Some of our dear readers may wonder why they should care what Reddit has to say about VPNs and why VPNpro.com should make a “best VPN by Reddit” list instead of updating our own. Well, here’s an answer to that.
Reddit describes itself as the “front page of the internet.” And it almost is. With over 230 million unique users each month, this content aggregation, rating, and discussion site is the #3 most visited website in the US.
Reddit is a place where only the good reach the top and only the best stay there long enough to gain worldwide attention. And as more than half of its userbase is from the US, it certainly reflects the needs of its residents well.
What is more, such a large community is difficult to manipulate, so while any single review can be biased, it will soon be downvoted by the Reddit community. We already know that there’s no point in taking the “user reviews” on the service provider’s website for granted. Reading what users comment about each VPN below news articles is also becoming a waste of time. In this light, Reddit remains the place where opinions still matter.
Having this in mind, we were keen to check which VPNs are recommended by the Reddit community and see if our opinions match. Below you will find the results of our research – the best VPN by Reddit list. It’s worth noting beforehand that our website doesn’t recommend using free VPN services and therefore didn’t include them in this list.
Best VPN service according to Reddit
1. ExpressVPN ‣
We wish Reddit had surprised us but it didn’t. Most of the time ExpressVPN was named as the top choice, and it’s easy to see why. Redditors praise its speed and long server list (over 2,000 in more than 90 countries). Torrenting capability is also one of the critical areas where this VPN manages to deliver. And while Reddit users often ask about Netflix issues that ExpressVPN faces, most of the time these are temporary. In any case, finding a much better VPN for streaming would be a tough task, especially one with apps for multiple devices like Apple TV, Fire TV, and PlayStation among others.
2. NordVPN ‣
The second best VPN by Reddit hasn’t surprised us either – it’s NordVPN. Arguably the most secure of all major VPNs, it also packs enough power to provide great speeds for browsing, torrenting, and streaming with the help of its 5,100+ servers. Speaking of help, NordVPN’s 24/7 live support is also top-notch, which is almost a pity as you probably won’t need to contact it at all. All these features come decently priced and we haven’t even mentioned that NordVPN is one of the best for unblocking Netflix (not just the US library).
3. Private Internet Access ‣
Private Internet Access (PIA in short) is one of the most popular VPN clients. One of the main reasons is its price, which is half of what ExpressVPN costs. With this in mind, many Redditors are ready to forgive PIA’s sub-par support (that still lacks a live chat function after all these years) or their website, which is not the sleekest, to put it mildly. Private internet access is also not recommended for users in China, but this doesn’t come up as a major issue on Reddit as this VPN works quite well in North America, where most Reddit users are based. But what shuts the door to the top floor for PIA is its lack of Netflix unblocking outside the US. If you don’t care about the latter, you could try PIA before investing in pricier VPN options.
4. CyberGhost ‣
Contrary to Private Internet Access, CyberGhost is rarely mentioned as the Top 3 VPN in Reddit discussions. Nevertheless, we’re not surprised to see it here. If PIA wasn’t so ridiculously cheap, CyberGhost might have taken its place already as its ability to unblock the US Netflix library along with BBC iPlayer, and Hulu is much stronger. Given the fact that it also has 24/7 live chat and allows torrenting, while also offering good security, the only thing that’s left is the speed. Unfortunately, compared to the top two players, it’s lackluster. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if CyberGhost’s pricing weren’t in line with that of ExpressVPN or NordVPN, which is duly noted by the Redditors. Luckily, there’s a 7-day free trial for you to see whether CyberGhost will spook you out.
5. IPVanish ‣
We were a bit surprised to find IPVanish this high, considering the number of tough competitors that have recently entered the market and the IPVanish logging scandal, which is the subject of 2 out of the 4 most popular IPVanish threads on Reddit. If that alone wasn’t enough, IPVanish is often cited as a VPN that’s unable to unblock Netflix. Of course, it wouldn’t be here if there were no positives. For starters, it’s one of the best VPNs for torrenting. It has apps for all popular Operating Systems and devices, and if it doesn’t, it most likely supports them anyway. What is more, it allows ten simultaneous connections, which is quite a bit higher than most other services.
6. TorGuard ‣
On Reddit, TorGuard has more popular and positive threads than IPVanish, yet for some reason, the latter manages to stay on top, although only by a hair. TorGuard VPN is worth being on every Top 10 (if not Top 5). Why? It offers excellent security, good speeds, and decent pricing. Paying for it can be done anonymously using cryptocurrencies, gift cards, and other options. Most users will love torrenting and P2P file-sharing with TorGuard because it was initially created as a secure and private channel for BitTorrent users. Unfortunately, the VPN has some glaring issues with unblocking Netflix, which are well-documented by Redditors trying to help each other access the US library of Netflix. And while TorGuard itself offers dedicated IPs as a solution to the Netflix problem, these cost an extra $7.99/month – the price of a second VPN.
7. VyprVPN ‣
Redditors discussing VyprVPN were mostly concerned with unblocking US Netflix. It’s not that this VPN has more issues with that than any of the others mentioned above. Streaming Netflix is still possible if you’re OK with the US library – it’s only the other countries that VyprVPN struggles with. Torrenting using this service is allowed, though copyright infringement may result in a deleted account. VyprVPN has a pretty good 24/7 live chat that is likely to leave you satisfied. We’re not so sure about the prices though, as they are more in line with the top VPNs of this list. Where VyprVPN is good is bypassing the censorship of China and other countries with restricted internet access. Many redditors mention this VPN among the recommended ones. But, to be fair, it is rarely referred to as The One.
Bottom line
We can say that Redditors have their own opinion when it comes to choosing the right VPN provider. It’s not always in line with what you read on all the review sites (including ours) and tech blogs, but that’s for the better in our mind as it gives everyone another opinion and allows you to reflect your own position.
The Best two VPNs by Reddit turned out to be the same as our top picks. While we were surprised by Private Internet Access occupying the third place, we do understand the bang-for-the-buck ratio that PIA puts on the table. Seeing CyberGhost in the fourth place was pretty much as expected. The position of IPVanish on the Top 5 shows that the “no-logs” scandal means less to regular people than to reviewers. TorGuard could go higher, but problems with Netflix keep it down. VyprVPN ends the list with the offer of both streaming and torrenting, but its strict copyright infringement policy leaves many potential users bearish about investing in it.
Speaking of which, we personally believe that a VPN is something you should put some money into because the quality difference between the free and the paid is significant, especially in a country like the US.
How we made this best VPN by Reddit list
Our methodology here was pretty simple. We went to Reddit and searched for VPN reviews and user comments. Then we found the ones that are mentioned most often while also having the most upvotes or the best review scores.
This was somewhat arbitrary as not all users give a numeric score. In those cases we did something similar to what MetaCritic.com does with their reviews, assigning the score according to the overall tone of the review. In the end, all the reviews and comments fell into a four-point scale of “favorable,” “generally favorable,” “generally negative,” and “negative.” We also looked at the lists that users created themselves to see how often a VPN gets the No.1 spot and whether it is mentioned at all among the Top 5.
We must note that the criteria the Reddit community finds the most important somewhat differ from our own. While security is always the top priority for us, Redditors often cite the speed ratio and the ability to unblock Netflix, with “no logs” being the make or break feature of any VPN service.
See how the best VPN by Reddit list compare to our own Top 10 VPN Rankings. Surprised? Let us know your opinion on Twitter.
