Best VPN for iPhone 2025

With so many iPhone VPN apps available, it can be difficult to choose the right solution. Based on our extensive research and hands-on testing of VPNs over the years, these are the factors you should pay attention to when choosing the best VPN for your iPhone:

privacy

The primary consideration for any VPN should be privacy. If your iPhone VPN is unable to provide a sufficient level of privacy, your VPN is practically useless. Your VPN must provide industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption via OpenVPN and IKEv2 VPN protocols Or ChaCha20 with WireGuard, along with basic privacy protections like a kill switch, DNS leak protection, and a no-logs policy. If your privacy needs are critical, you’ll want a VPN provider that’s located in a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, offers obfuscation, and has a RAM-only server architecture. Additional privacy features to look for include Tor over VPN functionality, ad and tracking blockers, and multi-hop connections. It’s also important to choose a VPN that’s trustworthy, transparent, and undergoes regular third-party security audits, which can help boost confidence in the VPN’s ability to protect your privacy.

speed

Your VPN connection speeds can have a big impact on the quality of your streaming, downloading, video conferencing, gaming, and general web browsing activities. All VPNs Slow down your internet To some extent, this is simply by encrypting your traffic and sending it through at least one server before moving on to its final destination. To keep things running as smoothly as possible, you’ll need a virtual private network (VPN) that will have as little impact on your normal internet speeds as possible. In general, we recommend a VPN with an internet speed loss of 25% or less. In our tests, we noticed an average drop in internet download speed of up to 11%. For bandwidth-intensive applications like competitive gaming or 4K video streaming, you’ll need a fast VPN.

Ease of use

A good iPhone VPN should work smoothly and be easy to use regardless of your technical expertise. It should have all the features you need and be easily accessible with the tap of your finger. Many of the best iPhone VPN apps also include an easy way to contact support directly from the device, which can be useful if you need help on the go. Basically, your iPhone VPN app should be as easy to use as your iPhone itself. It should have a large network of servers around the world so you can connect easily and reliably from wherever you travel, and it should be able to help you access geo-restricted content from different regions.

It costs

Depending on your budget, you may want to consider the cost and overall value of your iPhone VPN before making a purchase. The price of a VPN can vary greatly from one provider to another, but you can usually expect to spend around $5 to $13 per month for a monthly VPN subscription plan. If you want to save some money, you can opt for an annual subscription, where prices can range from around $30 to $100 per year. You will need to be careful when using free VPNs because you may end up risking your privacy instead of protecting it with a free VPN. Proton VPN is currently the only one Free VPN Recommended by CNET.

Most premium VPNs offer a money-back guarantee anywhere from a week to 45 days. You also get a free seven-day trial with several VPNs when you sign up through the Apple App Store, so you have options to try out several iPhone VPNs risk-free before deciding if you want to invest fully in one.

Device support

Although you want your iPhone VPN to work well on iOS and iPadOS, you likely have a large number of other devices on which you might want to run a VPN. Most VPNs work on Windows, MacOS, and Linux computers. In addition to iPhone and iPad, the majority of VPNs also offer Android apps. While Android TV and Fire TV apps are popular on streaming devices, Apple TV apps are still on the rise. Providers like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Proton VPN, Surfshark, PIA, and IPVanish feature Apple TV VPN apps. (Disclosure: IPVanish is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) Think about the devices you want to install the VPN app on and make sure the desired VPN company supports those devices.