US VPN: ROAD TO FREEDOM!

VPNs are the gateway to security and privacy. If you live in the United States, you are luckier than people living in China – due to excessive internet rules and restrictions. However, it doesn’t mean that you are completely safe. As we all learned a few years ago, the US government carries out massive surveillance on its citizens. Recently, the Patriot Act was passed which allows the FBI to force ISPs into releasing user activity data. On a more local level, you will face many banned content. For example, in offices or schools, certain websites are blocked and you can only access what you are allowed to. In order to avoid such problems, VPNs are here to rescue us. A VPN will act as an intermediary and provide a secure tunnel between your ISP and the internet. A good US VPN will ensure that your ISP or any other interested party cannot spy on you and your financial information.

Any good VPN will provide several benefits. Given the number of VPNs available in the market for users, it is quite hard to select the one which works best for you. Until the U.S government rolls back the anti-protection laws, your best option is to use a VPN for US and save yourself from prying eyes.

Our Top VPNs for the USA

Here we provide you with the best VPN for the USA. These VPNs have been tested by our experts to provide you with fast downloads anonymously. Here are our recommendations.

Useful Characteristics in a VPN

Let’s see what criteria these VPNs were selected on and how they compare with different options available in the VPN market.

Performance and Speed

Performance and speed are very important when it comes to choosing the right VPN for you. If you cannot browse the web at an acceptable speed, it’s not worth having a VPN at all. You need a VPN that can provide you with stable servers which have good internet speed. There is no doubt that VPNs can make your connections little slow; however, they sometimes make the internet speed faster as well. ISP throttling is not something new and many service providers throttle the internet speed of its users in order to save data or to avoid heavy traffic coming in at the peak hours.

One way to know about your ISP throttling is to use a good VPN. Any good VPN can remove the bandwidth caps that your ISP might have put on your data connection. In this case, the internet speed will increase because the will remove the throttling problem. Performance and speed should be a primary concern for selecting a VPN because, without it, you cannot surf the web, play the game online, use torrent and stream properly. You can read more about throttling at VPN for Streaming.

Furthermore, it is important to note that every VPN service is different and has a different use of technology and implementation. Not all VPNs are made equal – they all have different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, even if you find two VPN services with good performance and speed – one might be better than the other. To opt for the best VPN for you, you need to ensure the service provider has the fastest connectivity and also has local/ international servers which you want to play in. The gaming experience will be improved, once you opt for the best VPN service.

Privacy and Security

Privacy and security are the primary reasons why you would want to use a VPN in the first place. In terms of privacy, a good VPN should be able to properly hide your digital footprints so that nothing can be traced back to you. When you surf the web without any VPN, your IP address will show your actual location. Your ISP or any other interested party can easily trace you using your IP address. A VPN’s job is to provide you with a different IP address so that your actual location can be hidden from everyone – even your ISP. A good VPN must contain several locations or servers which users can work with so that the same IP doesn’t exit the tunnel. For this, you need a VPN which provides different IP addresses for entry and exit.

In terms of security, your VPN must be able to properly encrypt your data and provide you with complete anonymity. For a good VPN, you will get 256-bit encryption rather than the 128-bit encryption. There is a big difference between the two. If we look deeper into the technical meaning, 128 bit is a much older version of encryption. Whereas, 256-bit encryption provides better security. It is very hard to crack the VPNs which offer 256-bit protection. Since 128-bit encryption is old technology, there are many ways to crack it and therefore, it becomes unreliable.

To enhance your security, the type of encryption being offered is an important factor. Furthermore, you need to check the logging policy of the VPN service provider. Logging data shows the online activity of a user. For example, your ISPs have the logging data and they monitor your activity with it. If your logging data is being stored, your privacy is being violated which is why you need a VPN. Similarly, if a VPN stores your online activity, then the VPN is not doing its job. Some of the VPNs have user-friendly policy while others keep the data for 30 days or so, before deleting it completely. You need to need the logging policy carefully because it’s a matter of your security. Look for the VPNs offering zero-logging policy. Such VPNs store no data of any user and delete it immediately. If you are paying for a good VPN, you might as well pay for the one which offers a zero-logging policy to its customers.

Furthermore, the location of your selected VPN matters a lot. Since many VPNs are located in such countries where they have to follow the data retention laws. These VPNs keep a log of your activities and they can be released upon request from law enforcement agencies. The VPNs located in places like Panama are not bound by retention laws. Such VPNs can provide you complete anonymity along with zero log policy so you can be assured that your data will not be compromised or even stored by the VPN.

Features and Services

If you are paying for a VPN service, features and services are also important to consider. Certain things provide extra incentive for using a certain VPN. Some of the VPNs have the option of selecting the port, whereas others have an automatic selection of the best port available. If you don’t have a lot of knowledge about VPN, automatic selection of a port will work the best for you however, it’s always nice to have an option. Furthermore, if you already know a lot about VPNs and can make an educated decision, it’s better to manually use the ports.

Kill Switch

There are kill switch features within VPNs. A kill switch is a preventive measure for VPNs that help in providing extra security. For example, if you are using a VPN and suddenly your connection drops, your identity will also be compromised if the VPN does not have a kill switch. However, with a kill switch, your VPN cuts off the internet as soon as the connection drops. This way, your original IP is not revealed and you can continue to stay safe.

There are different levels of kill switches available in a VPN. The most common and popular kill switch is System Level Kill Switch. This kill switch leaves no chances of IP leaks. In case you experience connection drop, the connection for the entire computer will be stopped until the connection is restored or the network adapter is restarted. This kill switch is also the most user-friendly one out there since it just requires the user to tick the kill switch box in the VPN’s setting.

Another kill switch, which is a little customized one, is called Application Level Kill Switch. This kill switch requires the user to select which applications to kill once the connection is dropped. After you select the applications, the VPN will protect IP leak from those applications by stopping the connection, until you regain connectivity.

If the sole purpose of using a VPN is to stream and open geo-restricted websites such as Netflix, then it is very important that you select a VPN with a kill switch. In the past, Netflix has gotten stronger and better at catching those users using VPNs to access geo-restricted content. However, if you have a kill switch in your VPN, you can be much safer since you don’t have to worry about your IP being leaked. Using a VPN without a kill switch is pointless because it goes against the reason for using it – which is to hide your IP and identity online.

Gaming

If you intend to use a VPN for gaming to buy cheaper games before they are available in your country, you might need a specific country’s server which will allow you to do those things. For games, Asian countries have access to cheaper games so you might use a VPN to pay less money for your favorite games. Similarly for the United States, TV shows or movies get released earlier, people from a different country can access the US VPN server and watch it before they are available in the home country.

Duration

Duration of the VPN is important as you need to know how long you will be using a VPN. For example, if you travel outside of the United States and you need to watch movies and TV shows, you might need a VPN. As discussed in our VPN for Netflix article, in order to use Netflix, you need to see a bigger library which is the USA or Japan. So when you travel outside of the United States, you will find yourself confused when you cannot access your favorite shows outside of the United States. For this specific purpose, you need a VPN which can grant you access to United States servers and let you stream Netflix without any problem. So keeping this example in mind, the duration might be 1 month or 2 months or maybe you are moving to a new country for 1 year. Therefore, you need to buy a payment plan which suits the duration you want to use the VPN for. If you plan on using for just 1 month, it might be little costly however, if you opt for 1 year plan your overall monthly price will reduce a lot.

Ease of Use

It is important to know whether the VPN you select is user-friendly or not. If you select a complicated VPN, chances are – you won’t be satisfied with it. A VPN should be easy to get around and use. Mostly, successful VPNs have a big connect button which activates the VPN and selects the best settings for you. Furthermore, you only need to select the country and the server you want to connect to. Server selection is important because some servers are faster than others and might completely change your VPN experience.

Price

It is important to ask yourself a simple question, how much can you pay for your privacy and safety. We strongly recommend opting for paid VPNs rather than the free ones. There’s a simple reason behind it, a free VPN also exists in the market to make money one way or another. If they do not charge you any fees, they might sell your data to third parties. In order to avoid this, you need to focus on paid VPNs only. If you don’t want to commit to any VPN quickly, you can always try 30-days free trial which has access to all of VPN’s functions. This way you can use a VPN for free for 30-days and also test it out for compatibility.

Customer Support

The total value of your money is justified when the VPN service has good customer support. If you have any problems connecting to the servers, you should be able to contact the customer support and get an urgent fix. Most of the VPNs in the market have technical support – the difference being, whether it is good or bad. When looking at good customer supports, make sure to check email, live chat, and telephone lines.

The benefits of getting a USA IP address

Many people residing outside of the U.S use a VPN to access US IP address. However, if you are residing in the U.S you probably don’t need a US IP address, unless you want to just change cities and make yourself anonymous. Furthermore, most U.S citizens use a VPN to access MTB blackout games which are otherwise banned from streaming online. People of the United States are diehard fans of baseball, rugby, and basketball, using a VPN allows them to bypass blackout games. If you use a VPN, you can pretend to be in a different city in order to gain access to TV schedules and blackout games.

Death of Net-Neutrality Rules

Even if you can trust fellow humans, there is no way you should be trusting your internet service provider. Since Congress decided to allow ISPs to spy on all of its users. The more shocking part of this is, most people aren’t aware of the fact that they might be the victim of spying by their internet service providers. Furthermore, people are also not aware that all their information can be sold because it is now, allowed. The United States lost net-neutrality which is why the usage of VPNs have become more common but only for those who are concerned about their privacy.

During Obama’s presidency, net neutrality was practiced which made it much safer for people to use the internet without opting for VPNs. However, after the death of net neutrality, the adoption of VPNs just got stronger. Moreover, this move also encouraged ISPs to throttle internet connections or charge extra for certain services. You can get rid of everything by using one of our chosen US VPN.

Bottom Line

The features offered are different for all VPNs – of course not all VPNs will provide everything to you. Therefore, you have to check which features you need and which ones you don’t. Selection of a VPN can never be rushed as it is the matter of your security. However, with your priorities set straight, you can select a VPN faster. With the information provided, you can always make an informed decision about choosing the best US VPN.