Whether you prefer to use an Android phone or an iPhone, a top-performing VPN for mobile is a good way to improve your privacy while you’re on the go. The best mobile VPN can help you avoid intrusive, location-based advertising and prevent your internet provider from tracking which sites you visit. It will also give you an extra layer of protection when you’re logging into your personal sites on public Wi-Fi. A bonus is that a VPN comes in handy for dodging restrictions on your favorite streaming services while you travel.
The battle for the best mobile VPN has been ramping up as the industry’s three biggest providers continue to roll out competitive privacy apps for iPhones and Android devices. Apple and Google have both recently broadened their mobile encryption offerings as well. But if you’re serious about your mobile privacy, nothing can take the place of an unaffiliated and independent VPN on your phone. That’s what you’ll find here in our list of recommendations for the best mobile VPN.
Keep in mind that there may be limits to the privacy VPN services currently offer iOS users. According to recent independent research, iOS (and some MacOS) users’ browsing and internet data may be sent to Apple despite the protections offered by an encrypted VPN tunnel. We’ll continue to update our recommendations as more information surfaces around this issue.
This is essentially a subset of our main best VPN list. That’s due to the fact that during our VPN research and hands-on testing process, we closely scrutinize each service’s mobile VPN app experience. While not every service is the best VPN to use with your phone, an increasingly mobile-first approach among most top VPN service providers has, in this case, paid off for subscribers. Most recently, the reigning champions on CNET’s overall best VPN list have made competitive strides with their product’s mobile VPN offering for both Android and Apple devices, and we expect that trend to continue.
For that same reason, this best mobile VPN list currently reflects the same rankings you’ll find on this list of the best iPhone VPNs and the best Android VPNs. If and when a VPN provider offers a mobile client more closely tailored to the environment of either of those phones, you’ll see those changes reflected in their respective directory.
As always, I strongly urge you to avoid free VPNs and instead use a thoroughly tested, paid VPN whenever possible. I’m actively working on more testing and research, so keep checking back. This list will be updated periodically as CNET stays on top of security improvements, user-friendliness, speed rankings and cost value for each of these mobile VPN apps.
