The best UK VPN services in 2022

Are you after the best UK VPN services in 2022? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Whether you want to catch up on BBC iPlayer shows while travelling abroad, or simply want to keep your internet footprint private and discrete in the UK, we have a selection of six providers that will serve you well.

To clarify, when we refer to the best UK VPN services, we are talking about VPN providers who have servers located within the United Kingdom. The businesses mentioned in this article are not UK-based, as all major players are located elsewhere. Generally, most VPN providers avoid basing their business in the UK because it has laws that are considered invasive to data privacy, which isn’t good when privacy is your whole business.

Our top choice is ExpressVPN, but no one VPN provider ticks all the boxes. In order to ensure that we have appropriate options for your varying needs, we’ve broken down our recommendations based on their unique highlights, such as listing the fastest VPN, and the best cheap VPN separately.

Our choices for the best UK VPN services are as follows:

1. The best UK VPN

ExpressVPN offers a fantastic VPN service which we think is the best for anybody who is keen to connect via servers in the UK. It has several servers in different locations around London, and it refreshes IP addresses on a regular basis, reducing the risk of servers being blocked by websites and online services.

Additionally, ExpressVPN uses the TrustedServer system, which means that the servers can never write any data about your activities out in the internet realms. This will be good news if you’re particularly conscious of your online privacy. The only real downsides of ExpressVPN are its price and its restriction of up to five simultaneous connections, but that aside, this is a great choice.

2. The best cheap VPN for the UK

If our number one choice is a little too pricey for you, then perhaps Private Internet Access will serve you better given it’s one of the more affordable options out there. In an exclusive deal for PCGN readers, you can get three years of cover (with another three months free) for $79, which works out as just $2.03 per month when divided.

With servers in Manchester, London, and Liverpool, this is a good option for anybody who needs a UK VPN. Meanwhile, it also has built-in ad-blocking functionality and the ability for you to have up to ten simultaneous connections, making this a rather robust package. If you ever want to connect outside of the UK, there are 35,000 servers for you to choose from too.

3. The best streaming VPN for the UK

Are you mainly after a UK VPN so that you can watch the BBC iPlayer when outside of the UK? (Doctor Who is great, isn’t it?) And maybe you appreciate the delights of the other streaming services too? Well, we recommend CyberGhost as the best streaming VPN.

It’s broadly compatible with the majority of major streaming platforms, and has 700 UK servers located in London, Berkshire, and Manchester. It also features a lengthy 45-day money-back guarantee, which means you’ll have a whole month and a half in order to make sure that it runs smoothly with any streaming services you might like to use.

4. The fastest VPN for the UK

Slow internet connections suck. Nothing ruins an online experience like lag or buffering, and we recommend NordVPN for those who are in the market for the fastest UK VPN. While it’s commonly believed that using a VPN will slow down your connection, in some instances, it can actually speed it up. Internet services providers (ISPs) often artificially slow your broadband down when you’re using a lot of bandwidth, but they can only bottleneck when they knows what’s hogging the connection. A VPN can mask your traffic, preventing your ISP from throttling your speeds.

Tested on OpenVPN, NordVPN boasts average server download speeds of 65.79Mbit/s which is quite a bit faster than many of its competitors. Speaking of servers, it has more than 400 of them located within the UK, and if you’re not sure which one to use, NordVPN even has a handy tool on its website to help point you towards the right server depending on what you’re planning to do.

5. The best UK VPN for multiple devices

For those who are seeking to protect not only their own online privacy, but also the privacy of their whole household, Surfshark will be the provider to choose. It’s one of only very few VPN providers that allows its customers to connect through an unlimited number of devices simultaneously, making it ideal for big families.

It has 360 servers located in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Manchester, so there’s plenty of options for anybody in need of a UK connection point. It even offers a 7-day VPN free trial, giving you plenty of time to make sure it does everything you need it to do before you enter your card details.

6. The most private UK VPN

If you need your privacy like a fish needs water, then you should give PureVPN a look. Like all of the other providers on this list, it has a no-logs policy, except it puts its money where its mouth is by submitting itself to regular third party audits, proving it’s not keeping tabs on its customers’ online adventures.

Of course, it also has servers in the UK (located in London and Manchester) so it’s good for anybody who needs to connect through that region. It’s also another provider that offers a week-long free trial, meaning you can live with it for a while before deciding to get married. As a final cherry on the cake, it lets you use up to ten simultaneous connections, which is a fairly generous cap.

We compiled this list by carefully studying the unique benefits of different VPN providers that have servers within the UK. While we believe that ExpressVPN is the overall best choice, we also understand that it may not be a case of one-size-fits-all, so we’ve included these other five providers in order to anticipate the needs of our different readers.

Check out our guides on the best free VPNs and VPN deals if you’re working with a tighter budget.