COVID-19 Upended How We Test VPN Speeds
Our new methodology allows for more up-to-date numbers to be published year-round, and produces an unexpected result.
By Max Eddy
Earlier this month, we released a new batch of results from our VPN speed testing that contained a surprising result: one VPN appeared, on paper, to actually improve internet performance. As with most things, this miraculous result is probably too good to be true, but it gives us the chance to explain how we’ve been doing VPN testing during the COVID-19 era and what that means for the future.
Our Old Testing Methods
Back when standing less than six feet from another person still seemed like a good idea, PCMag tested VPNs very differently. At that point, VPN testing was a marathon of back-to-back sessions that ended with the results being released all at once. You can read about it in our How We Test VPNs article-at least until we update it later this month.
This approach to testing came from a desire to control for as many variables as possible, which is a pillar of all PCMag’s analysis. For VPN testing, we used the same machine, the same network, and the same tools to evaluate performance.
Removing all the variables around speed testing VPNs has been an ongoing struggle. We’ve long dealt with outages…