How VPNs Affect Speed Tests — We Benchmarked 8 VPN Services

Baseline (No VPN): 941 Mbps ↓ / 937 Mbps ↑ / 4.8ms Ping

Ranked Results

• Mullvad (WireGuard): 891 Mbps | -5.3% | +4.4ms ✅ Best
• ExpressVPN (Lightway): 884 Mbps | -6.1% | +3.2ms ✅
• NordVPN (NordLynx/WG): 861 Mbps | -8.5% | +5.1ms ✅
• ProtonVPN (WireGuard): 823 Mbps | -12.5% | +7.3ms ✅
• Surfshark (WireGuard): 739 Mbps | -21.5% | +9.8ms ⚠️
• CyberGhost (WireGuard): 698 Mbps | -25.8% | +12.1ms ⚠️
• IPVanish (OpenVPN): 412 Mbps | -56.2% | +18.4ms ❌
• Generic Free VPN: 87 Mbps | -90.7% | +67ms ❌ Avoid

Key Findings

• WireGuard beats OpenVPN by 30–50%. Always use WireGuard if available.
• Free VPNs destroy performance. 90% reduction = HD streaming impossible.
• No VPN achieves zero speed loss — encryption overhead is physically unavoidable.
• For speed testing: always disable VPN for baseline. With VPN active, you measure VPN performance, not connection quality.