How to choose your first VPN: a 7-point checklist

Seven points to check before you buy a VPN, from countries and price after the first term to company seat and website trackers, each linked to the archive's data.

Key points

There is no single best VPN. The right one depends on the countries you need, your budget, and how much you care about privacy.
Check seven points: countries, price after the first term, refund period, devices, company seat, what its website tracks, and whether its server list is honest about virtual locations.
The VPN finder filters the 13 providers in this archive by these points.

The checklist

Countries you need. List the countries you want servers in. The providers here list between 20 and 150 countries each.
Is the server really there? Some locations are virtual: the server stands in another country. Check whether the provider’s list says so, and what our measurements show.
Price after the first term. The advertised monthly price usually applies only to a long first term. Look at the renewal price.
Refund period. 5 of 8 pricing pages that name one promise 30 days or more.
Devices at the same time. Pricing pages that allow an unlimited number of devices: 2. The others name a fixed number.
Who is behind it. Company, owner, and the country of the company seat.
What its own website tracks. 5 of 12 provider home pages load advertising or analytics services on a first visit.

Point 1 and 2: countries, and whether they are real

A long country list looks good, but it can include many virtual locations. The provider with the most countries in this archive lists 150. In some lists, many countries have only virtual locations.

Countries listed per provider

NordVPN	150
Proton VPN	149
ExpressVPN	113
Private Internet Access	112
CyberGhost	100
Surfshark	100
Windscribe	72
hide.me	57
Mullvad	50
IVPN	42
AzireVPN	36
AirVPN	23
OVPN	20

From each provider's own server list. Countries with only virtual locations are included.

In the finder, pick a country and tick “the provider does not mark its location there as virtual” to see only providers that claim a real server there.

Point 3 and 4: what you will really pay

Provider	Plan	Initial term	Initial term per month	Afterwards per month	Change
NordVPN	NordVPN Complete	24 months	€4.89	€18.29	+274 %
Surfshark	Surfshark One	24 months + 3 months	$2.49	$8.25	+231 %
Proton VPN	Proton VPN Plus	24 months	$3.49	$6.99	+100 %
Private Internet Access	PIA VPN	36 months + 3 months	$2.03	$2.19	+8 %
hide.me	hide.me Premium	12 months + 1 month	$4.23	$4.23	0 %

These are the offers with the biggest price rise after the first term, one per provider. More in What a VPN really costs.

Point 6 and 7: trust you can check

Trust cannot be measured directly. But you can check facts: where the company is based, who owns it, whether it describes a published audit, and what its website loads. The archive has recorded a published audit for 6 providers so far; for the others, audits are not recorded yet, which does not mean there are none.

Provider home pages: advertising or analytics services on a first visit

advertising, analytics, tag manager, session recording: 5 (42 %)
no advertising or analytics: 7 (58 %)

What this checklist leaves out

Speed, apps, and customer support are not tested here. Use the refund period to try those yourself.

Compare two providers side by side on the comparison page: every pair has its own page with countries, measurements, networks, trackers, and prices.

Next step

When you have picked a provider, read How to set up and use a VPN.

The figures in this guide come from the archive and change with every data update. As of October 17, 2026.

How to choose your first VPN: a 7-point checklist

The checklist

Point 1 and 2: countries, and whether they are real

Point 3 and 4: what you will really pay

Point 6 and 7: trust you can check

What this checklist leaves out

Next step

Check it with the archive's data