Not every VPN can be a favorite. These are the ones we reviewed, but they’re not full-throated recommendations for one reason or another, including limited features and concerns over adequately hiding your identity, ultimately falling short to other picks we selected as the best VPNs. In addition to the more recently tested VPNs below, we also looked at Hotspot Shield and TunnelBear a few years ago and were left disappointed at the time.
PIA
- Servers: 35,000-plus
- Number of countries: 91
- Country/jurisdiction: US
- Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux (GUI), Android, Android TV, iOS, iPadOS, Fire TV, Apple TV, browsers, routers
- Price: $12 per month, $40 for the first year (then $50 annually) or $79 total for three years
Private Internet Access is a budget-friendly VPN that undercuts most of the competition at $12 per month, $40 for the first year (renewing at $50 annually) or $79 total for three years. It’s privacy-forward with open-source apps, meaning anyone can inspect the source code for vulnerabilities or bugs, and one of the most reader-friendly privacy policies we’ve encountered. PIA was largely good for geo-unblocking, letting us watch Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, BBC iPlayer, Max and a slew of other sites while connected to servers from other countries. It’s suitable for international and US domestic travel — you’ll get 35,000 servers in 91 countries, including servers in all 50 of the United States. PIA is a compelling choice if you want to stream regional US sports, like NFL games.Â
While PIA largely sticks to the privacy basics, its highly customizable VPN apps should satisfy power users who want lots of control over VPN connections. Apple users will appreciate split tunneling on MacOS — a rarity among VPN providers that few providers besides PIA and Surfshark include.Â
However, PIA’s sluggish server speeds make it unsuitable for folks with slower or more unreliable internet connections. We clocked an underwhelming 49% average internet speed loss in our 2025 speed testing. That might be fine if you’re using Google Fiber or cable, like Spectrum, but satellite internet users should opt for a faster VPN. Moreover, we encountered a lot of CAPTCHAs using PIA, even when trying to perform a basic Google search. For a little more money, you can get a lot more value with faster speeds and more advanced privacy features by opting for a VPN like Surfshark or Proton.Â
IPVanish
- Servers: 3,100-plus
- Number of countries: 113
- Country/jurisdiction: US
- Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux (CLI), Chrome OS, Android, Android TV, iOS, iPadOS, Fire TV, Apple TV
- Price: $13 per month, $40 for the first year or $52 for the first two years combined (one- and two-year plans renew at $90 a year)
IPVanish is a decent beginner-friendly VPN for folks seeking basic privacy. It does a good job of unblocking geographically protected streaming content on multiple services, such as providing access to foreign Netflix libraries. (IPVanish is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) We liked its intuitive VPN apps, which were easy to use, even if they weren’t quite as streamlined as apps from NordVPN or ExpressVPN.
While you get privacy fundamentals from IPVanish, its US jurisdiction makes it unsuitable for people with critical privacy needs, like political activists, investigative journalists or asylum-seekers.
Its comparatively slow speeds — we measured a 44% average internet speed loss — severely lagged behind our top picks, which ranged from 3% to 24%. But its servers in 113 countries give IPVanish an international reach comparable to the competition. IPVanish sets you back $13 per month, $40 for your first year or $53 for two years combined — but the one- and two-year plans jump to $90 a year on the one- and two-years after your introductory pricing period. For that price, you can find a VPN that’s better in basically every aspect.
Read our IPVanish review.
CyberGhost
- Number of servers: 11,500-plus
- Number of countries: 100-plus
- Jurisdiction: Romania
- Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, iPadOS, Android, Android TV, Fire TV
- $13 per month, $42 every six months, $57 for the first two years (then $57 annually)
If you need a VPN with a massive number of servers in tons of different locations, or if you’re a streaming enthusiast who likes to stream a wide variety of streaming content, then CyberGhost is a serviceable choice for casual use cases. If you’re a journalist, activist, dissident, physician, attorney or anyone else with critical privacy needs looking for a solid privacy-focused VPN, you won’t find it in CyberGhost.
We like that CyberGhost publishes extremely detailed quarterly transparency reports (far outdoing all other VPNs in terms of detail and frequency) and operates a RAM-only server infrastructure, but the company’s overall approach to user privacy needs some major attention. CyberGhost’s privacy policy outlines some questionable data-sharing practices, and we were perplexed by how the VPN’s website and onboarding process reinforces the dangerous falsehood that VPNs can make you totally anonymous online. We were also disappointed to see how CyberGhost attempts to trick users into agreeing to share additional data with the company through its apps.
Besides CyberGhost’s dubious approach to user privacy, the VPN’s apps are a mess. Throughout our testing process, we ran into numerous bugs and choppy performance on nearly all of CyberGhost’s apps across the platforms we tested. In our testing, all of CyberGhost’s apps consistently took an abnormally long time to connect to a server. At times, the apps would become entirely unresponsive, requiring an app restart and sometimes even a full system restart. CyberGhost’s apps also don’t offer much in the way of helpful bonus features like many others, including Surfshark and NordVPN, do. CyberGhost’s speed loss averaged 30% in CNET’s testing, lagging a bit behind the 25% benchmark we look for.
Overall, CyberGhost is a sub-par VPN provider with buggy apps, middling speed performance and questionable privacy practices. It costs $13 per month, $42 every six months or $57 for the first 24 months (then $57 annually). For a similar price or even cheaper, you can choose several VPNs that are far superior to CyberGhost.
Read our CyberGhost VPN review.
Norton Secure
- Number of servers: 2,000-plus
- Number of countries: 60-plus
- Jurisdiction: US
- Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS
- Price: $40 for the first year for 5 devices (renews at $80), $50 for the first year with Norton antivirus for 5 devices (renews at $110) or $60 for the first year for 10 devices including antivirus (renews at $130)
Norton LifeLock, long known for excellence in security products, has a relatively limited offering in its VPN product. Norton Secure VPN does not support P2P or BitTorrent, Linux, routers or set-top boxes. It’s Netflix and streaming compatibility is somewhat limited. Even worse, during testing, we experienced privacy-compromising data leaks.
During CNET’s testing, Norton Secure VPN speeds were comparable to other midtier VPNs but not particularly competitive. Although its VPN is only available on four platforms — Mac, iOS, Windows and Android — Norton gets points for its 24/7 live customer service phone support and 60-day money-back guarantee.
Norton Secure VPN costs $40 for the first year, rising to $80 upon renewal. For that price, you get protection for five devices, which is well below ExpressVPN’s, Nord’s and Proton’s 10 or Surshark and PIA’s unlimited. Most VPN providers let you install a VPN on as many devices as you like but limit your simultaneous usage, but Norton restricts how many total devices you can download a VPN on. This stingy device allowance is well under the competition. If you need more, you can always upgrade to Norton’s Ultra VPN Plus with its 10-device policy. Norton Secure VPN Plus and Ultra VPN Plus bundle antivirus software, so if you need a VPN with antivirus, it’s a consideration.
Read our Norton Secure VPN review.
PrivadoVPN
- Number of servers: Hundreds
- Number of countries: 50
- Jurisdiction: Switzerland
- Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android, Android TV, iOS, iPadOS, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Linux, routers
- Price: Free, $8 per month, $20 for the first year (then $60 annually) or $30 total for the first two years (then $96 total for two years)
PrivadoVPN is a decent no-frills VPN provider. Its free plan limits your monthly usage to 10GB, but you can pick from servers in 13 cities. By contrast, Proton VPN doesn’t limit your data consumption, but you can’t choose a server manually. You won’t get the fastest internet download and upload speeds or the largest server network with its paid tiers, but Privado is a solid VPN for streaming.
Privado has privacy-friendly Swiss jurisdiction, but it hasn’t been audited. All of its privacy features work, including split tunneling, DNS leak protection and a kill switch, although its kill switch was almost too aggressive, keeping your internet cut off even after manually disconnecting from a server or closing the PrivadoVPN app. Because of its lack of audits, it’s hard to recommend Privado for privacy-conscious users, like investigative journalists, political activists, asylum-seekers or even worried torrenters.
Read our PrivadoVPN review.