There are many factors that contribute to a VPN's speed and performance: the location and number of servers, the technology and tunnelling protocols used and the bandwidth each service allows for.
Then there's the consideration of your actual home broadband speed, which is another issue entirely (you can check your home broadband speed here).
We've tested over 10 different VPNs and scored them on download speed, upload speed and ping. The five VPNs in the table below scored the highest in all three tests.
We've tested a range of VPNs in 2019 and collated the results below. To achieve these results, we ran three consecutive speed tests for download, upload and ping speed with the VPN disconnected to establish a baseline broadband speed. Next, we ran three tests across the same criteria when connected to the VPN's Australian servers (where applicable) then another three tests connected to the VPN's North American servers (where applicable).
We then calculated the difference (increase/decrease) between the disconnected control test and the connected Australian and American server tests and assigned each VPN a score based on its overall download, upload and ping performance.
Note: This selection of VPNs isn't indicative of the entire market. We're testing more VPNs every day and adding the results as we go.
Full VPN rankings
Provider
Type
Ranking
Ivacy
Paid
1
NordVPN
Paid
2
Trust.zone
Paid
3
TunnelBear
Paid
5
Proxy.sh
Paid
6
Tunnelbear
Free
7
HMA
Paid
8
Speedify
Free
9
HideMyAss!
Free
10
Hotspot Shield
Free
11
Hide.me
Free
12
Download speed results
Most users look at download speed as the most important statistic associated with a VPN since it represents the rate at which data is transferred from the Internet to a user's computer. It dictates how fast a page will load in front of your eyes and how long that 4K torrent of the Lord of the Rings trilogy will take to download.
The higher the download speed, the better.
Provider
Paid/Free
AU difference (Download)
Provider
Paid/Free
US Difference (Download)
Ivacy
Paid
16.42%
Speedify
Free
574.65%
NordVPN
Paid
7.70%
Tunnelbear
Free
564.06%
Proxy.sh
Paid
-44.10%
HideMyAss!
Free
529.34%
Trust.zone
Paid
-53.78%
Hide.me
Free
480.85%
Speedify
Free
-54.09%
Hotspot Shield
Free
246.35%
TunnelBear
Paid
-54.37%
Proxy.sh
Paid
-55.13%
HMA
Paid
-55.16%
Ivacy
Paid
-58.30%
HideMyAss!
Free
-55.21%
TunnelBear
Paid
-58.41%
Hotspot Shield
Free
-57.14%
HMA
Paid
-61.06%
Tunnelbear
Free
-60.94%
Trust.zone
Paid
-61.34%
Hide.me
Free
-85.32%
NordVPN
Paid
-61.64%
Upload speed results
In general, upload speed will be slower than download speed because most modems and Internet service providers prioritise downloads over uploads (simply because we spend far more time downloading than uploading).
The higher the upload speed, the better.
Provider
Paid/Free
AU Difference (Upload)
Provider
Paid/Free
US Difference (Upload)
Ivacy
Paid
23.59%
NordVPN
Paid
406.99%
Hotspot Shield
Free
15.67%
Ivacy
Paid
38.55%
Hide.me
Free
10.00%
Tunnelbear
Free
29.15%
NordVPN
Paid
8.39%
Trust.zone
Paid
7.76%
Proxy.sh
Paid
-3.90%
TunnelBear
Paid
5.55%
HMA
Paid
-17.03%
Proxy.sh
Paid
-4.45%
Speedify
Free
-19.77%
HMA
Paid
-8.92%
Tunnelbear
Free
-20.18%
Hotspot Shield
Free
-10.45%
HideMyAss!
Free
-20.53%
Speedify
Free
-13.31%
Trust.zone
Paid
-24.49%
HideMyAss!
Free
-23.57%
TunnelBear
Paid
-29.98%
Hide.me
Free
-30.00%
Ping results
The reaction time of your connection is known as ping. It's how fast the transaction of requests occur at. Where download speed may impact how long an image-heavy page like a photo gallery will fully load, ping impacts how fast the initial request to access to photo gallery is registered. This is particularly important to people gaming online as lag or low high ping can be the difference between winning and losing a match.
The lower the ping speed, the better.
Provider
Paid/Free
AU difference(Ping)
Provider
Paid/Free
US difference (Ping)
TunnelBear
Paid
-22.89%
NordVPN
Paid
530.12%
HideMyAss!
Free
-9.09%
Ivacy
Paid
573.91%
HMA
Paid
-8.96%
Trust.zone
Paid
1046.91%
Trust.zone
Paid
-4.94%
Tunnelbear
Free
1114.29%
Ivacy
Paid
-4.35%
TunnelBear
Paid
11.37349398
NordVPN
Paid
-1.81%
HMA
Paid
1346.27%
Speedify
Free
0.00%
HideMyAss!
Free
1381.82%
Proxy.sh
Paid
25.93%
Proxy.sh
Paid
1498.15%
Hotspot Shield
Free
58.82%
Speedify
Free
1509.52%
Tunnelbear
Free
1160.71%
Hotspot Shield
Free
1882.35%
Hide.me
Free
1757.89%
Hide.me
Free
2357.89%
What can slow down a VPN?
There are many factors that could slow down your VPN use. Here are just a couple to look out for when comparing VPNs.
The closer you are to the physical location of the server, the faster the data will move from one place to another. If you’re in NYC and the VPN server is in Philadelphia, you should get a pretty quick connection. If you’re in NYC and the closest server on your VPN is in Oslo, things can slow down considerably.
Regardless of the quality of the VPN you use, a lot of the speed factor is still going to be determined by your computer and its Internet speed. If your personal Internet connection lags or has periods where it goes down, that’s going to be reflected in the VPN’s performance.
VPN protocols define the level of security in your connection. The more encrypted your data is, the slower it will travel. This is ideal if you are entering credit card information to make a purchase. On the flip side, if you are using your VPN to stream video or torrent files, less protection will equal higher speeds.
Is the fastest VPN always the best?
While speed can make a large difference to usability, being able to clock high speeds does not necessarily make it the best VPN.
Speed can come at the price of security, depending on what type of technologies and features the VPNs have. Other factors like ease of use come into play as well. Depending on the user, the “best” VPN can vary significantly based on that person’s priorities.
How to make sure you’re getting the best VPN speed
Many VPN products have free trials, so taking a road test before you buy will allow you to compare which has the best speed in your area.
You can use our speed test tool to get your own network’s average latency, download speed and upload speed, then run the test again while trialling each of the VPNs. Your own network will be the baseline to test against as it should have the lowest latency and the fastest download and upload speeds.
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I’ve always found that ExpressVPN got slightly faster speeds when I connected to the Smart Location. Makes more sense now.