- The five most recommended VPNs have been retested and the reviews have been rewritten.
- Proton VPN rises to third place while ExpressVPN falls to fourth.
- NordVPN remains in the #1 spot.
It’s official! The results of our latest new VPN test are in and Proton VPN is the biggest mover and shaker.
While NordVPN remains the number one choice for best VPN service, Proton VPN has made its way into third place at the expense of ExpressVPN, which once topped the chart.
Surfshark remains the second and best free VPN, PrivadoVPN Free remains TechRadar’s fifth recommendation for people looking to protect their privacy online.
Our new VPN test from December 2025 added a new test category: Accessibility.
The TechRadar VPN editorial team and our VPN lab have evaluated the ease of use of each service for those with visual needs and for anyone who wants to use VPN apps without a mouse or touchpad.
We’ve also added reviews for voice control and language support.
Otherwise, it’s our VPN lab’s speed tests that have seen the biggest change. We’ve upgraded to a faster 10Gbps connection to make sure the VPNs we’re testing aren’t at risk of line drain.
The fastest average download speed of our top 5 VPNs was Surfshark, which clocked in at 1615 Mbps between our Dublin-based speed settings and the nearest server on the Surfshark network.
Lastly, we’ve also completely reformatted our VPN reviews and review scoring system.
There are 13 weighted scoring categories to prioritize the features our readers have told us mean the most to them, with pricing plan value, features, server network, privacy, security, speed, and streaming service unblocking being the most important considerations.
There are also scores for P2P, apps and compatibility, usability, customer service and track record, as well as accessibility.
Each scoring category has a corresponding section in our reviews that offers comprehensive results from both the VPN editorial team and the VPN Lab team. The idea is to combine the concrete data recorded in the laboratory with the long-term practical experience of our editorial team in the real world. Take a look and tell us what you think.
Meanwhile, it would be remiss of me not to point out that ExpressVPN launched its holiday sales on December 19, 2025. Despite falling to fourth place in our rankings, it’s still an excellent VPN and a very loud shout for VPN newbies and anyone looking for consistently fast performance on Windows.
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