Amelia Ame
Founder & editor, TopRatedVPNI founded TopRatedVPN because VPN reviews are mostly rewritten press releases, and because the number that decides whether a VPN is good value — what it charges in year two — is the one nobody publishes. So I read it off every provider's own checkout and date it. I have not run any of these VPNs myself yet, and every page says so where a measurement would otherwise go.
- 11 VPNs tracked
- Prices re-checked monthly
- Scoring rubric published
- Checked
- Prices, renewal rates, refund windows and device limits, read from each provider's own checkout
- Scored
- Privacy, apps and value, by the rubric in scripts/score.mjs
- Not scored
- Speed and streaming — we have not measured either yet, so neither is scored
- Record
- Every check dated and published, with the source page for each figure
Last price check September 12, 2026 · next October 12, 2026
What I actually do
- Checking prices, renewal rates and refund windows at each provider's own checkout, monthly and dated
- Reading privacy policies and audit reports properly, including the parts that contradict the marketing
- Tracking what happened when a provider was actually asked for user data, and whether the claim held
- Keeping the scoring rubric public and runnable, so any score can be checked
- Saying plainly which figures are measured and which are not
The full procedure, the weights and what each score means are on the methodology page.
What I will and won't do
Nothing here is shown to a provider before publication — no previews, no right of reply, no changing a score because someone asked. If a provider offers a better commission for a better placement, the answer is no, and the rank order stays the score order.
Negative findings stay in and stay dated: a disclosed breach, a court order a provider complied with, a lapsed audit. When a provider's situation changes I go back and check the record again rather than quietly editing the sentence. When I get something wrong, the correction goes in the changelog with the date, not into a silent edit.
I also mark the limits of what I know. A review built from published audits, jurisdiction and public record rather than my own measurement says so at the top, names every source, and carries a provisional score until I have run the VPN myself. That is the deal: you can check where any number on this site came from.
The site earns affiliate commissions — that is on the disclosure page in detail, including which links pay and which do not. It has never decided a rank.
Written by me
VPN reviews
Guides
- Does a VPN help with ping?Gaming
- What is a VPN?Basics
- What is a VPN kill switch?Basics
- What does a VPN hide?Privacy
- VPN protocols explainedBasics
- VPN port numbers explainedBasics
- How to set up qBittorrent with a VPNTorrenting
- How to use a VPN on a MacSetup
Head-to-head comparisons
- NordVPN vs Surfsharkhead to head
- ExpressVPN vs NordVPNhead to head
- NordVPN vs Proton VPNhead to head
- NordVPN vs PureVPNhead to head
- PureVPN vs ExpressVPNhead to head
- NordVPN vs PIAhead to head