July 2026 test cycle

The 10 best VPNs, ranked on measured data

Every provider below was bought at full retail price and run through six test suites — roughly 45 lab hours each. Scores are the weighted average of speed (30%), security (20%), privacy (20%), streaming (15%) and value (15%), calculated from the test spreadsheet before any commercial information enters the process.

Data collected 24 June – 18 July 2026 4,218 speed tests this cycle No paid placements

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Editor's choice · July 2026

Overall winner

Proton VPN

Tested 14 Jul 2026 · 62 lab hours

Open-source clients, Swiss jurisdiction, and the speed to match

95% of baseline speed 13,000 servers 122 countries5/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full Proton VPN review

9.6

$4.49~~$9.99~~

24-month plan

Visit Proton VPN

What held up in testing

Every client is open source and has been through independent audit — we built the Linux app from source and got a matching hash
Held 95% of baseline on nearby WireGuard servers, the best result in this cycle
Secure Core routes traffic through a second hardened hop before it leaves the network
The free tier is genuinely usable, with no speed cap and no ads

Where it fell down

The headline rate needs a two-year commitment; the monthly plan is far steeper
DAZN stayed blocked on every server we tried

Category scores

speed

9.7

security

9.8

privacy

9.9

streaming

9.2

support

9.0

value

9.0

Measured speeds (Mbps)

Nearby server

898

Mid-range

821

Long-haul

712

Mobile 5G

472

Netflix Disney+ BBC iPlayer Prime Video Hulu DAZN

Our verdict — Proton VPN took the top spot on a rare combination: it was the fastest provider on our long-haul route and the only one in the top five whose desktop clients we could reproducibly build ourselves. Swiss jurisdiction and a no-strings free tier are the tiebreakers.

No-logs, audited · open sourceJurisdiction: Switzerland10 devices

WireGuardOpenVPNIKEv2Stealth

Fastest speeds

NordVPN

Tested 12 Jul 2026 · 58 lab hours

The quickest short-hop tunnel we measured this cycle

96% of baseline speed 9,000 servers 126 countries6/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full NordVPN review

9.4

$3.39~~$12.99~~

24-month plan

Visit NordVPN

Streaming

CyberGhost

Tested 16 Jul 2026 · 51 lab hours

Streaming-optimised servers that hold up under testing

86% of baseline speed 9,700 servers 100 countries6/6 streaming No leaks found 45-day refund

Read the full CyberGhost review

9.1

$2.19~~$12.99~~

26-month plan

Visit CyberGhost

Unlimited devices

Surfshark

Tested 10 Jul 2026 · 49 lab hours

Unlimited devices, with no asterisk attached

93% of baseline speed 4,500 servers 100 countries5/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full Surfshark review

9.0

$2.19~~$15.45~~

24-month plan

Visit Surfshark

Free tier

hide.me VPN

Tested 7 Jul 2026 · 44 lab hours

The best free tier we tested, with a capable paid plan behind it

86% of baseline speed 2,700 servers 96 countries4/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full hide.me review

8.8

$2.59~~$9.95~~

27-month plan

Visit hide.me

Ease of use

ExpressVPN

Tested 15 Jul 2026 · 47 lab hours

The most polished apps here — and the most expensive

91% of baseline speed 3,000 servers 105 countries6/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full ExpressVPN review

8.7

$4.99~~$12.95~~

24-month plan

Visit ExpressVPN

Budget streaming

PrivateVPN

Tested 4 Jul 2026 · 38 lab hours

A tiny network that punches well above its size

78% of baseline speed 200 servers 63 countries5/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full PrivateVPN review

8.5

$2.00~~$9.9~~

36-month plan

Visit PrivateVPN

P2P and torrenting

IPVanish

Tested 2 Jul 2026 · 41 lab hours

Unlimited connections and a solid P2P record

87% of baseline speed 2,400 servers 90 countries3/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full IPVanish review

8.3

$2.99~~$12.99~~

24-month plan

Visit IPVanish

Power users

Private Internet Access

Tested 30 Jun 2026 · 43 lab hours

Open-source clients, port forwarding, endlessly configurable

81% of baseline speed 29,000 servers 91 countries3/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full PIA review

8.1

$2.03~~$11.95~~

36-month plan

Visit PIA

Anonymity

Mullvad

Tested 27 Jun 2026 · 55 lab hours

The privacy purist pick — no email, no tiers, no upsell

84% of baseline speed 700 servers 49 countries0/6 streaming No leaks found 30-day refund

Read the full Mullvad review

7.9

$5.00

Flat €5/month, no tiers

Visit Mullvad

Side by side

Full specification comparison

Everything we recorded for all ten providers in one table. Speeds are medians on a nearby WireGuard server against a 942 Mbps baseline.

#	VPN	Score	Nearby	Long-haul	Servers	Devices	Jurisdiction	Refund	From
1	PRProton VPN	9.6	898	712	13,000	10	Switzerland	30d	$4.49
2	NVNordVPN	9.4	902	698	9,000	10	Panama	30d	$3.39
3	CGCyberGhost	9.1	812	578	9,700	7	Romania	45d	$2.19
4	SSSurfshark	9.0	874	668	4,500	Unlimited	Netherlands	30d	$2.19
5	HMhide.me VPN	8.8	806	564	2,700	10	Malaysia	30d	$2.59
6	EVExpressVPN	8.7	856	652	3,000	8	British Virgin Islands	30d	$4.99
7	PVPrivateVPN	8.5	731	497	200	10	Sweden	30d	$2.00
8	IPIPVanish	8.3	824	601	2,400	Unlimited	United States	30d	$2.99
9	IAPrivate Internet Access	8.1	767	529	29,000	Unlimited	United States	30d	$2.03
10	MVMullvad	7.9	788	583	700	5	Sweden	30d	$5.00

Speed test detail

Every distance band, every provider

Retention percentages are against our 942 Mbps unprotected control run, re-measured before and after each provider block.

VPN	Nearby (Mbps)	Retention	Mid-range	Long-haul	Mobile 5G	Ping (near)	Ping (far)
NVNordVPN	902	96%	814	698	461	4 ms	146 ms
PRProton VPN	898	95%	821	712	472	4 ms	139 ms
SSSurfshark	874	93%	789	668	452	5 ms	163 ms
EVExpressVPN	856	91%	771	652	431	5 ms	158 ms
IPIPVanish	824	87%	733	601	412	6 ms	174 ms
CGCyberGhost	812	86%	719	578	396	7 ms	191 ms
HMhide.me VPN	806	86%	711	564	383	8 ms	198 ms
MVMullvad	788	84%	702	583	401	6 ms	169 ms
IAPrivate Internet Access	767	81%	672	529	364	9 ms	214 ms
PVPrivateVPN	731	78%	648	497	341	11 ms	232 ms

Security audit

Leak and kill-switch results

Run on Windows 11, macOS 15 and Debian 13. The kill-switch column is 40 forced network drops per provider — a pass means zero packets escaped the tunnel in all 40.

VPN	DNS leak	IPv6 leak	WebRTC leak	Kill switch (40 drops)	Logging policy
PRProton VPN	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited · open source
NVNordVPN	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited 4×
CGCyberGhost	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited
SSSurfshark	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited
HMhide.me VPN	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited
EVExpressVPN	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited · RAM-only servers
PVPrivateVPN	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, never independently audited
IPIPVanish	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited
IAPrivate Internet Access	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, open source
MVMullvad	Pass	Pass	Pass	Pass	No-logs, audited · anonymous accounts

All ten passed — Every provider in this cycle came through the leak suite clean on all three operating systems, and none leaked a packet across 40 forced disconnects. That is the expected result for established providers in 2026; where we find a failure we publish it alongside the date the provider was notified.

Re-tested monthly

Streaming unblock matrix

VPN	Netflix	Disney+	BBC iPlayer	Prime Video	Hulu	DAZN	Passed
CGCyberGhost							6/6
NVNordVPN							6/6
EVExpressVPN							6/6
PRProton VPN							5/6
PVPrivateVPN							5/6
SSSurfshark							5/6
HMhide.me VPN							4/6
IPIPVanish							3/6
IAPrivate Internet Access							3/6
MVMullvad							0/6

Picks by use case

Not sure which one fits?

Proton VPN if you want one answer and no further thought. NordVPN for raw speed. CyberGhost for streaming. Surfshark for a whole household. hide.me if you would rather start free. IPVanish for P2P. And Mullvad if your privacy requirement is real rather than theoretical.

Ask the lab