If you need a virtual private network (VPN) and you search for “best iPhone VPN apps” or similar words, you’ll see a lot of results for VPN reviews. But the truth is, many of those websites only list those “best VPN apps” that they can link to for higher affiliate sales.
Instead, here we’ll cut through that BS and highlight some VPN ranking factors that aren’t so technical or tied to affiliate sales. Those factors are:
— App Store Ratings
— Productivity Rank
— Servers
— Jurisdiction
— Cost
Now let’s discuss and compare the results of these factors with the best iPhone VPN apps in the industry.
App Store ratings
It’s a great idea to read user reviews. For real iPhone app ratings, you can’t deny the reviews given by users in the Apple App Store.
Let’s compare the VPN app industry leaders so you can see which service provider is better according to users:
As you can see, many of the best iPhone VPN apps have an average user rating of 4.6 in the App Store. It’s hard to find many apps that get better user ratings.
Let’s move on to the next factor.
Productivity rank
Productivity rank is assigned by the App Store based on how the app is performing in the store.
This rank fluctuates on a weekly basis, and sometimes daily. You can also find productivity rank discussed in this article on VPN for iPhone apps.
As of June 2019, this table shows productivity rankings for these top VPN apps and services.
As you can see, CyberGhost performed extraordinarily here, while NordVPN also did quite well out of hundreds of VPN apps.
Cost
When trying to differentiate the cost of VPNs, we should compare each VPN with its best pricing plan. Here in the chart, we do that for many top VPN apps.
As you can see in the results here, there are three services that stand out: Surfshark, NordVPN and CyberGhost. All of these VPN providers offer 3-year plans, but only NordVPN and CyberGhost are consistent in other factors.
Servers
The number of servers and presence in countries determine the reach of a VPN provider around the world.
Here is a look at the number of servers offered by VPN service providers:
As you see in the chart, NordVPN has the highest number of servers i.e. 5,241 followed by CyberGhost and PIA. NordVPN is also available in more than 62 countries.
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is as important for a VPN as food is for humans. Why? Because the headquarters of a VPN determines the laws it is obligated to follow.
For example, a VPN company located in the US (a member of “5 eyes” country) knows that it would need to present users’ data if asked upon by authorities.
Here’s a look at the home countries of the popular VPN providers:
From the table above, you can see that NordVPN, Surfshark, CyberGhost and ExpressVPN are those that fall under safe countries.
Summing up: Best iPhone VPN apps
As far as the above research goes, it’s clear that NordVPN and CyberGhost are among the best iPhone VPN apps to consider to protect your online privacy.
We’re not saying that the above VPN ranking factors are the only ones that matter, but they are by far the most important factors. A VPN provider’s encryption and logging policies are also other factors that you should consider.
You can also check out the best VPN apps for Android with the same level of detail as we did here.
And in this feature, you can learn more about how and where VPNs are most often used.
