Best VPN for Android of 2024

Best VPN for Android of 2024

Written by: VPNRatings.com Editorial TeamUpdated: Apr 12, 2022
 
In order to help you find the Best VPN for Android, we spent more than 40 hours analyzing every VPN on the market, graded each one on over 20 different features, and put together this list to help you narrow down your options and choose the Best VPN for Android.

Our Selection Criteria

Not all VPNs are created equal. We analyzed every single VPN service on the market rated them based on 24 different variables across 4 categories to pick the best VPN services.

  • shape-1 89
    VPNs Reviewed
  • shape-1 53
    VPNs
    Curated
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    Top Picks
  • 1. Reputation

    Great user reviews, testimonials, and recognition from other reputable outlets.

  • 2. Security

    Uses the highest available level of encryption and the most up-to-date-security features.

  • 3. Server Coverage and Speed

    Vast networks of servers in multiple countries and the fastest connections.

  • 4. Logging Policy

    Commitment to not collect your data to sell to advertisers or share with law enforcement.

Best VPN for Android

CyberGhost

CyberGhost is based in Romania, but has locations in almost 90 countries, totaling over 6,200 servers. All of their paid plans support up to 7 simultaneously connected devices, and they have support for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Amazon Fire Stick, Android TV, and routers.

With a strict no-logging policy and AES-256 encryption using one of L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2, WireGuard®, or OpenVPN protocols, CyberGhost will keep you safe if you choose them as your VPN. If you’re not ready to commit, you can try their one-day free trial, or sign up for a subscription with a 45-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied.

In addition, you can view transparency reports dating back to 2011. These include all of the police requests, Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaints, and malware activity flags that they’ve received. This is a great demonstration that CyberGhost are doing their best to be honest with their users.

Read our full CyberGhost review.

Features
Price1 month: $12.99
1 year: $5.99/month
2 years: $3.69/month
3 years: $2.75/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)6,200+ fast servers in 80+ countries
Number of Devices7
Compatible with Chrome, Firefox
More Features—Customer Support via Email and Contact Form
—Streaming Services supported: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—256-bit AES encryption

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, where there are strong privacy laws that help protect the security of your data. Combined with a strict no-logging policy, you can be confident that your personal details won’t be handed over to anybody you don’t want to have it. For additional privacy, you can choose to pay via Bitcoin if you wish.

Their split tunneling feature lets you specify which apps on your device use the VPN (or don’t), and their Network Lock will ensure that no unwanted traffic gets sent insecurely. All of their VPN connections are secured with 256-bit AES, putting it on-par with some of the best available encryption in the world.

With 3,000+ servers in 160 locations across 94 countries, and support for macOS, iOS, Linux, Windows, Android, Apple TV, Fire TV, and gaming consoles, you should be able to use ExpressVPN with whatever device and service you require.

ExpressVPN doesn’t offer a free trial, but they do have a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’d like to try them out without committing to a long-term subscription.

Read our full ExpressVPN review.

Features
Price1 month: $12.95
6 months : $9.99
15 months: $6.67
Servers (#) in Countries (#)3,000+ servers in 94 countries
Number of Devices5
Compatible withInternet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera
More Features—Customer Support via Email and Contact Form
—Streaming Services supported: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—256-bit AES encryption

Freedome VPN

FREEDOME VPN is offered by F-Secure, a company that has been around since 1988 and specializes in cyber security in all its forms. F-Secure offers a range of security and privacy-focused products, including Anti-Virus, SAFE (an internet security suite, which includes Anti-Virus), FREEDOME VPN, ID PROTECTION, and TOTAL, which includes all of the above. If you’re looking for additional security and safety beyond just a VPN, their other products and packages may be worth investigating.

Their VPN service is supported on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. They support AES-128-CBC encryption, offer customer support via live chat and email, and connect to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ streaming services. You can use up to either 3 or 7 simultaneous devices with FREEDOME, depending on which plan you choose, at a cost of $34.99 to $69.99 per year, with a 30-day free trial.

Features
Price1 year (7 devices): $69.99
1 year (3 devices): $34.99
2 years (7 devices): $89.99
Servers (#) in Countries (#)27 servers in 18 countries
Number of Devices7
Compatible withChrome, Firefox
More Features—Free Trial: 30 days
—Customer Support: Live Chat & Email
—Support Streaming Services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+
—Encryption: AES-128-CBC

Hotspot Shield

Hotspot Shield sports a proprietary “no-compromise” VPN protocol known as Catapult Hydra, which “is verified by experts as the #1 for speed, security, and ease of use.”

They offer a free tier with a 500 MB daily data limit, speeds of up to 2Mbps, and a single virtual location (U.S.). This might be enough for some users, but with their $7.99/month subscription, you’ll get access to faster speeds and unlimited data transfer.

The Premium plan comes with access to 3,200 servers in 80+ countries, 24/7 live chat support, and streaming access optimized for most major streaming platforms. You also get subscriptions to 1Password (a password manager), Robo Shield (a spam call blocker), and Identity Guard (an identity theft prevention tool).

With this VPN, you can connect up to 5 devices simultaneously, including Android, iOS, and Windows devices. Finally, if you’re not 100% happy with Hotspot Shield’s service, they offer a 45-day money-back guarantee.

Read our full Hotspot Shield review.

Features
PriceBasic: Free
Premium: $7.99/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)3,200+ servers in 80+ countries
Number of Devices5
Compatible withChrom, Firefox
More Features—No free trial, but 45-day money-back guarantee
—Customer Support via 24/7 Live Chat or Email
—Streaming Services supported: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—128-bit AES encryption

IPVanish

IPVanish’s plans support an unlimited number of simultaneously connected devices on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Fire TV, Linux, or ChromeOS. You also get 250 GB of encrypted storage and backup provided by SugarSync®.

All of your traffic is encrypted with 256-bit AES and none of it is logged. You can access the VPN via L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2, or OpenVPN, or using their SOCKS5 proxy if you just want to use your VPN for web and BitTorrent traffic, for example.

They have 1,500+ servers in 75 countries, ensuring plenty of connection options. And with 24/7 support and a 30-day money back guarantee, you can try them out before deciding whether to commit to a 1-year subscription.

Read our full IPVanish review.

Features
Price1 month: $11.99
3 months: $8.99/month
1 year: $6.49/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)1,500+ servers in 75 countries
Number of DevicesUnlimited devices
Compatible withChrome
More Features—30-day money-back guarantee
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services supported: YouTube, Netflix, Hulu
—256-bit AES encryption

KeepSolid VPN Unlimited

KeepSolid offers several products, one of which is a VPN. Fammle is an app for keeping your family organized and communicating with them; Private Browser is a web browser with a VPN built in; Goals is a tool for setting goals, creating Mind Maps, and managing Sprints; SmartDNS is a DNS proxy that conceals your real location and helps unblock content; and VPN Lite and Unlimited® are conventional VPNs

.

VPN Unlimited® is available for all of the major operating systems and routers. You can use the VPN on up to 5 or 10 devices, depending on your plan, with plans available on a monthly, yearly, 3-year, or lifetime basis. They start out at $9.99/month for 5 devices, and go all the way up to $299.99 for 10 devices for a lifetime. All of these are offered with a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money back guarantee.

With secure 256-bit AES encryption, your traffic is guaranteed to be private. If you get disconnected from the VPN, there’s a kill switch that can stop your internet traffic until it’s back up and running. You can choose to connect to any one of over 500 servers in at least 80 locations. On Android and Windows, KeepSolid uses OpenVPN, and on macOS and iOS, it uses IKEv2. Both of these are secure protocols.

Read our full KeepSolid VPN Unlimited review.

Features
Price1 month (5 devices): $9.99
1 month (10 devices): $14.99
1 year (5 devices): $5.00/month
1 year for (10 devices): $7.50/month
3 years (5 devices): $2.78/month
3 years for 10 devices: $4.17/month
Single Payment (5 devices): $199.99
Servers (#) in Countries (#)500+ high-speed servers across 80+ locations
Number of Devices10
Compatible withChrome, Opera, Firefox
More Features—Free Trial: 7 day
—Customer Support: 24/7 email, instant live chat support
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

NordVPN

NordVPN is based in Panama, but has built a reputation around the world. It supports a wide range of international streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, The BBC, Prime Video, YouTube, Kodi, HBO, Disney, and Showtime.

While they don’t have a free trial, they do have a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it without risk. Plus, they have reliable customer support via email and live chat, so you can get help if you have any trouble setting up. After trying it out, you can get a 3-year subscription for $3.49/month, or shorter subscriptions at several price points.

With AES-256 encryption and a no-log policy to keep your data safe, NordVPN can be installed on Android, Android TV, Google Chrome, and other operating systems.

Read our full NordVPN review.

Features
Price1 month: $11.95
1 year: $6.99/month
2 years: $4.99/month
3 years: $3.49/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)5,000+ servers in 59 countries
Number of DevicesUnlimited devices
Compatible withInternet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera
More Features—30-day money-back guarantee
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form, Live Chat
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

Private Internet Access

Private Internet Access is one of a growing number of VPN companies that support the newly released WireGuard® protocol, in addition to PPTP, OpenVPN, and L2TP/IPSec, as well as offering a SOCKS5 proxy. They also have a no-log policy and 256-bit AES encryption, comparable with the other VPNs on our list..

One feature that makes Private Internet Access stand out is that in addition to PayPal, Bitcoin, and credit card, they accept payment via gift cards from major outlets, such as Best Buy, The Home Depot, Lowe’s, Starbucks, Target, and Walmart.

This VPN supports all major streaming services, and you can access it on all of your devices and browsers, including Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

Private Internet Access offers a 30-day money-back guarantee instead of a free trial, and their two-year plan costs only $5.42 per month, about a third of what you’d pay if you subscribed month-to-month. You can use their service on up to 10 simultaneous devices, giving you access to 2,715+ servers in 47 countries.

Read our full Private Internet Access review.

Features
Price1 month: $16.35
1 year: $5.42/month
2 years: $4.42/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)2,715+ servers in 47 countries
Number of Devices5
Compatible withFirefox, Chrome, Opera
More Features—30-day money-back guarantee
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

PrivateVPN

PrivateVPN offers remote assistance to get you up and running with their service, which is handy if you haven’t used a VPN before and need help setting it up. Even without any help, their 1-click setup promises to have you up and running in less than 60 seconds.

This VPN service has 256-bit AES encryption, and it supports most operating systems and routers, using the OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, and IKEv2/IPSec protocols.

PrivateVPN doesn’t offer a free trial, but their 30-day money-back guarantee will give you a chance to test it out. Then, you can choose to sign up for a 1-, 3-, or 13-month plan, the latter of which will set you back just $3.82/month.

Use those 30 days to test out its features, including access to major streaming services and a kill switch to prevent you from accidentally sending unencrypted traffic. It can be used on up to 6 devices at once, and has a zero-data-logging policy.

Features
Price1 month: $7.67
3 months: $4.88/month
13 months: $3.82/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)150+ servers in 60 countries
Number of Devices6
Compatible withChrome, Firefox
More Features—30-day money-back guarantee
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN is a new offering by the Swiss-based team that runs ProtonMail, a secure email service founded by former CERN researchers. They offer a free version of their VPN service with limited functionality, which may be enough for some users. If not, consider signing up for a 7-day free trial of their full service.

ProtonVPN can be used on up to 10 simultaneous devices on some premium plans, and all plans come with a strict no-logs policy.

Their standard plan works with streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube, and you get access to 1,011 VPN servers in 51 countries. Finally, ProtonVPN only supports secure VPN protocols like IKEv2/IPSec, so you can be sure they’ve got your back in that regard. ProtonVPN is designed to be useful for journalists and activists.

Read our full ProtonVPN review.

Features
PriceFree version available
Basic: $4/month
Plus: $8/month
Visionary: $24/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)1,011 servers in 51 countries
Number of Devices1-10, depending on plan
Compatible withChrome, Firefox
More Features—Free Trial: 7 days
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

PureVPN

PureVPN supports a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and other operating systems. They only accept payment via Visa, PayPal, and American Express, but offer enterprise options for businesses.

This company is currently Hong Kong-based, but they’ve decommissioned their Hong Kong servers as of July 28, 2020. All their operations are exclusively overseas, and they’re “taking time to evaluate our jurisdiction.”

With this service, you get a kill switch paired with 256-bit AES encryption to make sure you’re only sending traffic securely. PureVPN lets you connect up to 10 simultaneous devices, and while they don’t offer a free trial, they have a 7-day trial for only $0.99.

Read our full PureVPN review.

Features
Price1 month: $10.95
6 months: $8.33/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)2,000+ fast servers in 140+ countries
Number of Devices10
Compatible withChrome, Firefox
More Features—Free Trial: 7-days trial
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

SaferVPN

With SaferVPN, you get up to 5 simultaneous connections with AES-256 encryption, a guarantee of zero traffic logs, and 24/7 customer support via live chat.

Available for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and more, this VPN seems to cover all its bases. SaferVPN has a 1-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can connect to any of their 1,300+ servers in over 50 countries.

As for pricing, you can expect to pay between $2.50 and $12.95 per month, depending on whether you choose their 1-month, 1-year, or 3-year subscriptions. As with all of the other VPNs we’ve reviewed here, this one offers a kill-switch to cut off your internet traffic if your VPN gets disconnected, helping keep you secure at all times.

Finally, the SaferVPN app can automatically connect to the VPN when it detects that you’re on an unsecured public WiFi network. This is useful if you don’t want to keep your VPN connected at all times, such as while using your home network.

Features
PriceOne-month $12.95
1 year: $5.49/month
2 years: $3.29/month
3 years: $2.50/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)1,300+ premium VPN servers in over 50 countries
Number of Devices5
Compatible withChrome, Firefox
More Features—Free Trial: 1 day
—Customer Support: 24/7 Live Chat
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, BBC and ITV
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

Surfshark

Surfshark is based in the British Virgin Islands, one of the best jurisdictions for internet security. Combine that with a kill switch and 256-bit AES encryption, and this looks like a pretty solid VPN choice. You can try it out free for 30-days, but they also have a 30-day money back guarantee if you subscribe and decide it’s not for you.

If you choose to subscribe long-term, you can pay as little as $1.99/month on a 2-year subscription. You’ll also get 24/7 support via email or live chat, as well as some helpful tutorials to get you set up. You can use this VPN on an unlimited number of devices, and access various streaming services via 1,700+ servers in 63 countries.

What makes Surfshark particularly unique is its Camouflage Mode feature, which makes it harder for your ISP to detect that you’re using a VPN, and the multi-hop feature, which lets you put an extra server between you and your destination, making it even harder to trace your activity back to you.

Read our full Surfshark review.

Features
Price1 month: $11.95
12 months: $5.99/month
24 months: $1.99/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)1,700+ servers in 63 countries
Number of DevicesUnlimited devices
Compatible withInternet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera
More Features—Free Trial: 30 days
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

TunnelBear

TunnelBear offers a free tier providing up to 500 MB of secure browsing. For most users, this isn’t enough for daily use, but it’s enough for you to test out how it works, and is the only free trial option that TunnelBear provides. TunnelBear supports iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows devices, as well as browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

If you’re an individual user, you’re looking at $3.33/month, and if you’re part of a team or business, you’ll pay $5.75/user/month. Both of these options allow up to 5 simultaneous devices per user. TunnelBear has servers in 23 countries, keeps no logs, and has a kill-switch to ensure you don’t accidentally send traffic that is unencrypted.

This company behind TunnelBear also offers a password manager called RememBear, if you want to purchase multiple services from the same team.

Read our full TunnelBear review.

Features
PriceFree for limited usage (500 MB of secure browsing)
Unlimited $3.33/month
Teams $5.75/user/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)1,800+ servers in 22+ countries
Number of Devices5
Compatible withChrome, Firefox, and Opera
More Features—Customer Support: Email
—Streaming Services: Reddit, Netflix, Etsy
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

VyperVPN

VyprVPN has 700+ servers in over 70 locations around the world, and supports a range of platforms and streaming services. Plans cost $12.95 per month, but as with many of the VPNs on this list, you’ll get a better deal if you subscribe for longer. Their 1-year plan costs $3.75/month, while their 2-year plan costs $2.50/month, paid up front.

In addition to standard 256-bit AES encryption, VyprVPN uses a proprietary technology called Chameleon™ to hide your VPN use from your ISP, or anybody else snooping on your traffic via Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). With a 30-day free trial that you can use on unlimited devices, this offer is definitely worth a look.

Features
Price1 month: $12.95
1 year :$3.75/month
2 years:$2.50/month
Servers (#) in Countries (#)700+ servers in 70+ locations
Number of DevicesUnlimited devices
Compatible withInternet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Opera
More Features—Free Trial: 30 days
—Customer Support: Email, Contact Form
—Streaming Services: Netflix, Hulu, the BBC, Youtube, Prime Video, Kodi, HBO, Disney, Showtime etc.
—Encryption: 256-bit AES

How We Chose the Best VPN for Android

We’ve chosen four criteria — security, server coverage, logging policy, and a free trial offer — as the primary factors to keep in mind when choosing a VPN.

We didn’t consider price on this list, because we think the best VPNs are worth paying for to ensure a higher level of security and reliability. That said, if price is important to you, check out our list of cheapest VPN services for budget-friendly options.

Security

Security is one of the primary reasons for using a VPN in the first place, so making sure that your VPN is secure enough for your needs is important. A secure VPN is one that uses good encryption that has been independently audited for safety against current attack methods, and which doesn’t allow attackers to snoop on your internet traffic or get access to your account.

As of writing, some of the best VPN transport encryption is a 256-bit AES cipher with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA512 hashing and key generation. These algorithms strongly encrypt your VPN traffic and make it sufficiently hard for hackers to get access to your data as it’s speeding around the internet.

Traffic encryption is only one aspect of security. The best encryption in the world won’t do you any good if attackers can log into your account and find your VPN decryption keys. You should secure your VPN account with strong passwords, and, if your VPN provider supports it, two-factor authentication.

Server Coverage

One of the main benefits of using a VPN is that it allows you to appear to others as if you’re connected to the internet from almost anywhere in the world. This allows you to access services only available in certain countries, and helps hide your location from anyone who might want to find it.

In addition, the more servers a VPN company offers, the less crowded each server will be. This means it’s a good idea to look for a company that provides lots of servers in a wide variety of locations around the world.

Logging Policy

It’s also important to know what the logging policy of your VPN service is. If they keep logs of what IP addresses you’re using or accessing, they may be compelled by state actors or other authorities to hand that data over, which would defeat the purpose of having a VPN for privacy in the first place.

All of our selected VPNs have a no-logging policy, meaning that they don’t keep logs of your activity, and therefore have nothing to hand over to anybody who asks.

Free Trial

Free trials are a great way to try out a VPN service to see if it’s a good fit for you before you subscribe to it. Many of the companies we’ve listed here offer free trials for between a day and a month, and many others offer a one-month money-back guarantee if you pay for a subscription and aren’t satisfied with the service for any reason.

This means that you can easily try most options without making a financial commitment, and see which ones will suit your requirements best.

VPN for Android Basics

Will all VPNs work with my Android device?

In most cases, yes. If your device was made in the last 5 years or so, chances are it’ll work fine with whatever VPN apps each of these companies have on offer. VPNs are highly technical, though, so there’s always a chance it could be finicky.

If you’re not sure, take a look at their website to see if they have any information about what versions of Android devices they support. The easiest option, might be to try it out for yourself with a free trial or money-back-guarantee. You can always reach out to the support team if you have any trouble.

Will using a VPN increase my mobile data usage?

Yes, but not by much. When you use a VPN, you’re sending roughly the same amount of data that you would be if you weren’t using it, as well as whatever additional data is required to keep the VPN connection running. This is usually between 5%-15%, which won’t be a huge problem unless you have a particularly restrictive mobile data plan.

Will a VPN slow down my internet access?

Not usually. VPNs are efficient at encrypting and decrypting their data, and most VPN companies have connections that are fast enough to cater for all their users. What this means is that you’re more likely to be limited by the speed of your own connection to your ISP than by the speed of your VPN company.

That said, depending on where you are in the world, and the location of whatever you’re trying to access through the VPN, your traffic might have to travel all around the world to get to its destination and back. So thinking carefully about which VPN location you use is worthwhile to improve your speed and decrease your latency.

Can I use my operating system’s built-in VPN function, rather than a separate app?

Some operating systems, including Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, and Android, have settings that allow you to configure a VPN without using a separate tool or app.

However, the configurations available within your OS may be limited to some of the less secure protocols, such as PPTP, and it’ll be harder for you to switch your VPN from one server location to another. It’s likely that you’ll get a more reliable, flexible, and secure VPN connection by using the provided app, unless you have a good reason not to.

Which VPN protocol should I use?

Many VPN companies have several protocols you can choose from, such as OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, IKEv2/IPsec, PPTP, and WireGuard®. If you aren’t experienced with VPNs, which one should you choose? The answer depends on your priorities.

For example, PPTP might be one of the faster options, but it’s also the least secure, and has several vulnerabilities. OpenVPN is fast, secure, and simple to set up. L2TP/IPsec and IKEv2/IPsec can be tricky to configure depending on your device. WireGuard® is one of the newest protocols, but it’s not widely supported yet.

While you don’t have to understand protocols in order to use a VPN, more experienced users may want to do their own research before choosing one.