Best VPNs in 2026 — Tested in Our Lab

1

ZoogVPN

9.3/10

ZoogVPN takes the top spot on value rather than volume. At $2.49 a month on the two-year plan it covers ten devices, which is the cheapest full package on this site — and unlike most budget services it does not strip out features to get there.

Its Shadow protocol disguises VPN traffic as ordinary encrypted browsing, and the company supports it specifically for China, Iran, Qatar and Egypt. That is a harder problem than getting past a corporate firewall, and it is the reason this provider leads our rankings.

A Greek base places it inside the EU's data-protection regime and outside the Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes arrangements. The free tier lets you install the apps and check them on your own devices before paying anything.

The trade-offs are a seven-day refund window and a compact network of around 200 servers, both of which we cover in full in the review.

Price from	$2.49 / month
Devices	10 simultaneous
Jurisdiction	Greece (EU)
Free plan	10 GB per month
Refund	7 days
Protocols	WireGuard + Shadow
Best for	Blocked networks

Go to ZoogVPN Read the full ZoogVPN review

2

Surfshark

9.2/10

Surfshark solves one problem outright: it places no limit at all on simultaneous connections. Every other provider here stops at ten or twelve, so if you are covering a family, a shared house or a pile of phones, laptops and TVs, this is the only option that does not make you count.

The rest of the package is solid. Servers in 100 countries, WireGuard alongside ChaCha20 encryption, Dynamic MultiHop that lets you pick both ends of a two-server route, and CleanWeb filtering ads and trackers before they reach your device.

It has been audited by Deloitte and Cure53, which puts it ahead of most of the market on verification. A seven-day mobile trial sits alongside the 30-day refund window.

Two things to weigh: the Netherlands sits inside the Nine Eyes arrangement, and renewal prices are quoted separately from the introductory rate.

Price from	$1.78-2.49 / month
Devices	Unlimited
Jurisdiction	Netherlands (9 Eyes)
Free plan	No — 7-day trial
Refund	30 days
Protocols	WireGuard, MultiHop
Best for	Large households

Go to Surfshark Read the full Surfshark review

3

Proton VPN

9.1/10

If privacy features are what you are paying for, Proton VPN is the most complete option here. Secure Core routes traffic through a second hardened server so the exit point never sees your real address, and Tor access is built into the client rather than requiring a separate browser.

The apps are open source, the company is based in Switzerland, and post-quantum encryption was rolled out to all users during 2026 — protection against traffic captured today and decrypted years from now.

The free plan is genuinely usable: no traffic cap and no payment details required, though streaming and P2P are reserved for paid tiers.

It is also the most expensive long-term plan on this site at $2.99 a month, support runs on tickets with no live chat, and neither a dedicated IP nor SOCKS5 is offered at any price.

Price from	$2.99 / month
Devices	10 simultaneous
Jurisdiction	Switzerland
Free plan	Unlimited data
Refund	30 days
Protocols	WireGuard + Stealth
Best for	Privacy and anonymity

Go to Proton VPN Read the full Proton VPN review

4

PureVPN

9.0/10

Longest refund window

PureVPN has been running since 2007, which makes it one of the older names still trading, and the current product is substantial rather than coasting on age. More than 6,000 servers across roughly 80 countries, WireGuard alongside OpenVPN and IKEv2, and round-the-clock live chat — something several providers on this site do not offer at all.

Its clearest advantage is the refund window. At 31 days it is the longest we cover, and the practical benefit is real: a full calendar month covers a complete billing cycle on anything you are testing alongside it, with a day to spare.

On verification it has done more work than most of the market. KPMG has examined the no-logs policy four times since 2019, with reports published rather than merely announced. That matters because of what came before: in 2017 the company supplied user logs to the FBI while advertising a no-logs policy. The record is documented, the company has since moved to the British Virgin Islands and rewritten its policy, and whether an incident that old still weighs on a purchase today is a judgement you should make knowingly.

One thing to check before comparing prices: a dedicated IP and port forwarding are billed as separate add-ons rather than included, so the headline two-year rate is not always the whole cost.

5

Hide.me

8.8/10

Best no-sign-up free plan

Hide.me has the most internally consistent privacy story on this site, and it starts with what it does not ask of you. The free tier requires neither an email address nor a card, and imposes no data cap at all — you install it and it works. Every other free plan here wants at least an address.

The company is registered in Labuan, Malaysia, outside the Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes arrangements and in a jurisdiction with no mandatory data-retention requirement. That shapes what could be compelled in the first place rather than only what the company promises, and Securitum audited the service in 2024.

Two decisions set it apart on the paid side. Split tunnelling stays available on the free tier rather than being held back as an upgrade lever, and the 26-month plan renews at the same $2.69 a month instead of reverting to a higher standard rate — rare in a market built on introductory pricing.

Where it gives ground is entertainment and scale. Netflix access is unreliable, the network is modest at 2,600+ servers, and the SmartGuard ad blocker failed to block in at least one independent test. Reported speeds vary so widely between sources that we do not quote a figure — the free plan answers that question on your own connection for nothing.

6

Planet VPN

8.0/10

Unlimited free data

Planet VPN exists for one reason and does it well: a free tier with no traffic cap whatsoever. Most free VPN plans are built to frustrate you into upgrading, typically capping data somewhere between 500 MB and 10 GB a month. This one does not cap it at all, and the paid plans are among the cheapest available.

The company is registered in Bucharest, Romania — outside the major intelligence-sharing arrangements, in a country with a comparatively strong record on internet freedom. The network runs to roughly 1,260 servers across more than 60 countries, with Double VPN multi-hop routing and split tunnelling on the premium tiers, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The catch is significant enough that it decides the ranking. Planet VPN does not support WireGuard — the only provider on this site without it. That is not a preference but a real limitation: WireGuard is a smaller, faster and more modern codebase than OpenVPN, and it is the reason most VPNs became noticeably quicker over the past few years. Reported throughput here has come in well below what high-resolution streaming needs.

There is also no independent audit, and the service traded under a different brand name until 2022. Neither is disqualifying on its own, but for a privacy product the length of a verifiable track record is part of what you are buying.