The Best VPN for Digital Nomads: Our Top 5
While living as a digital nomad, VPNs are a crucial tool for protecting your privacy online and ensuring you have access to all the content you need to carry out your work.
Aside from general factors like speed and reliability, digital nomads looking for a VPN need to think about factors like kill switches and split tunneling to guarantee a stable, secure connection that allows them to keep on top of their workload.
If you’re planning to embark on a digital nomad lifestyle, or you’re already working internationally and looking for new and useful tools, here’s a quick guide to help you find the best VPN for digital nomads.
Why Digital Nomads Should Use a VPN
VPNs have a variety of uses spanning different industries and professions, but can be particularly useful for anyone maintaining a digital nomad lifestyle.
Some of the key benefits of using a VPN for digital nomads include:
Access to geo-restricted content: If you’ve ever travelled to a new country and found that you can’t access certain online content you usually use at home, using a VPN is one of the best ways to ensure you can access these sites no matter where you are in the world.
Finding cheap flights: The price of flights can vary considerably depending on the geographic location you buy them from. As flights are among the biggest expenses digital nomads have to account for, having a VPN can help you find the lowest flight prices possible, and enjoy some fantastic long-term savings during your travels.
Bypass censorship: Many countries have strict censorship laws which can make it hard to access certain content online or even carry out your work. By using a VPN to adopt a temporary IP outside of the country, you’ll be able to get around these restrictions and browse the same way you do at home.
Secure collaboration: As a digital nomad, you may have to collaborate with remote teams spread across different timezones and networks. By using a VPN for your work, you’ll ensure your connection remains secure throughout your collaborations, protecting both your device and those of your colleagues or business partners.
The Best VPN for Digital Nomads: Our Top 5 Picks
There’s a lot of variables to think about when finding the best VPN for digital nomads, including the precise needs surrounding your job and the standard you’re looking for in terms of speed, connection reliability, and security.
Here’s 5 of the best VPNs for digital nomads, and why we think they’re the best.
NordVPN
NordVPN operates one of the largest server networks in the VPN niche, with more than 5,500 available servers spread across 60 different countries.
With support from the private web browser Onion and double-data encryption, digital nomads using NordVPN can rest assured their data will be as safe as possible through all communication and browsing activities, with minimal risk of phishing attacks and other cyber crime hazards.
Alongside these features, NordVPN features an automated kill switch, meaning that if your VPN connection suddenly drops you’ll still remain protected, and be able to browse without the risk of your data being compromised.
With connected speeds of up to 89.42 Mbps on a regular 100 Mbps connection, many hold NordVPN to be the best VPN for digital nomads who value a fast browsing experience.
Express VPN
ExpressVPN is an industry leader with a great spread of features to back up its sterling reputation.
Its intuitive web extension and mobile apps are compatible with a wide range of browsers and devices, with dedicated versions for Android, iOS, and desktops, while its five simultaneous logins feature makes it the best VPN for digital nomads who use several different devices during their work.
Express VPN’s split tunneling and high-end encryption features makes using it exceptionally secure, and the company commitment to not maintaining user logs puts its standard of privacy a cut above many other VPNs.
SurfShark
SurfShark may not be the most feature-rich of major VPNs, but it still offers a robust VPN solution at a low price, making it the best VPN for digital nomads who want to browse securely on a budget.
Based on the British Virgin Islands, SurfShark isn’t legally obligated to keep logs of user data, making it especially effective for protecting your data while you use public networks or collaborate with other remote workers online.
SurfShark is also reliably fast and capable of speeds of up to 81.32 Mbps on 100 Mbps connections, ensuring you can stay safe while having a similar browsing experience as you would working at home.
Private Internet Access
Private Internet Access, one of the longest-running VPNs in the game, is the best VPN for digital nomads who have very specific requirements for their VPN service and like to tinker around to create the best experience possible.
The interface gives you access to a range of advanced network settings, allowing you to customize the way you connect to their international servers so you can prioritize privacy, speed, or whatever else is important to you when browsing.
Though it’s more expensive than many other VPN services on the market, Private Internet Access’s robust set of features, including unlimited simultaneous connections, multi-hop, and split tunneling, means you’ll get more bang for your buck and a fantastic all-rounder if you require a VPN tailored to you.
IPVanish
IPVanish has a reputation as one of the most reliable VPNs on the market.
Offering more than 2,200 servers across a 75 countries, IPVanish’s USP focuses on geographic flexibility, and we consider it to be the best VPN for digital nomads who need to reliably connect to servers in specific countries as part of their work.
IPVanish’s speed is respectable but leaves a little to be desired, with speeds of up to 70.05 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection. However, with its low price point, it’s a great option for nomads who want a reliable, no-frills service or those who only use VPNs for select tasks.
Nomading in Safety
VPNs are an important part of many digital nomads’ toolkits, and it’s essential to know what kind of services are available whether you’re just starting your digital nomad journey or looking to develop your ways of working. We hope this guide has helped you get a feel for your options and find the best VPN for digital nomads like you.
If you want to keep every aspect of your trip as well-protected as your browsing data, be sure to check out some of our global insurance plans for digital nomads.