Listed above are our top best VPN providers for 2024 and below we have some advice about how to choose a VPN service provider. Remember the best way to choose a VPN service provider is by reading our review, installing a free client.
How to Evaluate a VPN Service
- Price – Expect to pay around $10/month for good VPN service. Note that with yearly contracts pricing can go down quite a bit.
- Expected Use – It helps to know exactly what you will need your VPN for exactly. Will you be using your VPN to watch Netflix, download torrents, have more privacy online.
- Speed – In most normal cases, when you choose a VPN service provider. Speed is going to be one of the most important criteria. If you are using a VPN to stream video from another country then you don’t want to receive slow. If you are using a VPN to do work, you don’t want your work to be slowed down. Anyways, on each review page we have posted our speed tests and the conclusion we draw from them. We are looking for consistent speed and not just burst speed so one good way to test your VPN is to leave it connected for a day at a time.
- Bandwidth – Some VPN providers will cap the amount of bandwidth that you can use monthly. Typically you can sort this out by reading our review page where we have done the work for you. Some VPN providers let you know and some disreputable VPN providers will slow down the connection without telling you that you have reached your bandwidth limit.
- Protocols– When you choose a VPN service provider, you want to go with a service provider that offers a variety of VPN protocols. The typical protocols that we see with VPNs are the following: PPTP ( a simple protocol providing basic security – good for streaming video), L2TP/IPsec ( Stronger Corporate VPN solution) and OpenVPN(A popular strong and flexible VPN protocol offering providing good speed and stability) Choosing the right VPN protocol will help protect your anonymity and privacy. If you live in country where online privacy is not respected then you may want a stronger protocol. Conversely, if you are using a VPN service to have an IP address in another country and not particularly concerned about security then you may find that the normal PPTP does the job very well and has less CPU overhead ( making your connection slightly faster).
- Service Locations– Important but not that important. Most of the action with regards to VPN binary downloads is concentrated in a handful of groups that change from time to time so you needn’t be too concerned with this number.
- Free Trial – Free VPN trial accounts allow you to check out aVPN service and see if they are right for you. Most of our top providers have free VPN trial plans so you can confirm if the service is good or not. We also help you make your decision also by reviewing the facts and giving our detailed analysis.
