What Are the Best VPN and Online Privacy Tools?

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Rate the online privacy and anonymity tools you use. Once you're done with the survey, enter the sweepstakes to win $250 to spend at Amazon.
Updated August 1, 2026
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OFFICIAL SWEEPSTAKES RULES

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Readers' Choice Sweepstakes (the "Sweepstakes") is governed by these official rules (the "Sweepstakes Rules"). The Sweepstakes begins on July 9, 2026, at 12:00 AM ET and ends on Oct. 11, 2026, at 11:59 PM ET (the "Sweepstakes Period").

SPONSOR: Ziff Davis, LLC, with an address of 360 Park Ave. South, Floor 17, New York, NY 10010 (the "Sponsor").

ELIGIBILITY: This Sweepstakes is open to individuals who are eighteen (18) years of age or older at the time of entry who are legal residents of the fifty (50) United States of America or the District of Columbia. By entering the Sweepstakes as described in these Sweepstakes Rules, entrants represent and warrant that they are complying with these Sweepstakes Rules (including, without limitation, all eligibility requirements), and that they agree to abide by and be bound by all the rules and terms and conditions stated herein and all decisions of Sponsor, which shall be final and binding.

All previous winners of any sweepstakes sponsored by Sponsor during the nine (9) month period prior to the Selection Date are not eligible to enter. Any individuals (including, but not limited to, employees, consultants, independent contractors and interns) who have, within the past six (6) months, held employment with or performed services for Sponsor or any organizations affiliated with the sponsorship, fulfillment, administration, prize support, advertisement or promotion of the Sweepstakes ("Employees") are not eligible to enter or win. Immediate Family Members and Household Members are also not eligible to enter or win. "Immediate Family Members" means parents, step-parents, legal guardians, children, step-children, siblings, step-siblings, or spouses of an Employee. "Household Members" means those individuals who share the same residence with an Employee at least three (3) months a year.

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Readers' Choice Sweepstakes - VPNs 2026
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Mail Entries must be postmarked by Oct. 12, 2026, and received by Oct. 20, 2026.

Only one (1) entry per person is permitted, regardless of the entry method used. Subsequent attempts made by the same individual to submit multiple entries may result in the disqualification of the entrant.

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One (1) $250 Amazon.com gift code via email, valued at approximately two hundred fifty dollars ($250).

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If, in the Sponsor's opinion, there is any suspected or actual evidence of fraud, electronic or non-electronic tampering or unauthorized intervention with any portion of this Sweepstakes, or if fraud or technical difficulties of any sort (e.g., computer viruses, bugs) compromise the integrity of the Sweepstakes, the Sponsor reserves the right to void suspect entries and/or terminate the Sweepstakes and award the Prize in its sole discretion. Any attempt to deliberately damage the Sponsor's website(s) or undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes may be in violation of U.S. criminal and civil laws and will result in disqualification from participation in the Sweepstakes. Should such an attempt be made, the Sponsor reserves the right to seek remedies and damages (including attorney's fees) to the fullest extent of the law, including pursuing criminal prosecution.

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DISPUTES: If, for any reason (including infection by computer virus, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures, or any other causes beyond the control of the Sponsor which corrupt or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity, or proper conduct of this Sweepstakes), the Sweepstakes is not capable of being conducted as described in these Sweepstakes Rules, Sponsor shall have the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process, and/or to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the Sweepstakes. The Sponsor assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, entries. The Sponsor is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer online systems, servers, providers, computer equipment, software, or failure of any e-mail or entry to be received by Sponsor on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website, or any combination thereof, including, without limitation, any injury or damage to any entrant's or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participating or downloading any materials in this Sweepstakes. Because of the unique nature and scope of the Sweepstakes, Sponsor reserves the right, in addition to those other rights reserved herein, to modify any date(s) or deadline(s) set forth in these Sweepstakes Rules or otherwise governing the Sweepstakes, and any such changes will be posted here in the Sweepstakes Rules. Any attempt by any person to deliberately undermine the legitimate operation of the Sweepstakes may be a violation of criminal and civil law, and, should such an attempt be made, Sponsor reserves the right to seek damages to the fullest extent permitted by law. Sponsor's failure to enforce any term of these Sweepstakes Rules shall not constitute a waiver of any provision.

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Every time you connect to public Wi-Fi, you're basically shouting your data across a room full of strangers. What Is a VPN? It's the fix: a Virtual Private Network that wraps your internet traffic in an encrypted tunnel, so nobody snooping on the network can read it.

Instead of your device talking openly to the web, a VPN routes everything through a secure server first. That keeps your browsing private, your identity protected, and your personal information out of reach from hackers, advertisers, and your own internet provider. Whether you're working remotely, streaming, or just scrolling online, a VPN keeps your connection genuinely secure.
What Is VPN by Definition?
What Is VPN by Definition

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which is also the answer if you're wondering what VPN stands for in plain terms: software that creates an encrypted connection between your device and the internet.

A VPN connection is that encrypted link itself, the secure tunnel your traffic travels through on its way to a VPN server, which then passes it on to its destination. Websites see the server's IP address instead of yours, and your internet provider can no longer see which sites you visit.

That one change, routing your traffic through an intermediary you choose rather than straight out through your provider, is what every other VPN feature is built on. The rest of this guide covers what it protects, what it leaves exposed, and how to work out whether you need one.
How Does a VPN Work?
How Does a VPN Work

Two things happen when you turn a VPN on: tunneling and encryption. When you connect through a VPN app, it opens a secure tunnel between your device and a server run by the provider. Everything leaving your device is encrypted before it enters that tunnel, and the server decrypts it at the far end before passing it to the site or service you asked for.

The VPN server also handles your DNS lookups, the requests that translate a domain name into an address your device can reach. Without a VPN, those lookups usually go to your internet provider, and they're one of the clearest records of where you've been.
What Are VPN Protocols?
What Are VPN Protocols

A protocol is the set of rules that decides how your encrypted connection gets built and maintained. Of all the VPN technologies out there, protocol choice affects speed, battery use, and how well the connection survives moving between networks the most. Three come up most often:

WireGuard, a fast, lean protocol built on a small enough codebase to be audited properly. It's widely offered today, and many providers use it as the default, though some run their own proprietary protocols built on top of it instead.

OpenVPN, older and slower, but open source and heavily scrutinized. The reliable fallback when WireGuard is blocked.

IKEv2/IPSec, long the go-to for phones, because it reconnects cleanly when you move between Wi-Fi and mobile data. WireGuard now handles that kind of network switching nearly as well, so the gap between the two on mobile has narrowed.

If your app offers a choice and you have no particular reason to change it, WireGuard is the sensible default. The exception is if you're in a country with heavy internet censorship, like China, Russia, or Iran: standard WireGuard and OpenVPN traffic is now routinely detected and blocked there by deep packet inspection, so you'd need a provider offering an obfuscated or "stealth" protocol designed to disguise VPN traffic as ordinary web traffic instead.
What Does a VPN Hide?
What Does a VPN Hide

Your IP address is the most important item on the list. Every site you visit can normally see it, which lets them infer your rough location and link your visits across sessions. A VPN replaces it with the server's address, so sites see the server's location instead of yours.

Your browsing history is hidden from your internet provider. Without a VPN, your ISP has a clear view of every domain you request. In the US, that matters more than most people assume: in April 2017, Congress used the Congressional Review Act to repeal FCC rules that would have required broadband providers to get opt-in consent before sharing or selling customers' browsing data, and the resolution was signed into law that same month.

That repeal applies at the federal level; a handful of states have since passed their own rules. Maine and Minnesota specifically require ISPs to get consent before sharing browsing data, and broader state privacy laws, like California's, can also constrain how ISPs handle customer information. Outside of those states, a VPN encrypts the connection before it leaves your device, which removes that visibility.

Your location follows from the IP address. Connect through a server in another country and you appear to be browsing from there. There's a longer list of what a VPN does not hide, covered further down, and it's longer than most marketing suggests.
But Isn't My Traffic Already Encrypted With HTTPS?

The large majority of web traffic today loads over HTTPS, which encrypts the contents of what you send and receive, a share Google's own Transparency Report has tracked climbing for years. Your banking details, your messages, the text of the page you're reading: all already protected, VPN or no VPN

What HTTPS doesn't hide is the destination. Your provider, and anyone else watching the connection, can still see which sites you connect to, when, and for how long. They just can't read what happened once you got there. A VPN hides that destination too, on top of what HTTPS already encrypts.
Why Do People Use VPNs?
Why Do People Use VPNs

Mostly, yes, and this is the fair objection to most VPN marketing.
Privacy From Trackers and Your ISP

The most common reason is simple: people would rather their browsing wasn't collected and sold. Recent survey data shows VPN adoption climbing in the US as privacy concerns grow, with nearly half of users citing their ISP specifically as who they want to hide from.

Advertisers build profiles partly from IP-linked browsing history, and a VPN removes one of the reliable ways to tie sessions together. Paired with a browser that blocks third-party cookies, it makes that profile meaningfully harder to assemble.
Security on Public Wi-Fi

Open networks in coffee shops, airports, and hotels are the clearest case, and the FTC warns that anyone else on the same network can potentially intercept what you send. Someone on the same network can attempt to intercept traffic that isn't encrypted, and older or misconfigured devices still send more in the clear than they should. A VPN encrypts everything leaving your device, which makes anything intercepted useless to whoever grabbed it. For most travelers, this is the use case that earns the subscription.

That said, keep it in proportion. HTTPS has already removed much of the danger that made public Wi-Fi frightening a decade ago. The risk is real, and smaller than it used to be.
Getting Around Geographic Blocks and Censorship

Connecting through a server in another country makes you appear to browse from there. In practice that ranges from reaching a streaming library that differs by region (which usually breaches the service's terms, and which services actively try to detect) through to getting around genuine state censorship, where the stakes are considerably higher.
Stopping ISP Throttling

Some providers slow specific activities, streaming and gaming in particular, when they detect sustained heavy use. Because a VPN hides what type of traffic you're sending, it can prevent that targeting. This one is fairly easy to test: if a slowdown usually disappears when the VPN is on, throttling was likely the cause, though a VPN also changes your routing, which can affect speed for reasons that have nothing to do with throttling.
Do You Actually Need a VPN?

A VPN is clearly worth it if you can say yes to any of these:

You regularly use Wi-Fi you don't control: hotels, airports, cafés, shared offices, conference venues.
You would rather your internet provider had no usable record of the sites you visit.
You travel to or through countries that filter internet access.
You need to reach a work network remotely and your employer requires one.
You have a specific reason to keep your location private from the sites you use.

A VPN matters much less if all of these are true:

You browse almost entirely from home, on a network you control.
You're comfortable with your provider's data practices, or you already pay for a provider that commits to not selling browsing data.
Your main worries are scams, phishing, weak passwords, or malware, none of which a VPN addresses.

If you land in the second group, a password manager and two-factor authentication on your important accounts will do more for you than a VPN subscription. Both are usually free.
What a VPN Does Not Do
What a VPN Does Not Do

A VPN is a narrow tool with a specific job, and it gets sold as something much broader. A few limits matter here.

It does not stop malware. Encrypting a connection has no effect on a file you chose to download or a program already running on your machine.

It does not make you anonymous. Your provider can see the traffic you route through them, which is why their logging policy and legal jurisdiction matter more than any feature on the pricing page.

It does not hide you from accounts you're signed into. Log into Google with the VPN running and Google still knows exactly who you are and what you did. This is where most people's expectations break, because a great deal of tracking happens at the account layer, well above the IP address.

It does not help much if you use it inconsistently. Switching the VPN on for general browsing after you've already logged into a sensitive account leaves behind the record you were trying to avoid. Leaving it on permanently is simpler and more effective than deciding case by case.

Speed is the other honest caveat: routing traffic through an extra server adds some latency, depending on distance, server load, and protocol. For browsing, email, and video calls it's usually not noticeable. For gaming or 4K streaming, pick a server close to home.
Which Devices Need a VPN?
Which Devices Need a VPN

All of them, and this is where people leave gaps. Once you know how to use a VPN on one device, the pattern is the same everywhere: install the app, sign in, pick a server, connect.

Most providers allow several simultaneous connections on one subscription, historically somewhere between five and ten, though a growing number now advertise unlimited connections, so covering everything you own is usually just a matter of remembering to.

Your phone is the one worth doing first. It joins more untrusted networks than anything else you own, it does it automatically, and mobile apps send data in the background whether or not you're looking at the screen.

For everything that can't run a VPN app, think smart TVs, games consoles, streaming sticks, smart speakers, the option is a VPN on the router itself. Support varies a lot by router: some higher-end models support a VPN client directly, and others need third-party firmware to add it. Setup is fiddlier, and switching countries or turning it off means changing router settings rather than tapping a button.
What Types of VPN Are There?

Here are the three arrangements that cover almost everything you'll come across, when looking for the type of VPN that suits your needs.

Personal VPNs are the consumer apps: you subscribe, the provider runs servers worldwide, and you connect through whichever one you choose. This is what people mean by "a VPN" in everyday use.

Remote access VPNs connect a single device to a private network, and this is what most remote workers use. The employer runs the server, authenticates the user and device, then grants access to internal systems without exposing them to the open internet. Increasingly these sit alongside "Zero Trust" setups, which check who you are and what you're allowed to access for every request, rather than assuming you're trustworthy just because you're connected to the network.

Site-to-site VPNs connect whole networks to each other, linking a company's offices into one private network. You'll never configure one as an individual.
Free vs. Paid VPNs
Free vs Paid VPNs

A VPN provider is the company running the servers your traffic passes through, and running one costs real money. Servers, bandwidth, and staff have to be paid for, so a provider charging nothing is covering those costs some other way. Working out which way is the whole question.

A small number of free tiers are upfront about the trade-off. They're limited versions of a paid product, funded by the people who subscribe, and they restrict speed, server choice, or data allowance rather than monetizing the user. A few reputable providers occasionally offer free tiers with generous or no data caps, but these terms change often, so check the current details before relying on one.

Most free VPNs work differently. Common models include logging and selling browsing data or injecting ads into pages. Recent research on free mobile VPN apps found roughly one in four fail basic privacy checks, with some still exposed to security flaws over a decade old.

In the past, some free VPNs were also caught turning users' devices into exit nodes for other people's traffic, a practice that drew heavy criticism and that reputable providers have moved away from, but it's a reason to check a free provider's business model before trusting it. All of these approaches undercut the reason you'd install a VPN in the first place.
How Do You Choose a VPN?

The market is crowded and the marketing is close to interchangeable. A handful of things genuinely distinguish providers.

An independently audited no-logs policy. Every provider claims not to log. Fewer have had the claim tested by an outside auditor, and fewer still publish the report where anyone can read it without signing up or agreeing to an NDA. Published and readable is the standard to hold them to.

Jurisdiction. Where the company is legally based determines who can compel it to hand over data. Providers based in countries belonging to intelligence-sharing networks, the Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), the Nine Eyes, and the Fourteen Eyes, face more legal pressure to cooperate with government data requests, and what one member obtains can end up shared with the others.

Switzerland and countries like Panama are often cited as friendlier jurisdictions, partly because they sit outside those alliances and don't impose mandatory data-retention laws on providers, though that reputation rests more on the absence of certain laws than on strong privacy statutes, so it's worth checking specifics rather than taking it on faith.

Protocol support. WireGuard as the default, OpenVPN as a fallback. A provider offering only something proprietary and unaudited is a reason for caution.

A kill switch. This cuts your connection if the VPN drops, so your real IP doesn't surface during the gap. If you're using a VPN for privacy rather than convenience, treat it as a requirement.

Servers where you need them. A large server count matters less than whether the provider has servers where you actually need them, nearby for speed, or in a specific country for access.
FAQs: Things to Know About VPNs

Most VPN questions come down to a handful of recurring themes: legality, speed, and what a VPN can't actually do. Here are quick, straight answers to the ones people ask most.
Is Using a VPN Legal?

Yes, in the US and most of the world; no federal or state law bans personal VPN use. China fines individuals for unauthorized VPN use, Iran criminalized it in 2024, and Russia has escalated blocking of providers and protocols (though individual use isn't directly criminalized there). Check current rules before you travel.
Does a VPN Slow Down My Internet?

A little, for the reasons covered above: encryption and a longer path add some latency, though on a nearby server over WireGuard it's usually small enough that browsing, streaming, and calls feel the same. Long-distance connections and overloaded servers are where slowdowns get obvious.
Can My ISP See That I Am Using a VPN?

They can see that you're connected to a VPN server and how much data you're moving through it. They can't see what's inside. Some providers offer obfuscation, which disguises VPN traffic as ordinary HTTPS so it's harder to detect in the first place, mainly useful in countries that try to block VPNs outright.
What Is the Difference Between a VPN and Tor?

Both hide your IP address, by different means. Tor sends your traffic through several volunteer-run relays, so no single relay knows both who you are and where you're going. That's strong anonymity at a significant cost in speed.

A VPN sends your traffic through one server run by one company, which is much faster and depends on trusting that company. For everyday privacy, a reputable VPN is the practical option. Where being identified carries real consequences, Tor is the stronger tool.
Do I Need a VPN at Home?

Less than you need one on public Wi-Fi, though it still does something: home is where most of your browsing happens, and if your provider's data practices are what bother you, a VPN addresses that there too.
Can a VPN Be Blocked?

Yes, routinely. Streaming services, corporate networks, some schools, and several governments detect and block VPN traffic. Providers respond with obfuscation techniques, the blockers adapt, and the cycle continues. If one specific service is why you're subscribing, confirm it currently works before paying for a year.
Is a VPN Worth It?

A VPN does a small number of things well. It hides which sites you visit from your internet provider, it protects you on networks you don't control, and it lets you choose where you appear to be. Those are real benefits, and for anyone who travels or who objects to their browsing being sold, they justify a few dollars a month.

The limits deserve equal billing. Your logins, your browser fingerprint, and the honesty of the provider you picked all sit outside the tunnel. Pick a provider whose no-logs claim has been audited and published, install it on your phone before your laptop, leave it running, and keep your expectations in the right place.

A VPN is one layer of a sensible setup: a password manager and two-factor authentication belong in there alongside it, and it's just one piece of the wider technology landscape worth keeping an eye on.