Top 5 Blazing Fast VPN Clients

Is fastest always best? You would think so, wouldn’t you? But when it comes to VPNs, that is not necessarily always the case. For speed is just one of the factors that come into play. A critical factor, admittedly. And one that is always in the forefront of your mind when shopping for a VPN.

Think of your VPN as a car. Indycar and NASCAR are fast but not renowned for comfort. You wouldn’t want either to get the weekly shopping from your local Walmart.

But, that said, the fastest VPN will make your internet experience noticeably better. Ultimately, a VPN will always slow down your connection to an extent. It’s the inescapable trade-off for security and safety. So the speedier your VPN, the less impact it is going to have on your web surfing.

Pure speed is one thing, however. Server coverage is quite another.

VPN speed is mainly determined by which server you are using, where you are located, and the state of your network environment, amongst other issues. For example, you could find your VPN is like greased lightning one day, and the next, it’s painfully slow.

Max headroom

This is most likely down to traffic management and servers maxing out. At peak times, servers are often running at near full capacity, with very little headroom. So speed is as much about the server coverage as anything else.

To this end, we have rooted out the VPNs that balance speed and server capacity to bring their customers a consistent and reliable service. And you can only do this with a comprehensive geographic server coverage.

Right now, you can expect to pay around $10 per month. Anything more than this and the VPN better be offering something special besides. Like being able to connect an unlimited number of devices. With some VPN services, if you have a smartphone, tablet, a smart TV, and a home laptop, you have already used up your maximum allocation.

Speed is all very well, but no one in the household can share the VPN connection on their devices.

We have weighed all of this to arrive at the ultimate guide to the fastest VPNs.

Benefits of Hotspot Shield

• Superfast and unlimited
• Servers in 80 countries
• Military-grade encryption
• Supports gaming and video streaming, including Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime
• Easy setup

This VPN service provider is regularly lauded as seriously fast by those in the know, including Techradar and PC Mag.

And they are not alone. Hotspot Shield has captured the title of World’s Fastest VPN two years on the bounce, 2019 and 2020, by Ookla’s Speedtest.net.

The independent study put the leading VPN service providers head-to-head in a series of real-world tests over short and long distances. Hotspot Shield was consistently fastest in all the tests, and by some margin at that.

Hotspot Shield can be forgiven for exercising their bragging rights. They consistently performed best in all the benchmark tests, so they were rightly crowned the fastest VPN on the planet.

Over short distances, i.e., connecting to the closest server to you, Hotspot Shield proved to be some 1.4 times speedier than its nearest rival.

Over longer distances internationally, for example, connecting to a server in London to watch BBC i-Player in New York, the difference was even starker. Hotspot Shield proved to be an impressive 2.2 times more fleet of foot than the competition.

There is nothing right to suggest they will not maintain their lead in 2021.

So fast, so good. However, there are some qualifications to consider. First, the pricing structure. The Premium account comes in at $7.99 per month, but you are limited to just five devices.

The much more practical Premium Family package costs $11.99 and covers five people (aged 13 upward) and up to 25 devices.

Both packages come with free 45 day trials so you can try before you buy.

Interestingly, the Premium subscription bundles in identity theft protection with $1 million of insurance coverage against stolen funds, password management, and Robo Shield spam call blocker. However, it is not available on the Family Premium package.

Benefits of ExpressVPN

• Superfast and unlimited
• One-click activation
• Access to content that’s censored or geo-restricted
• 24/7 live chat support
• Kill switch and split tunneling

When techies get together to talk VPNs, one name that is guaranteed to get mentioned as one of the fastest is ExpressVPN.

For the rest of us, we can rely on this virtual private network to deliver the goods in terms of speed. Lightning-fast is how ExpressVPN modestly describes itself. And for once, it’s not just a steaming pile of marketing hype.

ExpressVPN’s industry-leading velocity claims are based around its next-gen technology server network that’s been built specifically for speed. Furthermore, their server network is dispersed to 160 locations in 94 countries. This geographic spread means it’s unlikely to suffer from significant bottlenecks, ensuring customers have the best connection speeds available even during peak traffic hours.

Your peak traffic is, though, limited to five devices connecting simultaneously. Helpfully, ExpressVPN supplies a workaround to their own limitation. You can either share the connection from a Windows or Apple computer using an app or install a VPN app on your router to get unlimited devices protected.

As well as the router, Windows and Mac apps, an ExpressVPN subscription has you covered for Android, iOS, and Linux. There are also extensions for Firefox, Edge, Chrome, and support for Apple TV, Fire TV, smart TVs, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Internet of Things devices.

Another area where ExpressVPN scores is in their competitively priced subscription packages. Their popular annual contract is $8.32 per month, charged yearly at $99.95.

Also, sub-$10, just, is their six-monthly deal at $9.99 per month, billed in a oner as $59.95.

There is also a rolling monthly contract option billed at $12.95.

However, you can try each with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Benefits of Surfshark

• Fast high-speed servers and reliable internet connections
• Tons of features
• Easy to use
• Great customer support
• One of the best VPNs for unblocking Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.

No fastest VPN review would ever be complete without featuring this dorsal-finned service provider that’s been making waves for some time now.

Surfshark performs very well for speed, consistency, and reliability. If your primary need for speed is video streaming and torrenting, Surfshark should top your list of possible VPN service providers.

Surfshark’s server network is arguably the best for Netflix viewing. It not only unlocks the world’s favorite streamer, but it also unpicks you access to Amazon Prime Video, HBO GO, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer. And in high definition without missing a beat even when connecting to an international server.

With its WebClean ad blocker switched on, you can view without those annoyingly disruptive adverts on YouTube.

For what you are paying, Surfshark, you get a pretty decent package of features and speed. However, you should note that the Quick Connection feature joins you to the nearest server to your location, which may not necessarily be the fastest around. You may find an even faster server by connecting manually.

Even if this is the case, the Quick Connection-selected server will still be speedy enough for torrent, streaming, and gaming. And you’re unlikely to experience dropped connections or noticeably slow speeds to spoil your fun with the server is local or international. Many of Surfshark’s servers are specifically optimized for torrenting.

Apart from speed, its main strength is its reputation as a good all-rounder with some great features you will love. And with a super-low $2.49 per month for its two-year contract, Surfshark is a rather tempting proposition.

Currently, the six-month contract has been cut to $6.49 a month. Their rolling monthly contract is a fairly standard $12.95 per month.

Benefits of PIA

• Superfast connections speeds
• Over 29,000 servers in 77 countries
• Connect up to ten devices simultaneously
• Free mail breach monitoring
• 30-day money-back guarantee on all their packages

To speed things up even further, Private Internet Access usually shortens its name to PIA. This abbreviation decision pretty much sums them up.

They are continually looking for ways to ensure their users get the optimum speed possible with their service.

The PIA Help Center offers lots of ideas to tweak settings and the service to squeeze every last drop out of your VPN subscription.

And in late August 2020, the company announced they had upgraded their network infrastructure to Gen4. The investment introduced the latest server technology and enhanced both the speed and reliability of their VPN servers. The new kit also boosted security and was part of PIA’s commitment to switch up their network and give customers more reliability and even greater speeds.

Just last month, PIA also revealed that they had introduced a London-based streaming server for accessing the BBC i-Player. The server is optimized for defeating the geo-block that the British Broadcasting Corporation places on their streaming service.

However, PIA’s speed obsession does appear to be at the expense of features. Compared to others in the arena, they could offer customers more. That said, PIA is a robust, basic VPN that won’t let you down. Plus, the interface is excellent.

But the even better news is the price.

Right now, you can bag two years’ worth of VPN for $2.69 per month, and they will throw in three months for free and a Boxcryptor Cloud Security license.

If you want to tie yourself for that length of time, the annual package is just $3.33 per month, and the rolling monthly contract $9.95 per month.

Benefits of IPVanish

• Superfast with unlimited bandwidth
• Servers in over 75 countries
• User-friendly apps for all your devices
• 24/7 live chat and phone support
• Option to bundle in storage space

If you need a VPN provider that combines speed with great features and value for money, then IPVanish will definitely be in the reckoning.

IPVanish has a solid reputation and a loyal customer base. Unsurprisingly, for these reasons and its general speediness, IPVanish will always feature in the top ten with ease.

It makes it on to our review with few reservations. While it may not be the fastest VPN in pure speed terms, it ranks well on everything else. So as a well-balanced service, IPVanish is worthy of serious consideration.

And right now, that would be difficult to argue with, especially given their asking price. Right now, you can nab a year’s worth of VPN for as little as $2.62 per month. Or you could throw caution to the wind and plump for the VPN and 500 GB of storage for $2.92 per month.

To put this in context, if you decided to forego a quarter pounder in McDonald’s or a Cafe Latte in Starbucks, you would have enough to pay for IPVanish for a month. And have some small change left over.

Add in IPVanish’s 30-days risk-free offer, and it’s beginning to look very much like a no brainer to check out their speed.

But as we have said, there’s more to a VPN than simply its speed. And IPVanish has the extra features and touches to be a compelling service proposition.

The answer to that changes almost daily. However, the VPN services we have highlighted here are ones we have found to be consistently fast, reliable, secure, and offer good value for money.

There are several free VPNs out there. But a free service will always come with limitations. Depending on your requirements, you may or may not be able to live chat with them. There are no free lunches available, so don’t expect 24/7 customer support with a free VPN. Or ultra-fast connections or widespread server coverage. You can, however, expect ads. Lots of them. And upselling onto subscription packages to make their services more usable.

This is a tricky one. However, if pressed, we would have to go for Hotspot Shield or ExpressVPN. But in reality, all of the services we showcase could easily occupy the number one spot. VPN is a competitive and crowded marketplace. Often there is very little separating the top VPNs other than personal preference.

The fastest VPN does not sport the largest fleet of servers, for sure. However, it remains a fantastic choice due to its above-average security and privacy. It’s also well-featured for defeating censorship and everyday anonymous browsing.

Yes. Some VPN service providers have dedicated Netflix servers optimized for watching the streaming service. Generally speaking, almost all VPN services will work with Netflix. However, some are relatively better at getting around geo-restrictions than others. Also check out our list of best VPNs to use to unblock Netflix.

Many VPNs claim they can circumvent the Great Firewall. And often with limited success. However, a few appear to be pretty good and actively promote their Great Firewall-busting credentials. Bear in mind, though, that it is a game of cat and mouse for the VPNs, so it would be wise to try a free trial or opt for a shorter contract to test out how consistent the service will be for you on a day-to-day basis.

VPNs are lawful in the United States, for sure. But this is not the case in every country, and the legality will vary. However, the more significant issue is what use you make of your VPN service. While it is an excellent security and privacy tool, it is not an open invitation to engage in anything illegal, including breaching copyright rules.

There are many VPN providers around claiming to be the fastest. And this might even be true on any given day.

But pure speed is not the ultimate arbiter of best. What we have done in our review is showcase the VPNs we firmly believe offer the best service. The providers we highlight offer the best mix of speed, server coverage, value for money, consistency, and reliability.

Any of the VPN service providers we investigated could easily have captured the top spot. In the rarified air of fastest VPNs, the differences start to become increasingly minute. Ultimately, the deciding factor is you, the end-user. We have done our best to come up with a shortlist oozing with excellence.

It’s over to you, then, to make the final judgment call based on your personal needs and preferences. Our lineup represents the elite; you can rely on that.

We have winnowed out the rest to arrive at the best. It’s now over to you to make the final decision. But rest assured, there are no wrong answers here. All of these VPNs have passed our somewhat exacting criteria. You can relax in the knowledge that there’s no finer line up from which to choose.