The Best VPN Apps for iPhone

ExpressVPN’s internet speeds on our iPhone were superb. Connecting to a nearby server, we experienced a slowdown of just 2%.

Even more impressively, ExpressVPN maintained a very high Internet speed while connected to several servers located around the world.

This excellent speed performance is down to the VPN’s in-house Lightway protocol. Lightway was more than twice as fast as OpenVPN connecting to a VPN server, and was also much quicker to reconnect to a server.

These fast speeds made a big difference to stream geo-restricted videos at the highest possible resolution.

Not only did the VPN unblock almost every popular content platform we tested, including Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and HBO Max, but it did so without blurriness or buffering.

And the great thing about ExpressVPN is that speed and streaming access doesn’t come at the expense of privacy and security.

The VPN’s iOS app, just like all its other software, uses best-in-class technology to secure your connections.

ExpressVPN’s settings in the iOS app.

ExpressVPN’s primary protocol, Lightway, uses either AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20/Poly1305 encryption. The app automatically chooses the best option depending on your iPhone’s hardware.

Plus, all 13,360 servers don’t log any revealing internet activity and are completely diskless, meaning your internet data is never written to a hard drive.

As for keeping your real IP address hidden, the app offers two types of kill switches: a standard one that blocks your internet if the VPN connection drops, and a more advanced one that blocks all network traffic for even greater protection.

ExpressVPN’s intuitive iOS app could not be simpler, even if you’ve never used a VPN before.

A large connection button in the center of the screen makes the app very easy to use, even on smaller iPhone screens.

The ExpressVPN app instantly connects to its UK servers.

You can also change the appearance of the app directly from its settings, which you can’t do with NordVPN or PIA. You can set it to follow your light/dark system settings, or choose between sand, sky, midnight or twilight.

We also love ExpressVPN’s iOS integration, which allowed us to connect to a VPN server either via a Siri voice command, or through a quick tap of the Home Screen widget. But keep in mind that you can only connect to the last server you used, for now.

ExpressVPN also encrypts your Apple Watch data, since your watch shares a network connection from the iPhone.

And if you’re an Apple fanboy, ExpressVPN’s VPN apps for Mac and Apple TV are just as beginner-friendly and satisfying as their iOS counterpart.

Honestly, the only “issue” affecting ExpressVPN is its price, which is a little higher than the other subscription-based VPNs we recommend.

That being said, ExpressVPN’s exceptional usability and performance across most of our testing areas is worth paying for. Don’t forget that ExpressVPN renews at a lower price than NordVPN, too.

If you want to test the VPN first, then we recommend taking advantage of ExpressVPN’s 7-day free trial via the App Store.

NordVPN’s app is extremely well-integrated with iOS, and it’s the one area in which it comfortably beats ExpressVPN.

We particularly loved the trusted networks feature, which automatically activated the VPN whenever we connected to any WiFi network other than our home one.

We really missed this feature whenever we switched back to ExpressVPN — especially on the go, as we connected to various free public WiFi networks.

NordVPN’s iOS widget is also the best we’ve come across. We were able to quickly select from 5 recent server locations right from our home screen and lock screen. You can also pause or disconnect the VPN in one tap.

NordVPN’s large widget is super convenient for switching servers from your home screen.

Honestly, NordVPN’s iOS widget is a lot better than PIA’s, which simply opens the VPN app.

NordVPN’s iOS app also detects whether your iPhone is using light or dark mode, and mirrors the app’s theme accordingly. These little touches show the level of attention the company has paid to its mobile app.

NordVPN has a huge server network stretching 127 countries, with most server locations recording very high Internet speeds.

In our most recent tests, we recorded a mere 4% loss in download speed while connected to a nearby server and 14% slowdown across longer distances.

That said, the application didn’t connect to server locations as fast as ExpressVPN: it only took a handful of seconds, but it wasn’t instant.

Another key difference of NordVPN’s app versus ExpressVPN’s is the wider range of advanced security settings you get.

In addition to an effective kill switch and ChaCha20 encyrption keys (which ExpressVPN also offers), you also can also access additional settings such as auto-connect to trusted WiFi networks and multi-hop (double VPN) servers.

And thanks to the built-in Threat Protection solution, the VPN app will block ads and malicious domains. It’s not infallible but it’s certainly useful, blocking over 90% of ads and trackers.

Overall, NordVPN’s iOS app doesn’t have any significant drawbacks, although there are a few issues that we really want the company to address.

For certain, the company needs to revise its map interface, which is too small to interact with on an iPhone-sized screen. Frustratingly, you can’t zoom out of the map, either.

The VPN has also got increasingly bad at bypassing sophisticated censorship in countries like China, Turkey, and Russia. While it could circumvent aggressive firewalls in the past, it really struggles now, which is a real shame.

PIA has two iOS widgets, but we recommend using the smaller widget: a simple button. Just tap it from your home screen, and PIA connects to your last-used server.

We actually prefer NordVPN’s large widget, because it offers multiple server locations. However, if you want to quickly access the same server location, PIA’s smaller widget is a great option.

We tried using PIA’s larger widget, to see additional information at a glance, but it failed repeatedly to connect to a server when we tapped the connect button.

We tested PIA’s small button widget (left) and custom shortcut (middle) to see which connected to servers quicker.

What’s nice is that you can also set up your own shortcut for the home screen if you want to customize the button appearance.

Pressing the shortcut connected us instantly to our most recent VPN server. You can also connect or disconnect using Siri voice commands.

And like NordVPN, the PIA app also mirrors your iPhone light/dark mode settings, which is always a nice touch. However, you can’t do this directly within the app.

If you’re a new user, you might be also confused by some of the home screen icons. What the ‘Quick Settings’ toggle in the bottom-middle and the synchronization icon in the top-right corner do isn’t immediately clear, for example.

While almost all other iOS VPN apps are limited, PIA’s app includes as much functionality as the desktop clients.

The VPN kill switch is enabled by default, and we love that the app lets you choose the encryption keys, data authentication, and handshake algorithm.

PIA’s iOS app has lots of advanced features.

We had fun customizing the iOS app’s home screen. You can display your favorite server locations, connection data, and even how long you have left on your subscription.

Or, you can completely remove all elements besides the button and your VPN server, to mimic ExpressVPN’s app layout.

One extra feature we really liked was the VPN’s MACE ad blocker, which blocked even more ads and trackers than NordVPN’s Threat Protection.

Where Private Internet Access came a bit short was bypassing IP-based geo-restrictions. It’s simply not as reliable for unblocking streaming apps, especially Netflix.

The VPN works with US Netflix, HBO Max, and Hulu, but not on every US server. We had to try several server locations until we found one that works (the Washington DC server worked well for us).

As for Netflix regions, PIA can only access 6, compared to ExpressVPN’s 18 and NordVPN’s 17. Pretty underwhelming, in our opinion.

At least, PIA’s UK London-Streaming server never failed to unblock BBC iPlayer from overseas, which not every VPN can do with this level of consistency.

Proton VPN lets you use as much data as you want for free. This makes it the best secure free VPN that you can leave running all the time.

You won’t notice that the VPN is running, either. Our latest speed test results show that Proton VPN is an extremely fast free VPN.

On our 100Mbps test connection Proton VPN’s free app logged a mere 1% download speed loss when connected to a server close to us.

Rather than imposing speed and bandwidth caps, Proton VPN instead limits the functionality of its free plan by blocking access to streaming services.

Case in point, the free VPN has never worked with any streaming service we test for, including US Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer.

All of Proton VPN’s apps, including the free ones, adhere to the company’s privacy-focused logging policy and use 256-bit encryption to secure connections.

The free iOS app provides limited but good protection settings such as an Always-on feature to automatically reestablish a VPN connection if it drops, and a must-have kill switch.

Proton VPN’s free app has many security features

Other advanced features, such as Secure Core servers and VPN Accelerator, are only available if you upgrade.

Proton VPN was also one of the very first VPNs to open-source its applications, which are regularly audited by third-party engineers.

The company has published every audit it has undergone, and has promptly fixed any vulnerability reported, highlighting the company’s ongoing commitment to its values.

As we alluded above, Proton VPN’s free iOS app is rather basic when it comes to extra settings, and it would also benefit from a redesign.

It’s perfectly functional, but the lack of graphical elements as well as the overuse of lists and map view are starting to look dated.

The lack of an iOS widget is particularly disappointing. At least, the app supports Shortcuts if you want a quick button on your home screen.

Proton VPN only has free servers in 5 locations: the US, the Netherlands, Japan, Poland, and Romania.

Many review websites still don’t tell you this, but you can’t manually choose a free server location anymore. While you could in the past, now the app automatically connects you to the nearest available server.

To access more free server locations, you could get a risk-free trial of Proton VPN’s paid service through its 30-day money-back guarantee.

Windscribe continues to be one of the most reliable free VPNs for evading IP-based blocks on iOS video apps.

The VPN unblocks many streaming apps that most secure free VPNs are unable to, including UK Netflix, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, and Disney+.

Most other free VPNs we tested reserve streaming functionality for the paid plans, so it’s really refreshing that Windscribe provides this for free.

There are some downsides to streaming with the free version of Windscribe, though.

Firstly, it no longer works with the US Netflix library, and despite registering fast download speeds in our tests, we experienced occasional buffering and pixelation especially during live streams.

At first glance, Windscribe iOS app seems easy to navigate. But it’s got some considerable flaws.

The home screen has a simple button and displays essential information, like your server location and IP address (which can also be blurred for privacy).

But Windscribe’s free servers are mixed in with the paid servers, making it frustrating to scroll through the list just to find them.

Many other free VPN apps offer a dedicated tab for free servers, streamlining the user experience.

The app’s small UI elements are also not well-optimized for smaller screens.

Toggling between server tabs is challenging and requires precision, which is unusual for a top-tier VPN app.

Disappointingly, we couldn’t get the iOS widget to connect to a server on our iPhone. Instead, it would simply open the app.

And when we did connect via the app, the widget wouldn’t update to show the connection was established.

We did get a custom shortcut to work occasionally, but similarly to ExpressVPN, the device was slow to respond compared to the main app. We also saw a few error messages connecting this way.

There is one major drawback to Windscribe Free, which concerns its monthly data usage limit policy.

If you create a free account, using your email and password, the service raises your free data allowance from 2GB to 10GB per month.

You can further extend it to 15GB by tweeting a promotional link for the company. Sadly, 15GB still isn’t enough. It roughly equates to only six hours of HD video streaming.

That said, it should be enough for encrypting public WiFi networks and occasional streaming, and is far more than you’ll get with some other options, like TunnelBear for example.