Before you sign up for a high speed VPN service, how can you be sure that it will live up to all the hype? After all, just about every VPN service out there will tell you “We’re the fastest”, “We’re the most reliable”, and all that other stuff. As a blogger about VPN services, and as a internet user that depends on them (for business, and travel), I’ve used quite few over the years. Unfortunately, not just one stands out at being the fastest.
There are a lot of variables. What country are you in? What is your operating system? What’s you’re budget? What country do you want your IP address to be from? What’s your preferred VPN protocol? Do you want to download torrents? Do you want a dedicated or static IP? Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll be able to better decide which high speed VPN service will actually provide you with the high bandwidth connections you require. First, I’ll list the best VPN services based on requirements, and then at the end of the post I’ll provide a summary of the high speed VPN services discussed here.
For most of the western world, just about any VPN service will do. In my opinions, Hide My Ass is probably the best choice for the majority of users. It has the country locations available, and sports a very cheap price. It’s easy to set up, and is one of the most used VPN services on the internet.
If you’re in Asia or the Middle East, 12VPN has a mirror site, as well as custom VPN protocols that other VPN services don’t have. This would include a VPN for China, Egypt, and other infamously censored countries. (12VPN mirror site)
What is your operating system?I can recommend two services that will fit a wide range of operating systems. One is StrongVPN. They’ve got a very comprehensive site that will cater to most users – both beginning and advanced. Live support is a big bonus for StrongVPN clients. All you typical iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, and VPN routers are supported.
The other is 12VPN. They offer the widest range of support of any VPN service out there, and even have VPNs for Nokia, Blackberry, and other smartphones that most other high speed VPN services don’t support. Not to mention they have stellar customer support to help with setup.
When talking about high bandwidth VPNs, the question of price VS quality always comes up. For users on a budget, you’ve got three options. SwitchVPN has a very cheap service that will limit you to one server, but if you sign up for 1 year, it’s only $3.95 per month.
StrongVPN also has a ‘lite’ plan for $55 per year, which breaks down to$4.5 USD per month. It limits the VPN server location, but it’s a heck of a deal.
The next best deal would be 12VPN. Their original US IP address plan is $79, but if you use the code promo7286 after signing up (though this site), you get a 10% discount, bringing the year cost to just $71.10.
Yet another option would be the limited bandwidth account at PureVPN – just $74 USD. The account provides you with 30GB per month of bandwidth (plenty), and you get a range of about 14 different country IP addresses (as compared to the 1 for 12VPN or 
SwitchVPN.
If you’re looking for a wide range of options, then Hide My Ass is clearly your best option. They’re currently at 41 country locations, but their network is growing every month. A standard VPN service will offer about 4-10 locations in one package – so you get 4x more with HMA. Plus, you get free server switching.
StrongVPN is another option, though it’ll cost you a bit more to get access to their full network. There are some VPN server locations that are not available at HMA, including Norway.
If you want the standard PPTP, L2TP, or OpenVPN, all of the above services will offer them.
If you’re looking for a SSTP, then I can recommend PureVPN.
If you’re looking for mVPN, IKEv2, IPSec, Cisco, or other lesser used VPN protocols, then 12VPN should be your first stop.
The thing about VPN speed is that there are a lot of varying factors. I’ve done my own speed tests and got very different results that those that are posted on other sites. You can try your own speed tests at speedtest.net – it’s actually pretty fun, and it’s free.
StrongVPN is my personal favorite. They have an excellent service, with very fast servers in my experience. With the wide range of servers and protocols, you can be sure that you’ll find something that works well for your situation.
HMA, though it doesn’t have a reputation either way, have a very cool feature that you can organize VPN servers based on speed and how many other users are signed in. This way, you can be sure to get a high speed VPN server no matter when you sign in.
No all VPN services allow downloading torrents on their servers. Hide My Ass does on all servers. PureVPN also allows torrents on all servers. HMA is UK based, and PureVPN is Hong Kong based.
The standard will a dynamic IP address, for which I could recommend Hide My Ass, but really, most other services listed here will do. If you specifically need a dedicated IP address, then I can recommend StrongVPN or PureVPN.
………
