Does a VPN slow down your internet connection?

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Does a VPN slow down your net connexion?

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At that place's nothing quite as abrasive as having a slow internet connection, and if your Wi-Fi's moving at a snail's pace it's well-nigh-impossible to work, sentinel videos, or even message your friends and family.

Information technology should come equally no surprise, and then, that a major concern for many when picking the best VPN service is that it could deadening down your internet connexion. But is that true, and if it is, by just how much can you expect to be held up?

Hither, nosotros'll explain how VPNs have the potential to wearisome downward your connection, and we'll depict on our offset-hand testing data to see whether any modern providers will actually take an affect on your internet speed.

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Tin can VPNs slow downwards your net connectedness?

In curt, yes, they can – just it's rare these days.

We'll commencement with the basics. A VPN works by routing your traffic through its own servers – essentially becoming a middleman between you and the website you lot want to visit. That adds extra physical distance that your internet traffic has to travel. This step is usually the step that can cause a higher 'ping'.

Ping is the delay between you taking an activeness and that action happening, and while a very high ping volition be annoying in any situation, a very low ping is merely essential if yous're doing something like gaming, which requires your reactions to exist as fast as possible. 100 milliseconds is perfectly adequate twenty-four hour period-to-day, and by selecting a server geographically near to your current location, you lot can avoid any substantial ping increase.

A VPN likewise encrypts your data, making information technology unreadable to anyone who may manage to intercept it – be that a hacker or only your ISP. This is the step that may contribute to lower upload and download speeds, since it takes to time encrypt and decrypt data. Low download speeds especially are what contribute to having a 'dull connection' – pages will load slowly, videos will buffer endlessly, and you'll basically just be having a crummy time.

Finally, VPN servers have a finite throughput. That means that if a lot of people are using an individual server, speeds can be slower if the server's not upwards to job. Many providers are upgrading to 10Gbps or even 20Gbps servers now, meaning that overcrowded servers are largely a thing of the past when it comes to the biggest and all-time providers.

And so, a poorly optimized VPN tin can definitely have an result on your internet speeds, just in contempo years advances in encryption tech have meant that the impact has get negligible – we'll get onto the numbers to dorsum this upwards very before long.

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How have VPNs got faster?

There are a number of reasons why quality VPNs don't often slow down internet connections any more. Firstly, the apps that your chosen VPN service provides are generally pocket-sized, efficient packages that put a minimum of load on your device.

More importantly, though, VPN protocols have advanced. VPN protocols are how a VPN encrypts your information and sends it to its destination – at that place's more than to information technology than that, so bank check out our what is a VPN? guide to acquire more.

Up until a few years ago, the dominant VPN protocol was OpenVPN. OpenVPN replaced a number of older, less secure protocols, and is all the same widely regarded as safe, secure, and reliable. However, as a piece of code it's quite large and carries many updates and modifications, and connection speed was never a priority in its original design. Dissimilar VPNs often delivered wildly different speeds when using the same protocol, and years ago it was definitely truthful that a VPN slowed down your connection.

However, new protocols similar WireGuard and proprietary tech similar ExpressVPN's Lightway are becoming the go-to protocols, and have been designed from the ground-upwardly to deliver dandy speeds as well as excellent privacy. At present, even VPN providers not known for great speeds in the past tin match up with the big guns if they've implemented WireGuard efficiently.

Which VPNs are the fastest?

Yous don't have to take our give-and-take for it, either. In our review process we tape the connection speeds of every VPN we test, and there are some incredibly fast VPN services on the market today. Our tests are undertaken on a superfast 1Gbps connection, and if the speeds nosotros recorded are faster than your domicile connexion, you can safely assume that you won't be held up by that VPN.

Big name NordVPN uses a modified version of WireGuard it calls NordLynx, and in our testing it was the fastest provider. It reliably delivered speeds of upwards to 880Mbps when using NordLynx, compared to around 190Mbps when using OpenVPN.

When testing ExpressVPN's Lightway protocol, we besides saw excellent results, with speeds of upward to 580Mbps. However, OpenVPN speeds were much better than Nord'due south, reliably reaching over 300Mbps.

ProtonVPN didn't used to be much of a sprinter, only when using WireGuard it regularly topped out at around 740Mbps. OpenVPN speeds were too impressive, with maximums of over 500Mbps. If you'd notwithstanding adopt to use OpenVPN, ProtonVPN would be our selection for top speed.

Even smaller VPNs can deliver splendid speeds when using WireGuard, though. Atlas VPN, best known for its gratuitous VPN, soared well-nigh the top of our chart with speeds of upwardly to 800Mbps, and ZenMate maxed out at a respectable 500Mbps.

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Volition a free VPN boring down your connection?

Unlike uncapped paid-for VPN, free services impose limitations on users – more often than not in the hope that they'll upgrade to a paid plan to avoid them.

Aslope information limits, one of the virtually common restrictions is a speed limit. For case, Hotspot Shield'south gratis version limits users to a very tedious 2Mbps, which won't cope with much more than than simple browsing of text-based websites. You won't be watching many 4K YouTube vids with that.

While it's probably the best free option out there, ProtonVPN'due south free program as well caps speeds, and while it'southward not quite a savage as Hotspot Shield, y'all certainly won't be seeing speeds reach triple figures.

So, yes, costless services are very likely to slow down your connexion – simply that's because the provider's chosen to cap speeds, rather than a limitation of the tech.

Does a VPN boring downwards your internet connection?

In the by, the reply to that would've been yes, only in today'south market, VPNs simply can't afford to slow down connections. WireGuard has been instrumental in this, and even if you're using a superfast connection of 1Gbps or more, if yous selection the right provider y'all won't accept any issues.

Which VPN exercise we recommend?

• Explore our guides to the best Android VPN and iPhone VPN
• If you're a Windows user, check out the best Windows 10 VPN...
• ...or if you're an Apple tree-caput, read about the best Mac VPN

Mo is VPN Editor at Tom'southward Guide. Twenty-four hours-to-mean solar day he oversees VPN, privacy, and cybersecurity content, and too undertakes independent testing of VPN services to ensure his recommendations are accurate and up to appointment. When he's non getting stuck into the nitty-gritty settings of a VPN you've never heard of, you'll find him working on his Peugeot 205 GTi or watching Peep Show instead of finally putting up those shelves.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/features/does-a-vpn-slow-down-your-internet-connection

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