VPN comparison

The VPN essentials

All VPNs exist to perform two not so simple tricks. First, they must hide your physical IP address from the world. Second, they must hide your web traffic (encryption is the most often tool used for this) so that no external observer can see anything but the noise coming in and out of your devices --don't be afraid; noise is exactly how encrypted data should seem.

So analyzing a VPN service means making sure that those two tricks are performed correctly. But other factors such as privacy policies, log keeping, stream friendliness, and more are surprisingly crucial because there are many ways to kill a cat. Having your IP and your traffic successfully hidden doesn't necessarily imply that watching your favorite Netflix show will be easy.

So what should you look for in a VPN? It depends almost exclusively on what you intend to do with it. The rest of this page will tell you what you should be taking into account.

Background information

What's the company offering the VPN? Where is it located? How many servers does it have?

Yes, it's a VPN; the technical aspects are paramount for sure. But technology does not exist in a vacuum. For example, suppose the VPN you want is offered from a country whose legislation is friendly to privacy (Switzerland and Panama are the primer examples).

In that case, you can be sure that the VPN is safer because protecting your privacy is compatible with its local laws.

Yes, we get it. A company's background, local jurisdiction, physical location, and prosaic details rarely matter in the digital world. The keyword here is "almost." Unfortunately, those things can make all the difference in the world when it comes to VPN services because not every country globally allows for privacy to be enforced. Would you, for instance, choose a VPN offered by a company based in China? See what we mean?

Size does matter

Digital reality makes us forget that time and space still exist. Size still matters on the internet, even more so when you are picking a VPN service. The number of servers a VPN has scattered around the world makes a difference because that number will determine if you will have a server available near you wherever you are in the world. Even if you don't travel that much, a VPN with fewer servers could not have a server near you, which means that your traffic will be slow.

So, when it comes to VPN server numbers, bigger is better. However, if you tend to stay put, then it could be irrelevant if, and only if, you make sure that there is at least one or two servers very near you.

Privacy and security

VPNs are supposed to guarantee our privacy. However, they can do that only if the VPN keeps its own privacy from its parent company and government. So the VPN's privacy and security must be considered. We do that like this:

• Jurisdiction. The company's physical location matters because that determines the laws it must follow. The optimal countries to host good VPNs are not members of Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes. Those countries don't force companies to give up any of their information to their governments.
• Privacy. The best VPNs in the world don't keep any logs at all. But some good ones do keep limited logs of some kind. So you need to find out and understand what the data that they log is. Data concerning your web activity or private IP address should not be recorded by your VPN at all. In fact, the VPNs we like best keep only logs of timestamps, our login details, the total bandwidth used. In other words, nothing that is not critical to upholding the service.

WebRTC and DNS Leaks

The internet functionality we all love and enjoy is built over a series of complicated internet protocols. Some of them can cause your private IP address to be made available to the world, even behind a VPN.

Having your IP address revealed to the rest of the internet beats the purpose of having a VPN in the first place. That's why you must test your VPN for DNS, WebRTC, and other types of leaks. That will ensure that your actual IP address is safe where it belongs.We help you with that by providing you with a VPN leak test tool that you could find on PrivacySavvy soon (yes, we're building that tool, too, on our readers' demand).

Features

So now you know which VPN is headquartered in a privacy-friendly country, you've made sure they don't keep any logs on your activities, it has plenty of servers everywhere (with several near you), and it doesn't leak any information.

So what next? Well, at this point, it's all about the features. So let's review some of the most frequent ones:

• Kill Switch. Some VPNs have this feature. It means that when you lose the VPN connection, all your internet activities are shut down automatically. If you have to choose between a service with a kill switch versus one that lacks it, go with the first option.
• Torrents. Lots of users want a VPN to use their torrent clients. After all, the pirate bay's webpage has been advocating VPN use for years by now. The thing is that not all VPNs will allow torrents in their network. Even if you're not a torrent user, a VPN allowing torrents is generally better than one that doesn't.
• Netflix. It's hugely popular these days. And the situation is similar to the last case. Not all VPNs allow streaming video, Netflix, or otherwise. And to make things worse, Netflix is not a VPN fan either, as it has already blocked many VPNs. Also, as in the previous case, a VPN compatible with Netflix is better than other options, in general. But in this, as with torrents, it depends very much on your internet use. If you don't torrent or see Netflix shows at all, it makes no difference.
• Split tunneling. It's an excellent feature to have if you can get it. It helps maximize bandwidth speeds, but not all VPNs offer it.
• Encryption. AES-256 is the industry-standard encryption method, and, as far as we are concerned, it's the only acceptable option. Unfortunately, AES-128 doesn't stand for us as it's exponentially weaker.
• Multi-Hop. VPNs that encrypt your data more than once, using different servers, are called "Multi-Hop," and they take privacy and anonymity to the next level. This feature is not a must-have, and it must be said that it brings transfer speeds down. But this is a feature you can only find in the best services.
• IP Addresses. VPNs that give you a new IP address in each session are best. But shared IP addresses are ok too (those are addresses that other users in the network are using too) because it makes it easier to remain anonymous. If you are especially anal over this issue, some VPNs will give you a dedicated IP address for an extra fee (NordVPN is a good example).
• Speed. Speed is paramount. You will always lose some speed when using a VPN; it's the price of doing business. But you need to know precisely how much speed you will lose. This depends on the service you choose, and your own local environment like Windows, Apple, and Linux systems react differently regarding speeds.
• Subscriptions. There are some free VPNs out there. And you must avoid them at all costs. If remaining private and anonymous on the internet is the purpose of VPNs, free VPNs defeat it because they make their money from logging and selling your internet data. The only way to ensure your privacy with a VPN is to pay for a good service. Sorry, there's no free lunch.
• Pricing. We like lower prices, of course. Most VPNs will only set you back about 10 USD monthly, so they're not expensive at all. Some companies will give you lower prices for more extended contracts, and some have more flexible options. Consider also the number of devices you can connect to the VPN, the maximal number of server switches, as well as the total data you can use.

Conclusion

There you go! Now you know how you should compare several VPNs at once! The more you learn about VPNs and the services they offer, the better choice you will make. Enjoy the internet and stay safe!