Best VPNs For Gaming 2018

With the impending fall of net neutrality and internet privacy weighing on our minds, many people have begun moving toward VPNs. (Virtual Private Networks) The goal of this is to help aid in securing their connection, hiding their data, and giving them a general peace of mind while they browse the web. To accomplish this, and without getting too technical over how a VPN works, we’ll give you a brief rundown of how it happens.

To start, once your software of choice is installed, you’ll run your networking through it via whatever means your VPN Provider suggests. It will take your connection, and have you connect to one of their many servers. Then, their servers will retrieve the content you wish to view and send it back to you for your viewing pleasure. This allows your connection (from your ISP’s perspective) to only go as far as the server of your choice. Anything that happens beyond that point is more or less hidden from the public eye.

However, because of this process, many VPNs will introduce latency over your connection, due to this added step of connecting to a server(s) first. Latency is very much detrimental to gamers, so finding a VPN which doesn’t heavily impact your gaming experience is imperative. Some gamers who run VPNs will opt to turn them off when playing, but this can be cumbersome.

Today, we’ll go over three VPNs which we fill represent the three most important metrics for VPNs: speed, price and security.

Disclaimer: Because of our location, limited time and a less-than-acceptable testing method, we have foregone doing our own internal testing on these VPNs. In place of this, we are acting more as a review aggregator, giving you the most important information based on a handful of reviews for each of our recommendations. If you do not see your preferred VPN on this list, understand that this is written from our perspective and research, not yours.

Best VPNs For Gaming:

VyperVPN

VyperVPN is by all accounts a Gaming VPN. Its focus is on speed over security, and it isn’t the cheapest VPN available. However, if you’re in the market for some basic connection security and you don’t want to compromise on speed, this is more than likely going to be your best bet.

Speed:

While it’s hard to give concrete numbers, VyperVPN is often noted for its speed (bandwidth and low latency) compared to many of its competitors. While it might not be quite as fast as a direct connection, it’s also considerably more secure than a direct connection.

Pricing:

VyperVPN does not come cheap, let’s just get that out of the way now. It offers a handful of pricing tiers depending on number of max connections. (Individual devices connected to the VPN.)  The 5 connection tier also unlocks some extra fluff features if you’re into that kind of thing.  The pricing tiers are as follows:

• $5/month billed annually (3 connections)
• $9.95/month billed monthly (3 connections)
• $6.67/month billed annually (5 connections)
• $12.95/month billed monthly (5 connections)

While it may not come cheap, if your sole focus is on speed, VyperVPN is a definite option.

Security:

VyperVPN is based in Switzerland and offers over 70 server locations around the world. According to their privacy policy, VyperVPN keeps some logs. These logs contain your IP address, the IP address of your chosen server, your server connection start and stop times, and how many bytes of data were used. The data stays for 30 days, wherein after it will be flushed out on a continuous cycle.

VPN Unlimited

While its name might not invoke feelings of late-night gaming sessions, VPN Unlimited is definitely something to consider when shopping for a VPN. While it isn’t the fastest on the market — some reviewers actually place it towards the lower half of the market in terms of its speed — it does have one major factor going for it: its pricing. Like VyperVPN, it does keep some logs of data, which we’ll cover later on.

Speed:

Many reviewers have noted that VPN Unlimited ranks among the lower half of the market; its low bandwidth and high latency not offering much in the way of high-speed gaming. If you’re attempting to play games like Dota 2, League of Legends, CS: GO or Overwatch, this might not be a great idea. However, for slower games like Hearthstone, MMORPGs or casual games, you should find no issue.

Pricing:

Without a doubt, VPN Unlimited’s biggest offering is its pricing. Being the cheapest on this list means that it will more than likely be the most popular offering on this list. In a somewhat unique move, VPN Unlimited also offers a one-time license purchase, allowing you to use the VPN forever.

Pricing for VPN Unlimited is as follows:

• $3.33/month billed annually (5 connections)
• $8.99/month billed monthly (5 connections)
• $149.99 single payment lifetime subscription (5 connections)

Whether you’re looking for something to use on a month-to-month basis, you want to take it one year at a time, or you need it forever, VPN Unlimited definitely has you covered.

Security:

VPN Unlimited is based in the United States and offers over 70 server locations around the world. Unfortunately, VPN Unlimited also keeps some logs. According to their privacy policy, they keep the total amount of web traffic for each browsing session, as well as session dates. However, it does not keep things like IP addresses.

IPVanish

If you’re in the market for complete security, IPVanish is your friend. While it is not the cheapest, nor is it the fastest, it is the most secure VPN on our list. It’s more expensive than VPN Unlimited, and not quite as fast as VyperVPN (though it is faster than VPN Unlimited) it is by far the most secure, safest option available for those wholly concerned with their privacy.

Speed:

While not the fastest, IPVanish is also not the slowest. Offering a good middle-ground for latency and bandwidth, it will work well for a lot of cases, but it might fall short in a few. Games like CS:GO and Overwatch might not be the best experiences, other games will fare a lot better. Games which don’t prioritize rapid reflexes and low latency will work just fine.

Pricing:

IPVanish isn’t cheap. It isn’t expensive either. In fact, it comes in at a very pleasant price point which will work for many people. Its pricing is fair, straight to the point and isn’t full of headaches when certain features are behind another paywall.

IPVanish’s pricing is as follows:

• $6.49/month billed annually (5 connections)
• $10/month billed monthly (5 connections)
  

While it might not be very flexible in its pricing, IPVanish is very direct in how much it wants from you, and this to us is a nice bonus.

Security:

By far its biggest advantage over many competitors, IPVanish touts that it stores no logs whatsoever. It is based in the United States and has over 60 server locations around the world.

IPVanish does not track any of your browsing habits, sans any visits to their own site. This is a huge boon to anyone concerned with their data and browsing history.

Conclusion

We’ve barely scratched the surface of available VPN services with this article, but hopefully, you’ll find our information helpful.  If our (extremely) exhaustive research has taught us anything, it’s that choosing a VPN is hard.  There is a myriad of (gaming) factors to consider, and currently, no service stands at the top of them all.  VyperVPN stands out on the list as one of the fastest services, but it is lousy in security and price.  VPN Unlimited offers the best pricing, but it isn’t the greatest for speed and security.  IPVanish offers some of the best security, but it’s neither the fastest nor the cheapest option.

In light of the fall of internet privacy, many services have sprung up in retaliation. If you’re concerned about your privacy and want to do what you can to protect it, a VPN is a great start.

We hope that our picks for the best gaming VPNs will help you find something that suits your needs.