If you are living in the UK, you may be subject to extensive government surveillance. To protect your privacy and hide your footsteps online, it is essential that you use a VPN. We tested the top 4 VPN services - Express VPN, Nord VPN, PureVPN, and Surf Shark VPN, on speed, privacy and security.
Top 4 VPN for UK
#1. ExpressVPN - ExpressVPN for the UK is suitable for England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. It provides you a UK IP address and helps you to stay anonymous on the internet.
#2. NordVPN - NordVPN for the UK is a fast and convenient VPN that reflects a perfect combination of price and speed. Connect to more than 500 UK servers and try it for free for 30-days!
#3. PureVPN - AES-256 encryption, 6500+ servers in 140+ Countries, 7-day VPN trial. Browsers Extensions available. 31 Days Money-Back Guarantee
#4. Surfshark - Deal of the Day: 59$ for 24 months. Tested on Windows PC - Android - macOS. Split tunneling, Free Trial available
#5. CyberGhost - Ultra Fast Servers, up to 7 devices, no Logs Policy, Special streaming servers, 45-day money back (Incorporated in USA)
What is the Best VPN for UK
Our experts found Express VPN to be the best app in the UK as it unlocks websites from around the world and also gives you better protection from prying eyes. It also comes with a kill switch that would immediately stop all traffic if a VPN connection drops. For $6.67/month, it provides you speeds up to 106 Mbps. Check this guide to understand how to download and install a VPN on your phone.
ISPs keep full browsing history
The most obvious answer to this question will be – “Investigatory Powers Act”. On November 29, 2016, it was passed into law. This legislative decree obliges the ISPs to keep full browsing history of all their users for one year. Such history can be provided by request to MI5 and GCHQ. So if you prefer not to share your private and sensitive information with anybody the UK VPN service will help you to stay anonymous.
Online Privacy
Also, you may need online privacy for other reason. If you torrent this kind of activity may draw undesirable attention from copyright owners. And it is not a secret that their representatives constantly monitor the biggest torrent trackers in order to find those people who breach their copyrights. If you don’t want to receive notifications from copyright owners, it is better to spoof your real IP address and use VPN.
Data Encryption
One more reason for using VPN is to improve the security of your mobile devices. If you prefer to connect to open Wi-Fi spots you risk to become the victim of sniffer which will intercept your traffic and decrypt your data. VPN will encrypt the data which you send from your device and which you receive to your device so your data will be safe.
Our Top Product Picks
- 93 countries available
- # 1 Choice for Streaming Football
- Multiple servers in London
- Prices start as low as $6.67 per month
- Up to 6 devices
- Best value deal: save 59%
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Android TV
- Up to 256-bit encryption
- Breaks Chinese firewall
- IPS Leak protection
- Internet kill switch
- HackLock protection
- MultiHop mode with an extra layer of encryption
- BlindSearch for private and ad-free
- Camouflage Mode
- Country: Romania
- Founded: 2011
- Connections: 5
- Refund policy: 30 days
1. ExpressVPN
Price Range: $6.67 - $12.95. Special offer: $99.95 for 15 months
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Money-Back: 30-day free trial |
Devices: up to 5 |
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Devices: Apple TV, Fire TV, PlayStation, Xbox, Routers |
Platforms: Windows, Android, Mac, iOS, Linux |
The best VPN for watching US Netflix from the UK, VPN for UK Netflix, BBC, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and other streaming services worldwide would be ExpressVPN. Enjoy high speeds and stable connections without breaks while testing for leaks with leak test tools. Automated Kill Switch and complete security for the user (even bypasses the Chinese firewall and does not store logs) is possible.
Try ExpressVPN now and get our special offer!
2. NordVPN
Price Range: $3.49 - $11.95. Special offer: 2-year deal with 68% off
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Money-Back: 30-day free trial |
Devices:6 |
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Devices: Firestick, Xbox, Playstation, Nintendo Switch, Raspberry Pi, Chromebook, Chromecast |
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS |
The most convenient and fastest VPN in the United Kingdom for all your devices: install Nord VPN for the United Kingdom on your iPhone, Android, iPad, PC or Mac, router, and other devices. Support up to 6 devices at once, while you will always be protected by the most sophisticated encryption algorithms, up to Double VPN, VPN + TOR, VPN usage masking. 100% no logs.
3. PureVPN
Price Range: $1.32 - $10.95. Special offer: 7-day trial for only $0.99
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Money-Back: 31-day free trial |
Devices: 10 |
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Devices: Routers, Android TV, Amazon FireStick, Microsoft Surface |
Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome, Firefox |
If you like accessing streaming platforms from different counties, then PureVPN is the right choice for you. Though this app is not the fastest among its peers, it could easily stream Hulu, Netflix, HBO GO, and BBC iPlayer in HD. The encryption protocol of the service is also not as strong as its peers, and the customer service is not as good as others. However, it is a relatively cheap option with plans starting at $1.99 per month.
Increasing your encryption will be detrimental to your speed. However, when it comes to streaming, PureVPN works well because of its specialized servers for popular websites. You can select a specialized server for a specific website from the app. The Hong Kong-based firm focuses extensively on privacy protection and lies outside the 14-Eyes jurisdiction. It also claims to have a strict no-logs policy for the users. It can also break the Chinese internet firewall.
Now work, binge & stay secure online with PureVPN
4. Surfshark
Price Range: $1.99 - $11.95. Special offer: Get 81% discount
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Money-Back: 30-day free trial |
Devices:Unlimited |
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Devices:Android TV, FireTV |
Platforms: Windows, Android, Mac, iOS, Linux, Chrome |
SurfShark is another reliable and high-speed VPN service provider. It is also one of the cheapest products on the market. If you are unhappy with a free VPN but don’t want to spend a fortune on a paid VPN product, then SurfShark should be the app of your choice. It provides you high-speed servers that allow you to stream in high definition. It also comes with a CleanWeb adblocker, which helps people in avoiding midroll ads in video streaming platforms like YouTube.
It comes with high-speed connections as well, which can go up to 14.52 Mbps upload and 40.92 Mbps download. SurfShark provides P2P sharing, which makes torrenting very speedy. It has industry-standard 256-bit encryption as well and follows a strict no-logs policy. It also provides IP and DNS leak protection. It also works well with P2P clients. It also provides you double VPN protection, which keeps your browsing data safe.
5. CyberGhost
Price Range: $2.75- $12.99. Special offer: 3 extra months for FREE
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Money-Back: 45-day free trial |
Devices: 7 |
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Devices: Amazon Fire TV & Fire Stick, Android TV, Routers |
Platforms: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux |
CyberGhost is a reliable provider with strong encryption and extra features that come with a fair price.It allows access to popular social networks and streaming services even in the countries with active censorship. Technical documentation is quite helpful, and the first line support is responsive and friendly. Overall, CyberGhost is a good choice for beginner and intermediate users.
Enjoy a fast and reliable VPN
Privacy
For those people who values own privacy VPN providers offer a full range of services to spoof their identity. If you use VPN United Kingdom data retention laws won’t affect you.
Your ideal VPN provider should provide such privacy feature like hiding your IP address. Better privacy will ensure kill switch (when all your current sessions urgently finish when VPN connection drops out) and protection from IP and DNS leaks. Of course shared IP address is a must because it renders almost impossible to find user among hundreds and thousands of other users on the same IP address.
It would be useful if your VPN provider offers the possibility to pay with Bitcoins. If you don’t want to see “subscription for VPN service” in your credit card statements Bitcoin will let you pay almost anonymously.
While choosing the VPN provider also pay attention to its logs policy. Reliable VPN provider should guarantee zero logs policy. Ideally, if VPN provider only asks your e-mail address for registration and login. Furthermore, excellent private VPN service is located in a country which has privacy-friendly legislation and doesn’t have any data retention laws. It will guarantee that even if copyright owners will ask your UK VPN provider for any info about your identity (actually the possibility of this is really small) your provider will have all the rights not to share any info. It also has to be fast VPN service.
Security
This is a very important feature if you prefer using open Wi-Fi spots. In order to prevent sniffing of your data, it is recommended using VPN service. Reliable secure VPN usually offers their users modern security protocols (OpenVPN or SSTP in some cases). For the best security, you may use double VPN option (when all your traffic is being encrypted on two VPN servers).
Also, encryption method matters. For now, AES-256 is an industry standard and it is strong enough to be almost invulnerable for brute force.
Performance
This is a very important factor if you like torrenting, online gaming or video streaming. Any reliable VPN service should provide fast servers and unlimited bandwidth. When switched on VPN shouldn’t slow down your connection more than 10%. And of course, VPN provider should have enough servers to forward your traffic if your usual server will be offline or overloaded.
Wide Network of Services
If your final destination is the site from the United Kingdom VPN may slightly slow down the connection if you are using server far away from your country. That is why it is recommended to subscribe to VPN provider which has servers in different countries (and at least three servers in the UK).
Also, a wide choice of servers is very useful if you are looking for some specific content available only in some regions (like popular online sports channel beIN Sports which is available only in the Middle East).
Friendly Support
The last but not the least. Responsive support will help the newbie to set up and use VPN service or will help the advanced user to find a server with IP addresses which are not blocked by Netflix or Hulu. Good support usually available via different means of communication (live chat, phone, e-mail)
FAQ
- If I'm looking for VPN from UK what VPN provider is better to choose?
It is better not to choose VPN provider located in the UK. Even if such provider claims no logs policy data retention law leaves the possibilities to identify you. Also, remember the famous scandal with VPN provider HideMyAss which is located in the UK. It was caught in a deception of its subscribers. It stated that keeps no logs but lately, users discovered that it is not true. And all the data collected now may be used against users which were looking for privacy and security.
- Will VPN make me fully anonymous in the web?
Actually, no. VPN provides you privacy and security but not the full anonymity. For the first, your VPN provider may know your real IP address (that is why it is so important to deal with services with strictly no logs policy). Also, your traffic may be tracked even on the way from VPN server to the final destination. That is why for full anonymity it is better to use at least Tor browser combined with privacy-friendly VPN provider. Some VPN services (like NordVPN) offer Onion over VPN servers for enhanced privacy.
- What’s about free VPN services? There are a lot of them on the web.
The only free cheese is in the mousetrap and free VPN is not an exception. Of course, some quite good VPN providers have a free subscription which is sponsored from paid subscriptions. But in most cases, free VPN services have a lot of restrictions and limitations without any guarantees of your privacy. Worse still some of such free VPN providers sell their users’ data to internet marketers and advertisers. If you want to know more about pros and cons of free VPN services, you can check this page Free VPN Service
- I need the UK VPN server to watch BBC iPlayer. What VPN provider to choose?
Actually, you can choose any VPN provider which has servers in the UK. Of course, it is better to check the performance of this VPN service, but any VPN provider from the table above is suitable for watching BBC iPlayer.
Other VPNs
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Written by: Stefany Anderson
Technical Writer, Visit My WebSite Techno-copywriter, Privacy, Internet Security