The Best VPNs for Routers

With the withdrawal of VyprVPN’s app, ExpressVPN is the only VPN service to provide a dedicated router app.

It’s super simple to install ExpressVPN on your router, requiring no technical knowledge. We were able to install the app in less than two minutes on our Linksys WRT3200ACM test router.

Once installed, you can access the router app from your web browser, where it functions in the exact same way as any other ExpressVPN app.

Your connections will be encrypted through the same technology all other ExpressVPN software uses, including the Lightway protocol plus AES-256 and ChaCHa20 encryption.

ExpressVPN also built its own WiFi 6 router with an integrated VPN, called Aircove. It’s essentially a plug-and-play VPN router with ExpressVPN already installed and ready to go.

The Aircove router is the first of its kind, and makes it even easier to connect all your household’s devices to a VPN, assign each one a different IP location, and even create a separate WiFi network just for guests.

A unique and useful feature of the router app is the “Device Groups” setting, which allows you to assign specific devices to different VPN server locations.

For instance, you can connect your Roku to a VPN server in the UK to unblock BBC iPlayer, while simultaneously assigning your Xbox to a VPN server in India to access a easier gaming lobby.

It was a piece a cake to customize which devices should use which geolocation, and is especially useful for large households.

ExpressVPN is a standout VPN for many purposes, but above all it is in a league of its own for bypassing streaming geo-restrictions.

You can in fact use ExpressVPN on your router to unblock 18 regions, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu and the list goes on.

It’s also an excellent VPN for anonymous torrenting and file sharing in virtue of its exceptional download speeds and independently-verified privacy standards.

You can install NordVPN manually on a variety of routers and firmware, with detailed setup guides available for each one.

These setup guides are well-written and easy to follow, with plenty of screenshots and videos to simplify the process. In the rare instances we were unable to understand a step, NordVPN’s 24/7 live chat support were on hand to help.

That said, there is an even simpler solution: buying a pre-flashed router equipped with NordVPN’s software from FlashRouters.

You can quickly switch VPN server locations within the FlashRouter privacy app.

NordVPN is fully integrated with the FlashRouter privacy app, which provides you access to key settings such as the VPN kill switch, and split tunneling.

The app’s interface is relatively easy to use and we didn’t have any issues switching from one VPN server location to another.

As we’ve said earlier, one of NordVPN’s key selling points is its formidable internet speeds, with amazing stability even on connections stretching thousands of miles.

Across all our devices connected to our NordVPN-enabled router, we measured an impressive average download speed of 95Mbps (a mere 5% slowdown compared to our non-VPN internet speed).

Even connecting to distant countries we still experienced a speed reduction of only 14%. Simply phenomenal, no other way to put it.

And we really noticed the impact of these exceptional speeds while using our PS5 with NordVPN, with fluid and sharp game play.

Through the FlashRouter privacy app, we were also able to consistently get round streaming geo-blocks, just like the standard NordVPN applications. This worked across all devices on our local network, including on our Xbox Series X and Amazon Fire TV Stick.

On IPVanish’s router setup page, you can use the embedded search engine to filter by your router model. This tells you if your router is compatible with IPVanish, along with all the possible setup methods and accompanying guides.

We found IPVanish’s website easy to use and navigate.

This is so much better than other VPN provider websites, which are often difficult to navigate and lack the necessary information specifically for router setup.

We were able to manually configure IPVanish on our Linksys WRT3200ACM router without any issues. The detail in the setup guides was outstanding, with many helpful screenshots, step-by-step instructions, and troubleshooting options.

Once installed, IPVanish immediately encrypted our internet traffic leaving our connected devices, and maintained an impressive average download speed of 95Mbps (12% speed reduction).

It’s not as fast as NordVPN, but the margins are really fine as you can see, and most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

On longer distances, IPVanish struggled a little bit more to keep up with NordVPN and ExpressVPN, but again we’re splitting hairs, really. Average download speed clocked in at 88Mbps, constituting a (12% loss).

Something that is very apparent with IPVanish is how much effort they’ve put in to fix their historical streaming-related problems.

In the past, the VPN service couldn’t work with several popular content platforms but now it is one of the most dependable for unblocking region-locked services like the American Netflix library, Hulu, Prime Video and HBO Max.

Streaming access has improved noticeably outside of the US, too, especially in the UK. The only video apps IPVanish still struggles with are slightly less well-known international ones, such as RTL+ (Germany), TV4 Play (Sweden) and Movistar+ (Spain).

Unlike most free VPNs, Proton VPN does not cap your data usage. As such, it’s the only free VPN we tested to support both router installation and unlimited data.

Proton VPN is also one of the few free VPNs we trust as a result of its excellent logging policy, its association with the well-established and respected ProtonMail, and trustworthy Swiss jurisdiction.

But the free service is hampered by significant product restrictions, namely that you can’t torrent or unblock streaming services on any of the VPN’s free servers. These restrictions apply to every device connected to your router.

You’re also limited to just 5 server locations when configuring your router, and you can’t choose the server location to connect to. The VPN will simply connect you to the nearest free server available.

We can’t lie, these limitations turned out to be very frustrating throughout our rounds of testing. If you’re really serious about using a VPN with your router, and for a prolonged period of time, we strongly recommend choosing a paid service.