How we picked\
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To narrow down the list of VPN providers, we looked at VPNs listed in reviews from sources such as CNET, PCMag, and The Verge, as well as recommendations from the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation and the security firm Bishop Fox. We also looked at VPNs that had answered questions on the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Signals of Trustworthy VPNs survey. We combined these results with research and recommendations from noncommercial sources such as That One Privacy Site, customer experiences and tips on the r/VPN subreddit, and reviews in the App Store and Google Play store. We piled this research on top of our work from previous years, which looked at sites such as vpnMentor and TorrentFreak and technology-focused websites like Lifehacker and Ars Technica, as well as those services that were simply on our staff’s personal radars.\
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In 2019, we settled on 52 VPNs that were repeatedly recommended or at least so highly visible that you’re likely to encounter them when shopping for a VPN provider. In 2020, we added four more. From there, we dug into the details on how each one handled issues from technology to subscriptions, as well as the steps they’ve taken to improve their transparency and security posture.
