The Best VPN Apps for iPhone

ExpressVPN’s internet speeds on our iPhone 17 Pro were superb. Connecting to a nearby server, we experienced a slowdown of just 2%, and internationally by only 15%.

The VPN owes its speeds to its proprietary Lightway protocol, which we found especially useful on the go as it ensured our iPhone seamlessly switched between WiFi and cellular networks.

Lightway automatically chooses between AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20/Poly1305 encryption depending on what works best for your iPhone’s hardware.

One drawback is that ExpressVPN lacks a native auto-connect feature for public WiFi, unlike NordVPN.

To ensure you’re protected on open networks, you’ll need to manually activate the VPN and rely on its advanced kill switch to block all traffic if the connection drops.

Enabling ExpressVPN’s advanced kill switch affects your iPhone’s functionality.

While this is great for unsafe public WiFi, it does block some iOS features, namely AirPlay, and disables ExpressVPN’s split tunneling feature.

ExpressVPN’s exceptional speeds made a big difference when it came to streaming geo-restricted videos at the maximum resolution.

Not only did the VPN unblock almost every region-locked streaming app, but it did so connecting instantly to servers, loading content quickly, and streaming without interruptions or blurriness.

ExpressVPN worked wonderfully with over 95% of the 120 streaming services we tested it with, including Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and DAZN.

We also need to highlight how well the VPN works with Netflix: it’s by far the most effective at unblocking the American library on any device, and it can access another 17 regions with a breeze.

ExpressVPN’s intuitive iOS app couldn’t be simpler to use, even if you’re completely new to VPNs.

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 US servers.

You can also change the appearance of the app directly from its settings, which you can’t do with 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. For now, you can only connect to the last server you used, though.

Most notably, ExpressVPN is our only recommended VPN to include split tunneling on iOS, a quality-of-life feature that lets you customize which websites bypass the VPN tunnel.

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 some of the other paid 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 3-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 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 137 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 app 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 between NordVPN’s app and ExpressVPN’s is the wider range of advanced security settings you get.

In addition to an effective kill switch and ChaCha20 encryption keys (which ExpressVPN also offers), you can also access additional settings such as multi-hop (double VPN) servers and dedicated IP.

These specialist servers are so easy to find and start using, too. Just tap the category you want at the top of the server list to narrow the search.

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.

While NordVPN’s iOS app is generally excellent, there are a few user experience issues we want the company to address.

We don’t like that you can’t disconnect the VPN in a single tap. Instead, you have to select ‘Pause Connection’ and then tap ‘Disconnect’ on a secondary menu.

We found NordVPN’s two-step disconnect process annoying during day-to-day testing.

Having a second step adds unnecessary friction, especially since we rarely encounter situations where we only want to pause the connection.

On the iOS widget, it’s even worse. You can only pause or resume the VPN, forcing you to launch the app if you want to disconnect fully. This undermines the convenience of having a widget in the first place.

As with ExpressVPN, we’re not a fan of having connection statistics displayed in the app’s UI. We don’t see much point in knowing our daily average and would prefer the option to disable it.

The VPN has also become increasingly unreliable 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.

Proton VPN lets you use as much data as you want for free so you can leave the app running all the time.

You won’t even notice that the VPN is active, either, with our latest speed tests showing only 1% of download speed reduction.

This is an impressive speed measurement for a free VPN, and is one of the key advantages Proton VPN has over Windscribe.

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+, Prime Video, or BBC iPlayer.

All of Proton VPN’s apps, including the free ones, use AES-256 or ChaCha20 encryption to secure your iPhone’s connections, and never log identifiable activity data.

Despite not being as feature-rich as the paid product, the free version still provides excellent protection through settings like ‘Always-on,’ which automatically reestablishes a VPN connection if it drops, and the must-have kill switch.

Proton VPN’s free app has many security features

Other advanced features that Proton VPN is known for, 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.

While Proton VPN has free servers in 10 locations, the big problem is that you can’t manually choose any of them. The app will simply connect you to the nearest available server.

You can tap the ‘Change server’ button to see if the VPN assigns you a better location, but doing so triggers a 45-second countdown, which increases to 10 minutes after repeated attempts.

To access more free server locations, you could work around this limitation by trying Proton VPN risk-free via its 30-day money-back guarantee, which the company will honor in our experience.

Moreover, this inability to manually select specific locations essentially prevents you from unblocking your favorite geo-restricted websites and apps.

Plus, Proton VPN actively blocks P2P connections on every free server.

Windscribe continues to be one of the most effective and consistent free VPNs for evading IP-based blocks on iOS.

The VPN unblocks many streaming apps that most secure free VPNs are unable to, including 5 Netflix regions, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, HBO Max, and Disney+.

Most other free VPNs we tested reserve streaming functionality for their 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 American Netflix content library. Secondly, despite registering fast download speeds in our tests, we experienced occasional buffering and pixelation, especially during live streams.

These are symptoms of server congestion due to high usage, which Windscribe struggles with on its most popular free servers.

At first glance, Windscribe’s 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.

A better approach would be to offer a dedicated tab for free servers, streamlining the user experience, like many other free apps already do.

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 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’s free app, which concerns its data usage limit policy of only 10GB per month.

We worked out that this gives you roughly four hours of HD streaming time each month. While it’s not nothing, it’ll still frustrate streaming fans.

Also, the 10GB allowance is only available if you create a free account, otherwise you only get 2GB each month.

You can further extend the allowance to 15GB by tweeting a promotional link for the company, but 15GB roughly equates to only six hours of HD video streaming.