The Best VPNs for Mac

ExpressVPN’s macOS client is the most intuitive and user-friendly we’ve used, and that’s been the case for many years.

The app takes up little screen space and is designed to connect you to a VPN server as quickly as possible, thanks to a big connect button on the home screen.

You can easily find your desired server location by clicking the ellipsis on the ‘Selected Location’ button, which opens up the server list.

ExpressVPN’s Japanese server locations.

What’s simply remarkable, and unmatched in the industry, is how quickly the app connects to a server. It takes literally one or two seconds, even connecting to distant server locations!

Moreover, the VPN’s geolocation accuracy has improved massively, meaning that you often get the actual IP location you wanted, unlike what happens with many other VPNs.

When it comes to picking a VPN for streaming, ExpressVPN is unrivaled, even on Mac.

It’s ability to bypass content restrictions is phenomenal, particularly those of major streaming services, including 18 Netflix regions, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and BBC iPlayer.

Streaming FOX on Peacock TV with ExpressVPN.

Almost every server we used unblocked geo-restricted content. This makes it so much easier to stream quickly, rather than having to hunt down a server that works, which can take minutes with some VPNs.

Its US VPN servers, spread across 50 states, were especially good for watching out-of-market NFL games and other US sport blackouts.

What’s more, this superior level of unblocking is paired with quick and consistent long-distance internet speeds.

With a slowdown of just 15% connecting to locations around the world, ExpressVPN has always been able to stream at the highest resolutions available.

Despite its simplicity, ExpressVPN’s software is one of the most reliable to keep your internet activity private and secure.

By default, ExpressVPN encrypts internet traffic using AES-256 or ChaCha20 keys, and wolfSSL through a UDP Lightway connection.

All traffic runs through diskless (RAM-only) servers that never write data to disk, although ExpressVPN doesn’t your log internet activity anyway.

We also love the VPN’s ShuffleIP technology, which alters your IP address every time you visit a website or open an app, without changing your location.

And its kill switch, called Network Lock, will stop your IP address from being exposed during VPN connection failures (which almost never happens with ExpressVPN).

The only minor issue that you need to be aware about is that on Mac, the kill switch isn’t effective when you’re changing server locations. At least the app warns you about this beforehand.

You could also argue that ExpressVPN should really offer more security settings (e.g. multi-hop servers), like NordVPN does, but in all honesty most VPN users don’t really need them.

ExpressVPN’s usability and performance have been remarkable ever since we started testing it in 2016.

Its plug-and-play approach, combined with phenomenal all-round test results, clearly separate it from the pack.

That said, there’s no escaping the fact that it is slightly more expensive than other highly-rated VPNs for new customers.

In comparison, Surfshark offers a multi-year subscription at a much cheaper price, but ExpressVPN outperforms its rival in most areas, which in our opinion justifies the higher cost.

We suggest getting an ExpressVPN 7-day free trial first, through either the App or Play Stores, and using those new account details to take macOS app for a test drive.

This way you can be extra sure that ExpressVPN is the right VPN for you, before you fully commit to a subscription plan.

In terms of security, NordVPN narrowly pips ExpressVPN to the post.

The app’s security highlights include ChaCha20 encryption, diskless servers, a fully-working kill switch, and multi-hop servers that encrypt traffic twice by routing it via two VPN servers rather than one.

NordVPN offers Double VPN servers in 9 countries, including the US, UK, and France.

There are two types of kill switch available: an ‘internet’ kill switch one that cuts your system’s internet if the VPN connections drops, and an ‘app’ kill switch to apply the function to specific apps only.

We recommend enabling the system-wide internet kill switch for more complete protection, especially if you’re torrenting files.

Threat Protection is also worth mentioning, NordVPN’s ad and tracker blocker that blocked over 90% of ads and analytic trackers in our tests.

On the streaming front, NordVPN performed once again very well and is one of our recommended VPNs for getting around content geo-blocks.

While ExpressVPN works with a few more content platforms around the world, NordVPN did deliver better results for specific ones in certain countries.

Take Kayo Sports for instance: ExpressVPN couldn’t unblock it while NordVPN did, and very smoothly on all its Australian VPN servers.

NordVPN unblocked Kayo Sports with ease.

NordVPN is also a slightly better VPN for Canada than ExpressVPN, bypassing Fubo TV’s tough VPN blocks, for instance.

On the flip side, NordVPN couldn’t access other popular geo-restricted streaming services, like Hotstar in India, NFL+ in the US, and several DAZN regions.

A key difference between NordVPN and ExpressVPN revolves around device compatibility. If you want to stream on devices that don’t support direct VPN installation, then ExpressVPN has to be your choice.

This is simply because NordVPN doesn’t provide a VPN router app, which makes it much harder to use on devices like Roku, PlayStation and Xbox.

Our main gripe with NordVPN’s Mac app is that the minimum window size is too large, primarily because of the server map.

You might think that’s not a big deal, and it might not be for you, but for us it made using other apps side by side awkward on our MacBook Pro.

If we could collapse the window down to a single column, as you can with Proton VPN for example, then the app would be a lot less annoying to use on a MacBook screen.

The NordVPN macOS application in Dark Mode.

We also dislike how many settings, like Meshnet and Threat Protection, are hidden behind generic icons that aren’t clearly labeled. You have to hover over each one to understand their purpose.

NordVPN’s “Pause” feature also misses the mark, making a basic task clunky. When you go to turn off the VPN, a drop-down menu opens up with various suspension times and the full disconnect option right at the bottom. This adds complexity to a task that should be simple and instant.

There are also significant differences between the app in the App Store and the one available from the NordVPN website.

Without warning, the App Store version lacks several key settings, such as the app-specific kill switch, full protocol selection, custom DNS servers, obfuscated servers, and Threat Protection Pro.

Some of the Mac App Store software requirements may be at the heart of these inconsistencies, however this is not a great look for NordVPN.

If it was us, we would remove the Mac App Store app and simply make the full macOS software the only version available.

Another thing we don’t like about NordVPN is its subscription renewal practices, which are really not consumer-friendly to be completely honest.

NordVPN is certainly cheaper than ExpressVPN for new customers, but on renewal it jumps to an eye-watering $140.00 per year. This is a very steep increase in subscription price!

To avoid any surprises, disable auto-renewal by logging into your online account, navigating to Billing > Subscriptions, and clicking Cancel next to Auto-renewal.

You can tell Surfshark is owned by the same company as NordVPN when you see the long list of additional features on offer.

On top of security must-haves like WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption, and a VPN kill switch, Surfshark includes many extra features like Rotating IP, Dynamic MultiHop, a masked email generator, and even a cookie pop-up blocker.

Surfshark’s Settings on macOS.

All these extras are included in the basic VPN plan. But, to be completely honest, you probably won’t use many of them. They’re nice to have, but not essential.

Importantly, the app version in the Mac App Store doesn’t include Bypasser, Surfshark’s split tunneling setting.

Surprisingly, the kill switch is also not enabled by default, so when you first launch the app remember to go into its settings and activate it, before connecting to a VPN server.

We’ve used Surfshark a lot on Mac (we do like our Macs at Top10VPN afterall), and the app is just not as user-friendly as we’d like it to be.

It’s by no means difficult to use, but when you compare it to ExpressVPN’s app, the difference is obvious.

The home screen is fine, and you can easily connect to a VPN server, although it takes a good few seconds to actually connect.

We also found ourselves using the ‘favorite’ feature often, which pins a specific country to the top of the list for quicker access in the future.

The menu bar app was really disappointing, though. It only allows you to connect to a default server rather than one of your choice, like the ExpressVPN and NordVPN menu bar apps.

Surfshark’s menu bar app (left) is severely limited compared to NordVPN’s (right).

Moreover, the full application’s window size is too large and can’t be resized, which takes up a lot of space particularly on smaller MacBook screens.

The user interface is also cluttered. The VPN functions are just one of five available on the navigation bar (like Surfshark Alert), which annoyingly are always there even if you aren’t subscribed to them.

The VPN section itself is also quite chaotic, with three separate tabs for the various server types you can use: ‘Locations,’ ‘Static,’ and ‘Multi-hop.’

Surfshark costs only $1.99/mo over 27 months and, considering what you get with it, is a bargain price.

And unlike ExpressVPN and NordVPN, Surfshark offers a 7-day free-trial directly on Mac.

This quick access to the free trial allows you to test a top-tier VPN on Mac more quickly. We recommend downloading the .dmg file from Surfshark’s website, since the Mac App Store app lacks certain features.

Proton VPN is renowned for its security and we can confirm that it lives up to the hype.

The free service encrypts traffic via secure ChaCha20 or AES-256 ciphers (depending on the protocol you use), authenticates data with SHA-384 hashes, and establishes connections via RSA-4096 handshakes.

This means that the data you send over the Internet is fully encrypted and significantly harder to intercept and decipher. We verified this using Wireshark.

The Mac app includes several free settings such as a kill switch, which we’re glad is enabled by default, to prevent IP leaks if the VPN connection suddenly disconnects.

Proton VPN’s free app offers many security features.

These settings are supported by the company’s privacy-first logging policy and the company’s Swiss jurisdiction, which doesn’t mandate any data-gathering for VPN providers.

All this adds up to make Proton VPN one of the most trusted VPNs for keeping your data both private and secure.

Arguably Proton VPN’s key advantage is that it’s the only safe free VPN that offers unlimited bandwidth. You can leave it running for as long as you want.

That said, you won’t be able to benefit from most high-bandwidth activities while connected to a free server.

Firstly, the free VPN has never got round most streaming geo-restrictions around the world. Secondly, all free servers actively block torrenting and P2P traffic.

You can’t torrent on any of Proton VPN’s free servers.

This was a great source of frustration for us, and it undoubtedly makes Proton VPN’s unlimited free data allowance less useful.

Proton VPN’s Mac app is straightforward to use and, unlike many of the free VPNs we tested, it’s ad-free and even felt premium while using it.

The free app’s design mirrors the paid version, which can be frustrating at times, since you can’t access many features available only to paid users.

And despite a large app window, there is limited functionality with only the ‘Disconnect’ button and the kill switch icon available.

Many of the features on Proton VPN’s Mac app can’t be used without a paid account.

The free app’s interface is also dominated by features like ‘Change Server’, ‘Plus Locations’, ‘Secure Core’, and ‘NetShield,’ which require a paid account.

Moreover, to use the WireGuard protocol, Proton VPN’s app needs permission to add a Mac system extension, granting it higher privileges. Other VPNs, including Windscribe, didn’t require this extra step.

But, arguably the biggest limitation is that you can’t choose a server location to connect to. The app automatically connects you to the fastest (nearest) free server available.

By contrast, Windscribe lets you choose between free servers in 10 countries.

Windscribe is the only safe free VPN that works with UK Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, and HBO Max.

Windscribe’s multiple free US servers work with HBO Max.

During our tests, we streamed geo-blocked movies and TV shows from all 10 free server locations.

Speeds were good enough for us to stream TV shows and movies in HD, although we did experience sudden speed slowdowns that resulted in fuzzy video quality on occasions.

The only real drawback to using Windscribe’s free plan is its 10GB monthly data cap. For context, this is roughly four hours of HD streaming.

Unlike the vast majority of safe free VPNs, Windscribe is still extremely effective at circumventing internet restrictions in high-censorship countries like China.

We tested the VPN for access in China via our remote server in Shanghai, and it unbelievably worked 85% of the time!

We had to use the ‘StealthVPN’ connection protocol to get access to the open Internet, since it obfuscates VPN traffic to bypass strict internet filters like the Great Firewall of China.

Where Proton VPN disappoints, Windscribe pleases, particularly for anonymous torrenting and file sharing.

Windscribe continues to be an exceptional free VPN for torrenting, delivering P2P traffic on all its free servers with a very respectable average transfer speed (bitrate) of 6.3MiB/s.

Just like Proton VPN, Windscribe also offers a tried-and-tested kill switch, built-in DNS leak protection, and secure AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption.

Importantly, make sure you stop torrenting before your data runs out, otherwise your real IP address will leak (even with the kill switch activated).

Windscribe’s macOS app is very easy to use, with a simple layout and large button for easy connections. There are also way more extra settings available compared to Proton VPN.

But, if you experience issues, there is no human live chat support to help unfortunately. You can speak to Garry, an automated chatbot, but we have never found it helpful.

The only other downside to Windscribe is that the Mac app is a basic menu bar app. Menu bar apps are small, limited in functionality, and hard to configure.

Plus, the app doesn’t even behave like a typical menu bar app. When you interact with it, it forces you out of the foremost app and jumps to the desktop.

In the latest version, you can detach the app from the menu bar. But, this simply turns the app into a floating window, which doesn’t really improve user experience.