Best UK VPN 2023

Are you after the best UK VPN services in 2023? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you want to catch up on BBC iPlayer shows while travelling abroad, or simply want to keep your internet footprint private and discrete in the UK, we have a selection of six providers that will serve you well.

To clarify, when we refer to the best UK VPN services, we are talking about services that have VPN servers located within the United Kingdom, rather than UK-based businesses. Our top choice is ExpressVPN, but no one VPN provider ticks all the boxes. To ensure that we have appropriate options for your varying needs, we’ve broken down our recommendations based on their unique highlights, such as listing the fastest VPN, and the best cheap VPN separately.

Our choices for the best UK VPN services are as follows:

• ExpressVPN – best for the UK
• Private Internet Access – best price
• CyberGhost – best for streaming
• NordVPN – best for speed
• Surfshark – best for multiple devices
• PureVPN – best for privacy

1. The best UK VPN

ExpressVPN is the best UK VPN and its pricing works out as $8.32 USD or £5.70 GBP per month.

ExpressVPN overview:

Pros:

• Servers available in London, East London, Wembley, and the Docklands
• Uses the superfast Lightway protocol

Cons:

• A little more expensive than other options on this list
• No free trial

ExpressVPN offers a fantastic VPN service which we think is the best for anybody keen to connect via servers in the UK. It has several servers in different locations around the country, and it refreshes IP addresses regularly, reducing the risk of servers being blocked by websites and online services.

Additionally, ExpressVPN uses the TrustedServer system, which means that the servers can never write any data about your activities out in the internet realms. This will be good news if you’re particularly conscious of your online privacy. The only real downsides of ExpressVPN are its price and its limitation of only five simultaneous connections, but if VPN costs aren’t too important to you, and you don’t need lots of simultaneous connections, this provider should be fine.

Gaming fans in particular do well with ExpressVPN – notably, we put it in the top spot in our best games VPN guide. This is because it has dedicated gaming servers and that it uses the ultra-fast Lightway protocol, which allows it to encrypt your data at amazing speeds.

2. The best cheap VPN for the UK

Private Internet Access (PIA) is the best cheap VPN for the UK and its pricing works out as $2.19 USD or £1.69 GBP per month.

Private Internet Access overview:

Pros:

• Servers available in Southampton, Manchester, and London
• Decent pricing

Cons:

• A little slower than some other top providers
• No free trial

If our number one choice is a little too pricey for you, then perhaps Private Internet Access will serve you better given it’s one of the more affordable options out there. It gets even cheaper too because you’ll get an exclusive extra-low rate if you click through one of our links.

With servers in Manchester, London, and Liverpool, this is a good option for anybody who needs a UK VPN. Meanwhile, it also has built-in ad-blocking functionality and the ability for you to have up to ten simultaneous connections, making this a rather robust package. If you ever want to connect outside of the UK, there are 35,000 servers for you to choose from too.

PIA may go a little more slowly than some of the other top providers, but that doesn’t mean that it offers a bad service. It’s only fractionally slower and most users won’t notice that at all. Besides which, with so many servers, it has a significantly lower risk of slowdown because of server congestion, which is definitely in its favour.

3. The best streaming VPN for the UK

CyberGhost is the best VPN for streaming in the UK and its pricing works out as $2.19 USD or £1.92 GBP.

CyberGhost overview:

Pros:

• Compatible with the majority of streaming services
• 792 servers located in the UK

Cons:

• Can be a bit slower than other providers
• Free trial could be longer

Are you mainly after a UK VPN so that you can watch the BBC iPlayer when outside of the UK? (Doctor Who is great, isn’t it?) And maybe you appreciate the delights of the other streaming services too? Well, we recommend CyberGhost as the best streaming VPN.

It’s broadly compatible with the majority of major streaming platforms, and has 700 UK servers located in London, Berkshire, and Manchester. It also features a lengthy 45-day money-back guarantee, which means you’ll have a whole month and a half to make sure that it runs smoothly with any streaming services you might like to use.

While it is true that CyberGhost is a slightly slower VPN provider, like PIA, it is unlikely that this will have any significant impact on your online experience. Indeed, it still works just fine with streaming services, so other than perhaps the most ardent pro-gamers, this isn’t going to both many people.

4. The fastest VPN for the UK

NordVPN is the fastest VPN for the UK, and its pricing works out as $4.19 USD, or £2.99 GBP per month.

NordVPN overview:

Pros:

• Over 400 servers in the UK
• Fastest provider on this list

Cons:

• A little pricier than some other VPNs
• No free trial

Slow internet connections suck. Nothing ruins an online experience like lag or buffering, and we recommend NordVPN for those who are in the market for the fastest UK VPN. While it’s commonly believed that using a VPN will slow down your connection, in some instances, it can actually speed it up. Internet services providers (ISPs) often artificially slow your download speeds when you’re using a lot of bandwidth, but that’s only possible when they know what’s hogging the connection. A VPN can mask your traffic, preventing your ISP from throttling your speeds.

Tested on OpenVPN, NordVPN boasted the fastest download speeds of all the providers on this list. Speaking of servers, it has more than 400 of them located within the UK, and if you’re not sure which one to use, NordVPN even has a handy tool on its website to help point you towards the right server depending on what you’re planning to do.

NordVPN is a little more expensive than others on this list (though cheaper than ExpressVPN), but it’s very much a case of getting what you pay for. This is one of the most well-known and respected VPNs on the market and it is very deserving of its positive reputation.

Our NordVPN review can give you a more thorough overview of this service.

5. The best UK VPN for multiple devices

Surfshark is the best UK VPN for multiple devices and its pricing works out as $2.30 USD or £1.90 GBP per month.

Surfshark overview:

Pros:

• 360 servers across in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh
• Allows unlimited simultaneous devices

Cons:

• Slightly fewer countries supported than others
• Smaller overall server count

For those who are seeking to protect not only their own online privacy but also the privacy of their whole household, Surfshark will be the provider to choose. It’s one of only very few VPN providers that allows its customers to connect through an unlimited number of devices simultaneously, making it ideal for big families.

It has 360 servers located in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Manchester, so there are plenty of options for anybody in need of a UK connection point. However, if you would also like to use servers outside the UK, it’s worth keeping in mind that this VPN covers fewer countries than a lot of the others and has a fairly low server total, putting it at greater risk of server congestion.

Surfshark offers a 7-day VPN free trial, giving you plenty of time to make sure it does everything you need it to do before you enter your card details. If you have any concerns at all, this should give you plenty of time to put them to bed. Of course, after that, you’ve got a 30-day money-back guarantee, giving you more than enough time to make sure that this is the right one for you.

6. The most private UK VPN

PureVPN is the most private UK VPN and its pricing works out as $2.08 GBP per month.

PureVPN overview:

Pros:

• Servers in London and Manchester
• Third-party privacy audit

Cons:

• No across-the-board router support
• No free trial

If you need your privacy like a fish needs water, then you should give PureVPN a look. Like all of the other providers on this list, it has a no-logs policy, except it puts its money where its mouth is by submitting itself to regular third-party audits, proving it’s not keeping tabs on its customers’ online adventures.

Of course, it also has servers in the UK (located in London and Manchester) so it’s good for anybody who needs to connect through that region. It’s also another provider that offers a week-long free trial, meaning you can live with it for a while before deciding to get married. As a final cherry on the cake, it lets you use up to ten simultaneous connections, which is a fairly generous cap.

It is unfortunate that it will only allow you to connect through a server using PPTP or OpenVPN protocol, and disappointing that the service doesn’t have a free trial as it once did. However, we suspect that many readers will be happy connecting the VPN through their PC, and free trials are quite a rarity in the VPN world. All things considered, there’s a lot to like about PureVPN and not a lot to criticise.

How we chose the best UK VPN

We compiled this list by carefully studying the unique benefits of different VPN providers that have servers within the UK. While we believe that ExpressVPN is the overall best choice, we also understand that it may not be a case of one-size-fits-all, so we’ve included these other five providers in order to anticipate the needs of our different readers.

Check out our guides on the best free VPNs and VPN deals if you’re working with a tighter budget. We also have guides on the best Indian VPN and the best Canadian VPN, if you need to connect through one of those regions.