What VPN’s Accept Bitcoin

You can take your anonymity one step further by paying for your service using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. The advantage of using Bitcoin is you don’t have to give a credit card or link a bank account to your service. Many people use Bitcoin because they think it will make them truly anonymous online.

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency invented under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 and has taken the world by storm.

It is a new form of money which uses Peer 2 Peer money transfer to create a more secure type of currency.

It allow money to become , decentralised, anonymous and limited by a fixed amount of coin. These coins are mined and then transferred using actual money to buy currency and exchanged between wallets. People love Bitcoin because they feel it allow you to be anonymous.

Is Bitcoin Anonymous?

No. This is a common misconception. Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous. Meaning that the identity that you provide is as anonymous as the information you give to it.

Anonymity is based on 3 key ideas:

• Your Bitcoin address cannot be traced to your real identity
• Transactions with Bitcoin do not contain any personal information
• Your IP address is not exposed (particularly if you are already using a VPN or Tor for your transactions)

But there are several weaknesses with Bitcoin anonymity, admittedly they require a specialist for many of them, but we provide them for you to understand that Bitcoin is not truly anonymous, as this is incredibly difficult for any type of currency transactions for the following 5 reasons:

• Your account uses a real name authentication system to find deposit and withdrawal addresses
• Your Bitcoin address can be tracked to your real IP address if you do not mask your IP
• Every Bitcoin transaction is transparent and traceable by design
• It is possible to gather some or all inputs when sending Bitcoins which means you can be tracked
• Change of address transactions can be tracked

This sounds and is quite complicated. But Bitcoin is significantly more anonymous than paying using a Credit Card. You can also increase your anonymity by registering multiple wallets, sending from different addresses and using mixers, but that level of complexity deserves an article of its own.  There are several anonymised wallet providers built on technology pioneered by Dark Wallet who provide a high level of anonymity and security using a system of random addresses and coin mixing.

By its nature. Transactions require that the sender and receiver of a form of currency have some security that what they send and receive will not be lost. Meaning there needs to be a certain level of traceability.

5 VPN Providers That Accept Bitcoin

Here are our top 5 VPN providers, who we have thoroughly tested for quality, speed, anonymity and accept Bitcoin.

IPVanish

IPVanish ranks as one of the fastest VPN Providers around. With a solid ‘Zero Logs’ policy meaning that you can trust that your browsing history and logs will remain anonymous.

With access to shared IP browsing on 40,000+ IP’s across on over 1,200+ servers and 60+ countries. You are going to be able to find the fastest server anywhere in the world. Whether you just want to use IPVanish to browse anonymously, torrent, watch Netflix or use Kodi. 

The more servers you can access the better, as it offers you better speed and geographic availability depending on where you are in the world. The bonus of a shared IP means it’s almost impossible to attribute a user to one IP.

Onto of this unlike many other VPN providers, IPVanish manages all its own servers and general infrastructure. Relatively unheard of, this gives IPVanish much more of a say over the data that its servers stored and therefore your privacy. Private DNS servers are crucial to persevering your IP address, and making sure there are no IP leaks.

IPVanish have long accepted Bitcoin along with a host of major credit cards and PayPal. What’s more their 7-day money back guarantee on their service extends to Bitcoin payments.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN have been accepting Bitcoin payments since 2014. This will come to no surprise for fans of the one of the best and most stable VPN providers around the world. The fact that ExpressVPN is one of the most used VPN’s in China is a testament to their stability, security and anonymity.

They even have an in-depth guide of how to use Linux’s anonymous browser Tails to use Bitcoin wallets and ExpressVPN which you can find here.

With access to 3,000+ servers over 94 countries and a zero logs policy that has been tested in a court of law and not been found wanting. Express has a built a stellar reputation as one of the most reliable VPN providers around, serving as a bastion for user privacy and anonymity.

Using Bit pay you can pay for your subscription using Bitcoin and get a 30-day money back guarantee.

Cyberghost

Cyberghost use PayBilla to fulfil all their Bitcoin payments, which in term means you can convert 150 of the most used cryptocurrencies into fiat currency which can be used to pay for your subscription. Plus, you get a massive 45-day money back guarantee when buying a yearly plan.

Located in Romania, they operate outside of the jurisdiction of the 14 eyes policy and have a zero logs policy that has stood the test of an official investigation by a countries law enforcement agency. Cyberghost were not found wanting and had a solid reputation for privacy and user data safety.

With 3,000+ servers across 60+ countries they offer a massive number of servers, with over 1,000 of these specifically tailored for P2P file sharing. Meaning they are a user’s paradise for torrenting and Kodi.

With over 3,000+ servers in 30+ countries, they have a reputation for speed, ease of use and excellent security and integrity. Passing all their leak tests with flying colours.

They accept Bitcoin with a 7-day money back guarantee.

NordVPN

NordVPN offer a whopping 5,000+ servers in 60+ countries. Which means you get speed, selection and server choice. Whether that be P2P, browsing or just optimal location. Their range and depth mean they will always make any review sites top 5 across the board.

Nord is also one of the few companies that has publicly been tested with privacy laws and asked to hand over their logs in a criminal investigation. They handed over what they had. Nothing. NordVPN goes into detail to state it keeps no logs of your activity outside of issues required for server optimisation and user experience. Like number of users online, total data used in aggregate and any crashes in performance.

They go one step further than a lot of another VPN provider. You can use cryptocurrency to pay for your VPN using Coin Payments. Which allows you to pay in 1,300+ recognised cryptocurrency. So, you can use your Bitcoin, Ethereum or whatever you have on hand.

Their awesome double VPN connection system acts like VPN over TOR allowing you double the security (well, just making something very secure more secure actually) Routing your connection through two separate VPN servers. Along with a host of functions including ad and malware blocking.

Join of the cheapest VPN provider online using Bitcoin with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Private Internet Access (PIA)

PIA has one of the highest reputations for privacy in the VPN industry. They have gone through 2 high profile cases with the FBI where they handed over logs which basically showed nothing. PIA demonstrated that they are a true zero logs provider. They also one of the few providers who provides full transparency about the number of requests they have for information from law enforcement agencies. Along with the times they have handed over incriminating evidence. Zero.

It is always impressive to find a company who does exactly what they say, even in the face of enormous pressure from an enormous law enforcement agency like the FBI. PIA proved they will not bow to them, unlike many other companies before them.

How to Avoid VAT in The EU By Paying With Bitcoin

You are subject to pay VAT in most EU countries and the US. That’s an added 20% on top of your existing fee. With multi year subscriptions this can add up. The solution?

Use a VPN provider to circumvent the country restrictions. 

A payment provider will check what your country you are in before administering VAT. So, start off by using a free trial of one of our reputed VPN providers. Or simply buy a 1-month programme and then get a refund.

Set your VPN to a non-EU country.  You can then go back and pay for your VPN service while getting out of VAT, and then finish off by paying with your Bitcoin from your anonymous wallet.

Other Way’s You Can Increase Your Privacy

Though we said Bitcoin is not anonymous, it is certainly much better than a credit card. There are several steps you can take to make yourself even more anonymous online.

1. Burner email: Using a free service like Mailinator, you can use public randomly generated email inboxes where you can receive confirmation emails for your subscriptions. Leaving no information even if your provider keeps your email address. Or you simply give an address like tom@mailinator.com , get your email and openly check the public inbox
2. Use an Anonymous Browser: Specifically designed operating systems like Tails in conjunction with an anonymous browser like Tor (The Onion Router) will keep your data safe behind Tor nodes, randomly rotating IP’s and a lack of data left behind. Every time your rebot tails OS it wipes all its data. Meaning you also have a fresh system when you log in, with nothing to track back to you.
3. Create a Fake Identity: Admittedly this needs a lot more work, but if you aren’t bothered about falsifying employment and education records, it is surprisingly easy to create a fake identity. Which you can use for your Bitcoin wallets. This gives you the maximum level of anonymity, by creating an identity someone can track, but ultimately doesn’t exist. Even with existing and regularly used social media accounts.

What are the Drawbacks of Paying With Bitcoin?

The only big drawback with using Bitcoin to pay for your service, is it makes it difficult to pay for a monthly subscription. You will need to keep resending payments. Of course, this isn’t a problem if you are always forgetting pay monthly plans and like the fact you must manually pay for everything.

In some respects, automation can be our own worse enemy, as we leave ourselves open to recurring payments that we can’t even remember what we paid for.

Plus, you can just pay for a VPN like IPVanish in one lump sum if you want to buy an annual plan, make massive savings and save yourself the hassle of having to log in every month to remember the payment.

Best VPN Provider for Bitcoin?

We know that Bitcoin won’t keep you completely anonymous but it’s a damn good start. Throw in a burner email, Tails OS and a Dark Wallet and you are going to be as anonymous as you would want to be. Unless you plan on buying plutonium in which case we doubt any cryptocurrency is going to hide you.

Our top pick for the best VPN provider who accepts Bitcoin is IPVanish. With its wide array of servers across multiple locations, IP sharing and its completely managed in house servers and infrastructure. 

We feel they are the best choice for complete anonymity and safety for browsing online. You are going to get the best, service, speeds and security with IPVanish.

Best Alternatives To A VPN

We use VPN’s to safeguard out data and our privacy and obscure or hide as much personal information about ourselves and what we do online as possible.

But you don’t have to use a VPN to do this. 

There are alternatives to using a VPN. None of them are easy, and all of them have their drawbacks, but here we explore what you can do if you want VPN-like services without paying for a VPN

SmartDNS

A DNS is a Domain Name Server. Your DNS allows you to connect to the internet and send and receive the appropriate IP address. Internet Protocols is a unique string of numbers which are specifically designated to one website. Most people will use the DNS supplied by their ISP (Internet Service Provider

An IP address gives a fixed location to your connection. So, a website receiving a request from your DNS will see that you are connecting from Tokyo, Japan. If you wanted to access Netflix, their DNS would then automatically refer your request to the Japanese version.

Major media providers alter the content that can be seen based upon the country that your IP is located in.

A SmartDNS works by replacing your ISP designated DNS, but its own DNS. Making it look like your request could be coming from another country.

So, using a SmartDNS is a great way to work around Geographical IP locking. You can happily watch Netflix USA in Japan using a SmartDNS.

Prices range but can expect to pay about $5 a month for a SmartDNS.

How Is It Different To A VPN?

If you just want to watch media in another country, a SmartDNS is a good choice. But that’s about it.

A SmartDNS won’t provide you with any security or encryption, it simply re-routes your IP’s server requests through its own server and changes your location. It won’t hold up under an IP Leak test. A SmartDNS does not hide your original IP, nor will it allow you to bypass any firewalls.

Also, a SmartDNS is pretty much doing what any VPN provider would do. Most VPN providers like IPVanish will host their own DNS servers across the world, which allow you to mask or change your IP address.

Also, unlike a VPN, you are likely to get throttled (your speed slowed) by your ISP. As your connection to your SmartDNS is not encrypted, your ISP will see an uptick in data flow and may actively narrow the bandwidth that you can use. With a VPN your data will pass undetected as an encrypted package.

Basically, a SmartDNS will offer a very small part of the service a VPN can give you for the same price or even be more expensive.

Seedboxes

Unless you love to torrent, you have probably never heard of a seed box.

A seed box gives you access to a remote server which is placed in a high-speed data centre. Seedboxes are fast. Really fast. You will get faster speeds than a VPN. Their bandwidths go as high as 10GBps. Yeah. We said Gigabytes. Though you are more likely to see speeds of 100MBps and up.

What this means is that if you are spending a lot of your time downloading and uploading big files which may be many gigabytes a seed box is perfect. Because you can download the torrent much faster than just using your current broadband or even a VPN.

Seedboxes are popular with people who love P2P file sharing and the BitTorrent Communities.

They maintain your privacy and allow you to evade copyright law as all the actions happen on their third-party servers. When your computers access the file, which lives in the Seedbox it is done using HTTP and FTP, and therefore undetectable from normal internet traffic.

How Is It Different to a VPN?

Just like a SmartDNS, a Seedbox is a highly specialised tool for a singular task. So, if you only want to download and upload torrent, then get a seed box. But you won’t get any other additional functionality.

A lot of Seedboxes have the option to use the open source OpenVPN protocol. Which means that your connection with the high-speed server is secure. The encryption tends to be the same to VPN’s. Unbreakable 256-bit AES.

But, that’s it. 

You can’t access multiple servers, you won’t be able to browse anonymously, nor will your connecting IP be obscured. Also, it wouldn’t be able to circumvent Geo-IP locked content.

A Seedbox helps you download and upload content well. But you won’t get any added functionality.

Also, they are expensive. Those high-speed servers cost money. You can expect a basic monthly plan to start at $20 per month and go up steeply depending on your data usage. We are talking about a service where you plan on uploading and storing terabytes of data.

Proxys

In the early days of internet anonymity, proxies were all the rage. Suddenly you could re-route your traffic to thousands of free proxies all around the world. Meaning you were able to change your IP and remain anonymous in theory. As the proxy hides your public IP address assigned by your ISP.

A proxy is simply a middle connection between two computers. Proxies can be used to relay data, censor what someone see, filter data or act as a means of bypassing some form of content lock or censorship.

The next question is who is running the proxy. There have been many stories of people being hacked, having their information hijacked and even getting malware from using unknown proxies. Always used a trusted company that provides proxies. Avoid free proxy lists online. They are a hot bed for hackers and malicious third parties who want to at best steal your data.

A VPN is not a proxy, as a proxy only works for the browser and the actions within that browser. Whereas a VPN secures all your traffic. Even when your devices aren’t being actively used, they are transmitting and receiving data. Also, a VPN will connect automatically and may even have an inbuilt kill switch which stops you connecting to the internet if the VPN isn’t active. Without knowing how to code you will need to manually connect to the proxy each time.

Free proxies are also commonly used by VPN providers who give you a free service alongside its premium product.

People use proxies because they are free, and generally they are misinformed about the dangers you face using a proxy.

How Is It different to a VPN?

Proxies can be great for carrying out the same function as a SmartDNS, allowing you to unblock content based in other countries. But that’s about it.

Your connection is not secure or encrypted, and if you risk using a free proxy, the person running the server can monitor your traffic and see what you are doing. You don’t get any form of security using a proxy.

Plus, unlike a paid VPN like IPVanish you don’t get an automatic connection through an easy to use application. Nor will you get stable servers that you can connect to every time. Free proxies are notorious for appearing and disappearing as well as needing to be constantly monitored to see if they have been compromised.

A VPN will give you security, safety, anonymity and a host of added functionality at a small cost as opposed to a free proxy that may be used by hackers to access your computer and data.

Set Up Your Own VPN

A VPN is essentially an encrypted tunnel. From your computer you set up encryption which can then be received by a DNS host and then receive a response which is encrypted back to your computer.

So why not just set up your own VPN?

Well you can. You can use an open source set of scripts from OpenVPN or Algo VPN. Set up a digital server. Use an SSH Proxy on a Raspberry Pi and hey presto! You have a VPN.

Sounds simple right?

No. Not really. The truth is the internet is littered with guides on setting up your own VPN server, but it just pushes the problem down the line. For example, does your virtual server keep logs of your traffic? 

Running your own VPN, even if you get it set up, doesn’t make you more secure, as your data must come out at a server somewhere. Third parties have no loyalty to you and your little pet project. Plus, your broadband provider will still be able to see all your traffic and still choose to throttle your bandwidth. A self-made VPN does not help you to switch around countries either. Unless you want to sign up for multiple servers.

Setting up your VPN is good fun, but it’s not going to give you anywhere near the functionality you would get from a paid provider. 

After all you are paying them to do the hard work for you.

Why Pay For A VPN?

You can get a decent VPN provider like IPVanish for less than 7 dollars a month. Is it worth all that time setting up your own VPN which is only going to encrypt your traffic and obscure your IP if you have multiple instances set up?

The bottom line is that when we look at setting up a SmartDNS and subscribing for a Seedbox, they are great products. But they are tailored to a highly specific use. All of which you can using a VPN provider. With IPVanish you can torrent, just not at 1GBps. But do you really need to torrent a movie in 2 minutes? 

IPVanish will allow you to unlock all major media providers, like Netflix, Hulu and BBC iPlayer, it will allow you to access geographically restricted content anywhere in the world. All at the click of a button.

You can access 1,400+ servers around the world. I mean sure, you can trawl through thousands of free proxies every time you want to anonymise your IP. But do you know who is running that proxy? How can you be certain that your connection is secure, and that someone isn’t using that proxy to carry out a man in the middle attack on your computer, or piggy backing on your data to hack someone else.

Free proxies were great in 2005, but the world has moved on and got significantly more sophisticated. IPVanish will give you military grade 256-bit AES encryption on up to 5 devices. I mean do you really want to try setting up proxies on your phone every day.

Why not just set up your own VPN server?

I mean who can trust these big providers anyway. I’m better off doing it myself. For the same reason that I don’t build my own car. Sounds like a nice idea but I’ve got a busy life.

Also, how long would it take me to build a car like a Tesla? Longer than I must give, if ever at all.

Let alone the fact that I am going to need to set up a server, or use a third party, who may be recording all my data to sell onto a third-party advertiser.

Using a provider like IPVanish is the simple solution to all my problems. For less than $7 a month I can simple sign up, download the mobile application and have all my devices secured in less than 5 minutes.

Better than spending the next 3 hours setting up your own VPN server, only to discover that you won’t be able to change your IP easily and access that film on Netflix you wanted to watch in the first place.

The short story is that it just makes more sense to pay for one VPN provider like IPVanish which is going to provide a one stop solution for all your problems. Access content all around the world, do it safely, anonymise your IP and hop around hundreds of servers around the world. Safe in the knowledge that IPvanishes no log policy will keep you safe whatever you do.

Why Use a VPN When Gaming?

When you think VPN and privacy you may not think gaming. After all, doesn’t a VPN slow down your broadband speeds? Also, who wants to be anonymous when you are fragging your mortal enemies online?

But we can think of 5 good reasons why you should consider using a VPN for gaming

• Reduce Lag and Ping Time

There is nothing worse than lining up a head shot, hitting lag and getting blown up. Once you finished scooping up the Xbox controller you just threw into the wall, consider using a VPN. Your broadband provider probably throttles your IP (Internet protocol) meaning to get the best speeds, reduce lag and pin time you can use a VPN to mask your IP. Fuel your gaming with the fastest speeds using a VPN. Any slowdown is negligible with our Top 5 VPN providers for gaming and may well increase your speeds when you circumvent throttling and get better latency during game play.

• Connect Anywhere in the World

Ever tried to connect with your friends online on holiday? Internet speeds vary massively across the world, and the best holiday destinations may have the worst cabled internet. Instead of relying on your hotel’s throttled Wi-Fi or worse trying to log to a server halfway across the world. You can join a VPN provider with a server in your country. Boost your speed and never be disconnected from your clan.

• Protect Yourself from Attack

E-Sports and MMORPG are just two types of battlegrounds for hackers. Your connection if unsecured could make you the victim of a DDOS attack or even have someone hack your system and steal everything you have spent months working for. Keep yourself your avatar safe online using VPN’s military grade encryption and security protocols

• Be the First to Play

Do you want to be the first to play, but you don’t live in South Korea, Japan or the US? Before you pack your bags, take a seat and use a VPN to connect to a server in the country your favourite has been released in. Now you can register with ease and circumvent any geographic IP blocks. With a VPN you can always be the first to play.

• Connect Multiple Devices

Many VPN provider like IPVanish will let you connect to 5 devices at the same time, with a negligible dip in speed. Get the gang round for an evening of Fortnite or DOTA and enjoy blazing fast speeds while all playing at the same time

Why You Need More Speed

Modern games like DOTA, League of Legends and Fortnite need fast connection speeds and low latency.

This is all measured using ping times. A ping is the time it takes your computer to respond to a request from the game’s server.

Ping speeds of 20ms and below are great. Anything over 150ms is dismal. Plus, this only gets worse as the game progresses. The lower the ping the quicker the game will react to your commands.

You can’t even connect to Fortnite if your ISP’s (Internet Service Provider’s) speed is too slow. You can buy a new router, update your computer and even use a Cat7 ethernet cable, but if your ISP is throttling your broadband then you will not be able to reduce your ping time as much as possible.

A VPN encrypts all your data through your ISP’s cable. This action is undistinguishable to your provider, so they allow the packet to pass at the fastest speed. Which is why using a VPN, is safer and sometimes even faster than your normal connection.

Do I Have to Use a VPN to Increase Speed?

No. The internet is full of products specifically designed for increasing ping speed. They are commonly known as GPN’s (Game Private Networks)

Service like WTFast, Kill Ping and No Ping Tunnel work by optimising how you connect to the internet when you game. They use algorithms to calculate the fastest path to the game’s server and reduce ping time and latency.

So, what’s the catch? Well they are pricy. WTFast starts at $9.99 per month. Plus, you don’t get any protection, encryption, IP Masking or all the additional functionality you could get with a VPN.

Plus, you wouldn’t be protected against a malicious attack, be able to access games around the world, or change your location.

GPN are a great specialised solution, they will reduce ping time, even out ping spikes and provide a smoother gaming experience. But they will only do that. They also provide a similar service by essentially detouring your traffic to the fastest route to your game’s server.

So, let’s look at the pick of the best 5 providers to give you that speed you need.

Top 5 VPN Providers for Gaming

IP Vanish

With 40,000+ shared IP’s across 1,300+ servers in 75+ locations you will never be far away from a blazing fast connection with IPVanish. As a rule of thumb, the more servers a VPN provider has, the faster speeds, as you get a bigger distribution for all their user’s traffic.

You can enjoy a whopping 10 simultaneous connections with unlimited bandwidth. They even offer unlimited P2P traffic which means that your connection will never be slowed down wherever you are.

You can switch between their servers to find the fastest speed. IPVanish consistently rate as one of the fastest VPN providers around. Also, you can remove any geographic IP blocks on the latest games and play anonymously at high speeds almost anywhere in the world.

Oh, and it’s secure. Really secure. Protect yourself when login onto a public Wi-Fi with military grade 256-bit AES encryption. The most secure cryptography in the world used by the US Military.

Plus in between games you can watch Netflix anywhere, always browse anonymously and maintain your privacy with prices starting as low as $6.50 per month

NordVPN

One of the most established providers in the VPN industry. You can access 5,500+ servers in 60+ countries. Plus, their servers are tailored to your needs. 

You could opt for their Double VPN feature, which bounces your signal through 2 layers of encryption and keeps you extra safe. Works well in countries with high levels of censorship like China. But you will see a drop-in speed.

Or you can connect to servers which are specifically tailored to speed like their P2P servers, and they have a lot of them. 

NordVPN are a perfect blend of speed and security. They have top notch encryption and security features to keep you safe and protected from DDOS attacks, or malicious hackers who want to attack your unprotected IP at point of entry.

Plus, they consistently rank as one of the fastest VPN providers around. Alongside their wide range of servers, you will never be far away from a good connection when you travel.

Their client is easy and intuitive to use and supports up to 5 simultaneous devices with prices starting as low as $2.29 per month. You can’t go wrong with NordVPN.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is commonly thought to be the fastest VPN provider around. They consistently deliver blazing fast speeds with almost negligible slow down on broadband speeds. Some VPN providers can slow down your connection by up to 30%, but amazingly with ExpressVPN you may see less than 5% drop in your speed.

Which is more than compensated by encrypting your data and circumventing your ISP’s broadband throttling. A common practise used on high data users like gamers.

With 3,000 + servers in 90+ countries, ExpressVPN also has one of the widest coverages of any providers in terms of the sheer number of countries they cover. Plus, the speeds even in Asia and South America outrank their competitors. They have chosen a route of less servers with a higher quality and speed.

1,000+ of these servers are specially tailored to P2P, meaning they are designed for the fastest download and upload speeds. Ideal for decreasing your ping times and latency.

You also get the choice to split tunnel your data. Meaning that some activities like normal browsing can be sent through a white label tunnel and your gaming can be secured at the same time. Their security protocols are top notch, along with the same 256-bit AES encryption.

ExpressVPN is not the cheapest, with an annual plan starting at $6.67 per month. But that’s because you are paying for quality, and you can connect to 5 devices simultaneously.

CyberGhost

Cyberghost really delivers when it comes to ease of use. Their great applications have specific setting for different uses. So, you can choose their Gaming setting to connect you with the fastest server, and slightly decrease the security and encryption being used.

This doesn’t mean you are more vulnerable to attack. As the protocols and encryption used is still unbreakable. But it sacrifices maximum security to give you the best gaming experience.

They offer 3,700+ servers in 60+ countries. Giving you similar depth and breadth to the other companies in our list. More servers mean more choice wherever you are in the world. Also, you are likely to get faster speeds as these servers share the load.

You may not quite get the same speed as our Top 3, but they certainly weren’t far off. Also, they were a noticeable downtick in speeds in countries like Indonesia as well as South America.

Cyberghost is widely used due to the tonne of extra features you get. From malware and adblocker, to HTTPS always service which always look for the most secure connection before connecting. You also get top of the line security and encryption to boot. You can even get Wi-Fi protection for your mobile as well.

A great pick for the gamer who wants speed and lots of additional functionality. You can also connect to 7 devices at the same time with prices starting as low as $2.10 a month. Some of the lowest in the industry. An absolute bargain.

VyprVPN

VyprVPN makes the list not because it is the biggest of our VPN providers, or even the most secure. But because it is the most loved by gamers and rated by many as the best and fastest VPN for gaming.

Both IGN and PCGamer rated VyprVPN as the fastest overall VPN for gaming, so it’s not just all marketing. They offer a mind boggling 200,000+ IP addresses across 700+ servers in 70+ locations.

Though on the face of it they offer significantly fewer servers, their networks are optimised for speed. They defeat their competitors not in download speeds, but in latency. Their ping speeds are some of the lowest around.

Their application also is massively configurable, allowing you to tweak connection, security protocols and even your DNS. This allows you to really play around and ping test like a crazy person to optimise your gaming speed.

Speed tests showed that VyprVPN optimisation means it runs 3 times faster than most other VPN providers while gaming as well as even shaving time off your pings. You can also expect a really easy to use application, great connectivity and maximum uptime.

All of this from as little as $5 a month for basic and $6.67 a month for premium with 5 simultaneous connections. Just be aware that unlike most other providers they don’t offer a money back guarantee.

Best in Class

If you are looking for the best all round VPN provider, then our money is with IPVanish. With its excellent performance, security, server selection and features IPVanish blows away the competition.

But if you are looking for the best VPN solely for gaming, speed and ping time then we must agree with IG and PCGamer, as the speed tests are simply out of this world. VyprVPN wins when it comes to a VPN provider that has been specifically tailored around gamers and getting the faster speeds.

So, don’t miss another headshot or tactical decision ever again because of lag. Get a VPN provider today.

 

Do you know your IKEv2 from your SSTP? How about your metadata from your botnet? The world of VPN’s is full of technical terms. We’ve put this glossary together to explain all those pesky technical terms and turn you into a VPN expert.

Security Protocols

A VPN secures your connection by encrypting your traffic between your VPN client (mobile/web application or browser extension) and your VPN’s server. To do this, they use a security protocol to encrypt and decrypt your data. Imagine your data being put in a box that is locked and unlocked using a unique key.

Let’s cover the most popular types of security protocols

PPTP

Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol. This protocol creates a tunnel between two points for your data. The oldest and fastest security protocol. Also, the least secure and commonly paired with another protocol to increase security.

IKEv2

Internet Key Exchange version 2. The newest security protocol originally released in 2005. Specifically designed for information exchange between mobile devices. Supports multiple ciphers and has a high security standard as well as fast speeds. Widely seen as one of the most secure security protocols.

OpenVPN

The industry standard. This is an open source commercial software that is used by almost all VPN providers. The software works by creating a secure point to point connection using OpenSSL to encrypt data and keys and then be authenticated by the server. Has a custom security protocol using SSL/TLS.

L2TP

Layer Two Tunnelling Protocol. The new and improved PPTP. It is a specific tunnelling protocol and does not provide encryption. Often used with other security protocols like IPsec which encrypts the data that L2TP transmits. This protocol is solely used to transmit and receive data, but not encrypt it.

SSTP (Windows Only)

Secure Socket Tunnelling Protocol is used only on Windows Computers and is known to be significantly more secure than PPTP. Acting very much like Open VPN, the protocol transmits and encrypts data using SSL/TLS and gives you the ability to access remote servers which also use the SSTP protocol.

VPN

Virtual Private Network. A service that provides privacy and anonymity by encrypting your data online and protects your identity by masking or changing your IP Address which reveals your true physical location.

Kill Switch

Built into a VPN client. If for any reason your VPN stops working, this switch will ‘kill’ your internet connection until your VPN restarts. This is to prevent your true IP being seen.

Simultaneous connections

The number of devices which can connect to your VPN at the same time. Using the same or different IP addresses.

Tor

The Onion Router. A system of decentralised nodes based in people’s computers. Known for anonymity as it masks your connection by bouncing your data through different encrypted connections. Making your browsing practically untraceable.

VPN Protocol

The rules that determine the connection between your VPN client and server. Which could include connection protocols, encryption and decryption as well as which server to connect to.

VPN Server

A programme which grants access to your providers network. Allowing you to appear in different physical locations and change your IP. This is where your data is decrypted going out and encrypted coming in as you browse online.

VPS

Virtual Private Server. A virtual machine where your data is hosted. Rented from an internet hosting service, it can be based anywhere in the world. As opposed to a physical server based at your property or close by.

Warrant canary

A method VPN provider use to inform their users if they have been served a subpoena or legal summons by a law agency. If the canary if updated or present on the site, then that means the company is NOT under investigation. When the canary disappears or stops being updated, then it signals the company is part of a criminal investigation. This is to circumvent laws around informing users that they are under investigation, by clearly stating when they aren’t under investigation instead.

WEP

Wired Equivalent Privacy. The security protocol used for Wi-Fi connections. Giving the same level of security as a wired LAN internet connection.

WPA2

Wi-Fi Protected Access 2. The encryption and certification protocol for most Wi-Fi connections.

TLS

Transport Layer Security. The encryption protocol for any form of communication over a computer network. Preceded by the now deprecated SSL (Secure Socket’s Layer) This protocol is used to secure many everyday habits like email, text messages and internet browsing.

SmartDNS

An alternative to a VPN. With a few key differences. DNS stands for Domain Name System. They assign names and IP addresses to websites. When a website like Netflix receive a request from you, it uses your DNS to identify your location and attributes. A SmartDNS shows you as connecting from a different country but doesn’t change your IP unlike a VPN. Also, it does not encrypt your data or allow you to unblocked censorship content. Only useful for accessing geo-secured sites.

AES

Advanced Encryption Standard. Originally known as the Rijndael cipher. A global encryption standard to secure data. Used by the US government and military and now as industry standard for VPN’s. The cipher comes in 128,192 or 256 bits. Commonly you will see that your data is secured using a 256-bit AES encryption. This level has never publicly been broken or ‘brute force’ decrypted.

Proxy

A proxy server acts as a bridge between two parties. Your traffic passes through a proxy before connecting to your target website. The proxy server can alter your data by encrypting it, or modifying the data based upon your request and the function of the proxy.

Ping Time

Used as a measure of internet speed. This is the time it takes for your connection to get a response once it sends a request. This is determined by the speed of your cable connection and the speed of the website’s server.

Packet

A packet is a unit of data. Everything you do using a computer and any form of data involves data packets. This is how you send requests and receive information and requests online.

OpenSSH

Secure Shell Protocol. OpenSSH is used to secure a channel over an unsecured network. This is the open source alternative to SSH. Used generally to secure communication between a client and server.

Meta Data

Data about data. The metadata in a packet tells the computer what type of data it is receiving. The metadata of an email for example would tell you there is text, headers, formatting and a sender and receiver address.

Man in the middle attack

When data is sent and received between two points, it goes through a man in the middle. This could be a proxy server for example. A man in the middle attack happens, when an attacker intercept data between two points pretending to be a server. Think about someone listening in to your phone call. These attacks can be avoided using an encryption system that requires endpoint verification. So, someone cannot pretend to send and receive data without the appropriate encryption key.

Wardriving

An attacker will be in a moving vehicle. Using a phone or laptop they will search out and map Wi-Fi networks. This map of networks can then be used as a GPS system where a person is tracked based upon the relative strength of internet networks at their location.

Botnet

A bot net is a series of computers or internet connected devices which are linked in a network and used to run a bot. Used for hacking practices like a DDOS attack (distributed denial or service attack) Here a botnet is used to flood a website with thousand of requests per second overloading the websites servers and causing it to crash.

Brute Force

A brute force attack is commonly associated with breaking passwords and encryptions. A powerful computer is used to go through every single combination to find the right one. For example, a 4-digit pin number has 10,000 possible combinations. Banks stop someone being able to brute force a pin number by limiting you to 3 possible attempts before blocking the card. Modern 256-bit AES encryption has been found to be impervious to brute force attacks, purely due to the amount of combinations that need to be attempted. You would need to try 2 to the factor of 256 attempt minus 1 bit. Even the best supercomputers today would take trillions of years to brute force a 256-bit AES key.

NAT

Network Address Translation. A method used to mask a computer’s true IP address. This method of remapping an IP, changes the IP metadata in your data packets to show it coming from a different IP address

Log

Commonly seen in a VPN provider ‘no log policy’, a log is a record of your usage of a service. This could include your original registration details like name, address and credit card or payment. When using the service, a provider can log your original IP address, servers used, browsing history and time, data uploaded and downloaded as well as anything else you do while connected to their service.

IPv4

The fourth revision of the Internet Protocol. An IP is used to identify the device and location you are browsing from. Essentially an internet address book. New IPv4 addresses are no longer being assigned as they ran out. Originally the protocol only allowed for 4 billion addresses as it only used a 32-bit address protocol. New addresses use IPv6.

IPv6

The sixth revision of the Internet Protocol. IPv6 was introduced as we basically ran out of IP addresses. These addresses are also considerably more complex, easy to use and faster than IPv4 addresses to adjust for technological and network advancements.

IP lead

IP leads is a form of tracking used by companies for their marketing. As well as malicious parties who want to trace back people’s IP addresses. An IP address can be used to trace where you are from and aggregate it alongside other data used to show what your browsing habits are, as well as your preferences.

IP Address

An IP address is a unique address which is specific to your internet connection. It allows a fixed point for your data to travel to and from. Like a map. You go from one IP to another and your server needs to know where to send and receive data. IP’s can be static (the same constantly) or Dynamic (changing) as well as Public or Private.

Great Firewall

China’s internet censorship project and system of technology used to monitor traffic within it’s borders as well as censor content it deems to be unacceptable. Acts principally to ‘protect’ the China public from foreign companies and information and nurture domestic companies as well as propagate nationalistic propaganda which is pro-government.

GeoIP / Geo-spoofing

Your IP address will reveal the country that you are connecting to the site from. Based on your location a website’s server could block or alter content. Commonly used by media sites like Netflix as well as e-commerce and comparison sites who may change prices based upon your location. Geo-spoofing is used by VPN providers to change the location of the IP you use a to visit a site. Essentially showing you are browsing from a country which allows you to access the site.

5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, 14 Eyes

A series of countries who have an international agreement to share intelligence and information.

Started with the 1941 Atlantic Charter where the UK and USA agreed to intelligence share during World War 2, extended to the 5 eyes with New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

The 9 eyes consist of the above 5 countries and Norway, The Netherlands, France and Denmark.

The 14 eyes consist of the above 9 countries and Sweden, Spain, Italy, Belgium and Germany.

The different groups are also thought to reflect the level of information shared between the countries. With the 14 eyes perhaps sharing less than the 9 eyes and 5 eyes. As each country also has active operations to spy on each other.

Firmware

Permanently installed software in your electronic device. Recently concerns have been raised that a company may use firmware to also snoop on a person’s habits and even their location.

Malware (Added)

Software designed to intentionally damage your computer or server. Which can be also used to control, monitor or disrupt usage on that device.

Firewall

Firewalls control the flow of data through a network. Provides security by updating itself to monitor new types of malware and viruses.

Encryption Key

An encryption key is a unique code to unscramble your data. A VPN encrypts your data in a client, and then decrypts it in their DNS.  This means that only a device that has the corresponding key can see your data.

DNS Poisoning

Also known as DNS spoofing. A healthy DNS routs your traffic to the correct website. A hacker can spoof a DNS and redirect your traffic to a malicious website.

Best VPN for Torrents

One of the main reasons people use VPN’s is for Torrents. Torrent files contains information’s about files, that can be accessed through the file. Either containing the metadata file or the files downloaded. They act like an index to allow your computer to find the position of the file you are looking for, contained on a global distribution of computers.

Torrenting lets you access the latest films, tv shows, sports event and any other form of media you can think of. Some use an aggregating media software like Kodi, which provides an easy to use GUI (Graphical User Interface) and 100’s of application extensions for specific use cases, like say Basketball on ESPN. But besides Kodi there are thousands of torrenting sites.

Before we go through our Top 5 list of VPN providers, let’s break down what makes a VPN good for Torrents

Zero Logs Policy

Torrenting is not illegal but it is frowned upon. People can use torrenting to upload and download copyrighted material. In order to protect yourself, you want to choose a VPN provider that has a strict zero logs policy. This means that they are not going to keep or record important information that could identify you.

This information could include your original IP, name, address, credit card details, browsing history and data usage. All of which would be highly incriminating. The best providers will have no information to give even if law enforcement comes knocking.

Torrent Friendly

Not all VPN providers welcome Torrenting. In face some providers will clearly state that Torrents are not welcome. Or they may go one step less and simply not speak about Torrents on their site.

The best providers will be specifically designed around torrenting. Which means they may provide in depth guides on their site to Torrent and use popular sites like Kodi. Or they may even have super-fast servers which are specifically configured for P2P file sharing. Known as Peer to Peer, this is where users share files and Torrents.

Within this you want a VPN provider that uses 256-bit AES encryption, alongside good security protocols. As well as this they should pass all IP leak tests. Like IPv6, DNS and WebROTC. Remember your anonymity depends on someone not being able to see your original IP.

Download and Upload Speed

Media files tend to be big. High definition movies can be up to 5GB in size. So, you need a connection that is going to mean you can quickly download these file sizes. Or alternatively upload these files to be torrented.

VPN’s will always depend on your Internet Service Provider, as your connection is running through their cable. But they may circumvent data throttling, where your ISP limits your data usage. So, you may see little difference in speed.

Ideally you want a VPN that is going to deliver download speeds of 40-60 MBps, certainly no less than 15-20. As well as upload speeds of 7-10 MBps.

Traditionally the more servers a VPN provider has the faster the speed, as the more distributed their user’s traffic is. But some provider like IPVanish rely on less server that are configured specifically for high traffic.

Ease of Use and Applications

Having a nice looking and easy to use web or mobile application is great, but what we are really looking for is our ability to find the fastest server, optimum connection based on country, and even the best server specifically for P2P file sharing.

VPN’s that just connect you to a random server aren’t helpful for torrenting as you are playing server roulette for speed.

Kill Switch

The best VPN providers have an in-built kill switch for your internet. That means if your VPN application freezes or stops working your internet connection is terminate. The switch then automatically reconnects your internet when the VPN is working.

That means you don’t continue to browse, and torrent unprotected.

Unlimited Data

Torrents need data. Lots of data. You want a VPN provider that gives unlimited data usage without charging you by the gigabyte. Most big VPN providers will have this as standard.

So, with all that in mind, let’s jump into the 5 best VPN providers for Torrents.

• IPVanish

 

IPVanish have built an industry reputation as one of the best VPN’s for torrents. Choose from 40,000+ IP’s across 1,300+ servers and 75+ countries. Get an added layer of security with IP sharing, where multiple users use the same IP. This won’t affect your speed but means that any usage on that IP cannot be attributed to any one user.

With an impressive 9.7/10 from over 2,700+ reviews on Trust Pilot they are a firm favourite with their users.  They offer great customer service and a rock solid zero logs policy.

Their speeds are blistering quick, and you will little or no downtick from your regular speed internet. They also offer a SOCKS5 proxy, which means you can inbuild the VPN straight from your computer without having to go through their application. Further speeding up your connection.

You can connect a whopping 10 devices at the same time, and IPVanish passed all the leak tests with flying colours. Alongside IPVanish’s top notch military grade encryption and security protocols.

• ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is more expensive than most VPN provider, but you certainly get what you pay for. They have a clear zero logs policy and go one step further but not actually logging your general browsing activity and IP’s used and data usage in the first place.

In speed tests they ranked as one of the fastest VPN services, and in fact are a top choice for people wanting to use VPN’s in high censorship areas like China, precisely because of their speed.

They have a tremendous range of servers which is only rivalled by NordVPN and PIA. With over 3,000+ servers in 94+ countries, you can rely on the fact that there will always be a fast connection near to where you want to torrent. On top of this you can find and log into servers specifically configured for P2P, which means they are optimised for speed.

ExpressVPN’s application rival the best user interface of other companies like IPVanish. Their application was voted the best UI in the industry for their Linux app, and they are compatible with almost all devices, operating systems and mobile phones.

They also have a kill switch in built to all their applications, military grade 256-bit AES encryption. As well as being based in the British Virgin Islands, where law does not compel them to keep logs even if they did. Plus, ExpressVPN passed all the leak tests with flying colours.

The only draw from their great service is that unlike IPVanish, you can only connect to 3 devices simultaneously.

• NordVPN

NordVPN is not only one of the cheapest big VPN providers, with multi-year passes at less than $4 a month, but also arguably one of the fastest. With access to over 5,000+ servers in 60+ countries. You are going to get a damn quick connection anywhere in the world.

Though not all servers are configured for P2P, you can use their application to find the fastest server for your needs. As well as taking advantage of several security features which are unique to them.

These include their Double VPN service, which will reduce your speed, but will give you the added layer of security. Your traffic will be bounced through 2 different servers. Generally, 2 countries next door to each other. You can also open for Tor over VPN, but of course Tor isn’t recommended for torrenting or using Kodi because of its slow speed. In addition, you can choose an obfuscated service where your traffic will be masked as SSL traffic. Very handy in high censorship countries like China.

They have a great zero logs policy which is backed up by their jurisdiction. Being based in Panama they are under no legal obligation to provide their logs. Though just because a company is based in the US like IPVanish, is no reason why they would be compelled to give up their logs.

You get a kill switch, as well the highest-level encryption. NordVPN unsurprisingly passed all the leak test. Plus, you get to sift through all the servers and choose them manually or let their application choose automatically. You also get 6 simultaneous connections.

• Cyberghost

With over 2,7000 servers based in 60 countries and 1,000 of these servers optimised for torrenting or using Kodi around the world. Cyberghost is a torrenters dream. This Romanian based company has a solid zero logs policy, as actually keeps almost no proprietary user data apart from what is needed for customer experience.

 

One thing we absolutely love about Cyberghost is their mobile and web application. The User Interface is beautiful. One the opening screen you can choose what service you are going to use your VPN for. One of the choices is to torrent anonymously. Cyberghost are Torrent friendly and will then find you an optimal server based on your location.

You can also manually choose your own server based on country and arrange all the servers based on existing speed and server latency. Also, just like IPVanish you use shared IP’s which mean that your traffic is being routed with other people’s through a single IP. Further anonymising your torrents and make hard to track individuals.

With over 6,000+ review on Trustpilot they are a firm community favourite, and with prices for multiyear plan as allow as $3 a month with a 45-day money back guarantee. You get great value for your money.

Cyberghost;s servers registered exceptional speeds. Making them an ideal VPN for torrenting. Giving you both great upload and download speeds. With up to 7 simultaneous connections.

• PIA

 

Private Internet Access (PIA) offers 3,300+ servers in 32 countries. Which is the second most on our list. They have built a solid reputation of being one of the most stable VPN providers in the market.  PIA is a great provider with prices as low as $4 a month.

Firstly, their size is impressive and one of the largest footprints in the industry. They offer less countries than companies like IPVanish and NordVPN. But with over 3,000 servers you can be sure that you are going to get speed. They rank amongst the best of all VPN providers for speed tests across the board and the globe.

They also offer a host of interesting security features. From the basic ad blocking and malware protection. To the more sophisticated user who want to use 128-bit AES encryption which though slightly less secure, is faster than 256-bit. Or port forwarding and SOCKS5 proxy for extra speed, again at the compromise of some encryption safety. No one has ever broken a 128-bit AES encryption.

You should always adjust encryption at your own risk, and unless you know your stuff leave it to set itself automatically.

They have a lovely user interface, and their web extensions allows you to block ads, web referrers and cookies giving you a faster and cleaner browsing experience. All with an inbuilt kill switch.

PIA is also one of the few VPN providers that has made its source software open source. Meaning a resourceful community can quickly spot bugs and suggest fixes. One the whole communities allow providers to create better software.

PIA has a great no logs policy, and 20 years of operating history without incident which proves their status as one of the most stable VPN providers around.

Conclusion

All our top 5 tick all the boxes when it comes to speed, privacy, ease of use and encryption.

Alas there can be only one winner and that goes to IPVanish. Almost always featured in any sites top 5 list for fastest VPN’s. We just feel on balance of ease of use, price, security and features that IPVanish really does give the best torrenting or Kodi experience.

One of their drawbacks is their old school design and sometimes glitchy kill switch and chat support.

Best VPN Jurisdictions – Understanding 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes

As you become more familiar with VPN’s and what they mean, we start to get into the finer details. One of these is jurisdiction. This means where is the company who runs your VPN based and what laws are applicable to them.

Online, you will find many competing opinions. Some say that you should never use a VPN in a jurisdiction of one of the 14 eyes countries.  Reasoning your logs could be given over by law. While others claim it makes no difference.

Truthfully, it comes down to the company and the country. We look at cases where companies have withstood law enforcement agencies and held up their zero logs policies. While others have lied, and handed over logs they promised they didn’t even keep.

So, let’s go through and break this down step by step. Demystifying the jargon as we go and finding it whether there really is an ideal country for your VPN to be based.

Why Does Jurisdiction Matters?

Every country around the world have their own data privacy laws. Some countries care more about the privacy of their citizens than others. For example, the introduction of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in the European Union in 2018 was ground-breaking. This series of laws bolstered consumer’s control over their data in the EU’s 28 member states. Also forcing companies who wish to operate online in those countries a greater need for transparency.

Privacy International produced a privacy ranking for the best and worst countries for the safeguarding and protection of consumer data. As well as reduced intrusion by the state to monitor its citizens.

The Top 5 were in order: Greece, Canada, Romania, Hungary and Argentina.

The Worst 5: England, Singapore, Russia, Malaysia and China

If live in one of the worst 5 countries. There is no constitutional protection of your data, and you are under active surveillance by your government. Also, privacy enforcement is weak.

Jurisdiction matters because some countries compel VPN providers to keep comprehensive logs of their user’s data. While others do not.

What Does Zero Logs and Logging Policy Mean?

Every time you connect with your VPN provider this creates a log, or a record of your activity. Namely the IP you are using, the websites you browse, any download or uploads and the data that you use, as well as time on each site or activity.

On top of this for most providers you need to provide a name, email address and credit card unless you pay with Bitcoin.

So, your VPN provider as a guardian of your anonymity can choose to record and keep a lot of what you do. Essentially, they are almost like your browser history.

Countries like the USA and UK can compel VPN companies to turn over these logs if a law is broken.

But, companies like PIA and IPVanish which are based in the US have figured out a good way to get around the law. They don’t even keep logs.

Why zero logs matters

Companies cannot be compelled by law to produce something that they don’t even have. So, a lot of top VPN companies have what is called a “zero logs” policy. What this means is that all your browsing information isn’t even saved onto their hard drives. So, if asked all they can is shrug their shoulders and at best confirm you have an account with them. But with no records they can’t say what you did or provide any corroborating evidence to show that a crime is broken.

VPN companies live or die by their reputation to maintain the integrity of their zero logs policy, as you can see from this new report here. PIA even when compelled by the FBI to produce logs, could only give them an email address registered with them.

Be careful not to conclude that just because your VPN company is based in a 5,9 or 14 eyes country, that your data is not just as secure as if they are based in Romania, the British Virgin Islands or elsewhere.

What are the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes and 14 Eyes?

Sounds like some sort of night-time horror story.

The 5,9 and 14 eyes all relate to the short name for intelligence sharing agreements between countries.

5 Eyes

The 5 eyes date back to the 1940’s and the World War 2. The UK and the USA signed the UKUSA agreement signed an intelligence sharing agreement, which would allow them to share intelligence freely and beat the Nazis. This was later extended to include New Zealand, Australia and Canada to become the 5 eyes.

9 and 14 Eyes

To counter increasing threats from Russia, China and terrorism in the wake of 9/11. This intelligence sharing community was extended to the 9 and then the 14 eyes, to include: Norway, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

These 14 countries form a global alliance and essentially do also run a large-scale surveillance operation on its citizens and countries outside of the 14 eyes. Many have turned to VPN’s like IPVanish to protect their data and help them to feel safe.

But it’s worth mentioning these countries co-operate to fight back against terrorism and organised crime. They are not that interested in you torrenting the latest Marvel movie. Or the pot you are trying to buy on Tor.

Be careful not to be drawn into conspiracy theory, tin hat territory when it comes to companies that are based in the 14 eyes. We live in democracies; not totalitarian states and a countries legal system can only get what a VPN provider is able to give.

Is Jurisdiction or No Logs More Important?

No logs, times a million. Remember a company cannot be compelled to give something that it never had in the first place. It could be based in the least privacy friendly country in the world, but if the piece of paper with your name on it is blank then nothing is going to come back to haunt you.

Does the company have a clear and transparent no logs policy? One thing you want to make sure of is to read the terms and conditions, as well as the privacy policy.

What’s hiding in your VPN’s Privacy Policy?

Often companies will hide terms within their privacy policy, which allows them to retain some or all your information for a set period. Also, some VPN companies, have a strict No Torrent policy like Tunnel Bear, which means they are actively tracking your data usage and potentially your browsing habits as well.

Also, there may be clauses where you could be blacklisted or even reported for uploading unsuitable content. Though no one would argue that child pornography should be reported, how about certain copyrighted content?

Be on your guard for companies that try to twist and turn their way through the no logs policy, with a series of ifs and buts.

The best VPN companies will have a clear and simple no logs policy. They just don’t keep any apart from what is needed to improve the performance of its servers and its user experience. For extra bonus points they may even display how many times they have been asked to produce evidence by a law enforcement agency, and even have their system audited by a 3rd party auditor.

The more transparent a VPN company is, the more assurance you should of your privacy and that of your data.

If My VPN is in The USA or Another 14 Eyes Country Should I Be Worried?

No, some of the best and most relied upon VPN providers like IPVanish and PIA are based in the US. They have had multiple DMCA Notices (Digital Marketing Copyright Act) served when users are using VPN’s to upload and download copyrighted content. As well as warrants and subpoenas for their user’s data. All of which have been refused.

The 14 eyes countries are morally and legally obliged to have safeguards and laws in place for the privacy and safety.

If we compare the US to say China. The Chinese government has long been a proponent for state sponsored censorship on a massive scale. The “Great Firewall of China” exists ostensibly to protect Chinese citizens, but, in the 21st Century it protects the interests of Chinese government and business and keeps out external foreign influences. With over 2 million people estimated to monitor Chinese internet traffic.

14 Eyes countries have strict Data and Privacy laws

The 14 eyes have rules that it needs to abide by as well as it’s citizens. A VPN company that operates within these countries ostensibly is protected by these laws and can’t just have their servers blatantly hacked. However, with other countries with a lower value placed on personal expression and freedom there is a question over whether your data is ever truly safe.

Ultimately, we know that major established VPN companies would not last long if they were seriously compromising users and their data. The internet would soon speak quickly and highlight cases and users who were compromised. Customers would vote with their feet and leave those providers in their drove.

You are better off looking at news and practices relating to the company itself rather than the country that it is based in.

How Have Companies in The 14 Eyes Dealt With Being Compelled to Provide Logs?

There have been several cases where countries have tried to compel VPN providers without success.

1. ExpressVPN: In 2017, The Turkish authorities tried to compel ExpressVPN to turn over data which they believe related to a political assassination. The company refused. Their servers in Turkey were then physically seized. But the police were unable to yield any worthwhile information. ExpressVPN genuinely did not keep any logs on their servers. They also asserted that as they are based in the British Virgin Islands, there is no obligation to keep them.
2. Private Internet Access: PIA operates in the US. In two court cases in 2016 and 2018 was officially subpoenaed by the FBI to provide their logs. They produced what they had. Namely the cluster of IP addresses that may have been used. Again, they had no information to give because they did not log it.
3. VyprVPN: Vypr took a step which several big VPN providers are following. Namely having their security and no logs policy tested by reputable cyber security agency. Testing to see if there are any leaks or compromises in their policy. This provides maximum reassurance to people who are doubtful about the provider zero logs policy. In this report  from Leviathan, they had their No Logs Policy fully tested. They revealed several minor issues with VyprVPN’s policy which have since been resolved. 
4. Perfect Privacy: In 2016, Dutch authorities seized two of Perfect Privacy’s servers as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. The servers were returned without incident, as the Swiss based company did not write logs on hard drives. Basically, there was nothing to see on the servers, they are run with encrypted RAM disks which makes it impossible to store logs on a hard drive.

Are Their Companies Which Have Handed Over Logs While Claiming To Be No Logs Providers?

Yes. Depending on the severity of the claim. There are people who use VPN’s to carry out heinous criminal acts, like serious hacking, cyber stalking, child pornography and even human trafficking. The following providers have had widely publicised cases where they did hand over logs.

1. PureVPN: In 2017 PureVPN were mentioned in an affidavit in the US. They were explicitly mentioned as providing logs and details of one of its users which led to the conviction of a US resident for stalking and harassing people using ExpressVPN. The controversy came from PureVPN’s no logs policy which claimed that you were invisible and that they kept no records whatsoever
2. Earth VPN: In 2014, it was reported that EarthVPN had assisted the Dutch Police by providing logs to a user who sent a bomb threat to a local school. Again, their zero logs policy proved to not be wholly accurate
3. HideMyAss: In 2011, the LulzSec hacker group, caused an international stir when they hacked several high-profile sites includes Sony and PBS. One of their London members was caught using the help of HMA. They provided logs and details of the users originating address so he could be tracked down

The controversy arose from the fact that the providers had given information to the users which proved not to be true.

This article does not condone any crime committed under the veil of a VPN provider. We are here point out that many companies will be quick to tell you that they won’t give out any logs of your activity. However, if the situation is serious enough they will push you under the bus.

Find a reputable no logs provider whose policies have been tested by authorities and have come through with flying colours.

So Where Is The Best Country For VPN’s?

We hope that this in-depth article really goes to show that there is no best country for VPN’s.

There are good and bad providers all around the world. Just because your company is based within the 14 eyes does not mean they are compelled to give authorities anything.

A law agency has significant leverage on their side to freeze your entire business and operations.  This all depends on the seriousness of the crime.

But we keep returning to the same point.

A company that does not keep logs cannot give logs. They are not irresponsible; they are simply doing exactly what they said they would do.

Conclusion

Find a VPN provider that had a history, that is paid and that has a solid zero logs policy. Companies like IPVanish and PIA have a reputation that they have kept and upheld even under the most difficult circumstances.
Remember that countries based outside the 14 eyes may have much more lax ideas when it comes to the data that they can compel or even snoop from VPN providers based within their country.

Pay for a quality provider that has a clear and transparent no logs policy, privacy policy and terms and conditions. Using a VPN provider is one of the few times when we strongly suggest that you read all their documentation.

After all dishonest companies love to sneak clauses in their terms and condition when they think you aren’t looking.

 

The 8 Cheapest VPN Provider For Less Than $7 a Month

People are taking back control of their privacy online and their data, using VPN’s (Virtual Private Networks) , these providers allow you to browse online anonymously, protect your identity and keep your historical data safe, rather than to be used maliciously or simple to feed the internet advertising machine.

Looking for a cheap VPN provider is harder than it looks. There are literally thousands of sites that will promise you the best service for the cheapest price or even free.

An awesome VPN provider doesn’t have to be expensive, but you certainly won’t find one for free. Having said that the increased popularity of VPN’s means prices are coming down all the time which is great for us.

We’ve picked out the top 8 providers, which have contracts equating to safe and anonymous browsing for less than 7 dollars a month.

Before we picked these providers, they have all been thoroughly tested for privacy concerns, connectivity, speed, ease of use and backed by a great recognised company. There is no point getting a cheap service if they leak your DNS, or end up dropping your connection every 5 minutes, or worst of all if the speed means you can’t stream your favourite show on Kodi or make use of your access to Netflix.

So, though you are paying less, you are still going to get a quality service packed with value.

IPVanish

1 year plan – $6.49 per month

IPVanish is a heavy weight. With over 40,000 IPs, 1,300+ servers and serving over 75 locations. Connectivity is never going to be an issue. Plus, they are the highest rated VPN provider on our list with an impressive Trustpilot rating of 9.7/10 from over 2,700 reviews. The company is also unique being the only VPN provider that fully manages and owns its servers rather than using third parties.

Their yearly plan is cheaper than most other providers, who do come cheaper but want to tie you in for at least 2 years, and comes with a 7 day money back guarantee.

Their security is top notch, boasting the industry standard AES 256 encryption with OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols. You also have a greater level of control with OpenVPN, allowing you to choose ports and also obfuscate traffic, which is useful for countries like China where you need an added layer of privacy to prevent being blocked.

You can support 10 simultaneous applications, and it is refreshingly different to other VPN providers in that its customer service extends to a phone number. Though they are a bit short on how-to guides you can reach service agents 24/7 by phone or through online messenger.

 

NordVPN

2-year plan – $3.99 per month

3 years plan – $2.99 per month

NordVPN is one of the biggest names in the VPN industry. With 5200+ servers in 67 countries it also has the largest numbers of servers and countries served of any provider. More server means better speed for your connection.

Also, you can take advantage of their unique double VPN service, which means your connection is routed through not one, but two different IP’s making your connection and privacy airtight.

NordVPN has a no logs policy, meaning you are safe from scrutiny, and being based in Panama they are under no legal obligation to provide information if asked.

You can connect to 6 devices at a time, and their yearly packages come with a 30-day money back guarantee’s use military grade encryption with IKEv2 or OpenVPN protocols to choose from.

The provider checks out for accessing Netflix, YouTube, Kodi and any GeoIP locked services you can think of. Browser speeds register as some of the best in industry, and you get to take advantage of more servers on offer meaning lower latency and better streaming or torrent upload and download speeds.

Their web-based client works on all major OS’es and they also have a slick and well-designed mobile application to secure you when you access public Wi-Fi with your phone.

Pros

• Award winning company and encryption
• Double VPN for added piece of mind
• 5000+ servers
• Solid performance across the board
• Panama based for a solid no logs policy
• 6 simultaneous connections
• Good customer support through live chat

Surf shark

2-year plan – $1.99 per month

Surf shark is a top rated and award-winning newcomer to the VPN industry. With a 9.3/10 rating on Trustpilot they are giving out a service that keeps their rapidly growing user base happy. They offer 800+ servers across 50+ countries. So not quite the range of depth of NordVPN but we are sure they will keep adding locations and servers as they grow.

Their 2-year plan is seriously competitive on price, with their 1-year plan coming in just over our threshold at $5.99 per month. They also offer a limited 7-day trial on their mobile application.

Surf shark offer a similar service to NordVPN’s double VPN service with their MultiHop feature which allows you to connect via 2 servers to increase security.

What we love about Surf shark is just how darned easy it is to use. Their mobile application is an absolute dream and allows you to whitelist certain websites, as well as using their proprietary Clean Web function.

Clean Web is awesome. Allowing you to surf the web with no trackers, malware or phishing attempts. But most importantly it optimises your speed because it blocks a lot of outside ads on websites.

You can connect to unlimited devices. They have a strict no logs policy and being based in the British Virgin Islands this is enforceable as they are under no obligation to keep logs and don’t.

Surf shark is great for streaming, through their web server you can automatically connect to the fastest server, a virtual location or even the best server for P2P. The provider connects to all major streaming sites including Netflix, Amazon and Hulu and works well with Kodi. As well as having similar security to NordVPN, in other words top notch military grade encryption

Pros

• VPN from $2 a month
• Multihop feature for double connect ion
• Clean Web to block ads and trackers
• Various modes of connection including fastest, closest, virtual and P2P
• Easy to use applications

Cyberghost

2-year plan – $3.69 per month

3-year plan – $2.75 per month

Cyberghost is another established player in the VPN market and boasts an impressive team of 70 based in Romania. With 3500+ servers in 50+ countries, as well as 30 million users they provide a truly impressive and wide-reaching service to people around the world.

Their prices are directly comparable with NordVPN their main competitor, but they offer an extended 45-day money back guarantee and with over 6700+ ratings on Trustpilot and 82% of their customers giving them a 5-star rating, you are in safe hands.

Cyberghost prides itself on having some of the fastest networks in the industry, and their zero logs policy is enforceable through Romania having no laws compelling companies to provide logs for their customers.

They offer the highest encryption available using 256 Bit AES military grade with IKEv2 or OpenVPN security protocols.

Like Surf Shark they also provide software which can block ads, malicious content and malware while browsing which makes for faster caching and quicker browsing speeds.

You can connect to 7 devices and they provide a truly impressive number of guides and helpful articles for you to understand how to connect to Netflix USA, YouTube and get the best out of Kodi. They also have reliable and fast online chat support for any problems you might have. As well as giving you unlimited bandwidth and traffic.

Pros

• Fast Speeds
• 45-day money back guarantee
• Highly rated
• Ad and Tracker Blocker
• Lots of servers
• Helpful support and guides

Ivacy VPN

1-year plan – $3.33 per month

2-year plan – $2.25 per month

5-year plan – £1.33 per month

Ivacy VPN are not the most well-known name but having been going since 2010 and are based out of Singapore. They offer 450+ servers at over 100 locations, so not as many as some of the bigger players in the VPN industry.

However, their pricing is some of the cheapest you will see, though you may not want to commit to a 5-year plan, which is the longest offered by any VPN provider we have seen and unique to Ivacy.

Ivacy VPN have a transparent no logs policy. They don’t log anything at all, to the point where they cannot tell what you are doing or looking at. The only information they keep is server, crash and maintenance reports.

In terms of accessing Netflix and Amazon, Ivacy is unique as it goes one step further than other applications. It has direct links to major media streaming sites in built into its web application. Meaning you can access with a single click.

Their speeds have received prizes in 2019, but from tests online and our own research they register at about average, but more than enough for streaming or torrents, as lets face it anything over 10-15 MBps will work just fine unless you plan on uploading enormous files on a regular basis.

Their security and encryption are top of the line military grade, and they give you the option of multiple security protocols from IKEv2 to TCP, UDP and L2TP. Importantly like other major provider, Ivacy also encrypts their DNS servers to prevent any leaks. They support 5 devices simultaneously which is the industry standard.

Pros

• Cheapest price on the market for the 5-year plan
• Good speeds
• Solid performance
• Great applications giving direct access to media streaming sites
• Solid no logs policy

Private Internet Access

2-year plan – $3.49 per month

PIA is often overlooked as a secure and reliable VPN provider purely for the fact that is based in the US, and therefore subject to US law. However, it is worth reminding you, that they have never complied or released logs even under sub-poena.

With 3300+ servers in 30+ countries, they offer a range that is comparable to some of the biggest VPN providers on the market, and their 2-year plan is attractively priced, but you only get a 7 day money back guarantee.

There are some questions around connectivity and its ability to circumvent GeoIP to connect to Netflix. It failed to connect to Netflix USA in 1 of 4 servers. Also due to it being based in the US it is careful not to explicitly mention that it can be used for Torrenting, Kodi or P2P file sharing.

What makes PIA VPN a firm favourite for many hardcore VPN users are its server speeds. It is comparable to the fastest in the industry ExpressVPN who doesn’t make the list due to being more expensive than their competition. Their servers register some of the fastest speeds in the industry which makes them ideal for torrenting and streaming.

Private Internet Access has top of the line 256 bit AES encryption, and is rare in that it offers SOCKS5 proxy as well as HTTP, alongside OpenVPN, IPSEC, L2TP and PPTP security protocols. Plus you can support up to 10 devices simultaneously

Though a final drawback is their poor customer service. There is no chat bot, and you are resigned to emailing a support ticket and waiting for a response which may take some time.

Pros

• Very fast speeds
• Large number of servers
• Competitive pricing
• SOCKS5 Proxy
• 10 devices

Private VPN

13-month plan (1 year + 1 month free) – $3.82 per month

A relatively new company started in 2012 and based out of Sweden, Private VPN boasts 450+ servers in 60+ countries which is the lowest of all our choices. Less servers can mean less choice and slower speeds, though it depends on the servers being used. In all speed tests Private VPN performed admirably registering average to good speeds in the US, Europe and Asia.

They have a clear no logs policy. As a Swedish company there are no laws which mean they need to keep logs of their users’ activity, so they clearly state that they don’t log anything at all outside of maintenance, crashes and servers.

PrivateVPN performed well accessing Netflix, Amazon and YouTube as well as a host of other popular media sites, and has a page dedicated to using it with Kodi. There were no connection issues and PrivateVPN explicitly states that it has secured 15,000 TB of data with 99.8% uptime for its servers.

We love Private VPN’s clean and easy to use interface, as well as its mobile and web applications. Their security is top notch and registered no leaks whatsoever. Your data is encrypted with top of the line military 256 AES 256-bit encryption, as well as their DNS servers.

For us Private VPN is a solid provider, which seems to fly under the radar or most reviews. The service is strong and stable with little downside, apart from the limitation in servers. They offer great guides and good customer support through live chat. They also offer 6 simultaneous connection and are the one of the few providers we have come across that offers SOCKS5 as well as HTTP proxy.

Pros

• Solid performance
• Good speed
• No logs policy
• Easy to use and intuitive applications
• 6 simultaneous connections
• SOCKS5 proxy

Safer VPN

2-year plan – $3.29 per month

3-year plan – $2.50 per month

SaferVPN is the youngest company in our list. Started in 2013 and based out of Israel. With 700+ servers in 30+ countries, they have quickly become a contender in this highly competitive market. Don’t let their age fool you, they come highly recommended with over 2,000 review on Trustpilot and an average rating of 9.4/10, that is one of the best track records in the industry.

SaferVPN ha a clear no logs policy, though on close inspection of their terms of use we see a few clauses which would cause us to pause. For example, specific terms around ‘unlawful activity’ as well as uploading types of materials, means the company may give your details over to the authorities. Though we understand this may include child pornography for example, their policy has enough loopholes to make us wonder just how secure their no logs policy is.

The company has relatively few servers compared to some of its larger competitors but made short work of getting connected to Netflix USA and BBC iPlayer, two of the most notoriously difficult sites to circumnavigate using VPNs.

As far as speed goes SaferVPN is not the fastest, their speeds registered about average in the 40-60MBps range across servers in the US and Europe with a noticeable drop in Asia, so potentially not the best VPN if you are in China.

Their security is top notch, and one thing we like about there is their cofounder holds several internet security related patents. They use military grade 256-bit encryption and offer a wide range of security protocols from OpenVPN to IKEv2, L2TP, IPsec and PPTP.

Pros

• Great Customer Service
• Good price
• Strong performance
• Highly rated

Our Top Pick

We have covered some great VPN providers, and on merit any could win, but there can be only one!

For our money Surf Shark absolutely storms it, when it comes to getting a cheap as chips provider at as little as $1.99 a month for an absolute fantastic service.

Their highly intuitive application as well as their Clean Web technology, Multihop function and even server selection from automatically linking to your fastest server, to accessing a server which is fastest for P2P is head and shoulders above the competition.

Using Surf Shark, we can understand why they are the fastest growing VPN provider of 2019 and we don’t see that stopping any time soon.

Plus, their solid zero logs policy, jurisdiction, security and speed make this an all-round great performer for the discerning user who needs speed, privacy and ease of use.

5 Fastest VPN’s for Torrents, Kodi, and Streaming

VPN’s are great for privacy and data encryption. But let’s face it, most of us just want to stream the best content. Using Kodi we can gain access to the latest movies, tv shows, sports events and hundreds of custom apps.

Streaming on Kodi uses bandwidth so we need speed. There is no point in being secure if we are downloading at 5MBps. We also need a VPN provider that is going to give us privacy, with a great zero logs policy. As well as providing additional security like obfuscating VPN traffic, for countries that have strict no VPN policies like China. Or allowing us to pick and connect to servers optimized for torrenting, in P2P servers.

Let’s look in-depth at the 5 best providers to get the fastest torrents for Kodi and other media platforms.

Do Security Protocols Make a Difference to Streaming Speed?

Yes! Those of you familiar with VPN’s will know that your data is secured using a security protocol. The most common is OpenVPN. But in layman’s terms the more secure the protocol the slower your streaming speed is going to be.

Security is important but using a recognized software like Kodi gives you assurance that maybe you can cycle down from IKEv2 and use a less secure protocol.

For top streaming speeds, we recommend PPTP. Though it is the least secure of all the security protocols, it will give you the fastest speed for Kodi or anything else you are torrenting.

• IPVanish

IPVanish is a number 1 choice before we even get to their speed. They have a solid zero logs policy, meaning they don’t register your activity. Coupled with the 850+ servers. Also, you use a Shared IP which means that you use the same IP address as thousands of other users. Making it almost impossible to trace any IP back to one individual person.  Coupled with the 40,000+ IP addresses that you can choose from, your anonymity is secure.

Everything is secured using 256-bit AES encryption, and you can choose between OpenVPN, L2TP and PPTP protocols. You also get an additional layer of security which you won’t find in other providers. A NAT firewall that protects you from hackers and botnets. Particularly useful if you are unsure about the torrenting site that you are visiting.

If you want to Torrent using Kodi, then you need speed. What we love about IPVanish is that you can filter each countries server by “Load” and “Response Time”. Essentially you can manually find the fastest server. You want servers that are not being used heavily or have a high load. The lower the response time and load the faster your torrent is going to be.

IPVanish has a built-in Kill Switch which means if your internet connection drops, your VPN will disconnect and reconnect when your internet comes back up. This means your IP will never be leaked. You can even obfuscate your OpenVPN traffic. Obfuscating allows you to make your OpenVPN traffic look like standard encrypted traffic used by HTTPS websites. This is crucial in high censorship countries like China and Iran where they actively seek out VPN traffic and block it.

The biggest reason people who torrent and use Kodi love IPVanish is their speed. Generally, when you use a VPN provider there will some loss of speed. Roughly 15-20% of your base speed. But with IPVanish this dropped to 5%. We saw the speed of up to 60MBps for download, and upload speeds of 7-10MBps. Upload speeds are crucial if you intend to upload files online to torrent. You can connect to 5 simultaneous devices.

• NordVPN

NordVPN is one of the largest and widely known VPN providers in the world. Based in Panama they have a strict zero-logs policy. Also, they go further by stating that they don’t even record your activity, so they would have nothing to show a law agency even if they asked. Alongside standard military-grade encryption, and access to all the popular security protocols. You can also take advantage of NordVPN’s unique Double VPN, or Onion over VPN feature. This gives you an added layer of security by routing your traffic through 2 VPN servers, or through Tor and then a VPN.

They have one of the widest selection of servers in the industry, 5,000+. As a rule, the more servers a provider has, the faster their speeds are going to be. As more servers mean less load per server when distributed over the number of users they have. Their interface even lets you connect to the fastest P2P or file-sharing server when you connect. Meaning they will automatically find the best server for you depending on your need.

Like IPVanish, NordVPN has an inbuilt Kill Switch. This is crucial as streaming and torrenting using Kodi or other sites will be a long process. If you leave your computer to download and your internet blips, then you want a provider that will kill your connection and restart it while not compromising your location through your IP. This also works if your VPN program freezes or stops working.

One drawback of NordVPN is that not all servers allow Bit Torrent traffic, unlike IPVanish. To make up for this they provide servers specifically for P2P.

In terms of speed, NordVPN impressed with speeds comparable to IPVanish. Downloading at 60MBps and uploading at 7-10MBps. You can also connect to 6 simultaneous devices, more than the industry average of 5.

• Cyberghost

Cyberghost is based in Romania, which has no laws for their VPN provider to provide any logs of their user’s data. This is crucial for your protection when torrenting. Like IPVanish they won’t even have any logs to show if a law enforcement agency comes knocking. Cyberghost also has several neat additional security features. Again, like IPVanish you have a shared IP System, where multiple users share the same IP. Meaning if your IP is compromised, usage cannot be tracked to one individual.

Also, a unique Cyberghost security feature we love is Perfect Forward Secrecy. Your encryption key will rotate and change automatically every 60 minutes. This means even if a hacker is attempting the almost impossible and trying to break your 256-bit AES encryption, they will only have an hour before it changes. A feat which is impossible even with access to a Cray supercomputer.

Cyberghost gives you access to 2,700+ servers, with 1,000 of those servers optimized specifically for torrenting. They have an intuitive user interface. Their GUI allows you to choose between surfing anonymous, torrenting anonymously and a host of other uses. Meaning you will be connected to the best server and country depending on your need. You can also manually choose your server, arranging them by the fastest speed.

Another unique function we like is their random port selection which makes it harder for your ISP to throttle your connection or block your VPN. As well as auto-starting your VPN when a new Wi-Fi network is detected. Cyberghost also has that crucial Kill Switch built-in.

Previously there were concerns at Cyberghost’s speeds but the latest upgrades make them comparable to IPVanish. With download speeds of 58-62 MBps and Upload speeds of 7-10 MBps. You can also connect a massive 7 devices simultaneously.

• ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which has no legal requirement for keeping logs. They have a strict zero-logs policy, but hardened privacy experts point out that ExpressVPN does keep metadata logs which means you can expect some logs being kept as opposed to IPVanish.

They offer 256-bit AES encryption and all the top security protocols like OpenVPN, IKEv2, and PPTP. As well as an inbuilt kill switch which will shut down your internet connection if your VPN application stops working. Like IPVanish they also offer shared IP’s meaning a single IP is used by multiple users.

One thing people love about ExpressVPN is their response to community feedback. They are one of the most proactive providers for updates and implementing new features which are upvoted by their users. Their user interface is also incredibly simple and easy to use, making it ideal for beginners or those with little technical knowledge. You can automatically connect to the best connection.

An inbuilt feature unique to ExpressVPN is its speed checking service. You can manually choose from 2,000+ servers based across 94 countries. Incidentally, this is one of the biggest number of countries for any VPN providers. When you manually choose your server, you can test their upload and download speed before connecting from your current location.

Their torrent speeds were great and again comparable to IPVanish. With download speeds of 58-62 MBps and upload speeds of up to 10MBps. One area they lag their competitors is the number of devices you can connect simultaneously. You only get to connect 3 devices, which lags the industry average of 5.

• StrongVPN

StrongVPN is the only one of our top 5 picks that are based in a 14 eyes country. These are 14 countries that have both strict data privacy laws but also have agreed to share intelligence with each other. Based in the US they have kept and maintained a zero logs policy which based on the slew of positive reviews has not been broken. Operating since 2005 StrongVPN has never had any serious concerns that it’s zero logs policy is not secure.

They have several cool security features. The Kill Switch is inbuilt. But for those more technologically savvy you can also specify whether you want a UDP or TCP OpenVPN connection. But we love their Scramble function. This is particularly useful for countries that actively block VPN connections. You can obfuscate your connection or choose 3 other ways to mix up your data packets and hide your connection. Download your own TAP driver, and manually set up your connection settings.

You can choose to connect to a whopping 59,000 + IP addresses, based on 650+ servers. Though the country selection of 20+ is less than many providers. It’s worth checking your local country for StrongVPN as you may find you have to go connect to a server further than you want, increasing ping time a latency. You are automatically connected to the optimum server. But unlike IPVanish you end up playing server roulette and cannot order servers by speed or latency which is a disappointing lack of functionality.

In general, what holds StrongVPN back compared to other providers is their lack of features. They offer 256 AES bit encryption and all the popular protocols, but they are just a step behind with features like being unable to find an optimum P2P server.

In terms of speed, they rank alongside IPVanish and ExpressVPN with speeds of 60MBps to download and up to 10MBps to upload.  But they offer an enormous 12 simultaneous connections at any one time, which marks them as a market leader for connections.

Conclusion

There can only be one winner, and we think it’s clear that IPVanish shows why they are a market leader. With a massive 40,000+ IP addresses, as well as the ability to obfuscate your traffic. It makes it a clear choice even in countries with an active anti-VPN policy. What impressed us the most about IPVanish is that we saw almost no drop in our connection speed using a VPN, which is unheard of. Speed is the number of priority when torrenting using Kodi or other media devices. Without speed, we can’t download or upload the files that we want.

We hope that whatever VPN provider you pick, you have a clear benchmark for the standard that you need to match our top pick IPVanish:

• Download speeds of 60Mbps
• Upload speeds of 7MBps+
• A clear and well defined zero logs policy
• Shared IP’s or other security functions to give you an added layer of security
• Access to a wide range of IP addresses, servers and countries
• The ability to choose the fastest server specifically for P2P, torrenting and Kodi