Features
What do you get for your money?
VPNs seem pretty straightforward, at least in principle: connect to a server, obtain an address in a new location, and then carry on as usual. It’s tempting to assume they’re all the same and make your choice mostly on the headline price, but in reality there’s a lot more to consider.
The number of potential servers to connect to can be important. For instance, as well as their geographical spread. SlickVPN offers locations in an impressive 142 cities, scattered all around the world. Meanwhile, Buffered VPN has servers in 37 countries, Mullvad and Perfect Privacy both cover more than 20, and IVPN has only 12 to choose from. That’s an easy win for SlickVPN, which really does reach far and wide, but also think about the locations you need. If you’re happy with a few locations in Europe and the US then any of these VPNs will do.
Check out the number of clients a VPN offers, too. These simplify installation and may provide extra features. Having custom clients also indicates that there’s some depth to a VPN provider, and it’s not just a random guy sat in his pants reselling other people’s networks from his home office, which happens more often than you might think. Our test group all score above-average for desktop clients. Buffered VPN and Mullvad have apps for Linux, Windows and Mac; Perfect Privacy covers Linux and Windows; and SlickVPN and IVPN have downloads for Windows and Mac – but all is not lost. You can set up the service manually via OpenVPN or use any other client you like, though, including on Android and iOS devices, and each VPN has tutorials to help.
You might sometimes want to connect to the VPN via several devices at once, maybe a phone, tablet and PC. Mullvad and IVPN enable up to three simultaneous connections, probably enough for most people, but SlickVPN and Buffered VPN cover you for up to five, and Perfect Privacy has no limits at all. Keep in mind that most VPNs licence their plans to a single user, though, so although they’ll make multiple connections possible, if every device is busy 24/7 you’ll probably get some complaints.
P2P is a key feature for some users, and all our VPNs have some level of torrent support. IVPN and Perfect Privacy enable it on selected servers, and SlickVPN, Mullvad and Buffered VPN support P2P everywhere. If you’re more interested in unblocking Netflix or similar sites, that’s much more difficult to assess. Any VPN might work one week and fail the next, as a site blocks it. The only effective approach is to try services for yourself, although even then there’s no guarantee the siteunblocking will work for long.