Best VPNs for Evanston

Evanston, Illinois is a city that is located 12 miles north of Chicago. As of 2010, it had a population of 74k people. Of course, there are many things that are attractive about the area that stems mostly from its proximity to Chicago. In addition to its’ location, it is the home of Northwestern University Wildcats. If you are going to visit the city, you will definitely want to use a VPN while using public WiFi. Before we tell you why it is so important, please have a look at our list of the best VPNs for Evanston.

Rank	Provider	Our Score	Server Locations	Visit
1		9.8	73
2		9.6	160
3		9.2	70

Before the 1830s, the Evanston area was mostly uninhabited. The town’s establishment in 1851 was largely due to the group of business leaders that founded Northwestern University. The university founders submitted the plans for the city after buying several hundred acres of land from Dr. John Foster. They named the city Evanston in honor of John Evans because he was one of their leaders. Evans also had a hand in Colorado history.

These days, you can find a number of things to do while in Evanston. That includes theatre experiences, the Grosse Point Lighthouse, the Evanston History Center, several museums, sporting events, and more. No matter what you want to do while there, you can find it there if you include Chicago in the area. You won’t run out of things to do while you are visiting the town.

That said, it is likely that you will probably use public WiFi when you do. If so, you are in luck. Many businesses offer free public WiFi to their customers. Though that is great, it can also be dangerous. When you connect to a VPN, you create a secure and encrypted connection to the server of your choice. That makes it much harder for cyberthieves to steal your personal data.

The second reason to use a VPN is to help you get around network and geo-restrictions. If you have ever been blocked from seeing certain content, you already know what a network block is. On the other hand, if you have ever tried to watch something online where it was being broadcast on tv and been blocked, you know about geo-restrictions. In this case, you connect to a VPN in another location. That will make the software think you are located somewhere else. That way, you can watch or access content just as you expect to.

Though those are the two biggest reasons to use a VPN, you’ll probably find others. It is important to protect your privacy from cybercrooks and it is annoying when you run into geo-blocks. Either way, a VPN has you covered. With all of the protocol options available, there are several that you want to look for. We suggest you use either the IKEv2 or the OpenVPN encryption protocols. If you get an option to choose between versions of OpenVPN, the UDP version is the fastest. However, the TCP version is suited for those with connection issues.

1. Best VPN for Evanston: IPVanish

Evanston is about 12 miles from Chicago. Because of that, you will get good response times. The VPN service has more server locations in the United States than the other companies in our list. This makes them our go-to VPN for Evanston.

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 56 servers in Chicago and you can choose to connect to any of them. We suggest selecting one that starts with “a” in the server name. For example chi.a01.ipvanish.com. In most cases, you will find the “a” servers to be the fastest. We tested an IPVanish server in Chicago and found the speed to be 64.05 Mbps on our cable Internet connection that maxes out around the same speed.

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. A 7-day money back guarantee covers all new members.

2. Best VPN for Evanston: ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN brings together fast VPN access with MediaStreamer which acts as a Smart DNS service to unblock access to geo-restricted content. The 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.

As you can see in the table above, ExpressVPN manages a very large VPN network. Beyond the USA, the ExpressVPN network boasts hundreds of servers in key locations to help protect their user’s privacy. You can use their network to protect your privacy, unblock censorship, and watch your favorite teams from anywhere.

The ExpressVPN app allows you to select a server location down to the city but you can not choose a specific server. Instead, the client will select a server in your chosen location. You also need to know that some cities are not shown on the recommended tab inside the client. This is true for Chicago (since it is the closest city to Evanston). You will want to select the “All” tab, open Americas, and then open United States. At this point, you can select the USA – Chicago server location. As you can see we tested a server in Chicago and the speed was 58.03 Mbps.

While ExpressVPN is sold at a higher price point than the other services in our list, the value is high given the size of their network and service features. You can connect a computer, handheld device, router, and game console (SmartDNS) with a single VPN account for just $6.67 a month with an annual subscription.

3. Best VPN for Evanston: VyprVPN

The VyprVPN team is based out of Austin, Texas and has a long history of fighting for user’s Internet privacy. They have hosted an annual privacy panel at SXSW for several years and have even spent time in Washington, DC lobbying for privacy reforms. You will find the VPN service to be in line with their values.

You will notice some added features with VyprVPN depending on which account you choose. The VyprVPN Premium plan includes 5 simultaneous connections, VyprVPN Cloud, and Chameleon protocol. VyprVPN’s Cloud feature allows you to control your own VPN server in the cloud while the Chameleon protocol helps users in countries like China get around government censorship.

The VyprVPN client does not give you the ability to select a specific server number in Chicago. Instead, you will want to switch the location to Chicago. From there, the client will automatically connect you to the best VPN server in Chicago. You can see the results of the speed test below. We were able to achieve a download speed of 52.18 Mbps after connecting to a server in Chicago.

VyprVPN has been kind in offering our visitors a 25% discount. The coupon stacks on top of their normal term discounts. You can enjoy unlimited VPN and VyprVPN Cloud for just $12.95 a month or $60 a year. The annual account works out to just $5.00 a month. New users are covered by a 3-day money back guarantee.

If you are interested in looking at other options, feel free to look at our top 10 VPN services list. We don’t think you will need to, though. We made our choices based on speed, reliability, price, security, and providers with servers located in or near Chicago. That way, you know you will get the best speeds. Of course, they all have great networks. Speed is important if you plan on downloading or streaming content. No one wants to see their favorite sports event or website buffer. The providers we mentioned above are the best options for doing that, no matter which popular services you want to use. Hopefully, you can use our guide to make the right decision for you.