Best VPN for USA

ExpressVPN is the best VPN to ever meet our testing, and a choice of over 30 city-level servers in the US really sets it apart for users in the States.

Wherever you are in the US, you’re sure to get optimum speeds. In our experience ExpressVPN is the fastest VPN on the market on long-distance connections, too – ideal if you’re connecting into the US from abroad.

Combine those speeds with its ever-reliable ability to unblock US Netflix, as well as just about any other video service (including BBC iPlayer), and ExpressVPN is ideal for streaming fanatics, too.

Most importantly, though, Express VPN is safe and trustworthy. ExpressVPN is based in the Virgin Islands, so the US government is powerless to demand data from it, and its logging policy promises that no personal information is logged.

We only have two real criticisms of ExpressVPN: first of all, there’s no kill switch on the Android app. This could leave your IP exposed should the connection drop.

Second of all, ExpressVPN is undeniably more expensive than most of the competition. It’s still affordable over longer plans, but only you can say whether or not you’re comfortable splashing out for it.

From Seattle to Miami, NordVPN has nearly 2,000 individual servers spread all throughout the US to give you the best performance possible.

Speeds when connected to a server nearby are some of the best we’ve ever seen, both for uploads and downloads.

A warning, though – NordVPN’s US servers aren’t as speedy when it comes to long-distance connections. We test from London, UK, and found that speeds were roughly halved when connecting to New York.

You could potentially improve on that by changing protocol, but it requires a fair bit of extra configuration and knowledge. NordVPN uses OpenVPN by default, which is secure, fast, and our protocol of choice.

NordVPN doesn’t collect or log any personal information, either. In fact, the only information it collects at all is how busy its servers are – your privacy and anonymity are completely respected at all times.

NordVPN is a great choice for streamers and torrenters, too. NordVPN will unblock Netflix (both the US library and others around the world), and even BBC iPlayer – a notoriously tough service to access.

Just be aware that if you have an Amazon Fire TV Stick we found NordVPN to be a lot less reliable for streaming.

It may not allow torrenting on every single server, but NordVPN still offers hundreds of US servers for P2P. It even shows how busy they are so you can pick one for the fastest downloads possible.

Combine all this with one of the most straightforward and intuitive apps on the market and NordVPN is clearly one of the best VPNs available in the US – and it’s affordable, too.

Let’s get the one obvious flaw out of the way first: IPVanish simply isn’t a good-looking app. At least, not when compared to its rivals on this page.

Look beyond that, though, and you’ll find IPVanish to be one of the best VPNs on the market.

It starts off strong with one of the most secure logging policies we’ve ever come across: IPVanish doesn’t log a single bit of personal data. We’re convinced you can trust it.

IPVanish also has a wide variety of VPN protocols and extra security settings to ensure that your app is configured exactly how you like it, nice and safe with no leaks in sight.

There are more than 400 US servers available, coast-to-coast, with IPVanish’s speeds when connecting to from within the US to nearby servers as fast as any VPN out there.

You can torrent on any US server you like, and the majority will work to unblock Netflix, but TV buffs should beware that BBC iPlayer rarely works with IPVanish.

There’s also the small matter than IPVanish is based in the US. That’s actually a bad thing, even for users within the US, due to how privacy-unfriendly the country is.

However, the superb logging policy means that we believe you have very little to worry about. Even if US authorities demanded IPVanish to hand over information they would be left empty-handed.

Most top quality VPNs don’t cost much when you look at the monthly cost, but it’s easy to forget that long-term subscriptions need to be paid up front.

That’s not much of a problem with CyberGhost, though: it’s a fantastic VPN that’s extremely affordable, too. A $99 up-front payment will buy you CyberGhost for three whole years.

If you’re a US resident then we’re convinced that’s well worth it. CyberGhost doesn’t log anything that could even come close to identifying you, only retaining basic metadata to make sure that speeds stay fast.

CyberGhost has 1,000 US servers spread across 13 different cities, including Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Dallas, and Chicago. Our only criticism is the lack of coverage for states in the Great Plains.

CyberGhost is also one of the very best VPNs for streaming, with a fantastic array of servers clearly labelled within the app for all manner of VOD services, from the usuals like Netflix and BBC iPlayer to less common choices like Crunchyroll and HBO Now.

Torrenting is a different matter, though – you can’t torrent at all on CyberGhost’s US servers. There’s nothing stopping you from doing so while connected to servers in nearby countries (like Canada, for example), but your P2P speeds will take a hit.

Mac CyberGhost users may also be left frustrated by the lack of protocol options. CyberGhost defaults to IKEv2 (although it doesn’t say that anywhere on the app) – a very strong and secure protocol, but OpenVPN is our first choice. You’ll need to download and set up configuration files if you want to change it.

PrivateVPN is one of the newest VPNs on the market, but it’s already proven itself to be one of the very best – particularly when it comes to the US.

PrivateVPN holds its own against the bigger, more established names in just about every aspect.

Speeds in and out of the States on PrivateVPN are more than fast enough for Full HD streaming on multiple devices, which is pairs nicely with PrivateVPN’s reliable unblocking of all manner of streaming services (US and international Netflix included).

PrivateVPN also clearly states in its privacy policy that it “doesn’t collect or log any traffic or use of its service.” Unfortunately, that’s also the total extent of it. More detail would be nice, but we’ve found no reason in all of our testing not to take PrivateVPN at its word.

Using PrivateVPN, the only way you’d be able to tell that it’s not a long-established VPN service is through the live chat. While very helpful for most issues you might encounter, PrivateVPN’s live chat is also inconsistent in its availability – ExpressVPN, for example, has around-the-clock live support.

For the price PrivateVPN is asking, though, this is a top quality service for anyone in the US.