The Best VPN Service Providers 2021 With Comparison and Reviews
You have been reading and engaging with our blogs for a long time. We understand that you need a list of top VPN services to save you the struggle to scrape the internet and browse the dark web safely. So, here we are presenting the list of best VPN services after gaining years of experience on the darknet. We have compiled the most trusted VPN service providers to save you from the biased opinions you will find elsewhere.
To put it, a VPN connects your computer system to the server, and then you can browse the internet by using the computer’s internet connection. It allows you to stay anonymous while browsing the dark web. That is why it is good to use a trustworthy VPN provider. If you want to know how it works, here is the method: if the server is located in a different country and if you are using a good anonymous VPN service, it will make you look like you are situated in that place. So VPN gives you anonymity. It keeps you free from espionage and government scrutiny. VPN can divert the geographical restrictions on different popular websites, along with that it protects you from fraudulent Wi-Fi hotspots.
It hides your exact location to gain the anonymity that protects you from government espionage campaigns. The dark web was first made to have secured and espionage free internet for the commoners. So VPN supports that cause vehemently. But sadly, not all VPNs are trustworthy, neither there are many affordable VPN services. Some of the VPN services take note of everything you are doing on the darknet and defy the whole purpose of VPN. It is a surprise to a few people that how much data are recorded by the government agencies. The government espionage is being carried on a magnum scale, and in that scenario, the dark web was made.
Benefit Of Having VPN Services?
VPN software has a lot of benefits provided you are using a trustworthy VPN service:
- It can keep your internet usage concealed so not your Law enforcement can know what you are doing on the dark web links. You can download the torrents without revealing your identity.
- Crack into entertainment sites like Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, etc.
- Stream online and download on your device your favourite movies and music.
- Safeguard your identity from being attacked when you are on Wi-Fi.
How To Choose The Best VPN Service Provider In 2021
Since you already know how vital VPNs are and mostly how inevitable it is when you access the dark web or the deep web link. So, when you are ready to purchase a premium VPN or the best VPN services for online security and privacy for yourself, you have to consider certain features and identify your needs. Question yourself why exactly do you need a VPN, or is there anything beyond the data security and privacy that you need your VPN to provide.
Generally speaking, there are four primary criteria that people usually focus on while purchasing a premium VPN.
If you have a plan for using your VPN for such things that need a lot of data or activity, you would need to opt for a highly optimized service for reliability and speed. If you are one of them who regularly share large files or consistently stream videos, you would want to go for a VPN that offers unlimited bandwidth, unlimited connections having high upload and download speeds.
When it comes to reliability and speed, there are some factors that you control, whereas some other factors are handled by your service providers.
The factors that are under your control include:
⓵ Using a wired connection, which is always a faster and better option.
⓶ Improving the stability of the Wi-Fi.
⓷ Upgrading the connection speeds of your internet or VPN.
⓸ Opting for a VPN service having relatively more servers or the servers that are quite closer to your desired location.
Factors that your VPN operator controls include:
⓵ The server load.
⓶ The total number of servers.
⓷ The protocols of the VPN.
⓸ Complicated peering relationships between the networks (a factor that reduces speed).
⓹ The restrictions on the international bandwidth (for example, the Australian VPNs are much slower owing to the underwater fibre optic cables that carry a set amount of data at any one time).
Along with these comes the testing of your VPN for verifying the claims your provider has made. For that, you would need two things — a baseline for your tests and an accurate testing method. You can utilize the following speed tests in the bid to verify your VPN speeds:
When you are done with this, you need to run a speed test on the same internet connection, once with your VPN and then without your VPN. If you are using a Wi-Fi, run both tests on the Wi-Fi. We recommend you to run the test twice for a fair understanding of the average speed. It would be best if you run the tests using the same VPN location/server that you are planning on using with your service.
It is necessary for all the VPNs to be secure by default. The VPN service that you may have opted for must possess the essential security and privacy protection. Here we have discussed some crucial privacy and security requirements that need special consideration.
Privacy Requirements:
⓵ Activity Logs: The free VPN services, most of them track your activity, such as the files you have downloaded or the websites and pages you have visited. What these free VPNs do is monetize or sell your usage activity on their VPN without you being aware of it.
⓶ Connection Logs: The other VPN services track the assigned IP addresses, the start and end times of the connection or the bytes of the transferred data. Usually, this does not include your data, but it may be combined with other data for exposing your identity.
If privacy is something you care for, you will have to stick with the log-free best VPN services that do not track your metadata or activity.
Security Requirements:
⓵ Authentication: The reputable top VPN providers use a hash algorithm for automatically verifying the packets that they receive. They make sure that the data from a middleman has not been injected into your packet. They will also confirm that your data has not been changed or tampered in any way.
⓶ Ciphers: Ciphers is an algorithm similar to AES that encrypts and as well as decrypts your data in clearly defined steps based on a series. By utilizing a key for encrypting your data, it is impossible for the unwanted spying on your data until they bear the specific key that had been used to encrypt the message.
⓷ Encryption Strength: Usually, 128-bit AES encryption is relatively faster but not that secure while the 256-bit encryption is comparatively slower but more secure than the former one. The more, the more robust encryption, the more difficult it would be to break it. So, it is up to you which one you would go for.
⓸ Handshake Encryption: The handshake encryption takes place at the very beginning of the VPN session. At this point, you and the server you are communicating with exchange your private keys that encrypt or decrypt the data and the messages for acknowledging each other.
If you have a different OS on your desktop and your mobile device, you will first need to verify that the VPN services are compatible with the device you would be using. Most of the VPN services are purely compatible with standard platforms such as Android, Mac, iOS, Windows, and Linux. Some of the VPNs are not available on all the platforms. For example, the VPN that is ready for Windows might not be available on iOS or Android.
You should verify that the VPN you are opting for is compatible with your devices before signing up.
You need to be sure of how many devices you can connect to in a single VPN service. The availability of the services tends to differ from one service to the other. It has been seen that some of the best VPN providers allow connection of just one device at a time. In contrast, some other providers will enable the connection of up to three devices simultaneously, whereas other VPN services allow unlimited connections all at once. You need to consider what your exact need is right now or in the near future.
Apart from these, you have to take into consideration the availability of the servers and the availability of a specific VPN in a country. Whatever your concern is, you need to clarify it beforehand or take a free trial to experiment before taking their membership.
⓵ Customer Service: If you are one of those customers who needs on-demand customer support, then the top VPN service providers will suit you who offers live phone or chat support. This could impact the price of the package you might opt for. If you are ok with the operator offering your email support, you are good to go.
⓶ Money-back Guarantee or Free Trial: If you choose a service that offers a free trial, then you would like to choose one so that you get ample time to try things out. Some VPN services provide a concise trial period, which may not be enough for you to verify the services from your end. However, a money-back guarantee seems promising as you have an opportunity in a case where you are not satisfied with the VPN service you have received.
⓷ Payment Plans: Payment plans of one most popular VPN service varies from the other depending on the features that you have opted for and the subscription period.
⓸ Tech-Savvy or User Friendly: If you are not at all comfortable with the setting up and configuration of your best VPN service, then you would want to make sure that you locate a provider having a user-friendly interface. Some VPN service providers will virtually configure your VPN so that there is no issue with time coordination and being physically present.
What Are The Limitations Of A VPN?
While the best VPN services are beneficial, there are some limitations to them. Here we have discussed all the limitations that the VPN services come with:
- VPNs do not protect you from all threats. VPNs would not be helpful if you download anything from the internet unwisely that may contain ransomware or if you are tricked into puking your personal data to a phishing attack. To avoid this to some extent, it is recommended that you use good antivirus software and use a renowned password manager for creating and storing unique as well as complex passwords for every website you use. Additionally, you must use two-factor authentication whenever and wherever applicable.
- VPNs are known to keep you anonymous, but limitations prevail on how anonymity is maintained with a VPN. The advertisers have come to a point where they use several tactics in the bid to gather data about you and trace your movements. These activities range from browser fingerprinting to online trackers. In this case, we recommend you use privacy-oriented web browsers like Brave or Firefox and then install dedicated tracker blockers such as the Privacy Badger from EFF.
- Some of the VPN Service providers also offer their own DNS resolution system. DNS is like a phonebook that typically converts the text-oriented URLs into a numeric IP address which is preferably easier for the computers to understand. A savvy group of trackers can monitor the DNS requests and track your online movements. Some attackers might also use DNS poisoning for directing you to the irrelevant phishing pages that have been so designed to steal your data. In such a circumstance, if you use the DNS system of your VPN service, you are actually adding another layer of protection. A secure DNS is essential, but that of a VPN is impeccable.
- The efficiency of a VPN is also questioned sometimes. As most of the websites support secure HTTPS connections lately, the maximum of your online experience is already under encryption. However, VPN adds protection where HTTPS cannot reach. It applies a buffer between the user and the people who are actually controlling the internet infrastructure, making online tracking even more difficult.
- VPNs stand as a crucial element to improve individual privacy. However, there are a group of people who mark VPNs to be essential for their professional as well as personal safety. A group of individuals such as political activists and journalists completely count on the VPN services for circumvention of the government censorship and voice their opinions safely with the outside world. With the utilization of VPNs, certain countries restrict and/or ban implementation of VPNs in the bid to monitor internet usage and follow the footprints of internet users. If you are in Russia, China, Turkey, or any other countries bearing repressive internet policies, we recommend that you check the laws of using a VPN in that country.
- The Tor network is widely in use for comprehensive anonymization of internet traffic. The VPN tunnels the web traffic to a VPN server. On the other hand, Tor bounces web traffic via different volunteer nodes, making the traffic tracing much harder. Tor also permits the users to access the hidden dark web websites, which VPN solely is incapable of doing. Some VPN services, however, offer access to Tor on individual servers.
Note: VPN slows down your internet connection, but Tor slows down the connection even more.
An antagonist who is desperate to breach your defenses would be able to do so in some way or the other. What the VPN is responsible for is to protect you against the bulk data collection and the criminal evaporation of data (occasional) for the purpose of later usage.
Are Free VPN Safe To Use?
People are always on the lookout for using free VPNs that they often trace online, but using them, they often put themselves at risk. Free VPNs always come with a price to pay. Thus, the so-called “free VPNs” are not safe to use for five significant reasons, as explained below:
➀ Free VPNs Are Data Trackers
Free VPNs can be much more dangerous than you will expect. The VPN service providers need to pay expensive bills for maintaining the hardware and expertise that is required for secure users and large networks. If you use a VPN for free, this means that the company is not paying those expensive bills and that their hardware and security is not maintained.
It has been reported that about 86% of free VPN apps for mobile devices accounting for millions of installations do have unacceptable privacy policies that range from a simple transparency lack to explicit sharing of the user data with the Chinese authorities.
Although the term “Free VPN” might lure people into using them as they do not have to pay any amount, these VPNs are often tactics used by the companies to gather data from the online browsing or through the computer of the users.
➁ Your Computer May Get Infected By Malware
A CSIRO study has mentioned that 38% of the free Android VPNs contain one of a kind malware. Surprisingly, many of these free VPNs are the highest-rated apps having millions of downloads.
Thus, before getting involved in a free VPN, it is better to ask which costs less. A premium VPN service that better shields your data and privacy than the free ones or to hire an identity recovery firm after all your data has been stolen.
This being said, malware is not the only route to make money if you are using a free VPN. There are other ways, too, preferably, even more, more comfortable.
➂ You Experience A Lot Of Annoying Ads
Advertisements in various software, websites, and applications are often annoying. They get even more annoying when you use free services as the number of ads displayed rises. Some ads are shown in the form of pop-ups and may steer you to dangerous territory in no time. Some of the other VPNs might also sneak few ad-serving trackers via the loopholes present in your browser’s media reading features and stay on your digital history.
A couple of free VPNs contain a baked-in backdoor that secretly sells your data to third-party advertising networks. Additionally, some others employ various tracking libraries that redirect the user traffic to the secret servers.
➃ Buffering Kills Your Mood and Patience
Among all the reasons that force people to use VPNs, one reason is still ruling: to watch their favorite shows on various OTT services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, etc. Some of the OTT services are blocked in specific geo-locations. But the effort to watch these videos will be of no use if the free VPN service slows down and your money on the OTT service is wasted.
Some of the free VPN services often sell your bandwidth, potentially putting you outside the legal boundaries with their activities. The reason the free VPNs are slower is that they pay for a few servers. This implies that your traffic generally is bouncing around longer between over-crowded and distant servers or may even be waiting behind the paid users’ traffic.
Another thing is that the OTT sites are knowledgeable of those who try to barge into their video services for free. These services quite frequently block the large number of the IP addresses that they have identified to be using their services for free. It is a fact that the free VPNs cannot invest in a massive list of the new IP addresses for their users, unlike the paid best VPN services. This means that you may even not be able to login to a subscription service you have paid for in case your free VPN is utilizing a pretty old batch of IP addresses.
➄ Free VPNs Have Limited Features
If free VPN services offer you all the paid best VPN companies’ features, then people will likely use the free ones and not the paid ones. Thus, the free VPNs have limited features for you to enjoy, and some offer limited features for a limited period after which the VPNs stop working.
The Different Types Of Best VPN Services For Online Security And Privacy
Usually, the best VPN services can be categorized into four major divisions:
It is also commonly known as Virtual Private Network-as-a-Service or VPNaaS. It has been designed for the organizations that trust the outsourced cloud data centers in place of the in-house infrastructure. A traditional VPN will not work in case your organization stores all the data in the cloud. A cloud VPN also permits the users to access a company’s resources such as data, applications, and files via a website or a native desktop, or even a mobile app.
Extranet-based Site-to-Site VPN
These VPNs are quite challenging to implement and are pretty widely used in large scale business industries where a secure connection needs to be established between two different intranets. Still, none of them can access each other directly. It’s just like two different companies working together.
Intranet-based Site-to-Site VPN
This sort of VPN provides a secure connection for different users in various fixed locations for connecting to each other’s resources. It just works as a company having multiple locations sharing resources amongst each other.
Remote Access VPN
This kind of VPN provides a secure connection from a user to a remote server in the bid to gain access to a private network.
The Best 5 VPN Services To Consider
In this segment, we are going to provide you with the best VPN service reviews of 2021. Let Us Take A Look At Our Picks For The Top VPN Providers.
PureVPN
- Countries: 140
- Kill Switch: Yes
- Logging: None, except the billing data
- Platforms Supported: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more.
- Servers: 2,000+
- Simultaneous Connections: 10
- Trial/MBG: 31 day
Unlike most of the top VPN providers, PureVPN does not license their international server presence from the local providers all over the world. They own their self-managed network of over 2000 servers located in 140 countries. This permits the company to back up its full range of the protocols such as IKEv2, SSTP, OpenVPN, SSTP, and L2TP/IPSec. Furthermore, it also offers PPTP, but it is a bit porous. On top of these, they offer a 31-day money-back guarantee and support a wide range of devices including Roku, Boxee boxes, and Kodi.
NordVPN
- Countries: 59
- Kill Switch: Yes
- Logging: None, except the billing data
- Platforms: Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, Linux, Android TV, Chrome, Firefox
- Servers: 5517
- Simultaneous Connections: 6
- Trial/MBG: 30 day
NordVPN can be referred to as one of the most popular VPN services and consumer choices for VPNs. It offers services beyond the basic VPN and supports P2P sharing (Double VPN for extra/second layer of protection). It also provides Onion over VPN, meaning that it allows Tor capabilities over VPN and a dedicated IP in case you are attempting to run a VPN that works as a server as well. The best VPN service supports all the usual platforms, along with the home network platforms. Their customer service is also remarkable.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the renowned best VPN providers that offer a broad range of protocols and platforms. The platforms it includes are Mac, Windows, Linux, routers Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, Chromebook, and Nook devices. It also supports browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome. ExpressVPN works with Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. It offers a manual setup for Roku, Chromecast, and Nvidia Switch.
Surfshark
- Kill Switch: Yes
- Logging: None, except the billing data
- Platforms: Windows, Mac, iOS, Linux, Android, Fire TV, Firefox, Chrome
- Simultaneous Connections: Unlimited
- Trial/MBG: 30 day
Surfshark comes at a reasonable price point against a solid offering. As of now, there have been no data breaches. It seems that the company has a robust security setup offering Perfect Forward Secrecy, RSA-2048, and AES-256-GCM encryption. The VPN provides a unique purpose browser plugin that prevents WebRTC and is designed to combat those leaks. Another specific feature that is predominantly found in Surfshark VPN is that it lets you route connections via two VPN servers across its private network. Some inexpensive add-on features are also available such as anti-tracking, ad-blocking, a tool that tracks your email address against the data breaches, and access to a non-logging search engine.
CyberGhost
The CyberGhost VPN is more than just a VPN connection driver. The security system that the company offers is pretty decent. It provides some extra features like malicious website blocking, ad-blocking, forced HTTPS redirect, and online footprint blocking (cookies blocked from dropping).
As compared to most of the other VPNs, CyberGhost has a large number of servers, and the performance is adequate. It offers enough bandwidth for video streaming. CyberGhost is an excellent option, however.
If you care about your privacy, then you should use VPN for all your internet usage irrespective of what you are doing online. If you have any further queries, contact us here …
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a VPN, and why do I need it?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network; it allows the user to make a secure and safe network for themselves with another server on the internet. VPN is a tool of anonymity for the ones who value their privacy a lot. VPN services are a famous tool for the ones who use the dark web. It safeguards your identity, system location, and IP address from government and law enforcement agencies’ needless espionage campaigns.
2. How much is a VPN service?
If you Google it, you are going to find a lot of popular VPNs as people praise and write about them online. The Pricing of VPN services also differs from a lot of extents sometimes. There is a lot of chaos in the markets, and, sadly, you might not realize how many VPNs do the job. To get a personal recommendation on the prices and trustworthy VPN list, head on to here…
3. Is having a VPN legal?
Every country and state has a different security policy regarding the dark web and the VPN. Some governments either put regulations on it or they ban the VPNs. Few other countries can make using VPN very risky. Depending on these laws, the government may impose requirements on individuals or the VPN service provider.
4. Is a VPN service worth it?
Using a VPN can be of real use when it comes to saving your identity online. There are a lot of VPNs you can buy online. Using a VPN will safeguard your system location and security while you are surfing on the dark web. If you care about your privacy, then VPN is a must-have for you.
Originally published at https://darkweblink.com on December 5, 2020.
