NordVPN – our choice for the best VPN in the UK. It comes with many excellent features, has a wide network of servers, great speeds, secure encryption, and complete privacy.
If you’re in search of the best VPN in the UK, you’ve been likely bombarded with options. There are several things you need to take into account if you want to choose the best option.
What makes a VPN the best VPN in the UK
Servers in the UK
When it comes to the best VPN for the UK specifically, you need a VPN that has many VPN servers in the UK. In addition to this, the overall server count is important. The more servers there are, especially in popular locations, the less busy the servers will be. You will have a much better experience with a VPN that has a big server network because there can be issues with overcrowded servers.
Strict no-logs policy
If privacy is important to you, your chosen VPN needs to have an audited zero-logs policy. That means that the VPN should not collect any information related to your browsing activities. In general, the less information a VPN collects, the better it will be for your privacy. A VPN that collects information is essentially useless.
Whether VPNs collect data and how they handle it is usually explained in the Privacy Policy, a document we always recommend at least skimming through. The policies also need to be audited by independent parties at least once or twice to prove to users that data is not collected.
Military-grade encryption
A VPN’s main purpose is to encrypt users’ traffic, thus concealing it from all parties, including the Internet Service Provider (ISP). The standard encryption used by most VPNs is AES-256 as it’s practically indecipherable.
Speed
Another important thing you need to consider when it comes to choosing the best VPN in the UK is how it affects Internet speed. Because of how they work, VPNs can slow down your Internet. And while any good VPN will only have a minimal effect on your speed, it’s still something you should look into before choosing a VPN.
NordVPN is our top pick for the best VPN in the UK
We consider NordVPN to be one of the best VPN services in the UK, here are the reasons why:
440+ VPN servers in the UK. Overall, NordVPN has a very large network of servers, with almost 6,000 servers in 60+ countries. As we’ve said above, the bigger the network of servers, the less congested servers will be.
If you specifically need a UK VPN server address, NordVPN has over 440 VPN servers in the UK, in several locations. That’s a considerable number so there will be no issues with server congestion. This large UK VPN server network is one of the reasons why NordVPN is the best VPN in the UK.
Strong encryption. NordVPN uses a combination of AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption for encrypting traffic. This type of encryption is the standard and is used by many other VPNs. You can be sure that NordVPN will protect your traffic from prying eyes.
Strict no-logs policy. We’ve already established that a VPN needs to have a strict no-logs policy. NordVPN is a very private VPN that only collects enough data to maintain your account. Everything else is off-limits, that includes any data related to your browsing and what you do online. Because its privacy policy has been audited several times by independent parties, you can be certain that no data related to your online activities is logged.
Extra features. We consider NordVPN to be one of the best VPNs in the UK because of its excellent additional features. With the VPN, you automatically get a kill switch and a split tunneling feature. A kill switch will disconnect you from the Internet to protect your IP address in case your connection to the VPN is dropped. Split tunneling will allow you to control which traffic will go through the VPN’s encryption tunnel and which will reach the Internet normally.
Additional NordVPN features also include malware protection, as well as a tracker/adblocker feature, a cross-platform password manager, a data breach scanner, and 1TB of cloud storage.
NordVPN’s ability to unblock streaming services and their geo-restricted libraries can also be counted as an extra feature. It’s one of the few VPNs that unblocks all popular streaming platforms, including Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and Disney+. There are even dedicated servers for streaming to make the whole experience much smoother.
If you want to unblock a specific country’s streaming service library, simply connect to that country’s server. For example, if you want to unblock Netflix UK library, all you need to do is connect to a VPN UK server.
Great speeds. Another reason why we consider NordVPN to be one of the best VPN services in the UK is its ability to retain at least 90% of the original Internet speed. This is a very important aspect to consider because you certainly do not want to be stuck at the loading screen every time you try to stream Netflix.
NordVPN allows you to switch encryption protocols to see which one gives you the best speed. We recommend using NordLynx because it’s generally the fastest protocol that does not compromise security. This protocol is one of the reasons why we consider NordVPN to be the best VPN in the UK.
Subscription price. NordVPN is not a free UK VPN so a subscription is necessary to use it. You can choose from three subscription plans, depending on what features you need. Price will also depend on the length of your subscription. Long-term subscription plans always come with discounts so you will save a lot of money. If you take advantage of the discounts, you can get a VPN for as little as $2.99/month.
UK VPN free. If you were looking for a UK VPN free version, NordVPN does not have it. There is a free 7-day trial but it needs to be initiated on an Android device and can only then be used on other devices. There’s also the 30-day money-back guarantee, which can technically work as a free trial if you request a refund in time.