best vpns for mac

With spying, tracking, NSA revelations, and living in the post-Snowden world, online liberties are scarce. A VPN isn’t even question anymore, it is full fledged essential no matter what any internet users does. With ongoing unknown threats, security isn’t a question, it’s about implementation. Now securing internet connections to stop all of these threats may sound difficult, but VPNFTW is dedicated to provide the easiest one clicks solutions to secure your internet connection. Mac OSX may be less targeted in malware attacks, but inside network connections everyone including Linux users are targeted in attacks. One click and banking credentials, high profile information, and emails can be stolen from you. This can even happen on your home network.

Apples Mac OS X was first introduced to the market in 1999. The Mac software developed by Apple had a hard time growing in the Windows dominated market. Soon Mac OS X started to mobilize on laptops and soon took over the market. Mac OS X has steady growth, but due to prices, consumers are still choosing Windows based products. Mac OS X is a bit of a proprietary software making it harder to find actual usable VPN providers.

Before the best VPN’s for Mac OS X is listed, we will go over some VPN must haves. OpenVPN is always the recommended protocol for Mac OS X or any operating system really. OpenVPN doubled with strong ciphers is very powerful against the NS and third party agencies trying to decrypt data and snoop on your traffic. Providers should offer three protocols, those include PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, and OpenVPN. OpenVPN is recommended and the strongest, as PPTP and L2TP/IPSec have very little to no security against attacks. It is okay to use such protocols for low level work at a mobile hotspot, but packets can be decrypted by attackers or third parties with ease.

If you are unaware at what the above means, it’s not too important, below are solutions that will simplify the VPN technology to one click. Here are the best VPN’s for Mac.

VyprVPN

vyprvpn best mac

VyprVPN – VyprVPN is a great VPN provider who offers technology no one else can. VyprVPN operates their own datacenters, which means the company works where the servers operate. Why is this such an advantage? This means third parties, the NSA, and others cannot walk in and install loggers on the servers without the host knowing. This also enhances security against shady providers, and makes the whole network infrastructure a secure area. VyprVPN also offers top of the line encryption along with their own encryption that can bypass even Chinas great firewall. VyprVPN is a top of the line provider that has been operating since 1995. VyprVPN also offers a great client for Mac OS X that is simple and easy to use.

Pros:

  • Operates their own infrastructure
  • Great Mac OS X Client
  • Fast speed no other provider can beat due to the housing of their own servers
  • Operates secure non-logging encrypted DNS server
  • Access to connect to over 40+ countries
  • Operates under the jurisdiction of Switzerland

Cons:

  • Keep generic logs for 90 days
  • Nothing really

Visit the VyprVPN Website!

Private Internet Access

private internet access mac os x

Private Internet Access – Private Internet Access (PIA) is another larger VPN provider. Not having quite as much as VyprVPN, PIA is a great choice. With a vast amount of locations and simplistic Mac OS X client, Private Internet Access is a great choice. Testing the service on various occasions throughout months and years, the service has remained fast, and only improved.

Pros:

  • Great Mac OS X client
  • Very fast speeds
  • Great price point
  • Free proxy with purchase
  • Offers DNS leak protection
  • Offers VPN kill switch

Cons:

  • Operates under the jurisdiction of the United States of America
  • Can be slower during peak hours depending on the server
  • Not much

Visit the Private Internet Access Website!

NordVPN

nordvpn mac osx

NordVPN – NordVPN is a great VPN service that has many anonymizing features supported for Mac. With strong crypto and a large amount of countries to choose from, NordVPN is short and to the point. Extra anonymity with TOR relays, and just strong encryption from the start makes NordVPN a simple choice.

Pros:

  • Strong encryption by default, no way to change it
  • Vast amount of servers and server load available to see whats online and stable
  • Great speeds and overall service
  • Has a huge network to handle large loads of traffic
  • Offers dedicated IP address
  • Operates under the jurisdiction of Panama

Cons:

  • Light on people who like features, just offers OpenVPN config, no fancy clients
  • Not much else.

Visit the NordVPN Website!

VPN.AC

vpnac mac

VPN.AC – VPN.AC is a bit of a smaller VPN service with a very fast network speed and great team of privacy experts. VPN.AC is a smaller VPN and they note they are not looking to commercialize. They offer 12 countries and are always expanding while allowing bittorent similar to all the services above. VPN.AC offers a Mac client and OpenVPN via tunnelblick.

Pros:

  • Fast speeds and decent network size
  • Great support team willing to help with any issues promptly
  • Operates under the jurisdiction of Romania

Cons:

  • Limited to smaller VPN business model

Visit the VPN.AC Website!

VPN’s are a bit harder to find as Mac OS isn’t the most popular operating system in the market. There are to many limited providers that don’t offer many features. Above are the top providers that offer the best setup and most amount of features and privacy for Mac OS X.

Apple Logo Image Credit: Wikimedia.org