We review dozens of different VPNs for a wide range of use cases according to relevant features and considerations, and therefore the weights and features evaluated for each product category will differ. With that in mind, we condense our ratings into a set of general considerations.
Pricing
We score pricing for VPNs from “affordable” to “expensive,” with variants in between. To determine whether a product or service is affordable, we compare it to the average price of a solution in its category. For VPNs, we look at monthly and annual pricing for scoring but prioritize annual pricing, as that tends to be more relevant for most small businesses. For example, the average price for the cheapest VPNs we have reviewed is around $5.50 per month, so VPNs whose lowest monthly rate is higher than that will be penalized, while we favor VPNs with lower monthly rates.
General Features
With each product category, there is always a certain set of “must-haves” that we feel a product should have to be considered competitive in its space. For example, any modern VPN should offer ample choices of server locations all over the world, as the more servers and server locations a provider has, the more likely you are to find a smooth, stable connection. Therefore, our general features criteria carry more weight than our additional features section, which focuses more on “nice-to-haves” that add value or make a product stand out in a meaningful way.
Kill Switch
A kill switch disconnects your device from the internet if it’s not connected to a VPN. It’s essentially an automatic off switch, so we simply check to see if it works as intended by disconnecting from a VPN and checking if it cuts off internet access.
Split Tunneling
Split tunneling lets you route some internet traffic through a VPN while routing other traffic through your normal ISP. To test it, we route our internet browser traffic through the VPN, then check an IP address-finding website such as ifconfig.me. If our device’s IP address is the same as before we connected to the VPN, then split tunneling is not working as intended. After that, we do the same test but choose not to route our traffic through the VPN. If the IP address is the same as our normal IP address, then split tunneling is functioning as intended.
Dedicated IP
Popular for business use, Dedicated IP gives users a fixed, static IP address whenever they use their VPN. This is good for access control, as organizations can lock access to that specific IP on top of any credentials the user might need. While we don’t recommend most users utilize Dedicated IP, some businesses do use it as part of their overall cybersecurity strategy. As a result, Dedicated IP is a small part of our grading criteria.
DNS Protection Features
DNS protection features, as the name implies, help protect users from DNS leaks. All providers on our Best VPN Services list currently boast DNS protection features, which we test by running the VPN through dnsleaktest.com. For our purposes, we use the Extended test.
Additional Features
In addition to core features, our additional features scoring section reflects any functionality that is prevalent in a given category but might not be essential for prospective customers. We do not weigh these as heavily as general features. For VPNs, additional features can include:
- Browser Extensions: Allows you to more conveniently access a VPN while using a specific browser. While this may not interest all small business owners, it could be a helpful feature for the right users.
- Simultaneous Connections: Denotes how many devices you can connect with one VPN subscription. This is especially useful for businesses with multiple employees/devices, as it lets you cover as much ground as possible for as low a cost as possible.
- Number of Countries With Servers: The more countries with server locations a VPN has, the more choice you have in picking the right server for your needs. For example, if you’re trying to access a specific show on Netflix, it might not be available in one of the more common VPN countries such as Canada or the United Kingdom, but might be available somewhere such as Austria or the Dominican Republic.
Speed
Speed is one of the most important factors when considering a VPN. Since VPNs essentially require you to reroute traffic through another server or series of servers, they can severely throttle your internet connection speeds. Given how often viewers use VPNs for streaming, this throttling can be a major issue potential customers need to look out for. With this in mind, we conduct monthly speed tests. We conduct all speed tests through a speed-testing website such as Cloudflare. First, we check our internet speed without a VPN to establish a baseline. After that, we test all VPNs in our list, using the closest possible location to our testing device, record the results, and post said results on relevant pages.
Privacy and Trust
Arguably, the most important factor we consider is a VPN provider’s commitment to privacy and trustworthiness. If a VPN provider, for example, has a history of data leaks/breaches, selling user data to third parties or sharing user data with government entities, we will generally view those providers as less trustworthy than others. We view providers with a no-logs policy favorably, as this means they claim not to keep any record of user activity to share with third parties or governments.
We also check what country the VPN operates out of. If the provider’s home country is a 14 Eyes country, a group of 14 countries that have agreed to share surveillance and intelligence data with one another, we will usually not score that provider as well. The 14 Eyes countries are:
- Australia
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- The Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States
Product Reviews
We look at product reviews and scores from aggregate sites such as G2 and Trustpilot, among others. While we don’t weigh these too heavily against pricing and features, we believe there is value in accounting for customer opinions in our evaluations.
Our Own Hands-On Experience
Our expert score is where our staff leverage their industry knowledge and hands-on testing experience to evaluate the less tangible aspects of a solution, such as the product’s overall ease of use, reputation within the industry and whether the product feels like a good value. We use this area both to evaluate a provider based on our hands-on testing and to evaluate how much we trust an individual provider.
