The Best VPN Apps for Mobile

It’s easy to use ExpressVPN on mobile, you just need to tap the central power button to connect. We’ve always found this process to be instantaneous and our testing confirmed that ExpressVPN only takes one second to connect on mobile.

This speed is largely due to ExpressVPN’s proprietary Lightway protocol, which debuted on Android, and is optimized for mobile connections.

As it connects so quickly, you can seamlessly switch between WiFi and cellular data networks without disruption.

You can see how ExpressVPN’s time to connect compares to its rivals in the chart below:

Anecdotally, when using VPNs on public WiFi networks, we’ve found that Lightway has a much higher success rate in connecting, even on crowded networks like those at airports.

ExpressVPN provides a streamlined user interface on mobile with its power button, server list, and menu tabs clustered in the bottom half of the screen for easy access. That said, we’d like the option to remove ‘Keys’ from the menu tabs considering most users won’t require a password manager.

Similarly, we found ExpressVPN’s Protection Summary feature to be useless and a waste of screen space. Thankfully, this can at least be disabled in the Android app.

Unlike most VPNs, ExpressVPN’s mobile apps have near-identical features to their desktop counterparts.

This includes a VPN kill switch, and its Advanced Protection feature. We regularly use the latter to blocks ads on our iMac so we’re pleased to see it available on mobile.

You can use the table below to see the minor differences between ExpressVPN’s apps:

However, we were disappointed by the absence of mobile-specific features, especially on iOS. You can’t use ExpressVPN with Siri or iOS Shortcuts, so you’ll have to launch the app each time to connect or disconnect. We personally found this quite tiresome after a few hours of use.

For Android devices, there’s a privacy feature that hides the ExpressVPN app and your real IP address in multi-Window mode. We also appreciate that the Android app automatically matches the light or dark mode of your device.

While these are useful features, we’d like to see ExpressVPN rival Surfshark and include GPS spoofing in its Android app.

On average, we recorded a download speed loss of just 3% while connected to the ExpressVPN app.

This is fast enough for full HD streaming, online mobile games, and general browsing.

ExpressVPN was able to unblock every streaming app we tested, including Netflix, Max, Hulu, and Disney+.

In each instance, our test handsets loaded the stream immediately in the maximum available quality without any buffering.

We were also able to use ExpressVPN to unblock streaming services in our mobile browser where there wasn’t an app available in the US store region, such as BBC iPlayer.

Surfshark’s mobile apps are attractive and modern but we find its interface overly cluttered.

Its home screen includes recently used locations, a server list, a connect button, and a scrollable navigation bar. We’d prefer if Surfshark adopted ExpressVPN’s approach and simplified this screen to one or two buttons.

We suggest tapping the quick-connect button if you find the app too overwhelming.

That said, it’s easy to start using Surfshark on mobile by tapping the Quick-connect button at the bottom of the screen.

This conveniently connects you to a nearby server, but our connection time tests revealed that this takes up to 11.5 seconds on average — 10.5 seconds longer than ExpressVPN.

Surfshark’s Android app is unrivaled for its number of device-specific features, most notably its GPS spoofing tool. This allows you to unblock streaming sites that monitor your phone’s GPS coordinates, such as bypassing blackouts on MLB.tv.

Unlike most VPNs, Surfshark provides its own kill switch instead of relying on Android’s native connection settings. This is better for your privacy as the VPN kill switch will continue to work regardless of your device’s settings or system version.

Another Android-exclusive is the option to switch to smaller data packets for improved compatibility with mobile networks.

Surfshark allows you to easily toggle between light and dark mode on its iOS and Android apps, and it provides custom connection rules for staying safe on public WiFi.

Moving forward, we’d like to see Surfshark’s iOS app become as fully-featured as its Android equivalent, and we’d prefer if Surfshark One was advertised less on both apps.

Though slower than ExpressVPN, we were impressed by Surfshark’s average download speed loss of 5%. This is an impressive result and ensures fast speeds on both WiFi and cellular data.

You can also use Surfshark’s ping checker on its Android app, represented by a timer icon, to minimize any lag while playing online mobile games. We found this particularly useful when testing VPNs with PUBG Mobile on our Android phone.

Surfshark works with all major streaming services, including 9 Netflix libraries, Hulu, Peacock, and Max.

Each stream loaded at maximum video quality and we didn’t encounter any buffering or VPN error codes.

Proton VPN’s smartphone apps lack the modern design and feel of competing VPNs. Its map view on Android is especially dated and both mobile apps would benefit from reducing their amount of lists.

It can be frustrating to connect to a server too, with Proton VPN automatically selecting your closest location. If you want to change to a different server in the same country, you’re made to wait for 90 seconds which is something we’ve never seen before.

We also found the decision to use the Proton VPN logo as its connect button, instead of the universal power symbol, confusing and unintuitive.

We’d like the option to hide Proton VPN’s paid features in the app.

We did appreciate the explainer text for advanced features, but it sometimes looked odd when next to grayed out premium-only features.

Proton VPN Free isn’t as sophisticated as its paid version, but it includes some advanced features on mobile such as DNS leak protection and alternative routing.

Due to Proton VPN’s compatibility with iOS Shortcuts, you can also use Siri to quickly connect and disconnect from the VPN.

Moreover, Proton VPN is one of the few VPN services that can be added as an Apple widget for more convenient access.

Proton VPN’s Android app is far less-integrated into its OS, with an absence of any device-specific features. Crucially, Proton VPN doesn’t provide a custom kill switch on Android and relies on Android’s native settings.

Our download speeds decreased by just 2% while connected to a close by Proton VPN server.

This may be partly due to our proximity to Proton VPN’s free US server. We can’t guarantee you’ll get the same speeds, especially if you’re not located near Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, or the US.

Proton VPN won’t work with any streaming services on its free plan.

If streaming on mobile is a priority for you, we recommend installing ExpressVPN or Surfshark instead.