There are several reasons why you might want to use one of the best VPN services in or outside of Canada. If you are concerned about the Five Eyes Alliance’s surveillance practices and the impact of new legislations such as Bill C-11 or if you simply want the freedom to access global streaming catalogs from your Vancouver apartment, a VPN is the tool you need.
But how does a VPN in Canada work in practice? A virtual private network, which is typically hosted by a large network of international servers, allows you to connect and appear virtually anywhere in the world. As a result, your actual IP address is spoofing, providing users with greater online anonymity and access to otherwise geo-restricted content.
A VPN in Canada can also ensure that you never lose access to what you want to watch and consume online. If you find yourself outside the country and want to watch TSN, DAZN, CBC or Crave, a VPN will help you out. Similarly, if you want to check out Netflix exclusives available to your southern neighbors, the right VPN can easily grant you access to American Netflix.
From improved security to better streaming, torrenting, and gaming experiences, we’ve found the five best Canada VPNs to meet your requirements.
How Do I Select the Best VPN for Me in Canada?
When looking for a good VPN, keep the following in mind:
- An effective privacy policy
- High security
- Dependable encryption
- Server availability – for faster connections
- Simplicity of use
- Number of concurrent connections supported
NordVPN
NordVPN has a true zero-logs policy, which means it doesn’t even keep track of how you use the VPN service. It also has military-grade encryption, DNS leak protection, and a kill switch that stops all internet traffic if a connection is lost. The company is based in Panama, which does not have mandatory data retention laws. In the past, law enforcement confiscated NordVPN servers, but there was nothing to be found.
NordVPN has a large VPN network with over 5,000 servers worldwide. It’s also the fastest service we’ve tested, which makes it ideal for streaming video and downloading large files. You can also select from servers that are optimized for specific scenarios, such as double VPN, Tor over VPN, and ultra-fast streaming. You can use NordVPN to access US Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer, among other services.
There are apps for Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS and Android.
SurfsharkVPN
Surfshark is your best bet for a truly inexpensive Canada VPN. In our Surfshark review, we discovered that the service delivers excellent speeds for a fraction of the price of its competitors – and for many, that’s a deal breaker.
Its desktop clients are powerful and dependable, with AES-256 encryption and several protocols, including WireGuard, as well as an ad blocker, kill switch, and other features. It’s simple to set up and gives you quick access to Surfshark’s 3,200+ servers worldwide, 90 of which are in Canada.
Its mobile apps are also clean and simple, and while they aren’t as detailed as Express’, they do the job admirably. They also address one of ExpressVPN’s only shortcomings: with unlimited simultaneous connections, you can cover as many devices as you want, whether 5 or 105.
Some users may find Surfshark’s apps too simple, and there isn’t much to change beyond protocols and the kill switch – but that won’t matter to many, and the provider’s charm is in its simplicity. It’s inexpensive, simple, and dependable.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the best VPNs for Canada, allowing you to browse the Internet safely and anonymously. It provides unrestricted access to music, social media websites, video, and other content. IP addresses, browsing history, DNS queries, and traffic destinations are not logged by this VPN.
This VPN service provides online security through leak detection and encryption. It keeps you safe by masking your IP address and encrypting your network traffic. Express VPN offers email and live chat support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This is one of the best VPNs for Android that accepts Bitcoin payments. ExpressVPN encrypts web traffic for users and masks IP addresses. It also assists you in concealing your physical location.
CyberGhostVPN
This is one of the quickest options available, and it supports 5 devices. CyberGhost has over 2,500 servers and 70 locations, as well as a good privacy policy. You will get some impressively fast download speeds with this option, and there are servers in both Canada and America. It is a relatively simple VPN that does not provide many configuration options.
You’ll appreciate features like virtual location change and private browsing. Your activity and connection data may be recorded, but it will be deleted once your session ends. CyberGhost isn’t as cheap as some other options, but it does come with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
IPVanishVPN
IPVanish has suffered greatly in the past as a result of its involvement in some, shall we say, unfortunate incidents. Aside from that, keep in mind that they are under new management, and hopefully such issues will become a thing of the past.
Putting those incidents aside, they continue to be a VPN behemoth with impressive speeds. Fortunately, there isn’t much you can do if you have any complaints about their speed because they force 256-bit encryption on everyone without exception.
As previously stated, IPVanish, for whatever reason you dislike them, provides some interesting speeds. These figures are certainly sufficient to place them on our top VPN for Canada list. With my location in Malaysia and the test running from their Canada server, I received a very strong 121 Mbps down speed.
Surprisingly, it suffers quite a bit upstream, but I’m pretty sure that’s not a top priority for most of us.
This is good news for Canadians who will be connecting to servers nearby or even in the neighboring US. The one major flaw here is the poor quality of their customer service. If you’re from a Western country and expect a certain level of support, IPVanish falls short.
VPN Canada Buying Guide - 8 Considerations
The best thing you can do, as with any other service, is to determine what is most important to you. Obviously, each person will receive a different result from this process.
Someone might be looking for the best VPN for Netflix. Another person may be looking for the best VPN for beginners. It is entirely up to the individual.
There are numerous factors that can be considered; here are a few examples:
Speed: It is expressed in megabits per second (Mbps). This is the speed at which you can download something, the higher the number, the faster your connection.
Leak Testing: An IP leak occurs when a VPN user’s true IP address is displayed in a network unknowingly. This is undesirable because you want to conceal your IP address at all times.
A DNS leak is a network configuration issue that causes DNS queries to be sent over insecure links rather than through the VPN connection. A DNS query is when a user needs to convert a server’s name to an IP address.
Leak testing ensures that your true identity is never revealed.
Jurisdiction: The actual location of the VPN has a significant impact on user privacy. A few countries have the authority to compel companies to hand over consumer data. Making sure the VPN you’re using isn’t legally based in one of those countries will help you stay safe.
Countries in the Five Eyes surveillance alliance are the worst offenders. Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States are among them.
Server Network: If the VPN does not have a large number of servers or a server location close to you, you will most likely experience slow speeds.
Features: Many important features, such as PPTP, OpenVPN, SSL, Tunnel Protocol, and AES256 Encryption, can improve your VPN experience.
Streaming: It is one of the most common reasons people use a VPN. They want to be able to access geo-restricted streaming services. Netflix, for example, geo-restricts its content to specific countries. Certain VPNs are more effective than others at doing so.
Operating Systems and Compatibility: Some VPNs only support certain operating systems. You should ensure that the VPN is simple to use on the system you use.
Obfuscation: In many cases, obfuscation is unnecessary. Because of obfuscation, you can use a VPN in China or in situations where they don’t want you to access certain areas of the internet, such as school or work.:
How We Test VPNs in Canada
Before recommending a VPN, we evaluate its performance in a number of key areas.
Here’s a rundown of the criteria we use to recommend the best VPNs in Canada.
We test every VPN for use in Canada specifically for:
- Average download speed when connected to Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal servers
- The number of VPN servers in Canada and the number of Canadian cities
- Whether or not the VPN allows you to access Canadian streaming services
- AES-256 encryption and support for the OpenVPN protocol
- A no-logs or minimal-logs policy for privacy
- The value for money, the availability of live chat 24 hours a day, and the friendliness of customer service.
Here’s a more detailed list of the specific categories we test for, as well as how much of our overall Canada rating they account for:
1. Canada’s average speed is 30%
- Minimum Requirement: Average speed loss of less than 40% on Toronto servers.
- On Toronto servers, we recommend an average speed loss of 15% or less.
- We test every VPN’s average download speed before and after connecting to servers in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
- In addition to our manual tests, our automated speed tests constantly monitor the speeds of the most popular VPNs, so we have real-time VPN speed figures for every eight-week period.
- We reward VPNs that have the least impact on your download speeds on both local and international connections, as these are the best for streaming and torrenting.
2. 30% of Canadian Servers
- The bare minimum is a selection of VPN servers in Canada.
- We Recommend a wide range of VPN servers in various Canadian cities.
- We also count the number of servers each VPN has in Canada. The more servers spread across the country, the less network congestion there will be, resulting in faster speeds.
- VPN services with a large number of servers in multiple Canadian cities, as well as VPNs with servers in neighboring countries such as the United States, are rewarded. A VPN receives a lower rating if it does not provide multiple servers in Canada.
3. 20% Logging Policy
- A clear privacy policy with only anonymized connection logs is the bare minimum.
- A strict zero-logs privacy policy is recommended.
- We thoroughly investigate each VPN’s privacy policy to determine whether a VPN stores your activity data, for how long, and whether that data is ever shared with third parties.
- Services with a strict zero-logs privacy policy, as well as those that collect anonymous connection data, are rewarded. VPNs that collect unnecessary or personally identifiable information face severe penalties.
4. Streaming and P2P in Canada: 20%
- Access to US Netflix and P2P support are required as a minimum.
- Access to multiple international streaming libraries and P2P-optimized servers is recommended.
- Every VPN is manually tested by our experts to ensure that it works with geo-restricted streaming services. We also test platforms like BitTorrent and uTorrent to see if they can be used to safely share files.
- We honor services that collaborate with multiple international libraries on streaming services like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+. We also test each VPN to ensure that it works with Canadian Netflix and DAZN from abroad.
- Our torrenting tests look for P2P-optimized servers and online protections for torrenters, which is especially important in Canada due to its strict copyright laws.
Additional Testing Locations
Certain security and usability features are essential for any high-quality VPN, not just Canadian VPNs.
Though we do not assign specific weights to these categories, we do consider them when calculating an overall rating.
For Canada, we ensure that every VPN we recommend meets the bare minimum of security requirements to protect your data and privacy on public WiFi networks.
The AES encryption cipher with a 256-bit key length is used by the most secure VPNs. More advanced VPNs will provide a variety of connection protocols, and those that use OpenVPN by default will be rewarded.
We use packet inspection technology to ensure that the encryption is effective and that no IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks exist in the VPNs we recommend. A VPN kill switch and leak protection are also essential security features.
Every VPN app is tested on macOS, iOS, Windows, and Android to see if it has an easy-to-use interface.
We measure the customer support offering and evaluate the level of knowledge, speed of response, and overall user experience on offer using email and live chat assistance.
Finally, we consider value for money and highlight VPNs that provide more for less.
VPN Services to Avoid in Canada
There are numerous VPNs available that claim to be the best in terms of security and speed. However, not all VPNs are safe because they lack strong encryption and a no-logs policy. Similarly, most offer only a few features that are insufficient for online security.
On that note, the following VPNs should be avoided in Canada:
HolaVPN
In the VPN industry, Hola VPN has a bad reputation. A few years ago, Hola was discovered selling its user’s bandwidth to botnets for DDoS attacks. Essentially, Hola users were acting as “botnet-for-hire” carrying out distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks as well as distributing pirated media content.
OperaVPN
Another VPN that you should avoid in Canada is Opera VPN. It has an invasive logging policy and logs a significant amount of user data. Opera VPN is not a full VPN because it only encrypts your browser traffic. Likewise, there is no leak protection, so your IP address is not safe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will using a VPN affect the speed of my Internet connection?
A VPN will inevitably slow down your internet speed because it encrypts all of your web traffic. The difference in speed, however, will be imperceptible with the best VPNs.
Can I use a free VPN service in Canada?
Although there are free VPNs for Canada, you should exercise caution. Furthermore, you should be aware that free VPNs have drawbacks such as ads and viruses.
Is it legal to use a VPN in Canada?
Yes, In Canada using a VPN is legal.
Conclusion
While Internet neutrality is not a major issue in Canada, there are some other privacy concerns. The country is a member of the 5-Eyes alliance, which allows ISPs to easily track your online activities.
Fortunately, you can protect yourself by using a VPN. A VPN conceals your IP address and ensures that all of your data is encrypted and secure from prying eyes. Such services can also be used to gain access to geo-restricted content on streaming services.
NordVPN is our top recommendation. It has an audited no-logs policy, 480+ servers in three Canadian locations and advanced features like traffic obfuscation and Smart DNS and it’s currently 68% off.
