Being a student is difficult enough without the added headache of dealing with restrictive school Wi-Fi networks blocking access to the sites and services you want to use online. A virtual private network for school Wi-Fi can help you bypass school firewalls and access social media, streaming and educational resources that may otherwise be inaccessible on your school’s network. Additionally, a VPN can keep your online activity private from your school’s network administrators. This is because a VPN routes your online traffic through an encrypted “tunnel” to a secure VPN server in a location of your choosing. 

Being a student can also be expensive. With tuition fees in the stratosphere, many students are on a tight budget and may not want to take on another subscription charge. However, a VPN subscription doesn’t have to break the bank. In fact, some of the best VPNs for students are incredibly budget-friendly, so you can enjoy all of the benefits of a premium VPN service and still be able to pay for your school books. Just be sure to consult your school’s handbook and any other documents to ensure VPNs aren’t prohibited on campus.

At CNET, our VPN experts have spent years researching and testing dozens of VPNs, analyzing everything from their privacy protections to their connection speeds, features and ownership. Our thorough VPN evaluations help you find the best VPN for your needs. Here, you’ll find the best VPNs for maintaining your privacy and bypassing firewalls on your school’s Wi-Fi network.

Surfshark is the best VPN for school right now. It packs a ton of value into a budget-friendly package (as long as you choose the yearly plan) and allows for unlimited simultaneous connections, which is great for students with a lot of devices or those who want to share it with roommates and friends. 

NordVPN is another excellent choice that’s fast and offers unique collaboration features that students would find helpful. 

ExpressVPN is a bit pricey, but it's a top-notch VPN for any use case and is great for streaming.

Because I'm no longer a student, I wasn’t able to test these VPNs in a campus environment and evaluate how effective the services are at circumventing school firewalls. Instead, my evaluation of the best VPNs for school Wi-Fi was based on research and CNET’s general VPN testing. For this list, I took special consideration into things that college students specifically would need from a VPN.To get around school firewalls that may block certain websites or services -- many of which could be used to enhance the learning experience -- students will need a VPN that offers protocols like OpenVPN that can reliably do so. Additionally, students would benefit from a VPN that offers obfuscation, to help disguise their VPN traffic as regular HTTPS internet traffic.

Being in school isn’t only about studying. Students need to make space for a little rest and relaxation, so I considered VPN speeds and streaming capabilities in my evaluation. Also, I considered any additional features available that would be of particular use to students, as well as the cost of each service, because higher education isn't cheap.

IPVanish

IPVanish is a decent VPN for beginner VPN users and has budget-friendly introductory pricing. But considering that the price for the yearly and two-year plans more than doubles after the initial term, I’m hesitant to recommend IPVanish as highly as the others on this list that offer a better product for similar or lower prices. IPVanish costs $13 a month, $40 for the first year (then $90 annually) or $66 for the first two years combined (then $180 every two years). With IPVanish, you’ll be able to connect an unlimited number of devices at once to any one of its 2,400 servers in 56 countries -- which is one of the leaner server networks in the VPN industry. For comparison, NordVPN has servers in 111 countries, Express in 105 and Surfshark in 100. IPVanish was competent in our streaming tests, unblocking content from streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus and Hulu.   

Based on our testing and research, these are the most important factors for students to consider when choosing a VPN for school Wi-Fi:

Privacy

Privacy is perhaps the most important consideration when choosing a VPN. Especially when you’re on your school’s Wi-Fi network, you’ll want to make sure that your online activity is protected and hidden from network administrators or anyone who may be snooping on what you’re up to. It’s important to choose a VPN that offers industry-standard privacy protections such as AES 256-bit encryption, a kill switch and DNS leak protection. Students should also look for a VPN that offers obfuscation to disguise their VPN traffic as regular internet traffic.

Speed

Internet speed is crucial for students. A VPN can cut your internet download speeds by 50% or more, so if your school’s Wi-Fi is already slow, then you’ll need to make sure you have a fast VPN that will limit your speeds by as little as possible. Fast VPN speeds are essential for activities like streaming, gaming and video conferencing.

Cost

Being a student is expensive, so you’ll want a VPN that offers the most value within your budget. Good VPNs can range from about $40 to $100 a year, so you should be able to find a reliable option within your budget. If you don’t find an affordable VPN subscription, you can use Proton VPN’s free plan -- which is the only free VPN I recommend.

Usability

Most VPN apps are pretty user-friendly -- but some may be a little more complicated to use than others, and some may work better than others for things like streaming or gaming. What’s most important is that the VPN you choose works well for you and has all the functionality you need to succeed at school. 

Server network

A large server network will give you better opportunities to connect to a nearby server with a light load and optimize the speed and stability of your connection. Having access to a large network of VPN servers can also help you expand your streaming horizons by unblocking content from a wide variety of regions globally. Some VPNs have servers in up to 100 or more countries, but most decent VPNs have servers in at least 50 to 60 countries. Usually, VPN companies have a list of their server locations on their website, so you can check the list of servers before buying to make sure the VPN has servers in the countries you want.