The best VPN software of 2026

Proton VPN is the easiest recommendation here because you can try it properly before you pay anything. The free plan has no data cap and no ads, and it covers one device on servers in 10 countries that Proton picks for you. You can't choose the country, and streaming and torrenting are paid features, so treat the free plan as a long test drive or a backup for public Wi-Fi.

VPN Plus is where most people should land. It covers 10 devices and opens up more than 20,000 servers in over 140 countries, with streaming, P2P, the NetShield ad and malware blocker, and Secure Core, which routes your traffic through an extra Proton server before it leaves the network.

Proton is based in Switzerland, publishes the code for all of its apps, and says the service is independently audited. If you already use Proton Mail or Proton Pass, Proton Unlimited bundles the VPN with mail, Drive and Pass for $7.99 a month on a two-year plan.

Watch the renewal. The two-year deal works out at $3.49 a month, then renews every 12 months at $83.88, which is about $7 a month. That's still fair for what you get, but put a reminder in your calendar.

Choose Proton VPN if you want one service you can start free and grow into. Skip it if you need the lowest long-term price, where Mullvad's flat rate wins.

NordVPN packs a lot into one account. One account covers 10 devices at the same time, and every standard server now allows P2P traffic, so you no longer hunt for a special torrenting server. The Complete bundle adds the NordPass password manager and NordLocker encrypted storage, which helps if you'd rather pay one company than three.

It's also one of the few big VPNs with a real free trial. New customers in the US and 14 other countries get seven days free on the one-year and two-year plans, paid by card or PayPal. Cancel before day seven and you pay nothing. After that, first-time customers still have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

NordVPN operates under Panama's jurisdiction, and its parent company, Nord Security, is based in the Netherlands. Surfshark merged with Nord Security in 2022, so the two VPNs now belong to one group.

The downside is that pricing is hard to read. Nord sells the VPN in several bundles, bills each plan upfront and renews at a separate renewal price. NordVPN's pricing page blocked our checks on November 4, 2026, so we can't quote a current US price. Check the total and the renewal line at checkout before you pay.

Choose NordVPN if you want the trial, the bundle extras and P2P on any server. Skip it if you want to know your price for the next three years without reading the small print.

Surfshark has no device limit, so one subscription can cover every phone, laptop and TV in the house. That alone makes it the value pick for families and shared flats.

The Starter plan includes the VPN with its ad and cookie pop-up blockers, Bypasser (Surfshark's split tunneling) and Alternative ID, which gives you a spare identity and email address for sign-ups. The network has more than 4,500 servers in 100 countries. If you also want antivirus and identity protection tools, the One plan costs the same as Starter on the long plans and renews at $99 a year instead of $79.

You can try it for seven days for $0.00, on up to three devices during the trial, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee after you buy.

Watch the monthly price. At $18.95 billed monthly, Starter has one of the highest monthly prices in this guide, so Surfshark only makes sense on the one-year or two-year plan. The two-year plan is $67.23 for the first 27 months and then renews at $79 a year.

Surfshark and NordVPN have been part of one group since their 2022 merger. Pick Surfshark for the unlimited devices and published long-term prices, and NordVPN for P2P on every server and its bundle extras.

ExpressVPN is the one to give someone who doesn't want to fiddle with settings. It has apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Fire TV and Android TV, and the company sells its own Aircove routers, so you can cover a smart TV or games console without setting up anything on the device itself. It has servers in 113 countries and its own Lightway protocol.

Plans now come in tiers. Basic covers 10 devices and includes ad, tracker and malicious-site blocking. Advanced covers 12 devices and adds the ExpressKeys password manager, and the top tier goes up to 14 devices. Every tier also carries ExpressAI and an email alias service, which you may or may not want.

There's no free plan. Buyers on the website get a 30-day money-back guarantee if they're first-time users, and ExpressVPN's iOS and Android apps offer a short free trial through the app stores.

Price is the drawback. Basic is $14.99 billed monthly, and the two-year plan is $83.72 for the first 28 months, then $99.95 a year. That's the highest renewal among the prices we could confirm for this guide. ExpressVPN was running a Black Friday sale when we checked, and the sale price shown to us in euros was lower, so US buyers may see a better offer than the figures we could confirm.

Choose ExpressVPN if ease of use and router support matter more than price. Skip it if you're watching renewals.

Mullvad asks for less than anyone else here. You don't give an email address. You click once, get an account number, and pay against it, by card, PayPal, bank transfer, cryptocurrency or cash in an envelope with a payment token. Cryptocurrency payments get 10% off.

The pricing is just as plain. Mullvad charges €5 a month whether you pay for one month, a year or longer, and says its price hasn't changed since it launched in 2009. It doesn't run sales, so there's no introductory rate and no renewal shock. Mullvad's site lists €5 as equivalent to $5.62, and it accepts US dollars, though it doesn't publish a separate dollar price.

One account covers five devices, with apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. Mullvad is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and says it commissions independent audits of its apps and infrastructure.

You give up some conveniences. Mullvad doesn't support port forwarding, which some torrent users want, and its main pages don't mention streaming, so don't buy it to unblock other countries' catalogs. Five devices is also the lowest limit among the paid picks. Refunds are available for 14 days, except on cash payments.

Choose Mullvad if privacy is the reason you want a VPN. Skip it if you want streaming help, port forwarding or a big household plan.

Private Internet Access, usually called PIA, is the pick for people who torrent or run a lot of devices. It allows unlimited devices, supports P2P on every server and offers port forwarding on selected servers, which PIA says improves P2P performance. Mullvad, the other privacy favorite here, doesn't support port forwarding.

Its renewals are kinder than most. The yearly plan is $47.88 and renews at the same $47.88, which is about $3.99 a month. The three-year plan, with four extra months on the current offer, is $81.20 and renews at $81.20 every three years, or about $2.03 a month for the first term.

The apps give you more settings than most rivals, including WireGuard and OpenVPN, an advanced kill switch that blocks traffic whenever the VPN is off, connection rules by network type, and DNS filtering for ads, trackers and malware. PIA has servers in 113 countries and is based in Denver, Colorado.

There's no free plan or free trial on PIA's site, but new subscribers get a 30-day money-back guarantee. Some people will find the US base a concern; PIA says it keeps no logs and that the policy has been independently verified, but if jurisdiction matters to you, look at Proton VPN or Mullvad.

Choose PIA for torrenting and fair long-term pricing. Skip it if you want the simplest possible app.

Windscribe's free plan is the best choice if Proton VPN's random country assignment doesn't work for you. Confirm your email address and you get 10GB of data a month, on servers in 10 of Windscribe's 69 countries, with no device limit for personal use. Without a confirmed email, the allowance is 2GB.

When 10GB isn't enough, Windscribe offers a middle option most VPNs don't. Pro is $9 a month or $69 a year (about $5.75 a month) for unlimited data in every country. Build A Plan lets you pay $1 per location per month instead, and each location you add comes with 10GB on top of your free allowance. That's handy if you only need, say, a US and a UK server.

Pro includes R.O.B.E.R.T., Windscribe's blocker for ads, trackers and malware, and config generators for OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard if you want to set it up on a router or another device by hand. Windscribe is based in Toronto, Canada.

It has no free trial, because the free plan does that job. Paid plans can be refunded within seven days if you've used less than 10GB, according to Windscribe's help center, which is a shorter window than most.

Choose Windscribe if you want a free plan with a choice of country, or to pay only for the locations you use. Skip it if you want a long refund window.

CyberGhost gives you longer than anyone here to change your mind. The six-month and 28-month plans come with a 45-day money-back guarantee, so you can test it at home, on holiday and on your work trip before the window closes. The monthly plan has 14 days.

The 28-month plan is also one of the cheapest first terms in this guide at $61.32, or $2.19 a month. CyberGhost's pricing table says it then renews at $61.32 a year. Check that line at checkout, because the price was part of an early Black Friday sale when we looked.

One subscription covers seven devices at once. CyberGhost has more than 9,600 servers in 100 countries, apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, and a kill switch, DNS and IP leak protection, and WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2. Support is live chat around the clock.

CyberGhost doesn't have a free plan. It does have a short free trial: 24 hours on Windows and macOS with no card, three days on Android and seven days on iOS, where you need a payment method.

Choose CyberGhost if you want to try a VPN for six weeks with your money back if it doesn't suit you. Skip it if you need more than seven devices; Surfshark and PIA have no limit.