Minnesota is a US state located in the northern-central part of the country on the Canadian border. This prairie state of 5.67 million people is also known as the land of 10,000 lakes. Some of the reasons to visit the state include beer, art, and more. For everyone who plans on joining the roster of visitors, you need to be sure to use a VPN. It will help protect your privacy while traveling. We’ll speak more about that shortly. First, however, please have a look at our list of the best VPNs for Minnesota.
| Rank | VPN Service | Price | Visit | Server Locations | No Logs | Browser Extensions | Smart DNS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | $6.67 |  | 160 |  | | |
| 2 |  | $3.49 | | 87 | | | |
| 3 |  | $2.19 | | 95 | | | |
| 4 |  | $3.99 | | 73 | | ||
| 5 |  | $1.99 | | 58 | |
Please note that none of the VPNs on our list host servers locally in Minnesota. However, they all provide fast, secure connections from VPN servers in Chicago. You can see each VPN section below for a map of their server locations throughout the United States.
Minnesota has several top-tier sports teams in the five major sports. The teams there are the Minnesota Twins (MLB), Timberwolves (NBA), Vikings (NFL), Wild (NHL), and Minnesota United FC (MLS). Fans of those sports can be anywhere, especially in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. However, fans outside the twin cities have an advantage over those there, at least if you want to watch the games online. Even if you have one of the sports packages for your favorite team, licensing rights say you need to watch them on TV instead of online if they are playing locally. That is because the sports teams consider you to be “in-market”. The key is to show up with an “out-of-market” status, and the way to do that is to connect to a VPN server in another area. By doing so, you can enjoy the games whether you are in the area or traveling.
The state has festivals galore. Some of those include the Minnesota Craft Beer Festival, SmileFest, Winstock, the Hendrickson Foundation Hockey Festival, and more. Of course, some of the festivals may not surprise you because the state is home to several famous musical acts. Luckily, organizers do well with events like these. That means getting the details right, including pop-up WiFi spots to help save data for the event-goers. However, unless you are using the advantages of a VPN’s encryption, those spots could leave you vulnerable. We feel you should be able to enjoy your festival without worrying about your privacy.
Located in Bloomington, MN, The Mall of America is the largest shopping mall in the US. People come from all over the world to experience shopping and entertainment on an entirely different level. While there, you can enjoy attractions like the Nickelodeon Universe, the Sea Life Minnesota Aquarium, the Crayola Experience, the Lego Store, and more. It is only open from 11 am to 7 pm, except during different times of the year. That means you’ll have downtime if you went to the state for that reason. These days many will choose to use streaming services. If you are traveling abroad or want to check out services from other regions of the world, you can easily do that by connecting to a VPN. As soon as you choose your server location, you can catch up on your favorite shows and movies from home or see what others are watching in different parts of the world.
And those are only some of the reasons to connect to a VPN while visiting the state. You will quickly find there are more.
What is the Best VPN for Minnesota?
Since censorship is not really an issue in Minnesota, we’ll take a look at factors to help you protect your privacy and get around blackout restrictions.
- Fast VPN servers in Chicago that perform well in Minnesota and the surrounding region
- Ability to get around sports blackouts, firewalls, and geo-restrictions in the region
- Providers that have a large and stable network to help you avoid dropped connections
- Multi-platform mobile apps and support for Amazon Firestick devices
- Providers that offer a strict no-logs policy for users
- Strong military-grade encryption to protect your privacy
And now, a closer look at some of the best VPNs for Minnesota.
1. ExpressVPN – Best VPN for Minnesota
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ExpressVPN offers browser extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers in addition to its list of VPN apps. The custom apps support Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. They also offer a MediaStreamer feature. That is relatively rare in the community, but it can be beneficial, depending on your online activities. Coupled with their split tunneling feature, you can easily choose the apps or browsers you want to filter through your VPN connection. Split tunneling is a feature that many providers do not offer, but it can really be helpful.
ExpressVPN host servers in 13 cities in the United States and a total of over 160 cities around the world. While they do not currently have any servers located in Minnesota, their Chicago server location performs very well. We connected to it and tested the speed to Minneapolis. As you can see our result was quite fast with a download speed of 403 Mbps.
When it comes to keeping yourself safe, ExpressVPN is one of the best choices you can make. Whether you are looking for secure encryption protocols, privacy protection features, a strict no-logs policy, or other things, you will find them all with this provider. Additionally, if you have ever had an issue creating a secure password, you are in luck. ExpressVPN has a random password generator on their website that will help you do so. It can generate multiple passwords, and you can securely download the generator page if you wish to use it offline.
ExpressVPN is the #1 rated VPN on our site. We have had the opportunity to compare hundreds of VPN services over the years and ExpressvPN is our favorite. Whether you want to protect your privacy on WiFi networks or unblock streaming services in other countries, ExpressVPN is a good choice. Best of all, you can sign up for 12 months of unlimited VPN access and get 3 months free during our current promotion. The ExpressVPN 30-day money-back guarantee gives you plenty of time to test the service.
Want to learn more? Read our full ExpressVPN review.
2. NordVPN – good for streaming Minnesota sports
While NordVPN isn’t the oldest player in the VPN community, they have certainly made a splash in the space. They are very popular, and the company took its name from the Nordic ideals of trust, confidence, and innovation. Since their founding in 2012, you can not visit any type of media without seeing an advertisement of some sort. They mention that they have 12 million users worldwide. Given that, you are in great hands if you choose NordVPN. They manage a large network to help meet your goals for using a VPN.
The closest NordVPN servers to Minnesota are also in Chicago. We connected to one of them and tested the speed. The first server we chose didn’t perform too well but the second did much better with a speed of 223 Mbps. They key is to select the city from the left hand side of the client screen and then select a specific server. If it doesn’t provide a fast connection then try another one. This can get tedious at times but it serves the purpose.
If you play one of the many games that are available through an internet browser, we suggest that you connect to a VPN server by using NordVPN. While browser games are fun, you may have noticed that they can sometimes take a while to load. Often, that is because of the processes or ads that are trying to load on the page. Some companies even create free games to spread their malware. By turning on the NordVPN CyberSec feature, however, you can block annoying ads and potentially avoid malware that could cause harm.
Want to learn more? Read our full NordVPN review.
3. Private Internet Access – large network in the United States
An advantage of using a VPN server from Private Internet Access if you are a gamer is to help protect you from Distributive Denial of Service attacks. For those that are not aware, they can quickly cause problems when you are gaming. Since it shuts down access to your favorite games, playing them becomes difficult. Private Internet Access will help stop those types of attacks from happening to you. That way, you can enjoy the games you want to, whether you are playing casually or competitively.
Private Internet Access is a US-based VPN service known for their privacy efforts. You will find that they offer pretty good coverage in the states. We tested from a server in Illinois to Minnesota and the speed was 143 Mbps.
Since the world now spends more time on mobile devices than desktop computers, WiFi grows ever-more essential. If you are one of the many that does, we suggest that you connect to a VPN server from Private Internet Access to protect your privacy. The truth is, hackers are mostly invisible. They could be across the room or at the next table over. Since using Private Internet Access will encrypt your WiFi data and utilize a firewall, you can make sure that everything you do is protected.
Want to learn more? Read our full Private Internet Access review.
4. IPVanish – support for Firestick devices
Sports fans around the world often like to support their hometown team. If you are in some of those cities, however, you may be limited to what you can watch online. For those that want to watch their team online, you can’t do that due to licensing restrictions. Fortunately, there is a way around that problem. By connecting to a VPN from IPVanish, you only need to connect to a server in another city. That causes the blocking software to see you as “out-of-market” so you can watch your team on your favorite device.
IPVanish is also based in the United States and has server locations throughout the country. Unfortunately they do not host any servers in Minnesota but you can connect to servers in Chicago. We did so and the speed to Minneapolis was 165 Mbps.
If you are a gamer that likes to play online, you probably know that while popular games eventually become available in all regions, it is not always at the same time. The trick to that is to connect to a VPN server from IPVanish located in one of the early access countries. Australia is a popular choice. By doing so, you will make the software think you are there. That way, you can enjoy the game and play it earlier than others in your area.
Want to learn more? Read our full IPVanish review.
5. PrivadoVPN – Socks5 feature for torrenting
Protecting your gaming activity and privacy is important to us. It is also important to PrivadoVPN. No matter how many hours you spend playing, protecting your achievements, currency, and account details are essential. One of the best ways to do that is to connect to a VPN. By doing so, you will create a layer of encryption on your account. That will help secure your important data so you can concentrate on what is really important.
PrivadoVPN is the newest service to make our list. A number of team members helped launch another VPN years ago so they have a lot of experience. It shows in their network as they manage all their own hardware. You can expect good speeds and strong privacy. We were able to get over 196 Mbps download speeds to Minnesota. This is more than respectable.
Watching sports can be relaxing for many. Often, though, your favorite sporting events can be limited to specific countries or geographic areas. That is why you need to connect to a PrivadoVPN server. If your favorite sport is outside your current area, or you want to watch specific coverage, just connect to a server in that country or region of the world. That way, you’ll be able to watch your favorite sports, no matter where the teams are playing.
Want to learn more? Read our full PrivadoVPN review.
