ExpressVPN
Super-fast.
One of the largest VPN providers in the world, the US-based ExpressVPN is also one of the more expensive. It does, however, somewhat justify that high cost with extremely high speeds and fast response times. Pick the right server, and you can easily redline your connection over ExpressVPN, essentially taking zero performance hit when using it. There is some significant variability between servers — one server in LA, for example, only hit 5.09Mbps, while another hit 30Mbps. Ping times were good across the board, only 10-30ms higher than normal.
Being such a large target, however, has its problems. When we initially connected to the LA servers, both Hulu and Netflix were blocked. However, after opening a support window and chatting with ExpressVPNs support staff, we were told that the Denver and Washington servers remained unblocked. We connected, and lo, both services worked perfectly. Of course, that may change by the time you read this, but it’s definitely worth having a chat with them if you have problems (although we do think this is the kind of thing that should be posted on the ExpressVPN site).
The app itself is as simple as they get: pick your location (from a huge list of available options; fortunately it recommends servers based on load and proximity) and click connect. There’s a kill switch option enabled by default as well as DNS leak protection, but it lacks some of the other more advanced features some VPNs offer like disabling IPv6. The site also has a host of wellwritten and clear guides for setting up VPNs on other devices.