The Best Anonymous No-Log VPNs

In 2016, the Russian government seized PIA’s servers after a new privacy data law was passed that demanded all VPNs must log Russian traffic for up to a year. In response, PIA completely shut down its Russian servers and quit the country.

PIA’s transparency report verifies that it’s never provided logs for a court order, subpoena, or a warrant.

In 2018, PIA was subpoenaed by the FBI but was again unable to provide any logs. What’s more, there was no record of the defendant even signing up for PIA as there was no applicable email address or payment information.

PIA operates self-owned DNS servers, preventing exposure of your DNS traffic to third parties, and diskless VPN servers.

These servers are configured to routinely reboot, meaning all data is permanently deleted on a regular basis.

All of PIA’s apps come with advanced privacy and security settings you can easily configure. The video we recorded below shows the options available within the desktop app:

PIA’s advanced features include an effective VPN kill switch, split tunneling, malware blocker, and shadowsocks proxy.

PIA has has had two successful no-logs audits in the past with Deloitte Romania – one in 2024 and one in 2022. But we’ve found some red flags that they might not be as in-depth as other audits.

We’re disappointed to see the 2024 audit seems to be a copy of the 2022 audit, with minor changes and updates to formatting. Half the audit is an index provided by PIA, and not insightful investigation into the VPN’s implementation of a no-logs policy.

It’s important to keep in mind that PIA has proven itself to be no-logs in a random server seizure. This is the strongest evidence a VPN can have that it’s no-logs.

Nonetheless, we’d like to see PIA conduct a high-quality audit next time.

There are two small potential drawbacks to PIA. Firstly, it’s based in the US. The US is one of the worst jurisdictions for privacy because it’s part of the Five Eyes data sharing alliance and state surveillance.

Secondly, PIA was acquired by Kape Technologies in 2019, previously Crossrider. The company was previously discovered to be infecting Windows and macOS systems with adware. Adware is a form of malware that shows you pop-up adverts for software and services.

But Crossrider shut down its ad platforms in 2016 and re-branded to Kape Technologies in 2019. We’ve since seen no reason to question the legitimacy or business practices of Kape Technologies.

In 2017, ExpressVPN’s servers were seized by Turkish authorities investigating the death of the Russian ambassador, Andrei Karlov.

However, the authorities were unable to find any personal information about the individual on ExpressVPN’s servers, proving ExpressVPN to be a genuine no-logs VPN service.

This stands in stark contrast to other VPNs, such as PureVPN and HideMyAss, which have cooperated with law enforcement and handed over personal information that lead to arrests of their users.

The VPN service is based in a privacy haven, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a self-governing territory that has strict laws protecting the privacy of individuals and businesses.

The BVI are also an excellent location for a VPN because they are not part of any data sharing alliance (such as Five Eyes or EU). Other countries’ authorities aren’t able to force the BVI government to hand over any data collected in the jurisdiction.

While PIA VPN is better for slightly more advanced VPN users, ExpressVPN is ideal for beginners. In our experience, it’s the easiest anonymous VPN available.

All of the VPN service’s apps benefit from a well-designed user interface (UI) across all popular platforms.

ExpressVPN has a simpler app interface compared to PIA.

There aren’t as many customizable settings as with Private Internet Access, but ExpressVPN does offer all key privacy features, including a VPN kill switch on all platforms as well as IPv6 and WebRTC leak blocking.

Being no-logs isn’t ExpressVPN’s only benefit: it’s also extremely fast and one of the most reliable VPNs for anonymous streaming.

For instance, Kodi users will find it very easy to stream anonymously using the VPN’s highly secure and user-friendly Fire TV Stick app.

We unblocked shows like ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ on Max via ExpressVPN’s US servers.

ExpressVPN is also extremely effective at unblocking geo-restricted streaming services. It works with 18 international Netflix libraries, HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and more.

With its best price at $4.99 per month, ExpressVPN’s subscription is more expensive than the average VPN.

However, we believe it’s still good value for a private VPN that offers IP and DNS leak protection, access to all major streaming services, and Diskless servers in 106 countries.

Similar to PIA, another potential drawback for those skeptical of big business is that ExpressVPN was acquired by Kape Technologies in 2021.

However, ExpressVPN continues to operate independently and there’s no evidence that it doesn’t provide the same level of privacy protection as it did before the acquisition.

Perfect Privacy’s no-logs policy was put to the test in September 2016 when Dutch authorities seized two of Perfect Privacy’s Rotterdam servers.

Fortunately “no customer information was compromised due to the seizure” because Perfect Privacy keeps no logs and all the information was fully encrypted.

Perfect Privacy has an entirely diskless server network which can be trusted to erase any data stored if there’s ever a server seizure.

It also offers a unique proprietary routing algorithm called Neurorouting. This novel feature ensures that your traffic stays encrypted for as long as possible.

However, Neurorouting is only available on Windows — frequent macOS or mobile users might prefer to use ExpressVPN, which has intuitive and easy-to-use apps on all platforms. In comparison, Perfect Privacy’s apps are much less attractive.

Perfect Privacy lives up to its name, but its apps are old-fashioned and clunky.

Perfect Privacy also offers an effective kill switch, multi-hop VPN servers, an ad blocker, and includes port forwarding in its subscription.

The suite of security features offered by Perfect Privacy is great for advanced VPN users, but can be intimidating to a complete beginner.

Despite its merits, Perfect Privacy has some flaws that prevent it from being a VPN we would recommend to all users.

Firstly, it hasn’t been independently audited. We feel this isn’t too much of an issue, though, as its no-logs claims have been proven in a server seizure. Nevertheless, it’s good to show commitment to continued security by implementing audits.

Secondly, at $8.95/mo over 24 months, it’s expensive in relation to other VPNs. For instance, Surfshark has a cheaper subscription with diskless servers, unlimited device connections, and is better for streaming.

Lastly, Perfect Privacy has a very small server network, relatively slow speeds, and doesn’t unblock Netflix. Though the VPN service excels in privacy and security, it fails to impress in many other areas.

The free version of the software has the exact same privacy policy as the paid version — a robust no-logs policy that has been independently audited and verified in a legal case. As its warrant canary states:

“A data request from a foreign country was approved by the Swiss court system. However, as we do not have any customer IP information, we could not provide the requested information and this was explained to the requesting party.”

Proton VPN Free has many of the privacy features we look for in a VPN, including a working kill switch, DNS and IPv6 leak blocking.

We love that the VPN has included its free version in its no-logs audits, confirming that it really isn’t logging data on its free tier.

It’s also gone that extra step to prove its security and privacy by making its apps all open-source.

In addition to its no-logs status, Proton VPN Free delivers fast speeds on nearby connections.

However, the free VPN’s biggest flaw is its very limited range of free server locations. Proton VPN Free doesn’t let you choose a server location, instead it automatically connects you to your nearest server.

Disappointingly it’s only got 5 free server locations — the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, Poland, and the US.

A major difference between the free version paid version is the detection and blocking of BitTorrent traffic.

With Proton VPN Free, traffic is monitored using the nDPI library, or deep packet inspection, to detect and block torrenting traffic in order to reduce server congestion.

However, we aren’t so worried as the 2022 independent audit concluded: this “does not affect the privacy of their users” as “the packet content (e.g. a torrent name) is not being analysed or logged.”