The Best VPNs for Android in 2023

1. NordVPN - Best Privacy Features

Editors Rating:

9.7 /10

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Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Privacy: NordVPN comes from Nord Security, a company that builds digital tools centered around online privacy, so we expected nothing less than complete privacy from this VPN. It didn’t disappoint. Its privacy policy was clear about its practices. Although it collects some aggregate data, such as device information and identifiers, it’s a true “no-logs” VPN that doesn’t record users’ IP addresses, browsing activity, and other sensitive information. It’s unlike CyberGhost, a VPN we recently reviewed, that collects location information, although in an anonymous format.

App performance: NordVPN’s Android app was a little on the heavy side, weighing in at over 150 MB, but it ran fast and smoothly. It launched quickly and connected to a VPN tunnel even more so, which made it easy for us to use the VPN while on the subway or standing in line to get coffee.

» Further Reading: The Overall Best VPN

NordVPN also had no noticeable impact on our device’s performance and battery level. We once left it running for eight hours straight and still went home with a 30-percent charge, nothing different from our normal battery consumption.

Speed: When it comes to speed, NordVPN’s Android version performed a bit slower than its Windows and Mac counterparts, but it was still above average overall. Both the download speed and upload speed remained at over 200 Mbps on our 250 Mbps network, so that’s a speed decrease of less than 20-percent. That’s better than (ironically) FastVPN. In our FastVPN review, we recorded a 40-percent speed loss even when connected to a nearby VPN server.

We selected NordVPN as the best Android VPN for privacy for numerous reasons, one of which is its features. For folks who want absolute privacy, NordVPN has an option to double the encryption and tunneling of its VPN, called Double VPN. Otherwise known as multi-hop, this feature encrypted our traffic twice and routed it through two VPN servers in different locations, making it all that much harder to invade our privacy. We used this feature mostly when corresponding with anonymous sources for our journalistic endeavors, but we see this feature being useful for activists, whistleblowers, and anyone who might need extra secrecy and anonymity on their phones.

Even with a normal VPN connection, NordVPN provided us plenty of privacy. The standard encryption was 256-bit AES, the same encryption the U.S. government has been using since 2001.2 By the way, this is also the gold standard encryption implemented by the top VPNs today.

2. Surfshark - Best App Performance

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Privacy: Surfshark is another VPN that claims not to log user data, but we found in its privacy policy3 that it logs VPN users’ IP addresses. However, Surfshark assures that the information is wiped automatically 15 minutes after disconnecting.

We don’t just take a VPN company’s word as truth. For example, PureVPN claims to keep no logs, but helped the FBI track a cyberstalker in 2017, allegedly using logged data. The company has since addressed the issue4, but incidents like that make it hard to trust. Surfshark distinguishes itself by submitting its practices to independent third-party audits. The most recent one, performed by the German firm Cure53, confirmed that Surfshark’s server infrastructure aligns with its privacy policy, including the collection and subsequent deletion of users’ IP addresses.

App performance: Surfshark’s clean interface and lightweight app made it easy to use the service anytime and anywhere. Notably, to quickly connect, it offers the option to connect you to the nearest or fastest server without trial-and-error. We used the “fastest server” option if we wanted to stream or download or the “nearest server” if we wanted to protect our privacy without changing our Android’s location. These quick connect options contribute to Surfshark’s user-friendliness.

Speed: Surfshark’s download speed, averaging at 216 Mbps in our tests, was able to go toe-to-toe with the rest of our top VPN picks, but its 187 Mbps average upload speed left much to be desired. It provided enough speed to support our daily browsing and streaming, but just know that we found uploading stories to Instagram (and other social media, for that matter) much slower with Surfshark.

Surfshark puts a premium on user-experience, as made evident by its frequent updates and improvements to its apps. During our testing period alone, Surfshark pushed updates that enhanced the stability of the connections, gave the app’s interface a facelift, and added new connection protocols for faster establishing of VPN tunnels.

Surfshark was super easy to use, but it’s also secure. For example, by default, it automatically selected the fastest and most reliable VPN protocol available to the server we selected. It even showed us which protocol we were currently using so we can change it if it doesn’t suit us. For example, while on our mobile carrier’s network, we saw that it was using OpenVPN. Now, OpenVPN is secure, but we know that it doesn’t do as well as WireGuard when on mobile data, so we were able to change the protocol on the fly and enjoy better speeds (and less data consumption).

» Learn more: VPN Cellular Usage and Data Consumption

3. IPVanish - Fastest VPN for Android

Editors Rating:

9.3 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	No
Camouflage Mode	No
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes, with uTorrent

Privacy: We found IPVanish’s privacy policy concise and clear. Upfront, it communicated the company’s goal to collect as little data as possible. While it logs aggregated data about VPN performance, it also promises not to collect IP addresses, DNS queries, and connection time stamps. In that way, it’s similar to our privacy favorite, NordVPN.

Within the VPN, IPVanish uses 256-bit AES encryption, also similar to NordVPN. It also has a built-in kill switch. This feature is crucial to privacy, as it stops your device from connecting to the internet when your VPN connection suddenly drops. It activated one time we switched from Wi-Fi to mobile data, reminding us to reconnect IPVanish before using our Android to browse.

App performance: When we started up the IPVanish’s Android app the first time, it took us through a quick tour of its features. We’re familiar with VPN features, of course, but if you’re new to VPNs, you’ll surely appreciate the tutorial.

We also appreciated that IPVanish’s server selection menu includes useful details like the latency and load of each server, which helped us avoid servers that were overcrowded or slow. When we searched for Australia servers, for example, we saw that server number #1 in Perth had the lowest load at the time and a decent ping or latency, so that’s what we connected to.

Speed: Speaking of load and latency, our experience with IPVanish’s servers was excellent overall. Most of the servers we connected to didn’t cause noticeable network slowdowns, and our average speed with IPVanish was 229 Mbps (download) and 213 Mbps (upload). Those are excellent speeds – and again, it’s partly thanks to the fact that we had some help from the app in picking the best servers to connect to.

Its speed may be the main reason we picked IPVanish as one of the best Android VPNs, but it still offers more than adequate privacy and security.

Usually, a VPN slows down your internet connection because of the added encryption and tunneling, so we’re always wary when we see a fast VPN because it might mean that it doesn’t provide enough security. With IPVanish, though, we confirmed that its encryption works and that it’s good at hiding your IP address by doing DNS and WebRTC leak tests, standard VPN tests we use to confirm if a VPN is working.

DNS and WebRTC leaks are vulnerabilities found in browsers and networks that could allow a third party such as your ISP to see your real IP address even if you’re using a VPN. To test for these leaks, we connected to IPVanish and used tools that attempt to exploit those vulnerabilities. The results? Both detected our IPVanish IP address, proving that our real IP address was well-hidden.

» Read more: Fix Common VPN Issues

4. Private Internet Access VPN - Best Value Android VPN

Editors Rating:

9.4 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	No
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Privacy: There were a couple of noteworthy things we liked about Private Internet Access. For starters, while it does collect personal data (like email addresses and payment information) when you sign up for its service, it does not collect any identifiable information from your VPN usage, such as IP addresses and browsing history.

And another thing: Most Android VPN apps we tested, even our top picks NordVPN and Surfshark, collected VPN connection statistics and metrics like operating system versions, connection events, and device identifiers. With PIA, it’s all optional. If you want to help Private Internet Access improve its services, you can opt in and allow the app to collect such metrics, but this setting is off by default.

App performance: Private Internet Access’ app is simple. Like IPVanish, its server menu lists the average latency of each location (but not its load). One thing we really liked, though, was the “Use Small Packets” option, which we found hidden deep into its settings. This feature was designed for mobile users specifically, as it slightly reduces the size of encrypted data packets to be easier for mobile data networks to process. We found that with this setting turned on, our download and upload speed slightly improved by about 5 Mbps.

Speed: With the help of the Use Small Packets feature, Private Internet Access propelled past our other top picks. It was second only to IPVanish in terms of speed, recording an average download speed of 223 Mbps. Although its upload speed wasn’t that great (193 Mbps), it was still plenty fast, allowing seamless downloads and streaming. That’s good, because PIA also has servers optimized specifically for streaming.

What really stood out about Private Internet Access was the price. VPNs typically cost over $10 per month, but you can buy PIA for as low as $2.03 per month on average if you buy a three-year subscription. Now, you’ll have to pay for the entire three years upfront, so that’s about $80, but it’s money well-spent if you’re looking for a VPN for the long haul. For comparison’s sake, our next entry to this list, ExpressVPN, costs $100 per year.

You’ll also like that there’s a seven-day free trial if you buy through the Android app, and this is a real VPN free trial. You will only be charged after the seven days are up. While the trial is on-going, you will also receive log-in details that you can use on other devices, so if you want to test out Private Internet Access on your computer as well, that’s possible. On that note, you can install PIA on as many devices as you want, as Private Internet Access subscription includes protection for unlimited devices. We have it on our two iPhones, three laptops, and a Chromecast.

5. ExpressVPN - Best Encryption

Editors Rating:

9.1 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	No
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

Privacy: ExpressVPN has a solid reputation when it comes to privacy, and it’s easy to see why. Like NordVPN, ExpressVPN collects only aggregate data from its VPN apps. It does not collect IP addresses, VPN traffic, and DNS queries.

ExpressVPN’s privacy policy also mentions that if any of the data centers that house its VPN servers were to ask the company to log VPN traffic, it would immediately cease operations in the data center. This is interesting, because just recently, ExpressVPN pulled all its physical servers from India after the country passed a law requiring VPNs to log VPN traffic. It was one of the first companies to do so, which to us is strong proof of its commitment to privacy.

App performance: We found ExpressVPN’s Android app refreshingly simple and clean. Its interface is actually quite similar to that of the ExpressVPN iOS, Windows, and macOS apps, so if you’re planning to use the VPN across all your devices, you won’t have to learn to navigate different apps. Unfortunately, that’s not true for all multi-platform VPNs. While we loved Surfshark’s Android app, for example, we found its Windows app not very easy to navigate. With ExpressVPN, we got consistent app performance across all platforms.

Speed: ExpressVPN’s speed on Android was excellent, especially since we used Lightway. Lightway is a VPN protocol built from the ground up by the company itself, and it’s touted to be a fast and lightweight alternative to the likes of OpenVPN. Well, with Lightway, we got a 214 Mbps average download speed and 207 Mbps average download speed. When we tried ExpressVPN’s OpenVPN configuration, those numbers went down to 193 Mbps and 188 Mbps.

ExpressVPN’s gold standard encryption, which makes use of the 256-bit AES standard, is backed by its TrustedServer network. TrustedServer is the name for ExpressVPN’s servers that run only on random access memory or RAM, otherwise known as RAM-only servers.

Let’s backtrack a little bit to understand the significance of that. VPN servers are physical servers housed in data centers or server banks, the same as the big metal boxes with blinking lights we see in movies. To run VPN operations, these servers need memory, and conventionally, they use hard disk drives. The problem with that is data remanence5 – even when data is erased from a hard disk, it can be recovered.

Now, RAM is another form of memory, but it’s volatile and temporary. After a system reboot, all data stored on RAM are erased and cannot be recovered. That’s why instead of using hard disks to make its servers run, ExpressVPN opted to use RAM. And for extra measure, it reboots its servers at least once a week. It’s like asking someone with short-term memory to keep a secret – it’s safe.