The Best VPNs for Public WiFi

A VPN kill switch is a security feature that automatically disconnects your device from the internet if your VPN connection is lost. It then reconnects when the VPN connection is reestablished.

It prevents any web traffic from being sent over an unsecure internet connection, particularly on risky public WiFi networks or free WiFi hotspots.

PIA’s kill switch operates in exactly the same way as its Windows counterpart.

The best VPNs for public WiFi all come with a VPN kill switch that’s built-in or can be easily turned on.

VPN auto-connect initiates a VPN connection any time you connect to a WiFi network. This ensures you stay protected from hackers and snoopers each time you connect to a new WiFi hotspot. This is especially important if you often use hotel WiFi or hotspots in malls and other public spaces.

You can find the feature in all popular VPNs, including ExpressVPN, NordVPN, PIA, and Surfshark. VPN auto-connect is not to be confused with your device’s WiFi auto-connect feature, which initiates a WiFi connection any time you are near one.

A few VPNs have features designed specifically for protecting you on public WiFi. These are essentially advanced auto-connect features, which separate safe and unsafe WiFi networks – also called a ‘Trusted Networks’ Feature.

A Trusted Network Feature often works like an exceptions list: when you add a WiFi network to it, you will no longer get connected to a VPN server when using that network.

In short, by adding a WiFi network to the Trusted Networks list, you signal that you trust this network and do not need VPN protection when connected to it.

PIA’s Automation setting lets you automatically connect or disconnect from certain networks.

This feature is useful if you want to automatically disconnect from your VPN when you get home and automatically connect to a VPN when you leave. In our testing of the feature, we found that a lot of VPNs offer it but with different names.

Here’s a short list of popular VPNs with a Trusted Networks setting:

• NordVPN: Trusted Network
• PIA: Automation
• Surfshark: Trusted Wi-Fi Networks
• IPVanish: Trusted Wi-Fi Networks
• VyprVPN: Public WiFi Protection
• HMA: Connection Rules

A DNS leak is a security vulnerability that occurs when your computer sends DNS requests to an unauthorized server, potentially allowing a third party to monitor your online activity.

When using public WiFi, where security risks are heightened, it’s important to use a VPN that comes with robust DNS leak protection. The best VPNs for public WiFi encrypt your DNS requests with strong encryption ciphers, such as AES-256 or ChaCha20.

The best VPNs also operate their own network of DNS servers. By doing so, they eliminate the reliance on third-party DNS providers, reducing the risk of unauthorized access to your online activity.

Norton Secure VPN is genuinely awful. It logs your real IP address, which is the worst thing for a VPN to keep. This is because your IP address is unique to your network and can be used to identify you.

It also doesn’t let you choose between protocols, which is an essential feature for any high-quality VPN service.

Norton VPN Secure is not good enough for day-to-day use on free WiFi networks.

We strongly encourage you to avoid using Norton Secure VPN on public WiFi, even if you have access to it through its antivirus software already.

SetupVPN is another VPN we advise against using. The worst thing about this VPN is that it logs way too much personally identifiable information. It keeps track of your real IP address, browser type, connection timestamps, and your browsing history.

Setup VPN is one to avoid if you want to stay safe on free WiFi.

In the wrong hands, all of this information can be combined to identify any individual user of the VPN and their internet activity.

We also couldn’t find any legal information about the company behind Setup VPN. This stands in stark contrast to our recommended VPNs like ExpressVPN and PIA which have regular transparency reports and are properly registered companies.

Avira Phantom VPN logs and stores your IP address and bandwidth usage. It’s actually owned by the same company as Norton Secure VPN — another VPN that logs your IP address. These shady security practices are reason enough to avoid the service.

In our tests, Avira Phantom VPN often failed to connect to a nearby server.

In our hands-on testing, we also found Avira Phantom awful to use. We had a hard time navigating through the website to download the app. Once downloaded onto our device, the VPN apps were full of frustrating bugs.

Avast SecureLine is a mid-tier VPN which doesn’t offer any benefits compared to PIA or ExpressVPN. It’s slower than our top picks for public WiFi and fails to unblock many streaming services like US Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max.

Avast SecureLine doesn’t offer many server locations compared to other VPNs.

Its server network is also incredibly small for its higher price tag. It only covers 37 countries, whereas PIA covers 91.

In 2019, Avast’s antivirus extension was also discovered to be harvesting and sending back data to Avast, before selling it onto Google and Microsoft. This data included websites visited, search terms, videos watched, links clicked, and unique device IDs.

Strong AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption is crucial for any VPN to hide your internet activity and real IP address on public WiFi networks.

To test for this, we run every VPN through Wireshark, a web packet sniffer that shows whether your internet activity is encrypted.

In our tests, ExpressVPN successfully encrypted our web traffic.

We also use our own proprietary security tools which test for IP, DNS, WebRTC, and geolocation leaks. Our bespoke VPN kill switch test also checks whether a VPN is protecting your IP address when your internet drops.

To calculate this rating, we take each VPN’s Security & Technical Features rating in our review and multiply it by 0.3. Then we have 30% of the overall public WiFi rating.

A VPN’s logging policy lists the amount of data a VPN monitors and whether it’s stored. If a VPN logs your IP address, timestamps, or browsing history, we recommend steering clear of it completely.

We also take into account whether a VPN has diskless servers, accepts anonymous cash payments, or conducts regular independent audits.

To calculate this rating, we take each VPN’s Privacy and Logging Policy rating in our review and multiply it by 0.2. Then we have 20% of the overall public WiFi rating.

Public WiFi speeds can be notoriously slow. That’s why it’s important for a VPN to maintain fast download and upload speeds, and low ping times across nearby servers.

VPNs with fast download speeds can stream video content in higher quality, access web pages faster, and download private files quicker.

Having fast upload speeds is also crucial if you’re working remotely on public WiFi and you need to send files via email or upload them to databases.

To measure each VPN’s speed, we conduct speed tests by connecting to servers in five continents in a controlled testing environment.

We manually conduct every VPN speed test.

We manually conduct each test on our proprietary internet speed testing tool. No third-party software is used.

To calculate this rating, we take each VPN’s Speed rating in our review and multiply it by 0.2. Then we have 20% of the overall public WiFi rating.

The best VPNs for public WiFi have a diverse range of IP address locations available. A VPN with servers in more countries can give you access to more region-specific content.

To evaluate a VPN’s server locations, we look through each and every VPN’s server list. In our experience, a VPN’s website server list might be different to its apps, and even vary between different platforms.

Then we record each and every server location, including city-level servers, and compare them to find the VPNs with the most server locations.

To score at least 8.0, a VPN has to have servers in at least 21 countries. To calculate this rating, we take each VPN’s Server Locations rating in our review and multiply it by 0.1. Then we have 10% of the overall public WiFi rating.

User experience measures how user-friendly and intuitive the experience of using a VPN’s software is. To evaluate this, we document our personal experiences with a VPN while testing for other categories (like torrenting and streaming).

During these other tests, we note how easy it is to navigate a VPN’s app, its server sorting options, and the clarity of labels. We also take into consideration a VPN’s look, options for dark mode, and other customization options.

To score highly in this category, a VPN must be extremely intuitive to use across a broad range of platforms. Having attractive and user-friendly apps on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android are key to this category.

To calculate this rating, we take each VPN’s Ease of Use rating in our review and multiply it by 0.1. Then we have 10% of the overall public WiFi rating.

A VPN’s connection time is a measurement of how quickly it can connect to a nearby server. This is crucial, especially when using a public WiFi VPN, as the period between joining a hotspot and connecting to the VPN is when you’re susceptible to snoopers and hackers.

A VPN with fast connection times can establish a connection in less than three seconds. We measure a VPN’s connection time using a stopwatch, an iPhone 14, and a Lenovo ThinkPad T480 laptop. We record the time it takes to connect to the nearest server using the VPN’s default protocol.

A VPN’s connection time is evaluated by averaging results from three different tests and converting the result into a rating out of 10. A lower connection time corresponds to a better rating.

Our database of VPN connection times across devices.

To calculate this rating, we take each VPN’s connection time rating and multiply it by 0.1. Then we have 10% of the overall public WiFi rating.

This category is different to overall speed, which evaluates a VPN’s download speed, upload speed, and ping times.