What are the best VPN apps for Mac OS X?

Question

13

Options
Considered

113

User
Recs.

Jun 19, 2020

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

11 Options Considered

Best VPN apps for Mac OS X	Price	Platforms	IPv6
-- NordVPN	$2.99/M	Windows, MacOS, Linux, IOS, Android	Yes
-- Mullvad	€5.00/M	-	-
-- Viscosity	-	-	-
-- Surfshark	$1.99	Windows; macOS; Android; iOS; Linux; Chrome; Firefox; FireTV; Android box	Yes
-- Tunnelblick	-	-	-

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Ivacy

Cargo VPN

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score 16 · Answer 1

NordVPN

Top Pro

Outside of Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes countries

Located outside of countries intent on degrading your privacy. See More

Top Con

Basically impossible to connect with Amazon.com

Sometimes it loads a page on Amazon, but probably 90% of the time, it fails. Must disable Nord to do any shopping on the site. See More

KindheartedPolyhymnia's Experience

For mac, the best option, in my opinion, is Nordvpn provider. I use it for a couple of years and comparing with other VPNs, Nord beats the competitors at all points. It has more than 5000 servers, and that means you will never have to deal with speed drops. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, MacOS, Linux, IOS, Android

Top Pro

No logs are kept

This aspect of their service is fairly straightforward - no logs are kept, whatsoever. See More

Top Con

Hid data breach

ExuberantArges's Experience

Actually the best VPN I ever had, I use Nordvpn on my MacBook and android phone, it has a very reliable connection and I can't say any bad word about speed. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited speed & bandwidth

NordVPN does not limit your Internet connection speed or bandwidth. See More

Top Con

P2P traffic only allowed on certain servers

If you transmit any kind of BitTorrent P2P traffic on certain servers, all of your active connections will be automatically terminated and you will be transferred onto a different server where file-sharing traffic is "allowed". This is not mentioned in the Terms of Service, and is only vaguely mentioned in the FAQ: "Yes, we allow P2P traffic on certain servers. The server list that allows it: Romania, Russia, Sweden, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Canada." This suggests that NordVPN might do live deep packet inspection on your VPN traffic in order to determine if it's BitTorrent traffic or not. See More

Yanis's Experience

Keep it safe ! See More

Top Pro

Servers in 40+ countries

Server locations are nicely spread and covers many users. NordVPN constantly adds new servers to their service. See More

Top Con

Speed flucuates

Most of the time download speeds are great, however when rush hours occur (for instance, during the weekend), speed drops drastically. See More

pascal donelson's Experience

tested nordvpn on 2 different devices - android and iOS, it works great and without any bugs. Good price and quality combination. See More

Top Pro

Compatibility

NordVPN VPN service can be used on every device that is compatible to connect to a VPN. See More

Top Con

When breach happens, they wait a few months before telling customers about it

NordVPN said it found out about the breach a “few months ago,” but the spokesperson said the breach was not disclosed until today because the company wanted to be “100% sure that each component within our infrastructure is secure.” So instead of allowing their customers to do their own damage limitation, they left their customers in the dark and continued to expose them to a breach they weren't sure they had fully contained. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21312609 See More

EnthusiasticSuurToll's Experience

Had no problems using it. Helps to access websites that are otherwise blocked in my country. See More

Top Pro

Includes a kill switch

Top Con

Can only connect a single VPN service

App is p rovidedby VPN service so is locked to their network. See More

CaringChaxiraxi's Experience

The app is very intuitive. Recommended See More

Top Pro

Allows filesharing

NordVPN is one of the best VPNs for filesharing. It also unblocks Netflix US, which seems impossible with other VPN's. See More

Top Con

Reports of poor customer service

nick minson's Experience

It's one of the most reliable vpns on the market, it also has that pcmag editors choice badge with the maximum rating. Using it for 5 months and didn't have any bugs, so it seems to be the best provider. See More

Top Pro

Six simultaneous devices allowed

Users can use the same VPN account on six devices at the same time. Clients who have a lot of computers and smart-phones at home can set up their router with VPN which will use only 1 device slot and will provide VPN connection to all connected devices. See More

Top Con

Request for refunds sometimes ignored

Though most refund requests get handled promptly. See More

Top Pro

A strong encryption

NordVPN uses strong encryption algorithms to encrypt their user traffic: OpenVPN - 2048bit SSL L2TP - 256-bit AES PPTP - 128-bit MPPE See More

Top Pro

Double VPN

Double VPN is a solution where you traffic uses two hops and is encrypted at both nodes. It gives a double security for the users. See More

Top Pro

Outside of Five, Nine, and Fourteen Eyes countries

Located outside of countries intent on degrading your privacy. See More

See All

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score 7 · Answer 2

Mullvad

Add Video or Image

score 12 · Answer 3

Viscosity

Top Pro

Deployment support

Lets admins package complete installation / update packages. End users just need to klick "Yes, give me access to my company LAN" See More

Top Con

Closed source

Reiner Saddey's Experience

Installation was a snap und cured (Tunnelblick) missing IPv6 DNS resolution problems once and for all. See More

Top Pro

Automagic Split-DNS

Top Con

No option to authenticate multiple connections at once

When running Viscosity and importing connections, you have to go through and add username and password to each of those connections. See More

Top Pro

Good Mac OS X support

See All

score 9 · Answer 4

Surfshark

Top Pro

Unlimited devices

Top Con

Not as fast as advertised - gets throttled where there is DPI

Where there is DPI, it is perfect choice. Marked decrease in speed despite no border option working. It also lacks wireguard and softether support See More

AssertivePhilotes's Experience

Using it on my Mac and iPhone, works nice. Easy to use and I like that you can add as many devices as you want. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows; macOS; Android; iOS; Linux; Chrome; Firefox; FireTV; Android box

IPv6:Yes

Server locations:68

Based in:British Virgin Islands

See All Specs

Top Pro

800+ Servers in 50 Countries Worldwide

Top Con

Can only connect a single VPN service

App is provided by VPN service so is locked to their network. See More

Top Pro

Based in British Virgin Islands (Data Friendly Location)

Top Con

Trash marketing company

Top Pro

Unblock Netflix

Top Pro

30-day money-back guarantee

Top Pro

Strong encryption

Top Pro

Allows torrenting

Top Pro

Keeps Zero logs

Top Pro

Live chat and 24/7 support

Top Pro

Excellent Chat Support

Top Pro

MultiHop Feature

See All

score 18 · Answer 5

Tunnelblick

Top Pro

Free and open source

Tunnelblick is available for free. It's licensed under GPL with source code available here. See More

Top Con

Clumsy UI

Top Pro

Stability

Top Pro

Several VPN configurations can be loaded on the same interface

See All

score 10 · Answer 6

Shimo

Top Pro

Supports multiple VPN protocols

Supports CiscoVPN, AnyConnect, IPSec, OpenVPN, L2TP and PPTP protocols. See More

Top Con

Closed source

Top Pro

Allows using multiple VPN tunnels simultaneously

Top Con

Not free at €39

Top Pro

Auto-connects and re-connects

See All

score 4 · Answer 7

ExpressVPN

Top Con

Can only connect a single VPN service

App is p rovidedby VPN service so is locked to their network. See More

Top Pro

DNS leak detection

Prevents leaking your private browser behavior to an unencrypted DNS server. See More

Top Pro

Built-in speed test

Test all the available servers in all countries at once, to be able to pick the fastest. See More

See All

Answer 8

Cloak

Top Con

Not a VPN client but a service

This app does not allow you to supply your own .ovpn config files, you can only use the app's servers for connecting. See More

Top Pro

Also available for iPhone and iPad

Cloak 2 for iOS now brings the benefit of Cloak for Mac to the iPhone and iPad. One can now define trusted network, such as a cellular network, where a VPN may not be required. See More

Top Pro

Bautiful and clear UI

Interface does a good job of letting the user understand what’s happening under the hood, without mucking about with low-level settings screen, and makes the security status of your network clear via multiple visual cues. See More

Top Pro

Transporter

Cloak is also very handy when you want to look at foreign movies, not accessible from your country. Cloak has servers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and United States. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 9

OneVPN

Top Pro

Cheap

AffablePhilomelus's Experience

cheap See More

Top Pro

Best VPN For MAC

Included on Mac, PPTP and Viscosity. See More

See All

Answer 10

ProtonVPN

Platforms:Windows, Android, iOS

Price :Free

Options :VPN over TOR

score 1 · Answer 11

ibVPN

Add Video or Image

11 Options Considered

My Recommendation for NordVPN

My Recommendation for NordVPN

Outside of Five, Nine and Fourteen Eyes countries

Basically impossible to connect with Amazon.com

No logs are kept

Hid data breach

Unlimited speed & bandwidth

P2P traffic only allowed on certain servers

Servers in 40+ countries

Speed flucuates

Compatibility

When breach happens, they wait a few months before telling customers about it

Includes a kill switch

Can only connect a single VPN service

Allows filesharing

Reports of poor customer service

Six simultaneous devices allowed

Request for refunds sometimes ignored

A strong encryption

Double VPN

Outside of Five, Nine, and Fourteen Eyes countries

My Recommendation for Mullvad

My Recommendation for Mullvad

My Recommendation for Viscosity

My Recommendation for Viscosity

Deployment support

Closed source

Automagic Split-DNS

No option to authenticate multiple connections at once

Good Mac OS X support

My Recommendation for Surfshark

My Recommendation for Surfshark

Unlimited devices

Not as fast as advertised - gets throttled where there is DPI

800+ Servers in 50 Countries Worldwide

Can only connect a single VPN service

Based in British Virgin Islands (Data Friendly Location)

Trash marketing company

Unblock Netflix

30-day money-back guarantee

Strong encryption

Allows torrenting

Keeps Zero logs

Live chat and 24/7 support

Excellent Chat Support

MultiHop Feature

My Recommendation for Tunnelblick

My Recommendation for Tunnelblick

Free and open source

Clumsy UI

Stability

Several VPN configurations can be loaded on the same interface

My Recommendation for Shimo

My Recommendation for Shimo

Supports multiple VPN protocols

Closed source

Allows using multiple VPN tunnels simultaneously

Not free at €39

Auto-connects and re-connects

My Recommendation for ExpressVPN

My Recommendation for ExpressVPN

Can only connect a single VPN service

DNS leak detection

Built-in speed test

My Recommendation for Cloak

My Recommendation for Cloak

Not a VPN client but a service

Also available for iPhone and iPad

Bautiful and clear UI

Transporter

My Recommendation for OneVPN

My Recommendation for OneVPN

Cheap

Best VPN For MAC

My Recommendation for ProtonVPN

My Recommendation for ProtonVPN

My Recommendation for ibVPN

My Recommendation for ibVPN

Don't see your favorite option? Add it.