Virtual private networks (VPNs) are having a moment thanks to huge marketing budgets and influencer partnerships. It’s a challenge to navigate the rapidly growing VPN market, and many of the assertions made about its benefits and benefits may not be true. Consumer Reports online security expert Yael Grüner suggests searching for open source software, reproducible builds, and up-to date support for industry-standard protocols.
CyberGhost’s zero-logs policy is a great selling feature. It promises to not record your online activity or IP address. Apps are available for the majority of major operating systems and come with 256-bit encryption, a kill button, leak protection, and the option to connect using the random port. It also scored better in our tests of speed on the internet than many of the other VPNs we tested, though it could be a coincidence or a result of traffic shaping by your ISP. It also offers a variety of additional tools such as Threat Protection, Onion over VPN and Double VPN.
Nord is a different alternative that scored highly in our tests, including a strong showing in our testing of geoblocking and streaming. The apps are powerful and fairly pleasant to use however a map-based interface could be a bit difficult to navigate on smaller screens. It’s compatible with a variety of routers and Kodi TV set-top boxes. It also has one of the largest geographical reach of our selections. It’s also a good option for watching overseas Netflix and has dedicated servers called ‘Windflix’ for this purpose. Recently, it added a feature called Perfect Forward Secrecy that protects data by using a different key for each session. This makes it much more difficult for hackers decrypt past activity.
