Best VPNs for South Bend

South Bend, IndianaSouth Bend, Indiana is a city located in St. Joseph County. It has a population of over 100k people and a combined statistical area of 720k. The economy is wide and varied with everything from high technology to defense contractors and more. It is also home to the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish. If you are planning a trip to the city whether to see the sites or to see “Touchdown Jesus” from inside the stadium, you may end up using public WiFi. If so, you need to use a VPN first. We’ll tell you why in a moment. First, take a look at our list for the best VPNs for South Bend.

RankProviderOur
Score
Server
Locations
Visit
1IPVanish9.873Visit IPVanish
2ExpressVPN9.6160Visit ExpressVPN
3VyprVPN9.270VyprVPN

Like many cities in the US, Native Americans occupied the area that is now known as South Bend. When Europeans arrived in the 1820s, they established a trading post. In 1829, the leadership changed its name from Southold to South Bend. By 1835, leaders formally established the city.

In 1842, Célestine Guynemer de la Hailandière, the Bishop of Vincennes, offered land to Father Edward Sorin from the Congregation of Holy Cross, on the condition that he build a college in two years. Father Sorin arrived with French and Irish brethren to build the University of Notre Dame Du Lac. Typically, it is just abbreviated as ND or Notre Dame and it is a private, non-profit Catholic research university. Currently, it is the largest employer in the city.

Whether you are visiting South Bend to see the historic college, visiting the zoo, or taking in a football game at the university, there is an increasing number of businesses and establishments that offer public WiFi. While that will patrons in, it also draws in cybercriminals. The person on their laptop at the next table over could be stealing your sensitive information. When you connect to a VPN, you create a secure and encrypted connection to a server you choose. That makes it much more difficult for would-be thieves to snag your private data.

The next reason to use is a VPN has to deal with network restrictions and geo-blocks. Schools, organizations, companies, and even some countries like to block their users from seeing content they deem to be inappropriate. By using a VPN, you can fool the software into thinking you are located somewhere else. Additionally, it can’t see the traffic because the VPN encrypted it. That is great if you had a sports blackout or have been blocked from seeing your favorite website.

Those are the main reasons to use a VPN when visiting South Bend. However, you may discover other reasons after you sign up. From getting around network restrictions and geo-blocks to protecting your privacy, using a VPN is a good idea. Let’s take a closer look at the providers we mentioned earlier.


1. Best VPN for South Bend: IPVanish

IPVanish

South Bend is not even 100 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 South Bend.

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 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.

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

Visit IPVanish


2. Best VPN for South Bend: 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 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

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 South Bend). 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.

ExpressVPN Chicago speed test

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.

Visit ExpressVPN


3. Best VPN for South Bend: VyprVPN

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.

CountriesLocationsUSA Server Locations
6271Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC

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 Chicago speed test

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.

Visit VyprVPN


For those that would like other options, you can feel free to check out our top 10 VPN services list. That said, we feel we have given you the best options. We made our choices based on speed, reliability, price, security, and providers with servers located in or near Chicago. That way, you can be assured that you get the best speeds. Of course, they all have great networks. Speed is important if you plan on downloading or streaming HD content. The providers we mentioned above are the best options for doing that, no matter which popular services you want to use. Hopefully, our guide will help you make an informed decision.

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