VPN guides
Plain, sourced explanations to help you decide whether you need a VPN, what it will really cost and how to compare providers without the marketing noise.
Do you need a VPN? An honest checklist
Do I need a VPN? What a VPN actually changes, when it is worth paying for and the common cases where you can skip it, such as streaming inside the EU.
Read the guideWhat a VPN really costs: first-term and renewal prices
Advertised VPN prices apply to a long first term paid up front. This table shows per provider what you pay at the start and what the renewal price is.
Read the guideVPN prices in numbers: renewal, country and price changes
Key figures from our own VPN price data: how much more a plan costs at renewal, how far the same plan differs per country, and how often prices change.
Read the guideSame VPN, different price per country: what we recorded
VPN prices by country: we load each provider's pricing page from six countries and put the same plan side by side per country, converted to euro.
Read the guideSurfshark shows a different price on different visits: what 53 page loads showed
Surfshark's pricing page showed three different sets of prices in one week, from Belgium, at every time of day. We loaded it 53 times and counted each set.
Read the guideCan someone find your address from your IP address?
An IP address shows a website your general area, not your street or house number. What Google says a site can learn from it, and how to hide even that.
Read the guideDo you need a VPN at home?
Usually no: your router's security setting and a strong password protect your Wi-Fi, not a VPN. What a VPN does change at home: what your provider sees.
Read the guideDo you need a VPN for online banking?
Your browser already shows whether the connection to your bank is secure and private. What a VPN adds for online banking, and what protects your account.
Read the guideDo you need a VPN to use Tor Browser?
Tor Browser hides which sites you visit from your network on its own, at no cost. What the Tor Project says it does, and what a VPN does differently.
Read the guideDo you need a VPN to watch your paid streaming subscription elsewhere in the EU?
Inside the EU a paid streaming subscription has to work abroad as it does at home, at no extra cost. What the EU rules say, and where they stop.
Read the guideDoes a VPN get you cheaper flights?
Cheaper flights with a VPN? We have no measurements that show it. From an EU airport, the fare may not depend on where you live. What to compare instead.
Read the guideDoes a VPN hide your location on iPhone and Android?
A VPN changes your IP address, not the position your phone works out from GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile networks. What Apple and Google say, and what to switch off.
Read the guideDoes a VPN make you anonymous?
A VPN hides your IP address, not who you are. Accounts, cookies and your browser setup still identify you. What the GDPR and a VPN provider say about it.
Read the guideDoes a VPN make your internet faster?
A VPN adds encryption and a detour through a server, so your connection usually gets a little slower, not faster. The one exception, and what does help.
Read the guideDoes a VPN protect you against viruses and phishing?
A VPN encrypts your connection; it does not check the links you click or the files you open. What protects against phishing and malware, mostly at no cost.
Read the guideDoes a VPN protect your passwords in a data breach?
A VPN does not protect passwords in a data breach: they leak from the company that stored them, not from your connection. What limits the damage.
Read the guideDoes a VPN stop Google and Facebook from tracking you?
Google and Meta tie your activity to your account and to data that sites and apps send them. A VPN only changes your IP address. What to switch off instead.
Read the guideDoes a VPN stop your employer from seeing what you do on a work laptop?
On a managed work laptop your employer can monitor activity on the device itself. A VPN does not change that. How to check whether yours is managed.
Read the guideIs a proxy the same as a VPN?
A proxy passes your web traffic through another server. A VPN does that for your whole device, through an encrypted tunnel. What Microsoft says about both.
Read the guideIs incognito mode the same as a VPN?
Incognito mode limits what your browser saves on your own device. A VPN hides which sites you visit from your network. Neither makes you invisible.
Read the guide
Practical explanations, each based on sources you can open yourself.
We write guides only where we can point to a primary source or to our own measurements. Each guide starts with a direct answer, shows the reasoning behind it, and links to the provider facts it relies on. Guides that depend on speed or leak tests will follow once our measurement set-up, described under how we test, produces published results. If a guide tells you that you do not need a VPN for something, that is deliberate: a subscription you do not need is one you would cancel anyway.
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