of countries available. These numbers will guarantee you incredible speeds and what our tests showed – it is the fastest VPN in the market.

ExpressVPN does allow torrenting and their services gives you access to all popular streaming platforms – you can watch US Netflix, Amazon Prime or stream any sports from such platforms as DAZN.

ExpressVPN has apps for all operating systems and devices – it supports Windows (from Windows XP & up), Mac, Linux, Android, iOs. ExpressVPN also offers Chrome and Firefox extensions, as well as VPN encryptions for users (home or office networks).

It is a perfect product but in our opinion, it is quite expensive. 1 month plan can be purchased for $12.95, while their 1-year plan is $8.32/mo ($99.95/y). 

 

 

#3 Surfshark – best budget option

Although Surfshark is a VPN market newcomer (founded in 2018), it truly is a premium service for a very good price. In our opinion, it is a great budget deal for new and advanced internet users.

Surfshark as well as ExpressVPN is registered in British Virgin Islands – that means no data logging and great privacy features.

Surfshark has some really good features which are not available in other VPN clients such as the Whitelister (you can exclude specific websites and connect to them with your normal IP). They also offer HackLock™ and BlindSearch™ for users to be fully aware about their email and personal data leaks on the internet.

Surfshark completely bypasses geo restrictions and works with all major streaming services including US Netflix. However, their variety of servers and countries (800 servers in 50 countries) is a little bit poor and some of the servers are virtual.

Surfshark is working on every popular device and OS: Windows, macOS, iOs, Android, Linux and FireTV. As well as NordVPN and ExpressVPN, they do offer extensions for Chrome and Firefox.

Surfshark is great once question comes to pricing. Their cheapest plan starts from $1.99 USD/mo ($47.76 billed every two years), while their 1-month plans are at the same pricing level as NordVPN – $11.95 USD/mo. 

 

 

#4 Cyberghost – worth considering option

CyberghostVPN is definitely a TOP5 VPN provider in the world. However, after a deep research and testing, we found slightly more cons than our TOP3 ranked VPN’s.

Cyberghost has 4000 servers in 60 countries and a big part of countries have a cool “Connect to specific city” feature.

Cyberghost works with a big amount of operating systems and devices: desktop apps for Windows, macOS, Linux. Mobile apps for iOs and Android. As well as NordVPN, they offer browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. On top of that they developed TV Apps for Amazon FireSticks and Android TV’S.

We were also okay with their pricing – if you do want to save on this deal, we’d recommend choosing their 3Y plan for as low as $2.75 a month. However, if you’d just like to test their service with a 1-month plan, that would cost you $12.99. It is worth to mention that they have a “no question 45 days money back guarantee”, so you will have plenty of time to decide whether you should commit to becoming a long term Cyberghost user.

 

 

#5 Perfect Privacy – expensive, but decent service

Perfecr Privacy VPN is a Swiss-founded VPN that was developed by Vectura Data management Limited and launched in 2014. It is a viable option for newcomers and experienced VPN users. This is because it has a simple interface that newcomers can quickly adapt to. On the other hand, experienced users will appreciate its ability to meet their higher demands.

It is easy to use and minimalist VPN that newcomers can quickly adapt to. It lacks the flashy interface that comes with leading VPNs and instead employs an old school look. Let’s be honest you are not going to use a VPN because it has a good looking interface.

Perfect Privacy VPN offers all-round device compatibility. They offer various tutorials to set up a wide range of devices including Macs, Routers, iOS, Linux, IPTV, Smart TVs, gaming consoles, and Android. However, still, more can be done. Sure they may have made apps for Androids and iOS devices but they have not taken into account things like setting up the Open VPN first before you can manually connect. In summary, they have achieved a lot but still have a long way to go.

This Perfect Privacy VPN has multiple payment options. There is the option of paying 12.99$ a month. This is actually the most expensive option as it has no discount, but it’s a monthly plan. There is the most popular option where you pay 119$ for a whole year. This comes with a 23% discount. Finally, you may choose the more costly 214$ for a 2-year option. In a real sense, this ends up being the cheapest option as it has a 31% discount.

 

#6 Hotspot Shield – excellent if you don’t mind about privacy

Hotspot Shield VPN product family is one of those companies that do not hide their identities like NordVPN or ExpressVPN. In fact, I’ve met the founder of the company a year ago in their office in the Bay Area. It is an amazing company with a superb atmosphere. Most of the team is in the US but there is also a tech team in Ukraine.

Hotspot Shield is available for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS. 

Furthermore, this VPN also has a Chrome browser extension yet I would not recommend it since there is a slight chance of DNS leaking.

If you are an advanced user and would like to set-up Hotspot Shield on devices such as Linux, routers or SmartTV – sadly, it’s not possible since there are no manual install guides.

Hotspot Shield VPN uses AES 265-bit encryption which is an industry-standard to secure your web traffic. Also, to secure your data, it uses a key-agreement protocol that continuously switched your encryption key. This means that even if your encryption key gets discovered, your data will remain secure after that.

 

The most popular 1-year plan will cost you almost 7.99 EUR per month which is way above the competition. Even if you are getting 2-year plan, one month still costs 6.99 EUR. And I must say that’s a lot when you consider using a VPN which is based in the US, it partially logs your records.

 

 

#7 IPVanish – Not The Best Service For Complete Privacy

Before going into an in-depth IPVanish review, it is worth to mention that it is a US based VPN provider. That immediately raises the question of how reliable the service is?

IPVanish is working on all major operating systems including Windows (Windows 7 or higher), macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Windows Phone, FireTV and Routers. It is worth to mention that IPVanish does not provide Firefox extension. It is quite a disadvantage, as all of our higher ranked VPN providers to have a Firefox extension.

One of the few reasons why IPVanish received a pretty high ranking on our site was the speeds. Usually VPN users suffer a drastic internet speed drop when using a VPN, but with IPVanish the download/upload speed decreased just a bit.

IPVanish pricing is not so cheap. Their prices vary from $6.49/mo (billed $77.99 annually) to $10.00/mo for a one-month plan.

 

#8 Windscribe – far from premium VPN playground

Windscribe is a rather new name in VPN market but they quickly cought momentum. Currently, Windscribe has over 900 000 users worldwide – most of them chose this VPN service for their free Chrome browser extension.

Also, Windscribe is offering a free version with 10 GB monthly data cap, this is a great way to get started with VPN products.

Our review have unveiled that this virtual private network is highly secure, does not leak DNS or user true IP address and does not log any records.

BUT. Windscribe is based in Canada which is a member of 5-eye alliance making this VPN not the favorite amongst privacy obsessed users.

Windscribe pricing hardly justifies slow speed of the service – monthly price is around $4 when getting a yearly plan.

 

#9 Private Internet Access – good speeds, but based in the US

Private Internet Access is an American company owned by London Trust Media. The company itself was founded back in 2010 August and the service is named as one of the best VPN’s available in the market. However, we had different assumptions about the quality of the service. It is cheap, but would you want to rely your data and privacy on it? 

 

Private Internet Access have quite a big number of servers (3380 in total). However, their location selection is pretty poor as there are only 32 countries you can connect to.

In our Private Internet Access review, the provider received a big plus for it’s pricing. They do offer a -67% discount for their yearly subscription, which would cost you $3.33 per month (billed 39.95 USD yearly). PIA also offers 6 months and 1 month subscriptions. You can get the half year subscription for $35.95 ($5.99/mo) or one month for $6.95. It is definitely affordable, but don’t hurry and read our final verdict.

 

 

#10 PureVPN – cheap and unreliable

PureVPN (parent company is called GZ Systems) is registered and based in Hong Kong – This is quite unusual, because Hong Kong is often juxtaposed with China, which is not the most VPN and privacy friendly country.

PureVPN offers more than 2000 servers in 140+ countries and 180+ locations in total. Although they have a pretty decent amount of servers, we still saw lots of complains about connection time-outs and slow internet speeds.

It is also worth to mention that PureVPN is using a lot of virtual servers. Most of them are in super exotic places such as Barbados, Brunei, or even Cape Verde.

In our opinion, PureVPN is way below the TOP5 VPN providers list because of few simple reasons: privacy, security, encryption, logging and incompability with Netflix (it simply does not work with it). Also – very poor customer support and sketchy reviews on Trustpilot.

 

source: https://vpnroom.com/

Published in Web Applications