The Best VPNs for France in 2025

1. CyberGhost VPN - Most Servers in France

SecurityScore:

8.9 /10

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Product Specs

Multihop	No
Obfuscated Servers	No
Kill Switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Servers

CyberGhost hosts over 11,000 servers worldwide. It also has the most servers in France, with more than 90. What difference does this make? It means you’re more likely to find a server with light traffic, and that means a faster connection. It’s also the case, though, that you get better speeds when you’re closer to a server. If you happen to be in France, you can count on being near one whether you’re in Paris, Burgundy, or Provence.

Privacy and Security

CyberGhost is another one of those companies that hasn’t yet jumped on the camouflage bandwagon. That means if you’re in the wrong country, you could find yourself targeted by the government just for using a VPN. Luckily, France doesn’t have those sorts of policies. At any rate, in our testing, we found that CyberGhost has the security features to keep you anonymous online, and bonus tools like a kill switch ensure that even if you lose your connection, you’ll remain hidden.

Pricing

CyberGhost’s single-month price is $12.99. If you sign up for two years of service, that per-month price drops to $2.03. While CyberGhost’s prices are on par with other services, when you consider what you get for your money — all the most important security features plus access to streaming content from around the world — it’s a good deal.

If you’re thinking about value, CyberGhost offers seven simultaneous connections. That was plenty for us when we were testing the service. Even running it on our iPad, our Mac, our laptop, and our Firestick, we still had three connections to play with. Larger families, though, might prefer unlimited connections from a company like Surfshark.

Surfshark can’t match CyberGhost’s platform support. In fact, few VPNs can. Surfshark is configured to work with Windows devices, Macs, and Linux systems. It offers support for both iOS and Android. It works with Smart TVs, routers, streaming consoles, and a wide range of gaming consoles, including all recent versions of PlayStation, XBox, and Nintendo.

>> Find Out How: How to Get a VPN on Xbox

The other great thing we discovered when we tested CyberGhost is that it has fast speeds across the board. Our download, upload, or latency speeds didn’t increase by more than 50 percent when connected through French servers. That’s rare. It meant we never had to worry about Fortnite hanging up during the Battle Royale. Nothing drives us crazier than our laptop conking out during the Battle Royale.

>> Deep Dive: The Top VPNs for Fortnite

2. Private Internet Access - Most Affordable

SecurityScore:

9.4 /10

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Product Specs

Server locations	91 countries
Average Speed Loss	5% download & 84% download
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Android TV, tvOS
Best Monthly Rate	$2.03/mo with a 3-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days full refund

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Servers

Private Internet Access (PIA) claims to operate almost 65,000 servers. We were a little disappointed to find that only 300 or so of those are located in France. Still, that’s more than all but one other VPN on this list, and it virtually guarantees you’ll find one nearby if you happen to be visiting Paris or Marseilles.

Privacy and Security

We were a little alarmed to learn that PIA is located in Denver. It couldn’t be a more American company, and that puts it squarely in Five Eyes territory. Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes are groups of countries that have banded together to share intelligence information with one another. That includes data about their own citizens. Basically, companies in one country have to turn over customer information to any law enforcement agency that comes calling. We were relieved, then, when our reading of PIA’s privacy policy turned up the fact that it doesn’t collect any personally identifying information about our online activities — no IP addresses, no time stamps, no browsing histories.

Pricing

PIA is among the more affordable VPNs on this list. We like its single-month price of $11.99. That’s a dollar less than NordVPN’s single-month price, which gives us the flexibility to sign up for a month or two. We’re not always great with commitment. But note that its long-term prices are just as appealing: With a three-year plan, you pay just $1.98 per month. We wonder why it doesn’t offer a two-year plan, as many other top VPNs on the market do offer one.

VPNs can improve your overall user experience in a lot of ways. They can save you money if your ISP likes to throttle you. They can provide you with access to streaming content in countries like France. Their most important feature, though, is their security. You don’t purchase a VPN to get more streaming content. You purchase a VPN to keep you safe, and on that ground, PIA definitely succeeds. The heart of this VPN is AES-256 encryption. That meant we could tell our friends that we were protected by the same encryption the CIA uses. You get to choose which VPN protocol you want to use to deploy that encryption, but both — OpenVPN and WireGuard — have been proven safe through open-source testing.

You take these basic fundamental protections and add on tools like a kill switch and newer technology like multihop, and you’ve got the recipe for online safety and privacy. When we were using one of PIA’s many multihop servers, we liked knowing that even if a hacker managed to decrypt our signal — an impossibility with AES-256 — they’d be confronted with a second level of encryption. Imagining frustrated hackers is how we get to sleep at night.

Like CyberGhost, PIA doesn’t have camouflage mode, and one of these days, that may wind up costing the company users. As streaming services become more sophisticated, they’re starting to recognize IP addresses from VPNs. For now, PIA still manages to unblock Netflix, Hulu+, and Prime Video, and hopefully it will soon see the light when it comes to obfuscated servers.

3. NordVPN - Most Secure

SecurityScore:

9.7 /10

Get NordVPN Links to NordVPN

Product Specs

Server locations	126 countries
Average Speed Loss	6% download & 4% upload
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Android TV, tvOS
Best Monthly Rate	$3.09/mo with a 2-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days full refund

Get NordVPN Links to NordVPN

Servers

NordVPN maintains over 8,000 servers worldwide. That used to be among the most in the industry. These days, it’s eclipsed by CyberGhost’s 11,700 servers and PIA’s 65,000. Even so, Nord has plenty of servers in France: more than 230. Maybe that’s why we experienced such good numbers when we speed-tested it. Our download speeds decreased an average of just 16 percent, while our upload speeds averaged just 43.5 percent slower. A VPN is always going to slow your device down, but anything under 70 percent is usually a win.

Privacy and Security

There isn’t really a security technology NordVPN doesn’t have. The foundation of the service is AES-256 encryption, the same encryption used by the U.S. military. Built on top of that are advanced features like multihop, which routes your connection through at least two servers. Multiple hops mean multiple encryptions. We log in to work from coffee houses all over the five boroughs of New York, but we never worry we might get hacked as long as we’re using NordVPN.

Pricing

NordVPN is among the best VPNs out there, but quality comes with a price. NordVPN charges $12.99 for a single month of service, and while the price does drop significantly if you sign up for a long-term contract, even with a two-year plan, you’ll still pay $2.99 per month. Note that VPN brands looking to make a name for themselves can often be had for much cheaper. For example, Ivacy offers a five-year plan that runs just $1.17 per month.

NordVPN doesn’t have everything. It doesn’t come with split tunneling, for instance. And it can run a little slow on Windows devices. If you’re looking for the most secure VPN on the market, you really can’t outdo NordVPN. That’s true whether you’re in France or any other country.

And with Nord, you actually can go basically anywhere in the world. In addition to its 230 French servers, it also maintains servers in 11 additional countries, from Costa Rica to Thailand. That means you can find a server nearby, no matter where you might be traveling, as we discovered when we needed a stable connection when we were visiting our brother-in-law in Japan.

>> Read About: Best VPNs for Japan

Even better, having all those servers in all those countries means you can masquerade as a digital citizen of any one of them. When you log on to a French server, for example, NordVPN assigns you a French IP address, and that means you can access streaming services that are located in France. And that means that you can access Netflix and Prime Video content libraries that are available only in France. If only we’d had NordVPN when we were in college. Our French 101 grade might have been higher if we could have binge-watched a few French sitcoms.

>> Read More: Best VPNs for Prime Video

4. Surfshark - Best for Families

SecurityScore:

9.5 /10

Get Surfshark VPN Links to Surfshark.com

Product Specs

Server locations	100 countries
Average Speed Loss	8% download & 50% upload
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, tvOS, Android TV, Fire TV
Best Monthly Rate	$1.99/mo with a 2-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days full refund

Get Surfshark VPN Links to Surfshark.com

Servers

Surfshark doesn’t have as many French servers as CyberGhost or PIA. It’s also far below NordVPN, sitting at 4,500. That’s not necessarily a problem, though. It all comes down to how much traffic is on any particular server you’re trying to use. And Surfshark’s 76 French servers are more than enough to accommodate all the traffic from those in the country and those who want to log in from other locations.

Certainly, our speed tests didn’t reveal any lags, which you’d expect if all the servers were crowded. Latency on our Windows device increased a little more than we were comfortable with, but downloads and uploads were very fast. We never experienced any decrease of more than 50 percent. That was fast enough to get our work done in half the time it usually takes.

>> See Also: Best VPNs for Windows

Privacy and Security

What Surfshark has over CyberGhost and PIA is camouflaged servers. This feature conceals the fact that you’re using a VPN. That can be handy if you’re worried that the government might be spying on your online activities. A VPN makes you safer just by assigning you an anonymous IP address. But if someone out there knows you’re using a VPN, that can raise their suspicions.

Pricing

Surfshark’s single-month cost is a little high. At $15.45, it’s even more than NordVPN charges, and it’s certainly more expensive than UltraVPN’s $7.99 price tag. The company takes care of its loyal customers, though. If you’re willing to commit to two years of the service, the price drops dramatically, to just $2.49 per month.

We didn’t have the benefit of access to French television when we were in college, but kids these days certainly do. If members of your family need access to French streaming services, Surfshark can do the trick. When you’re using one of the company’s obfuscated servers, Netflix and Prime Video won’t even know you’re using a VPN. That means they don’t have a chance to block you from signing in.

And since Surfshark allows you to install its VPN on an unlimited number of devices and to sign on to all those devices at the same time, you won’t have to worry about waiting to secure your laptop until Junior is finished using his tablet. The thing is, these days, everyone in the house is online all the time, and everyone needs protection. VPNs that limit simultaneous connections to two or three just won’t cut it.

>> Read About: The Best VPNs for School

Of course, Surfshark does have its downsides. When we were trying to Zoom with our old college roommate on our Acer laptop, our latency increased by over 2,500 percent. Sure, it was funny when our boss’s mouth froze with his tongue out, but when the signal reconnected, he wasn’t nearly as amused as we were. Luckily, we recently invested in an iPad, and Surfshark’s latency dropped to just 2 percent.

5. Proton VPN - Best for Streaming

SecurityScore:

9.3 /10

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Product Specs

Server locations	127 countries
Average Speed Loss	8% download & 4% upload
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Android TV, tvOS, Firestick
Best Monthly Rate	$4.49/mo with a 2-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days

View Plans Links to Proton VPN

Servers

Proton VPN has fewer servers than any other company on this list, and fewer servers in France itself. As we’ve mentioned already, how many servers a VPN maintains is secondary to how much traffic goes through those servers. One relatively empty server is all you need for a fast, stable connection. We certainly had no problems when we tested the service. We barely noticed any change in ping, for instance. Our Windows latency increased from 10 to 12 seconds, while our Mac latency increased from 10 to 11. The bottom line: We didn’t notice any change.

>> Check Out: Best VPNs for Mac

Privacy and Security

We were impressed with ProtonVPN’s security features. As you’ve probably already gathered, we don’t normally put a VPN on one of our best lists unless it uses AES-256 encryption and either the OpenVPN or WireGuard protocol. Our testing of ProtonVPN turned up that it also provides multihop-configured servers, some of which are obfuscated servers as well. For now, VPNs don’t get much safer than that.

Pricing

It can be tricky talking about pricing with Proton VPN because the company operates on euros, and the exchange rate with U.S. dollars is always in flux. At present, for example, a single month of the service runs around $9.99. That’s a pretty good price. It could get better, but it could also get considerably worse, depending on how the world’s economies rise and fall. We can say for sure, though, that it doesn’t offer a great discount when it comes to multiyear contracts. Forty-five percent off sounds good, but when you consider that Ivacy’s annual price is nearly 90 percent less than its single-month price, 45 percent off doesn’t seem like such a great deal.

Proton VPN is a country that’s defined by its location in Switzerland. The company was founded by engineers at the famous CERN laboratory by engineers who were looking for a way to ensure their international emails were secure. With a pedigree like that, you can be sure the company takes a forward-thinking approach to safety and security. I mean, if they feel safe sending high-level data about the god particle and how quantum entanglement works, we won’t worry too much that anyone will figure out we’re watching “Bridgerton.”

Switzerland is important for another reason. It’s definitely not a member of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, or 14 Eyes surveillance organizations. In fact, the Swiss take privacy as seriously as any country on Earth. You don’t have to worry about a Swiss law enforcement agency, or a law enforcement agency from any other country, showing up with a subpoena and forcing Proton to turn over customer data.

Of course, as we’ve already mentioned, Proton VPN is also solidly Swiss when it comes to its pricing structure. It doesn’t offer any plans in dollars. Instead, we had to take the euro prices listed on the website and run them through a currency converter that was attuned to the current exchange rate. The good news is that most credit card companies and banks will take care of that automatically for you when you make an overseas purchase. It does make researching VPN prices kind of a pain, though.

6. PureVPN - Best With Multihop

SecurityScore:

8.9 /10

View Plans Links to PureVPN

Product Specs

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

View Plans Links to PureVPN

Servers

During testing, we found PureVPN’s number of servers — 6,000 — to be more than enough. Our upload and download speeds on our Windows device increased by just 44 and 11 percent, respectively, and our Mac speeds were just as good. We were a little more concerned when we looked at the number of PureVPN servers in France. Seventy-eight isn’t a terrible number. It’s not even the lowest number on this list. As a percentage of PureVPN’s total servers, though, it suggests the company isn’t as committed to its presence in France as it is to its presence in other countries.

Privacy and Security

PureVPN has all the security features you’d expect from a top-tier VPN, including a kill switch. The fact is, you can never count on the internet to be 100 percent stable. That’s just as true for VPNs as it is for regular Wi-Fi. If your VPN should go down, there’s a risk that someone monitoring your connection could peek at your browsing history or even your personal data. PureVPN’s kill switch ensures that can’t happen. It shuts down your browser the very moment you lose your VPN connection.

Pricing

We don’t always want to make a long-term commitment to a VPN service, so we like the flexibility companies like PureVPN offer. We can get a single month of service for a good basic price: $12.45. But we can also get an annual or a two-year plan. That two-year plan is especially cost-effective at just $2.03 per month.

The downside with PureVPN isn’t really a downside. It’s the fact that it’s simply solid across the board. It doesn’t have the server numbers of PIA or the France server numbers of CyberGhost. It doesn’t have the speeds of Proton VPN. It’s not quite as packed with security features as NordVPN. It doesn’t really have anything particular that stands out about it. But that’s its mark of distinction. With PureVPN, what you see is what you can get, and you can always count on the VPN to keep your browsing secure and private.

>> See Also: The Complete Guide to Private Browsers

We don’t just fill out these lists for the sake of having the right number of VPNs on them. PureVPN is just as good a VPN, and just as good a VPN for France, as any of the VPNs on this list. It has AES-256 encryption, just like all the other VPNs we’ve mentioned. It offers the OpenVPN protocol, a protocol that’s been around for over 20 years and that has been rigorously tested by the entire internet community. It offers multihop technology and camouflage mode, just like NordVPN and Surfshark.

And it doesn’t hurt that PureVPN gave us access to all the most important streaming services and let us stream content from libraries in dozens of other countries. Honestly, we’re probably not going to watch many shows from the Indonesian Netflix library. But it did make us ridiculously happy to know that we could with PureVPN.

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