Best VPNs for Boise, Idaho

Boise, IdahoBoise, Idaho is the capital and most populous city in the state. It has an estimated population of approximately 225k and that is growing nicely. The metropolitan area is called Treasure Valley and houses more than 709k people. There are a number of attractions in the area including parks, museums, a zoo, the Egyptian Theatre, and more. Of course, you can’t forget about the obvious. It is also the home of Boise State University. Most everyone these days is aware of the university or at least has seen their unique blue playing field before. If you are going to Boise to take in the sites, learn about some of the unique culture, or take in a sporting event for the Boise State University Broncos, we suggest using a VPN when you use public WiFi. Before we share why, take a look at our list of the best VPNs for Boise.

RankVPN ServiceOur
Score
Server
Locations
Visit
1ExpressVPN9.8160ExpressVPN
2NordVPN9.487NordVPN
3IPVanish9.073IPVanish
4HMA Pro VPN8.8280HMA

In 1863, the U.S. Army re-established a fort in the area because of the massacres along the Oregon Trail. They selected the location because it was close to the trail and connected it to the Boise Basin and Silver City mining areas. Because of that location, the fort grew rapidly and incorporated in 1863. Originally, Lewiston was the capital, but the government named Boise the capital after the creation of the Montana territory.

Today, the city is home to several large companies including Boise Cascade LLC, Albertsons, J.R. Simplot Company, Idaho Pacific Lumber Company, Idaho Timber, WinCo Foods, Bodybuilding.com, and more. It has a diverse economy including manufacturing, high tech, medicine and others. Between a great economy and booming science, nature, and arts scene, Boise is an attractive place to visit.

No matter what your reasons for visiting Boise are, you will probably want or need to use public WiFi. Since many businesses now offer it to their patrons, you won’t have any problems finding it. However, you do not want to assume you are safe when you do. There is always a chance that a cybercriminal is nearby waiting to steal your personal data. By logging in to the public WiFi, you are vulnerable. That is where using a VPN comes into play. When you do, you create a secure and encrypted connection to the server of your choice. Because it is encrypted, you will stop those crooks from snatching your personal data. That is preferable to just giving them the info.

The second reason that you would want to use a VPN deals with network and geo-restrictions. If you have ever been stopped from seeing something you want to see at a school, organization, business, or even a country, you have hit their firewall. By using a VPN another location, you fool the software into thinking you are located somewhere else. That will help you get around network firewalls and geo-restrictions.

Those are the best reasons to use a VPN while in Boise, but you may discover more as time goes on. Whether you want to protect your privacy, get around geo-blocks, or both, a VPN is a good idea. Now, let’s talk about what to look for. With all of the protocol options available, you will want to use either the IKEv2 or the OpenVPN encryption protocols. Though the first one is preferable, they should both work just fine. If you get an option to choose between versions of OpenVPN, the UDP version is the fastest. However, if you have connection issues, you will want to use the TCP version.


1. Best VPN for Boise: ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN brings together fast VPN access with MediaStreamer which acts as a Smart DNS service to unblock access to geo-restricted content. The VPN service will help encrypt your connection and unblock live sporting events. You will even find a list of the latest live entertainment and sporting events on their website.

CountriesLocationsUSA Server Locations
94160Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Monica, Seattle, Tampa, Virginia, Washington, DC

ExpressVPN manages quite a substantial VPN network. Whether you are visiting Salt Lake City or other cities, the service has multiple servers in many key locations. That can be helpful to help you unblock content from anywhere you are or want to be.

When using the ExpressVPN application, you can easily select the city you want to connect to. To do so, simply click the button that says “Choose Location”. Since the closest area is Salt Lake City and it is not in the recommended server list, you have to go to the “all” section. That does not mean there is something wrong with the servers there, it just means they can’t list them all in the recommended section. In the search box, type in Salt. You should see the list of servers below. At this point, you can select the USA – Salt Lake City server location. As you can see we tested a server in Salt Lake City and the speed was 59.43 Mbps.

ExpressVPN Salt Lake City speed test

Though ExpressVPN may have a higher price point than some of our other providers, they more than makeup for it because of their list of features and extremely strong and massive network. ExpressVPN can be used on your PC, mobile device, router, game console, and more with a single VPN account for just $6.67 a month with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Visit ExpressVPN


2. Best VPN for Boise: NordVPN

NordVPN

NordVPN is based in Panama which some users prefer to using a VPN company that’s actually headquartered in the United States. You will find that NordVPN has a strong presence in the US with servers located throughout the country. Members have full access to their network in the USA and beyond for a very good price.

CountriesLocationsUSA Server Locations
6180Atlanta, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Seattle, St. Louis, Washington DC

You will find that NordVPN has perhaps the best mix of services for the price as long as you choose one of the longer term subscriptions. All users have full access to their network and custom software. You can connect using the VPN client for Windows or Mac. They also have an easy-to-use mobile app for both Android and iOS (iPhone, iPad) devices.

NordVPN hosts 7 servers in Salt Lake City (the closest to Boise). Unfortunately, the NordVPN client does not show the city of the server. However, they have provided us with the server numbers for Salt Lake City. You will want to connect to one of the following servers: 511-513, 534-537. The easiest way to select a specific server number is to select the “Servers” tab in the app and then sort the results in alphabetical order. You can then scroll down and select any of the Salt Lake servers listed. You can see the load time percentage and the distance to each server. We tested the United States server in Salt Lake City and found the performance to be 61.58 Mbps.

NordVPN Salt Lake City speed test

Want to access streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world? If so NordVPN is a great choice. They are one of the only VPN services that can still unblock Netflix. You can sign up for unlimited VPN and SmartDNS service from just $2.99 a month with a 3-year membership.

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3. Best VPN for Boise: IPVanish

IPVanish

Because there is no Boise server, we are glad that the servers in SLC are fast. We can tell you that the service works quite well, no matter what sections of the area you are in. This service has more server locations in the United States than most of the other companies on our list. This makes them a great choice to use while in Boise.

CountriesLocationsUSA Server Locations
6389Ashburn, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Phoenix, San Jose. Seattle, Washington DC

Along with a large footprint in the USA, IPVanish hosts servers in every continent other than Antarctica. The network has consistently been the fastest VPN in North America and Europe in our speed tests. You will find multiple server locations in countries like the US and UK. You can select a location or an individual server.

IPVanish hosts 12 servers in Salt Lake City and you can choose to connect to any of them. We tested an IPVanish server in SLC and found the speed to be 62.95 Mbps. This is the fastest speed of any VPN w tested.

IPVanish Salt Lake City speed test

When it comes to value IPVanish is hard to beat. They offer unlimited access to their VPN network and custom software for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Amazon Firestick and more for $7.50 a month or $58.49 a year. That works out to just $4.87 a month on the annual plan. Members are covered by a 7-day money back guarantee.

Visit IPVanish


4. Best VPN for Boise: HMA

HMA VPN

HideMyAss was brought to life in 2005 when Jack Cator, a 16-year-old student in England, decided that he wanted to create a service to help people avoid censorship. Specifically, Jack was unable to access social media sites and online games because they were blocked on the school network. HMA added hundreds of thousands of users the first month and has since grown into one of the largest VPN services in the world with over 350 server locations. Privax, the parent company of HMA Pro VPN, joined the AVG team in 2015.

HMA Pro VPN Network - USA Server Locations
Anchorage, Ashburn, Asheville, Atlanta, Baltimore, Bath, Bedford, Billings, Boston, Cheyenne, Chicago, Columbia, Columbus, Dallas, Des Moines, Grand Forks, Honolulu, Idaho Falls, Jacksonville, Lansing, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Madison, Magnolia, Miami, Montgomery, Nashville, New Orleans, New York City, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Philippi, Phoenix, Portland, Providence, Rutland, Saint Paul, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Scranton, Seattle, Souix Falls, South Bend, St Louis, Trimbull, Washington DC, Wichita, Wilmington

If your goal is to find the VPN with the most server locations then HideMyAss is your best choice. Just keep in mind that HMA logs user activity which is a concern for some VPN users. HMA hosts 175 VPN servers in the United States including a number in SLC. To connect to a server in Salt Lake City, you will want to go into the “Location Mode” and select “Change Location” to get started. Then click on the “Cities” tab and search for Salt Lake City. From there, you can select the USA, Utah, Salt Lake City server location. We connected to a server in SLC to test the service and found the speed to be 62.02 Mbps.

HMA Salt Lake City speed test

In 2016, HMA and a few other leading VPN providers led the way in simplifying their custom client software. The result is a full set of custom apps that make it easy for any user to connect to the HMA network and encrypt your connection. They have software available for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. You can also connect to HMA through your router. HMA offers unlimited VPN access from just $4.99 a month and offers all new users a 30-day risk-free money back guarantee.

Visit Hide My Ass


Now that we have provided you with the choices above, there are several other options available on our top 10 VPN list to take a look at. However, we feel we have given you the best options. We selected them based on speed, reliability, price, security, and for providers with servers located in or near Boise. By doing so, you can get the best speeds. Since speed is important for streaming any content, it is one of the big areas to focus on. All of our choices have fast networks, so you can’t go wrong with the options. Hopefully, you can use our guide to make an informed decision.

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