Table of Contents
VPN Speed – measure the speed!
The biggest mistake users make when evaluating their VPN service’s speed is that they measure completely incomparable values. Therefore, it is necessary in any case to have “comparable test results” to be able to draw the right conclusions for possible causes!
If you compare the flight times “Berlin to Munich” with a flight “Berlin to Rome and to Munich”, you will not be able to achieve an adequate or comparable result. The duration and distance will differ too much.
Problems with the normal Speedtest speed measurement
From my experience with readers, I can say that most problems with insufficient speed are due to one’s settings; only in rare cases will the providers also have their share. Therefore, it is advisable to make a comparable test to see how fast your VPN service can be used.
However, you can never ignore some technically justified reductions, for example, the encryption of the data also requires some resources on your end device and the technical implementation of the internet connection also has a share in the achievable speed.
Rule of thumb:
In general, there should be no greater deviation than +/- 15% between the maximum speed and the transmission via a VPN service. However, larger deviations may be explainable due to other factors.
The entire “VPN Leak Test” is also available on our site here.
Various factors influence the VPN speed
Despite a comparable measurement environment, there are sometimes differences based on various factors:
- Different VPN protocols and encryption types for VPN can lead to differences in connection with the device used or one’s Internet provider.
- Encryption requires local hardware resources, which can be quite demanding depending on the protocol used. (With OpenVPN, the greatest requirements are to be expected here). Therefore, devices with weak hardware equipment can significantly reduce the speed via VPN. (Router, Raspberry, etc)
- Internet providers prioritise data packets differently. Through so-called traffic shaping, data packets are treated differently in the network of the Internet provider depending on their class, which can lead to different VPN-typical data classes being transmitted more slowly or not at all.
(A typical example is OpenVPN via UDP or TCP. UDP data is especially disliked by cable TV networks and often brings significantly slower results). - The resource consumption increases strongly, so the larger the amount of data that has to be encrypted, the greater the load on the local resources. Therefore, deviations measured up to a maximum of 30MBit/s are usually significantly lower than over 100MBit/s transmission speeds.
- The load on the VPN server (remote site) also plays a role, of course. In rare cases and especially with cheap VPN services, VPN server load can be a limitation.
- Better peering between networks. The internet connection of the VPN server plays a major role not only in terms of maximum speed. The different internet providers (yours, the VPN servers) have a different quality of peering at other networks. Therefore, a service that is located in the same place as a destination can often have very different data connections to the destination than another service that is located further away but has significantly better connections to the destination. So, for example, if the ISP has direct peering with the connection to the destination, this will significantly reduce hops to the destination and increase speeds.
Instruction: Measure VPN speed connection comparably
To perform a similar test, go through the following steps carefully:
- Start by connecting to a German VPN server of your VPN service.
(If you are currently in Germany, otherwise from the country you are in) >> Then “Refresh” this page. - Then run the first speed test that we have included by clicking “Start”.
- Then disconnect the VPN and “start” the other speed test that we have included.
- Then you can compare the results and draw your conclusions!
1. Connect to the German location of your provider via VPN.
It is necessary to be connected to the German location to obtain a realistic value, as the test server of our speed test is located in “Frankfurt am Main”. Therefore, the closer the VPN location of your VPN service is to this target, the more accurate and comparable the results will be.
Important TIP: Afterwards, reload this page and go to the next step.
2. Test your speed WITH the active VPN connection:
The following test is at the same location as the previous measurement WITHOUT VPN and therefore this measurement will provide comparable values. Make sure that you use the same general conditions.
WITH active VPN connection
3. Test your speed WITHOUT VPN!
You deactivate every VPN connection and create a comparable scenario. With the following test on our test server in “Frankfurt am Main”, your data will be measured comparably and comprehensibly.
Test without an active VPN connection
4. Compare the two results with each other
It is also important to pay attention to the ping and jitter values. You can refresh the page here at any time or repeat the test in another browser TAB: Speedtest You can also repeat this test on a smartphone or other devices. You must always use the same test server, which you can find here: https://vpntester.org/en/what-is-my-ip/ in every browser and on every device.
Interpret the speed test results correctly:
The results will give you valuable information about how fast your currently used internet is. From your internet router to the internet provider to our test server in Frankfurt. This corresponds to a real measurement of the achievable speed on the Internet.
- The information provided by the internet service providers only refers to the speed between the internet router and the internet service provider and does not include the distance your data has to travel on the internet. Deviations are therefore normal.
- The direct comparison WITHOUT VPN and WITH VPN is therefore close to reality and the deviations should be a maximum of 8% between 0-50MBit/s and a maximum of 12% above that up to 100MBit/s.
- If you notice larger deviations between the various selectable VPN protocols, then this can have several causes, including the fact that your Internet provider has in some cases negatively prioritised certain transmission types.
- If the PING or JITTER values differ greatly from each other or are over 100ms, then it is possible that your Internet provider is blocking the VPN transmission protocol used or another error is occurring during transmission. Also, check the Wifi connection or the cable of your device.
- Also compare different end devices with VPN with each other. So if you use a VPN router, then also test a connection WITHOUT this router in between and or directly with the VPN software of your provider.
- Some end devices have limitations that can occur due to the necessary resources for encryption. e.g. VPN routers which have different speed limitations depending on the model and VPN protocol used (VPN router comparison speeds with VPN).
- If you use third-party firewalls (Kaspersky, ZoneAlarm, Bitdefender, Norton etc.) then using these can affect the results, especially when using OpenVPN. Similarly, tools like CCleaner are responsible for dramatic throttling in many cases. If you can, you should therefore also switch off these sources of problems in your test runs.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via chat or email. Please note that in the vast majority of cases, the reasons for deviations do not lie directly with the VPN provider used, but with the settings used or the general conditions of the users.
I can only help you if you adhere exactly to the given test pattern (see above) and provide me with the copied links to the results. This will simplify troubleshooting and is a prerequisite for ensuring that there are no communication problems. Thank you for this.
The fastest VPN regularly tested
We test the VPN providers at regular intervals and always with the same goals in mind.
In the test reports, you can therefore always see current and comparable values, for example, the services: Surfshark VPN, ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
OVPN is the fastest VPN in the test.
The Swedish service uses its hardware and servers without hard disks via SSD (RAM Disk) and uses “LoadBalancing” to transmit the users’ data in a stable and continuously optimised way.
We have therefore consistently achieved the fastest connection speeds with this service over the last 5 years, which is why it has earned the title “The Fastest VPN”.
Current test result with OVPN:
Other VPN services tested:
| Maximum speed tested | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPN service name | NordVPN | ExpressVPN | Trust.Zone | Surfshark VPN |
| Download | 361300 kbps | 121900 kbps | 254980 kbps | 431444 kbps |
| Upload | 335444 kbps | 129230 kbps | 249800 kbps | 410980 kbps |
| Jitter | 2 ms | 1 ms | 2 ms | 1 ms |
| Ping | 13 ms | 31 ms | 29 ms | 14 ms |
| Tested with OpenVPN (UDP) on | 17.03.2024 | 25.12.2023 | 04.04.2024 | 24.03.2024 |
| Connection within | Germany | Germany | Germany | Germany |
Erstellt am: 1. July 2022
