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
Private Browsing9.1Policies & Practices9.2Speed8.6Data Limit:N/ASimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:We recommend Mullvad as the best VPN for iPhone. The app has a clean, easy-to-use interface and includes all the essentials you would expect from a mobile VPN; servers in many countries and advanced features like obfuscation, DNS content blockers, Multihop, and DAITA (Defense Against AI-Guided Traffic Analysis), which helps obscure identifiable patterns in encrypted traffic. Beyond its feature set, Mullvad delivers excellent performance and strong security. It effectively hides your IP address and DNS queries from your ISP, adds protection on public Wi-Fi, and provides consistently strong download speeds, upload speeds, and latency. This makes it suitable for everything from doomscrolling reels to online mobile gaming.
Mullvad also has outstanding privacy. Its privacy and no logging policies are crystal clear, and the company has a long track record of ethical practices and transparent communication. Instead of using an email address and password, Mullvad assigns a randomly generated account number as your only login credential. This design prevents the storage of personally identifiable information, especially if you pay using anonymous methods like cryptocurrency or cash.
That said, some desktop features are missing on iPhone. Local network sharing and split tunneling aren't available on iOS, and there's no dedicated kill switch. Instead, the app relies on iOS’s on demand VPN feature, which effectively serves the same purpose.
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Best VPN For iPhone With More Features
Private Browsing7.5Policies & Practices6.3Speed8.4Data Limit:N/ASimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:Proton VPN is another great VPN for iPhone if you want more features. Like our top pick, Proton has great performance, an intuitive app, but has a slightly longer list of features. You can connect up to 10 devices simultaneously, 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. You can also connect to local devices while using the VPN, and it 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 can't kill switch functionality on iOS yet).
Proton isn't flawless. It has pretty disappointing latency performance, with spikes and inconsistencies that can be annoying for latency-sensitive tasks like gaming or FaceTime. Also, it's missing a few of its desktop features in the iPhone app, like the OpenVPN protocol, port forwarding, and split tunnelling. Proton's privacy policy and company practices make it less appealing for privacy-minded users than Mullvad. For example, the privacy policy states that Proton may record your IP address in certain situations, but it does not clearly explain when or why this happens. This lack of specifics, combined with dense and jargon-heavy language throughout its policies and terms of use, makes it difficult to clearly understand what data Proton collects and how it's used.
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
Private Browsing8.2Policies & Practices7.9Speed6.7Data Limit:10 GBSimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:Many free VPNs on the app store aren't trustworthy, as they're often unproven, collect excessive user data, or operate with questionable business practices. Windscribe Free is a notable exception, and we recommend it as the best free VPN for iPhone on the market. Its privacy and no-logging policies are clearly written and explicitly state that the company doesn't log any user traffic, while disclosing exactly what information they do collect for billing and enforcing device limits. You can create an account using only a username to get 2GB of data per month, or add an email address to increase the allowance to 10GB. Windscribe states that email addresses are used only for marketing. The company is independently owned, communicates openly with users, offers open source apps, and regularly undergoes third party security and infrastructure audits. However, it has not released audits that specifically confirm its privacy and no logs claims.
The VPN itself performs well, keeping your IP address and DNS requests inside an encrypted tunnel and offering a reliable kill switch if the connection drops. Windscribe Free provides servers in 10 countries and supports a wide range of platforms. If you're comfortable with a monthly data limit, it's the best free VPN for iPhone on the market. If you need a free VPN with unlimited data, check out our pick below.
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Best Free Unlimited VPN For iPhone
Private Browsing7.5Policies & Practices6.3Speed7.1Data Limit:N/ASimultaneous Devices:Destinations:See all our test resultsRegistration:We recommend Proton VPN Free as the best free VPN for iPhone without a data limit. It features the same underlying technology as the paid version, like the WireGuard protocol with obfuscation options, providing a reliable and secure connection. Unlike the paid version, however, its privacy policies and terms of service leave something to be desired, as there's a lack of clarity in the policies regarding how the company collects and retains your personal data, as well as a limited scope in the third-party audits that the company publishes.
Proton VPN Free only has servers in five countries (Poland, the Netherlands, Japan, Romania, and the USA), 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.
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 exceptional privacy policies and business practices. 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, we don't recommend it because their policies indicate they can collect a lot of your personal information.
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.