Does a VPN cause slower speed on laptop

VPNs by their very nature slow down your traffic.

Surf Shark is supposed to be faster than Nord but Nord works better overall, to me. Particularly when working inside a companies firewall or with a few sites that try to limit access from VPNs.

I've switched VPNs 3 or 4 times over the last dozen years or so; now with Nord and they seem to have less VPN induced lag than the others I've used.

Run a speedtest with VPN and without.

You will see how much slower it makes it.

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Surf Shark is supposed to be faster

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I use SurfShark and stayed VPN connected 24/7. Other than the infrequent blip, it works flawlessly and it's difficult to notice any slowdowns.

I'm currently connected in "Atlanta," wirelessly and about 20 feet away from my router (several walls are present).

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I use proton vpn.

Speed with VPN connected


Speed with VPN disconnected

Is it really worth having a VPN for most people? I don't do much stuff other than surf the internet.

I am planning on living in Europe in a couple years and will likely get one then.

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Yeah this has been my experience. Private internet access is usually about 50% slower when turned on, and connected to a server nearby, but it’s not really noticeable.

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I have not had that same experience recently. Right now the difference in using a VPN versus not is negligible.

Here’s my stats just now

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PIA Private Internet Access
Speed with
46.6 down and 3.6 up
Speed without
48.4 down and 3.86 up

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I use PIA after using at least 5 different services over past 20 years.
The only issue I have with it now is occasionally you do have to change your server depending on what site you’re accessing. You’ll get some type of cloud flare challenge and you cannot bypass it until you change your server.

Thanks, I will check it out.