How we take a look at VPNs

VPNs, or digital personal networks, are in all places. If you happen to’ve spent any time in any respect on YouTube, chances are high you’ve seen an advert promoting VPNs — there have been literally hundreds and thousands of them.

We take a look at and assessment VPNs so you do not have to — however what even is a VPN? The pitch is pretty easy: a VPN can masks your IP tackle and the id of your gadget by routing your site visitors by a distant server. Websites and providers will see a distinct IP tackle to your personal, and your web service supplier will solely be capable of see that you simply’re related to a VPN server, somewhat than what websites you’re visiting. Which means a VPN may be an essential instrument to maintain your knowledge personal and safe, particularly if you could connect with an unsecured community. If you happen to’re on public WiFi, for instance, you may’t ensure what they’re monitoring whilst you’re browsing the web. With a VPN, there’s an extra layer of privateness — so long as you ensure the VPN supplier may be trusted. However a VPN shouldn’t be the top of your safety journey. Complicated passwords, multifactor authentication and different safety fundamentals must be approach greater on your checklist.

One other generally marketed characteristic of VPNs is evading geoblocking strategies that firms use to forestall you from accessing sure content material. Since you’re connecting to a distant server, a VPN can successfully change your location, permitting you to observe one other nation’s Netflix content material or, say, watch Physician Who on the UK-only BBC iPlayer. If you happen to’re within the EU, it could possibly mean you can entry websites which are in any other case blocked because of the area’s strict knowledge safety laws. Prior to now, VPNs have even been used to skirt political firewalls put as much as censor on-line entry.

With many VPN makers making sweeping claims about military-grade encryption, digital invisibility and lightning-fast speeds, it’s robust to know what’s true and what’s advertising hype. That’s why Engadget began evaluating VPNs in 2023, taking a look at a lot of components similar to safety, velocity, latency, utilization limits and value. And whereas we do not count on to ramp as much as extra VPN testing till 2025, our best VPNs guide will proceed to be the house base of our protection. Within the meantime, that is our present VPN testing methodology.

Background checks

Earlier than we set up or join a service, our work begins by investigating every product’s lineage. We reference privateness insurance policies, transparency experiences and safety audits which are publicly accessible, and observe the safety specs of every service. We additionally look into every firm’s historical past of safety incidents like knowledge breaches. We depend on some pre-existing educational work from our bodies like Shopper Experiences, VPNalyzer and others when trying into safety specs.

Setup

The following step in our assessment course of entails a detailed take a look at what it’s prefer to get arrange on the VPN. This entails trying on the varied platforms every VPN helps, from sure internet browsers to Good TVs, to higher perceive how it may be used. We additionally look to see simply how straightforward it’s to get began on a brand new VPN. Some will mechanically connect with a safe server each time you utilize your gadget, whereas others make you soar by hoops to remain signed in. We search to grasp how person pleasant and intuitive these VPNs may be.

Utilization limits

Whereas many VPN suppliers promise that their service works throughout each gadget on a regular basis, there may be usually small print to contemplate. We scan the phrases of service for every of the corporate’s plans to grasp what they’re providing. Is there a restrict to the variety of units a person can have related without delay? Is there a “truthful use” restrict that kicks in after a specific amount of site visitors? Are superior options multi-hop connections locked to solely the priciest plans? We examine all of this stuff so that you don’t must. We additionally conduct a lot of our extra particular assessments on the similar time, which permits us to confirm firms’ claims about simultaneous gadget use.

Pace and latency

Step one in testing velocity and latency is to establish the baseline of the connection earlier than connecting to a VPN. We then use the “fast join” characteristic on VPN apps to connect with the “quickest” supplier accessible when testing web velocity. As soon as related, we run web velocity assessments by Ookla and ping assessments with meter.internet. When relaying these outcomes, we’ll observe the typical velocity and ping throughout these outcomes, in addition to the distinction between that common and our baseline when not related to a VPN.

Geoblocking

We take a look at all VPNs from inside the US. To examine {that a} service is ready to successfully keep away from geoblocking, we connect with a Canada-based server and try to entry content material on Netflix that’s solely accessible to customers in that nation. We then connect with a Hong Kong-based server to aim to observe a information livestream on a YouTube channel that’s completely accessible to customers in that area. Lastly, we conduct a gaming take a look at by taking part in on servers in the UK. We’re trying to see not provided that we will entry the identical content material from all these servers, but additionally to check for lag or every other complications that you possibly can run into when utilizing one thing.

Checking for leaks

A DNS leak occurs when your gadget sends an unencrypted DNS question exterior of your VPN service’s encrypted tunnel to an ISP’s DNS servers. This successfully nullifies using a VPN within the first place by permitting third events to see and doubtlessly monitor your looking exercise and IP tackle.

A WebRTC leak is a matter that may happen in trendy internet browsers that may equally expose your private IP tackle to a web site you’re on. Whilst you can keep away from this by configuring your browser to not ship such knowledge, a VPN ought to be capable of stop this from taking place.

To examine for each of those points, we use publicly accessible instruments similar to NordVPN’s IP tackle lookup instrument and ExpressVPN’s leak assessments earlier than and after connecting to a VPN and ensure neither fault is happening.