VPN adverts promise total anonymity and bulletproof security. The truth is more nuanced: a VPN is an excellent tool for specific jobs, and useless for others.
What a VPN really does
- Encrypts your traffic between your device and the VPN server — essential on hotel, airport and café Wi-Fi.
- Hides your IP address from websites, advertisers and your internet provider.
- Changes your virtual location, unlocking region-restricted content and often cheaper prices for flights and subscriptions.
- Stops your ISP throttling streaming or gaming traffic it cannot identify.
What a VPN does not do
- It does not make you anonymous — websites still track you via cookies and browser fingerprinting.
- It does not block malware or phishing on its own (some suites add this separately).
- It does not protect accounts with weak or reused passwords.
When you genuinely need one
Public Wi-Fi, travel to countries with internet restrictions, streaming libraries from home while abroad, torrenting, and any situation where you do not want your provider logging which sites you visit. For those jobs, a reputable no-logs VPN is well worth a few pounds a month — see our ranked VPN comparison for the ones we trust.