Most VPN services provide apps for just about every platform, and many provide extensions for Google’s Chrome browser. Not all these extensions are as powerful as their sibling apps, however, and almost none of them work the same as true VPNs—they function differently and only protect your browser’s traffic.
Most Chrome Browser VPNs (Probably) Aren’t VPNs
With exceedingly rare exceptions, a Chrome browser extension from a VPN service is not actually a VPN. It’s more likely it’s an encrypted proxy.
While a VPN uses a VPN protocol to encrypt all the traffic coming off your device and route it through a VPN server, a proxy can only encrypt and route the traffic from one app at a time. In the case of a Chrome extension, only the browser traffic is encrypted and routed. This keeps your ISP from seeing what you’re up to (and they can see a lot) and makes you harder to track online by hiding your IP address. Rerouting your traffic can also unblock some websites and sometimes let you access streaming content from other countries.
All the other web traffic generated by your machine—from apps, the OS itself, everything—travels as usual.
The Best VPN Services for 2022
If you’re only concerned about unblocking online content or adding additional privacy to your web browsing, a proxy is fine. But it’s not a VPN and shouldn’t be mistaken for one. For more on the topic, you can read our explainer, VPNs vs. Proxies: What’s the Difference?
We confirmed all the services listed here (with one exception) only encrypt browser traffic. We’ve reached out to the individual vendors to confirm their Chrome extensions function as proxies.
Irritatingly, most VPNs do not make it clear their Chrome extensions are anything other than a full-fledged VPN. Most do note their product will protect your browser traffic, but not all of them say it will only protect your browser traffic. Granted this distinction is confusing, but VPN services should do a better job of explaining exactly what these tools do.
The one exception to this is ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN’s Chrome extension isn’t a proxy, but it also isn’t a VPN app either. ExpressVPN describes its Chrome extension as a “remote control” for your VPN and that seems pretty accurate. To use the ExpressVPN Chrome extension, you first need to download and log in to the ExpressVPN desktop app. Once you do that, you can use either the desktop app or the Chrome extension to control your VPN connection.
This is a real VPN connection that affects not just your browser traffic, but also all the web traffic from your device. Conveniently, you don’t need the ExpressVPN desktop app open in order to use the Chrome extension. If you want actual VPN protection for your machine controlled by your browser, ExpressVPN is your best option.
How Did We Make Our List?
To compile this list, we started with our roundup of the best VPN services. From these, we looked at which offer a Chrome extension and which don’t. Surprisingly, two of our Editor’s Choice winners, IVPN and ProtonVPN, do not offer any browser options. Less surprisingly, perhaps, there’s also no Chrome VPN from Mozilla—the company does, after all, focus most of its efforts on the Firefox browser. Editors’ Choice winner Mullvad VPN offers a Firefox plug-in, not a Chrome extension. Keep in mind all these services offer desktop apps and mobile apps in addition to these extensions.
That leaves NordVPN, Surfshark VPN, Private Internet Access VPN, CyberGhost VPN, TunnelBear VPN, and ExpressVPN. We installed and tested all these VPNs in the latest version of the Chrome browser running on a 2020 MacBook Pro.
For each service, we explored its features and tried to access Netflix. We also used the DNS Leak Test tool(Opens in a new window) to determine if the extension had hidden our IP address (a good thing) and if it was leaking DNS information (a bad thing). Fortunately, all the extensions we tested secured IP and DNS data.
Can You Trust Chrome VPN Extensions?
By default, all Chrome extensions have access to more or less of your browser data. That can be a privacy concern on its own. Chrome VPN extensions (again, they’re probably encrypted proxies) do more and could grant the VPN service remarkable insight into your traffic. All your browser traffic will flow through the VPN service’s servers, so it’s important you trust the service you settle on.
When we review VPN services, we look through the privacy policies issued by the VPN companies for any potential risks. We also check whether the companies issue transparency reports about their interactions with law enforcements.
Several VPN services commission third-party audits that examine their infrastructure and ability to stick to their privacy policies. While we acknowledge audits are imperfect tools, we think they offer the best way to get insight into how these services operate under the hood.
Did We Ghost CyberGhost?
Careful readers will notice that although CyberGhost VPN is on our list of the best VPN services and does offer a Chrome extension, it’s not on this list. When we went to test the CyberGhost VPN extension, we discovered that it is strictly a free offering with no option to log in to your CyberGhost VPN account. All Chrome extension users, paying and not, are limited to just eight servers, and the extension provides no other options. In our testing, we found the CyberGhost VPN Chrome extension to be very slow, with some websites (including Netflix) timing out entirely.
While the CyberGhost VPN Chrome extension might be a good choice for anyone who doesn’t want to pay or create an account in order to protect their browser traffic, the hands-on experience was far poorer than the others we tested. It didn’t make the cut.
Should You Use a Chrome VPN Extension?
Without question, the desktop app provided by a VPN provides better protection with more features and options than a browser extension. A standalone VPN app encrypts all the traffic from your machine and lets you use all the features and privacy tools that are part of your subscription. There’s nothing you can do with a VPN service extension for Chrome that you can’t do, and perhaps do better, with a true desktop VPN app.
That said, there are some use cases where Chrome extensions from VPN services can shine. If you’re using a machine without permission to install software, you may still be able to log into your Chrome account and use the extension. It’s also useful if you really don’t want to hide or protect anything but your browser traffic.
Whatever you decide, don’t forget that a VPN (or an encrypted proxy) cannot protect you from every threat to your security and privacy. We strongly recommend readers make use of antivirus software, use a password manager to generate unique and complex passwords for every site and service, and enable multi-factor authentication wherever it’s available.
What Is Two-Factor Authentication?
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