Best Cross-platform VPN Recommendations for Safer Internet Use
Finding an effective virtual private server (VPN) service is no easy task. There are many considerations including price, country servers available, number of switches between countries allowed per month, bandwidth restrictions, throughput speed, VPN protocols available, traffic logging, paid versus free, and much more.
We went looking for what we would consider the best cross-platform VPN services which run on at last two platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android or iOS). Not every VPN provider covers multiple platforms because of the costs involved in developing a separate app for each one; some provide manual login information to get around that limitation where possible.
Here is our round up of some of the best cross-platform VPN providers currently:
1. avast! SecureLine VPN
Avast is well known as an excellent provider of anti-virus software which can protect users from harm while browsing the web, downloading files, and dealing with email. The company has been protecting users with its security software since 1988, has 220 million users of its anti-virus software and does a good job with regular virus definition updates and detection rates. It also has a handy software updater that advises users when their Windows installed software is out of date and provides in-software links to install new versions directly within Avast.
Avast recently began promoting its SecureLine VPN service. It can run inside the main Avast security app or as a standalone app. The interface is fairly basic with limited configuration options which may well suit the core of users with Avast anti-virus protection who wish to easily upgrade to their VPN service. It is a simple matter to turn the VPN on or off when required rather than have to fiddle with the internal workings to accomplish this.
There are currently six US-located services, 5 European servers including Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and a server in Singapore in SE Asia. The European servers also includes at least one in London, UK.
There are separate apps for Windows, iOS and Android.
The software can be tried on a 7 day trial. Licensing is offered on a one or two year basis for single users. Licenses are provided separately for Windows, iOS and Android so it can get expensive for users with multiple devices.
2. Private Internet Access
Private Internet Access based in the United States provides speedy, multi-gigabit VPN Tunnel gateways globally.
The company presently has more than 2,000 VPN servers in 12 countries around the world. This includes the USA, Canada, the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, Romania, Australia, and usually Israel in the Middle East. The Asia region is also supported with Hong Kong and Japanese VPN servers.
OpenVPN, PPTP and IPSEC/L2TP communication protocols are all supported.
Many platforms are catered to including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and others. Sometimes these are full apps, other times a manual configuration of the networking is required to connect to the VPN account.
There is a monthly and a heavily discounted yearly plan.
The payment methods accepted with the company need special mention. Along with the usual credit and debit card, they also accept PayPal, BitCoin, Amazon Payments, and numerous other payment options.
The company claims that no VPN traffic logs are kept.
3. TunnelBear
TunnelBear is user-friendly with its grizzly bear putting on a happy face in all its marketing material and around the web site. The beauty of the TunnelBear service is that there is a small app in Windows (or Mac) which displays your type of account (Little, Giant or Grizzly), allowed data, the VPN server selected, and then a large switch that is either ON or OFF. Once flicked to ON, the app will inform the user once the secure connection has been made. The app does take a while to start up the first time but it informs the user when it does so.
13 countries currently are included in the list of VPN servers including the USA, the UK, several European countries, and Japan in SE Asia.
The company offers apps for Windows Vista to Windows 8.1, Mac 64-bit OS X 10.6.8, Android 4.01+, and iOS 7+ (iPhone and iPad supported). The apps for iOS and Android work much the same as the desktop versions do retaining the simplicity and appearance. The same account is used throughout and each app keeps track of the bandwidth used even if the user is logged in at their desktop and on the mobile at the same time.
The Little plan is free with 500 MB of bandwidth per month. Giant is a monthly plan with unlimited bandwidth suitable for 3 computers including mobile devices. Grizzly is the yearly plan. There is also a Twitter promotional offer where if you tweet about TunnelBear you can secure an extra 1 GB of bandwidth on the Little plan.
4. CyberGhostVPN
CyberGhostVPN is a fast VPN service with wide cross-platform support that has served more than 4 million users so far. They offer a free VPN account which works with either Windows, Mac or Android. There is also a Premium account which runs on faster servers and a Premium Plus account which supports up to 5 devices on the same account.
28 countries are covered in the VPN server collection. These include VPN servers in the USA, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, the Ukraine, Romania, Switzerland, Norway, plus Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia.
The low-down on their “server park” is run live. At the time of writing the company is currently operating 525 servers, using 15.29 gigabytes of bandwidth per second, supporting over 10,000 live users. A full list of the available servers per country is shown in the linked page which is very helpful.
OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec and PPTP protocols are supported for Premium users. Some need to be setup manually which is explained here.
CyberGhostVPN supports many platforms including Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. Linux is also supported via their manual configuration instructions. Chrome OS and RaspberryPi also have some configuration information to get those working with their VPN service too.
The company also offers a free US-based proxy for quick anonymous web browsing on-the-fly.
There is a free plan with speeds that have been reduced by 80 percent, a Premium plan with unlimited bandwidth at full speed supporting a single device, and a Premium Plus plan which supports up to 5 devices connected concurrently. Billing can be either monthly or yearly on both of the premium plans.
Payment methods include credit and debit cards, and the cyber currency BitCoin.
CyberGhostVPN state on their home page that they do not keep traffic logs.
5. TorGuard
TorGuard is a provider which has anonymous VPN services, plus anonymous proxies, VPN routers, private offshore email, and separate DNS services too. They take VPN security seriously and responded pretty thoroughly to TorrentFreak's questionnaire in 2014 about their services.
Over 1,000 VPN servers are provided to customers in 41 countries.
The TorGuard service supports multiple VPN communication protocols including OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP, IPSec, SSTP, and ikev2. A free Viscosity VPN software license is included with each account and there is also a Stealth VPN (DPI Bypass) system offered. The company claims that it can successfully tunnel through even “strict DPI firewalls in countries like China or UAE”.
TorGuard has VPN apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
There is only a single VPN plan with unlimited bandwidth which is payable monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or annually.
On the pricing page the company confirms peer-to-peer networks and torrents are allowed.
Over 80 payment methods are supported including debit and credit cards, PayPal, BitCoin, and WebMoney.
According to their privacy policy TorGuard do retain some information but not that much.
For a detailed explanation about VPN networks, please see our instructional article on the subject. Whichever VPN provider you choose, any of these five above should offer the right kind of security, anonymity and speed that you are looking for. Safe web browsing!
