How We Test
Every VPN we review goes through our standardized 14-day testing protocol. We purchase every subscription independently — no vendor-supplied accounts, no preferential treatment.
Scoring Criteria
Every product receives a score from 0 to 10 based on weighted criteria. Here is exactly how we calculate it.
Speed & Performance
We test download/upload speeds and latency across 8 countries using dedicated 1Gbps servers. Each test runs 3 times at different hours to account for congestion.
Privacy & Security
We verify no-log claims through traffic analysis, test for DNS/WebRTC/IPv6 leaks, audit encryption protocols, and review jurisdiction and ownership transparency.
Features & Usability
We evaluate app quality on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Kill switch reliability, split tunneling, server selection UI, and connection stability all factor in.
Value & Pricing
We compare price-per-month across plan lengths, simultaneous connections, money-back guarantee terms, and feature parity between tiers.
Tools & Equipment
The tools we use to produce consistent, reproducible results.
- Dedicated 1Gbps test servers in 8 countries (US, UK, DE, JP, AU, BR, SG, ZA)
- Custom speed testing suite (iperf3 + Speedtest CLI)
- Wireshark for traffic analysis and leak detection
- BrowserLeaks.com verification suite
- Real streaming service accounts (Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Disney+)
Independence Pledge
- No sponsored rankings. Our scores are never influenced by advertising or affiliate relationships.
- We buy everything ourselves. Products are purchased at retail price with our own funds. No vendor-supplied review units.
- Affiliate transparency. We earn commissions from some links. This funds our testing but never affects our scores. Full disclosure.
- Corrections policy. If we get something wrong, we update the article with a visible correction notice and date.
Update Cadence
Reviews are updated quarterly or within 48 hours of major version releases, security incidents, or pricing changes.
Every article shows its publish date and last update date. If a review is more than 6 months old without an update, we flag it as potentially outdated.
Our Testing Team
The people behind the scores.
