There certainly are a lot of VPN review sites out there. Of course I’m biased, but I think I’ve got the best VPN review site out there.  There are a couple of reasons why my VPN reviews are the best.

• + I’ve used the VPNs I review
• + I give full disclosure about making commissions on the VPNs I review
• + I review VPN services in a concise, easy to understand way
• + I don’t outsource my reviews

To tell you the truth, a lot of other websites just outsource their content, stick it up on the web, and then pay other people to link to it.  Though you’re more likely to find their web pages in Google, you’re more likely to stick with a service you find on my site.  Anyway, enough about how great I am.

I’ve included some reviews of my favorite VPN services, and highlighted some of their features to help you find the right service.  VPNs have a wide variety of uses – some may be more appropriate for anonymous browsing, others for privacy features, and still others for streaming foreign TV and movies online.

Top VPN For Anonymity

IP Vanish is a relatively new company, but one thing that is unique about them, and stands out among VPN services is that they own their own VPN server network. I know that sounds strange, but surprisingly, a lot of VPN services use ‘Hosted” networks which means that they don’t have full control.  Sure, privacy policies and all that stuff say they protect your data, and they don’t keep activity logs, but at the end of the day, without full control of the network, you can’t do much about it.

IP Vanish also has a very simple system of $10 per month for full access.  Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited server switching, and access to PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN servers in one package.  There are 39 servers in 15 countries which is impressive considering that they own and maintain all servers in their network.

>>> Go To IP Vanish

Top VPN For Server Location

This one has to be IAPS Security or Hide My Ass.  IAPS has something like 120+ country locations including Antarctica, Iraq, Kazakhstan (Borat anyone?).  Plus, there’s a huge variety of VPN protocols, and they’re not badly priced.  You can choose 1, 3, 6, or 12 month options.  IAPS VPN also has an impressive privacy policy and offers other privacy-related features on their site.

Hide My Ass also has an impressive server network, spanning almost 50 countries and growing.  HMA’s website is easier to navigate, and includes PPTP, L2TP, and OpenVPN in one package.  They also come with a 1 month money back guarantee which is impressive.  There’s a support forum, and lots of freebies on the site, plus they frequently offer discounts for renewing members, so there’s plenty to be happy about if you sign up for HMA.

The main difference to note is that with IAPS you must choose 1 country, while with HMA you get access to ALL countries with one subscription.

>>> Go To IAPS

>>> Go To HMA

Top VPN For Device Support

12VPN has a lot of nerdy features which will appeal to those who have specific requirements about how they want to run their VPN.  One of these features is an extremely broad device support, including various smartphones, VPN routers, and even connection in VPN censored areas of the world.    You can complete and order in 2 clicks, and use the promo code “promo7286″ for a 10% discount.  iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, Nokia, DD-WRT, Tomato, and more devices supported.

>>> Go To 12VPN

Top VPN For Price

StrongVPN offers an impressive VPN package for just $55 per year.  You get access to US and UK servers, or a choice of European servers.  The package is for PPTP VPN or OpenVPN for $85.  PPTP uses a dynamic IP and OpenVPN uses a static IP.  StrongVPN is a trusted VPN service that has been operating in the industry for many years.  They also offer live support.

>>> Go To StrongVPN

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France, The UK The US, New Zealand, and Australia are really on the internet monitoring bandwagon recently.  If it’s not piracy, it’s hackers, and they’re looking for ways to keep tabs on what you’re doing online.  Sometimes they say its for our own good. Sometimes they say it’s for the good of society.  Every time it’s super annoying.  An offshore VPN is going to be the best way to combat big brother, not matter where you are.

Now the term ‘offshore’ is going to depend on where your shore actually is, but chances are that you mean something in Central/South America or Asia.  I’ll try not to sound too shady when I say this, but their laws are different there, and there are a lot of advantages and work arounds involved with having an IP or rerouting your internet traffic through these locations.

***DISCLAIMER***

Before you get to excited, it should be noted that VPN services are NOT FOR ILLEGAL ACTIVITY.  While things like online gambling websites, P2P, and some types of site content are permissible by international standards, if you are breaking international law, YOU WILL GET CAUGHT.  I don’t even want to mention some of the stuff that people do online for fear that my site will turn up in the search engines for those keywords, but you have an imagination.

REMEMBE: Using an offshore VPN hides your online activity from your ISP and own government.  It however, does not hide the virtual IP address from the VPN.  IF you use the IP address from the offshore VPN to do something that breaks international law, the IP address can be traced back to the VPN service.  With a court order, or sometimes even just a complaint from a foreign government, you could get your account disabled or worse.

For example, if you are in The USA and want to connect to a P2P site, you should not use a French IP address.  France’s government will see that a french IP is downloading torrents, contact the VPN service, and there could be consequences.  This is possible even if the VPN service is not located in France, or The USA.

***Notes About Anonymity***

Sorry for all the warnings.  No matter what VPN service you choose, they will keep logs of some sort. Most will not log your activity.  They do not know what you’re doing online.  They do however keep time logs, which means you activity can be traced back to you.  Continuing from the example above, if France logs a complaint that an IP address is downloading copyrighted content and traces it back to the VPN service, they can see what time the content was downloaded.  If you are on record of having used that IP at that time period, that labels you as the culprit.  All VPN services do this to maintain server and service integrity, and if they don’t, it’s probably a rubbish VPN service or they’re lying to you.

>>> Best Offshore VPN Services <<<

***it should be noted that with whatever VPN service you choose, regardless of the location of their ‘home base’, you can choose your IP address location. The following services are located in Hong Kong, but have many IP options including Malaysia, Russia, Switzerland, and more.

#1

The obvious #1 choice is 12VPN.  They have broader device support than other services, offer OpenVPN (more secure VPN protocol), SSL encryption upgrades (military grade), and are dedicated to great customer service.  Installation and setup is fast and easy, and it comes with a money back guarantee.  For an offshore VPN service, that’s all you can really hope to find: Privacy, Anonymity, Professionalism, Guarantees.  Servers are fast, and they offer two package options (US IP, and World VPN)

>>> Go To 12VPN

#2

PureVPN another Hong Kong based VPN service. They’re home base is located in Hong Kong.  They allow P2P on Russian, Netherlands, and a few other servers.  They’ve got live support, and unlimited server access to 14 different countries.  The standard service gives you 30 GB of bandwidth per month for the mega low price of $74.95 (I know that sounds like an advertisement, but it really is low).  There’s an unlimited bandwidth upgrade, and a dedicated IP server upgrade.  Definitely a high quality, fast offshore VPN service.  They don’t offer OpenVPN, but do have SSTP for Win 7/Vista.  VPN servers in Panama, Switzerland, Malaysia, Russia, and 10 other countries.

>>> Go To PureVPN

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This is a surprising turn around – how did The White House and Obama get so against CISPA?  Sounds like a campaign strategy rather than actually caring for the American people, but hey, I’m a pessimist.  Read the full article on Nextgov.

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I read a very interesting article today about Tim Berners-Lee, the ‘inventor’ of the internet.  Really? I didn’t even know he was still alive. Actually, I never really thought about it – the internet has only been around for 30 or 40 years, so yeah, it makes sense that he’s still around. I guess with something so groundbreaking you tend to think of the inventor being long gone – like Thomas Edison or the inventor of the wheel.  Either way, the article talks about individuals needing to demand their personal data from web entities.  We spend so much of our lives on the internet, and companies are clamoring to collect our data, most likely to sell us more stuff.  None of us however asks for this data, or thinks to use it for our own advantage.  I won’t steal the writers work, because he does a much better job of describing the situation.  Go to The Guardian to check it out.

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VPNs have many uses, and even more types of people that use them.  This guide is for users looking to access blocked sites, download torrents, stream content from other countries, and otherwise make use a VPN SERVICE.  If you’re looking for a tutorial for how to set up a Windows 7 PPTP VPN for connection to your home office or to access YOUR OWN computer network remotely – you’re in the wrong place.

Don’t worry though – I won’t completely ditch you. You can find more information on that stuff at Groovy Post and SOFTLAYER for instructions on how to set up a Windows 7 PPTP VPN for your home office or work network.

If you just want to connect to a VPN because your workplace blocked Facebook, you’re living abroad is China, Egypt, or other places that censor the internet, you wan to access movies, music, and TV from around the world, or are just looking for a private connection on public networks, then you’re in the right place.

Now, lets first discuss why you would want to use PPTP on Windows 7.  I mean, by all means, you CAN, but do you really want to?  The answer is maybe.

Why?

Well, the thing is PPTP is still using the age-old PPP encryption.  This is pretty old school, and if you’re looking for privacy or security, then this isn’t the best choice.  Not everyone is looking for anonymity on the internet though so who might benefit from a Windows 7 PPTP VPN connection?

Someone looking to…

* stream movies, music, and TV from other countries
* download anonymously
* unblock banned sites

So you can see that anonymity and security doesn’t play into these.  It’s basically that you need to change your IP address. After all, Netflix and iPlayer aren’t going to track down you IP, hack you, and steal your credit card information, right?  And your employer isn’t going to spend hours trying find out why he can’t seem to find your computer on the network.  PPTP is cheaper and faster, and widely available.

Best VPN Services with PPTP for Windows 7

Hide My Ass

• + 40 country locations
• + 30 day money back guarantee
• + Torrents allowed

>>> Test Drive Hide My Ass <<<

12VPN

• + Great customer service
• + Military grade encryption upgrades (OpenVPN, also can be used on Win 7)
• + VPN Router options

>>> Test Drive 12VPN <<<

StrongVPN

• + Cheapest ($55 for 1 year of US/UK IP address)
• + Live support
• + SSTP also available (*see below)
• + Torrents allowed

>>> Test Drive StrongVPN <<<

Ok, but lets say that you are looking for anonymity and privacy online. In that case, you should be looking for a SSTP VPN.  Though not many services carry this VPN protocol right now, more will in the future.  Microsoft recently developed this VPN protocol to make use of SSL encryption, which is the “+ s” in the “http” when you sign into your accounts.  Have you ever bought anything online and seen the URL prefix change and a little lock show up? Yeah, same stuff. So if it can protect your credit card, it can protect your identity online.

Though OpenVPN is open source software, and many VPN services offer it, for Windows 7, SSTP might be your best option.  Not to say OpenVPN is bad, but SSTP was developed specifically for Microsoft products (BTW, this works with Vista, but not XP).

So better encryption (SSL) than PPTP (PPP) means more security and more anonymity.  Your Win 7 operating system will of course come ready to use SSTP, so installation is a piece of cake.

Best VPN Services with SSTP VPN for Win 7

StrongVPN

• + Cheap ($55 per year, as mentioned above)
• + Fast
• + Live support
• + 7 day money back guarantee
• + Torrents allowed

>>> Test Drive StrongVPN <<<

PureVPN

• + Free & unlimited server switching
• + 14 country locations in all packages
• + Live support
• + 3 day account available (for those looking for super-short-term subscriptions)
• + Torrents allowed

>>> Test Drive PureVPN <<<

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The problem with most personal VPN service reviews and VPN review sites is that they pretty much repeat what you can find on the site itself.  The truth of the matter is that a lot of these sites are ‘cookie cutter’ websites – just a formula repeated to make commissions off of potential customers and tossed into the wilds of the internet to be found on Google. That’s not always the case, but more than just a few of them are.

Now you might be wondering – how could he know that? Well, I too make commissions off of this website.  Of course!  Who on earth would blog about privacy software on the internet? The topic is not all that interesting – at least not interesting enough to devote free time to it as a hobby.

But I, unlike many other bloggers, actually use the services that I write about.  I try not to indulge in promotional material too much, and tell it how it is.  I mean, sure, I may profit more in the short run, making sales off of users that don’t know any better, but most VPN services have a money back guarantee policy, so the performance (or lack thereof) of the personal VPN service will show in the end.

If you have used VPN services before, then you can use this as just another bit of info to help you make a better decision now that you’ve decided to switch VPN services. Perhaps you too were duped by one of these “cookie cutter” automated sites.  If you’ve never used  VPN service before, you don’t have to venture further than these few VPN services.  They’re some of the most popular, reliable, and well price private networks out there, and I’ve had particularly good experiences with them all.  It’s not an exhaustive list, but hey, do you really want to compare 50 services side by side?

So lets get started.

1. Best Personal VPN Service Based on Price

Price, is unfortunately, not so easily compared.  You’ve got to compare features, subscription length, and quality of service in conjunction with price to get a true feeling of whether or not the VPN service offers value to the customer.  Here’s my take on some of the most well priced VPN services.

The cheapest by far is SwitchVPN.  They recently added a scaling pricing feature which means you get a discount for signing up for a longer period of time.  This is standard with other services, but new to SwitchVPN.  For a single month for a single VPN server, you pay $5.95 which is already pretty cheap.  Sign up for a year, and you pay just $3.95 per month. This is a real steal, especially considering that SwitchVPN is one of the better VPN services out there.  There are of course other price plans available at SwitchVPN, but these are your cheapest options.

12VPN also offers a very competitive price plan, ant $79 dollars for a US IP package.  You get unlimited bandwidth and server switching, but a wider range of support than other services. The only restriction is that you only get access to their US servers, but there are about 10 different cities to choose from.

Hide My Ass is right up there, offering a year of service for $78 USD.  They cover all of the standard operating systems (iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, Android), and give you over 40 different country IP locations (yes, 40+), 25,000+ IP addresses, and hundreds of servers. By the time you read this, their network will surely have expanded as they’re constantly growing.

StrongVPN also offers very cheap packages for $55 USD per year, which will limit you to PPTP VPN and a choice between US and UK VPN servers, but hey, do you really need an Estonian IP address? Probably not.  Hulu, Netflix, iPlayer, Pandora, and Spotify are yours anywhere in the world for a few dollars a month.

I guess there are no shortages of high quality, cheap VPN services because PureVPN also has a limited bandwidth account (30 GB per month) for just $75 USD. Not bad for 11 servers which are all torrent compatible.

2. Best Personal VPN Service Based on Service

This is kind of a broad category, because I don’t want this review to get too long and bore you out of your skull.  I’ve grouped the idea of features, customer service, and server speed into one category in an effort to save you and me some time.

I’d say the fastest VPN servers I’ve used are with StrongVPN.  Setup was kind of a pain (but I was a newbie back then), but I really have had a hard time finding a service that compares to the quality and speed of connection I had with StrongVPN.  Of course, there are a lot of factors to consider when determining connection speed – some review site have tried this but most speed tests are deemed false or outdated by commenters.  For what its worth, I think StrongVPN is fast.

For the best customer service, it’s no doubt that I’d choose 12VPN.  Though they don’t have live support, they are very fast with email ticket support. Their support team is not just friendly and fast, but also very helpful,and thorough.  If I ever run into any problems, it’s usually solved within 2 or 3 emails max, all within the same day.  With some ticket response services I have to wait 1 or 2 days between responses, which is very annoying.

The VPN service with the best features would have to be HMA (Hide My Ass).  They’ve got a cool thing where you can organize and choose your VPN server based on speed, which means you don’t have to waste a bunch of time trying out VPN servers.  They allow torrents.  They (as mentioned above) are a constantly growing network of (as of April 2012) 40 country locations and hundreds of VPN servers.  They offer a FREE web based proxy (available to non-members also), a free open proxy list, free anonymous email, free uploading tool, and free anonymous referral tool. Yeah, that’s a whole lotta free.  Plus they offer the longest money back guarantee of any service, – 30 days.

Personal VPN Services Featured in This Article

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