VPN For IPhone How we test
Choosing the best VPN for iPhone for this guide involved hands-on testing, which I’ll describe in more detail shortly, but it also relied heavily on guidance from cybersecurity experts. When it comes to the types of things consumers should look for in VPN services, I was told in separate interviews, that much of what separates the good from the bad can be deduced before installing anything. These experts include:
What the experts said
When you browse the Internet freely without a VPN, you are constantly being tracked online by various third parties, including your Internet Service Provider (ISP), search engines like Google, and possibly even your employer or school. Connecting to a VPN means taking away your traffic and putting it in the hands of a single entity, granting exclusive, unrestricted access to all your browsing data. It’s a privilege that must be earned, and ultimately the true caliber of a VPN comes down to whether you can fully believe it’s keeping you safe.
Unfortunately, the VPN industry is known for its hyperbolic marketing, especially when it comes to privacy practices. This can “give VPN users a false sense of security if they don’t realize that the protections offered are not comprehensive,” according to a Consumer Reports investigation of 16 providers. (Many popular VPNs shout that they offer “military-grade” encryption, for example, which doesn’t exist.) It is not wise to accept the “trust me, brother!” from a supplier. claims at face value.
So how do you know for sure if a VPN is trustworthy?
A single Google search can be illuminating: a good provider won’t have a long history of misappropriating users’ personal data or succumbing to server breaches, and bad headlines should raise a red flag, including those about ownership of a company. VPN or its parent company. A quick and effective response to crises and a healthy dose of corporate responsibility can offset these concerns in some cases, but I also highly value an impeccable reputation.
The best VPN services should also be willing to expose themselves to scrutiny. Boasting a robust “no-logs” privacy policy that specifies how users’ personal information is protected is one thing, but subjecting that policy to independent audits (and making the results public) provides a much higher level of security.
The most trusted VPNs will also issue regular transparency reports that reveal any data requests they have received from government or law enforcement agencies. (These requests will produce nothing if a provider’s privacy policy is upheld.) Some go the extra mile by offering internal bug bounty programs to researchers who check their software and servers for vulnerabilities.
Tests we perform on VPN
I previously wrote longer, in-depth reviews of MacOS apps from NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and TunnelBear, which included evaluations of their companies’ policies, track records, and overall reliability. With that knowledge in my back pocket, I performed additional hands-on testing of their iOS apps for this guide.
Using my personal iPhone 11 running iOS 16.6.1, I had each VPN connected for about eight hours straight to get a general sense of the user experience as part of a casual, daily workflow. This involved a handful of performance benchmarks:
DNS leak testing
Often described as “the phone book of the Internet,” DNS (Domain Name System) is basically a back-end directory that translates website domain names into computer language, also known as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. ). An IP address is a unique number that is assigned to a device when it is connected to the Internet; identifies the device’s general location and ISP name.
Without making things too complicated (be patient): when you search for a website, your browser sends a query to one of your ISP’s DNS servers to track down its matching IP addresses so it can send you to that page. Without DNS, you would have to type a long series of numbers every time you wanted to visit a website. Instead of “Mashable.com,” for example, you would enter “104.18.33.218” or “172.64.154.38” in the search bar.
A VPN is supposed to redirect your DNS queries to its own DNS servers while you’re connected to it; That way, your ISP (and possibly other snoops) can’t see where you are or what sites you’re browsing. If the VPN fails, it may continue to send DNS queries to the ISP’s DNS servers, putting your security at risk. That’s the essence of a DNS leak.
Some VPN apps have built-in DNS leak tests that tell you if your connection is secure and if your real IP address is hidden. Otherwise, you can do them through DNSleaktest.com. When I test a VPN, I run its standard test twice: once with the VPN turned off and once with the VPN connected.
Test different use cases
The number one purpose of VPNs is to make it difficult for anyone other than the provider to identify and track your online activity, so all of the VPNs I recommend should get it right, with no exceptions. However, VPNs are also widely used to spoof user locations and bypass geo-restrictions on content, especially overseas streaming libraries. (Services like Netflix limit their overseas libraries due to region-specific distribution rights.)
While a VPN will never be disqualified simply because it cannot allow users to access geo-blocked content, it is a plus if it is successful, which is why I still test it. I do this by connecting to one of the UK’s VPN servers from my home in Chicago running a DNS leak test to see if my IP address changes accordingly, and then trying to watch Love Island UK on the UK’s ITVX streaming service. United.
speed tests
The connection speed of a VPN depends on many different variables, but it will almost always be slower than your usual Internet connection, so it is not a major factor in my final recommendations. That said, I try to get a feel for how well a VPN works by using it for an extended period of time and running it through some quick Ookla speed tests. (I do three of them: one with the VPN turned off, one with the VPN connected to a local server, and one with the VPN connected to a French server.) If a VPN is noticeably slow to the point of affecting usability, I’ll say so.
A general rule of thumb for any VPN is that your connection speed will be faster when you are connected to a server that is geographically close to your actual location.
Other important details
I also took the following factors into account when using each VPN on iOS and decided to recommend them, listed in no particular order:
Included Features
Most premium VPNs come with similar privacy tools, so I don’t find any major discrepancies between providers in this regard. Still, it’s worth noting some of the important ones I look for:
- TO off switch It will immediately disconnect your device from the internet if your VPN fails. (This is non-negotiable).
- Support for multi-hop connections They route your traffic through two or more VPN servers. This adds an extra layer of protection.
- Split tunnelA tool that sends some of your traffic through the VPN and some out of it to conserve bandwidth, can be useful for streaming and gaming.
Providers often also bundle their VPN with additional security features such as malware/adware blockers, data breach detectors, and cloud storage. These won’t improve the VPN itself, but they’re good to have along with your antivirus and password manager software. (If you have to choose between a reputable VPN or one that comes with a ton of add-ons, always choose the former.)
Protocol type
A VPN protocol is a set of instructions that determine how data is communicated between its servers and your devices. Many VPN providers have developed proprietary protocols in recent years, but Open VPN remains the most popular and widely respected option: it’s stable, secure, and open source, meaning anyone can inspect your code for vulnerabilities. WireGuard is another good choice that is newer than OpenVPN and supposedly faster.
Encryption type
A VPN protects your data by encrypting or scrambling it into unreadable “ciphertext” that can only be decoded with a secret key or password. Virtually all premium VPNs use Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit encryption which is practically indecipherable for third parties.
Size and distribution of the server network.
Choosing a VPN with a large server network means you’re less likely to share one with many other users, which is especially valuable for streaming (since there’s more bandwidth to go around).
Similarly, a VPN with a geographically diverse network of servers in many different parts of the world will make it easier for you to spoof specific locations and find one near you to optimize connection speeds. Most premium VPNs maintain servers in America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; few have a large presence in Africa.
Number of simultaneous connections
Most VPNs can be used on five to ten devices per account (depending on the provider), which should be enough for individual users. Some of them support unlimited simultaneous connections to better serve larger households.
Customer service options
Users should have access to some form of help 24 hours a day should a problem arise with their VPN connection or account, whether by phone, email, or live chat. (Online help forums and tutorials are good, but not enough on their own.) I also give preference to VPNs that offer some kind of money-back guarantee; In most cases, it lasts 30 days.
Total value
Premium VPN providers typically charge their customers between $2 and $12 per month for access, depending on the length of the subscription. It’s easier to justify the higher end of that spectrum if it offers you a reliable, responsible VPN with some useful security features.
Easy to use
Some VPNs are more intuitive and beginner-friendly than others.
It’s important to note that many popular VPN providers frame their jurisdiction, or the location of their headquarters, as something that can have serious privacy implications based on local surveillance laws (such as the Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances). Without going into too much detail, the experts I spoke to said that the average consumer shouldn’t put much stock in these claims and that authorities will have access to user data in one way or another if the need is great enough. What’s more worrying, they added, coming full circle, is whether a VPN provider retains any data in the first place.
If anything, users would be better off choosing a VPN based in a country with strong consumer protections against deceptive marketing (such as the United States and many European Union countries). These could be useful if a provider’s privacy policy is ever questioned.
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