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Other VPNs we’ve tested on iPhone
Surfshark: Surfshark was a strong contender for the main list. Even its Starter plan comes with additional features like a persuasive email generator. Features like blocking ads and trackers, as well as unlimited simultaneous connections, come standard across plans. However, it was a little slower than my top picks, down about 20 percent speed on average, compared to about 15 percent for the top picks.
mole: Mullvad is a favorite among privacy enthusiasts, and for good reason. It doesn’t care about multi-year discounts or referral programs, and you don’t even need to provide an email to sign up for an account. You can also pay the fixed monthly fee by mailing Mullvad cash. It’s a great service if privacy is your top priority, but it trades off speeds and features in the process. VPN services like Nord and Proton have quickly evolved into full-fledged privacy and security suites, while Mullvad is more focused on creating a robust VPN. In the context of the iPhone, the scales lean more toward these security suites, but Mullvad is still a great privacy-focused option to consider.
ExpressVPN: By the numbers, ExpressVPN should be at the top of the list. It has a large number of servers, a feature set that can compete with the Nord, and speeds that are just a touch slower than the Proton. However, ExpressVPN has found itself in a vortex of increasing controversy over the past four years, and the brand has yet to get back on solid footing. After it was purchased by Kape Technologies – the company behind the notorious adware company Crossrider – former US intelligence official Daniel Gerick took over as CTO and continued in that role for two years, even after… He was fined more than $300,000 by the US Department of Justice For hacking activities on behalf of a foreign government. Gericke left in 2023, but in the same year, ExpressVPN saw a raft of layoffs, and Kape, its parent company, was delisted from the London Stock Exchange. The vast majority of the shares went to Unikmind Holdings Limited, a company owned by Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi, who got his start by creating gambling software Playtech. This is a very abbreviated version of what ExpressVPN has been through over the past few years. The company hasn’t done anything nefarious, but the revolving door of executive oversight tied to controversial names does not inspire confidence.
Private Internet access: Private Internet Access, or PIA, is also owned by Kape Technologies, and has followed a similar playbook as ExpressVPN and CyberGhost, which Kape also owns. After the acquisition and the backlash from the community, there was very little transparency about what was happening at the company. The connection to Kape certainly raises questions, but that doesn’t immediately preclude inclusion of the service. Unfortunately for PIA, its speeds were much slower than any of the other VPN services I tested, so regardless of ownership, it’s not our top choice for iPhone VPNs.
Compare iPhone VPN features
You might be surprised by how similar the three VPNs I’ve chosen are when you analyze their features, but that’s no coincidence. Given how restrictive I am with who made the final cut, there is a very high level of inclusion. Although there are some minor differences, I’ve designed this list in such a way that you can pick one of my picks without reading a single word and still get an excellent VPN for iPhone.
How we tested
To get the best VPN title for iPhone, a service must meet three criteria. It must be safe, fast and easy to use. This may seem obvious enough, but there are a few things that go into it. For ease of use, I only looked at VPNs that offer a one-click connection. If you need to configure anything, that’s disqualification. This still includes a lot of the most popular iPhone VPNs, so I’ve narrowed the field further by focusing on apps that balance ease of use with power. You should have all the relevant features in the iOS app that are available in the desktop app, and organized in a way that doesn’t disrupt that experience with a single click.
Speed testing is where I focused a lot of my testing time. Speed testing is extremely variable, and trying to come up with a single number to cover the speed of thousands of servers is a fool’s errand. The numbers I’ve compiled for this guide are the result of 20 tests I ran for each VPN, then averaged.
I tested five sites for each VPN, measured my unprotected speed right before the test and ran three passes before the average. Each site was tested at a different time of day, and I removed any outliers before calculating the average. For this guide, this means that if there is a deviation greater than 10 percent between two of the three passes. After calculating the average speed drop for each location, I added all of these numbers together and averaged them for the final speed drop.
Finally, security. The conventional wisdom with a VPN is that you have to, at some point, put some trust in the company that its privacy policy is accurate and that it’s not lying about its logging practices. This didn’t do it for me. Once again, it set a high bar for inclusion.
Every VPN I’ve listed here has not only been independently audited, but has also been forced to uphold a no-log policy in legal proceedings. You do need to put some trust in that the VPN provider you’re using is telling the truth, but the options I’ve listed all have proven track records when it comes to transparency.
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