The Best VPNs for iPhone

Our recommended VPNs for iPhone secure your cellular and WiFi network connections through highly secure encryption ciphers and VPN protocols.

They also change your IP address to hide your web activity from internet service providers and mobile carriers. The very best mobile VPNs even unblock geo-restricted iOS apps.

There are hundreds of free VPN apps on the App Store, but most log your internet data, slow down your internet speed, or leak your real IP address. The free apps we recommend are 100% safe, and won’t cost a dime.

However, even the best free VPNs have significant limitations, including slower speeds, limited server choice, or data usage caps. For the best VPN experience, you’ll need a paid VPN.

All the VPNs we recommend in this guide have native apps for iOS 17, 16, and older versions. They’re also compatible with Apple iPad and iPad Pro.

They will deliver fast and secure connections on cellular data networks like 5G and 4G LTE, as well as WiFi networks.

The table below compares our most highly-rated VPN apps for iOS, based on their download speeds, logging policies, access to US Netflix, and more.

Since 2016 we’ve investigated over 100 iOS VPN applications, many of which turned out to be unsafe to install and use.

Of the secure apps we identified, some came very close to being included in our top VPN rankings for iPhone, others didn’t.

Below is a selection of popular VPNs for iPhone that fell short of the mark:

Surfshark

Surfshark’s iOS app is easy to use and good for unblocking content, however it’s considerably slower than ExpressVPN, NordVPN and PIA.

IPVanish

The design of the IPVanish iOS application is not as intuitive as we expect it to be.

CyberGhost

Slow speeds are the main problem with CyberGhost. The VPNs speeds have worsened over the years, both locally and internationally.

Avira VPN

While popular, Avira VPN is not the best iOS VPN. It’s slow, has a limited server network, lacks advanced security settings, and doesn’t unblock many streaming platforms.

Over the years we’ve conducted several investigations into the privacy and security of free VPNs for iPhone, with some alarming discoveries.

Many popular free iOS VPN apps earn money by collecting user data and selling it to third-parties.

We also found many free VPNs leaked our true IP address in our tests. This makes these VPNs useless for internet privacy and security.

In 2021, we analyzed 49 VPN applications ranked in the top 20 positions in the USA, UK, Canada, and Australia Apple App Stores.

We found that 95% of these top-ranked iOS VPN apps had inaccurate privacy labels.

We also uncovered that 29% of the 49 VPNs we analyzed failed to disclose the fact they collected your real IP address.

Also in 2021, we investigated VPN services’ compliance with ‘Request to Track’ permissions introduced by Apple, as part of its App Tracking Transparency initiative.

Since April 2021, iOS apps must in fact ask permission to track you across other apps and websites for the purpose of delivering targeted ads.

We specifically looked at 20 popular free VPNs, and found that only 15% (3 VPNs) respected users’ ad tracking choices.

Moreover, 80% shared users’ IP addresses with advertisers before asking for permission to allow ad tracking.

Based on our findings, our view is that many free VPNs ranked highly in the Apple App Store are not completely safe to use.

For added internet privacy and security, we strongly recommend using one of the safe free iOS VPNs listed on this page, instead.

While many premium iOS VPNs are safe to use, as we explained above most free ones aren’t. You must avoid using risky free iPhone VPNs at all costs.

We listed below several very popular free VPNs that contain security and privacy flaws.

Below are four key features to consider when choosing a VPN for your iPhone.

1. User-friendly and iOS-compatible Apps

The simplicity of iOS is one of the main benefits of using an iPhone or iPad, so your VPN app should be just as intuitive and enjoyable to use.

Your VPN should be tailored to beginners and experienced VPN users alike. For instance, the app should be available through the App Store, have a large connect button, and settings that are easy to find and configure.

For a VPN app to work seamlessly on your iOS device, it also needs to integrate well with Apple’s system-level features.

We favor VPNs that have support for Siri Shortcuts, iOS 17 widgets, and that offer payment through the iOS App Store.

Also, if the VPN has a native macOS client, a dedicated iPadOS app, and support for Apple TV via Smart DNS, it will be compatible with the wider Apple ecosystem, which is a nice bonus.

2. Fast and Mobile-friendly VPN Protocols

Fast speeds are an essential aspect of VPN apps, especially when you’re connected to patchy and slow mobile data networks.

Moreover, when using an iPhone VPN on the go, you’re likely to switch between many cellular networks every day.

This is different from using a VPN on a computer, where you typically remain connected to the same WiFi network.

Therefore, it’s necessary for the VPN protocol on iOS to connect instantly as you change cellular networks, otherwise you may compromise your internet privacy and security.

In our experience, WireGuard and IKEv2 are currently the best mobile VPN protocols when it comes to connection times.

When we tested it against OpenVPN, a popular and secure protocol, WireGuard was twice as fast and consumed 15% less bandwidth.

Importantly, avoid using the L2TP/IPSec protocol, which is slower and less secure than WireGuard and IKEv2.

3. Advanced Security Settings & Encryption

Many VPN apps available on the App Store do not have the required level of security and encryption features.

For instance, Hola VPN does not have any encryption at all, and Touch VPN leaked our DNS and IP address.

To ensure your internet activity on your iPhone is more secure and private, choose a VPN with a no-logs privacy policy, AES-256 encryption, DNS and IP leak protection, and a kill switch, ideally.

Kill switches are not always available on iOS VPN applications, but premium providers like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Private Internet Access all come with one.

4. Good Unblocking Capabilities

If you want your VPN to unblock geo-restricted video content on your iPhone, you must make sure your chosen VPN has a history of bypasssing streaming content geo-blocks.

Many VPNs fall at this hurdle, especially free VPNs that aren’t able to invest resources into beating strict VPN connection blocks.

Over the years, ExpressVPN and NordVPN have consistenly worked well with most popular streaming iOS apps, including Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max.

An iOS VPN is an excellent application to enhance your internet security and privacy while using your iPhone.

However, VPNs come with certain limitations that all iPhone users must know about.

With so many VPN apps in the iOS App Store, we’ve created a VPN testing methodology to ensure we only recommend the very best iPhone VPN apps.

We maintain full reviews of 62 VPN services and their iOS app features and performance. We regurarly update this information to ensure it’s always accurate.

We’ test iPhone VPNs in six key categories, rating each category out of 10. We then combine these ratings to calculate an overall rating for iPhone.

In the table below, we summarize how the best iPhone VPNs performed in each category, as well as their overall rating:

VPNs with a data cap receive a reduction to their overall rating.

Below, we’ve listed a detailed explanation of the attributes we analyze when rating the best VPNs for iPhone. You’ll also see the weighting of each attribute:

1. iOS App: 25%

For a VPN to be great on iOS, it needs to integrate well with Apple’s system-level features.

When evaluating the best iOS VPN apps, we looked for VPNs that had support for Siri Shortcuts, iOS widgets, and offered payment through the iOS App Store.

We also verified all the VPNs we recommend can be easily used by beginners and by experienced VPN users.

An iOS app must be easily downloadable through the App Store, have a large connect button, and settings easy to configure.

2. Apple System Integration: 20%

We test every VPN on the full range of Apple devices. In total, we test the VPNs using an iPhone 14 Pro, an iPad Air, a 27-inch Mac, and an Apple TV 4K.

As well as iPhone and iPad, we analyze each VPN’s app on macOS and check whether it includes Smart DNS functionality for use on Apple TV.

We give preference to VPNs compatible with the wider Apple ecosystem. In particular, we look at whether the VPN service’s Mac app is available on the Mac App Store, whether it can run on Apple’s M1 chip, and how good its Smart DNS tool is.

3. Privacy & Logging Policy: 15%

Without a privacy-first logging policy, your web activity may be stored and passed onto third parties. In practice, this nullifies a primary reason for using a VPN.

This is especially true for free iOS VPNs, where many rely on selling user data to cover running costs. For example, we discovered popular VPNs like Hola, Larva, and SkyVPN, all logged user IP addresses.

As part of our research, we analyze every VPN’s privacy policy to understand what data is collected, how the information is used, and how long it is stored.

Even for the free services on this page, we only recommend the ones that retain the absolute amount of logs. For example, this includes aggregated connection timestamp data. The best premium VPNs are true ‘no logs’, meaning they don’t collect any user data at all.

4. Speed: 15%

Fast speeds are an essential feature of VPN services, especially when connecting to patchy and slow mobile data networks.

Without a fast VPN, your internet will often be unusable even for basic web activities.

We run weekly speed tests on our test iPhone and iPad to server locations across five continents. We then calculate the average speed loss on our 100Mbps internet connection. The smaller the speed loss, the higher we rate the VPN.

In addition to raw download speeds, we measure how long it takes for the app to connect to a VPN server.

On your iPhone, you’re likely to switch between multiple networks every day. It’s therefore crucial the VPN protocol connects instantly as you change networks, otherwise, you may compromise your browsing activity or security.

5. Streaming: 15%

Using a VPN on your iPhone will let you mask your IP address and watch content on geo-blocked streaming apps.

We test every iPhone VPN with popular content platforms, including Netflix, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.

We track how each VPN performs over time, with results spanning multiple years. This means we know how consistently the VPN works with each streaming app, not just that it worked at a single point in time.

The best VPNs for iPhone unblock multiple Netflix regions, along with many more popular streaming apps. The worse-performing VPNs only work with US Netflix.

6. Security & Technical Features: 10%

Many VPN apps on iOS don’t have sufficient security and encryption features. For example, Hola VPN doesn’t have any encryption at all, and Touch VPN leaked our DNS and IP address.

Using a VPN with high encryption secures unsafe public WiFi networks, and safely hides your web activity from your ISP.

To secure and anonymize your web activity on your iPhone, the VPNs we selected use gold-standard AES-256 encryption, have built-in DNS and IP leak protection, and use private DNS servers.

To verify these security features are as robust as the VPN services claim, we perform tests using Wireshark, a packet-capturing software. If we spot any unencrypted traffic, we downgrade the VPN severely.