This allows you to virtually change your location online, making you more anonymous and tricking sites like Netflix into showing you content that's blocked in your country.Ī VPN also encrypts your traffic, which means that even if it's intercepted, your activity can't be seen. In short, a VPN is an application installed on your device that redirects your internet connection through its own servers around the world. View Deal (opens in new tab) What is a VPN? You'll also find links to our reviews, plus connection speed data at the bottom of the page and a quick FAQ section. If you want to do some deeper investigation, just keep scrolling for our in-depth rundown of the 15 best providers. If you already have a decent idea of what you need, just pick from our top three choices below. And, no matter what devices you use, you can get connected to a super-fast server in seconds. What's more, they're not just for staying private online, either.įrom unblocking geo-blocked streaming content on sites like BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Netflix to avoiding restrictions in schools, colleges, and authoritarian countries like the UAE and China, VPNs are hugely versatile. Once considered the preserve of the techiest basement-dweller, VPNs are now incredibly usable, and are accessible to even hardened luddites.
As you may or may not already know, 'VPN' stands for 'Virtual Private Network', and in its simplest form it is a piece of software that encrypts your online traffic and anonymizes your location online.