Which country should I connect my VPN to?

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The world is your oyster

A globe protected by a VPN
(Image credit: Getty Images/Leonid Studio)

Using a VPN can feel like throwing a dart at a map of the world and seeing where it lands. The best VPN providers offer thousands of servers across the globe that users can connect to for greater privacy and security online. Luckily, with the user-friendly nature of the likes of Express VPN and NordVPN, it's not difficult to pick a specific region in seconds.

But is there a country that we should be aiming to connect to? Or will any old server do?

Take your pick 

If you're using a VPN to browse the internet more securely then it's hard to go wrong. The most secure VPNs have battle-tested "no-logs" policies meaning they don't store any identifiable information from your browsing sessions.

For extra peace of mind, avoid connecting to countries in the Five-Eyes Alliance - which includes the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

One of the most popular VPN use cases is streaming, and here's where connecting to specific countries is especially useful. A streaming VPN unlocks geo-restricted content on services such as Netflix, increasing the number of titles you can choose from without leaving the couch.

Each country has its own library of available content – and some streaming services are only available in very specific regions like the UK's BBC iPlayer. As a result, you might need to be choosy with your server selection.

A woman playing games on a laptop

(Image credit: Amazon)

Gaming is another area where you might need to choose a specific server to connect to. If you want to play with friends in another region, for example, you should choose a server in that region to connect to. There's also a school of thought that setting your VPN to another region can get you easier lobbies in competitive games like Warzone.

On the other hand, if you're using a gaming VPN for other reasons, like avoiding bandwidth throttling and dodging DDoS attacks, then it doesn't really matter where you connect to as long as your VPN is on.

So what's the answer? 

For general use, you can connect to a VPN server in any country. So long as your VPN is switched on, you'll get all the benefits of its encryption and security tools. However, for more specific activities, like streaming and gaming, the location of the server you choose can have a significant impact.

NordVPN: From $3.39 a month

NordVPN: From $3.39 a month
NordVPN is probably the most popular VPN around, and in our testing, it proved to be the most effective, too. It's one of the quickest VPNs and it's superb for streaming thanks to a massive network of over 6,000 servers around the world. You can try NordVPN for yourself, risk-free, with a 30-day money-back guarantee – and claim your money back without a fuss if you change your mind.

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Andy Sansom

Andy is a freelance writer with a passion for streaming and VPNs. Based in the U.K., he originally cut his teeth at Tom's Guide as a Trainee Writer before moving to cover all things tech and streaming at T3. Outside of work, his passions are movies, football (soccer) and Formula 1. He is also something of an amateur screenwriter having studied creative writing at university.