VPN Comparative Test 2020
In September 2020, AV-TEST performed a test of Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions and put them into contrast to the unencrypted connection. The VPNs have been reviewed for their download- and upload- performance at the three geographical locations the US west coast, the UK and Japan.
We perform this test in parallel for all products at one point in time, which provides an extract of the performance provided by the VPN products.
The presented evaluation assesses ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, PrivateVPN, ProtonVPN, PureVPN and TorGuard.
NordVPN was the clear winner in this performance test for measured download and upload performance in all three major world regions. Getting the first spot in five tested categories and only missing the last top spot by a small margin. Outperforming the next ranked VPN by sometimes doubling the performance.
PrivateVPN is in second and TorGuard in third place with solid performances and no collapse in performance for any of the regions.
ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access and PureVPN share the next three ranks as they have different strength and weaknesses, but overall the performances have been very similar.
ProtonVPN was ranked last which is mostly due to very poor Asia performances but they did manage to get good average results in the US compared to some of their competitors.