In recent years, VPNs have taken the world by storm. These handy cybersecurity tools have become incredibly popular for several reasons. From staying safe online to unblocking your favorite sports live streams, using a VPN is essential in our modern world.
But, not all VPNs are created equally. There are some important differences between VPNs, and you must understand what to look out for when choosing a VPN. At the end of the day, you don’t want to spend money on something that you’ll end up disappointed with.
You should consider looking at some of the top VPNs on the market. One of these is, which is currently one of the best VPNs you can invest in. Keep reading to find out why Surfshark is so highly recommended, and what you need to keep an eye out for when choosing a VPN.
What is a VPN
At this point, you may be wondering what exactly a VPN is if you haven’t heard of one before. That’s exactly why we’re going to cover it before we move on to finding the perfect VPN suited to your needs.
As mentioned earlier, a VPN (also known as a virtual private network) is a cybersecurity tool. While a VPN is active, it will encrypt your internet connection, which will prevent anyone from seeing what you are doing on your device while you’re using it. Your internet traffic will even be hidden from the government and your internet service provider — making a VPN the ultimate tool for privacy and security. But strangely enough, this is not the feature that led to the surge of popularity of VPNs in recent years.
The main feature that VPN users are after is the ability to change your virtual location at the click of a button. To understand how a VPN makes this possible, let’s first dive into how websites can pinpoint the physical location of your device — an IP address.
An IP address is a unique string of numbers that is used to identify your device on the internet. Think of it as a fingerprint that is unique to every device. One of the primary roles of an IP address is to disclose your physical location to any website that you visit. Websites will use this information to send you targeted advertisements (such as your local grocery store’s special offers for example), or to block you from accessing content that’s only available in a specific region — this is known as geo-blocking.
A VPN allows you to change your virtual location by changing your IP address. While it may sound like a magic trick, what’s happening behind the scenes is that a VPN will direct your internet traffic through a secure global server in another country or city around the world. When this happens, your real IP address will be masked, and your device will adopt the IP address of the city where the VPN server is located — making it appear as if your device is located in another location.
These servers can be used to trick websites into believing that you are accessing from elsewhere, allowing you to bypass geo-blocking and internet censorship. Being able to change your location gives VPN users the ability to unblock sports live streams and access new movies and series on Netflix that might only be available in certain regions — it’s a well-known fact that the US version of Netflix has a wider selection of titles than many other regions.
What to Look Out For When Choosing VPNs
Choosing a VPN sounds easy right? Just pick one with a cool name or one that uses your favorite color scheme. Well, it’s not necessarily that simple. Not all VPNs are created equally, and that’s something that many people tend to overlook when choosing the one they want to spend money on — understandably, most of these people end up being disappointed.
Choosing the right VPN is based on your needs and requirements. If you’re going to be using your VPN to live stream sports, for example, you need one that has excellent connection speeds and great stability to ensure that you get the best quality stream.
On the other hand, if you’re traveling to a country that has strict internet censorship in place, you want to make sure that your VPN has the best possible unblocking capabilities so that you can still have access to your favorite websites and social media platforms.
Finally, if you’re looking for a VPN that will allow you to access different versions of Netflix to gain access to an entire treasure chest of new movies and series, it becomes a bit more tricky. Netflix isn’t too keen on the use of VPNs with their streaming service. They are very strict with people who do use them. As such, many VPNs don’t allow you to access Netflix from a different virtual location.
It’s important to do thorough research on each VPN before you install it on your device. Make sure the VPN meets your requirements and standards. There are plenty of reviews for each VPN vendor, and it’s worthwhile reading reviews from different sources to get an idea of what you can expect.
It’s also incredibly important to use premium VPNs rather than free ones. Free VPNs come with a whole host of drawbacks that will affect your experience with them. While using a free VPN you can expect to experience slower connection speeds, a smaller selection of global servers to choose from, less security, more ads, and even daily data limits that you need to adhere to.
Why Surfshark is an Excellent VPN
To give you a head start on VPNs, you should take a look at Surfshark. As one of the best premium VPNs that are currently available on the market, you can expect the full package with Surfshark.
They have excellent connection speeds and stability, the VPN works with Netflix, it’s easy to install, and you can even connect it to multiple devices. On top of that, Surfshark even offers a 30-day money-back guarantee that essentially allows you to use the VPN for free for an entire month! If you don’t like it and want to try a different one, you simply need to cancel your subscription before the 30-day mark.
