The State of VPN, 2026

Most VPN "reviews" repeat marketing. This one is built entirely from measurement: we poll 10 providers' servers every 15 minutes and record load, uptime and coverage. Here's what the data says right now — all figures update live, and the underlying dataset is open.

Average server load by provider (lower = faster)

Country coverage by provider

What the data shows

Server load — the number that actually decides speed — varies far more than marketing admits. Across all measured providers it averages 28%, but Windscribe runs coolest at 9%, meaningfully faster for the same task.

Reliability is a track record, not a promise. By measured uptime, NordVPN leads at 100.00% — while NordVPN offers the widest reach at 149 countries.

Load is also geographic: right now Bhutan is the least congested country we measure (avg 9% across its VPNs), while Serbia is the busiest (avg 57%). Where you connect matters as much as which VPN you pick.

Methodology

Every 15 minutes we poll each provider's public server list and record per-server load, online/offline status and country, stored as an append-only time-series. Uptime is a rolling window. Providers that publish no load (Mullvad, PIA, AzireVPN, VPN Gate) are scored on uptime and coverage.