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Five providers, in order, with the reasoning attached. And before that, the two things most rankings leave out.
We do not run our own tests. Every figure below comes from published audits, court records, independent speed measurements and provider documentation, all named. Where sources disagree, we say so instead of picking one.
Two of these five share an owner with another. That matters if you were planning to hedge by subscribing to two, and it is stated in each entry rather than buried.
| Provider | Rating | Why it ranks here | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | ⭐ 4.8 | Six published audits and the top speed figures in independent testing. 30-day refund. | Get Deal → |
| Proton VPN | ⭐ 4.6 | Five audits published in full, Swiss jurisdiction, and a free tier with no data cap. | Get Deal → |
| Surfshark | ⭐ 4.6 | Unlimited simultaneous connections, two audits, and cheap on the long plans. | Get Deal → |
| ExpressVPN | ⭐ 4.5 | Three audits, British Virgin Islands base, and the steadiest record on streaming platforms. | Get Deal → |
| Private Internet Access | ⭐ 4.5 | Three Deloitte audits, unlimited devices, and the lowest intro price of the five. | Get Deal → |
What the Five Criteria Are
Each score is an average of five, weighted equally. That is a deliberate choice with a known weakness, and we explain it below rather than after you have made a decision.
Speed — independent measurements of throughput loss, not our own.
Security and privacy — how many audits, how recent, by whom, and what happened when anyone was actually asked.
Streaming — which platforms work, and how consistently.
Price and value — the renewal figure as much as the first term, because that is where the money is.
Ease of use — apps, platform coverage, and whether a beginner can get it working.
⚠️ The weakness is that equal weighting suits a general buyer and nobody else. A provider with no streaming and a spartan interface can be the safest service we cover and still finish mid-table — which is why we publish a separate ranking on privacy evidence alone, and the two lists do not match.
1. NordVPN — 4.8
The strongest all-round record, and the only provider that leads on more than one criterion.
Six scheduled audits, more than any provider at its scale, plus RAM-only servers across the network — the full record is in our review.
The lowest measured speed loss of the providers we cover, in independent testing.
Panama, with no mandatory retention reaching it, which is the cleanest jurisdiction among the large providers.
⚠️ It shares a parent with Surfshark, third on this list. Nord Security owns both and closed a third brand in 2024, which is worth knowing before you treat them as alternatives.
What it costs you: never tested in court, and the renewal price climbs sharply after the first term.
2. Proton VPN — 4.6
The best answer for anyone who wants privacy without giving anything up.
Five audits published in full, open-source clients on every platform, and control held by a non-profit foundation since June 2024 — a structure nobody else here has. Our review covers the Swiss question in full.
A free tier with no data cap, funded by paying customers rather than by its free users.
⚠️ Its jurisdiction is the open question. Switzerland has proposed extending retention duties to VPN providers and Proton has moved infrastructure in response — a mark in its favour on behaviour and against it on certainty.
What it costs you: slower than NordVPN on distant servers, and the free tier chooses your server for you.
3. Surfshark — 4.6
Unlimited devices, at a price that undercuts everything above it. It ties with Proton VPN on our scale; we place it second of the two because five audits and a non-profit owner outweigh unlimited connections.
Two audits, which is the thinnest record in this five, and the Netherlands — inside the Nine Eyes arrangement. Our review has the detail.
Fast, cheap, and the widest platform coverage for split tunnelling among the providers we rank.
⚠️ The shared parent applies here too. Comparing Surfshark against NordVPN is comparing two products from one company — which we did directly, and said so.
What it costs you: the audit record, and a renewal that roughly doubles.
4. ExpressVPN — 4.5
The most consistent unblocking, and the widest country coverage.
Three audits by KPMG, and the British Virgin Islands — outside every intelligence arrangement.
A server seized in Istanbul in 2017 contained nothing usable, which is the closest thing it has to a real-world test — our review sets out what that did and did not prove.
⚠️ It belongs to Kape Technologies, alongside Private Internet Access below it and CyberGhost outside this list. Three of the brands we review answer to one company.
What it costs you: the highest price in the five, and it discounts rarely.
5. Private Internet Access — 4.5
The only provider here tested by a court, three times.
Federal demands in 2015, 2016 and 2018 produced nothing, because nothing had been recorded. No audit reproduces that, and no other provider we cover has it.
RAM-only servers, three Deloitte audits, unlimited devices and port forwarding, which puts it in our torrenting guide.
⚠️ United States, inside Five Eyes, and Kape-owned — the same parent as ExpressVPN above it. Both facts are real, and neither has been shown to matter in the situations that tested it.
What it costs you: the jurisdiction on paper, and an interface aimed at people who enjoy settings.
Who Is Not in the Five, and Why
Absence is information, so here it is.
Mullvad tops our privacy ranking and finishes outside this one. Audited annually for over a decade, police left its office empty-handed in 2023, and it earns us nothing because it bans affiliate marketing. It also has no streaming, five devices and a flat price with no discount — which is exactly how equal weighting treats a specialist.
CyberGhost has the longest refund window we track, 45 days, and a renewal that does not climb. It sits sixth, and for a cautious first-time buyer it is arguably the better purchase.
IVPN has eight consecutive annual audits and two devices on the entry plan. The record is exceptional; the product is narrow.
⚠️ Anything unaudited is not eligible. A decade of operation with no report is not a record — it is the absence of one.
| Provider | No-logs audits | Auditor | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | 6 | PwC, Deloitte | Panama |
| Surfshark | 2 | Deloitte | Netherlands (9 Eyes) |
| ExpressVPN | 3 | KPMG | British Virgin Islands, Kape-owned |
| CyberGhost | 3 | Deloitte | Romania, Kape-owned |
| PureVPN | 4 | KPMG | BVI, operated from Pakistan |
| IPVanish | 2 | Leviathan, Schellman | United States (Five Eyes), Ziff Davis-owned |
| Windscribe | 1 | Packetlabs, production infrastructure | Canada (Five Eyes); Greek case dismissed, no data to give |
| Proton VPN | 5 | Securitum | Switzerland, moving infrastructure to EU |
| Private Internet Access | 3 | Deloitte | United States (Five Eyes), Kape-owned |
| Mullvad | 10+ | Cure53, Assured AB | Sweden (14 Eyes) |
| TunnelBear | Annual since 2017 | Cure53 | Canada (Five Eyes), US parent |
| Norton VPN | 2 | VerSprite | United States (Five Eyes) |
| Hotspot Shield | 0 | protocol audited, policy not | United States (Five Eyes) |
| AirVPN | 0 | none — the client is open source instead | Italy (14 Eyes) |
| IVPN | 8, annual since inception | Cure53 | Gibraltar (status disputed) |
| Hide.me | 1 modern, in 2024 | Securitum, though one source names Altius IT | Malaysia (outside the alliances) |
| PrivadoVPN | 0 | none in six years of operation | Iceland (moved from Switzerland, 2026) |
| TorGuard | 0 | none; settled a lawsuit without disclosing records | United States (Five Eyes) |
| FastestVPN | 1, in 2023 | Altius IT | Cayman Islands (outside the alliances) |
| StrongVPN | 0 | none in over two decades | United States (Five Eyes), Ziff Davis-owned |
| VyprVPN | 1, in 2018 | Leviathan Security, before the 2023 sale | United States (Five Eyes), Certida-owned since 2023 |
| PrivateVPN | 0 | none; support says there is nothing to audit | Sweden (14 Eyes), ownership disputed |
| ZoogVPN | 0 | none; support describes one as planned | Greece (outside the alliances), run from Ukraine |
The Money, Which Decides More Than Anything
Read the renewal line before the headline discount. Every provider here sells a first term cheaply; the difference between them appears in year two, and it is larger than the difference in features.
Renewal prices are tracked separately because a page that only shows introductory rates is not telling you the price.
Refund windows are the real trial. Thirty days minimum across all five, 45 at CyberGhost — and on streaming it is the only test that means anything.
⚠️ Ignore seasonal urgency. Last November’s headline prices matched what the same providers charged in September, and their offers ran for six weeks rather than a day.
If Your Question Is Narrower
This page answers “which VPN should I buy”. Several questions it answers badly, and we have separate pages for them.
Privacy above everything — ranked on evidence alone, and the top two are not in this five.
Speed above everything — ranked on percentages rather than headline megabits, because the same provider has been measured at 400 and at 950 in one year.
Streaming — platform by platform, because the answer changes weekly.
Torrenting — port forwarding and kill switches decide it, not overall scores.
Free — three tiers are genuinely safe, and the rest of that market is worse than most people expect.
Cheapest — four-year totals rather than monthly headlines.
What Would Change This List
A first court test for Proton VPN or Surfshark, neither of which has one.
Resolution of the Swiss position, which would move Proton in one direction or the other.
A failed audit, or a provider found holding what it said it did not. That would remove an entry the same day.
Or a change in ownership. Concentration is already a factor in these positions, and another acquisition would change them.
How We Research
This ranking uses our own published tables for audit counts, auditors, jurisdictions, renewal prices, device limits and refund windows, and our reviews for the detail behind each. Speed figures come from independent testing we name in each review rather than from our own measurements — we do not run tests and do not claim to. No provider paid for a position, and one provider in our separate privacy ranking runs no affiliate programme at all, which is why it appears there and cannot be bought here either. Where sources disagree, both versions appear. Our method lives on the About Us page.
Best VPN FAQ
NordVPN, on our scale. It has six scheduled audits, the lowest measured speed loss of the providers we cover, RAM-only servers and a Panamanian jurisdiction with no mandatory retention. Nothing else in our top five leads on more than one criterion.
Five criteria weighted equally: speed, security and privacy, streaming, price and value, and ease of use. Speed figures come from independent testing rather than our own, and every audit count and price is published in our tables so you can check it.
Because equal weighting penalises specialists. Mullvad has the strongest privacy record of anything we review — annual audits for over a decade and a police search that found nothing — and no streaming, five devices and no discounts. It leads our separate privacy ranking instead.
Yes, four of the five sit in same-parent pairs. Nord Security owns NordVPN and Surfshark; Kape Technologies owns ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access, along with CyberGhost outside this list. Subscribing to two of them is not the diversification it appears to be.
The renewal, by a wide margin. Every provider sells the first term cheaply and the differences between them are small; the second-year prices diverge considerably, and that is the figure most comparisons omit.
The Verdict
NordVPN if you want one answer and no research. The audit record, the speed figures and the jurisdiction are all at or near the top, and nothing else leads on more than one criterion.
Proton VPN if privacy matters and convenience still does. Five audits, a non-profit owner, open-source clients, and a free tier that does not sell you.
And read the second column before the first. Two of these five share a parent with another, three of the brands we review answer to one company, and the renewal price is where the money actually is.