Student life is complicated enough without the added headache of dealing with restrictive school Wi-Fi networks blocking access to the sites and services you want to use. With a virtual private network, all of the traffic you send through your school’s network to a VPN server is encrypted so network administrators can’t tell whether you’re visiting Wikipedia, streaming Netflix during a late-night study session in the library to keep your morale up or organizing a group project with your friends. Each VPN we’ve recommended comes with an obfuscation mode, ideal for bypassing firewalls on your school’s Wi-Fi network. However, you should make sure before you sign up that you aren’t breaking your school’s code of conduct by accessing the school network using a VPN.
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What is the best VPN for school Wi-Fi right now?
Surfshark is the best VPN for school Wi-Fi overall. 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 multiple devices or those who want to share it with roommates and friends.
NordVPN is an excellent VPN for students that’s fast and offers unique collaboration features that may be helpful for the classroom. Plus, NordVPN’s proprietary NordWhisper protocol, obfuscated servers and Onion Over VPN features give you multiple ways to bypass Wi-Fi network blocks, so you can take advantage of its high-quality streaming capabilities.
ExpressVPN is a bit pricey, but it’s a user-friendly, top-notch VPN for any use case and is great for streaming. With servers in all 50 states of the United States, ExpressVPN is a solid option for accessing regional content, like streaming NFL games or WNBA matches.
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Best VPNs for school Wi-Fi
Pros
- Fast
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
- RAM-only server infrastructure
- Lots of unique features
- Split tunneling on Windows, Android, MacOS and iOS
Cons
- 14-Eyes jurisdiction (Netherlands)
- Major renewal price increase
Surfshark is the best VPN for school Wi-Fi because it’s easy to use, offers neat privacy features and delivers top-notch privacy. Movie and TV show enthusiasts will be pleased to know that Surfshark is one of the best VPNs for streaming.
Why we like it
During my tests, I found Surfshark to be especially adept at unblocking Netflix content, allowing me to access content from dozens of countries’ Netflix libraries. I also found it to be fast, with an average 21% internet download speed loss. Additionally, Surfshark’s Camouflage mode is an obfuscation feature that can disguise your VPN traffic as regular internet traffic, helping you bypass firewalls because your school’s network administrators won’t know you’re using a VPN in the first place. To use Surfshark’s Camouflage mode, simply select the OpenVPN protocol and the obfuscation functionality will be engaged by default. This way, anyone viewing your traffic will think you’re browsing the internet instead of using a VPN.
If you have a lot of devices or want to share a VPN subscription with your roommates, Surfshark is a good way to go because it offers unlimited simultaneous connections — still a relative rarity for a VPN service. Apps are available for Android, iOS/iPadOS, Linux, MacOS, Windows, Apple TV and Fire TV. Surfshark also has some unique privacy features that can help give your privacy a serious boost. Although other VPNs like NordVPN offer a handful of preset multihop connections, Surfshark takes the double VPN concept to the next level by allowing you to connect through any combination of two server locations. Multihop connections give you an additional layer of privacy by encrypting your connection twice, making it even more difficult for anyone to determine your actual IP address and track your activity. It’s great for critical privacy needs and Surfshark’s implementation allows you to optimize your speeds by connecting through any two servers of your choosing. You can also use Surfshark’s IP Rotator feature to automatically change your IP address every few minutes without disconnecting from the server.
Surfshark’s monthly subscription plan is more expensive than most other VPNs’ monthly plans, but if you choose the annual or two-year plan, you’ll get a ton of value at a significantly cheaper price than most other top VPNs. The monthly plan costs $15.45 a month and the annual plan is priced at $48 for the first year while the two-year plan costs $60 for the first two years combined (the one- and two-year plans renew at $79 annually). But we don’t recommend signing with a single VPN provider for more than a year at a time, given how quickly things tend to shift in the VPN industry.
- Also featured in: Best VPN for Amazon Prime Video, Best VPN for Amazon Fire TV
Pros
- Blazing-fast internet speeds
- Strong privacy and transparency
- Great for streaming service unblocking
- User-friendly apps
Cons
- Inconsistent pricing structure
- Not as transparent as other VPN rivals
NordVPN is a popular VPN provider based out of privacy-friendly Panama and is an excellent choice for students who work collaboratively on projects. Students can leverage NordVPN’s Meshnet feature to securely share files and remotely access other devices to work on joint projects in real time. And when you’re not studying, you can even use Meshnet to host remote LAN parties with your friends in other dorms or other parts of the world. No other VPN in this list offers a feature like Meshnet so if you do a lot of group projects at school, NordVPN is a solid choice.
Why we like it
In addition to being excellent for collaboration, NordVPN is easy to use, great for streaming, offers superb privacy protections and is currently the fastest VPN based on our testing — we clocked an average 3% internet download speed loss in our 2025 testing. NordVPN’s proprietary WireGuard-based NordLynx VPN protocol is lightning-fast and secure but if you’re having trouble getting around your school’s firewall, you can try connecting through NordVPN’s obfuscated servers using the OpenVPN protocol — which I recommend for optimal privacy and firewall evasion. OpenVPN has long been the industry standard for privacy and has been thoroughly battle-tested in the wild. Additional privacy features include industry-standard protections like a kill switch, DNS leak protection and a no-logs policy, along with a few extras like Onion over VPN and Double VPN. NordVPN’s proprietary NordWhisper VPN protocol masquerades as standard web traffic, so it may be more effective than other VPN protocols at slipping through the cracks of your school’s firewall if you’re having trouble using your VPN.
NordVPN’s Threat Protection feature helps block ads, web trackers and malware. Threat Protection Pro — available in its higher-tiered Plus, Complete and Prime plans — builds on this by integrating a machine-learning powered content blocker that dynamically scans sites you visit and analyzes whether they’re likely to be a phishing or fraud site, as well as an antivirus engine that checks files you’ve downloaded for malware. It’s a great choice if you’ve just bought a new laptop for school and want to keep it factory-fresh, or if you want to bundle your VPN and antivirus services to stay on a budget.
NordVPN boasts one of the largest VPN server networks, with over 8,000 servers spanning 126 countries, making it a great VPN for travel, whether you’re on spring break or a study abroad program. It also allows for 10 simultaneous connections, which is nice if you have a lot of devices or roommates to share the subscription with. NordVPN’s monthly plan costs $13, which is expensive and equal to what ExpressVPN charges per month, but less than the $15.45 that Surfshark charges. The yearly plan costs $60 for the first year, while the two-year plan costs $83 for the first two years combined (the one- and two-year plans renew at $140 annually). It’s not a cheap VPN after the introductory pricing, but with the generous simultaneous connection allowance, you could share that cost with your friends on campus.
- Also featured in: Best VPN for Xbox, Best VPN for Streaming
Pros
- Cutting edge privacy and security
- Excellent for streaming
- Easy to use across platforms
- Strong commitment to transparency
- Privacy-friendly jurisdiction (British Virgin Islands)
Cons
- Expensive
- No multi-hop connection
ExpressVPN is CNET’s Editors’ Choice selection for the best VPN overall. It’s one of the more expensive VPNs. but it delivers the most polished and user-friendly VPN experience in the industry. ExpressVPN also offers top-notch privacy and is the best VPN for streaming. Its servers in all 50 states of the United States makes ExpressVPN a great pick for accessing regional content, such as streaming sports, including as NFL, WBNA or NWSL matches.
Why we like it
One of the things I like most about ExpressVPN is that it’s consistently pushing the boundaries of what a VPN is capable of and setting standards for the industry. For example, ExpressVPN rolled out post-quantum protection, which helps protect against future threats from quantum computers. The feature is enabled by default, and ExpressVPN is one of the only VPNs thus far to offer such protections. Also, I like how ExpressVPN’s obfuscation is automatically enabled when you connect through its proprietary Lightway protocol so you don’t need to go searching around the app to find obfuscated servers to get around your school’s firewall, as long as you’re using Lightway.
ExpressVPN is fast enough for just about anything you’d want to do online, even if its connections aren’t always quite as quick as NordVPN’s or Surfshark’s. In our most recent testing, we measured an overall internet download speed loss of 18% with ExpressVPN, 3% with NordVPN and 21% with Surfshark. Notably, ExpressVPN’s Lightway protocol proved lightning-fast, so if you’re using Lightway, you shouldn’t have any issues streaming content with ExpressVPN. I was able to easily stream content on various devices through different streaming services, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Hulu and Netflix with ExpressVPN during my testing. I also like how streamlined the app is across platforms — it’s a simple, no-nonsense app that beginners and advanced VPN users alike will have no problems using. ExpressVPN’s basic plan costs $13 per month, $75 for the first year or $98 for the first two years combined (the one- and two-year plans renew at $100 annually). Each subscription tier includes a seven-day free trial followed by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Also featured in: Best VPN for Windows, Best VPN for iPhone
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Pros
- Strong reputation of parent company
- Multi-hop and split tunnelling
- Open-source
Cons
- No 24/7 live chat support
If you find that you’re spending most of your cash on books or in the dining hall, you may not want to spend any more money on a VPN subscription. The good thing is that you can still protect your privacy online and get past school firewalls without paying a dime with ProtonVPN’s free plan.
Why we like it
With Proton VPN’s free plan, you get access to five server locations (US, Japan, Poland Romania or the Netherlands), but you aren’t able to select a specific server — clicking the Connect button randomly selects a server location for you. This is an intentional move by Proton VPN to evenly distribute free users across its free servers to avoid overloading a single server, thereby theoretically optimizing speeds. Other than those limitations and slightly fewer features than its premium plans, Proton VPN’s free tier doesn’t impose any restrictions on speeds or usage. The free tier also offers the same encryption standards and basic privacy features as its premium tier. Most free VPNs impose strict limitations on use and bandwidth, making them mostly useless. Many free VPNs are even dangerous to use because they’ll sell your data to third parties and may even be loaded with malware. Proton VPN’s free tier is safe to use, fast (we measured an average 16% internet download speed loss in our 2025 testing) and useful for privacy while browsing, evading firewalls and other activities like streaming. The benefits you can get from Proton VPN’s effectively unlimited free tier easily outweigh the minor constraints the company imposes on free users, making it an excellent choice for students on a limited budget.
If you pay for a Proton VPN subscription, you’ll get access to more than 14,900 servers in 122 countries and premium features like Secure Core servers, P2P support, Tor over VPN and a malware and ad blocker. Proton VPN’s Secure Core servers effectively act as a double VPN, routing your traffic through secure data centers in Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland before exiting through a second VPN server in another location of your choosing. You can also add a layer or privacy to your browsing by choosing a Tor-supported server to route your traffic through the Tor (Onion) network. P2P optimized servers are also available and labeled with a two-arrow icon in the app. Proton VPN’s premium subscriptions cost $10 per month, $60 for the first year or $108 total for the first two years (the one- and two-year plans renew at $80 annually). That’s cheaper than ExpressVPN, around the same price as NordVPN but more expensive than Surfshark and PIA, putting Proton VPN right in the middle price-wise.
- Also featured in: Best VPN for Netflix, Best VPN for Travel
Pros
- Cheaper than most competitors
- Excellent privacy and transparency
- Extremely customizable apps
- Open-source apps
- Great device support, including a Linux GUI app
- Solid server network
Cons
- Uneven server speeds
- Somewhat clunky app design
- Lots of CAPTCHAs
Private Internet Access is the best cheap VPN for students. PIA costs just $12 per month, $40 for the first year (then $50 annually) or $79 every three years, and it delivers much of the same performance and functionality as its more expensive competitors. PIA is a fully open-source VPN that offers apps for all devices that include features like a kill switch, DNS leak protection, split tunneling, multihop connections and obfuscation. You’ll also get unlimited simultaneous connections, which makes it an even greater value if you’re sharing the VPN with your roommates.
Why we like it
I like how customizable PIA’s apps are — you can make the app dashboard as clean or as information-dense as you want by toggling and ordering various elements within the app. You can also fine-tune the encryption strength, depending on whether you want to optimize for speed or privacy. In our latest speed tests, we calculated an average speed loss of 48%, which is considerably slower than other top VPNs. That said, PIA is still a decent option for streaming — we were able to stream content on various streaming services, including Disney Plus and Netflix, but encountered issues trying to stream Amazon Prime Video on Windows. While PIA doesn’t offer a free option, you can give it a test and get a refund within 30 days of purchase if you’re not satisfied.
- Also featured in: Best VPN for Multiple Devices, Best Cheap VPN
Unfortunately, we couldn’t traipse around campuses testing how well the VPNs we’ve selected perform at circumventing firewalls and network detection. We’re no longer students, and we’d be awkwardly explaining ourselves to an unimpressed security guard pretty quickly. Instead, we picked the best VPNs for school Wi-Fi based on the experiences we’ve had with VPN testing, especially with how well they perform obfuscation. Ideally, we’re looking for providers that offer proprietary VPN protocols with obfuscation, as well as OpenVPN. We also looked for manual VPN protocol selection, so you can try different options to get around basic firewall blocking.
But it’s not good enough that a VPN offers obfuscation. It also needs to be fast and unblock streaming sites so you can take a moment during a busy school schedule and unwind with a Netflix show without having your time wasted by buffering. We’re also concerned about value for money, so we paid special attention to the cost of each provider and whether there are any additional features useful to students to justify a slightly high price.
IPVanish
IPVanish is a decent VPN for beginner VPN users and has budget-friendly introductory pricing. (Disclosure: IPVanish is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) But considering that the price for the yearly and two-year plans skyrocket after the initial term, I don’t recommend IPVanish over others on this list that offer a better product for similar or lower prices. IPVanish costs $13 per month, $40 for the first year or $53 for the first two years combined. However, the one-year plan auto-renews at an astronomical $156 annually, whereas the two-year plan auto-renews at a massive $312 total for two years. Even amongst borderline highway robbery price hikes, IPVanish far outstrips competitors ExpressVPN ($100 annual renewal) and NordVPN ($140 annual renewal renewals). With IPVanish, you’ll be able to connect an unlimited number of devices at once to any one of its 2,400 servers in 108 countries. IPVanish was mostly competent in our streaming tests, unblocking content from streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus and Hulu. However, its slow speeds caused issues during our testing while streaming certain content.
Read our IPVanish review.
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. If you need the fastest speeds possible, look for providers that offer WireGuard or an equivalent (like NordVPN’s NordLynx) as a VPN protocol, as this generally performs better than OpenVPN.
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. You might be tempted by a multi-year plan with significant discounts, but we generally advise against them. Much can change about a VPN provider’s service within a year, and the best value for money option could easily shift to a competitor within that time, too. If you don’t find an affordable VPN subscription, you can use Proton VPN’s free plan — which is the only free VPN I enthusiastically 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.
