What’s the Best VPN for iPhone and Why You Might Want to Use It

By Mike Peterson

3 Min Read Published: Mar 19th, 2018

Updated: Mar 23rd, 2018

iPhone Best Virtual Private Networks VPN

Image via Apple

Text Size

- +

Toggle Dark Mode

Most iPhone owners don’t use a VPN despite the variety of benefits these services provide.

Out of nearly 1,000 iPhone users, only 23 percent said that they use a VPN. Conversely, 48 percent of surveyed users said that they didn’t use a VPN service. The remaining 29 percent of surveyed users didn’t know what a VPN was, suggesting they also don’t use this service knowingly.

Below, you can see the actual results of the recent iDrop News social media poll.

Read Next: Top 10 VPNs for iPhone/iPad

iPhone owners begin using VPN services for straight-forward reasons. We’ve highlighted the most common reasons below.

VPNs add protection while using “free” Wi-Fi networks and can gain access to content that’s geographically restricted. Anonymous browsing was the third most common reason for using a VPN.

Like 29 percent of surveyed users, you might ask: What’s a VPN?

VPN is a virtual private network — put simply, when you use a VPN, it protects your online browsing privacy. It’s a group of discrete networks that operate over the internet. When you connect to a VPN, most if not all of your internet communications are encrypted and secured. And before you think such a service could only be useful for spies, hackers and journalists, consider the many practical reasons that the average user should utilize a VPN.

For starters, since a VPN encrypts your device’s communication, it’s secured even when using an unsafe, public Wi-Fi hotspot. Normally, accessing confidential or secured data from such a Wi-Fi network isn’t recommended — as attackers could access your login credentials or redirect your device’s browser to a scam website.

Additionally, a VPN ensures that your specific IP address isn’t viewable from the websites you visit. Since you’re accessing the internet through a secure “tunnel,” a VPN also keeps your online activities from prying eyes. On a similar note, since carriers and internet providers can’t inspect your data, they can’t prioritize or throttle your iPhone’s communications.

Read Next: Top 10 VPNs for iPhone/iPad

Not convinced? When you connect to a VPN located in another region of the world, websites will see your browsing activities as coming from that area. Because of this, VPNs allow users to view content that’s only available in other countries, effectively allowing you to bypass geographical restrictions (although some services aren’t happy about this). If it’s a concern to you, advertisers also won’t be able to track your actual location, ensuring that you’re never troubled by location-based ads.

Lastly, a VPN encrypts your communications, ensuring that would-be attackers have a harder time accessing your data. If you’re a privacy-conscious individual, or simply don’t like the idea of anyone snooping on your internet browsing, then a VPN might be for you.

Most of us can benefit from the use of the right VPN service. There are a handful of VPNs on the market that achieve similar outcomes. There are also VPNs we wouldn’t recommend users buying. For that reason, we’ve compiled the following VPN services that are worthy of recommendation to make the search for the right VPN easy. Scroll down or visit this dedicated post about our top 10 VPNs.