This map shows where 43 VPN providers have servers. We built it from each provider’s official location list, and below the map we explain what the data tells you and when a VPN is actually worth using.
Reading the map
The darker a country, the more providers have servers there. Hover over it to see the list, or click to open a page with more detail. Grey countries are places where none of the providers we compare offers an IP address.
At least half of the services we compare, so 22 or more out of 43, are available in 59 countries, and 34 of those are in Europe, alongside places like the US, Canada, Japan and Australia. At the other end there are 35 countries where only one provider can give you a local IP address, mostly smaller states in Africa and the Caribbean.
Virtual locations: the part nobody mentions
What surprised us most while going through the server lists was how many locations are virtual. The IP address is registered in the country you pick, but the server itself sits somewhere else, usually next door. In 66 of the 179 countries on the map, every provider that covers the country marks its location there as virtual. In Africa alone that’s 32 countries.
The big networks lean on this heavily. NordVPN lists 150 countries, but 95 of them are virtual. Proton VPN: 85 out of 149. Most smaller services work the other way, Mullvad and IVPN among them. In total, 9 of the 43 providers we compare have no country that they serve only through virtual locations: by their own lists, every country they offer has at least one physical server.
Does it matter? Websites work out where you are from your IP address, so to them a virtual location looks exactly like a real one. What you may notice is higher latency, because your data travels further. On every country page we list providers with physical servers separately from those offering a virtual location.
When a VPN is genuinely useful
Travel is the classic case. Banks and streaming services often block or limit logins from abroad, and connecting through a server back home usually fixes that. Public Wi-Fi is the other. You have no idea who runs the network in a hotel or airport lounge, and a VPN encrypts everything before it leaves your phone.
At home, a VPN is mostly about privacy. Your internet provider can no longer see which services you use, and websites and ad networks lose your real IP address, which usually gives away your city. We go into more detail in Online anonymity.
What a VPN won’t do
It won’t make you anonymous while you’re logged in to Google or Facebook, and it won’t replace antivirus or common sense about suspicious links. It encrypts your connection and changes your IP address. That’s a lot, but it isn’t everything. New to this? Start with What is a VPN and How does a VPN work.
Choosing a provider
Start with the country. For the US, the UK or Germany you can pick almost anyone and decide on features or price. For less common locations, the choice is made for you by who is actually there. After that, look at trust (audits, no-logs policy, where the company is based), how many devices you can connect and whether you can try it for free. We’ve put all of that side by side on the VPN providers page, and there’s a longer guide in How to choose a VPN.