The most secure VPN 2021

When discussing the best VPN, privacy and security can be easily confused. Here, we're going to quickly run down what exactly a secure VPN is, what it means to you, and then explore the very best options on the market.

Privacy is the act of keeping what you do to yourself. That includes stuff like websites or social media apps tracking you and harvesting your data. Essentially, if you’re trying to stay private, you’re trying to limit the ‘legitimate’ use of your data – marketing, advertising, consumer research and the like.

Security, on the other hand, is the process of protecting you and your data from malicious threats. That means you’re keeping your data out of the hands of cybercriminals who might try to intercept your internet traffic or steal identifying information – a rather more sinister prospect.

The most secure VPN is likely to be very private too, but the opposite might not be true – so how can you tell?

• Check out what we rate as the most private VPN

What makes the most secure VPN?

First and foremost, you should ensure your VPN has a quality no-logging policy. A core tenet of both private and secure VPNs, if the provider keeps no logs of you or your activity you can feel safe in the knowledge that in whatever circumstance – data breach, government investigation, server hack – your info will be safe, because it was never recorded in the first place.

Then, you’ll want to see what protocol and encryption options you’ll have available to you. All the best services use at least AES-256 encryption, and OpenVPN TCP support should be prioritized for security (UDP is useful for maximum speeds). WireGuard is new, fast, and generally regarded as secure, and some VPNs like our top pick ExpressVPN have developed their own protocols. These tend to be fast and effective too – but many stand by OpenVPN for its proven reliability.

Perfect Forward Secrecy is a great addition – by changing your key on every login and at least each hour thereafter, even if one session is compromised, very soon the key will change and you’ll be protected again. A kill switch is essential, too.

ExpressVPN fulfils all those criteria and more, and it's the one we use to protect our own data. However, there are a number of other reputable providers, and below we’ve got our top five for you to pick from.

• See who wins in ExpressVPN vs NordVPN

The most secure VPNs today

If you’re looking for the most secure VPN to protect your data and browsing habits, ExpressVPN should be at the top of your list.

First up, ExpressVPN has undergone an independent security audit which has proven its no-logging claims. And, possibly more impressively, this has held up in practice – in 2017, a Turkish ExpressVPN server was seized by the authorities, but no data was either stored on the server or handed over by ExpressVPN itself. That’s what we call a good track record.

TrustedServer is another excellent addition to Express’s arsenal of security features. In essence, this means that all ExpressVPN’s servers run on RAM, not traditional hard drives. All data is wiped every reboot, and information cannot be stored by design. Servers that run on hard drives can be difficult to fully erase and pose a security threat.

However, possibly the best thing about ExpressVPN is the fact that while it incorporates state-of-the-art security features, for the user it’s as simple as selecting a server and tapping ‘connect’. While you can change tons of options behind the scenes, you can also just go with the recommended settings and feel safe.

As an overall package, ExpressVPN is both the easiest and most effective way of keeping yourself secure online. It’s perfect for newbies and experts alike, and that’s why it’s our top pick for most secure VPN.

Well known as a name to trust in the web security world, in our NordVPN review we found that the famous provider is a great choice if you want to keep your data private and secure.

With a big name often comes notoriety, so we’ll address the elephant in the room – 2018’s server hack, and Nord’s response to it. Not at all a good situation to be in (a cybersecurity company being hacked themselves), Nord’s initial response was somewhat slow. However, two years later the firm has undertaken two independent audits, demonstrating its servers’ privacy to be solid and its no-logging claims to be true.

We’ll let you decide if you want to hold the past against Nord, but we think the provider’s taken substantial steps to rectify a bad situation.

In terms of specs, NordVPN delivers excellent encryption, and is one of the fastest VPNs that we'd still trust to keep even the most sensitive information secure. You’ll also have a kill switch to protect you if your connection goes down, and interesting features including double VPN and Onion over VPN, which uses the Tor Onion network.

On the whole, NordVPN is a seriously secure VPN provider, and we’re quite satisfied that it’s taken steps to fix its mistakes. However, as a full package, it’s just not quite as good as ExpressVPN – so that’s why it sits at #2 on this list.

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VyprVPN is a great wildcard choice if you’re looking for a secure VPN with impressive credentials, and in our VyprVPN review we found that it performed better than its numbers might suggest. While it doesn’t have the network size of bigger rivals, its 700+ servers are more than enough to be getting on with – plus, its Chameleon protocol helps evade VPN blocks in China, and can access Netflix and other streaming services without a hitch.

If you want to get seriously secure, you might want to set up a router VPN, and only VyprVPN and ExpressVPN offer dedicated apps to do so. That means there’ll be no chance of forgetting to switch your VPN on, and even your Alexa and Ring doorbell will benefit from it.

Like the previous two, Vypr’s been independently audited as no-logging, although it’s been a while and we’d like to see another audit to keep those claims fresh.

Connection speeds are a little down compared to the very fastest, but only those with very fast base connections will notice – and, for the price, we reckon quite a few people would take the hit to save the cash. Overall, VyprVPN is a very secure VPN that’s certainly worth checking out, and any shortcomings are outweighed by its bargain price and excellent commitment to user security.

A staple of many of our best-of guides, Surfshark provides one of the most affordable yet secure VPNs. At just $2.49 a month it's incredible value, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's some second-rate knock-off – our full Surfshark review found that the bargain provider is the real deal.

Surfshark provides a few features that you don’t often see together – especially at this price. That includes Double Hop (using two separate servers to further obfuscate your traffic), the company’s own zero-knowledge DNS servers, full 24/7 support, split tunneling and ad blocking to name a few.

However, while Surfshark has undertaken an audit of sorts, the investigation only took into consideration its browser extensions – and it was almost two years ago, too. We’d really love to see a full audit soon. However, for the price we really can’t fault Surfshark too much, and if you’re looking for a cheap VPN to keep you secure, it's a great option.

In our ProtonVPN review we found that the Swiss provider offered a huge amount of security for its users – which is only to be expected from the providers of the highly regarded anonymous email service ProtonMail.

Shell out for the Plus plan and you'll get access to a heck of a lot of security-based features, most impressive of which is ProtonVPN's Secure Core system. Proton has banks of ultra secure, underground servers in Sweden, Switzerland and Iceland, countries known for good data privacy laws. 

Anyone connecting to a less secure location where the provider can't be 100% sure of the safety of the server can choose to head through a Secure Core first, ensuring activity can't be tracked back to the user even in the event of a breach. This is much like NordVPN's Double Hop, and for the security conscious it'll be a big draw.

ProtonVPN is also impressive as a streaming VPN and Netflix VPN, though, so don't think that you'll sacrifice the fun and games for absolute security. However, while it does offer a very capable free VPN, the Plus plan is a little more expensive than the competition – but for those who care, it'll be well worth it.

Secure VPN FAQ