Of course, the best VPNs for Mac will have a secure, reliable, and easy to use client explicitly optimized for your Mac. Top 5 Mac VPN clients 2018 Below, we’ve put together an in-depth list detailing each of the 5 best Mac VPN clients on the market today. For those of you who are not engaged in active streaming or downloading, we present TunnelBear, the best free VPN for Mac. TunnelBear has all characteristics of the top VPNs, including AES-256 encryption and decent speed. The Best Mac VPNs of 2018 A virtual private network, or VPN, is one of the best and simplest ways to take control of your privacy online. We did the tests, and these are the best VPNs for your Mac.
You Need a Mac VPN
Worse than the idea that Apple users don't care about security is the belief that macOS is somehow immune to attacks, that Apple's computers need no antivirus, and that they are intrinsically protected against spies and hackers. While much malware targets specific devices, and Windows devices undoubtedly represent a larger target, those perpetrating mass surveillance and online data thieves aren't so discerning. That's why virtual private networks, or VPNs, are so important, even for Macs.
The problem isn't your Mac, per se. It is, rather, the fundamental structure of the internet. The first bricks of the web were laid by government and university academics who were interested in making information sharing faster and easier. Privacy and security were secondary concerns. Fast-forward a few decades into the future, and things are quite different.
Those of us living in this un-envisioned future use the web for a lot more than trading academic papers. We transmit important documents filled with personal information; we send money to our friends and request money from our enemies; we even exchange incriminating emails and compromising photos. And we do it all over a system that makes finding your location and reading your information very, very easy.
Who Wants Your Data?
In short, just about everyone does. Your personal information is valuable to hackers because it can be sold and resold on Dark Web marketplaces that trade in such things. Scammers and other criminals can then buy that information in order to commit fraud, which is not something people usually enjoy having done in their name.
In a similar vein, advertisers are keen to get your information so that they can better target you with online advertisements. Special trackers note information about you when you visit a website. When you navigate to a website that hosts another tracker from the same ad company, your movements are correlated across the web.
Even internet service providers are starting to get on the act, now that Congress has given the go-ahead for ISPs to sell anonymized metadata about user activity. The ISPs argue that if advertisers can get a cut of the sweet
It's a valid concern, but we don't believe VPNs are the best solution. Yes, a VPN could tunnel your traffic past ISP restrictions, but a better solution would be for Congress to codify net neutrality in legislation. You may also want to buy a VPN out of net neutrality concerns, but the best thing you can do is call your state representative and senators in the US Congress first.
What's in a VPN?
There are two halves to a truly excellent VPN. First, there's the stuff you can see: the company's website, the price you have to pay to use the service, and the VPN client software. But there's also the stuff you can't see. This latter half is everything from the number and distribution of VPN servers to the location of the VPN company to the underlying protocol to the company's privacy policy.
When we review a VPN, we give particular weight to a service that has an excellent, easy-to-use client. There are, frankly, far too many security companies that give usability a backseat and focus entirely on technical perfection. You might have the most powerful, most secure VPN ever, but it won't matter if the average person can't use it. And given the emphasis that Apple and Apple users give aesthetics, we tend to prefer a VPN that blends in well with its surroundings even more on the Mac. If your VPN looks like a WinAMP skin from 2004, or has an OS X 10.3 brushed-metal finish, that's going to count against it.
Best Free Vpns For Mac
Note that while you can configure most computers, even Macs, to work directly with a VPN service, most people prefer to use a graphical user-interface based client. If you find you like what a VPN has to offer but can't stand looking at its client, try getting your hands a little dirty with your computer's network settings.
As for price, our primary concern is flexibility and value. Services that only offer a single, expensive plan aren't a great option. We're living in the age of à la carte services, where most consumers are accustomed to monthly fees. Moreover, if your VPN stops working with Netflix or providing adequate speeds, it would be crummy to have paid a lot for a year's worth of access.
The average monthly fee for the top 10 VPNs we've reviewed is, as of this writing, a bit under $11. Many come in below that figure, and a few go above. The ones that cost more, obviously, have to justify their hefty price tags.
But money shouldn't be an obstacle for security, and there are many worthy free VPNs floating around. In particular, AnchorFree HotSpot Shield Elite offers free, unlimited protection in the form of a browser plug-in. Granted, this only secures your browser data via VPN, but free is hard to pass up.
Value is a bit trickier, but we believe that a single VPN subscription should meet certain criteria. It needs to include coverage for at least five simultaneous devices, which is the norm for the industry. It needs to work on multiple platforms, including mobile devices. And a single subscription needs to work for different platforms—that is, paying for a subscription for your Mac should also get you iPhone VPN functionality. If VPN forces you to jump through hoops and pay extra to secure all the different devices in your home, it's not a good value.
We also look at the number of VPN servers available with a service, as well as the number of different locations in which the servers are hosted, and how broadly distributed those locations are. Having more servers generally means more bandwidth, since there are fewer people per server to share data. Having more server locations means that you'll always have a server nearby, which is important because a server that's close to you will be faster and more reliable than one that's far away. Mac the ripper pro. A variety of server locations also means you have more choices for spoofing your location.
The best VPN services offer at least 1,000 servers, and NordVPN leads the pack with nearly 5,000 servers. Private Internet Access comes in second on server count, with well over 3,000 servers. We don't look at fixed numbers for server locations, but rather check to be sure they are well distributed. Many VPN companies leave out Africa, the Middle East, and South America, which is disappointing.
Can You Trust Your VPN?
As important as what a VPN company provides is how it does so, as well as the policies it has in place to protect your privacy. You must trust that the service is going to be a good guardian of your personal information, and won't abuse its position by mining your data. The company's legal situation is important, too. Some countries have laws that require companies to store data for set periods of time.
Best Vpn's For Mac
We don't claim to be experts on international law, but we do ask VPN companies if they are subject to mandatory data retention laws. We also do some investigation of our own, mostly with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's resources on data retention.
We also ask VPN providers what information they gather on user activity and whether they sell that information. Furthermore, we scour company privacy policies to confirm their answers. The first is important, as a VPN company could potentially spy on your activity. The best services log as little information about users and their activity as possible, and should explain why in their privacy policies. The last point refers to a particularly egregious practice that has all but died out, thankfully. Back in the day, some VPN companies also injected ads into users' web traffic. That's mostly not the case these days, but we do check with each vendor, just in case. Of course, a VPN company could lie about any of these issues. But at the very least, we can ask VPN companies to explain their positions and not allow them to lie by omission.
One last point about trust has to do with location. Many readers have written to us asking whether they should trust a VPN company located in a place with repressive internet policies, such as China, or somewhere known for cybercrime, such as parts of Eastern Europe. These are valid concerns, but as with a company's information gathering policies, we think it's best to assume everyone is innocent until proven otherwise. Without proof of actual bad behavior, we believe it would be irresponsible to say a company should be avoided based solely on the location of its headquarters. You may feel differently. All of our reviews note where each VPN company has its headquarters, so you can decide for yourself, if you disagree with our stance.
![]() VPN Speeds
Because a VPN routes your web traffic differently than your ISP does, many people believe that using a VPN will slow their browsers to a crawl. They are right to be concerned. Putting more fiber and more servers between you and the internet potentially increases latency time, and decreases upload and download speeds.
We've measured the percent change in these three categories for each of the VPNs listed below. In general, We've been surprised about how small the impact has been. Even when the numbers show a big change, it's pretty rare that we notice any problems in our hands-on testing. For that reason,we encourage readers to think of speed as a concern secondary to value and security.
That said, many people want to know which is the fastest VPN service. In our testing on Windows computers, where we've examined nearly two dozen VPN services, PureVPN has shown that it can actually improve download speeds by a significant margin for two years running. But we're also very aware of the limitations of network testing, and that PureVPN has yet to repeat this success on other platforms. We haven't gathered enough data yet to weigh in on the fastest Mac VPN, but Golden Frog VyprVPN has taken the best score in some key areas that make it very compelling in terms of speed.
We have, however, a lot of test results for VPN speeds on Windows computers. We find that TorGuard VPN has the least impact on your browsing speeds. We gather these results with the Ookla speed test tool, and present the results below. Note that these are in order of score, with the top score in each category marked with italicized red text.
Stay Safe and Private on Your Mac
Apple has polished macOS to a shine, and the company has always paid careful attention to stability and security. But out on the web, anything goes. That's why you need a VPN to provide a critical layer of security and privacy. It's a simple but powerful tool, and you'll be grateful for taking better control of your online experience. Chances are you don't use a VPN on your Mac—yet. We hope this roundup convinces you to mend your ways.
While you're thinking about privacy for your Mac, you should also consider security. If you're not protected yet, you ought to read our roundup of Mac antivirus software.
Best Mac VPN Services Featured in This Roundup:
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