The 3 Best VPNs For Mac - Spring 2025

Mullvad is the best VPN for Mac we've tested. Its app works on macOS 13 (Ventura) or newer, and it has an intuitive user interface that visually integrates with macOS well. The beauty isn't only skin deep; the software delivers excellent performance and security. First of all, it's quick. It consistently provides impressive download speeds, upload speeds, and latency. It also keeps your IP address and DNS queries hidden from bad actors and has a fully functional kill switch that can block your computer from connecting to the internet if the VPN isn't running, like after a software crash or system restart.

On top of its functionality, Mullvad excels at taking measures to protect your privacy. Instead of signing up with your email address and password, you get a randomly generated account number you use as your only login credential. This way, no personal information is stored on Mullvad's servers. You can also pay with cash or crypto for even better anonymity. As a company, they have a great reputation for their transparency, reasonable marketing, and clear documentation. Additionally, it has useful extra features like obfuscation, which can help bypass censorship that blocks VPN access, and DAITA (Defense Against AI-Guided Traffic Analysis), designed to obscure identifiable patterns within your encrypted traffic. Unfortunately, it lacks port-forwarding, which might be a dealbreaker if you need it.

Mullvad has a unique flat-rate pricing model that's quite different from the norm of VPN services, which offer discounts the longer you sign up. This makes it a great deal if you pay month-to-month, but if you plan to be a long-term subscriber, you're better off going with Proton VPN, our next pick.

We recommend Proton VPN as the best VPN for macOS if you need more features than our top pick. Like Mullvad, Proton delivers great performance and has a functional user interface that's generally easy to use but has a few more handy features. For starters, there are servers in over 100 countries, which is useful since it lets you connect to a closer server for a better connection. You can also connect up to 10 devices simultaneously without logging any of them out. Proton additionally supports port forwarding, a feature that's becoming less common for VPNs and essential if you need it for specific programs like P2P clients. Like Mullvad, it has obfuscation to make it look like you're not using a VPN, an ad blocker, and 'secure-core,' a feature that ensures your connection goes through Proton's own servers before reaching the server in the country you choose.

Proton isn't without its flaws. It has pretty disappointing latency performance, with spikes and inconsistencies that can be annoying for latency-sensitive tasks like gaming, video calls, and general web browsing. While it's cheaper than our top pick if you pay for a 1- or 2-year subscription, it's much more expensive if you want to pay monthly. Overall, Proton is a great choice if you need the extra features that it offers over Mullvad, but if you don't or aren't sure, Mullvad is the better pick.

Hotspot Shield Free is the best free VPN for Mac we've tested. You can just download it from their site and fire it up right away without creating an account. Since you don't have to provide any credentials or personal information, Hotspot Shield won't have any data associated with your IP address when you download or use the software. Unlike some free options, it has no data limits and delivers consistent speeds with Wireguard, although it's limited to around 100 Mbps. You can also install it on as many devices as you want since it doesn't identify you or your devices with a login. Its kill switch doesn't work properly, so it leaks some unencrypted traffic when you restart your computer. Also, it doesn't have quite the same above-and-beyond approach to transparency and digital rights as our top picks and has a convoluted corporate ownership structure. If that doesn't matter, this VPN is a great free option.

If you're okay with a monthly data limit and your VPN provider's transparency and privacy track record are important to you, Windscribe Free is the better choice. It's a private, independently owned VPN service with an active user base and a generally positive reputation. If you make an account with an email address, you get 10GB of data per month. Otherwise, you can just use a username for 2GB per month. You can also access servers in ten countries, more than Hotspot Shield Free's three.