About VPN Adviser
VPN Adviser is an independent website that compares VPN services. We don't take money for rankings and we don't publish paid reviews. Our ratings are based on documented evidence rather than on paid placement.
How We Evaluate VPNs
We are a research and comparison site, not a testing lab. We do not run our own speed benchmarks or leak tests. Every rating on this site is derived from publicly verifiable sources: provider documentation, published pricing, privacy policies, jurisdiction, and independent third-party security audits. Where we cite performance figures, they come from published benchmarks by other organisations, not from our own measurements.
We compare providers on the protocols they support (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2), their server counts and country coverage, and performance figures published by independent reviewers and the providers themselves. We label the source of any figure we quote.
We review each provider's privacy policy, corporate ownership, and legal jurisdiction, and we check whether their no-logs claims have been examined in an independent third-party audit or tested in court. A provider with a recent published audit scores higher than one relying on marketing claims alone.
We record which platforms each provider supports, and whether documented features such as a kill switch, split tunnelling, and DNS leak protection are offered and on which plans. This is drawn from official provider documentation.
We compare current published pricing across monthly and multi-year plans, the number of simultaneous connections, and the refund window. Introductory pricing is noted separately from renewal pricing, since the two often differ substantially.
How We Score VPNs
Our final rating combines five dimensions. Here is how each one is weighted:
How Often We Update
We review each provider against the latest published information periodically. When a provider makes a significant change (a new protocol, an updated privacy policy, a new independent audit, or a price change), we re-score it and update the comparison. Dates shown on pages reflect the most recent review of the published sources.
Pricing and streaming support move fastest. Providers change renewal pricing often, and streaming platforms continually update their VPN detection, so always confirm current pricing and terms on the provider's own site before subscribing.
Editorial Independence
VPN Adviser earns affiliate commissions when you buy a VPN through some of our links. You pay exactly the same price either way. The commission does not affect our scores or rankings, and we include providers we earn nothing from, including some we rate highly.
We do not accept payment for reviews, sponsored placements, or "featured" spots. Read our full affiliate disclosure for details.
Our Team
Our reviewers have a combined 15+ years working in cybersecurity, digital privacy, and consumer technology. We have worked across network security, privacy advocacy, and technical journalism. Nobody on the team accepts free subscriptions, consulting fees, or any other form of compensation from VPN providers.
If you spot an error in any review, a broken test result, or outdated information, contact us. We correct mistakes publicly and update the review with a note showing what changed and when.
Why We Built This
Most VPN review sites are owned by the VPN companies themselves, or take paid placements to push VPNs that pay more. We found that frustrating, so we built a resource we would actually use ourselves.
VPN Adviser started as a personal project to track test results across providers. It grew into this site because the gap between honest VPN testing and what most review sites publish was too wide to ignore.
Have a question, a correction, or a press inquiry? Reach us at hello@vpnadviser.com