It offers a generous simultaneous connection count, with six simultaneous connections through its network, where nearly all other providers offer five or fewer. NordVPN is one of the most recognized brands in the VPN field. NordVPN in-depth review and hands-on testing (ZDNet).$3.49 a month (70% discount) for a 3-year plan.
Definitely take advantage of its generous 30-day trial to decide if you like this service (and maybe set a reminder in 23 months to see if you can talk it into a continued discount rate). Its best offer is $2 a month, for its 24-month plan (you pay $48 up front). Be careful, because it looks like that will jump to $143 after your first year is up. During our testing, we saw no DNS or IP address leaks, and had no trouble accessing Netflix.įor a year plan, Surfshark comes in close to many of the other full-featured VPN providers, at $72 for the first year. Doing any of these three things could be illegal in your country and could result in severe penalties. Finally, NoBorders Mode “allows to successfully use Surfshark in restrictive regions.” Just be careful. Multihop jumps your connection through multiple countries to hide your trail. Camouflage Mode masks your VPN or VPN services activity so your ISP doesn’t know you’re using a VPN. Surfshark also offers three special modes designed for those who want to get around restrictions and more carefully hide their online footsteps. For some business uses, this can be critically important. We particularly like the feature that allows you to whitelist certain apps and websites to automatically bypass the VPN. Additional devices such as game consoles can be configured for Surfshark via DNS settings. The company has a solid range of app support, running on Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, FireTV and routers.
Surfshark received generally high marks when its Chrome and Firefox extensions were audited for privacy by German security firm Cure 53 ( PDF link of full report) - though that audit was commissioned by Surfshark. It also offers antimalware, ad-blocking and tracker-blocking as part of its software.
If you want to run your entire home or office on Surfshark’s VPN, you don’t have to worry about how many devices you have on or connected. Let’s start off with the biggest win it offers: unlimited device support. While Surfshark’s network is smaller than some, the VPN services makes it up on features. Its best plan is priced at less than $7 a month for an annual package, which includes three months free. The company has been in business since 2009, and ExpressVPN has a substantial network of fast VPN servers spread across 94 countries. Unlike the others, though, ExpressVPN gained points from us for its support of bitcoin as a payment method - something not all of our favorites offer, but which adds an additional layer of privacy during checkout. Like the rest of the top five VPN services we’ve reviewed for 2020, ExpressVPN offers a useful kill switch feature, which prevents network data from leaking outside of its secure VPN tunnel in the event the VPN connection fails.
We also like the quality of the VPN’s setup guides, and the detailed information in its FAQ. In the privacy world, ExpressVPN has a strong track record, having experienced a server seizure by authorities which proved their zero-log policy true at the time. The company tells us its network is powered by TrustedServer technology, which ExpressVPN built to ensure that there are never any logs of users’ online activities. Country/jurisdiction: British Virgin IslandsĮxpressVPN consistently proves itself one of the fastest VPNs on the market, and actively promotes its commitment to privacy.