Best iPhone VPN for gaming in 2025

NordVPN has dominated the VPN arena since 2012 and is probably the most recognizable VPN brand among the general populace. It’s managed to achieve this level of success by offering a service that is speedy, reliable, and easy to use.

Part of the reason for its enduring success comes down to the fact that it has not stagnated. It’s a service that is continually updated and even in the last couple of years, we’ve seen significant improvements in terms of the number of simultaneous connections it allows, the number of regions its servers cover, and even more recent things like NordVPN’s Saily eSIM, which new subscribers frequently get special benefits for. There’s a good chance that there are features are benefits that don’t currently exist, but which you will eventually be able to enjoy if you opt for a two-year plan.

Ultimately, the two things most important things will be as follows – its compatibility with popular games and apps, and how it affects your phone’s performance. On these fronts, NordVPN excels; offering easy compatibility with Call of Duty: Mobile, TikTok, and more. Meanwhile, in our testing, we found it to be the fastest VPN of the bunch, meaning that you are not likely to experience any sort of slowdown, and indeed, may even find that it runs a little faster when you’re at home because a lot of internet service providers (ISPs) artificially slow things down when you’re using a lot of bandwidth (and VPNs stop them).

Admittedly, it might run down your battery a little bit faster, but to be fair, that is true of practically every app you have running in the background. Other than that, the only real criticism we can level at it is that it is slightly more expensive than a lot of VPNs (though still cheaper than ExpressVPN) and offers no free trial for you to try it out in, instead forcing you to fall back on a 30-day money-back guarantee, but the chances are you’ll be perfectly happy with it anyway.

In terms of sheer quality of service, ExpressVPN comes pretty darn close to NordVPN. It’s another long-standing provider that has done an outstanding job of cementing itself as one of the de facto choices. Though it is a notably expensive service, it does have a lot of features to make it worth your while.

One of the biggest ExpressVPN selling points is its servers. Not only does it have a decent range of over 100 servers, but it refreshes their IP addresses on a regular basis. What this means is that if one of your favorite games ends up blocking VPN access, it should only be a short time before the IP address is refreshed and you can slide right back in.

Additionally, its TrustedServer system gives you an extra layer of privacy. Naturally, you want your search history to remain secret, and what this system does is ensure that it is not possible for ExpressVPN’s servers to record any information about what you do while the VPN is on.

Meanwhile, though our tests found it to be slightly inferior to NordVPN in this regard, ExpressVPN is still one of the fastest solutions on the market. Its use of the Lightway Protocol puts it in a good position to circumvent the artificial slowdown that your ISP may be subjecting you to. You won’t notice any kind of slowdown when it’s on, but it is possible that you will notice the battery draining just a little faster.

However, not only is ExpressVPN the most expensive of the bunch, it also gives us cause for concern on the privacy front. Not only is it owned by Kape Technologies, a company that has a history of malware scandals, but as recently as 2024, it was discovered that ExpressVPN was inadvertently leaking data via its split tunneling feature. These looks could have potentially been going on for years, and while the Kape scandals predate its acquisition of ExpressVPN, it is certainly not a good precedent. The VPN works well and is compatible with most gaming and streaming platforms, but if privacy is your main concern, street clear.

We recommend CyberGhost as the best VPN for streaming because of its broad compatibility with pretty much everything. Combine that with the fact that it has connection points in over 100 countries and you can then access all the international libraries of whichever streaming apps you prefer to use.

If you want to test it out on various platforms before being locked in, its 45-day money-back guarantee gives you over two weeks more time to get a grasp of things than you’ll get with the other major providers. If you find anything that you don’t quite like in that time, there is nothing to stop you from getting a full refund. There’s also a 24-hour free trial, which gives you a bit of extra time to try it out too.

Once upon a time, CyberGhost was a cut above the rest in terms of its connection allowance. Where others typically gave about five, it edged them out by offering seven. Unfortunately, times have changed and those that once offered less than CyberGhost now offer more, so if you plan on having multiple people on the same plan, it might make more sense to go for a different VPN.

Its average download times are also sometimes a little slower than competitors (and keep in mind that average download speeds change all the time due to a number of factors), but this is certainly no issue for streaming or general use – more for anyone who’s interested in serious, competitive, online play.

If you’re after a cheaper option, it’s significantly less expensive than many of the bigger VPNs too. For those reasons in particular, we’re loath to be too critical of it. Generally speaking, it stands shoulder to shoulder with the pricier ones, while the few small flaws are perfectly understandable for the price point.

Private Internet Access (PIA) is the best VPN to go for if you’re on a budget. You might worry that going for a cheap VPN means going for a sub-standard service, but aside from some minor limitations, PIA is in no way sub-standard.

Similar to CyberGhost (which is owned by the same business), its only real issue is the fact that its average download speeds can be a bit slower than the likes of ExpressVPN and NordVPN. However, these slower speeds are so minor that they’re really not going to register to anyone other than, perhaps, those who need a pristine connection to host a stream, or for playing competitively online.

One big benefit of PIA is the fact that it allows you to have an unlimited number of simultaneous connections – which sets it above a lot of the premium choices. You could split the bill between all the members of your household, making it even cheaper, and everyone can still have it on every single one of their compatible devices (without going down the complicated route of connecting via a router).

It’s got connection points in over 90 countries, and interestingly has over 35,000 servers spread across those locations. While server totals aren’t a huge indicator of the quality of a service, having as many as this is pretty cool because it essentially eliminates the risk of server congestion (slowdown caused by inordinate amounts of people using the same server to connect at once).

For its lower price, it’s a really impressive service – and if you want something that’s completely free, check out the next recommendation below.

Going for a free VPN can be a bit risky. There are many options out there that can offer their service for free because they’re making loads money by selling the private data that they accumulate from customers while the VPN is on. Fortunately, PrivadoVPN is one of the few free services you can genuinely trust.

The free plan is almost like an indefinite free trial, as PrivadoVPN also has several paid packages available. Going for the free one limits you to 10GB of data each month and only gives you access to a couple of the servers – besides that, you are essentially getting the full service.

While 10GB won’t be enough for someone who likes to watch loads of movies and TV shows on their iPhone, it’ll still be a very handy thing to have for many othes. Worried about the dangers of public Wi-Fi? Switch on your VPN whenever you use it. Disgusted by the idea of big companies tracking your health-related Google searches? Save the VPN for your more sensitive browsing sessions.

As (trustworthy) free VPNs go, 10GB is quite a generous allowance. However, if you happen to use it all up before it refreshes the following month, you’ll have a difficult time getting it to refresh, as it won’t do it automatically after that. Just keep a close eye on your data limit though and you should be able to avoid that problem.

The paid plan is not bad for anyone who decides to upgrade. It covers over 65 countries and it lets you have up to ten simultaneous connections. As a provider that’s only been around a few years, there’s a lot to love here, though – especially its free offering.