What is a Double VPN?

A Double VPN is an advanced security feature that some VPN providers offer to increase the level of privacy. When using a Double VPN, the internet traffic goes through two separate VPN servers instead of one. As a result, the user will benefit from an extra layer of encryption, and tracking the user’s online activities will be much harder by trackers and websites. So, for people who feel a regular VPN doesn’t provide enough protection for them, a Double VPN can be an ideal feature to have an online experience with maximum security and anonymity.

How a Double VPN works?

Some VPN providers offer the feature as Double Hop VPN. When you enable it, it’s like taking advantage of two VPN servers at the same time. So, the traffic from your device will go through two different VPN servers. Here are the steps:

Step 1: The user’s internet traffic gets encrypted in the user’s device and then redirected to a remote VPN server.

Step 2: Then the encrypted data will reach the server and will be re-encrypted. As a result, the user’s IP address will be changed.

Step 3: Then the encrypted traffic will pass through a second VPN server and gets decrypted.

Step 4: Finally, the user will reach the internet destination with extra security and privacy.

Main Use Cases of Double VPNs

Double VPNs with their extra anonymity are perfect for sensitive tasks requiring enhanced privacy protection. Here are some of the main use cases of Double VPNs:

• Highly Confidential Tasks: People who deal with sensitive information such as confidential business negotiations, and political journalism, can take advantage of the Double VPN features from their VPN service to have the best chance of avoiding leaks and surveillance.
• Bypassing Strict Geo-restriction and Censorship: In certain countries such as China, people are dealing with strict geo-restrictions and censorship. So if a regular VPN connection won’t allow access to restricted content, a Double VPN can be a possible solution.
• Anonymous Torrenting: Using torrents to download or upload files with a peer-to-peer connection is not allowed in some regions. So, the user’s ISP can limit the connection when they detect traffic related to torrents. A Double VPN will make the identification of user’s torrenting activities more challenging.
• Preventing Cyber Attacks and Malicious Tracking: an extra layer of security while using a Double VPN, can prevent many threats including DDoS attacks and malicious trackers from accessing personal information.

Best Double VPN Providers

Not all VPN providers offer advanced features such as Double VPN. From the ones that do, we recommend using these reliable options to get the best security and privacy possible:

NordVPN Double VPN

As one of the highly trusted VPN providers, NordVPN offers a Double VPN feature as part of its VPN service. With this technology of VPN server chaining, NordVPN provides IP protection, double encryption, and increased privacy. With this feature, even the user’s ISP won’t see the web activity and only will notice that the user is using a VPN service. The feature is available on Android, iOS, Windows, and Linux. Simply the user needs to open the NordVPN app on their device, select “Specialty Servers”, and tap on Double VPN to enable it. The user can manually choose the servers for their Double VPN connection.

Pros

• Strong AES-256 encryption
• No-log policy
• Offers optimized servers for torrenting
• Ability to manually choose Double VPN servers

Cons

• The price can be high
• Some servers don’t support Double VPN

Surfshark Double VPN

Surfshark is a popular VPN provider that delivers a Double VPN feature through its Dynamic MultiHop feature. Users can connect to the internet via two VPN servers that they can manually choose and add an extra layer of protection to their connection. Double feature is a built-in feature and users can enable it through the Surfshark VPN app. You can enable it simply by opening the app, signing in, selecting the MultiHop tab, and choosing a location set to connect. The feature is available on Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Pros

• Strong encryption and various protocols
• Unlimited devices per account
• Ability to select the two Double VPN servers manually
• Affordable pricing

Cons

• Slow speed on some servers
• Fewer servers to choose from

Proton Double VPN

Proton VPN offers Secure Core servers that are located in privacy-friendly countries of Switzerland, Iceland, and Sweden. Sending your traffic to one of the hardened servers located in these countries and then to another location around the world can provide two layers of traffic encryption that will be extremely hard to track. Proton VPN comes with secure VPN protocols such as WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2. Moreover, its no-logs policy makes sure that no records of your activity will be saved. The VPN is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Chromebook, Android, and iOS.

Pros

• Secure Core servers in privacy-friendly countries
• Overall servers in 110+ countries
• No-logs policy
• Support for strong VPN protocols

Cons

• Limited Secure Core server locations
• No double VPN in the free version

Windscribe Double Hop VPN

Windscribe offers a similar feature named Double Hop where users can connect to one location in Windscribe’s desktop app and another location in the browser extension. It’s a unique way of providing two layers of protection and it’s easy to work with. After enabling Double Hop, the websites will see the IP address of the server activated in the browser extension. The double protection is only limited to the browser traffic and the traffic from other apps will go through one VPN server. The mobile version of Windscribe doesn’t support this feature.

Pros

• Easy to use Double Hop feature
• Strong encryption with many supported protocols
• No-logs policy
• Offers limited free plan

Cons

• Double Hop only works on desktop
• Slow speed with Double Hop enabled

When You Don’t Need to Use a Double VPN?

Double VPN is not for everyone and users who want the fastest connection without delays, should only connect to one VPN server. Routing the traffic through two different servers adds extra encryption to the process and this way, access to the information will take more time. Users who want to browse casually with an effective level of security, won’t need Double VPN. Moreover, people who use streaming services may experience slowdowns when using Double VPN or similar extra protection features.

Conclusion

Double VPN is an advanced privacy feature that can be extremely beneficial for people who are dealing with highly sensitive data or want to bypass the heaviest geo-restrictions. The feature is very effective for anonymous browsing and blocking trackers. However, enabling it often has a negative impact on the connection’s speed and people who care about fast online experience should only connect to a single VPN server.

Frequently Asked Questions