5 Best VPN for Mac 2022 – Secure your Apple Mac Now

No doubt Mac devices come very secure, and people have blind trust in Apple’s device in terms of data security and privacy. Which is somehow right because Apple always prefers user’s security more than Microsoft and other giants. But, even if you feel your Mac device is completely secure; you can not be sure about your internet connection! Read, VPN Buying Guide

This is why all Mac users must consider securing their internet connection with the best VPN for Mac devices. But, it becomes difficult for a less savvy man to decide which VPN to opt for; since the VPN market is full of various providers; claiming to be best amongst all.

To this end, we present you today’s article with our tried and tested top best VPN for Mac devices to make your online data transferring safe and secure and let you bypass various geo-restricted content across the globe.

Also check out, Best VPN for PC

What’s the Best VPN for Mac Device?

A VPN is a safe method to connect your Mac securely to a server operated by a VPN provider. Your Mac device then connects to the internet through this VPN server.
Arguably, using VPN is the only most effective step you can take in order to enhance your digital security and privacy.

All data transferring between your Mac device and the VPN server is encrypted. The VPN obscures your internet data from your Internet Service Provider (ISP) so that it can’t spy on your online activities.

VPN service providers usually operate servers in various locations around the globe. This is fabulous for bypassing censorship, as you can directly connect to a server found in a country where there’s no such censorship.

When you connect to the internet through a VPN server; anybody on the internet will notice the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the VPN server, instead of your IP.
Most VPNs offer dedicated Mac VPN clients, and all the VPN services can be manually configured for MacOS and OSX.

If you’re still sure whether to go for a VPN or not, try reading How To Decide Whether You Need A VPN?

Why Do You Need the Best VPN for Mac?

MacOS has usually deemed a reasonably secure operating system, but there are however many grounds for Mac owners to use VPN.

Privacy

With a VPN connection, your ISP can’t understand what you get up to over the internet. However, an ISP is still required to connect your Mac device to the VPN server, and it can’t see any data that moves between the two. It also can’t see what sites you hit beyond the first connection to the VPN server.

Nearly all mass surveillance plans rely on ISPs to log the data of what you do over the internet and give those data logs over to agencies such as the GCHQ and NSA. Using a VPN service is hence a beneficial way to stop this form of untargeted government monitoring.

On the other hand, sites you open will see the IP of the VPN server, not your original IP.

For those of our readers who are just can’t stand government spying anymore; a VPN is an excellent way for them! To know more about what you can do in order to protect  your digital privacy, check our The Ultimate Privacy Guide.

Unblock BBC iPlayer And Netflix

When you connect it the VPN server located in another country; the website you then visit will think you are in that country. This is what it makes the excellent way to unblock services that are blocked for overseas visitors.

This means you can unblock not only the ever-popular US Netflix and BBC iPlayer, but US cable TV channels such as FOX, ESPN, and CNN (on the geo-restricted service SlingTV, for example).

You can check out, 5 Best VPN for Netflix – Watch Netflix from anywhere

Evade Censorship

As I have already written, a VPN will stop your ISP and government from recognizing what you do online. If you connect to a server in another country; then you will be able to reach the full range of internet content accessible to residents of that country.

Using a Mac VPN client is hence a magnificent way to evade censorship – be it on social, religious, political, moral, or copyright grounds.

Protect Your Mac from WiFi Hackers

A Mac-based VPN will shield you from the hackers when utilizing public WiFi hotspots, as your data is secure between your Mac computer and VPN server. Even if you connect to a false “evil twin” hotspot, your internet data will be shielded because it is encrypted. For more information, do check out, 7 Ways to Avoid Being Hacked

Safe Torrenting

As the synonyms, P2P and filesharing intimate, BitTorrent is a very friendly protocol. You can view who is downloading files saved on your computer, and other torrenters can know when you download files from theirs.

It gives us a sweet and happy feeling until we know the fact that the copyright holders can too easily look in when you download their content and can use it against you. Also see, The Comprehensive Torrent Guide for Everyone

Mac Security Vulnerabilities

Over the past few years, the prevalence of Apple’s products has hiked up considerably. So much so, that vulnerabilities and exploits are now being taken the support of in malicious code online. There was even pretty a bit of affront in the Mac community lately toward a security researcher who announced two rather significant flaws in Mac OS without reporting Apple first, thereby setting every Mac user potentially at the peril of these zero-day vulnerabilities.

You may want to see, Why Data Encryption Matters even if you have Nothing to Hide?

Any vulnerability in an OS that the company of that OS is ignorant of is called a “zero-day” vulnerability, kind of like case zero in an epidemic. Once the company becomes conscious of the flaw; it begins a race against time to mend the hole before too various of its users get hooked by an exploit using this flaw. As you can imagine, any zero-day vulnerability in an OS is music to the ears of anybody who codes any kind of malware. The system is mostly wide open to them until the vendor gets to know about it and gets a patch in place to fill the hole.

A Mac VPN appends a vital layer of protection against zero-day vulnerabilities that we might not understand about yet. An encrypted tunnel and masked IP address go a long ways toward mitigating these kinds of threats.

How Best VPN for Mac Secures Your Internet Connection?

A VPN uses encryption technologies, such as IP security (IPSec), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)/IPSec, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS), to create a virtual encrypted “tunnel” between your device and a VPN server. While your traffic is in this tunnel between you and a VPN server, no one can see where you’re going or what you’re doing.

How to Install the Best VPN for Mac?

Kudos to their popularity, Macs are very well compatible with VPN services – most of which give custom VPN clients. The only inconsiderably annoying problem is that thanks to Apple’s stringent guidelines on what developers can and cannot publish for their platform; these apps sometimes lack features available in their Windows VPN versions.

Alternatively, you can manually set up the built-in macOS VPN client with the help of the PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, or IKEv2 VPN protocols; or use the open source Tunelblick client for OpenVPN. The newest beta version of Tunelblick even involves a kill switch!

How to set up an L2TP VPN connection on macOS

L2TP/IPSec is a VPN protocol with built-in support on Mac devices that gives comparable security and speed to OpenVPN. To configure a VPN connection that utilizes the L2TP protocol, you will require the following knowledge from your VPN provider:

1. Your VPN service provider account credentials.
2. The VPN server IP addresses for each location you wish to connect to.
3. VPN provider’s given secret OR certificate.

With all that information in hand, follow these instructions below:

• Go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Network icon
• Click + in the bottom left corner to build a new network interface
• Now, click the Interface drop-down list and select VPN
• Click the VPN Type drop-down list and choose L2TP over IPSec
• In the Service Name field, enter a name for this new VPN connection.
• Click Create and the VPN settings will show up.
• With the help of the default configuration, in the Server Address field, enter the VPN server address.
• In the Account Name field, give in your VPN account username
• Click Authentication Settings
• In the Password field, type your VPN account password
• If employing a shared secret, choose Shared Secret and enter the pre-shared key (a.k.a. shared secret or secret key)
• If using a certificate, click on Certificate, then Select and find the certificate of the VPN provider.
• Click Apply and save changes.
• The VPN is now configured; you just have to connect. Head to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Network icon
• Select the VPN connection you formed in the Network box
• Click on Connect

How to set up a VPN with Tunnelblick on a Mac

Tunnelblick is a VPN app for Mac that operates well with the OpenVPN protocol. You will require the OpenVPN configuration file for each server location you want to connect to (.ovpn) from your VPN to get started, and perhaps your VPN account credentials.

• Once you download this, double-click the .dmg file and then on the Tunnelblick icon to install it. You may require to confirm and give in your Mac login credentials.
• Launch Tunnelblick and click on the button that says “I have configuration files.”
• Go where you downloaded your .ovpn files and double-click them. You will be prompted to install the configurations for all users or just you. Choose whichever you like.
• Once the configuration is installed, click the Tunnelblick icon in the top right corner of your screen and choose Connect
• Enter your VPN username and password if prompted
• A notification will appear to let you know the connection is established

How to set up a VPN with Viscosity on macOS

Viscosity is a paid VPN client for OSX that works well with the OpenVPN protocol. Install it by clicking on the .dmg file and then dragging the app to your Applications folder. You may need to confirm and enter your Mac login credentials.

• To configure OpenVPN with Viscosity, you will require an OpenVPN configuration file (.ovpn) for each server you wish to connect to, and perhaps your VPN account credentials.
• Click on the Viscosity icon in the top right corner of your screen and choose Preferences…
• Click on + sign in the bottom left corner of the window that appears and select Import connection > From file…
• Go to and select the .ovpn file you downloaded from your VPN provider.
• Click the Viscosity icon in the top right corner again, and the VPN connection should be listed. Click it to connect.

Protocols for the Best VPN  for Mac

A VPN protocol is the collection of instructions utilized to transmit a secure encrypted connection between two devices. Commercial VPNs generally support many such VPN protocols. The most well-known of these are discussed below:

PPTP

This is an old VPN protocol that has not been analyzed securely for years. It is supported in macOS, but we don’t suggest using it.

L2TP

This is usually executed with the Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) authentication suite (L2TP/IPsec). It is almost surely not secure against the NSA, but for most objects is generally considered as being secure.

IKEv2

A new standard that is frequently popular because it is both fast and reliable. How secure it is against the counterparts of the NSA; however, is unproven. Apple is a supporter of IKEv2, and MacBook users on the run may favor it to OpenVPN thanks to its enhanced capability of reconnecting when an internet connection is interrupted.

OpenVPN

This is open source and now thoroughly audited protocol which is widely considered as the most secure and handy VPN protocol available (if well executed). Our general recommendation is to employ OpenVPN whenever possible. Be careful, however, about the much-advertised application of AES-256. This is admittedly a gold-standard cipher, but it is in itself somewhat meaningless as the devil is in the detail.

Conclusion -5 Best VPN for Mac

Nearly every day a new story breaks proving the extent to which our online privacy is violated by governments and companies alike. There is no such thing as a one-stop privacy fix, but using the best VPN for Mac is a great start.