Not long ago, virtual private networks (VPNs) were the exclusive realm of businesses and a certain type of privacy-minded person. Today, there's a thriving market of commercial and consumer VPNs with slick apps at affordable prices that require no network know-how to use. But navigating your way through the marketing hype (and there's a lot of it) is hard, and once you find a VPN, how do you even use it? We'll help you understand what VPNs do best, how to pick a good one, and how to use it to improve your online privacy.

Do You Need a VPN?

VPNs are easier to use than ever, but explaining what they're good for is not. This might help, though. In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report outlining how much internet service providers (ISPs) know about their customers (you). One particular paragraph in the report makes a powerful case for VPNs:

This means a single ISP has the ability to track the websites their subscribers visit, the shows they watch, the apps they use, their energy habits, their real-time whereabouts and historical location, the search queries they make, and the contents of their email communications. [...] They use this data to create advertising segments, including segments that reveal sensitive data such as race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, financial status, health status, and political beliefs.

This is where VPNs can help. These privacy-protecting apps prevent even people with privileged access from seeing your data. But, as with any tool, it's essential to understand the limitations of a VPN. After all, you wouldn't expect a Kevlar vest to save you from falling out of an airplane or a parachute to stop a bullet.

When you switch on a VPN, your traffic is routed through an encrypted tunnel to a server operated by the VPN company. That means that your ISP won't be able to see your web traffic. Even the local network's operators won't be able to peek into your activities.

Because your traffic appears to come from the VPN's server, your actual IP address is effectively hidden. This makes it harder to track you as you move across the web, and because IP addresses are distributed geographically, it hides your true location. This can come in handy if you want to spoof your location. Connecting to a VPN server in London makes it appear you were accessing the internet from the UK.

What a VPN won't do is completely anonymize your traffic. For that, you'll want to use the free Tor anonymization network. Instead of just piping your data through a single intermediary (such as a VPN server), Tor bounces your data through several different volunteer computers, often referred to as "nodes". This makes it much harder for someone trying to track your activities to see what you're up to, but note that it will slow down your web traffic.

Additionally, websites can track your movements through cookies, browser fingerprinting, online trackers, and other tricky tools. Installing an ad-blocker and engaging all the privacy tools found in most modern browsers can make it much harder for advertisers to follow your movements across the web.

Finally, just because you have a VPN doesn't mean you can forget about the security basics. While some VPN services claim they can block malware, we recommend standalone antivirus software for your computer because these tools are designed to protect your computer from malicious software. As of 2024, several VPN providers have released broader security suites, like NordVPN Threat Protection Pro and Surfshark One. In our reviews of those products, Lead Security Analyst Neil Rubenking was unimpressed with their functionality and still recommends standalone antivirus to keep your devices secure.

In select cases a VPN can protect against password breaches as well with add-on password managers, though again, standalone options are often more feature-rich than what you'd find tacked into a VPN client. ExpressVPN, for example, has its Keys password manager, but it's scant on the breadth of options we like to see in other password managers we've reviewed at PCMag. While locking down your passwords, switch on multi-factor authentication wherever possible too.

How to Choose a VPN

When we test and review VPNs, we consider a few key metrics. For one, a VPN service should allow you to connect at least five devices simultaneously. The best services now easily surpass this requirement, and some now place no limit on simultaneous connections. Another baseline requirement is that a VPN service should allow BitTorrent or P2P traffic on its servers -- if you plan to use either of these technologies. Nearly all VPNs allow them on at least some of their servers, but you don't want to run afoul of the company to which you're paying a monthly fee.

Speaking of fees, the average that we've seen among the VPNs we've reviewed is $10.30 per month. A VPN that charges more than the average isn't necessarily ripping you off, but it should offer something significant such as an excellent interface or 100-plus server locations to sweeten the deal.

You can usually get a discount if you buy longer-term contracts. The average price of an annual VPN subscription I've seen across three dozen products is $58.30. However, we recommend avoiding long commitments until you're sure you're happy with the service. Start with a short-term or, better yet, free subscription to test a VPN in your home before you take the plunge on an annual (or longer) plan.

It's also useful to know where a VPN company is based. This isn't always the business's physical location, but a legal distinction that explains what jurisdiction the company calls home for legal purposes. The local laws may (or may not) mean that these companies are not beholden to data retention laws, which would require them to hold on to certain information (your data, for example) that could be obtained by law enforcement.

Many readers are concerned about how VPNs impact their internet speeds. At PCMag, we perform extensive speed testing to determine the fastest VPN. That said, we don't believe speed should be the primary factor when choosing a VPN. There's so much variation in performance that a service with top scores today could be pokey tomorrow. We recommend testing a service on your home network to see how it performs, with the understanding that there will almost always be a performance cost and that it may vary daily -- even hourly.

One question readers often have is if they can trust a VPN. After all, VPNs have access to all the same traffic that an ISP does, and they could try to monetize it or be a poor steward of your privacy and hand over information to hackers or law enforcement. In our reviews, we spend a lot of time trying to answer this question by talking with companies, reviewing their policies, terms and conditions pages, and so on. Some signs of a trustworthy VPN are a clear and understandable privacy policy, a transparency report, and third-party audits that examine policy enforcement and infrastructure.

If the location, pricing, or terms of service don't fill you with confidence, try another service. In all our VPN reviews, we report on these issues and highlight anything we think is confusing or problematic.

Should I Pay for a VPN?

Worthwhile free VPNs are rare, but they do exist. A few VPN services offer a free trial, usually for a limited time. Others, like Windscribe VPN, have free subscriptions but limit the data that free subscribers can use. Proton VPN is our top choice for free VPNs because it places no data limitation on free users, among many other reasons.

Sadly, most VPNs are far from free, but you don't need to break the bank to get one. Our list of cheap VPNs is a great place to start if money is tight.

Getting Started With a VPN

Once you've settled on a service, the first thing to do is grab the company's app, usually from the company's downloads page on the VPN service's website. Note: Some VPN providers won't provide a way to download the desktop app until you've signed up for the service first. Mobile users on iOS or Android will have it much easier, since those downloads are controlled by their respective app stores. If the VPN service you're considering doesn't offer an app for the device you plan on using most often, consider finding a different service.

Once you've installed the apps, you're usually prompted to enter your login information. In most cases, this is the username and password you created when you signed up for the service. Some companies, such as Editors' Choice winners IVPN and Mullvad VPN, use privacy-protecting anonymized login schemes that can initially be confusing. Be sure to read the instructions carefully.

Once logged in, your VPN app will likely auto-connect to the VPN server closest to your current location. That's done to provide better speeds when using the VPN, as performance degrades the farther the VPN server is from your actual location. This might change depending on the time of day and location, as we've found while speed testing from Manhattan, NY, in the middle of the day. The best VPNs route your traffic through a server designed to provide you with the best speeds, but the closest and fastest servers aren't always the same, especially during peak hours.

And that's it! Your information is now being securely tunneled to the VPN server.

Some readers may balk at installing yet another app on their devices. If you have a more DIY mentality, you can skip the app and do it the old-fashioned way. This usually involves changing the operating system settings to use the VPN service's infrastructure. Most VPN services will have documentation on how to configure your device on an individual basis.

That said, we discourage people from going down this path. Manual configuration means you'll have to manually keep the server information on your computer up to date. You also won't be able to access all the other features provided by the VPN service you're already paying for. See our story on How to Set Up a VPN in Windows 11 for a deeper dive if you're bravely considering this path.

How to Choose the Right VPN Server

Sometimes, you might not want to be connected to the server the VPN app recommends. Perhaps you want to spoof your location or take advantage of custom servers provided by your VPN. Or maybe the server the app picks doesn't work or is too slow for your purposes. Whatever the reason, the best VPNs let you quickly and easily jump to a different VPN server on demand.

Sometimes, VPN apps present their servers in lengthy menus or pull-down lists. The best VPN services include search bars and highlight servers for specific activities such as streaming and using BitTorrent. Many VPN companies have an interactive map as part of their app. TunnelBear VPN and NordVPN, for example, let you click on countries to connect to servers on a city-by-city basis.

Choosing a server depends entirely on what you want to accomplish. For better speeds, you should choose a nearby server. To access region-locked content, you should choose a server that's local to the content you want to watch.

Some VPN companies have specialized servers for streaming video. These specialized servers are useful because streaming services such as Netflix can block VPNs. These licensing deals Netflix secures with studios are an issue, as they provide different content for different regions.

The best VPN services have enhanced security options, such as access to Tor or multi-hop VPNs. Tor, as mentioned above, is a way to better protect your privacy and lets you access hidden websites on the dark web. Multi-hop VPN is similar: Instead of just routing your traffic through a single VPN server, a multi-hop connection tunnels you to one server and then another. Both these offerings trade speed for enhanced privacy.

Beyond the Basics

Each VPN has a different set of features, so we can only generalize what you might see when you open the app's settings. However, we encourage you to read the documentation and click or tap around the app. The best way to learn a tool is to use it yourself!

Most VPN services include a kill switch, which prevents your computer from transmitting information if the VPN becomes disconnected. This is helpful in preventing small bits of data from sneaking through unencrypted. If you suddenly find that the internet has cut out, check if your VPN's kill switch has been tripped.

Some VPNs allow you to select a VPN protocol. This can be intimidating since the protocols have weird names, and companies rarely provide information about them and what changing the protocol will do. In general, you can leave this alone and let the VPN automatically select one for you.

If you're interested, though, WireGuard is the most common VPN protocol. It's open source, boasts the newest encryption technology, and might be faster than other protocols. OpenVPN and IKEv2 are good choices, too.

When Should I Use a VPN?

When you should use a VPN depends on what you want to use a VPN for. If you're trying to access region-locked content, you'll probably leave your VPN off until it's time to stream. If you're concerned about privacy, you'll want your VPN on as much as possible. If you're mostly worried about shady Wi-Fi networks, maybe your VPN only comes out when traveling.

Don't beat yourself up if your VPN is causing problems and you need to switch it off. At a minimum, you should use a VPN whenever you're using a network you don't control, especially if it's a public Wi-Fi network.

VPNs for Android and iPhones are a little trickier, particularly if you frequently move in and out of cellular coverage. Each time you lose and regain data connectivity, the VPN has to reconnect, which adds a frustrating wait and can be buggy if you're in the middle of a FaceTime call or a text conversation. It's also less likely that bad guys can intercept your cell traffic, though researchers have proven it can be done.

Most devices automatically connect to any familiar-looking Wi-Fi network. That's out of convenience to you, but it's trivially simple to impersonate a Wi-Fi network. Your phone or laptop may connect to a digital honeypot without you realizing it. This and other exotic attacks are, definitionally, rare. Understanding all threats out there is still useful, however.

Split Tunneling Is the Best of Both Worlds

If you're concerned about VPNs slowing your connections or blocking important traffic, you should consider a VPN with a split-tunneling feature. Names for this feature vary by company, but the gist is that you can decide which apps use the VPN for their traffic and which can transmit without it. Editors' Choice winner TunnelBear VPN, for example, includes an option not to tunnel any Apple apps to ensure they function properly on a Mac. Frequent video streamers and gamers who need a VPN may want to investigate this option to keep their latency low and their killstreaks high.

Some VPNs have settings that allow your machine to communicate with local devices (that is, LAN devices or devices on the same network), which may also help. However, remember that even with LAN traffic and split tunneling, applications that let you remotely cast media to other devices -- like Chromecast and Apple AirPlay -- often don't play nice with VPNs.

VPNs Should Work for You

Far from being the arcane networking tools of yore, modern VPNs are exceptionally easy to use. Most are now set-and-forget tools, as they should be. The bigger problem these days is consumers misunderstanding what a VPN can and can't do. Worst of all, some VPN companies seem content to let this confusion drive their sales.

A VPN will make monitoring your web traffic harder for your ISP and others. They can also help access blocked streaming content, making it harder for you to be tracked online. Everything else depends on the VPN you pick. Once you understand what you want a VPN for, you'll be able to find one that meets your needs (at a price you can afford) and that will fit into your life.