Also: Your friends and family would love these phones for the holidays That means I’ve had to rely on local Wi-Fi for both my iPhone and iPad. Let me put it bluntly: Using a local hotel, airport, school, or coffee shop Wi-Fi is terrifying, especially when traveling in foreign countries. There’s no telling what’s monitoring traffic, and even if the hotel has encrypted Wi-Fi, you never know what’s running on that network. That’s why having a good VPN is essential, and I’ve long recommended having a VPN service that works with both your iPhone and iPad – I tend to use both extensively while on the road.
In this article, we analyze and rank five top VPN services we’ve come to know over the years that offer solid iPhone and iPad clients and good performance. Let’s take a look at each below. However, if you’re looking for a quality option for all intents and purposes, check out our best VPNs overall page.  NordVPN is one of the more popular VPN offerings on the iPhone App Store. Installing NordVPN on the iPhone is simple, painless, and predictable performance across regions. It has a number of tools in addition to its VPN service. NordVPN’s Onion over VPN enables TOR capabilities, it supports peer-to-peer file sharing, and its Double VPN service allows you to connect through a second server, adding an extra layer of protection. You can also set up a dedicated IP address for an additional fee. Read the review: NordVPN review  One shortcoming of its iOS (and macOS) app is that you’ll have a bit less flexibility with the kill switch. For Android and Windows devices, you can disable the NordVPN’s kill switch, but with Apple products, it’s always running in the background. Also, Apple devices don’t have access to split tunneling, which allows you to include or exclude specific apps or sites from the VPN connection. In addition to iOS, NordVPN runs on all of the most popular platforms. NordVPN performed sufficiently well in testing with a reduction in speed that you’d expect to see with any VPN service. Also: Best Black Friday Apple deals The ExpressVPN app supports iOS back to iOS 12. So as long as your iPhone or iPad is running on iOS 12 or higher, you’ll be able to use ExpressVPN. In addition to iOS, it supports all of the major platforms, and there are also browser extensions for Edge, Chrome, and Firefox. Gamers can even set up ExpressVPN on Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. Read the review: ExpressVPN review If you want the most options for countries to connect through, ExpressVPN has server locations in 94 countries – more than any other service provider on this list. In terms of performance, ExpressVPN ranks among the fastest VPNs, so it shouldn’t reduce your connection speeds as much as your average VPN.  Also: How does ExpressVPN work? Plus, how to set it up and use it ExpressVPN doesn’t maintain browsing history logs, but it does keep track of some information, such as the dates you connect and the location of the VPN server you connect to. The details of what is and isn’t logged are clearly stated in ExpressVPN’s privacy policy. Top offer: Get 3 extra months free At first glance, IPVanish VPN may seem like a standard generic VPN service, but there’s more than meets the eye. IPVanish has depth and plenty of configuration options. IPVanish VPN has a large array of protocols, so you’ll always know what to expect regardless of what you’re connecting to. Its app has an abundance of configuration options, and there is an extensive range of server selection options. IPVanish provides even more iOS support than ExpressVPN, supporting devices back to iOS 11. That provides support for iPhones back to the iPhone 5s, the iPad mini 2, and the original iPad Air. We found IPVanish to be exceptionally fast. However, it wasn’t able to hide that I was connecting through a VPN. That said, IPVanish’s data transfers were secure, and it provides a good user experience as long as you’re not trying to obscure your VPN connection. Read the review: IPVanish VPN review Surfshark VPN is an affordable and reliable service. In our review of Surfshark, we didn’t find any information leaks and it had fast connection times. However, download speeds were just average, in our latest tests, Surfshark VPN cut download speeds by 54%. But, the company doesn’t skimp on security, it offers AES-256-GCM, RSA-2048, and Perfect Forward Secrecy encryption. Surfshark supports devices running iOS 10.3.3 or higher. Also: NordVPN vs. Surfshark: Which VPN is best for you? Surfshark has a solid array of features including, ad and tracker blocking, data breach scanner, and multihop connection (connecting through two servers). That said, certain tools aren’t available for iOS devices. If you want to use the Bypasser tool (Surfshark’s split tunneling feature) you’ll need to use the Windows or Android app. And its GPS override is currently only an option for Android devices. Read the review: Surfshark VPN review Proton VPN has an excellent paid service that ranks as one of the fastest VPNs and best VPNs overall. But there is also a limited free version of Proton VPN. And unlike all of the other free VPNs for iPhones, this service doesn’t have any data caps. In general, we recommend you avoid free VPNs for a number of reasons. There are potentially serious security concerns with free VPN providers. How do these companies have the money to build and maintain a secure product? It’s likely that they don’t. A free VPN service could even make money selling your data, which defeats the purpose of using a VPN. The only situation where using a free VPN wouldn’t necessarily come with security concerns, is when it’s a free version of a reputable paid service, as is the case with Proton VPN’s free version. The nice thing about all of the selections for our best VPN for iPhone and iPad list is they all have a 30-day money-back guarantee. A month should give you enough time to test any of these VPNs, see which features you love, and make a decision based on your personal experience.

Simultaneous connections: Many VPNs limit how many devices you can connect to its service at the same time. If you have a phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, and possibly even a smart TV you want to connect to a VPN you’d need a service that allows at least 5 simultaneous connections.Kill switch: A kill switch prevents you from having an unprotected connection and is an important feature for a VPN to have. Platforms: What systems and devices can you run the VPN on?Logging: What type of information (if any) does the VPN provider record?Countries: In how many different countries does the VPN have servers? This can include physical and virtual servers.Servers: How many servers does the VPN service operate?Trial length & price: How much does the VPN service cost? How long do you have to try the service out before you can’t get a refund anymore?

AtlasVPN is our top cheap VPN and at $1.89/mo, it’s even less expensive than Surfshark. CyberGhost VPN has an extended 45-day money-back guarantee period.