The Best VPN Services in 2024: Our Top 3 Picks for an Easier Choice

– “Ugh, choosing the best VPN for myself is impossible!”

True, they all look very similar at first glance, but there are important differences that can only be observed by using a VPN for a long time, or uncovered by digging into its legal documents 🤓

To save your time, we are not going to talk about things that all top VPNs have by default, like advanced encryption or apps for every possible device.

Instead, we’ve hand-picked just 3 VPN providers, all excellent in terms of safety, privacy, and speed – yet each with its own unique advantage:

In the following sections we will discuss each usage scenario in more detail and explain why we’ve chosen that specific VPN provider as the winner.

Let’s begin:

🏆 Best All-Round VPN

The way we define “value for money” in this case is when a provider ticks all of the boxes for essentials like privacy and speed – while also offering the best bargains.

Finding the winner in this category was actually quite easy – out of our top VPN picks, there is only one that clearly competes the price:

While it’s not the cheapest VPN in existence, NordVPN is surely the most attractive option among VPNs with a good reputation and a long track record.

With over 5000 servers in every part of the world, Nord offers a fast, secure VPN connection for any purpose – be it online banking, watching movies, or protecting your privacy.

As we mentioned above, it’s also cheaper than most other large VPNs, and you get a 30-day full refund guarantee with any plan:

Get up to 70% off at NordVPN ›

By the way, in addition to a Virtual Private Network Nord also offers a password manager and a secure file storage solution – which can all be managed from the same account.

You can find out more about NordVPN, including in-depth analysis of its unique features, in our expert review.

💰 Best Value for Money VPN

Alright, what if instead of the “best of the best” you want a privacy and security solution that has the lowest impact on your budget?

While many Virtual Private Network services offer discounts on 1-year and 2-year plans, no-one is quite as aggressive with its pricing as Surfshark:

Surfshark offers 1700+ servers to provide great connection speed from any location, as well as advanced security protocols to bypass even the most sophisticated filters.

On top of that, it costs 2-3x less than most other large VPN services, especially if you choose the longest 2-year deal:

Get a 81% Discount at Surfshark ›

As usually, we recommend setting a reminder for 20-25 days to make sure your 1-month refund guarantee is still valid if you need it.

If you’d like to find out more about Surfshark (as well as get the best possible deal on this VPN), check out our in-depth review.

📺 Best VPN for Streaming

If, like many of us, you watch TV shows and movies on a regular basis, you will especially like our next pick – the safest, fastest, and most convenient VPN for streaming and P2P (peer-to-peer).

Yes, you heard it right – we are also including torrents here, for a couple of reasons:

• The torrent protocol (and its use) is not illegal in itself – it is just another technology for sharing data.
• There are certain countries where the government thinks that downloading and uploading torrents is perfectly fine, as long as you don’t profit from them. This includes e.g. Spain, Poland, and Switzerland.

In any case, there’s one provider that has consistently shown outstanding results in our streaming and torrenting tests:

Whenever streaming services like Netflix introduce new regional filters and stricter blocking policies, ExpressVPN is among the first providers to come up with stable solutions.

Regardless of your location, you’ll be able to watch your favourite shows and use the P2P torrenting networks as much as you like.

Stream Better with ExpressVPN ›

So, if you’re a TV show fan or just want to relax and watch some good-old Friends episodes (remember that one where Ross ate all the maple candy?), this is our VPN of choice.

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Alright, this concludes our top-3! Before we wrap up, here’s some advice on testing your chosen VPN, presented in a slightly inside-out manner:

How NOT to Choose a VPN

There are a lot of guides all over the web on this topic, so we will not repeat the same “privacy-security-speed” mantra (all VPNs we recommend definitely excel at those), and instead look at some of the less obvious things you should take into account.

(We’ll be using negative statements, yes)

DON’T: Try a VPN on just one device. You probably have more than a single gadget in your household, so why not protect all of them – for the same price! Every major VPN allows using the same account on several devices, offering specialized apps for PCs, smartphones, TVs, routers. Make the most out of your subscription!

DON’T: Go for the cheapest (free) option straight away. There are some free VPNs out there, but like with any free stuff, it’s more of a trick to get you hooked on the platform and then start charging you money once you (inevitably) exceed the usage limits.

DON’T: Measure VPN speed during a single test, in one location. All major VPNs offer thousands of servers, often dozens in the same country – so do try 4-5 alternatives to your default server. Also, try measuring your speed during peak hours (i.e. evenings) to make sure your connection is consistently fast.

The two most trustworthy testing tools are Speedtest.net and Fast.com, make sure they produce similar results.

Final Words

That wasn’t so difficult, right? Choosing from 3 distinct VPNs is much better than sifting through 10 or 20 similar-looking options.

Let’s recap:

• If you’re after the best of the best, check out NordVPN as the most advanced VPN provider on the market – verified by years of testing.
• If you want the entire package (quality, security, speed) at the lowest price, Surfshark is the best VPN deal you can find.
• If you want a reliable VPN that works with any streaming/torrenting service (including Netflix, Disney+, YouTube, Spotify, etc), we recommend ExpressVPN.

By now you should have all you need to make a smart, informed choice regarding a VPN provider.

Any questions left unanswered? Leave your comment in the discussion section below, let’s help each other choose the best VPN!

Disclosure: if you found this guide helpful, please consider using links on this page to purchase VPN subscriptions – this will not affect your price in any way, but we (Satori Webmaster Academy) might receive commissions that help us keep this project going.