I’ve tried a few VPN’s in the last year and I just thought I’d post here to give my opinions on the services I’ve personally tried. For reference, I’m from the UK using mainly UK servers, and USA servers during streaming. I also am not being paid or encouraged to post these reviews, it’s 100% my honest opinion. I’ve included the prices of the VPN’s on their longest, cheapest plans since 1 month plans tend to be similar prices everywhere and much more expensive.
Express VPN - Constantly saw it recommended online and I was skeptical of the glowing reviews all the time. I checked it out, very expensive to be honest. Probably the most expensive provider, and the longest plan they sell is 1 year. I took out the 1 month plan to try, and switched to the 1 year. I currently use Express VPN and I couldn’t be happier really. The fastest speeds I’ve ever gotten from a VPN. It even works flawlessly on my Fire TV Netflix, which is usually the downfall of VPN services since they’re often extremely overcrowded and Netflix blacklists the IP addresses. Their app could be a little better but it’s still fully functional and the best service I’ve tried. Never had a CAPTCHA on Google either, which is a very good sign. They are the most expensive, but they’re expensive for a reason. (£6.25 a month / £75 yearly).
NordVPN - Trash, seriously. They’re the best known VPN provider in the UK. They even advertise on television and billboards in England, which is previously unheard of for a VPN service. I went with them about 9 months ago to try out. They offer 3 year long plans for very cheap prices which is always a warning sign. This typically indicates a very crowded service with too many users. I was correct. I got below slow speeds and CAPTCHAS on almost every Google search, and the Netflix speeds were abysmal. I left while I could and requested a full refund. It’s obvious they have completely oversold their service and that’s the reason for the very cheap 3 year plans. Their customer service team do everything to make you stay… but if you be assertive, they will refund you. Oh also, they discourage torrenting and throttle your speed. Terribly overcrowded… Avoid. The only positive is their app was the most polished. (£2.74 a month / £33 yearly).
CyberGhost - This is actually a very nice provider if you don’t want to spend top dollar on ExpressVPN but want to avoid overcrowded services like Nord. They are very affordable and the cheapest provider I found - if you take out the longest plan! Their speeds are very reasonable. I got a very nice speed for browsing and torrenting. Their app is nice as well! However, their major downfall is streaming. I installed the app on my Fire TV and practically every US server is blacklisted on Netflix. One server worked, but it was completely unusable because it was so slow. I presume everyone and their mothers was crowded onto this one server that worked to access USA Netflix. This service is perfectly fine for everything except streaming. Go to ExpressVPN if you want to watch Netflix. (£1.99 a month / £23.88 yearly).
TLDR; Express VPN is the best for everything with the fastest speeds, but the most expensive. Nord VPN is cheap but trash, their service is so overcrowded, speeds terrible, torrenting throttled and you get CAPTCHAS on every Google Search. CyberGhost is the cheapest, they’re perfectly fine for browsing and torrenting, but streaming is its downfall. Completely unusable for Netflix.