ExpressVPN is currently CNET's top pick as the best Android VPN, thanks to the outstanding performance of its Android app and its strong commitment to privacy and transparency. The Android app is intuitive and doesn't compromise on privacy features. Also, ExpressVPN's proprietary Lightway protocol was recoded last year to improve its speeds, security and overall performance -- so you can stay private and stream content smoothly, even on the go. However, ExpressVPN’s price tag is on the high end of the spectrum. Surfshark offers some of the most wallet-friendly introductory prices on our list.
In our 2026 testing, we were impressed with how the competition improved, making it a tight race. Bitdefender earned an Editors’ Choice award as the best antivirus for the second year in a row, thanks to its consistently low resource usage and excellent security scores from third-party testing labs. But in 2026, the competition heated up thanks to Malwarebytes making major strides since our 2025 tests. The biggest difference for most people is the better value of Bitdefender’s family plans, which cover 25 devices instead of Malwarebytes’ 20 devices. Malwarebytes impressed me with its low reso