Best VPN for iPhone in 2024

Additional privacy is never bad, so seeking the best possible VPN for iPhone is a step in the right direction. As many say, iPhones are safer than Android smartphones, but internet access levels the playing field once you go online. In that case, we’re all exposed – yes, even us. Exposing your IP address is bad for privacy due to ISP surveillance and data brokers who’ll gladly steal your data. Factoring in geo-restrictions, we already face the issue of being unable to access Netflix or other prevalent streaming platforms. iPhone users are already infuriated!

Well, they don’t need to be. The best VPN for iPhones in 2024 can remedy all these problems – and more. Such a service lets you encrypt your traffic and completely change your online identity. As a result, you gain privacy and a more open internet.

Better yet, a VPN can fight ISP throttling, benefit your gaming sessions security-wise, and even allow you to save money on online purchases. Okay, so we have one question left to address. What are our favorite VPN services for iPhones? The answer is below.

Best VPN for iPhone: 5 Options to Consider in 2024

Before we start, we must clarify that all top picks on this list were tested by our experts. We left no stone unturned to ensure you get the creme de la creme.

1. NordVPN

NordVPN has everything you need in an iPhone-compatible VPN. It’s an ultra-secure provider with AES-256 encryption, an advanced kill switch, and reliable IP and DNS leak protection. Its iOS app is surprisingly capable and even includes Onion over VPN and P2P servers.

Another benefit is obfuscation, which can be life-saving in China and other censored countries. As the best VPN for iPhone, NordVPN also offers Double VPN servers to route your traffic through two secure locations and double your encryption.

iPhone users appreciate its functionalities like Threat Protection that blocks ads and trackers. Our team loves using its Meshnet for remote control and traffic routing which works on up to 60 devices. Better yet, the provider doesn’t store any logs, ensuring total privacy.

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If you’re into streaming, rest assured that NordVPN will perform like a champ. It works with more than 20 Netflix catalogs and dozens of foreign channels. Performance-wise, after thoroughly testing NordVPN, we can say it’s the fastest VPN compatible with iPhones, thanks to its 10 Gbps servers and the NordLynx protocol.

Apple’s ecosystem can be protected with NordVPN promptly. As this is also the most trusted VPN for Mac, you can protect your macOS computer or laptop for more security. Besides, it supports 10 simultaneous connections, which is more than ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.

With no notable downsides, NordVPN remains the #1 rated VPN for iPhone for many reasons. Its price is reasonable too, thanks to a 2-year plan with a 60%+ price reduction. At just around $3.2/mo, this provider is affordable for the majority of users.

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2. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN’s simplicity beckons many iPhone VPN users to try it. Its apps are user-friendly and work on all devices. Despite its simple apps, the provider is pretty secure and offers some advanced features you’ll enjoy. Advanced Protection is one of them.

This allows ExpressVPN to block ads and malicious sites but also adult platforms. Moreover, ExpressVPN includes Lightway, a proprietary protocol for superb security and speed. We appreciate its Network Lock kill switch that prevents your IP from going public.

Another perk is privacy, thanks to RAM-only servers and Private DNS, both of which prevent ISP surveillance and data collection. ExpressVPN’s no-log policy has been acclaimed multiple times, which is reflected in its 16+ independent security audits – quite an achievement!

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ExpressVPN is a leading VPN when it comes to unblocking sites. It’s amazing for streaming, secure for torrenting, and fast for online gaming. The VPN will prevent ISP throttling and allow for a smooth, and above all, anonymous internet experience on your iPhone.

Unlike NordVPN, it’s capped at 8 simultaneous connections – this should still be sufficient. ExpressVPN’s 24/7 live chat support is otherworldly and the provider includes bonus extras like Keys, a password manager, and MediaStreamer, an efficient Smart DNS service.

Unfortunately, ExpressVPN’s price is a bit higher. There is a 49% discount thanks to 3 free months for the annual plan to drop the cost a bit. However, if you’re on a thin budget, NordVPN, our top pick, is a better option overall.

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3. Private Internet Access

When it comes to affordable VPNs for iPhone, PIA is perhaps the top-rated pick. Its unlimited connections and modern iOS apps are something to behold. Private Internet Access’s performance on iOS is amazing, and so is the roster of security features.

We’d like to mention MACE as a capable ad blocker. The provider includes 30,000+ servers, all based on RAM for ultimate privacy. Private Internet Access offers a powerful kill switch but also split tunneling to route the selected apps through the VPN tunnel.

PIA’s features include Shadowsocks, which enables obfuscation and makes it useful against censorship. As one of the best premium VPNs on iPhones, PIA also comes with the WireGuard protocol that combines security, privacy, and speed.

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You’ll find this provider’s Dedicated IPs useful for bypassing CAPTCHA and avoiding IP blacklisting. Also, at just around $1/mo, you can get an Antivirus and protect your macOS or Windows computer as well. PIA also includes Smart DNS in multiple countries.

With it, it’s easy to set up for streaming on a myriad of devices – Xbox consoles, for instance. PIA VPN works on iPhones like a charm if you’re streaming. It has a few dedicated streaming servers with solid speeds and the ability to access Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and many others.

Best of all, it’s an excellent VPN for the money if you pick its 2-year plan. In that case, the price of around $2 a month will be more than attractive and you’ll get a 30-day money-back guarantee to test it risk-free. What more to ask for at this point?

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4. Surfshark

So, Surfshark is a powerful VPN for iOS that many love for its streaming abilities. It’s a really efficient iPhone VPN for Netflix, for example. However, it’s also fully P2P-compatible and offers 3,200+ servers in 100 countries. Let’s not forget about uncapped connections.

You can use them to VPN-protect all your devices with one subscription. Surfshark isn’t the fastest option but its WireGuard protocol surely helps. We also like its MultiHop servers you can customize and select entry and exit servers, unlike NordVPN’s app.

Surfshark offers geo-spoofing plus an IP Rotation function to rotate your IP periodically while keeping your VPN location the same. In its app, you’ll also find NoBorders which masks your VPN traffic and allows the provider to work in China.

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Surfshark’s One plan allows for more security options. One is “Search”, a 100% anonymous web browser. There’s also Antivirus, which works well in dispatching various malignancies. Finally, there’s “Alerts”, a dark web monitor that prevents data theft and email breaches.

This VPN’s device compatibility is awesome, so you can use it on your Windows PC, Android phone, or macOS laptop. Surfshark is free of logging, keeping no tabs on its users. However, we dislike its Dutch jurisdiction, which is inside the 9 Eyes alliance.

Apart from that, it has some juicy discounts for 2-year and 1-year plans. We’re fond of its 2-year plans with 3 extra months. It’s easily among the cheapest premium VPNs for iPhone whose qualities can’t be described in one go. You have our Surfshark review for that.

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5. CyberGhost

CyberGhost has 12,000+ servers and offers a simple, yet powerful app for iOS. Despite being at the last spot, this is still one of the best VPNs compatible with iPhone thanks to excellent performance, plenty of locations (100+), and amazing device compatibility.

This VPN offers a heap of streaming-optimized servers for a variety of streaming services. Users who care about speeds can use its WireGuard protocol paired with unlimited bandwidth to get a top-tier, premium iPhone VPN experience.

CyberGhost on iOS includes a kill switch, with a capable content blocker to keep malware, trackers, and ads at bay. There’s also App Split Tunnel that excludes particular apps from using a VPN. Like PIA, CyberGhost lets you buy one of many Dedicated IPs in 20+ locations.

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This is accompanied by a fair share of P2P servers you’ll find in macOS and Windows apps. In our CyberGhost test, they performed reliably for torrenting and P2P file sharing. Our team loves its focus on privacy expressed through RAM servers and an in-house DNS service.

Above everything, CyberGhost is a true zero-logging VPN that won’t keep tabs on your browsing history, IP address, and location. This is further proved by an audit from Deloitte and transparency reports published by the company four times a year.

CyberGhost isn’t working in China and shows average performance when using OpenVPN. This doesn’t take away from its quality as one of the best-rated premium VPNs for iPhones. In any case, it’s another affordable pick but with a 24-hour FREE trial for risk-free testing.

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Why Use the Best Premium VPNs for iPhone?

VPNs are beneficial in many ways and can improve your internet experience vastly. If you’re an iPhone user, installing this nifty little app will bring with it the following benefits:

Online Privacy and Anonymity

When you go online with a VPN, your IP address is routed through a VPN server. In return, you’re protected from snoopers that can track your online activities. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is the one to blame because it monitors your every step online.

This also applies to government surveillance in many countries. The government authorizes ISPs to monitor your traffic, collect your sensitive data, and hand it out to them. A VPN installed on your iPhone will prevent this instantly with a connection to the server.

Your traffic is routed through the VPN that doesn’t store logs. Even if the authorities request a VPN to hand out your private data, they’ll come out with nothing, as their RAM-only servers are free of sensitive information. This can be useful when downloading torrents.

Concealing your IP address makes your download history anonymous, allowing for private P2P file sharing. However, such a benefit will likely be more valuable on Windows, macOS, or Android.

Public WiFi Security

Public WiFi networks can be dangerous because they usually lack encryption and password protection. Even password protection isn’t enough if it doesn’t have proper security. A powerful device like an iPhone can connect to any network like any other phone.

However, doing so exposes you to hackers and snoopers looking to steal your data. Public WiFi hotspots simply beg for the use of the best iPhone VPN. Once connected, your IP address is hidden, and your traffic is encrypted, which instantly wards off hacking attempts.

Thanks to AES-256 encryption, your data will remain safe and you can go on the internet risk-free. According to Forbes, four in ten people had their information compromised on public WiFi, which is an alarming statistic from a privacy standpoint.

Compromised information may include your credit card data, address, social media information, and so on. Now you see why using a VPN whenever you’re on a public WiFi hotspot is smart. Thankfully, connecting to a server takes merely five seconds.

Circumventing Geo-Blocks

Region-locked content is all around the internet and no matter where you are, there’s always going to be a blocked website. With the change of your IP address, you can access pretty much any site, as long as you have a reliable VPN installed on your iPhone.

NordVPN and ExpressVPN are particularly effective at unblocking streaming services. They work with Netflix and other sites. However, we’re also talking about gambling platforms, online bookies, adult sites, and many more.

Bypassing Censorship

Censorship is the worst method of internet restriction and is particularly prevalent in China, Iran, Russia, and Turkey. If you find yourself in such a country, having the best VPN for iPhone is essential. All the providers we selected, except for CyberGhost, offer obfuscation.

Enabling this feature masks your VPN traffic and makes it look like a “normal” one, allowing you to get over DPI (deep-packet inspection). As a result, you can jump over censorship and use the internet freely for whatever purpose – streaming, gaming, P2P, etc…

How to Install and Use a VPN on an iPhone

We presented you with our 5 favorite VPNs that work on iPhones, so now, it’s time to see how to use them. While these providers are different, they all work the same, and no matter which one you pick, installing and using a VPN is extremely simple.

As NordVPN is our #1 rated VPN for iPhone in 2024, we’ll demonstrate how to use it. As said, the process will be nearly identical for the other four premium services.

1. Subscribe to a VPN Service

You can perform this step on your iPhone or any other device. Simply click the button below to go to NordVPN’s website and claim the special 2-year deal. Alternatively, use the buttons above to get discounts on your chosen provider.

Once you’re on the website, provide your email address, select the payment vendor, and complete the purchase. After that, you’ll likely have to verify your account through email and make a password – a 10-second process.

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2. Install the VPN app on Your iPhone

Now, it’s time to download a VPN to your iPhone. Visit your App Store and search for the service you’ve selected. Tap on “Get” (or a cloud icon in the screenshot) and when it’s downloaded, press “Open” to access the application.

Sign in to the app by using your email and password from Step 1.

3. Connect to a Server

You can connect to a server as soon as you’re in the application. We used the “Quick Connection” button to connect to the fastest server – for us, it was a server in Serbia.

Of course, you can pick a different server by opening the server list (scrolling up from the bottom) and tapping on a different country whose IP address you want. When the app’s upper portion turns green, you’re connected and under the encryption of an iPhone VPN!

Free iPhone VPN: Is It Safe to Use?

When searching the App Store, you’ll come across a heap of free providers. They promise you safety, security, no logging, fast speed, and much more. Yet, if you try at least one, you’ll see how shallow these promises are. Sadly, the best VPN for iPhone can’t be free.

Free options are free for a reason – or many of them, we should say. They’re slower, offer just a few server locations, and many times, are limited in traffic. Proton VPN is an unlimited provider whose free plan doesn’t let you choose the server you want to use.

Windscribe is free and fast but limits you to 10 GB of monthly bandwidth. These are popular providers, mind you, and they’re already crippled. Not to mention other more “malicious” options like Hola VPN, Betternet, Turbo VPN, and Urban VPN.

All of them have one thing in common – heavy logging. Hola VPN, for example, sells its collected IPs to Bright Data, a famous premium proxy provider. This isn’t an isolated case – you’ll find hundreds of 100% free VPNs for iPhones with this problem.

We found that these providers don’t support P2P, they don’t work for streaming and don’t allow for simultaneous connections. Everything is explained in our article about the best free VPNs on iPhone. All in all, we don’t think they’re worth your time.

You have NordVPN, PIA, Surfshark, and CyberGhost at around $2-$3 a month. At this price, you’d be naive to use a free service instead of paying and getting a ten times better experience.

The Final Verdict

After a long but hopefully interesting compilation of the best VPNs working on iPhone, it’s time to say ‘goodbye.’

We cherry-picked the safest, most reputable services that will serve you well for years. In our experience, NordVPN takes the crown as the #1 pick on this list.

It has no notable shortcomings and is an all-arounder with a pretty good price. ExpressVPN is more expensive but safe, secure, and one of the fastest options. We love PIA for its feature-packed iOS app, unlimited concurrent connections, and cheap prices.

The same rings true for Surfshark which we had no problem using with Netflix and torrenting. The last spot is occupied by CyberGhost, with exquisite 10 Gbps servers, audited no-logging policy, and Dedicated IP addresses for added versatility.

It’s your turn to pick a VPN, get a discount on it, and secure your iPhone today.

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FAQs

Still have burning questions? Let’s address the most popular ones to clarify things further.

Will a VPN slow down my iPhone’s internet connection?

It depends on a few things. A Virtual Private Network usually isn’t resource-heavy and you won’t notice it works in the background. However, using advanced security features like double VPN or obfuscation will consume slightly more power and bandwidth.

The best VPN for iPhones, like NordVPN, won’t impact your connection negatively in most cases. But you should know that a slight speed reduction is expected on more distant servers and with the technologies mentioned above.

These technologies use “heavier” encryption, which naturally drops the speed a bit in favor of security. But as said, if you stick to our top 5 picks, the speed decrease will be minor.

Can I use a VPN on older iPhones?

Older iPhones work with VPNs without issues as long as they meet the system requirements. For example, NordVPN requires at least iOS 14.2 or later. iOS 14 was released in 2020 and runs on all older-gen iPhones starting from the iPhone 6S.

With this in mind, it’s highly unlikely you’ll face any issues with the VPN setup since you’ve likely updated your phone multiple times.

What’s the cheapest VPN for iPhone?

All of the presented options are very affordable but some more than others. We’d love to mention NordVPN again with its low price of around $3 a month as the best-value deal. If you want an even lower price, consider PIA, Surfshark, or CyberGhost.

Their monthly price is around $2.2 for the 2-year plan with 2, 3, and 2 free months on top respectively. These are the cheapest providers for the best savings, while ExpressVPN at $6.67 a month for the 12-month plan is the least affordable provider.