Craig Haley – January 2023 – Editor’s Choice VPNs 2023
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The popularity of VPNs has ballooned recently, not only because they offer users enhanced privacy over prying eyes, but because they can hide where you’re located, meaning you can unlock a number of services that have geographical limitations (e.g. services that are only available in certain countries.)
Every time you surf the Internet, your device is sending out information across cyberspace that includes your IP address and what website you’re visiting. This information can be intercepted. By your ISP, the public Wi-Fi network you’re on, the government, advertisers, cyber-crooks and every piece of networking equipment between you and the online service or website you’re using. VPNs help stop this from happening by encrypting the data you send and receive. We have a detailed post on how they work to protect you in our blog post here. On this page we recommend three top solutions we evaluated.
Perhaps most popularly though, VPNs can also hide your location, or trick other websites into thinking you’re from a certain country. This can, in many cases, help beat geographic restrictions that online services have to block content in certain countries (e.g. if a video on YouTube is blocked in your country for copyright reasons.)
Advantages of a good VPN
Encrypt the data you send out online, protecting you from eavesdroppers
Stop the websites you visit from knowing your true IP address
Unlock services with geographic limitations
Appear to be a visitor from a specific country
Recommended VPNs
The VPN industry is one of the fastest growing digital services out there, and there is no shortage of brands competing for your attention. It is important you trust your VPN, because the data you send and receive online goes through them. We’ve evaluated a whole bunch of VPNs, and here is our top three.
1. ExpressVPN
5/5
EDITOR’S CHOICE
The best performing VPN that we tested, with good speeds, strong encryption and easy to install. ExpressVPN gets our Editor’s Choice award for 2023 and wins the best overall VPN solution.
Pros
– Fastest that we tested
– Secure encryption
– Reliable
– Regular Updates
– Good support
– Good for unblocking streaming websites
Cons
– At $13 a month, it’s the most expensive VPN we tested.
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2. NordVPN
4.5/5
A very speedy alternative, NordVPN has the largest amount of servers across the world, and perhaps the best name recognition in the industry, with much improved security features in response to an unfortunate data breach in 2018.
Pros
– Fast
– Secure encryption
– Highest server count
– Affordable
– Good support
– Good for unblocking streaming websites
Cons
– Not quite as intuitive as other competitors
– Suffered a data breach in 2021
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3. SurfShark
4/5
The extremely affordable underdog that is improving year by year, earning it a well deserved place in our top three VPNs. Not quite outclassing our top two in terms of performance, but it’s proving competitive.
Pros
– The most affordable (on a 2-year deal)
– Unlimited devices
– Good server coverage
– Handy ‘Bypasser’ feature
– Support for 2FA
Cons
– Not quite as intuitive as other competitors
– Not as fast as competitors
– Couple of bugs (but nothing serious)
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Note that all of our three VPN solutions offer software/apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.
See below for full reviews.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN wins the day as our Editor’s Choice commercial VPN solution for 2023 with stunning performance metrics and great encryption.
First off, after an overhaul to it’s network, it’s now the fastest VPN we tested with only a minimal drop in connection speed performing a variety of tasks, and when it comes to everyday browsing, most users probably won’t notice any difference. There’s some serious hardware behind the scenes, with over 3,000 servers in 94 countries propping up those impressive speeds.
Another staple to a great VPN is encryption, and ExpressVPN uses a strong encryption to ensure that if anyone is intercepting data your device sends out across cyberspace, the data will be totally unreadable.
Great Usability & Support
A standout features for us is the user interface that’s both clean and intuitive, meaning users will find it easy to locate and master ExpressVPN’s variety of features and settings.
As you would expect with a premium VPN provider, there’s plenty of support available if you’re having problems with setting it up for running it, including in-depth FAQ section and if that doesn’t help, speedy Live Chat.
Two points to take into consideration – firstly, ExpressVPN is the more expensive of our options, so look out for those deals. And secondly, it limits you to 5 different connections, but we imagine this should be fine for most users.
Overall, ExpressVPN wins out on performance. It’s the most heavyweight champion on the market and beats an impressive array of competitors.
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NordVPN
When it comes to name recognition, NordVPN is probably the one to beat. A great reputation in the industry and one of the fastest out there.
To get the elephant in the room out of the way first, NordVPN suffered a data breach back in 2018, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and this led to NordVPN introducing a whole new layer of security and privacy features – as well as regular third party auditing – making it one of the most secure VPNs out there right now.
Out of all the VPNs we tested, NordVPN has the largest number of servers worldwide – over 5,000 – meaning it’s one of the fastest VPN solutions out there, losing out by only a hair’s width to ExpressVPN.
Great for Streaming Content
As expected NordVPN runs very strong encryption so you can rest assured your data is secure, and uses a “double VPN” protocol, meaning your data travels through two secure servers for extra security.
As expected, NordVPN can help users unblock content when streaming, and has been shown to work on sites including WhatsApp, YouTube, Disney Plus, HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, C4 and others. (always be aware that such service may in the future prevent VPNs from working!)
Additionally you can have up to six connections running, and make use of the handy MeshNet feature allowing you to establish secure links with other devices around the world via the VPN network.
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Finally, there are just a few minor issues here. It isn’t quite as clean and intuitive to use when compared to ExpressVPN, but compared to the whole host of VPN solutions out there, it’s still nears the top of the list in ease-of-use, and cost-wise, NordVPN provides great value for money for what you’re actually getting. If ExpressVPN’s price tag seems a little too hefty, NordVPN is a slightly cheaper ‘heavyweight’ alternative that still brings the quality.
SurfShark
What it lacks in name recognition Surfshark makes up for its impressive array of features, as this underdog VPN has improved year on year to become one of the best VPN solutions out there and a great choice for those looking for a cheaper deal.
When it comes to value for money, Surfshark may actually be the biggest fish in the ocean given that one of the biggest selling points here is price – only a handful of bucks every month for the full version. And despite the low cost, you’re not getting some bare bones product. Like its more expensive competitors, Surfshark comes packed with features.
One of the biggest reasons to promote Surfshark to our recommended VPNs is the improved speed feature. It years past Surfshark struggled to make it to the middle of the pack, but with some recent improvements and 3,200 servers around the world, things have gotten better and faster. Not quite competing with the fastest in the market quite yet, but it’s not far behind.
And if you’re into streaming, Surfshark was able to provide workarounds for geographical restrictions for most of the online streaming services including Netflix, BBC, C4 and Prime.
Unlimited devices!
One of the biggest surprises here is Surfshark actually offers unlimited connections to its VPN service so you don’t need to keep an eye on how many live connections you have.
There are plenty of features that come bundled with Surfshark, including its handy “split tunneling” Bypasser feature that allows you to apply the VPN encryption to certain types of traffic (e.g. downloading) while simultaneously using your regular Internet connection for ,e.g., web browsing. Alternatively you can split based on the websites you visit (e.g. use a VPN for YouTube but not Facebook)
A little issue for us what that the interface for the software and apps isn’t as intuitive as we’d like and will take a little getting used to, but it’s a small price to pay since, well, there was only a small price to pay.
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