VPNs are becoming popular among schools as they offer several benefits such as security, privacy, remote access, content filtering, etc. In this article, we will discuss how to choose the best VPN for schools. VPNs help to protect students and staff from cyberattacks and data breaches.
What is a VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which allows you to create a secure connection to a network on the internet. It establishes a digital connection between your computer and a remote server owned by the VPN provider.
It creates a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts your data, hides your IP address, and lets you access blocked websites and bypass firewalls on the Internet. This ensures that your online experience is private, protected, and more secure.
How to choose the best VPN for School
You should consider some things if you are selecting the best VPN for your school. We have listed some key factors that will help you select the best VPN for your school.
- Availability: The first thing you should check is availability. Check if the VPN is available in the country you choose.
- Security: The most important thing when choosing a VPN for school is its security. The VPN should use strong encryption like AES-256 to protect your data from phishers as the school holds confidential data of staff and students.
- Speed: Speed is also an important factor to consider while choosing a VPN for school. A slow VPN connection can have many consequences for your school. If your VPN connection is slow, you will experience slow speed while surfing the internet. Moreover, the download and upload speeds are also affected by a slow VPN connection. It will also create issues while streaming educational content in your Smart Class.
- Connectivity: The VPN service should offer a connection to multiple devices at the same time. While purchasing a VPN Connection for your school, you can ask them for a license that can let you install it on multiple devices in your school. It will help you save the cost.
- Supported Operating System: If you are purchasing a VPN connection for your school, it is important to check its support for the operating system. Different operating system versions may be installed on the computers in your computer lab, say Windows 11, Windows 10, etc.
- Encryption: A VPN should offer strong encryption so that no one, especially hackers, can read online data. Keep this point in mind while selecting a VPN connection for your school.
- Log policy: Be sure when choosing a VPN. It should not save your history or activity logs. Read its Log Policy.
- Easy to set up and use: If you’re already busy with work, school, or other activities, you can’t spend hours setting up a VPN. Make sure you choose a VPN that is easy to set up and use.
- Customer Support: The VPN Service Provider should provide good customer support. When you experience an issue with the VPN connection, the VPN Service Provider should address the issue as quickly as possible.
- Customer Reviews: This is also an important factor when it comes to buying a product or service. You should search for the reviews posted by customers for a VPN connection you will buy.
- Return Policy: Before you choose a VPN for your school. Check if a return policy is available, as some VPN providers offer a refund policy. If you are not satisfied with their services, then you can ask for a refund within 30 days or it depends on their refund policy.
Some of the best VPN providers for schools
Above, we have discussed the factors to consider before selecting a VPN for your school. Now, let’s see some of the best and most popular VPNs for schools.
- NordVPN
- Surfshark
- ExpressVPN
- CyberGhost
- TunnelBear.
Let’s start.
1] NordVPN
NordVPN is one of the best VPNs available for school. NordVPN provides a strong security measure and gives you a fast speed. It warns about unsafe sites and automatically scans all downloaded files and attachments for malware. If they’re not safe to open, they’re automatically deleted to prevent any damage to your device. They provide a large server network and offer customer support 24/7.
There are some features and services that can be beneficial for schools.
- Strong security: This VPN uses AES-256 encryption, the strongest encryption that can benefit schools. This means it can help protect school networks from cyber-attacks and data breaches. By encrypting traffic and hiding IP addresses, VPNs can make it more difficult for attackers to gain access to sensitive school data.
- Global server network: NordVPN has over 5,000 servers in over 60 countries. It gives a wide range of options for choosing a server close to their location, which can help improve speeds and performance.
- Dedicated IP addresses: NordVPN offers you a dedicated IP address, which can be helpful for schools that need to access IP-restricted networks or services. Schools can improve the reputation of their online presence.
- Threat Protection: This feature helps to protect users from malware, phishing attacks, and other online threats. It scans your files while you’re downloading them, identifies threats, and blocks them before they can harm your device. That means it will help you to protect your school data.
- Meshnet: This feature allows users to create their own private network by connecting to other NordVPN users. This can be helpful for schools that need to share files or resources securely with other schools or organizations.
2] Surfshark
Surfshark also provides VPN services. It is a budget-free VPN service for schools. Surfshark provides a strong encryption, which is best for schools to keep their confidential data safe. You can utilize this VPN service on multiple devices. It will hide your real IP address, block malware, offer browser privacy, keep searches private, hide your location to keep your online identity safe & encrypt your internet traffic. This VPN provider has over 3,200 servers in around 100 countries. Surfshark VPN provider offers customer support 24/7.
Surfshark has some features and services.
- CleanWeb: Surfshark is a clean web with no ads, trackers, malware, and phishing attempts. This provider gives you alerts for data breaches as well.
- Unlimited devices: You can connect unlimited devices at the same time.
- Bypasser: This feature allows users to choose which data to protect with VPN encryption and which will be transmitted without it. You can also use two different IP addresses at the same time.
- Strict no-log policy: Surfshare VPN provider doesn’t keep usage logs. It does not keep track of your online work or actions. This VPN server only keeps enough data to maintain your VPN connection; nothing is kept once you’re done.
- Kill Switch: Kill Switch is a service that protects your sensitive data. For example, if your VPN connection drops, a kill switch shuts off your internet connection. That means you don’t stay online without the protection of a VPN and don’t leak any sensitive data.
- NoBorders mode: This mode allows you to use Surfshark everywhere successfully.
- Change your IP: Surfshark protects your privacy by changing your IP address to one that can’t be connected to your digital identity to keep your personal identity safe & encrypt your internet.
3] ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the fastest VPN providers. This VPN server is available in 105 countries. Your data is protected by AES-256, the standard trusted by security experts. It is easy to use for all school beginners. It can also be set up on supported routers. They provide 24/7 customer support to help you. ExpressVPN protects your data from phishers. It has the fastest speed, enhancing your experience without interruption in your work. It will connect up to eight devices at once. ExpressVPN never keeps your confidential data and protects your data with advanced encryption in AES-256.
You can request a refund if you are unsatisfied with their services. They have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
It has some advanced features. Let’s discuss this in brief.
- VPN split tunneling: This feature lets you route some of your device or app traffic through the encrypted VPN tunnel while other devices or apps access the internet directly.
- TrustedServer technology: It prevents the operating system and apps from ever writing to the hard drive. Instead, the server is run entirely on volatile memory, or RAM. Since RAM requires power to store data, all information on a server is wiped every time it is powered off and on again.
- Network Lock kill switch: ExpressVPN protects your privacy and lets you browse securely. For example, the kill switch disables all internet traffic if your VPN drops. This protects your IP address and other sensitive or important information from being exposed, which is really helpful for schools.
- Private DNS: This VPN provider runs its own private, encryption DNS on every server, making your connection safer and faster.
- No activity or connection logs: This VPN provider doesn’t record information about your online activities. This means that your browsing history, downloads, or any other sensitive data is safe.
- Speed Test: Using an app, you can easily test your internet speed yourself.
4] CyberGhost
CyberGhost also offers VPN services to 100 countries. They include 256-bit AES encryption and protection against DNS leaks. CyberGhost VPN is easy to download and install on your device. They use military-grade 256-bit AES encryption. This advanced encryption method is almost impossible for any phisher to crack. CyberGhost VPN never stores or shares your connection logs. CyberGhost provides a money-back guarantee however, it depends on the plan as every plan has a different money-back guarantee. You can check from its official website.
Let’s talk about some great features of CyberGhost.
- IP Masking: This feature hides your IP address with the privacy-enhancing technique that conceals your real IP address and replaces it with a temporary one. This can be beneficial for schools.
- Ultra-Fast Speeds: Ultra-Fast Speeds will help you to enhance the user’s experience so that users can download their important files and do their work without buffering.
- Kill Switch: CyberGhost VPN includes a kill switch. This feature automatically disconnects your Internet connection if your VPN connection drops. Kill Switch also protects your IP address.
- DNS Leak Protection: DNS leak protection works by intercepting all DNS queries and routing them through the VPN server. This ensures that your DNS queries are always encrypted and that your real IP address is not exposed.
- Wi-Fi Protection: This feature automatically turns on when you connect to a public Wi-Fi network. It will encrypt your internet traffic and route it through a secure VPN server. This will help protect your data from hackers and other unauthorized parties.
5] TunnelBear
TunnelBear creates a virtual network adapter, which it uses to route the traffic to its servers in the US, UK, Germany, France and several other countries. When you use the VPN, first, a secure channel using an OpenSSL session is created from your computer to the servers that you choose from the program interface. Then, you can browse anonymously as the Bear blocks all tracking companies.
I hope the above suggestions help you to choose the best VPN provider for your school.
Read: Internet Privacy Products for Windows PC.
Are VPNs safe at school?
If you are a student and want to use a VPN in your school, ensure that your school authority allows you to use a VPN. Otherwise, you will get in trouble.
How do I choose a free VPN?
You can consider many things when choosing the best free VPN— free bandwidth offered, time limit, security and privacy, speed, encryption technology, etc. TunnelBear is a good free VPN you can consider.
Read next: Use Free VPN Test to check if your VPN works or leaks data.
