BEST VPN SERVICES
In a hurry?
The best VPN to keep you safe while using airport WiFi in 2023, as found in our independent testing, is NordVPN!
Thanks to the free airport WiFi, transfers and flight delays are way more tolerable these days.
Travelers can use their free time between flights to watch online content on streaming platforms like Netflix, upload photos, or catch up on emails.
But have you ever asked yourself the critical question, “Is airport WiFi safe?”
Because it isn’t!
Cybercriminals can steal your data in crowded places via unencrypted websites and unsecured WiFi connections.
So, knowing how to protect yourself while using airport WiFi is vital.
Although some airports have more WiFi networks than others, they don’t offer a guarantee to protect your data while you use their free WiFi connections.
Moreover, some airlines offer in-flight WiFi, which isn’t even password-protected. Hence, they’re as vulnerable as coffee shop WiFi.
However, the solitariness of the flight might lull travelers into believing they’re safe from cyberattacks.
Now, you might think, how can you be safe while using airport WiFi. But not anymore.
VPN providers are the best ways to protect your data and online privacy while connected to the airport network.
Alongside offering high-end security, you can change your IP address to whatever location you want and bypass any region-locked content.
And that’s something cool and unique. This article will cover some of the best providers in this respect.
4 Best VPNs to Keep You Safe While Using Airport WiFi in 2023
1. NordVPN
NordVPN has firmly established itself as one of the market leaders in the VPN industry.
In fact, over the past few years, you might’ve seen it everywhere, from sponsoring huge sports teams to TV adverts on the channels of various Youtubers.
That’s because NordVPN is one of the highest-profile VPN providers around and supports both the IKEv2/IPSec and OpenVPN encryption protocols.
- NordVPN is the industry leader (by a long way)
- 30-day risk-free trial
- Superfast speeds
- 5,442+ servers in 60+ countries
- Strict no-logs policy
- Next-generation military-grade encryption
- DoubleVPN, double privacy
- 6 simultaneous device connections
- Great for: Safety, security, anonymity & peace of mind
- Compatible with: Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad & iOS, Linux, routers, Apple TV, FireFox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and more
Moreover, it has recently launched the Wireguard encryption protocol via its ‘NordLynx’ feature, and this protocol is currently available in almost all NordVPN apps.
However, by any chance, if you want to use old encryption protocols, such as L2TP, SSTP, and PPTP, then you’re out of luck because NordVPN no longer supports these kinds of protocols.
Don’t be worried; these protocols are already obscure and aren’t generally used for security purposes these days. However, some users might miss them, so it’s worth mentioning.
Moreover, NordVPN uses the OpenVPN protocol using the standard AES 256-bit encryption.
This encryption algorithm is considered ‘military-grade’ encryption, employed by government officials and military personnel, and is, therefore, highly robust.
In short, you don’t have to worry about your privacy or security with NordVPN.
Authentication is another crucial element that NordVPN handles with a secure 2048-bit RSA key.
Although it isn’t the best in its industry standard, it offers more than an acceptable level of privacy and security and is more than enough to protect your device and data.
More precisely, the key can provide safety and security.
Moreover, few NordVPN app clients allow or use the IKEv2/IPsec encryption protocol.
As this security protocol is known to be unbreakable no matter what, it makes your VPN connection even more secure. It’s a combination of various ciphers, which includes perfect forward secrecy and some others.
One of the core reasons behind the immense success of NordVPN over the last few years is its ability to expand its server count quickly and thoroughly.
As of now, its server network spans over 60 countries with more than 5,505 individual servers. It ultimately offers you a handful of options to hide your IP address.
That’s great because it gives you private internet access and complete anonymity.
The server count of NordVPN has been increasing rapidly, so it has included 200 VPN servers over the past year.
Its server base covers almost all locations worldwide except Africa, which has minimal coverage in the South.
Therefore, you can easily access IP addresses from around the world and change VPN servers at your leisure.
And the best part is that despite having so many servers, the load is never an issue. Moreover, it has a good host of ‘Speciality Servers’ that also include options such as ‘Double-Hop. ‘
Furthermore, NordVPN gives its users the ability to connect six devices simultaneously.
Moreover, its simultaneous connections policy lets you connect all your devices to the VPN simultaneously.
While you can download and install the app on as many devices as you like, you can only use six devices simultaneously.
2. Surfshark
Surfshark exploded onto the scene in a big way a few years ago.
In fact, it’s one of the recent VPN newcomers to shine among the biggies in the VPN industry. Moreover, it’s a cheap alternative as well.
Surfshark VPN supports the WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN encryption protocols.
While most VPN providers keep the OpenVPN protocol as default, that’s not the case with Surfshark VPN.
Instead, IKEv2 is the default protocol on all the Surfshark apps, which is a bit unusual. However, you can always choose to use OpenVPN TCP or UDP anytime.
- Surfshark is the best budget VPN
- 30-day risk-free trial
- Strict no-logs policy
- 3200+ servers in 95 countries
- Unlimited simultaneous device connections
- Great for: private browsing on a budget
- Compatible with: Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone & iOS, Linux, FireFox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and more
WireGuard, on the other hand, is a more recent addition to Surfshark VPN’s protocol list.
This encryption protocol ensures more security and better speeds than the prevalent OpenVPN protocol.
You can always switch between these two if you wish so, and that’s because Surfshark VPN comes with this option.
Moreover, Surfshark VPN uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect and safeguard your VPN traffic.
It’s the standard VPN protocol across all platforms and apps with a 2048-bit RSA key and a SHA512 authentication hash for handshaking.
In fact, the AES 256 encryption is used by government officials and military personnel because it’s unbreakable.
Surfshark VPN also offers an optional ChaCha encryption for Android operating systems, right? The company even offers unlimited simultaneous connections.
That is, it lets you secure as many devices as you want with a single Surfshark account. In short, all your devices (no matter how many they’re) are fully secured.
However, it seems like most other VPN providers are also planning to allow unlimited simultaneous device connection sooner or later.
Though Surfshark is still one of the few providers that would enable complete connection along with other unique features, and that too at a minimal cost.
Apart from the unlimited simultaneous connection, the official website of Surfshark VPN also claims that the provider has a strict and solid zero-logs policy.
It clearly states that it doesn’t monitor or log anything its users do when they’re connected with Surfshark VPN.
That’s technically true because it doesn’t log any browsing history.
However, it doesn’t mean that the Surfshark VPN doesn’t keep a record of anything.
It does keep logs of its users’ billing details like credit and debit card information and email address.
Don’t worry; you can always use an anonymous email address and make payments using cryptocurrency to get around the same.
That’s not all; the company also logs aggregated stats, including unsuccessful connections, crash reports, frequency of use of the system, and performance information.
Surfshark VPN is a bit vague about these details, though. However, it isn’t a severe issue as no one can track you with this information.
The thing is that Surfshark VPN doesn’t record online activity, geolocation data, incoming and outgoing IP addresses, session information, web traffic, purchasing or downloading histories, connection timestamps, and bandwidth used.
And that’s undoubtedly better than most of its competitors.
3. Atlas VPN
Atlas VPN is a freemium VPN service that was launched in 2019. Despite being new to the industry, it’s a clever provider that blends both premium and free versions. It has already been operated by over six mil users.
In fact, the provider hit the headlines in 2021 after being acquired by Nord Security, the parent company of Surfsh and NordVPN.
However, Atlas VPN is still a stand-alone VPN service provider.
It encrypts your online traffic with the standard AES 256-bit encryption, and it’s one of the best encryption algorithms that even military and government officials use to protect their data.
- Atlas VPN is the best free VPN
- Privacy Pro servers
- 750 servers in 40+ locations
- Unlimited simultaneous device connections
- Great for: people seeking a freemium VPN
- Compatible with: Windows, MacOS, Android, iPhone & iOS, Android TV, Fire TV Stick
Moreover, the encryption protocols of Atlas VPN are pretty surprising, and VPN apps such as its Windows operating system already support Wireguard, which is in every way a huge bonus.
However, it doesn’t support OpenVPN pro, which is a bit odd, to be honest. Besides that, other apps work with the IPSec/IKEv2 tunneling protocol.
The IPSec/IKEv2 encryption protocol is entirely secure and can easily safeguard your personal data and information.
However, it isn’t as secure as other modern VPN protocols.
That’s not all; it is also less user-friendly as a security proto, so it’s better to use other tunneling protocols rather than this one.
To our surprise, Atlas VPN has already undergone an independent security audit of its apps. And the good news is none of its apps identified any issues.
Only the iOS app has two mid-level issues (no serious vulnerabilities) and three minor issues, which aren’t a threat to anyone. In fact, it’s pretty refreshing to see a newcomer VPN with so much transparency.
Apart from all these, Atlas VPN is one of the growing VP providers that supports unlimited simultaneous device connection with each of its subscriptions.
Once you’ve signed up with Atlas VPN, you can connect all your devices to its service and even that of your family and friends simultaneously.
And the most impressive part is that this unlimited simultaneous device connections offer extends to the accessible version of Atlas VPN.
If that doesn’t excite you, we don’t know what will. However, it does have other limitations and restrictions to Atlas VPN’s free service.
Likewise, Atlas VPN has a privacy policy that claims it follows a strict zero-log policy across both its free and premium version VPN service.
However, being new to the market, it’s no surprise that its no-log policy hasn’t been independently verified yet.
Don’t worry; the company will soon be audited by third parties.
Additionally, you can expect an independent audit of its zero-log policy pretty soon, and it’ll confirm that the online traffic of the premium and free versions are fully protected.
Moreover, as per the information available in its public domain, there’s no need to doubt its no-log policy at this moment. But a third-party audit will no doubt increase user confidence.
4. CyberGhost
CyberGhost VPN is another VPN service provider that has been around in this business for a long time.
The provider supports access to the standard tunneling protocol options, such as L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2, and OpenVPN.
Also, it has recently added the latest WireGuard VPN protocol to its encryption protocol list.
Moreover, the different platforms come with varying levels of protocol, and it entirely depends on your device.
CyberGhost VPN offers a full range of secure protocols on its desktop app. And among the many, the WireGuard protocol is the best one.
Apart from that, it combines the tight security of the OpenVPN protocol with the fast speeds of the IKEv2 VPN protocol. Also, these protocols are quite easy-to-configure and highly secure.
Besides that, the PPTP encryption protocol isn’t available on the CyberGhost app, but you can always configure the same manually.
However, we’d advise against it because it’s less secure than any other VPN protocols that the providers offer.
Speaking of security, it provides 256-bit encryption, the best-grade encryption.
Furthermore, the authentication of CyberGhost VPN is handled by a 4096-bit RSA key.
However, it isn’t widespread, so we should credit this VPN provider for offering it as standard.
These robust security features are best for many reasons, including, at times, using any public WiFi.
That’s because while using a public WiFi connection, you’ll need a reliable VPN that is fast, secure, and lightweight.
And luckily, CyberGhost ticks all these boxes, which makes it an ideal VPN provider to use on public WiFi networks, and its servers are pretty secure core servers.
Is Airport WiFi Safe?
The clearcut answer to your question is a big “No”.
Don’t worry; there are various ways through which you can use airport WiFi without compromising your personal data.
But how? We’ve got a few ways that you can use to protect yourself, such as using a proxy or Tor; the best and easiest way is to use a reliable VPN provider.
It encrypts your connection and routes it via a server in a country of your choice.
And the best part is that online services, websites, and, most importantly, other devices will see the VPN server’s IP address rather than your real one.
That’s not all; you can also use a VPN for torrenting, bypass geo-restricted content from BBC iPlayer, Netflix, etc., and unlock censorship in offices, schools, and countries such as China.
While some VPN providers can easily hide your IP address, many can leak the same via various security vulnerabilities.
So, it’s essential to choose a trustworthy VPN provider.
If you want to protect your device using a VPN, you’ll first need to choose a reliable VPN service provider, which can be a bit tricky.
Don’t worry; you can employ any of the noted four VPN providers as they work like magic.
However, our highest suggestion would be the best in this business, NordVPN. After you’ve decided, you need to sign up for it. After that, download and install it on your device.
Remember, you can connect multiple devices with your VPN because all the mentioned VPN providers support a minimum of five simultaneous connections.
Once the app is installed on your device, open the same and select a server of your choice.
FAQs
Does a VPN Protect You on AirportWi Fi?
Yes, a VPN does protect you and your device on airport WiFi. That’s because when you connect your device with a VPN, your online traffic gets encrypted.
And as a result, no third party can intercept it through public WiFi.
Is It Safe to Use Open WiFi with VPN?
Using an open WiFi network is in no way safe.
However, using a public network is much safer if you’ve connected your device before than using available WiFi without a VPN.
Does a VPN Protect from Hackers?
A VPN does protect you from hackers, and it does so by redirecting your traffic to another IP address, making your device impossible to track.
And therefore, no one (not even hackers) will be able to track or steal your data.
In Summary, the best VPNs in 2023 are;
Rating | VPN Service | Get Offer |
---|---|---|
#1 Top Rated#1 | NordVPN - #1 VPN in the industry | FREE Trial |
#2 Top Rated#2 | Surfshark - top budget VPN | Start Now |
#3 Top Rated#3 | Atlas VPN - best free VPN | Start Now |
Conclusion
While you can use any of the mentioned four VPN providers to keep yourself safe while using airport WiFi, the best alternative is to use NordVPN, and that’s because it offers security and the ability to alter your IP address.
That’s all for today!
This article answers one of the most searched questions on the internet “Is airport WiFi safe?”— And the answer is a clear no.
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Written by Trevor Cooke
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