Club Benefits
One of the many ways VPN providers attempt to standout from the rest is by boasting a large network of servers in all number of locations around the world.
As impressive as these heady numbers may sound, though, in a lot of cases all is not as it seems. That's because a significant proportion of these servers are often virtual VPN servers rather than being physically in the said locations.
Don't be perturbed, though — many of the best VPN providers have virtual VPN servers, and there are certainly pros and cons to this feature. We explain what these are, as well as exactly what a virtual VPN server is, below.
What is a virtual VPN server and what are their benefits?
A virtual VPN server is one that routes your traffic through a country where it isn't physically based. For instance, you might connect to a server that says it's in France but is actually physically hosted in Germany.
Much like physical ones, virtual servers change your IP address to appear as if you're in that location, virtual or not, and you'll still benefit from the same privacy and geo-unblocking capabilities.
Providers tend to use virtual VPN servers for a number of reasons. The fundamental reason is wishing to meet customer demand and expand their global reach. Why not simply have physical servers then? First and foremost, building data centers is expensive.
[Virtual servers] help us cover more locations and maintain privacy in countries where setting up physical servers is typically challenging.
Justas Pukys, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark
There are also other challenges that can come with building data centers in certain areas of the world, namely where privacy is concerned. In countries where there are restrictive regulations and heavy surveillance, hardware could be at risk of being seized, going against the fundamentals of what a VPN intends to provide — online anonymity.
A virtual VPN server allows customers to utilize local IP addresses in countries like this (e.g. India, Turkey, China, etc.) without risk to their data being shared.
As Justas Pukys, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark VPN, told us, there are challenges that "often stems from the lack of reliable data centers and top-tier internet service providers in those countries".
Virtual VPN servers may also offer a better performance than physical servers in terms of speed, as they have more flexibility in network routing, where a physical server can be more limited. This can be down to the ability to offer more virtual servers on powerful hardware, and no reliance on one single piece of hardware that may require maintenance.
Are there any risks or downsides of virtual VPN servers?
There are plenty of reasons the utilization of virtual VPN servers are a great asset for VPN providers and, according to Pukys: "Virtual locations are just as secure as physical locations — they’re RAM-only and follow the same strict no-logs policy."
But that doesn't mean there aren't also drawbacks.
It's important to consider the physical location your virtual VPN is routing through, and any privacy concerns that may be at play in those countries. For those who are particularly conscious of keeping governmental bodies off their data, you may be less inclined to readily allow your data to go through a virtual server over a physical one where you know exactly where it's based.
As mentioned, while a virtual server can certainly be speedier, there's also risk it could be slower. Again, this is dependent on where the hardware is located hosting these virtual servers. You may not want to bounce very far afield and simply surf the web more locally on a more secure IP address.
However, you could find your India VPN is actually being rerouted via a server located in the Netherlands. Geographically, that might be incredibly far away from your actual location and slow things down a bit.
Which VPN providers use virtual server locations?
A lot of VPNs make use of virtual server locations, including some of our favorite providers to recommend. This includes: Surfshark, NordVPN, ExpressVPN and Private Internet Access (PIA).
Some providers are more clear in listing which servers are virtually located in what country. For example, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PIA all have a list of their servers on their respective websites, each country marked with a symbol to represent where virtual locations are in use.
Some even break this down further, telling you specifically which server is virtual where some countries have a mix of both physical and virtual locations. Others require a deeper dive into their apps to determine proportion of virtual vs physical server locations, as is the case with Surfshark
- NordVPN: 75 of its 180 locations have virtual servers*
- ExpressVPN: 61 of its 105 locations have virtual servers*
- Proton VPN: 89 of its 120 locations have virtual servers*
- Private Internet Access: 53 of its 90 locations have virtual servers*
Interestingly, Proton VPN had been pretty clear it only used physical servers when announcing its expansion to 5,000+ servers in June 2024, noting "Proton VPN only uses bare metal (physical, not virtual) servers that we can fully control all the way down to the base operating system level." However, since it more than doubled its worldwide offering to over 11,000 servers, its blog made no mention of virtual locations.
However, Proton VPN definitely does use virtual locations, it just brands it as a feature called Smart Routing.
* denotes correct at the time of writing
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
