This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for the UK audience.
VPNs are great tools for anyone concerned about diminishing privacy on the internet. These days, it's difficult to surf the web without leaving behind a trail of your activity.
While there's certainly no foolproof privacy option, VPNs are a popular way to shroud your web identity, and they're available for almost any device that connects to the internet, including iOS devices like the iPhone.
What is a VPN?
A VPN forms a protected tunnel that you send all of your information through. Instead of sending and receiving information in the open, it happens under the cover of an encrypted connection between your iPhone and the websites and services that you are visiting. Nobody can see your data, and all of your activity is protected against online threats like viruses, hackers, and malware.
Do you need a VPN for your iPhone?
An iPhone is an expensive purchase, and therefore something that you should really be protecting at all costs. To keep your data protected in transit, you need a VPN. With a VPN's protection, nobody can see or tweak your network traffic, not even the network's owner. VPNs encrypt your traffic before it leaves your phone. This encrypted data stream travels to a server owned by the VPN company, where it's decrypted and sent on its way. This keeps your activity under wraps.
What is the best VPN for your iPhone?
Whether or not you need a VPN is completely up to you. Your iPhone provider isn't going to recommend or offer the service. It comes down to whether or not you'd like to increase your anonymity online — and much of this depends on how you use the web.
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If you do wish to invest in a VPN, we can help. We have listed the best VPNs to protect your iPhone, including popular services like PureVPN, CyberGhost VPN, and NordVPN.
These are the best iPhone VPNs in 2024.
ExpressVPN
Best For Streaming
ExpressVPN is always found near the top of roundups of the best VPNs, and it's easy to see why. It is one of the best VPNs for speed, security, and streaming, with a wide range of advanced features that should suit every iPhone user.
It's certainly not cheap, but that makes sense when you consider everything that you get with ExpressVPN. Users get strong connection speeds, powerful encryption, and access to a diverse network of servers located all around the world. It's also the most reliable option for unblocking and watching top streaming sites from your iPhone.
If you stream a lot of content from your iPhone, ExpressVPN should be your top choice.
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Best For Security
NordVPN is a popular VPN known for its strong security measures. The Panama-based company has a slew of security tools available, such as shared IP addresses, and because it’s based away from the EU and US (like many VPNs), it doesn’t have to collect a user’s personal data and information, so details can’t be passed to third parties.
Notably, NordVPN is able to unblock geo-locked services including Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime Video making it a popular choice for binge watchers.
NordVPN packs an excellent VPN service, the most servers of any VPN service, and unique features into a reliable and friendly iPhone app, making it a great choice for any user.
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Best For Server Network
PIA is an established name in the VPN world and is among the cheapest of the well-known offerings, claiming to be the "highest quality for the lowest price." Designed for torrenting, PIA doesn’t monitor or restrict any connections including peer-to-peer file sharing and can be used with any torrenting client without the annoyance of being blocked or throttled.
The PIA iPhone app gives you access to a top VPN service, with a host of useful features and a good number of servers, but it's best suited for advanced users.
PIA boasts global coverage with thousands of servers located all around the world and claims to unblock websites, meaning the end of geographic restrictions, but some users report not being able to use it for Netflix, for example.
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Best For Free
TunnelBear is one of a small number of providers that offers a truly free VPN service. Before you get too excited, though, the free version of TunnelBear does restrict users to only 500MB of data per month.
The paid-for plan removes the restrictions associated with the free plan, such as the download limit, the numbers of available locations, and the amount of connected devices.
The iPhone app installs in a snap and is immediately ready to go. It lacks some of the advanced features of competitors, but that's just fine for casual users.
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Best For Beginners
VPNs can seem pretty complicated to newbies, but CyberGhost VPN boasts a simple interface with simple language to explain all its features, making it way less daunting.
It’s fast and easy to set up — claiming to be a "one-click solution for your digital needs" — and has intuitive apps for a variety of popular devices, including the iPhone.
There’s friendly support via chat or email and lots of troubleshooting guides if anything goes wrong. Despite this accessible approach, it still packs a punch by anyone’s standards.
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Best For Interface
PureVPN is a user-friendly option, but so are most VPN apps for iPhone. It's such a crowded market that each service needs to have a strong interface to attract subscribers. PureVPN probably has the best, though.
PureVPN offers all the usual features, plus lots of extras. For example, users can use split tunneling to decide what traffic is funneled through their VPN and what is not, and there’s the ability to create a WiFi VPN hotspot.
PureVPN offers servers all over the world. The iPhone app helps you choose servers based on your purpose, which is a nice touch.
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