There are two halves to a truly excellent VPN.
First, there's the stuff you can see: the company's website, the price you have to pay to use the service, and the VPN client software. But there's also the stuff you can't see.
This latter half is everything from the number and distribution of VPN servers to the location of the VPN company to the underlying protocol to the company's privacy policy.
When we review a VPN, we give particular weight to a service that has an excellent, easy-to-use client.
There are, frankly, far too many security companies that give usability a backseat and focus entirely on technical perfection. You might have the most powerful, most secure VPN ever, but it won't matter if the average person can't use it.
Given the emphasis that Apple and Apple users give aesthetics, we tend to prefer a VPN that blends in well with its surroundings even more on the Mac. If your VPN looks like a WinAMP skin from 2004, or has an OS X 10.3 brushed-metal finish, that's going to count against it.
Note that while you can configure most computers, even Macs, to work directly with a VPN service, we recommend using the company's client software. This is far easier to set up and maintain than manual configuration, and gives you easy access to all the features you're paying for in a VPN service.
As for price, our primary concern is flexibility and value. Services that only offer a single, expensive plan aren't a great option. We're living in the age of à la carte services, where most consumers are accustomed to monthly fees. Moreover, if your VPN stops working or providing adequate speeds, it would be crummy to have paid a lot for a year's worth of access.
The average monthly fee for the top 10 VPNs we've reviewed is, as of this writing, around $10.30. Many come in below that figure, and a few go above. The ones that cost more, obviously, have to justify their hefty price tags.
But money shouldn't be an obstacle for security, and there are many worthy free VPNs floating around.
Value is a bit trickier, but we believe that a single VPN subscription should meet certain criteria. It needs to include coverage for at least five simultaneous devices, which is the norm for the industry. It needs to work on multiple platforms, including mobile devices. And a single subscription needs to work for different platforms—that is, paying for a subscription for your Mac should also get you iPhone VPN functionality.
If VPN forces you to jump through hoops and pay extra to secure all the different devices in your home, it's not a good value.
Our APMg VPN experts also look at the number of VPN servers available with a service, as well as the number of different locations in which the servers are hosted, and how broadly distributed those locations are. Having more server locations means that you'll always have a server nearby, which is important because a server that's close to you will be faster and more reliable than one that's far away. A variety of server locations also means you have more choices for spoofing your location.
The best VPN services offer at least 1,000 servers. We don't look at fixed numbers for server locations, but rather check to be sure they are well distributed.
Many VPN companies leave out Africa, the Middle East, and South America, which is disappointing.
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