Best VPN to Use in 2025

To start, let’s begin with the definition of What a VPN is and describes how it works.

In the simplest terms, using a VPN (which stands for "virtual private network") is a web application that allows you hide your description and details of who you really are and where you really are while using the internet from everyone except the VPN.
In more complex terms, a VPN is a service that sends your internet traffic through an encrypted connection to a remote server maintained by the VPN provider before it's dispatched to the public internet. The encryption part makes it so your traffic is unreadable to third parties like your ISP and Google; routing that traffic through a VPN server then gives you a different IP address, which makes it look like you're browsing from somewhere you aren't actually located in real life.

Using a VPN is often likened to getting access to places that you wouldn’t normally get access to. It is like driving a rented car in a new city with a plate number that fully certifies you to drive there.
There are many reasons why the use of a VPN might be a hard choice but that decision usually depends on a number of factors.

1. User friendliness
This is very important because a good VPN app should be easy to navigate regardless of how many features or servers it includes, or where the platform is being used on, to add to this, you can evaluate a VPN's design and interface as part of this user friendliness score. We also consider the VPN provider's customer support options and money-back guarantees. You should be able to get help (or a refund) when you need it. A VPN gets extra credit if it accepts anonymous payment options, which ups the untraceability factor.


2. Performance
To know how We incorporate the VPNs we test into our daily workflows to find out how well they protect users in practice. This includes running DNS leak tests, trying any advanced privacy features they support, and hopping around to different VPN servers throughout their networks. Speed isn't a huge factor in our performance scoring, as a VPN connection will almost always be slower than one's regular internet connection, but we'll call out any VPN that's sluggish to the point of being unusable. We also check to see if the VPN provider can unblock geo restricted content, which is an important secondary use case for Mashable readers.

3. Value

A VPN's trustworthiness, performance, and user friendliness all contribute to its sense of "worth-it-ness," one way to determine this is to put into perspective its overall value by factoring in these scores on top of a few other metrics. One is the cost of a VPN's subscription plans, which can be compared to those of other providers, as well as the rate at which they renew. Most VPN plans typically get dramatically expensive after your first trial. You can also look at the number of simultaneous connections the VPN allows and the platforms on which it's available (the more, the better). An added bonus can be given if it bundles its VPN service with any useful extras, like an ad blocker.

We’ve talked about some of the things to look out before signing up to any VPN provider, now we will dive deeper by into rankings by multiple sources based on expert reviews and in 2025.
Some of the best VPN apps to use in no particular order in 2025:
1. Mullvad
2. Windscribe
3. NordVPN
4. Surfshark
5. Proton
6. CyberGhost
7. Private Internet Access (PIA)
8. IPVanish
9. ExpressVpn



Mullvad: This vpn offers strong anonymity, minimal sign-up and strong privacy.

Windscribe: this vpn offers a great value for money, it features a decent free plan, good ad/ tracker and blocking.

NordVPN: if you’re looking for a vpn that ticks all the boxes for all-round performance. It is extremely fast thanks to the NordLynx and it uses advanced features like meshnet. Large server network, streaming and p2p support. Its pricing might be a bit high especially because some features are only accessible to premium tier subscribers.

Surfshark: This is arguably one of the best vpn’s in the market today. Good speed, many device logind, strong feature set (ad blocker, multihop etc.). this is for people wanting good features without breaking the bank.

ProtonVPN: It features a good range of services like exceptional privacy focus and secure core. It is great for users who care about no-logs, leakage protection. The down side with this vpn is that it might not be the fastest for streaming and geographical bypassing.

CyberGhost: This is good for beginners. It features a great UI many optimized serves for apps like Netflix etc. it is less premium in comparison to others in terms of advanced security features.

Private Internet Access (PIA): This VPN features a huge server count, strong customizability, great for more technical users. Value if you want many servers and features.

IpVanish: although it is strong for streaming and torrenting, but weaker on privacy. Overall it is a good VPN that performs.

ExpressVPN: It is amongst the top picks by users today because of its great UX, fast and reliable speed and strong privacy. For this reason, it is more expensive than many competitors and features less unlimited device flexibility in some plans.


In conclusion
• NordVPN and ExpressVPN are the best all-around choices.
• Surfshark is great for budget friendly users.
• ProtonVPN leads on privacy.
• PIA & CyberGhost give flexibility for specific needs.
• Others like Mullvad and Windscribe offer strong niche advantages.