This is my favorite option

Split tunneling is a VPN feature that allows you to customize which activities are protected and choose which to sit outside the tunnel for maximum speed. But it can come at the cost of speed, which is why I’ve reviewed the best VPN split tunneling features for you to consider.

• Split tunneling platform support: Windows, Android, Linux, Chrome, Opera, Firefox and macOS (beta).
• Split tunneling feature: Include/exclude applications, include/exclude IP addresses (and subnet ranges)

Now that you’ve figured out why you should use split tunneling, the next question might be: which VPN service has the best split tunneling features? The winner should give you more detailed control and support on most platforms.

PIA (Private Internet Access) is my current favorite for meeting both of these criteria. PIA not only allows you to choose between regular split tunneling or inverse split tunneling, but also allows you to use this approach by application or by IP address. This means you can whitelist games using Steam, specific websites, or even a range of IP addresses.

PIA includes split tunneling on a variety of platforms, from the most common operating systems to browser extensions. It is also unique in providing feature parity for Linux (including the use of a Docker container) and a beta version for the still-elusive split tunneling on MacOS.

PIA also has one rare split-tunneling feature that you might find useful: applications you specify to run outside of the VPN can still be forced to use PIA’s VPN DNS servers.

Split tunneling aside, other reasons to use PIA include its 100% open source app for transparency, anonymous payments, and a strict no-logging policy supported by RAM-only VPN servers.

• Split tunneling platform support: Windows, Android, Amazon Fire TV, Mac, iOS, Apple Vision Pro
• Split tunneling feature: Include/exclude applications, include/exclude domains

If I were to rank VPN split tunneling providers based on platform support alone, IPVanish might be the winner. I did a double take when I saw that in addition to standard support on Windows and Android, IPVanish also offers split tunneling on Mac and iOS – something that hasn’t worked for most services recently due to Apple’s security designs.

The method used for Mac and iOS doesn’t seem to be full-featured for including/excluding apps, but at least it works by domain. If you care about split tunneling on Apple products (along with other platforms), then IPVanish might be your best bet.

Apart from support for split tunneling, IPVanish is rich in other ways. IPVanish advertises itself as a VPN for every device you own – including routers, Nvidia Shield TVs and even Apple Vision Pro. While other providers set a device limit, IPVanish is one of the best VPNs for unlimited simultaneous connections. And when it comes to privacy, IPVanish has a no-logging policy and boasts over 40,000 different IP addresses for you to use.

• Split tunneling platform support: Windows, Android, Android TV
• Split tunneling feature: Include/exclude applications, include/exclude IP addresses (and subnet ranges)

From the creators of privacy-focused protocols Proton Mail and Proton Drive comes one of the best VPNs for tunneling: ProtonVPN.

Split tunneling on ProtonVPN is more advanced than most providers, allowing you to run in either standard mode or inverse mode. The mode you choose works to both include and exclude specific apps, websites, or IP addresses. Its IP range option is quite useful, for example, if you want to exclude a local network subnet (192.168.1.0/24) from a VPN tunnel for maximum speeds between trusted devices.

Aside from support for split tunneling, there are a lot of things to like about ProtonVPN. It’s the only provider on this list that offers a completely free VPN service – with unlimited bandwidth – that you can try before you buy. Unfortunately, you cannot test the split tunneling feature unless you upgrade to a paid plan.

Additionally, ProtonVPN has a solid track record when it comes to privacy. Its no-log policy is backed by a jurisdiction in Switzerland, a country with some of the strictest privacy laws in the world. Finally, its application is open source (with regular audits), so you get transparency into what the client is doing with your data.

• Split tunnel platforms: Windows, Android, Android TV, VPN routers
• Split tunneling feature: include/exclude applications, include/exclude devices (on routers only)

ExpressVPN is a solid choice for split tunneling if you want something simpler and don’t need to split the tunnel by IP address. It has standard and inverse split tunneling, so you can include or exclude applications from the VPN tunnel. Although it appears at first glance to support split tunneling on Mac, this feature only works on MacOS 11 or earlier.

ExpressVPN has one special feature that the others on this list don’t offer: a split-tunneling VPN app for supported routers. This application allows you to protect all devices on your network at the router level, but set up split tunneling per device. This is quite useful, for example, if you want your computer to be protected by ExpressVPN, but you don’t want your smartphone to get stuck.

Aside from split tunneling, there are other unique reasons to go with ExpressVPN. The company created its own performance-optimized protocol called Lightway and was the first major provider to implement DLTS 1.3 for faster speeds and better security.

With RAM-only servers supported by the British Virgin Islands jurisdiction (which has no data retention laws), you can see why we consider this one of the best VPNs for torrenting.

• Split tunnel platforms: Windows, Android, Android TV
• Split tunneling feature: Include/exclude apps

NordVPN is a popular all-rounder with over 6,000 servers, fast speeds, and an easy-to-use app interface. It also comes with extras for every use case you could want, such as double VPN, dedicated IP, meshnet, and split tunneling.

Sure, NordVPN’s access control only allows you to specify apps (and not domains/IPs). And getting split tunneling up and running the first time wasn’t entirely without problems. To fix an error that happens to some Windows users, I had to enable a lesser-known VPN setting called custom DNS. But split tunneling worked flawlessly once I set it up in the app.

While it’s not perfect when it comes to split tunneling, NordVPN’s ease of use and reliability count for a lot. I’ve found the provider’s responsive apps and connection speeds to be consistently high quality. For these reasons, NordVPN often tops our list of the best VPN services.

No matter which service you choose, when you connect to a VPN with split tunneling support, you get the best of both worlds: encryption protection along with fast speeds when you need them.