8 Best Ubuntu VPNs in 2024 [Expert testing & results] (2024)

By choosing to use Ubuntu over a more traditional OS like Windows or MacOS, you have taken a major step towards improving your digital privacy. The next step is to improve your online security with a VPN for Ubuntu.

In this guide, we showcase the eight best VPNs for Ubuntu, all of which have compatible Ubuntu clients.

What are the best VPNs for Ubuntu?

These are five of the top eight VPNs for Ubuntu. If you would like to learn more about them, check out our in-depth analysis.

1. Private Internet Access - The best VPN for Ubuntu. A secure, no-logs service that offers a dedicated Ubuntu client and 10 simultaneous connections.
2. Surfshark - The best value Ubuntu Linux VPN. With a shiny new Linux GUI and excellent speeds, as well as unlimited simultaneous connections.
3. Proton VPN - With kill-switch functionality, IPv6 and DNS leak protection, ProtonVPN is a solid contender for any Linux user.
4. Mullvad - An Ubuntu-friendly VPN packed into an easy to use GUI client. It's IPv6 compatible and offers VPN through Tor!
5. ExpressVPN - A CLI VPN for Ubuntu that has recently begun offering 100% RAM-only servers and lightening fast speeds.

Ubuntu and a VPN is a winning combination, however, custom Linux VPN services can be difficult to find, as most services only support Windows, Mac, iPhone, and Android.

Along with Mint (which is forked from Ubuntu anyway), Ubuntu is widely regarded as the most newbie-friendly Linux distro available. It is also very popular as most Linux developers and Linux guides assume Ubuntu as the "default", so Ubuntu users enjoy unparalleled levels of support (for the Linux world!).

A lot of VPN services offer manual setup guides for Ubuntu, but all the VPNs we recommend below offer their own custom Ubuntu software, some of which have GUI clients for Ubuntu. All of our recommendations also use OpenVPN, which is our recommended VPN protocol. We go into a lot more detail about their features in the summaries below, so without further ado, let's take a close look at our top VPN picks for Ubuntu.

The best VPNs for Ubuntu | In-depth analysis

Here's what else you should know about our recommended VPNs for Ubuntu.

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Best VPNs for Ubuntu – Methodology

When choosing the best VPNs for Ubuntu, we started with compatibility. Naturally, a good Ubuntu VPN should either have a dedicated Ubuntu client or be easy to configure via standard network settings, using protocols like OpenVPN or WireGuard. This ensures smooth integration into the Ubuntu environment, user-friendly operations, and efficient performance.

The next thing on the list – strong security features – are also non-negotiable. We start by checking for top-notch encryption (like AES-256), advanced VPN protocols, reliable kill-switch options, DNS leak protection, and similar. We only promote VPNs that safeguard user data and promote anonymity. These VPN characteristics are critical in this increasingly surveillance-heavy cyber world.

Performance and server network are also paramount in the selection process. A VPN must offer high-speed connections with minimal impact on your internet speeds, necessary for data-intensive activities, such as streaming, gaming, and file downloading. A worldwide network of servers not only facilitates easier access to geo-restricted content but also ensures maintaining consistent speed by connecting users to nearby servers.

The ease of use is particularly significant for Linux-based systems like Ubuntu – the VPN should offer straightforward installation processes, clear instruction documentation, and accessible customer support available to all Linux users 24/7. Professional and knowledgeable customer support is crucial since you never know when you could encounter a unique technical challenge specific to Ubuntu.

Lastly, our assessment of VPN services included considerations of the value you get for your money, the previous experience our team had with these VPNs, and user feedback. Analyzing price against the features is a particularly important factor for users seeking long-term value subscriptions. Reviews and opinions from tech experts and less experienced users provide all-around insights into the VPNs' performance on Ubuntu platforms, ensuring our recommendations meet the specific needs of Ubuntu users.

Why do I need a VPN for Ubuntu?

You need a VPN for Ubuntu for the same reasons you need a VPN on any computer. If you don’t know what a VPN is or how one can help you, then please check out our Beginner's Guide to Virtual Private Networks. As a quick refresher, though:

• A VPN prevents websites you visit from seeing your real IP address, which also helps to prevent them from tracking you across the internet
• A VPN prevents your internet provider (ISP) from knowing what you do on the internet because all it knows is that you have connected to a VPN server
• A VPN also prevents your ISP from seeing your data because the data is encrypted between your Ubuntu PC and the VPN server
• And what your ISP doesn’t know, your government won’t either (unless it’s targeting you specifically, of course)
• The encryption used to connect to a VPN server protects you when a public WiFi hotspot
• A VPN lets you watch shows on services such as BBC iPlayer and US Netflix which would normally be restricted to you
• And a VPN allows you to torrent to your heart’s content without the need to look over your shoulder

So as a privacy tool, a VPN makes a perfect companion to Ubuntu!

Using a VPN for Ubuntu

Using a VPN for Ubuntu is pretty much the same as using a VPN for any other operating system. However, there are one or two quirks you should be aware of.

Custom GUI software is very rare on the ground

VPNs with a custom GUI are hard to come by for Ubuntu. In fact, only Private Internet Access, AirVPN, Mullvad and Proton VPN offer fully-featured custom GUI clients for Ubuntu.

Some VPN services now offer custom Command Line (CLI) clients, but other than coming pre-configured to connect to their own servers, these don’t usually offer anything over and above configuring OpenVPN manually.

Most VPN services offer Ubuntu support via manual CLI and/or Network manager setup guides. These are fine as far as they go, but…

No DNS leak protection

Basic manual VPN setup in Ubuntu and most custom CLI clients does not push DNS requests to the VPN provider’s DNS servers. DNS leaks can be resolved, however, by modifying resolvconf to push DNS to your VPN’s DNS servers.

Alternatively, you can manually configure the iptables firewall to ensure all traffic (including DNS requests) must go via the VPN server. IVPN has written a superb guide on how to do this.

No kill-switch

Again, neither a manual VPN setup nor any Ubuntu CLI client we know of offers a kill-switch designed to prevent your IP address leaking in the event of a VPN dropout or while the VPN is reconnecting. Configuring iptables as above, however, also works as a kill-switch.

It should be noted that the GUI Ubuntu clients from AirVPN, Mullvad and Proton VPN include full IPv4 and IPv6 DNS leak protection and kill-switches. They also feature all the other bells and whistles available to their Windows and macOS customers.

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 19.04 GNOME privacy issues

With the release of Ubuntu 17.10, Canonical dropped its homegrown Unity desktop as the default shell for GNOME 3. Thankfully, privacy controversies such as sending search queries entered into unified Unity’s Dash search bar to Amazon are now but a distant memory.

Error reporting

Ubuntu Unity came with some quite scary third-party privacy policies that amounted to you sharing a great deal of personal information with the likes of Facebook, the BBC, eBay, Google (via YouTube), and more.

Again, the switch to GNOME seems to address this as at heart Ubuntu GNOME is a fairly stock version of GMOME 3. Which does not share personal information with anybody. It does, however, send anonymized error reports to Canonical.

If you like, you can disable this by going to:

How to set up an OpenVPN server on Linux?

Using a set of scripts known as PiVPN is by far the simplest way to set up an OpenVPN server in Ubuntu. PiVPN was designed with the Raspberry Pi in mind - as the name might suggest - but it will work well with Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distros. Please check out our PiVPN Review for the full low-down, complete with a detailed setup guide (it really is very easy!).

Ubuntu VPNs: Final thoughts

Ubuntu’s recent seismic shift away from the Unity desktop to GNOME has fixed most of the privacy issues that have plagued Canonicals’ popular Linux distro for years. Most VPN providers’ support remains firmly focused on Unity, however, all apps will continue to work just fine in Ubuntu GNOME. And thanks to Canonicals’ heavy skinning of the GNOME 3 interface to give it a very Unity-like feel, most VPN setup guides will still be close enough to follow.

It is also worth noting that almost any app designed for Ubuntu (including those from all providers listed in this article) will work just as well in other Debian/Ubuntu-based distros, such as Debian itself, Mint, Kali, and more. Most can be re-compiled to work in any flavor of Linux you choose! So, let's take another quick look at our top VPN picks for Ubuntu.

Best VPNs for Ubuntu – FAQs