The fastest VPNs for browsing, streaming, and shopping securely

There is a fairly long list of things that you should care about when it comes to VPNs. These services are primarily designed to provide data and identity protection when you’re navigating the online world, so they need to provide powerful encryption that secures all of your traffic. 

With this in mind, you should only consider investing in a VPN that provides advanced security features like split tunnelling, IP protection, ad blocking, and a kill switch. All of this is vital for securing your online identity and data, which is really important at the moment. The online world can be a dangerous place, and VPNs are effective tools for protecting yourself against viruses, malware, hackers, and other threats.

Interest in VPNs is booming, although it’s not only down to an increased awareness of the importance of cybersecurity. A lot of people are investing in VPNs for an altogether different reason: streaming TV shows and movies from all around the world. VPNs hide your real IP address, and by connecting to a server in another country, you can bypass geo-restrictions to unlock streaming sites from other countries. This is the quickest and easiest way to increase your content options without subscribing to a new streaming service.

There are some VPNs that specialise in streaming, and others focus on security. Something that connects both camps is connection speed, because nobody wants to use a slow VPN. Whether you’re looking for a VPN to hide your idenity, protect your data, or bypass restrictions, you’ll need something that delivers when it comes to speed. We’re not saying that connection speeds trumps every other feature. We’re saying that speed is an essential partner to everything else that’s offered by a VPN.

Should you pay for a VPN?

When you come to consider investing in a VPN, you will find a few different subscription options. Firstly, you are likely to come across free versions of popular services. Then, you might check out free trials of VPNs with full access to everything a premium plan offers. And after that you’re left with paid subscriptions. So which direction should you go?

Not many VPNs offer a free version of their service, but you can sign up to something popular like TunnelBear without spending a penny. There is always a catch with these free versions though, and it’s normally in the form of limited data usage. If you’re only an occasional user, these plans will be perfectly fine. If you’re planning on streaming or downloading anything, then we would not recommend even trying to make a free plan work. It’s just not going to happen.

There are some VPNs that offer a free trial to new users, like PureVPN. These trials generally come with everything you get in a paid plan, which is great for deciding whether you want to subscribe or not. Obviously, these trials don’t tend to last very long. So by all means try a trial, but this isn’t a long-term solution. 

We know this probably isn’t what you want to hear, but the best option for streaming securely and accessing the online world without restrictions is with a paid subscription to a VPN. For access to advanced security features without limitations on usage, you’re going to have to dig into your pockets. Fortunately, there are plenty of services that offer cheap plans, especially if you’re willing to make a serious commitment.

As with most services and products, you get what you pay for. The very best VPNs are generally the most expensive, and that’s why it’s so important to make the most of the deals that drop fairly regularly.

Why is connection speed important?

We’ve already made it clear that connection speed is really important when it comes to VPNs, but why? Connection speed has an impact in a couple of key areas:

Latency: You’ve probably heard about latency before, especially in the context of video games, but what is it exactly? It’s a measure of the time between when your computer sends a request and when it receives a response — also known as ping time. Latency is absolutely crucial when playing video games with a VPN, as lower latency results in a more responsive experience with less lag. Latency can be the difference between success and failure, so if you’re planning on gaming with a VPN, connection speed should be at the top of your list of priorities. 

Download and upload speed: We shouldn’t really need to explain what download and upload speed is, but we’re going to anyway. Download and upload speeds measure how much data is moved over your connection in a certain amount of time. It’s normal for a VPN to decrease both download and upload speed, but the impact can’t be too great, otherwise you are going to struggle to get stuff done. Nobody wants to wait all day for a file to download, even if you are totally secure whilst doing it.

Connection speed takes all of this into consideration, so it’s obvious why it matters. If you want to get anything done online, you’ll need a speedy VPN. Understood?

What is the fastest VPN?

We have checked out a wide range of VPNs, including popular names like ExpressVPN and NordVPN. We’ve also looked at lesser known providers like Ivacy VPN and ZenMate VPN. We’ve tried to find a nice balance between speed and security, so whilst this list might be missing a particularly fast service, it’s probably because it doesn’t offer the advanced security features that every user needs.

We have lined up the fastest VPNs that still offer powerful encryption, multiple connections, diverse servers, and more. Most of these providers are also pretty handy when it comes to streaming, so if that’s your objective, this list should work nicely.

These are the fastest and best VPNs in 2021.