- Top five recommended VPNs have all been tested again and reviews rewritten.
- Proton VPN climbs to 3rd place as ExpressVPN slips to 4th place.
- NordVPN remains at #1.
It’s official! The results are from our latest VPN retest, and Proton VPN is the biggest mover and shaker.
While NordVPN remains the #1 best VPN service, Proton VPN has moved into third place at the expense of ExpressVPN, which was once top.
Surfshark remains in the second and best free VPN, PrivadoVPN Free, remains TechRadar’s fifth recommendation for people who want to protect their privacy online.
Our December 2025 VPN retest has seen the addition of a new test category – Availability.
The TechRadar VPN editorial staff and our VPN lab have rated each service for ease of use for those with visual needs and for anyone who wants to use VPN apps without a mouse or trackpad.
We’ve also added ratings for voice control and language support.
Otherwise, it’s our VPN lab speed test that has seen the biggest change. We’ve upgraded to a faster 10 Gbps connection to ensure the VPNs we test aren’t at risk of maxing out the line.
The fastest average download speeds from our top 5 VPNs were Surfshark, which recorded 1615 Mbps between our Dublin-based speed setup and the nearest server on the Surfshark network.
Finally, we’ve also completely reformatted our VPN reviews and rating system.
There are 13 scoring categories weighted to prioritize the features our readers have told us matter most to them, with pricing plan value, features, server network, privacy, security, speed, and streaming service unblocking the biggest considerations.
There are also scores for P2P, apps and compatibility, ease of use, customer support and track record, and accessibility.
Each scoring category has a corresponding section in our reviews, which offer comprehensive results from both the VPN editorial team and the VPN lab team. The idea is to blend the computerized hard facts recorded in the lab with the practical experience of our editorial team’s long-term real-world expertise. Read on and let us know what you think.
In the meantime, it would be remiss of me not to point out that ExpressVPN launched its holiday sale on December 19, 2025. Despite dropping down to 4th place in our rankings, it’s still an excellent VPN and a very strong shout out to VPN newbies and anyone looking for consistently fast performance on Windows.
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