How we test VPNs
Every VPN review uses the same testing methodology:
1. Speed testing
- 3 server locations: US East, Europe West, Asia Pacific
- 3 protocols where available: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 (or proprietary like Lightway, NordLynx)
- 7 days of measurement, 4 times per day
- Baseline speed measured without VPN, reported as % retention
- Real hardware: gigabit fiber connection, not cloud server
2. Privacy verification
- Audit history check: company name, audit firm, date, scope
- Jurisdiction analysis: Five/Nine/14-Eyes exposure, data retention laws
- Ownership: parent company, acquisition history, conflicts of interest
- Court record check: have they been subpoenaed? What did they produce?
3. Streaming unblock testing
- Netflix US, UK, Japan, Australia, Canada
- Disney+, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video
- Test repeated within last 30 days for every published review
- Re-tested when a service announces new VPN detection
4. Feature audit
- WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 support
- Kill switch effectiveness
- Split tunneling
- Obfuscation modes
- Multi-hop / double-VPN
- Onion-over-VPN
- Dedicated IP availability
- Port forwarding
- P2P support
5. App testing
- Windows 11, macOS 14, iOS 17, Android 14, Linux (Ubuntu 22.04)
- DNS leak test (ipleak.net, dnsleaktest.com)
- IPv6 leak test
- WebRTC leak test
- Kill switch test (manually disconnect VPN process)
Updating reviews
Reviews are updated when: - Provider changes pricing - Provider releases new audit - Provider changes ownership - Speed regressions detected during routine re-testing - Streaming unblock status changes
"Last updated" date appears at the top of every review.
What we don't do
- We don't accept payment from VPN vendors to rank them higher
- We don't pump-and-dump (we don't have positions in VPN stocks)
- We don't write "sponsored content" disguised as reviews
- We don't ignore audit failures or jurisdiction concerns even if a vendor pays us well
Conflicts disclosure
- We accept affiliate commissions (see affiliate-disclosure)
- We do not own equity in any VPN provider
- We have not been paid by any VPN vendor for content production