25-02-2025
Best VPNs for Android 2025: On-the-go privacy at the tap of a button
Choosing one of the best VPNs for Android can be tricky, as there are so many to choose from. That's why we've tested some of the most popular Android VPN apps available, to help make your decision that little bit easier.
Before we dive into the details, it might be worth briefly recapping what a VPN is, and why you might want one. A virtual private network (aka VPN) enables you to prevent others from seeing what you're doing online, and from where you're connecting to the internet. It works by masking key information, such as your IP address and encrypting your connection to make it look as though you're browsing from somewhere else in the world, by creating a secure tunnel between your device and the VPN's remote server.
The best VPNs even offer independently audited no-log policies, which means they don't store any data on your online activity. Either way, using one of the best VPNs for Android is a sensible way to increase your online security and privacy, at the tap of a button.
How we tested
We've tested five of the most popular Android VPN apps in 2025, to evaluate their real-world performance across wifi and 5G connections. The tests were carried out on a Nubia Z70 Ultra Android smartphone, using a high-speed full fibre home broadband connection via wifi and a 5G mobile connection – a reflection of how most people are likely to use their Android smartphones and tablets in the real world. Note the 5G (and general mobile signal) in our reviewer's area is pretty poor, hence the lower 5G speeds.
To ensure fair speed comparisons, we established baseline speeds for both wifi and 5G connections, using without any VPN active, immediately followed by testing with each VPN connected. These baseline speed tests were carried out prior to each VPN being tested, so speed differences for each VPN could then be worked out as a percentage of their respective baseline results. We measured three key metrics:
Download speeds: The rate at which data can be pulled from the internet to your device – crucial for streaming, downloading files, and general browsing.
Upload speeds: How quickly you can send data from your device to the internet – important for video calls, cloud backups, and sharing large files.
Ping (latency): The time it takes for your device to communicate with a server, measured in milliseconds (ms) – crucial for gaming and real-time applications.
All tests were conducted using each app's default protocol settings, to represent an example of typical real-world one-tap usage. For additional context, Netflix recommends a minimum of 15 Mbps (megabits per second) for viewing 4K content, and 5 Mbps for HD content. This gives us a practical benchmark for assessing whether a VPN's impact on connection speeds will affect a common use case such as streaming content from home while travelling abroad. For each service, we tested connections to UK and US servers to evaluate both local and long-distance performance.
Security testing included checking for DNS leaks (where your real location might be exposed through domain name requests), which was carried out using We also verified kill switch functionality, where available – which automatically cuts your internet connection if the VPN drops, to prevent any accidental exposure of your real location or browsing activity – by disrupting our internet connection and looking for any changes in the reported IP addresses. Note that every VPN service below passed both the DNS leak and kill switch tests
Why you can trust us
Esat Dedezade has more than 15 years of experience testing and writing about tech. He's used VPNs to keep his online activity private from intrusive trackers. He also uses a VPN regularly for work, letting him access country-specific webpages for product information and pricing. The below recommendations are based on his real-world testing, as well as the comparison of each service's features.
