Best VPN Service for iPhones in 2025

CNET

8 hours ago

Not every VPN can be a favorite. These are the ones we reviewed, but they're not full-throated recommendations for one reason or another, including limited features and concerns over adequately hiding your identity.
Servers: 2,400-plus in 56 countries
Country/jurisdiction: US
Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Linux (CLI), Chrome OS, Android, Android TV, iOS, iPadOS, Fire TV, Apple TV
Price: $13 per month, $48 for the first year (then $90 annually) or $72 for the first two years combined (then $90 annually)
IPVanish is a decent beginner-friendly VPN for folks seeking basic privacy. It does a good job unblocking geographically protected streaming content on multiple services, such as providing access to foreign Netflix libraries. We liked its intuitive VPN apps which, while easy to use even for novices, weren't quite as streamlined as apps from NordVPN or ExpressVPN. While you get privacy fundamentals from IPVanish, its US jurisdiction makes it unsuitable for people with critical privacy needs, like political activists, investigative journalists or asylum-seekers.
Its comparatively slow speeds -- we measured a 44% average internet speed loss -- severely lagged behind NordVPN (11%), Surfshark (17%), Proton VPN (21%) and ExpressVPN (25%). Likewise, its relatively small server network of 56 countries is head and shoulders below Nord (111 countries), ExpressVPN (105) countries, Surfshark (100 countries), Proton (91 countries) and PIA (91 countries). IPVanish sets you back $13 per month, $48 for your first year or $72 for two years combined -- but the one- and two-year plans jump to $90 annually after your introductory pricing period. For the price, you can get a VPN with faster internet speed maintenance and a much larger web of servers.
Read our IPVanish review.
HotSpot Shield
Servers: 1,800-plus in 80-plus locations
Country/Jurisdiction: US (Five Eyes member)
Platforms: Windows, Android, MacOS, iOS, Linux, Amazon Fire TV
Price: $8 per month or $95.88 billed annually. Month-to-month plan at $13
Hotspot Shield VPN's TLS-based Hydra Catapult protocol, US jurisdiction, 128-bit AES encryption support and large percentage of virtual servers might strip away our trust in its ability to provide more privacy protections than its competitors. Those are all key components to its ability to achieve the blazing speeds it delivered during its most recent speed tests.
It effortlessly delivers smooth-streaming media and can dance between server connections without missing a beat, no matter how many interruptions you throw at it. A 26% speed loss puts it in second place, falling behind Surfshark (which lost just 16.9% of its speed the last time I tested it) and knocking Express down to third place with a 51.8% speed loss at the last measurement. Speed losses on UK connections were under 8%. When it comes to gaming, torrenting, browsing and streaming, these speed-dependent services won't be slowed down for Hotspot Shield users.
We're not excited about Hotspot's privacy and security. Since the services use a closed-source proprietary Catapult Hydra protocol, instead of the more transparent open-source OpenVPN protocol, we'd like to see Hotspot give the public more third-party audits, which is a necessary step to bring Hotspot up to speed with routinely audited VPNs like TunnelBear. As recently as April 2021, review site VPNMentor discovered a DNS leak in Hotspot Shield's plug-in for Google Chrome. Hotspot acknowledged the issue at the time and aimed to improve the product.
We're also not thrilled about the amount of user data Hotspot collects and its privacy policy. With its premium product, it gathers and retains much more information about users than most other VPNs. If you're using the free version of its product, it shares that information -- along with even more finite data, including your MAC address and specific phone identifier -- with advertising companies.
While its interface is user-friendly and its speeds are thrilling, spending time with Hotspot is going to leave your wallet a little lighter than you might prefer. Its current price is higher than its nearest competitors, its speeds slightly slower and its privacy more questionable. If you're looking for a VPN purely on the grounds of speed, we still recommend passing on Hotspot until it improves.
Read more: Hotspot Shield VPN review: This speedster costs more than its faster, more private competitors
TunnelBear
Average speed loss: 63%
Number of countries: 48-plus
Jurisdiction: Canada, with US parent company
Price: $3.33 per month, or $120, for a 3-year plan
TunnelBear has gotten a lot of hype in the last couple of years. When we looked under its hood and compared it with its VPN competitors, our excitement waned.
TunnelBear's speeds are reasonable. We lost nearly 63% of internet speed overall when we used it, which is about average for a VPN. TunnelBear's speeds have steadily improved over the years as measured by other review and testing sites, and the US scores we recorded saw a speed loss of only 54%.
On the plus side, TunnelBear is holding its own in the transparency competition among VPNs by publishing the results of its independent security audits and annual transparency reports. No IP address, DNS or other potentially user-identifying data leaks were detected during our testing, but in the past TunnelBear was observed to have been leaking WebRTC information. TunnelBear's VPN encryption is standard AES-256 and it supports Perfect Forward Secrecy.
It's also a Canadian business owned by US-based McAfee, so if you're looking for subpoena-proof international online privacy, you're playing with fire. It holds a paltry 23 server locations from which you can't manually choose your VPN server or even a city. It doesn't offer Tor-over-VPN, it offers split tunneling only on Android and it can't even unblock Netflix.
On a per-month breakdown, the least expensive TunnelBear plan is its $120, three-year plan. You can also go month to month for $10, or pay $60 upfront for a single year. Either way, TunnelBear accepts payment via credit card and Bitcoin. Unlike other VPNs, it doesn't take PayPal, plus it doesn't support Amazon Fire Stick or Android TV.
Read more: TunnelBear VPN Review: The Overpriced Ursine Has Trouble Living Up to the Hype
CyberGhost
Number of servers: Over 8,000 worldwide in 91 countries
Number of server locations: 111
Jurisdiction: Romania, with UK parent company
Number of simultaneous connections: 7
$2.03 a month or $60 for a two year plan (plus four free months). Month-to-month plan at $13.
In CNET's previous coverage of virtual private networks, we've praised CyberGhost for its roster of competitive features. Our in-depth review of CyberGhost in 2019 included speed testing, security verification and an analysis of its full suite of privacy tools. Since then, the VPN company has increased its number of servers and is prepared to roll out new privacy tools, all while remaining one of the cheapest VPNs we've reviewed, at just $2.03 per month for a two-year plan.
As we've bolstered our approach to VPN reviews, CyberGhost has raised some red flags. Its parent company's history warrants skepticism, our previous tests have shown it to expose your VPN use to your ISP, its website and app trackers are more numerous than warranted and its ad blocker uses an untrustworthy method of traffic manipulation no VPN should even think about. Its low price previously made it worth considering if you needed to change the appearance of your location online, but not if you wanted best-in-class security.
While CyberGhost's connection speed and security features appear to be improving, we don't currently recommend using the VPN service provider if you're in a country where VPNs are illegal. We also recommend that anyone in the US review CyberGhost's parent company before deciding whether to pay for a subscription.
On the plus side, CyberGhost was still faster than Norton Secure VPN and less taxing on the processing power of our devices. It also offers split tunneling in its Windows client and has its servers neatly organized into categories: NoSpy servers, servers geared for torrenting, servers best for streaming and servers best for use with a static IP address. CyberGhost imposes no data caps, allows unlimited server switching and offers a 45-day money-back guarantee on subscription plans of a year or more.
Read more: CyberGhost VPN review: Competitive Features, but Its Parent Company Concerns Me
Norton
Number of countries: 30
Number of servers: 1,500 (1,200 virtual)
Number of server locations: 200 in 73 cities
Country/jurisdiction: US
$40 for the first 12 months for five devices
Norton LifeLock, long known for excellence in security products, has a relatively limited offering in its VPN product. Norton Secure VPN does not support P2P or BitTorrent, Linux, routers or set-top boxes. It's Netflix and streaming compatibility is somewhat limited. Even worse, during testing, we experienced privacy-compromising data leaks.
During CNET's testing, Norton Secure VPN speeds were comparable to other mid-tier VPNs but not particularly competitive. Although its VPN is only available on four platforms -- Mac, iOS, Windows and Android -- Norton gets points for its 24/7 live customer service phone support and 60-day money-back guarantee.
Norton Secure VPN's pricing structure is a bit different than what you typically find in the industry. Pricing is tiered based on how many simultaneous connections you want with your account. For a single device, you'll pay $30 for the first year and $50 for any subsequent years, or $4.99 a month for the monthly. For five simultaneous connections, the price jumps to $40 for the first year and $80 for subsequent years, or $8 a month for the monthly plan. If you want up to 10 simultaneous connections, the price is $60 for the first year and $100 for subsequent years, or $10 a month for the monthly plan.
Read more: Norton Secure VPN Review: Why We Don't Recommend It
Mullvad
Number of servers: 684
Server location: 44 countries
Number of simultaneous connections: 5
Jurisdiction: Sweden
Price: $5 a month
Mullvad is an independently owned and open-source VPN provider focused on building trust through transparency with its commitment to protecting the privacy and security of its users. Although some other VPNs are considerably more well known in the industry, Mullvad's offering is just as polished and easy to use as what's offered by many of the market's bigger players.
Mullvad's primary focus is on security. Like most other top VPN providers, Mullvad employs industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption, using the OpenVPN protocol or ChaCha20 on WireGuard, to secure users' connections. Mullvad's kill switch feature and DNS leak protection are enabled by default and can't be disabled. During our testing, the kill switch worked as expected and we detected no leaks of any kind. The company says it doesn't keep any logs of its users' activity, and for the most part it's pretty transparent about how it operates and what it does to protect user privacy. Mullvad is unique in that it doesn't require any personal information at sign-up. While most VPN providers ask users to provide an email address and enter a username, Mullvad generates a random 16-digit account number to activate each new user account. You don't even need to provide any payment information since Mullvad accepts cash sent via mail.
Mullvad's source code being entirely open source is a testament to the company's transparency, but we'd still like to see Mullvad issue an annual transparency report to give the public a view of how many legal requests the company gets and where they're coming from. But you don't just have to take Mullvad's word for it: Radically Open Security confirmed Mullvad's no-logs assertions in a 2023 independent audit.
With 684 servers across 44 countries, Mullvad's VPN server network is comparatively small. Even so, the network covers the most in-demand locations and is pretty well spread out across the globe. What its network may lack in size, it makes up for in speed. In our latest round of speed testing, we measured just a 13.5% drop in average internet speeds (VPNs will slow you down 50% or more), easily making it one of the fastest VPNs we've tested. Although Mullvad's speeds are fantastic, it's not the best for streaming geographically restricted content. We were able to access Netflix and Disney Plus without any issues but were denied access to stream Amazon Prime Video when connected to Mullvad's servers -- it recognized that we were using a VPN.
Mullvad's straightforward approach to pricing is a breath of fresh air, especially with so many other VPN providers concocting ever-more convoluted pricing structures. Mullvad costs about $5 a month, whether you want to use it for a month, a year or a decade, and you're never locked into a long-term subscription plan. If you're not satisfied with the service, you can get a refund within 30 days of purchase.
Read more: Mullvad Review: Solid Security and Privacy, but Swedish Jurisdiction Is Concerning