BEST OF THE REST
Cyberghost
www.snipca.com/41672
With more than 7,900 servers in 91 countries, Cyberghost’s vast VPN network gives you plenty of choice. It’s incredibly fast and great value, its apps offer useful streaming features such as Netflix and iplayer-optimised servers, and it can unblock those services from abroad, too, as well as Disney+, Prime Video and Hulu. You can install Cyberghost on up to seven desktop, mobile and streaming devices, and use its ‘Smart rules’ feature (see screenshot below) to connect specific apps to your preferred VPN servers. On the downside, although it publishes regular ‘transparency reports’, Cyberghost hasn’t yet undergone an independent security audit to verify its claimed no-logs policy.
Protonvpn
www.snipca.com/41668
From the makers of Protonmail, Protonvpn offers a choice of plans based on your VPN needs. Its free option has servers in only three countries, allows one connection at a time and is fairly slow, but it’s fine for occasional VPN use. The annual Plus subscription is more versatile, offering 1,700 servers in 63 countries, 10 simultaneous connections, speeds of up to 10Gbps and streaming service support. Based in Switzerland, with a strict no-logs policy and protection against ads, trackers and suspicious sites, Protonvpn Plus also has a feature called Secure Core (see screenshot above), which can route your most sensitive data through servers in “privacy-friendly” countries, away from the Fourteen Eyes.
Windscribe
www.snipca.com/41666
With only 400 servers in 65 countries, Windscribe can’t compete with our award winners for flexibility, and its connection speeds are only average. However, it trumps those VPNS with its generous free plan. This offers most of the features of its paid subscription, including split tunnelling, tracker blocking and a firewall (see screenshot above) that works like a kill switch, plus access to servers in the US, UK and eight other countries (though you need to pay to unblock Netflix and iplayer). Best of all, Windscribe gives you 10GB of data for free each month if you enter your email address when you sign up (you still get 2GB if you don’t). There are Windscribe apps for most devices and no limit on how many you can use.