If you've ever searched for VPNs in the app store, you're surely familiar with the endless trove of services that seem to only exist there and nowhere else. Many of them have tens of thousands of 5-star reviews, but it's hard to be sure if these services are legit, just exist to log your data and sell it to third parties, or if they even work at all. That's why it's important to understand what a VPN can and can't do, and that they're just one tool you can use in a layered approach to online security. To learn more about their limitations, check out our article on VPN privacy.
Note: Since we conduct most of our testing on Windows, we're largely making our recommendations iPhone-based on extrapolation from our desktop results, along with community feedback and the history of privacy practices behind each VPN provider. We're still confident that our recommendations are all great choices for iPhone, and we've verified that our picks work as expected. That said, there are some differences in features and functionality between platforms, which are detailed in each entry below.
Below are our recommendations for the best VPNs for iPhone. For more VPN recommendations, check out the best VPNs for torrenting, the best VPNs for Mac, and the best VPNs.
In 2025, we published reviews for 20 different VPN services. These reviews came after months of research, test development, and collaboration between our engineers, testers, writers, photographers, and editors. Our process for each review involves a lot of work behind the scenes, including rigorous checks and balances along the way, all to provide the most accurate and useful test results to allow you to make the right purchasing decisions for your needs.
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Best VPN For iPhone
Speed8.6Data Limit:N/ASimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:We recommend Mullvad as the best VPN for iPhone. The app is compatible with devices on iOS 15.0 or later, and has a straightforward, easy-to-use UI. It has all the basic features you might need for a mobile VPN, like servers in plenty of different countries, the ability to choose between individual servers in each city, as well as more advanced features like obfuscation, DNS content blockers, Multihop, and DAITA (Defense Against AI-Guided Traffic Analysis), designed to obscure identifiable patterns within your encrypted traffic.
It's not all fluff, either. Mullvad delivers fantastic performance while maintaining good security. It effectively hides your IP address and DNS queries, so your ISP can't see what sites you connect to, while adding a layer of protection against bad actors on public Wi-Fi. It also provides consistently good download speeds, upload speeds, and latency, so it's more than adequate for anything from doomscrolling reels to playing online mobile games.
In addition, Mullvad is known for its privacy. Instead of creating an account with your email address and password, you're assigned a randomly generated account number that serves as your only login credential. This practice means that no personally identifiable information can be stored on their servers, especially if you choose to pay with anonymous options like crypto or even cash.
With all that in mind, there are a few features that Mullvad offers on its desktop platforms that aren't available on iPhone. Firstly, WireGuard is the only supported protocol, whereas OpenVPN is also supported on their desktop platforms (although Mullvad has announced they are ending OpenVPN support in January 2026). Additionally, local network sharing and split tunneling are also unavailable on the iPhone app, and there's no dedicated kill switch, as Mullvad just uses iOS's "on-demand VPN" function, which acts as a kill switch.
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Best VPN For iPhone With More Features
Speed8.4Data Limit:N/ASimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:Proton VPN is another great VPN for iPhone if you're looking for even more features. Like our top pick, Proton has great performance, an easy-to-use app, and a slightly longer list of features than our top pick. You can connect up to 10 devices simultaneously without logging any of them out, compared to five for Mullvad. Also, Proton has servers in over 100 countries, so you can connect to closer servers for a better connection. Proton has a suite of advanced features similar to Mullvad, like malware and ad blocking, secure core (similar to multihop), and obfuscation. It also has the ability to let LAN connections bypass the VPN so you can connect to local devices, and a moderate NAT option that makes it easier to find matches for online gaming. It even has a dedicated kill switch, rather than using the on-demand VPN function in iOS like our top pick (although we aren't able to test kill switch functionality on iOS yet).
Proton isn't without its flaws. It has pretty disappointing latency performance, with spikes and inconsistencies that can be annoying for latency-sensitive tasks like gaming, FaceTime, and general web browsing. Also, it's missing a few of its desktop features in the iPhone app, like the OpenVPN protocol, port forwarding, and split tunnelling. While it's cheaper than our top pick if you pay for a one or two-year subscription, it's much more expensive if you want to pay monthly. Overall, Proton is a great choice if you need the extra features that it offers over Mullvad, but if you don't or aren't sure, Mullvad is the better pick.
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Best Free VPN For iPhone
Speed7.1Data Limit:N/ASimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:We recommend Proton VPN Free as the best free VPN for iPhone if you want some protection without paying for a subscription. Unlike most free VPNs, Proton Free doesn't impose any data limits, so you can use it as much as you want. It also features the same underlying technology as the paid version, like the WireGuard protocol with obfuscation options, providing a reliable and secure connection. Also, Proton as a company has a history of transparency and taking its users' privacy seriously.
As with any free VPN, it comes with some limitations. Proton VPN Free only has servers in five countries (Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, and the U.S.), and you can't choose which one to connect to. Instead, the app automatically picks a server for you. Also, all of their Free users are limited to using the same servers, so there's a lot more congestion, leading to slower speeds and higher latency than the paid version. Also, you're limited to connecting one device at a time per account, so it's not great if you have a bunch of devices. Overall, Proton is a solid choice if you need a free VPN for iPhone and want some added security while browsing. If you plan on doing anything more bandwidth-intensive or even want more basic functionality, springing for one of our paid recommendations is worth it.
If you're looking for a faster free VPN, Windscribe Free is worth checking out. It offers a very similar experience to the paid version, but imposes a data limit. If you sign up with your email address, it's 10GB per month, or if you just opt to sign up with a username, it's 2GB per month.
Notable Mentions
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IVPN IVPN:
Like our top pick, Mullvad, you can sign up for IVPN using a randomly generated account number for better anonymity. Also like Mullvad, it has a great reputation online for its privacy and security. It has a similar feature set but has servers in fewer countries; plus, it's not as fast as our top pick and costs more.
See our review -
NordVPN NordVPN:
Nord VPN is one of the industry's biggest and most well-known VPN services. It offers many extra features, much like Proton VPN, but also has different subscription tiers with password managers, cloud storage, file sharing between your devices, and more. That said, it's not as secure as our top picks since its kill switch doesn't work properly, and it's more expensive than our top picks if you pay monthly. You must pay for a year or two upfront to get the best prices.
See our review
All Reviews
Our recommendations above are currently the best VPNs for iPhone and best VPNs for iOS. We only recommend VPNs with a clear and digestible privacy policy, a proven track record of protecting their customers' privacy, transparency about their ownership, and acceptable security and speeds. We also factor in price (a cheaper VPN wins over a more expensive one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our users, and reputation within the community.
When choosing a VPN, consider what you need it for and understand its limitations. Depending on your risk profile, using one at all times is probably unnecessary. Modern websites, browsers, and devices have ample built-in security measures to protect you from the most common threats. With that in mind, here's the list of all our VPN reviews.