Best VPNs for Lincoln, Nebraska

Lincoln is a medium-sized state capital located in Nebraska. It has a population of about 285k people and a metro area population of 1.4 million. There are a number of reasons to visit the city including several museums, a planetarium, the state capital building, the University of Nebraska, and more. It also attracts quite a bit of business. If you plan on visiting the city, you’ll want to take advantage of their Smart Gigabit Community status. Just make sure you use a VPN first. Before we tell you why that matters, have a look at our best VPNs for Lincoln list.

Early settlers to the Lincoln were attracted to the abundance of Salt, so they founded the town in 1856 on the east bank of the Salt Creek. After J Sterling Morton developed his salt mines in Kansas, salt production in the village stopped. Like many colleges, the state legislature established the University of Nebraska when the city incorporated in 1869. Interestingly, the city got its’ name when a senator attempted to derail the moving of the capital from Omaha to the town of Lancaster. He suggested they name the town Lincoln after the newly assassinated president.

Since many in the area were sympathetic to the Confederacy, he assumed no one would vote for the capital to move to a town named after Abraham Lincoln. Though renaming the city did not happen first, the state capital was moved to Lancaster. Shortly thereafter, the Secretary of State, Thomas Kennard, made sure the name changed when he platted it.

Today, you can find many historic sites in the city. It has a great local economy, and several different publications have listed it a great place for job seekers. Other publications have listed it as one of the top destinations in the US to see. A focus on tech in the region has led to the nickname of the “Silicon Prairie”. Of course, another big reason to visit the area is for the college campus or college sports. As you can see by some of the things we mentioned earlier, you won’t run out of things to do.

In November 2017, US Ignite Inc. named Lincoln a Smart Gigabit Community. That is because of the more than 25k customers with access to 1Gbps internet speed. If you will be in Lincoln and want to see what the difference is, try it out. Then, you can connect to a VPN to protect your privacy. While those speeds are great for users, cybercrooks like it, too. There are some that are just waiting to take advantage of vulnerable users. In other words, users that don’t have their info encrypted. When you use a VPN, you create an encrypted connection to the server of your choice. That makes it much more difficult for criminals to steal your sensitive data.

Another big reason to use a VPN is to help you get around network restrictions and geo-blocks. Often times, schools, businesses, organizations, and even some countries will block you from seeing content that they deem as inappropriate. If you are visiting one of those, you will likely run into their firewall. In this case, using a VPN will trick the software into thinking you are somewhere else. Since the VPN encrypts your data, the blocking software can’t detect what you are viewing. That way, you can gain access to whatever it is you want to see whether you are inside or outside the area.

Those are the two biggest reasons to use a VPN while in Lincoln, Nebraska. That said, you may find other uses when you get more into the scene. Most providers will give you several different protocol choices to use. Since VPNs protect their users with protocols, it is important to know which are the best. The two best options are IKEv2 and OpenVPN. Not all providers offer the first option, but both will work just fine. When selecting OpenVPN, some providers will give you a choice between the TCP and UDP versions. If so, UDP is faster while TCP is a great choice for those with connection issues.

1. Best VPN for Lincoln: IPVanish

Unfortunately, there are no servers in Lincoln specifically. However, we have chosen servers in St. Louis because it is 442 miles away. Though that may seem like quite a bit of distance, it performs well for speeds. IPVanish is quite popular in Lincoln, and they do quite well in the area. They are also known as one of the top choices in the VPN community. Because they have more server locations in the US than other providers, we feel they are one of the best options to use while in the city.

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 a few servers in St. Louis (since that is the best choice) and you can choose to connect to any of them if you wish. You can also connect to a server in several other locations that are close. We tested an IPVanish server in St. Louis, stl-c02, and were able to achieve a download speed of 63.76 Mbps.

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.

2. Best VPN for Lincoln: ExpressVPN

When you sign up for ExpressVPN service, you get the benefit of using their fast VPN network as well as their MediaStreamer feature. When using them together, they act like a Smart DNS service. That means you can unblock geo-restricted content such as sporting events and content from other regions. Additionally, you will protect your privacy because it encrypts your connection.

You will find that ExpressVPN manages a vast network with constant additions. Whether you are in Lincoln, another US city, or elsewhere in the world, they provide you with hundreds of servers in crucial locations to protect your privacy, get around internet censorship, or get around geo-blocks no matter where you are located.

The ExpressVPN team makes everything easy to use. Since they are constantly adding servers, we’ll choose a server in Kansas City because it is the closest. Unfortunately, you can’t pick the individual server for the city you want to use, those choices are based on load balances. To connect, simply open up the client and push the “Change Location” button. Under the “all” section, type “Kansas City” in the search box. When you see it, all you have to do is click to connect. We ran a speed test while using the Kansas City server and our speed was 58.66 Mbps.

In looking at prices of the ExpressVPN, you may see that it is priced higher than other services on our list. However, you often get what you pay for. ExpressVPN’s vast ever-growing network and their list of features are only of the reasons that make it a highly valued service. You can get started by connecting to their network and using PCs, mobile devices, game consoles (smart DNS), routers, and others for a with a single VPN account for just $6.67 a month with an annual subscription.

3. Best VPN for Lincoln: 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.

You will find that NordVPN has perhaps the best mix of services for the price if you subscribe an account for a longer period of time. 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 several servers in St. Louis (since is the best location for Lincoln). Unfortunately, the NordVPN client does not show the city of the server. You will want to connect to one of the following servers: 702-706. 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 server numbers we have listed above. You can also see the load time percentage and the distance to each server. We tested the United States server in St. Louis and found the performance to be 63.73 Mbps.

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 $3.99 a month with a 2-year membership.

4. Best VPN for Lincoln: HMA

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.

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 few servers in St. Louis  (based on the best location). To connect to a server there, 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 St. Louis (again, since it is the best location). From there you can select the USA, Missouri, and then the St. Louis server location. We connected to a server there to test the service and found the speed to be 60.81 Mbps.

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 $6.99 a month and offers all new users a 30-day risk-free money back guarantee.

If you are interested in other options, you can always take a look at our top 10 VPN services list for different options. Keep in mind, though, we have given you the best options for Lincoln. We made our decisions based on speed, reliability, price, and security. We also looked for providers with servers located in the general vicinity of Lincoln. In this case, the closest servers were in St. Louis. By doing so, you will have access to the best speeds. If you plan on streaming, speed is always important. If you are using the 1 Gbps speed, you may not even notice a difference. The options we just mentioned all have good networks, so they are all good choices. When you use our guide to help, you can make the best decision available.