The fastest VPN for outright speed in 2024 (2024)

Let's be honest, is there anything more frustrating than slow internet? When pages take forever to load and videos buffer endlessly, it's a major buzzkill—and speed is just as important in the world of VPNs.

The best VPNs protect your anonymity by routing your internet traffic through secure servers dotted around the globe. It works brilliantly, though the process can impact your browsing speed. So, to get you off to a flying start, I've shortlisted the fastest VPN providers available today.

Me and the TechRadar team are constantly putting providers through their paces (and most of us use VPNs every day), and we regularly clock their speeds to identify which services go like a rocket—which is massively important if you'll be using your VPN to stream or play games. That said, my top picks consider more than pure speed. I've seen mega-fast VPNs that don't perform as well in other areas, so you won't find them on my list.

The three fastest VPNs at a glance

Want to know which services I recommend? Here are today's three fastest VPNs.

The fastest VPN services in 2024

Let's dig into my top five picks, where I compare their speeds and overall performance, stability, ease of use, and, of course, the privacy-enhancing features that make VPNs a must-have. I'll also tackle what I liked about each service compared to the competition—and any reasons you might want to avoid them.

The fastest VPN overall

NordVPN is fast becoming one of those brand names that's synonymous with the products itself—a bit like Hoover or Tannoy. Why? Well, it does a ton of advertising (we've all seen the YouTube sponsorships), and it's incredibly quick. The proof is, basically, in the pudding.

It's hard to overstate just how quick NordVPN is. When I tested it via US servers, I saw connection speeds maxed out at over 950 Mbps using the proprietary WireGuard-based NordLynx protocol. That's way quicker than its closest competitor, ExpressVPN, which managed 750 Mbps. Because of these blazing speeds, and the fact that most homes don't have broadband as quite as quick as our test line, you can leave NordVPN switched on in the background and go about your streaming as usual without noticing a huge impact on your download speeds.

▶ Try NordVPN with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

I found that NordVPN is consistent across its global network of servers—which is just what you'd expect from a huge name with the resources to spare on ensuring quality. The speeds I saw in the UK were mostly on par with those in the US, too, which is great news for travelers or anyone trying to access streaming feeds from overseas.

Outside of its performance, NordVPN continues to draw customers with a well-rounded privacy package. A single subscription bags you a ton of tools, like Double VPN and Onion Over VPN that'll ensure your private details don't end up leaking into the hands of shady cybercriminals. I was also impressed by the kill switch, and NordVPN actually has two kill switches that can cut your internet access and close any apps if the VPN connection drops.

If you've got the need for speed, it's probably because you're probably looking for a top streaming VPN. NordVPN has you covered on that front, too—it nails Netflix, unhooks Hulu, delves into Disney+, and unblocks BBC iPlayer without any issues. So, whether you want to check out international content or catch up on your favorite local shows when journeying abroad, you'll have plenty of libraries at your fingertips—and the speeds to enjoy them in HD.

NordVPN is, basically, the full package; it's quick and easy to use, available for all devices, and really cares about safeguarding your digital privacy. For example, if you're in the UK or the US and have an Ultimate subscription, you can sign up for extra cyber insurance—which will help you recoup some cash if the worst happens and you're involved in a cyber scam. Basically, if you're after the best of the best, NordVPN is your best bet.

The best cheap VPN service

If you're looking for a VPN service that balances speed and unblocking power with wickedly inexpensive subscriptions, Surfshark has you covered. This feature-rich service is great for VPN newbies, too, thanks to its clutter-free apps.

Surfshark's WireGuard speeds clocked in at over 950 Mbps, maxing out my test line, and easily earning its place in our rankings. These speeds are more than enough to handle resource-intensive activities (think gaming, streaming, video calls, and torrenting) without slowing your internet to a crawl. It's worth noting that Surfshark's speeds were previously sitting around 790 Mbps, which is a good indication that the service is committed to providing a quick service without interruptions. OpenVPN speeds weren't as impressive, unfortunately, but most folks looking to maximize their speed will opt for WireGuard anyway.

▶ Try Surfshark with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Currently, there are more than 3,200 Surfshark servers scattered across 100 countries—which is a pretty impressive network. It's good to see that the VPN extends its coverage into Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, which isn't something you'll see all VPNs doing. You'll have no trouble hopping from location to location via the handy list, and I like that Surfshark supports P2P traffic on most of its servers, and even offers Camouflage mode when you want to disguise the fact you're using a VPN entirely.

The functionality doesn't end there, however. Surfshark backs up tough encryption and a no-logs policy with a customizable kill switch. It's up to you whether you set it to block your internet connection entirely unless you're connected to Surfshark, or whether it only cuts the internet if the VPN drops by accident. I also like the CleanWeb feature which gives ads, trackers, and malicious links the boot. Armed with all these tools, you'll be able to go about your day-to-day browsing without worrying whether your ISP, or an opportunistic hacker, is watching your every move.

Surfshark gets top marks for its unblocking capabilities, too. Plenty of VPNs promise to access big names like Netflix and BBC iPlayer with varying levels of success, but Surfshark was able to consistently unblock these sites during my testing. I could check out Netflix libraries from overseas, including the US, UK, and Japan, and even browse content on Asutralia's 9Now and 10 play services. Surfshark is, basically, your streaming skeleton key.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Surfshark is its value for money. You're getting incredible speeds, all of the aforementioned privacy features, unblocking power, and even unlimited simultaneous connections at prices that won't hurt your wallet. If you're still unsure, however, you can use the 30-day money-back guarantee to take Surfshark for a test drive before committing.

The best Linux VPN

IPVanish jumped to the number three spot in our rankings by maxing out our test line—which is pretty impressive, and shows that the service can keep up with bigger names in the industry (with more cash to throw around). I've always been pleasantly surprised by IPVanish, and it's a robust service with a lot of handy privacy features and an audited no-logs policy to back them up.

Using WireGuard, I saw IPVanish's speeds hit over 950 Mbps—and though your own experience might vary (seeing as you probably don't have connectivity on a data center level), this number shows me that the servers aren't overloaded and should be able to handle HD streaming and gaming. OpenVPN speeds sit at around 225 Mbps, and while this isn't blistering, it's still impressive considering the age of the protocol.

▶ Try IPVanish today with a 30-day money-back guarantee

IPVanish has one of the more expansive sever networks in our list, with more than 2,200 servers across 75 locations. The bulk of these are hosted in North America and Europe, which is good news if you're looking to access mainstream streaming services (more on this later) or avoid bans, restrictions, or censorship in your native country. All IPVanish servers support P2P traffic, and you can easily take your pick of locations via a detailed list, where you can see server ping, load, and other details that'll help you pick the best option.

Like Surfshark, IPVanish gives its users unlimited simultaneous connections to play with. That means you can cover all of your internet-enabled devices or share the love with friends and family—or both. Anyone using IPVanish will benefit from all the security tools you'd expect; IPv6 and DNS leak protection included. These tools (and the kill switch) work to ensure that you're not leaving an identifiable trail across the internet, and IPVanish has always aced our tests when we've put these features under the microscope.

Take a look at the IPVanish home page and you'll see that it claims "Secure access to media", which we had to put to the test, naturally. The good news is that IPVanish unblocks major services like the US and UK Netflix libraries, Amazon Prime, and regional services in the UK and Australia. Unfortunately, it couldn't get us into Disney Plus or Netflix's Canada and Australia. This might be a red flag if you're really angling to check out content from these locations, and other services (like NordVPN) perform more consistently when it comes to streaming.

IPVanish doesn't quite stack up when compared to market leaders, but it's still a fantastic service that you can trust to cover your tracks with a range of handy features. Plus, with Linux support, it caters to an often-neglected set of users. If you want to try IPVanish and check out its speeds for yourself, there's a 7-day free trial for mobile users in addition to a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The best of the rest

Free VPNs can be a mixed bag—some are seriously limited in terms of features and bandwidth and others are little more than cons designed to make off with your personal information. Windscribe is different, however, and provides top-notch security for free (or a very reasonable price), open-source apps for all of the devices in the home, and speeds that'll keep you surfing the web without interruptions.

Windscribe earns its place in our top 5 because of its proven commitment to improvement—it's constantly getting quicker and, in fact, it managed to max out our testing line at 950 Mbps like our other top contenders. That means that you can have Windscribe running in the background on your device and practically forget it's there.

▶ Try Windscribe with a 3-day money-back guarantee (only if you've used less than 10GB of traffic)

When it comes to servers, Windscribe's network of 400 is on the smaller side. However, they're well placed, covering 66 countries, and there's also a decent selection of P2P-approved servers if you fancy using Windscribe as a torrenting VPN. It's also worth noting that Windscribe recently made the shift to all RAM-based servers—which is something I'm glad to see, seeing as it boosts security (by ensuring data isn't left on servers for a long time) and, according to the VPN, it's helped boost speeds, too.

You might not expect a free VPN to be brimming over with features, seeing as most exist to tempt you into purchasing the full service, but Windscribe bucks the trend. Split tunneling helps you decide which sites and apps should use the VPN connection and which shouldn't, which is handy if you want to browse international content libraries while still accessing your regular news and social media sites, and I particularly like ROBERT—and no, that's not a random Windscribe employee. ROBERT is a DNS-based tool designed to shoo away nasties like ads, malware, and trackers, which keeps your browsing sessions threat-free.

Windscribe also impressed me with its unblocking capabilities. It seamlessly accessed BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, and more. If you spend most of your time on Netflix, however, you'll be glad to learn that Windscribe unblocked all but the Japanese library. Few VPNs get full marks in our testing, so missing out by one point still puts Windscribe at the top of the pile, but services like ExpressVPN and NordVPN did manage to achieve that elusive 100% score.

I'm a firm believer that nobody should have to break the bank to benefit from a VPN—and Windscribe delivers on this. Its apps look great and don't take tons of experience to navigate, all of the basic features are well-implemented, and the free version gives prospective customers a great idea of the speed, and functionality, that the service packs.

Over on our main VPN listings, Hide.me has made a huge leap in recent years. It's a quality service that's stuffed with advanced, configurable features, and one of a few independent providers among the big boys. Simply put, this Malaysian-based company has a lot going for it.

Hide.me's most eye-catching asset is, undeniably, its performance. It's clear that the VPN takes its speeds seriously, too, seeing as it supports the ability to run in the Windows kernel for better performance. I had had high hopes—and they weren't dashed. Hide.me matches our other top picks by maxing out our line at 950 Mbps, and if you need to switch to OpenVPN, you'll be glad to hear that I reliably recorded speeds of more than 400 Mbps in the UK and the US. This means you should enjoy a speedy connection no matter which protocol you use, giving you some more flexibility.

▶ Try Hide.me with a 30-day money-back guarantee

There are more than 2,000 Hide.me servers to choose from, spanning 75 locations, which is fairly decent—although you'll get even more coverage with the likes of ExpressVPN (boasting 3,000 servers in 94 countries). Still, Hide.me lets you hop from continent to continent with the click of a button, supports P2P traffic on most of these servers, and displays servers with useful filters so you can sort by speed or ping time, or make your own bespoke list of favorites for easy access.

In addition to support for the popular WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols (amongst others), you'll also get robust DNS, IP, and IPv6 leak protection with Hide.me—and a Multi-hop feature is the cherry on top of a privacy-filled cake. It'll slow you down a little, but it's a good option to have, and ensures that nobody snoops on your digital activities. Customizability is Hide.me's strong suit, however, and there's a ton of depth to its options. You can tailor your connection settings and configure the kill switch and split tunneling tools down to the last detail.

If Netflix is your thing, Hide.me could be a great pick—it managed to unblock the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan libraries during my testing without a hitch. That's not all. Hide.me also accessed BBC iPlayer and regional platforms (like the UK's Channel 4 and Australia's 9Now). There's an important caveat to consider here, though—you'll only get access to all these sites with the paid Hide.me plan. This means that free users miss out on a huge chunk of the VPN's functionality, which is unfortunate, but not all that surprising.

Hide.me puts you in control of your privacy, with robust leak protection and a long list of customizable settings. If you're just looking for a quick service to unblock content with, however, you'll be just as impressed. Hide.me is well worth checking out, regardless of whether you go for one of its paid plans or the (admittedly more limited) free option.

TechRadar's VPN speed rankings

Want to know the raw speeds that we discovered in our testing? Check out the table below where each provider is listed according to its US speed. You'll find some of our top performers, consistently quick providers, and a few newcomers who have shot through the ranks.

Remember, the table is based solely on speed, which is why curate providers that combine maximum performance, consistent speeds across regions and protocols, and other qualities in our countdown above.

How we test VPN services - our review methodology

It takes us a long time to test the top VPNs every six months, and speed testing is one of the most time-consuming parts.

To keep every provider on an even playing surface, we use the same Windows set-up and a 1 Gbps Ethernet-based connection for each VPN. Then, combining at least three respected speed testing sites, we test our normal connection speed with the all VPNs turned off. One by one, we turn on the VPNs, test the speed at least five times, and take the median average as our result.

If the default VPN protocol for the service was OpenVPN, we then do the same thing with WireGuard or its own proprietary protocol (i.e. Lightway for Express, NordLynx for Nord, Catapult Hydra for Hotspot Shield, etc.), or vice versa.

We'll also do our testing in the morning to ensure a fair outcome and, because connection speeds can fluctuate depending on location, we test in the US and the UK to try and give the fairest representation possible.

Fastest VPN FAQs