Best PC VPN 2024

What’s the best PC VPN service? That’s what you’ll find out here with our rundown of eight top VPN choices. With privacy and anonymity on the internet being eroded more and more all the time, VPNs are a great way to help prevent cutthroat corporations and ghastly governments from leering over your shoulder and jotting down your entire search history.

It’s particularly important to use a VPN if you’re a laptop user, as if you’re out and about, connecting through public Wi-Fi spots, you don’t know what kind of cyber-criminals might be using those access points to worm their way to your private data. On top of that, VPNs can help protect online gaming fans from DDoS attacks and can enhance your experience when streaming shows through your PC, by stopping your internet service provider (ISP) from artificially reducing your download speeds and providing access to shows that your current location wouldn’t normally allow.

Best PC VPN providers in 2024:

1. ExpressVPN – best overall
2. Ivacy VPN – best prices
3. PureVPN – best for privacy
4. NordVPN – fastest choice
5. Surfshark – best for unlimited devices
6. CyberGhost – best money-back guarantee
7. Private Internet Access – largest server selection
8. PrivadoVPN – best free option

1. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is the best PC VPN.

ExpressVPN overview:

Pros

• Uses the speedy Lightway protocol
• Provides extra privacy with the TrustedServer system

Cons

• Pricing is a little higher than other providers
• No free trial

ExpressVPN is a very well-known and respected VPN provider, and you’ll find it in the top spot in the best VPN list on our sister site, PCGamesN. So what makes this one so special? Well, there are two main things. First, there’s the Lightway protocol, which enables it to encrypt your data much more quickly than most VPNs, and then there’s the TrustedServer system, which prevents its servers from recording absolutely anything about your activities in the digital realms.

However, when it comes to servers, you will probably note that ExpressVPN has fewer than most of the others on this list. While the totals may look small, it still has significantly more than the countless VPNs not included on this list. Meanwhile, though it has a slightly higher price tag, the premium features that it has to offer are well worth it for the enhanced internet and gaming experience.

Another reason that we picked ExpressVPN as the best choice is the speed at which it refreshes its servers’ IP addresses. This provider is known to do it more frequently than most others, so if there’s a game, service, or website that has blocked the VPN, chances are that the IP address will refresh before too long and you’ll be able to get in once again. It’s a really impressive service, and we’re confident it will serve you well.

2. Ivacy VPN

Ivacy VPN is the best cheap VPN.

Ivacy VPN overview:

Pros

• Fantastic prices
• Servers cover loads of countries

Cons

• No Apple Kill switch
• No free trial

As great as ExpressVPN is, it has to be said that its pricing will be prohibitive for some readers. Ivacy VPN, meanwhile, offers some really fantastic prices. You pay $60 USD in one go, and then you don’t need to worry about VPN expenses for another five years – no other provider (that we’re aware of) covers such a large span of time at such a discount rate.

However, if you’re a Mac user, this might be one to steer clear of. The biggest chink in Ivacy’s privacy armor is its lack of kill switch functionality on Apple devices. A kill switch servers your connection if the VPN goes down, preventing any data being exposed – without it, you don’t have complete protection. This won’t be an issue for PC users (and, hey, we’re Custom PC, not Custom Mac), but we thought it was important to highlight.

Other than that, Ivacy VPN is fantastic. Despite its lower price, it still manages to cover connection points in over 100 countries, and it even uses military-grade 256-bit encryption to give you that peace of mind that only comes when you know that absolutely nobody has access to your search history.

3. PureVPN

PureVPN is the most private VPN.

PureVPN overview:

Pros

• Regular third-party audits
• Nice allowance for simultaneous connections

Cons

• Limited router support
• No free trial

If privacy is your number one concern, you may be impressed by PureVPN’s offering. Like all the providers on this list, it is a no-logs VPN, but in addition to this, it undergoes regular third-party privacy audits. Not only do these confirm that it is definitively not keeping tabs on its customers, but it also helps it to identify areas for improvement so that it continues to stay as private as possible as the internet landscape evolves around it.

One of its main drawbacks is the fact that it’s fairly limited when it comes to router support (it only works when you use the PPTP or OpenVPN protocols). However, we suspect that most PC users will be primarily concerned with getting it installed on the device itself (rather than using it as a router VPN) because then everything you do on your PC is covered anyway.

PureVPN also offers a fairly generous allowance on simultaneous connections (giving you even less reason to need to connect it through a router). It might be an unlimited offering, but with ten connections allowed on a single plan, you can probably protect the privacy of most of your devices at home, including the devices of anyone else you live with.

4. NordVPN

NordVPN is the fastest VPN.

NordVPN overview:

Pros

• Fasted provider on this list
• Broad compatibility with games and services

Cons

• Slightly smaller selection of countries with connection points
• No free trial

If you want a gaming VPN, or are after the best VPN for streaming, then speed is going to be a very important factor. VPNs tend to use different selections of protocols and it can be difficult to compare speeds of different protocols due to various factors, but when tested against all of the other VPNs on this list through OpenVPN, NodVPN came out on top by some distance.

However, it should be said that while NordVPN is indeed a very speedy service, it also offers a smaller selection of countries as connection points. For a lot of users, this isn’t going to be a particularly huge set-back (because it’s still a sizable selection), but if you specifically need it to be able to connect through a number of specific countries, it’s worth double-checking that it has servers in those regions.

Still, selection of countries aside, NordVPN is pretty great when it comes to entertainment. Not only does it have terrific download speeds, but it’s also compatible with most games and streaming services, including Roblox, Fortnite, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.

 

5. Surfshark

Surfshark is the best VPN for unlimited devices.

Surfshark overview:

Pros

• Unlimited simultaneous connections on a single plan
• Offers a week-long free trial

Cons

• Has a smaller server total
• Servers cover fewer countries

If you want a VPN that can protect your privacy on your PC, as well as all your other devices, and even the devices of other people in your household, then Surfshark could be your best choice. By allowing you to use the VPN on as many devices as you want at the same time, it sets itself apart from almost all other VPNs in a pretty major way.

This is another provider that doesn’t cover quite so many countries, but this is only really going to be a problem for those who specifically need certain connection points. Considering that this is one of the more affordable VPN options too, it’s hard to hold the smaller server range against it.

As a final note, Surfshark offers the most substantial VPN free trial of any provider on this list. You can use this VPN with no strings attached for a whole week before you have to enter any payment details. This should give you plenty of time, but even if you’re unsure after that first week, you can always fall back on the 30-day money-back guarantee.

6. CyberGhost

CyberGhost is the VPN with the best money-back guarantee.

CyberGhost overview:

Pros

• 45-day money-back guarantee
• Low prices

Cons

• Slower than some other top providers
• Free trial could be longer

We mentioned Surfshark’s 30-day money-back guarantee, but CyberGhost does it (and every other VPN on this list) one better by giving customers a 45-day money-back guarantee. While you still have to pay initially, you’ll then have a nice long month-and-a-half grace period where you can still request a full refund. That should be plenty of time to figure out whether you can justify the costs.

It might be a little slower than some of the other big VPNs, but it’s also a little cheaper too, and the lesser speeds aren’t really going to be noticeable to most users. You can take it for a spin without paying anything too, but unfortunately, its free trial only lasts for 24 hours.

Another benefit of CyberGhost is its broad compatibility with streaming platforms. If you watch a lot of TV shows on your laptop and want to be able to access the libraries of your home region when traveling abroad, then this VPN may be one for you.

7. Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access (PIA) has the best VPN server selection.

Private Internet Access overview:

Pros

• Largest server selection by large
• Decent allowance for simultaneous connections

Cons

• Slightly slower than others
• No free trial

It makes sense to go for a provider with a lot of VPN servers and PIA has the highest total by far. With 35,000 servers to choose from, you’re not likely to encounter server congestion (slowdown caused by too many users connecting through the same server) and if you find one that doesn’t work with whatever service you’re trying to access, you’ll have an enormous number of other options to choose from.

Of course, like every VPN, PIA isn’t without its downsides, and the main drawback of this one is that it can be a little slower than the others. It shouldn’t be so bad that it negatively impacts your experience online, but will probably make a difference to pro gamers who need everything in peak condition.

Nonetheless, PIA is one of the cheaper VPN options, so the slightly slower download speeds can be forgiven, especially when looked at alongside its huge server count and the fact that it allows you to have ten simultaneous connections.

8. PrivadoVPN

PrivadoVPN is the best free VPN.

PrivadoVPN overview:

Pros

• Free plan available for indefinite use
• Limited selection of servers

Cons

• No router support
• Smaller server selection even if you pay

No room at all in your budget for a VPN? In that case, we recommend PrivadoVPN. You have to be very careful when choosing a free VPN, because, for many of them, it’s a monkey’s paw situation. You’re not paying with cash, but you are paying in other ways, and often that involves the VPN provider selling off your data to the highest bidder… which kind of defeats the object of using a VPN in the first place.

We can confirm that PrivadoVPN will not exploit your data like this, and indeed, will allow you to browse the internet in private. It even gives you a selection of eight countries that you can connect through. The main limitation of its free plan is that you are limited to 10GB of data a month, and after you exceed that, you won’t be able to use it again until it refreshes.

Of course, if you ran out, you could always start paying for PrivadoVPN, but it’s worth keeping in mind that its paid plan offers a significantly smaller selection of servers and connection points than the others. At very least, if you like the free version and want to gain more data each month, then you’ll be able to gauge whether or not you can justify the monthly cost.

How we chose the best PC VPN

In order to narrow down these eight VPN providers, we carefully considered the strengths and weaknesses of a number of services. These include:

• Money-back guarantees and free trials: it’s important new customers have a chance to test out a product before getting locked in
• Average download speeds: the faster the VPN, the better your PC’s performance while you use it
• Server range: being able to connect through a broad range of countries means increasing your options with a provider
• Server total: the more servers they have, the lower the risk of server congestion
• Protocols: there are various VPN protocols, and each works a little differently
• Service compatibility: no matter how impressive the performance, a VPN is pretty rubbish if most services are blocking it
• Security features: things like a kill switch help give customers the highest level of privacy, and third-party audits can be a good indication of this too

Considering all these things, we came to the conclusion that ExpressVPN was in the best position to cater to most readers, but that the other seven also had plenty to offer.

Those looking for a bargain might also like to read the guide on the best VPN deals from our sister site, PCGamesN.