What a VPN actually protects you from, what it doesn't, and honest tradeoffs between the main options. Audit history, corporate ownership, and jurisdiction matter more than most comparison sites suggest.
A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server in another location, hiding your activity from your ISP and masking your IP address from websites you visit. This is genuinely useful in specific situations:
A VPN does not make you anonymous online, protect you from malware, hide your identity from services you're logged into, or prevent data collection by websites you visit while signed in.
Most VPN comparison sites focus on speed benchmarks and server counts. These matter less than three things that are rarely covered honestly:
6,000+ servers in 110 countries. Strong speeds for streaming and general use. Post-quantum encryption (2024). Threat Protection blocks malware and trackers at DNS level. NordLynx protocol (WireGuard-based) is consistently fast.
Owned by Nord Security, a private company. Had a server breach in 2018 (disclosed 2019) — no user data was compromised but it raised questions about infrastructure security, since addressed. 2yr pricing is significantly cheaper than monthly.
Affiliate link — we earn a commission if you subscribe, at no cost to you.
Swiss-based privacy company behind ProtonMail. Fully open-source clients — anyone can review the code. Independently audited no-logs policy. Free tier with no data limit (slower speeds, fewer servers). Stealth protocol to bypass VPN blocking.
Slower than NordVPN on average, especially on distant servers. Fewer servers than NordVPN or ExpressVPN. Streaming reliability is inconsistent for accessing geo-restricted content. Privacy credentials are stronger than most — Swiss jurisdiction is meaningful.
No email required to sign up — you receive a random account number. Accepts cash and Monero in addition to card. €5/mo flat with no cheaper long-term plans. Open-source clients, independently audited, no-logs verified. Lets you pay anonymously in a way no other mainstream VPN does.
Sweden is a Five Eyes-adjacent country (SIGINT sharing), which slightly weakens the jurisdiction argument versus Switzerland. Fewer servers than NordVPN or ExpressVPN. No streaming-optimised servers. Better for general privacy than for streaming geo-restrictions.
3,000+ servers in 105 countries. Consistently strong speeds and streaming performance. Lightway protocol (proprietary, audited) is fast and reliable. Good for streaming geo-restricted content. Polished apps across all platforms.
One of the pricier options — significantly more expensive than NordVPN for comparable service. The ownership situation (see below) is a legitimate concern for privacy-first users. More expensive than NordVPN with a shorter audit history.
Budget option with unlimited simultaneous device connections (most VPNs cap at 5–10). Good speeds on WireGuard. CleanWeb blocks ads and trackers. Independently audited no-logs policy.
Owned by Nord Security — the same company that owns NordVPN. If you're paying for both, you're paying the same company twice. The Netherlands jurisdiction is EU-based, which has different implications than BVI or Panama for government data requests.
9,000+ servers — the largest server count of any mainstream VPN. Streaming-optimised servers labelled by service. Budget 2yr pricing. Independently audited. Romanian jurisdiction is outside Five Eyes.
Kape Technologies owned — see ExpressVPN note above. Server count numbers are padded by virtual servers in some locations, meaning the physical server is not in the country listed. Speed is inconsistent across the server network.
Open-source clients that can be independently reviewed. No-logs claim has been verified in US court proceedings on two occasions — the strongest real-world test of a no-logs policy. Very competitive pricing. WireGuard and OpenVPN support.
US jurisdiction — subject to US government data requests and National Security Letters. Kape Technologies owned. The court-verified no-logs record is positive, but US jurisdiction is a legitimate concern for users in countries with strained US relations or those seeking maximum privacy.
Hola is a peer-to-peer proxy network, not a VPN. Free users act as exit nodes for other users' traffic — meaning other Hola users' internet activity routes through your IP address and internet connection. You are legally responsible for traffic that exits through your device.
Your IP address appears in logs as the origin of whatever other users do through your connection. Hola also sells bandwidth from free users to businesses through its Luminati (now Bright Data) commercial network. This is fundamentally different from how a VPN works.
Three of the most widely recommended VPN brands — ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and Private Internet Access — are all owned by Kape Technologies, a private holding company. Two more — NordVPN and Surfshark — share a parent in Nord Security.
This matters because a VPN's value proposition is trust. You're routing all your internet traffic through their infrastructure. When multiple "competing" VPN services are owned by the same company, the competitive landscape is less diverse than it appears, and trust is concentrated in fewer entities than the number of brand names suggests.
It doesn't make any of these products untrustworthy — all of them have passed independent audits. But it's information worth having when choosing, especially if you're paying for more than one VPN brand simultaneously.
The options with genuinely independent ownership at present: Proton VPN (Proton AG, Swiss non-profit structure), Mullvad (Amagicom AB, Swedish private company), and IPVanish (Ziff Davis).
Paste your bank statement and FindRecurring will show you which VPN services are on it — and flag if you're paying for multiple ones owned by the same parent company.
Check your statement →Prices shown are approximate 2-year plan rates and change frequently. Confirm current pricing with each provider. FindRecurring earns an affiliate commission from NordVPN subscriptions via the link above — this does not influence how NordVPN is described relative to other services on this page. All other VPNs are listed without commission.