Top 10 fastest VPNs in 2023 (based on extensive tests conducted regularly)

Ruheni Mathenge Last updated: March 16, 2023 Read time: 37 minutes Disclosure

Which is the fastest VPN service in 2023? Read on to find out the winner and how to improve your speeds to enjoy streaming or any other activity online at the very best level.

Sneak peek at the fastest VPNs

Although, VPNs are expected to deliver slow speeds due to the underlying encryption technology. However, such speed lags can be a turn-off for customers, hindering their activities. Thankfully, some resilient VPN providers exist today, offering these fantastic privacy tools without compromising speed. Many of the fastest VPNs of today save you from ISP throttling, hence improving your overall connectivity. This article lists those fast VPN services that can effectively serve you well during resource-intensive activities like streaming, torrenting, or gaming.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are in high demand as people scramble to maintain their online security and privacy. One of the primary considerations when choosing a VPN is speed.

Many VPN providers claim to offer the fastest speeds, but it is not always the case. A fast VPN will enable you to stream, torrent, and play online games safely and anonymously.

The side effect of using a VPN is a decrease in your speed. This is a sacrifice you have to bear with as it has to encrypt your traffic and pass it through remote servers. However, if you get a reliable service, the drop in speed will be minimal.

This guide presents an in-depth review of the best fastest VPN services alongside tips to improve your overall speeds. NordVPN stands out from the rest as it only caused a slight drop in our speeds even when connected to international servers.

Disclaimer: These speeds may vary greatly depending on where you are connecting from, your network, and the devices you are using. We did most of our tests in our London Office. Our correspondents in other regions such as Canada, the US, Australia, France, Pakistan, India, and Brazil also contributed to the tests.

Fastest VPN providers – Quick list

Are you short on time? Here is a quick summary of the three most speedy VPNs on the market.

  1. NordVPN – Our number one recommended fast VPN service. It boasts a massive server network and offers fast speeds alongside robust security. We noticed only a 4% drop in our connection speed.
  2. Private Internet Access (PIA) – A reliable VPN provider, It has an extensive number of servers all around the words and boasts impressive speed.  We experienced only a 6% drop in the connection speed.
  3. Surfshark – High-Tech fast VPN with a focus on privacy and security. We experienced a 6% decrease in speed compared to our normal connection rate.

Best fast VPNs in the market

Below we have compiled the top 10 fastest VPNs available today. They emerged as the winners after a rigorous testing process involving over 30 premium VPN providers. We used speed tests and other non-quantifiable parameters to come up with the list.

1. NordVPN

NordVPN

The fastest VPN we have in our list. It boasts top-notch security and extremely-fast servers.

servers Offers more than 5,000 VPN servers in over 57 countries
P2P optimized servers Servers are P2P friendly
encryption Strong data AES-256 encryption
SmartPlay feature Owns SmartPlay feature
Quick Connect feature Fasten connection by quick connect feature
Ad Blocker feature Functional CyberSec ad-blocker
Kill switch Useful kill switch
protection Prohibits DNS leaks
Zero-logs policy No data storing
MultiHop mode Double VPN (multiHop) feature
simultaneous connections Connects up to six simultaneous devices
money-back guarantee Refund policy of 30 days

Pros
  • Fast-speed servers
  • Does not keep logs
  • Strong security
Cons
  • Desktop app isn’t catchy

Our number one recommended fast VPN service. It boasts a massive server network and offers fast speeds alongside robust security. We noticed only a 4% drop in our connection speed.

During our test, we tried both close and faraway servers to see how they perform. The average download speed was 59.76Mbps with a distant server and 58.24 Mbps with a closer server. This is just a 1% drop in our average speed without a VPN.

Connection Ping Average download speeds Average upload speeds Distance Average speed reduction
Starting speed – United Kingdom 13ms 59.76 Mbps 15.43 Mbps
Manual Connect UK servers 11ms 58.31 Mbps 15.27 Mbps 121km 3%
Quick connect UK servers 10ms 57.17 Mbps 14.01 Mbps   5%
Quick Connect US servers 28ms 48.68 Mbps 13.47 Mbps 6,800km 19%
Manual Connect US servers 31ms 46.94 Mbps 11.51 Mbps 6,894km 22%
Quick Connect France servers 22ms 44.87 Mbps 9.01 Mbps 1,092km 25%
Quick Connect Brazil servers 101ms 25.15 Mbps 7.67 Mbps 8,150km 57%
Quick Connect Australia servers 121ms 22.67 Mbps 6.90 Mbps 15,200km 68%

We experienced the slowest speeds when connected to a server in New Zealand, nearly 18,000 kilometers away. The average download speeds were 43.25 Mbps, which is way much higher than what other VPN service provides out there. You will be impressed to know that speeds are consistent in other countries too. For example, we used US servers and got average download speeds of 55.18 Mbps, a 5% drop in our starting speeds.

The provider can maintain superfast speeds because of its expansive server network. It has over 5,518 servers distributed in more than 59 countries. The SmartPlay feature combines VPN and DNS technology to mask your location and smash through even the hardest geo-blocks.

Fortunately, some of its servers are located in deeply restricted countries like UAE and Turkey. There are even servers close to China in places like Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The obfuscation feature will hide your activities so that you can use the VPN unrestricted. 

NordVPN can unblock almost all popular streaming sites such as Netflix, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and more. With the massive server network, you will be able to access these sites no matter where you are located. The fast speeds will enable you to stream your favorite content in high definition without interruptions.

The CyberSec feature will block all the annoying ads even on YouTube. It will also keep you safe from malicious trackers and malware.