5 VPNs with Highest Number of Servers

Size matters when it comes to VPNs and their server coverage. More is usually best, but they have to be in the right places. And managed adequately to prevent bottlenecks at peak hours.

So merely going for the VPN with the most servers isn’t necessarily the best option. There are many other vectors in play, such as connection speeds, security and privacy, support for streaming, and overall usability. But first, look a little deeper into the numbers game.

The size of a VPN service provider’s server network has a massive impact on its overall service capability.

The more servers a VPN has, the fewer users are sharing each server. If a server is not maxing out, it can provide better speeds for everyone. This is an issue, particularly for video streaming services like Netflix.

The larger the number of servers on offer, the greater the number of IP addresses that are available. A high number of server locations is desirable, too, as you are more likely to find a server that’s nearby. Connecting to a server that’s 500 miles away is considerably faster than trying to work with a server 2,000 miles away.

Ideally, there is a balance to be struck between a few servers in hundreds of various locations or hundreds of servers in a handful of countries.

We have striven in our server review to pinpoint the top five VPNs that combine the best compromise of server numbers and locations. 

Arguably, once a VPN reaches more than 3,000 servers or thereabouts, there are few actual performance gains. After this critical mass is reached, the most significant difference comes from server maintenance and traffic management.

The five VPN providers that we spotlight in our review represent the best blend of server coverage and size, speed, and reliability. Read on, and you will find the VPN that’s the perfect fit for you.

Benefits of ExpressVPN

• Good mix of servers, locations, and countries
• Virtual servers to ensure high connection speeds
• Automatic server selection
• Supports for multiple devices and operating systems
• Easy setup and configuration

The VPN with a great mix of servers and locations, ExpressVPN boasts over 3,000 servers in 160 locations in 94 countries. Literally from Argentina to Australia and all points in between almost. So whether you live in the Americas or Asia Pacific, there’s going to be a server in your backyard, relatively speaking.

Like many VPNs, ExpressVPN operates several virtual servers to ensure they can offer fast and reliable connections. Connecting to a virtual server means your IP address is in the country you select. But your traffic is routed via a server in another country with a superior connection speed.

ExpressVPN has an undeniably massive server footprint on every continent apart from Antarctica. Thanks to an investment program that did not shy away from building infrastructure in places where bandwidth is expensive, they have servers in Japan, Australia, Brazil, and India.

ExpressVPN also says that less than three percent of their server network is non-virtual. The advantage for the customer is that they get onto a fast server but can choose their preferred IP address location.

Say, for instance, you wanted an IP address in Indonesia. Your ExpressVPN traffic would be routed to a server located in Singapore but given an IP address in Indonesia.

Alternatively, using their Smart Location feature, you can let ExpressVPN automatically optimum server location for you. This feature operates via an algorithm that ranks each server location based on download speed, distance, and latency.

Subscription packages start from $8.32 per month on their annual contract.

Benefits of NordVPN

• Over 5000 fast servers
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Allows six devices to connect simultaneously
• Live chat support available 24/7
• Verified no logs policy

NordVPN seems to have been around forever. This may explain why they have managed to accumulate 5463 servers located in 59 countries.

As server footprints go, NordVPN has one of the best available on the market today. Hence their dominant place and chunky VPN market share.

The NordVPN flotilla of servers stretches from the Americas to the Middle East and most other places to be accurate. Their servers offer a wide range of options, including NordVPN’s proprietary protocol, IKEv2/IPSec, the default for Mac and iOS, and OpenVPN UDP/TCP, the default for NordVPN’s Windows, Mac, and Android apps.

In addition to regular VPN servers, NordVPN offers dedicated P2P servers for torrenting, obfuscated servers for use in countries with heavy internet restrictions, and double VPN to get twice as much encryption.

In some countries like the US, for example, you can choose your server by city. This is useful as the server in the closest city will generally offer you the best service. In the United States, there are servers in 14 major cities stretching from Atlanta to Seattle.

But instead, you can rely on NordVPN to work out the best server for you by tapping the app’s Quick Button. Or select their specialty servers and find the kind of server you need for torrenting, using Tor, etc.

NordVPN is celebrating its birthday with a special two-year contract plan at $3.71 per month. When you take out the package, you also stand the chance of winning a random prize of an extra month, year, or two years on top. However, you will need to move fast as this is a time-limited offer.

But don’t fret if you miss out. The one-year deal is attractive, too, at $4.92 per month.

Benefits of Surfshark

• Over 3,200 servers
• Unlimited devices
• Camouflage mode so your ISP can’t tell you are using a VPN
• Kill switch
• Strict no-logs policy

There’s very little to dislike about Surfshark. It delivers what it promises with its fleet of more than 3,200 servers in 65 countries. All their servers are peer-to-peer friendly and have private DNS as well.

At this scale, you should have no problems finding a server that’s located in your country or next door, with servers dotted everywhere between Argentina and Vietnam and all points between.

Surfshark, though, helps take the guesswork out of selecting the best server location.

Say, for instance, your primary concern is privacy and security; your best option is to opt for ‘optimal location’ to get the best connection speeds available.

If you want to torrent or use another peer-to-peer platform, you don’t have to do a thing as all their servers are geared up for P2P. Start downloading or seeding, and Surfshark will automatically reroute your traffic if necessary.

For streaming and defeating geo-streaming, you need to select a particular country to access its library. If you are not sure, Surfshark customer support can help you out.

Another great feature that not many other VPNs offer is Multi-Hop. This lets users connect to their target URL via multiple countries to increase security and security. It also, potentially at least, could even increase your connection speed.

This apparent speed increase would be in addition to software that blocks adverts and trackers, allowing pages to load faster. You don’t get any more bandwidth per se, it’s just that everything seems to work a little faster.

Right now, Surfshark has their two-year contract pegged at $2.49 per month, with a one-off payment of $59.76 to cover the two years.

Not everyone wants to commit for that length of time, so you can try it for 30 days and get a refund if you’re not happy.

Benefits of CyberGhost

• 6638 servers
• Connect up to seven devices
• Strict no-log policy
• Supports P2P and streaming
• 45-day money-back guarantee

Just when you thought you could make up your mind, CyberGhost VPN enters the fray with their 6638 servers in 111 locations in 89 countries.

That’s some huge numbers to contend with. And this is acknowledged by CyberGhost when you pitch up on their website.

The servers tab goes straight to the heart of the matter by inviting you to select a country to see what servers are available for you. Or you can go straight to their complete list of servers.

At a glance, you can see each country’s stats; how many servers and cities, whether they support P2P, and if the servers are physically located or virtual.

Uniquely, there’s a YouTube Q&A video with CyberGhost’s Lead Architect, Gheorge. Fascinating, you should take the time to hear what he has to say. And CyberGhost is also willing to consider virtual servers in locations you can’t find in their server list. There’s a button on the server page for making a request.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that all CyberGhost VPN servers support multiple protocols and are optimized to handle each.

Such is their confidence that CyberGhost goes on the record to say that coupled with 256-AES encryption, you and your data will have the safest VPN experience possible.

CyberGhost is also setting out its stall with an industry-leading three-year subscription for $2.25 per month plus three months for free.

Admittedly, three years is a long time. So you may want to consider their other packages. The two-year deal comes in at $3.49 per month, and the annual plan works out at $3.99 per month.

Benefits of Private Internet Access

• Massive server fleet
• You can pay anonymously
• Supports multiple operating systems and browsers
• Feature-rich
• Unlimited bandwidth for up to ten devices

PIA is always in the reckoning. No matter the focus of a VPN review, be it speed, security, or best service coverage, you can be guaranteed these guys will turn up in the rankings.

And not without good reason either. Private Internet Access VPN, to give them their full title, has some impressive stats to back their critical acclaim.

Not least, of course, their 29,000 plus servers in 77 countries. Yes, you read that correctly. At the time of writing, the full tally is more than 29,376 servers. Curiously, they appear not to have updated their website’s network page, which states that PIA operates 28,486 servers in 99 various locations in 77 countries. Anyhow, it is still a massive server network regardless of which number you choose.

But as we have seen earlier, it’s not so much the size of your server network but how you operate and manage it that counts in the final analysis.

In late 2020, PIA began rolling out several geo-located (virtual) servers in 35 locations and regions. The investment allowed PIA to offer VPN services in countries where they were previously unable to do so because of government legislation and restrictions or a shortage of secure server providers.

Another reason to fall in love with PIA is their help center to help you set up and troubleshoot problems. It is jam-packed with info, how-to guides, tutorials, news, and a community forum.

They are also pretty hot price-wise. Their two-year contract is billed at the equivalent of $2.69 per month, and you get two months for free on top.

Even their yearly contract is well into sub-$10 territory at $3.33 per month.

Unfortunately, that’s a little oversimplified. Yes, the size of the server network is essential. But the network also has to be fast and provide users with a stable and reliable connection whenever they wish. Equally important to the sheer number of servers is their physical location. Always research where the VPN provider’s servers are located. Ideally, you will want several in your own country and good geographic spread elsewhere for maximum flexibility.

If there are too few servers to go around, then connection speeds will inevitably drop for everyone.

No contest; it has to be Surfshark. Though Surfshark has a server presence in fewer than half of the countries offered by HideMyAss, Surfshark has three times the number of servers. As a video streaming VPN, you would be much better opting for Surfshark.

The rule of thumb is always to go with the VPN provider with a good spread of countries and the highest number of servers in each. This should ensure none of their servers become overloaded or detected by a streaming service before the VPN can replace it.

If you plan to binge-watch Netflix or are a torrent fan, the server network’s size and location will be crucial. A VPN with a geographically diverse server network is your best bet. It makes it much easier to spoof your location and get around geo-restrictions placed on content. Generally, a more internationally widespread server network will give you more streaming options.

For torrent fans, you will find that not all VPNs support P2P on all their servers. Others, such as NordVPN, have a selection of servers optimized for torrenting. You can find these servers from within the NordVPN app.

Netflix and other video streaming services serve different countries from separate libraries. Suppose you are on vacation or a business trip overseas or merely curious. In that case, you can relocate to a different country via a VPN to access content from anywhere in the world.

That would be PIA (Private Internet Access). They weigh into the fray with over 29,000 servers in 77 countries. While this is an industry-leading VPN server network, they are not necessarily the best option. ExpressVPN and NordVPN would be our preference as both have sufficient numbers of servers and server locations.

It is generally agreed that the tops for privacy are Switzerland, Panama, Malaysia, Romania, and the British Virgin Islands. You should be aware of three international surveillance alliances: Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes. The membership of these government spying networks plus a few other independent countries have been operating since the Cold War and were initially set up by the US and the UK. Today, their most important frontier is the internet and everyone who uses it.

While size does matter, up to a point, with server networks, it’s just part of the picture. There is a critical mass of servers. After this, the only gains come down to the VPN provider’s diligence at maintaining their server network and managing user traffic on their network.

Simply put, server numbers aren’t the last word when it comes to selecting a VPN. You also have to weigh up the number of locations and the number of servers in each. The bottom line, therefore, is that the numbers don’t tell the whole story. There’s a gamut of other issues to consider as well.

Our review of the VPNs with the most servers gives you the complete picture to enable you to make an informed decision armed with all the information you need.