10 Important Things You Must Look for When Buying a VPN

So you want to buy a VPN, but you’re not sure which VPN offers the best features? An ideal reliable VPN needs to have a balance of different features, it’s advantages need to be much greater than it’s weaknesses.

Because we know that a lot of people aren’t sure of what exactly to look for when picking up a VPN provider, we have rounded up a well-detailed list of the most important things that you need to be aware of before buying a VPN subscription.

1. It needs to be fast

Let’s start with perhaps one of the most crucial things that separate good VPNs from mediocre ones, speed.

No one fancies a slow connection – obviously, there are various different external variables that contribute to a steady and lightning-fast access. As far as the VPN itself goes, you need to be searching for one that offers several options. Several configurations for different purposes guarantee that you will almost always have handy speed on your side, whether you’ll be using the VPN for streaming or any other online activities.

2. It needs to be secure

This is possibly an even more important aspect of every VPN service provider.

Your VPN provider needs to be able to provide you with as much security and privacy service as possible, so that you can browse the internet without worrying about your personal data being leaked to 3rd parties. This is easier to found out, you just need to check with your VPN service provider to learn about the different available features and technologies they have built in to guarantee the security of your connection.

3. It needs to have maximum accessibility 

Imagine traveling to another country only to find yourself unable to access the websites and services that you need? A reliable VPN needs to be able to overcome almost all geo-restrictions.

If you’re an avid traveler, then you will need to find out if your VPN provider allows access to restricted services in countries you visit or live in. After all, many users purchase VPNs for this very reason.

4. It needs to offer reliable encryption

Would you want your data and secret information to be private or easily seen by everyone? Of course not the latter, right? No one in his right mind would want his privacy violated.

Encryption guarantees that the communications you make within your VPN network not reach the hands of any 3rd party service. Your privacy is valuable, a great VPN service provider will ensure that your personal data stays safe around the clock.

5. It needs to be easy to use

A lot of people perceive Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to be an advanced technology that needs a deeper understanding of how everything works, but that is far from the truth (at least for the majority of VPNs out there).

But just in case, you need to check with your VPN provider to make sure they have easy-to-follow instructions and even video tutorials walking you through how to do the entire thing.

6. It needs to be adaptable

One of the most important factors of every VPN provider is the amount of adaptability and flexibility it has to offer.

A good VPN provider will allow you to easily use your VPN connection on all of your desktop, mobile, and tablet devices. Also known as multi-device availability. Not only that, but you should also be able to use your VPN on different web browsers and operating systems.

7. It needs to have a dedicated IP

You’re probably wondering why you need a dedicated IP for a VPN service, and the thing is – having a dedicated IP address greatly helps with increasing your level of security while using virtual private networks. You will want to have the option of having your own static IP address.

8. It needs to allow P2P sharing

In general, peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing is frowned upon by a lot of VPN providers, they usually set limitations for this to save on bandwidth.

A useful VPN won’t put any limits on your usage of P2P sharing, some will put no obstacles whatsoever on your peer-to-peer usage.

9. It needs to offer fast and reliable customer support

This doesn’t only apply to VPN services, every decent subscription service usually comes with a dedicated support team that offers fast-response technical support on a 24/7 everyday basis.

A Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ) dedicated page also helps a lot, because the matter of the fact is you never know when you’re going to get stuck with a problem that you can’t solve.

10. It should have a competitive pricing

And finally, a reliable VPN service provider that has most of the above features shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. It generally shouldn’t cost more than the price of a Starbucks coffee each month.

Of course, there are free VPNs out there, but the problem is they lack most of the features mentioned above. A paid VPN usually offers much better levels of security, privacy, and censorship-resistance, free VPNs don’t offer as much.

It takes a lot of money to run network servers and all the technical know-how to manage VPN networks, you only get so far with a free option.

We recommend ExpressVPN not because we own the service we’re biased in our opinion, but because we trust that we can offer you all the above features above that we mentioned. And you get all of that for a very low, and affordable price.

Click here to check our pricing and the different features we offer.