VPN Industry Trends To Watch For In 2025

Thanks to increased Internet censorship and cybersecurity threats, the use of VPNs remained high in 2024. Usage rates were further increased by advances in VPN technology, especially as artificial intelligence and machine learning entered the industry and started to change the way these networks operate.

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VPNs Continue To Fight Censorship

2025 will likely continue to see similar improvements as have been witnessed in 2024, not only in AI but in quantum-safe encryption techniques, and this will lead to the technology seeing continued use to circumvent the increased Internet censorship that is taking over.

Various countries around the world, from India to China censor online content. Even the US looks likely to ban TikTok, while access to the social media site has already been restricted in one territory in France. The best Indian VPNs listed by Techopedia use remote servers located across the globe, enabling users to circumvent these bans and restrictions and enjoy unrestricted access to online content.

AI To Fight AI

Artificial intelligence has gained prominence in the past year. It has become commonplace in content creation and its use has seen debate in various industries from gaming to Hollywood. Unfortunately, it has also been deployed by cybercriminals to improve their threats. In response, VPN and other cybersecurity companies have also increased their use of the technology to fight against the rise of AI-driven threats.

NordVPN is one virtual private network company that is known to be further developing its AI threat detection and cybersecurity tools. Other networks will follow suit in 2025 as generative AI becomes more accessible and more important. Users won’t necessarily see or even know that AI is used in this way, but they will see the benefit.

Further Adoption Of Quantum-Safe Encryption

Quantum computing is another area of technology that has seen development this year and will continue to grow in 2025. Quantum computers have considerable computational power and can solve complex problems more quickly than supercomputers can. Quantum computers, like AI, can be used for positive and negative purposes and they will be especially useful when used for cyber attacks.

Quantum-safe encryption is a type of encryption used to protect against these threats. Most modern VPNs combine quantum-safe encryption in tandem with traditional encryption techniques.

VPN Scams Will Continue To Rise

Phishing attacks and other online scams remain the most common and the most successful forms of cyber attack. With the increased popularity of VPNs has come an increase in the number of VPN scams. In these scams, fake VPNs, typically offered for free, are downloaded by users looking to protect their computers. Instead of encrypting and protecting data, however, the software transmits data from the user’s computer or mobile device to cybercriminals.

Even where users do not directly download malware or malicious VPNs, they might still download poor-quality software that does not effectively protect users from attack. IP addresses can be leaked, along with other personal data.

Independent Audits

As users become more aware of VPN scams, they will be more likely to look for reliable and verified VPNs. Users can look for services that offer no-logging policies. A no-log service does not retain or keep any data relating to the user or their online activity. Effectively, the information cannot be seen by anybody including the VPN service provider, so it can’t be passed to other third parties either.

As well as services with no-log policies, users can look for VPN services that have undergone independent audits. Independent audits by trusted bodies are more reliable than marketing claims put out by the companies themselves and so can be used for marketing while also increasing trust.

Some Price Rises Expected

Energy prices continue to increase along with other development and deployment costs. These increased costs mean that virtual private networks will have to raise their prices. As such, we can expect to see prices increased by at least some providers.

While major names might be able to soak up some of the additional costs, smaller providers will find it more difficult to do so.

Multi-Faceted VPN Security Suites

VPNs can serve several purposes. Streamers use them to access geo-blocked content on streaming and other content sites. They can be used to get around censorship and blocked content in certain jurisdictions. They can also protect private data while users are online, and help ensure online privacy and security. But, with the advance and increased usage of VPNs has come an increase in direct threats targeting VPN users.

VPN companies have introduced new security measures to help overcome these potential threats. Quantum-safe encryption and AI security tools are offered by most networks, and these are becoming more advanced. Users also expect greater protection from their VPN, and companies have obliged with the launch of VPN security suites.

OpenVPN Will Continue To Rule

Virtual private networks use protocols to determine what their apps and servers do. They determine how hardware communicates with remote servers, what information is passed, and more. There are two main standards currently used across the industry.

OpenVPN is the older of the two standards. WireGuard is a relative newcomer and it promises faster, easier implementation, which led to its developers claiming it would not only surpass OpenVPN but virtually eradicate the standard. In response, OpenVPN has increased its speed and looks likely to remain the first choice in the industry for at least the next year. There may come a changing of the guard in the future, but that doesn’t seem likely in 2025.

VPN Regulations Will Expand

A lot of countries have ramped up Internet censorship, even including countries like France and the US which are generally considered to offer free and open access to information. In both of these cases, it is TikTok that has seen some kind of restrictions. One region of France blocked access to the social network in light of its use to encourage looting and rioting. The US won’t block access to the network, but they will prohibit and prevent the installation of the app from next year.

Governments know that VPNs can be used to circumvent these bans, and many countries, including the likes of China, have restricted the use of VPNs. Regulations will likely expand in these and other nations.

Increased VPN Usage

More censorship, greater online threats, and increased awareness of the privacy threats faced online all mean that users will be more likely to install and use VPNs. This means, that despite the likely price increases that some networks will introduce, we will see VPN installation and use increase in 2025.

This increased use will be further buoyed by the more advanced features, especially relating to cyber security.

Conclusion

VPNs offer access to restricted content, such as geo-blocked content on streaming services. They can also improve online privacy and security, and they can even be beneficial to online gamers as well as businesses and home users.

2025 is likely to see the continuation of threats like AI and quantum computer-based cyber attacks, which VPN services are already attempting to combat. Multi-faceted VPN security suites will become the norm, and we should expect to see increased regulatory efforts, at least in some jurisdictions, to try and prevent VPN use or at least require networks to retain some data.

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