- 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, 14 Eyes. How many more do we need?
I mean, Europe is pretty pro-privacy,
but all those intelligence-sharing alliances
are not fun to hang around.
So today, I will investigate some of the VPNs
for Europe while trying to figure out
if it's even a good idea to have one.
I'm John, this is VPNpro channel,
and if you are interested in VPN content,
consider subscribing to the channel.
It's a huge help, and I appreciate your interest.
(slick music)
Since securing privacy is paramount,
I'll start with the best European VPN
for that aspect, NordVPN.
I'm being serious here.
NordVPN excels at securing your connection
with its modern encryption and a reliable kill switch.
Since NordVPN belongs to the Panama jurisdiction,
it's not subjected to any data retention loss.
It's also has a trustworthy no-logs policy
and employs a special type of server
that can't retain user data long term.
But I consider NordVPN to have the best security
because of the features its Europe VPN app has.
It has CyberSec, which is responsible
for taking out garbage, such as ads and malicious links.
Dark Web Monitor is also a feature I like
since I can rely on it notifying me
if my data gets leaked somehow.
Of course, security is not the only focus.
A VPN for Europe needs to be able
to access geo-blocked content
like various Netflix libraries.
Through my test, I've confirmed that NordVPN is capable
of doing just that, and my speeds have been enough
to watch streams in the highest quality.
Look for yourself. I've run a speed test of NordVPN.
It has very high speeds when connecting to the US server.
Barely 5 to 10% of my usual speed is missing.
To close it up, let me answer, is NordVPN worth it?
After looking at some other top options,
I can say that NordVPN has a very affordable pricing
when you are going long term.
It also has decent value for the price
with all the extra features
and six devices per account support.
Of course, it's possible to try this VPN
for Europe for free as well with a seven day trial
on Android or a 30-day money-back guarantee on all devices.
And if you click this box on your screen,
you can get NordVPN with an exclusive discount,
shaving over 70% from the price.
Now, if you rather pick an option hosted within Europe
but with an equally broad range of capabilities,
Surfshark fits the bill perfectly.
Operating under Netherlands jurisdiction,
Surfshark is not subjected to any data retention loss
and boast a trustworthy no-logs policy
despite the fact that the Netherlands
is one of the 14 Eyes countries.
Additionally, Surfshark implemented
RAM-only servers themselves,
aiming to notify the chances of recording any user data.
Besides privacy protection,
Surfshark has plenty of security features
from standard encryption and kill switch
to more advanced stuff.
Just recently, Surfshark released their own suite
of cybersecurity add-ons dubbed Surfshark One.
This suite even includes a functional anti-virus
which is honestly a good reason enough
to aim for the best Europe VPN spot.
Even if you only need VPN for entertainment,
Surfshark can help any European user access streaming
and torrenting content worldwide.
I've managed to access a bunch of streaming content
with Surfshark without any issues at all.
And my speeds have been more than sufficient for it.
Here's the speed test I've done with a US server,
and you can see that this speed is really close
to both my baseline and the NordVPN's result.
However, there are some aspects
in which Surfshark overcomes NordVPN pretty easily.
First of all, Surfshark has no device limit per account.
Second of all, it is one of the most affordable VPNs
I've ever put my hands on.
Considering that it offers a seven day trial for Android,
iOS, and macOS and a 30-day money-back guarantee as well,
it's hard to get a better value
for the price than Surfshark.
But to be fair, it's possible to get a lower price
if you are okay with less features and speeds as well.
PrivateVPN is a rather modest European VPN option.
It doesn't have fancy tunneling protocols
and relies on the older but effective AES-256 encryption
while still offering a robust skill switch.
Honestly, there aren't many additional features to speak of
but PrivateVPN does offer Application Guard and Stealth VPN,
both being quite important features, in my opinion.
However, its privacy protection is a bit worse,
seeing how it is based in Sweden,
and it's subjected to this country's data attention loss.
On the other hand, PrivateVPN has a no-logs policy in place,
and so far, I have not found any case
when this European VPN would have gathered user data.
The biggest downside to the EU users
would lie in performance.
Lacking a modern tunneling protocol,
PrivateVPN is significantly slower than NordVPN or Surfshark
as you can see yourself in this speed test.
That said, this speed still proved to be enough
if you are looking to stream using PrivateVPN.
Since PrivateVPN is capable
of accessing various geo-block content,
it's a decent VPN for Europe-oriented streaming,
and it has no restriction for torrenting as well.
As I've mentioned in the beginning,
PrivateVPN is very cheap even compared to Surfshark
but at the same time, it also offers less features
and has slower speed.
If you don't care about those limitations, though,
there's a seven-day free trial
and a 30-day money-back guarantee
so you could try PrivateVPN out.
Admittedly, there's a free VPN
in Europe you could potentially consider as well.
Atlas VPN is freemium, meaning it has a free version
and a premium one, with the former being quite solid.
Unlike PrivateVPN, Atlas VPN has a modern tunneling protocol
and thus offers both a newer encryption algorithm
and faster speeds.
While this is true for both versions,
the free version doesn't have a lot of servers
or any advanced features.
Amongst the features that I think make the premium
as good as any best VPN in Europe
are SafeBrowse and SafeSwap.
The former blocks tracking and fishing attempts online
and the ladder allows to change IP
and servers without reconnecting.
I consider both to be a huge help when increasing security.
If you care about streaming,
Atlas VPN only allows access to Netflix
and other content through premium streaming servers.
The speeds are decent to watch
even the highest quality video.
I've done a speed test to prove just that.
But to summarize,
Atlas VPN free is a great baseline security and feature tool
while premium version increases the possibilities a lot.
Atlas VPN is a fairly affordable in line with Surfshark
and also offers the same unlimited device deal as Surfshark.
Similarly to other previous VPNs,
Atlas VPN has a seven day trial for premium version
and a 30-day money-back guarantee as well.
Unfortunately, Atlas VPN is one
of the new trustworthy free VPN in Europe.
If you've seen my worst VPN video,
you should know that free VPNs are no stranger
to underhanded methods.
From data gathering to adware injections and scamming,
a lot of free VPNs would do that
while pretending to care about your security.
We all can accidentally become a victim
to an untrustworthy free Europe VPN.
So I ask you to do your research beforehand
or at least choose a VPN with good reputation.
Lastly, let me talk a little bit
about the Eyes Alliances I've been mentioning
throughout the video.
While European countries don't want to spy
on their citizens, they can legally receive information
from other countries in the intelligence-sharing alliance.
This means they can ask other countries to spy for them.
That said, unless you are a seasoned criminal,
chances are your privacy will never be violated
by a member of an intelligent sharing alliance.
On the other hand, one can never be too careful.
So employ the best VPN in Europe
to leave as little digital footprint as possible.
I especially recommend using VPN while traveling.
And that's about it. I hope this video was informative.
Make sure to leave a like and subscribe for more videos.
And don't forget about discounts in the description below.
Before leaving, you can tell me which country you live in
and which VPN you are using and why.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you soon.
(slick music)