How We Rank VPNs
VPNPlox uses the same 18-dimension editorial framework for every provider. The scores organize evidence and trade-offs; they are not scientific measurements or performance guarantees.
Overall ratings
Each VPN has an overall rating on a 0-5 scale plus 18 supporting dimension scores. The overall rating is an editorial summary informed by those dimensions, not a simple average and not a substitute for choosing based on your own priorities. On the main comparison page, readers can ignore the overall order and sort directly by listed price, audit count, or recorded streaming support.
Use-case rankings
Guides such as privacy, budget, streaming, and multiple devices use different signals. For example, the privacy guide gives more relevance to audit history and jurisdiction, while the budget guide emphasizes the listed long-term price. A provider can therefore rank differently across guides without its underlying record changing.
The 18 rubric dimensions
Jurisdiction
Headquarters and relevant intelligence-sharing or data-retention considerations recorded from public sources.
Audit record
The count, recency, scope, and named auditor of independent assessments we can identify.
Speed
An editorial performance score informed by available evidence and protocol capability; it is not a continuous VPNPlox lab benchmark.
Protocols
Published support for WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, and documented proprietary protocols.
Encryption
Published encryption design, cipher support, and relevant findings in available technical reviews or audits.
Leak protection
Documented DNS, IPv6, WebRTC, and kill-switch protections, including public technical evidence when available.
Availability
Published app, platform, country, and server availability rather than a guarantee of continuous uptime.
Owned servers
Public evidence about provider-operated infrastructure versus rented capacity.
RAM-only servers
Whether diskless or RAM-only operation is documented and whether an audit supports the claim.
Ownership transparency
Clarity about the operating company, parent company, ownership, and responsible organization.
Bug bounty
Whether a public vulnerability-disclosure or bug-bounty program can be identified.
Payments
Published payment options, anonymous-payment choices, trials, and refund terms.
Pricing
Listed monthly and long-term rates, contract length, and refund window at the time data was collected.
Restrictive-network support
Published obfuscation or stealth capabilities; access in a specific country is never guaranteed.
Customer support
Published help-center, email, phone, and live-chat availability.
Ethics
Documented transparency practices, material public incidents, and the clarity of provider claims.
Ad and tracker blocking
Whether network-level blocking is included and how the provider describes its coverage.
Other features
Multi-hop, port forwarding, dedicated IP, device limits, Smart DNS, and related product features.
Source hierarchy
We prefer named audit reports and official provider documentation for technical and policy claims. Provider pricing pages are used for current offers, while company and support pages are used for ownership, platforms, and service availability. Third-party review-platform data is displayed as a separate signal and does not replace technical evidence.
Known limitations
- Prices, promotions, renewal terms, and refund rules can change without notice.
- Server counts and country totals may be reported differently by each provider.
- Streaming access varies by location, account, server, device, and date.
- An audit verifies a defined scope at a point in time; it is not a permanent guarantee.
- A missing field can mean the information was unavailable, not necessarily that the feature does not exist.
Corrections
Credible corrections should include the provider name, the field in question, and a public source URL. We update records when the evidence supports the change. Marketing language by itself is not enough to improve a privacy or audit score.
Advertising and affiliate disclosure
Google AdSense advertising and affiliate relationships fund the site. Neither is an input to the provider data, dimension scores, overall ratings, or use-case ordering. Provider purchase links are kept separate from navigation and review links.