How To Get the Best VPN Performance

Virtual Private Network is a powerful tool for bypassing all sorts of internet censorships, securing data transmissions, encrypting data, preventing unauthorized network accesses and many more. If you’re using VPN, you’ll agree that it is the ultimate online security tool. But are you getting the most out of your VPN subscription?

A VPN provides various functions that make anonymous internet surfing possible. Since a VPN does a lot of encrypting processes, the overall performance may deteriorate. Speed is always an issue when it comes to VPN connections. But is there a way to balance the performance of your VPN without compromising any of its features?

In this article, we will explain the many factors affecting the overall VPN performance. We will also discuss ways on how you can improve performance of your VPN service. Read along and you’ll soon find out.

Factors Affecting VPN Performance

Have you ever tried connecting to your VPN account but could not establish a connection? Or even if you get connected, you’d still be getting a slow response. Should you already subscribe to different VPN service provider? You could, it’s all up to you. But we would just like to let you know that no matter what VPN service you are using, you are still likely to experience a decline in performance of your VPN service.

VPN Server Capacity

There are so many factors affecting your VPN performance. Speed slowdowns can be caused by both you and your VPN’s systems. For example, does your VPN service provider properly regulate server capacity? If the certain VPN server you are connected is accommodating more users than the maximum load, then it can really degrade speed.

Distance to the VPN Server

Related to VPN servers, the country you are located to can also be a factor why you have unstable and slow VPN connections. In general, the closer you are to a VPN server, the better performance you will get. However, if you are connecting to the wrong server, you won’t be able to maximize your VPN performance.

System specification and Internet Speed

The performance of your VPN is also dependent on your system specifications. If you have a slow computer, you will also have slower VPN connections. Your internet speed is also directly proportional to your VPN performance. Better internet speed means better VPN connections. Slower internet equates to slow VPN speed as well.

Type of VPN / Security Protocol

The type of security protocol you are using to connect to a VPN service is a major factor affecting the stability and speed of your VPN connection. PPTP for example provides faster connections since it does less encrypting processes. On the other hand, L2TP provides better security features compared to PPTP but only slower. This is because it is encapsulating data packets four or six times more than PPTP.

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How To Maximize Your VPN Performance

Connect to the VPN server closest to your location. This will allow you to get the fastest speed for your internet connection. However, connecting to a close server won’t always provide better speed.

What you can do now to get the most out of your VPN is to test VPN servers.

Find out which VPN servers give you good VPN performance. You can also read VPN reviews pertaining to speed test results of different VPN providers. They usually state which servers provide more stability and better connection speed.

Like I said, your VPN performance is also dependent on the type of VPN you use.

Find out which security protocol you give you the fastest connection. In general though, IPSec and OpenVPN are considered to be the fastest options. Wireguard is the latest protocol that currently offers the best speeds by FAR!

Since VPN technology does a lot of encryptions, you may want to use a better computer. If you want to maximize your VPN performance, you should definitely upgrade your computer. You can probably add some processing power. You may also want to turn off or uninstall certain software (e.g. anti-virus, torrent client app) on your computer conflicting with the VPN.

Tips to improve VPN speeds

No matter which VPN you use, there are a number of things you can configure to get access to better speeds. Are you interested? Here are some tips that might help you get better performance:

Change your VPN protocol: a VPN works by sending your Internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel. The VPN protocol is the method that is used to dig this tunnel. Several protocols are generally supported, as they all have specificities (security, performance, etc). Generally, the more secure a protocol is, the less likely it will be able to offer you good speeds. We generally recommend using the OpenVPN or WireGuard protocols. These offer a good compromise between high security and excellent speeds. Note that with most providers, you can manually change the VPN protocol or opt for the automatic choice of the protocol that will offer you the best speeds (the application will define this for you depending on your situation).
Connect to another server: the closer you are physically to a VPN server, the more it will be able to guarantee you good performance (speed but also latency). The information transmitted will have less distance to travel. If you have the possibility, it is therefore wise to always connect to a nearby server. Some VPN providers will even help you by telling you which servers are the most overloaded at the moment.
Use Split-Tunneling: Split-Tunneling is a feature that allows you to decide which Internet traffic from your applications is sent through the VPN tunnel. What does this have to do with speed? By reducing the traffic that goes through the VPN tunnel, you can improve the performance you get. All the providers in our ranking offer this feature.

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What are free VPNs worth in terms of speed and throughput?

Don’t feel like paying to get access to a fast VPN service? That’s perfectly understandable. But in this case, we have to warn you.

As you can see in our free VPN comparison, we had the opportunity to test dozens of different services. And of course, each time we took the time to test the speeds we could get.

What conclusions did we draw? Well, if you’re looking for a fast solution and therefore able to offer you a smooth Internet experience, you should clearly avoid free VPNs. They are anything but fast. You will very often have to deal with overloaded servers, untimely disconnections, etc.

Unfortunately, even the best free Virtual Private Networks do not escape this rule. In this case what should you do? If you really don’t want to pay anything and still have access to good speeds, our recommendation is to use the 30-day money back guarantee offered by ExpressVPN.

VPN Service that Provides the Best VPN Performance

If you still can’t see even a slight improvement with your VPN, you may want consider subscribing to a new VPN service provider. NordVPN is good VPN provider that can give you the best VPN performance possible. ExpressVPN is also a great VPN choice. And if you are looking for an affordable VPN service, you can also check out Surfshark VPN.