7 of the best VPNs that maintain a strict no-logging policy

Read our full review for ExpressVPN.

Based in the British Virgin Islands, ExpressVPN is off to a great start when it comes to security and reduced concerns about logs. It isn't subject to any data retention laws with any out-of-state disclosure orders required to come from the island's High Court.

Also reassuringly, it keeps a strict no-logs policy whereby there's only a small amount of session logging but no connection times or IP addresses are tracked so there's no way of ExpressVPN putting the information together to see what you've been doing.

As a standard VPN it's also a great service, and has routinely topped our other lists, including the best VPNs for China, the best VPNs for torrenting, and the best VPNs according to Reddit users. There's AES-256 encryption, which is pretty much the best level of encryption you could hope to see here. There are also features such as split-tunneling, which allows you to route some traffic through a VPN while the rest of it goes through your regular internet connection, thereby adding an extra level of security. A kill-switch means you never have to worry about the connection dropping either, and if it does, all internet traffic is blocked until you reinstate it.

Server choices are vast with the option of 160 different locations across 94 countries. It's also possible to connect to Netflix and other streaming services via ExpressVPN with a fairly speedy service guaranteed.

There's no free trial for ExpressVPN but there is a 30-day money back guarantee if you're not entirely happy. ExpressVPN is one of the pricier options out there, with a monthly subscription priced at $12.95, but that steadily drops to $99.95 for a 12-month subscription. For the price, you can use five devices simultaneously with unlimited bandwidth available to you.

Based in the British Virgin Islands, Surfshark is off to a great start when it comes to avoiding jurisdiction that could be an issue. Surfshark doesn't need to worry about complying with data retention laws or surveillance and that's demonstrated by its services.

The only information that Surfshark keeps is email details and basic billing information (for obvious reasons). Other than that, Surfshark has no interest in tracking what you're doing or being able to report back to any authorities about those habits.

It's also just a solid VPN. It has CleanWeb, which blocks ads, trackers, and malware before they get near your system, as well as a standard kill-switch and DNS leak protection. A camouflage mode promises to make it impossible for your ISP to see you're even using a VPN. There's MultiHop functionality too, which enables you to connect via multiple countries at once to keep even more hidden.

There's support for Netflix, torrenting, and other streaming services too.

Surfshark's prices vary depending on how long you subscribe for. A month-by-month plan works out at $11.95 per month, with a 24-month plan averages out to $1.99 per month.

Note: NordVPN has announced that it suffered a breach in March 2018 when a hacker exploited an insecure remote management system at a Finnish data center from which the company was renting servers. Fortunately, this isolated attack affected just one NordVPN server — and thanks to its strict no-logging policy, no user activity was compromised in the incident. Click here to learn more.

NordVPN stands confidently by its no-logging policy — so much so that it subjected said policy to an independent audit last year(opens in a new tab), a first for the VPN industry. It conducted a second no-logs audit in the wake of its March 2018 server snafu(opens in a new tab), and launched an independent external audit of its entire infrastructure in 2020.

NordVPN's commitment to said policy is bolstered by the fact that it offers AES 256-bit encryption along with CyberSec protection, which blocks ads and malicious websites for you before you even get near any issues.

It also has a Double VPN feature where you can encrypt your data twice, effectively hiding your data behind two VPN servers rather than the usual one. Sure, it's not necessary for many users, but it's a nice bonus option if you wish to be extra careful. Like ExpressVPN, there's an automatic kill switch too.

NordVPN offers thousands of different servers so you're sure to find a fast one. There's support for Netflix and torrenting too so you have plenty of flexibility.

Subscription plan prices vary depending on how long you commit to NordVPN. The 3-year plan works out at $2.99 per month (billed at $107.55 every three years) with the price creeping up to the equivalent of $6.99 per month for a year, or $11.95 on a monthly basis. For the price, you can connect six devices at the same time.

Read our full review of NordVPN.

Read our full review of TunnelBear.

TunnelBear isn't like other VPN clients. Skipping a professional sterile app, it offers animations of cute bears tunneling across the world to indicate which server you've connected to. It's one of the simplest VPN clients out there, and it's also highly secure.

For the free client, you only need to hand over your email address and nothing more. TunnelBear is independently audited so you're safe in the knowledge that its no-logs policy actually means no logs are kept. You can always use a throwaway email account too if that makes you feel more secure.

Despite its cute exterior, TunnelBear is still pretty smart underneath the surface. It has AES-256 encryption and is reasonably speedy depending on what you're doing. You can use it effectively for torrenting although expect mixed results when accessing Netflix.

Of course, the price is the big selling point for TunnelBear. If you only need a VPN for occasional use, you can subscribe for free gaining 500mb of data a month. That price increases to $9.99 month by month, or the equivalent of $4.99 per month if you pay for a year at the time, which makes it slightly less good value for money. The paid plans offer unlimited data along with up to five devices connected at any one time.

Read our full review of ProtonVPN.

Based in Switzerland, ProtonVPN is off to a great start when it comes to privacy. Switzerland is outside of both US and EU legislation as well as removed from the 5/8/14-Eyes Alliance. ProtonVPN is also owned by the same company as anonymous email provider ProtonMail, so it has the pedigree for keeping things secure.

In the case of ProtonVPN, the only information that's stored is your login timestamp, which is overwritten every time you make a new login attempt. That's reassuring news for anyone worried about being traced.

Elsewhere, ProtonVPN is a dependable VPN even if it's not quite as fast as other names given its fewer number of servers. There's still room for typical features, such as AES-256 encryption, an automatic kill-switch, and DNS leak protection. There's also a Tor over VPN feature whereby you can route all your traffic through the Tor anonymity network and also access dark websites.

The price of ProtonVPN depends on the services you require. There's a free service that provides slower speeds and no torrenting support. Alternatively, for $4 a month, you can enjoy higher speeds, two devices connected simultaneously, and torrenting support. The full service, which includes Tor servers and streaming, costs $8 per month.

VyprVPN offers a standard bunch of no-log features. It promises to never log any of your data while you use it, and won't retain your personal details longer than necessary once you leave the service. Where VyprVPN differs from the rest is its Chameleon protocol technology. This means that your ISP won't even know you're using a VPN. While other services can suggest the use of a VPN while garbling what ISPs can see, VyprVPN hides even that.

That makes it perfect for bypassing geolocks such as in countries where censorship regulation is very strict. It's also useful when using streaming services such as Netflix and wanting to use a different country's Netflix store. VyprVPN is based in Switzerland so you're also safe in the knowledge that it avoids major privacy law concerns.

Elsewhere, there's an automatic kill-switch, DNS protection, and the promise of high speed connections. In reality, that tends to be the case too with torrenting also supported here.

Prices start at $3.75 per month but that doesn't include the Chameleon protocol so upgrade to that for $5 per month billed yearly.

Based in Canada, which is part of the Five Eyes surveillance agreement, Windscribe might seem like a worrying option for a no-logs based VPN, but it's actually very secure. Windscribe explains in its privacy policy that there is no logging of usage, IPs, historical session logs, or records of incoming or outgoing IP addresses, or your individual activity. This is backed up by a transparency report which explains that no law enforcement or DMCA requests have been complied with due to Windscribe simply not having the data expected of it.

Besides being reassuring on that front, Windscribe is also a good VPN service in other ways. It offers support for an unlimited number of devices, static IPs, port forwarding, as well as split tunneling functionality.

You can also use it to form a double hop, further hiding your steps online, as well as use Location Warp to spoof your GPS location via a proxy. Ad blocking is also available through the Windscribe app. Many of these features might not be essential for all but they're nice extras to have on top of an already sturdy service.

Just look out for slight speed issues if you choose a server a long distance from your current location.

Windscribe is available for free with a limit of 10GB per month. Alternatively, you can pay $9 on a monthly basis or opt into the yearly plan that works out at $4.08 per month.