There are plenty of VPN services to choose from. In fact, the trouble is not finding a VPN service for Android, but in choosing one. You're obviously someone that does a bit of research before buying, and if you haven't found out already, there are tons of VPN review sites out there. Features will vary slightly from service to service, and you might not be 100% sure what is worth a bit of extra money, and what isn't worth investing in. Here are some tips for picking a service.

1. Server location isn't always important, but number of servers is.

Some services think it's cool to offer more VPN locations, but the fact is that there's only going to be one or two that matter to you. If you're looking for a US or UK IP, you have an infinite number of choices because these are the standard. If you're looking for a Turkish or Russian IP, your choices are seriously reduced. Still, the point is the same. If you want a German IP, it doesn't matter how many African server locations they have.

What would concern you is how many servers they have in the country you need. You may see that two or three services offer the Hong Kong IP you're looking for, but do they say how many servers are in Hong Kong? One might offer 1 server in HK while another offers 5. This is worth knowing.

2. PPTP versus L2TP and encryption or not

Most VPN services will offer both PPTP and L2TP options for your Android device. If you're looking for OpenVPN, you'll probably find that they don't offer support for this. It's possible to get OpenVPN set up for Android, but it requires that you root your phone, and this risks voiding the warranty.

But one thing you don't see much is that sometimes encryption is offered, and sometimes not. PPTP is rarely advertised as having encryption, but it does use a type of encryption called PPP. L2TP is subtly advertised as L2TP or L2TP/IPSec, and many people don't know the difference. PPTP is generally a faster VPN, and it won't really matter if encryption is included or not. Those looking for privacy and security on Android however would be interested to know that IPSec encryption will enhance your private VPN service. This may be the default, or it might be an option.

3. Remember that customer service is important

Setup of L2TP can be complicated, and even getting PPTP set up for someone who's never used a VPN before can be a bit daunting. Setup will vary from service to service too, so don't think that because you've done it before that you'll be able to breeze through it a second time.

Though PDFs and picture/video tutorials are usually enough to get things taken care of, sometimes you run into tech problems, and having a support member to walk you through the process is extremely helpful. There are a lot of rubbish support systems out there. How would you feel if you needed help setting up your VPN and you had to wait three days between each email from tech support? Wouldn't you blow a gasket if they copped an attitude with you? Yeah, it's happened before. This is why good customer service is crucial.