Residential VPNs Compared: Where the Home IPs Come From
A residential VPN routes your traffic through an address issued to a household by a broadband provider, not through a hosting company's range. All 31 services in the VPNRadarLab ranking claim home IPs in some form, yet they obtain them in very different ways, and that way sets your risk. CitadelVPN leads the page at 8.63, ahead of PureVPN (6.05) and TorGuard (5.54). Before comparing prices, work out whose home line your traffic exits through. Read more
Sorted by this page’s weighting: Network and streaming weighs 40% on this page. Each row also shows the overall score.
Ready-made lists
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| # | Service | Page score | From |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CitadelVPN | 8.63overall 8.74 | €1.38per month |
| 2 | PureVPN | 6.05overall 5.30 | €1.85per month |
| 3 | TorGuard | 5.54overall 4.15 | — |
| 4 | VPNUK | 4.36overall 3.73 | €2.88per month |
| 5 | NymVPN | 4.32overall 4.97 | €3.44per month |
| 6 | Mysterium Network | 3.98overall 4.02 | €2.23per month |
| 7 | CometVPN | 3.90overall 4.09 | €1.63per month |
| 8 | Mysterium VPN | 3.78overall 3.73 | €2.23per month |
| 9 | Mysterium Dark | 3.37overall 3.47 | — |
| 10 | URnetwork | 3.35overall 2.75 | — |
| 11 | PortalsVPN | 3.17overall 2.78 | €4.42per month |
| 12 | StarVPN | 3.15overall 2.94 | €6.88per month |
| 13 | Pangeo VPN | 2.67overall 2.27 | €56.76per month |
| 14 | 1ClickVPN | 2.61overall 1.86 | — |
| 15 | NetflixVPN | 2.59overall 1.61 | €2.15per month |
| 16 | Toggle VPN | 2.43overall 3.03 | €10.31per month |
| 17 | Sentinel dVPN | 2.34overall 2.89 | — |
| 18 | IPBurger VPN | 2.11overall 2.65 | €4.65per month |
| 19 | Stream Via | 2.04overall 1.47 | €28.90per month |
| 20 | Hola VPN | 1.83overall 1.58 | — |
| 21 | OurVPN | 1.77overall 1.99 | €24.94per month |
| 22 | iNinja VPN | 1.54overall 0.68 | — |
| 23 | Wing VPN | 1.51overall 2.27 | €3.44per month |
| 24 | VALT | 1.48overall 1.61 | €2.86per month |
| 25 | Anywherelan | 1.34overall 2.01 | — |
| 26 | VPNWholesaler | 1.18overall 1.77 | €215.00per month |
| 27 | VPN Gate | 1.15overall 1.02 | — |
| 28 | USip VPN | 1.12overall 1.29 | €9.99per month |
| 29 | Flashedrouter | 0.92overall 0.96 | €6.45per month |
| 30 | DPN: Beyond VPN | 0.83overall 1.25 | €2.73per month |
| 31 | Travelrouter | 0.30overall 0.44 | — |
What a Home IP Buys You
A home address hides nothing beyond the exit: cookies, logged-in sessions and browser fingerprints still identify you. VPNRadarLab scores only what providers publish (audits, policies, network, prices) and runs no speed or unblocking tests, so "looks like a home user" stays a vendor claim. Network counts 40% of the score, privacy 20%, security 13%, price 10%, bypass 10%, apps 7%.
Four Places the Home IPs Come From
| Source | How it works | Examples | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Provider's own supply | own home-line hardware, ISP partners or a proxy product sold as add-on | 15 of 31 services, incl. StarVPN, CometVPN, USip VPN | higher price, narrow country lists |
| Independent node operators | volunteers run exits in a decentralised network | Mysterium, NymVPN, URnetwork, Sentinel dVPN, VPN Gate (10 of 31) | speed and uptime depend on each node |
| Other users' devices | your connection is lent out while you use theirs | 1ClickVPN, Hola VPN, iNinja VPN (3 of 31) | strangers' traffic carries your address |
| Your own home line | a box or app at home acts as the exit | Anywherelan, Travelrouter, Flashedrouter | needs a home connection left switched on |
The Traffic-Exchange Red Flag
The third row deserves suspicion. Those apps turn your device into an exit for third parties, so whatever a stranger does online gets tied to your household address. 1ClickVPN also shares browsing data with a marketing partner; Hola routes other users' traffic through free users' idle devices; iNinja trades IP and bandwidth for access. A cheap data-centre VPN beats that bargain, while decentralised networks at least let node operators opt in knowingly; the dVPN ranking covers them.
Top Three Compared
| CitadelVPN | PureVPN | TorGuard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page score | 8.63 | 6.05 | 5.54 |
| Jurisdiction | Panama | British Virgin Islands | USA (5 Eyes) |
| Residential offer | stated | paid add-on, US and UK only | residential IP plans |
| Cheapest plan | $1.60 (24 months) | $2.15 (27 months) | $10.99 monthly |
| Refund | 14 days | 31 days | 7 days, residential IPs excluded |
| Servers | 1000+, 41 countries | 6000+, 65+ countries | 3000+, 50+ countries |
| Devices | unlimited | 10 | 8 |
| No-logs audit | yes | yes (KPMG) | no |
What Holds Each of Them Back
TorGuard's weak spot is privacy: a 2.3 sub-index, a US company in a 5 Eyes country, no independent audit, no warrant canary or transparency report. The 40% network weight lifts it to third, and its refund fine print cuts out residential and dedicated IPs. PureVPN's bypass score of 1.9 reflects a thin toolkit where obfuscation is the only published anti-blocking tool, and its home IPs cover two countries. CitadelVPN's cheapest PRO plan caps traffic at 50 GB a month (VIP and MAX are unlimited), refunds run 14 days, and PayPal isn't accepted.
Free Plans and Their Price
Eight of the 31 offer a free tier, and three of those eight are the traffic-exchange apps. When a free service runs on users' bandwidth, your address is the payment. Self-hosted Anywherelan is free too, but gives only the home connection you already own.
Static, Dedicated or Rotating
A fixed home address matters for banking and account management, where a sudden country switch triggers a lockout. Dedicated residential IPs sell from CometVPN (from $2.79 a month), StarVPN and VPNUK; USip VPN keeps its US broadband pool exclusive to its subscribers. Rotating pools change the address per session or on a timer, handy for local search checks, awkward for anything with a login.
Checks Before You Pay
- Find the provider's own explanation of where its addresses originate; silence is an answer.
- Search any free app's terms for "share bandwidth" or "proxy".
- Confirm which countries have residential exits, not just total server counts.
- Read refund clauses for IP add-ons; some providers carve them out.
- Once connected, check that the exit address's registered owner is an ISP, not a host.
FAQ
Is a residential VPN the same as a residential proxy?
A proxy covers one app or browser and often lacks encryption, while the VPN tunnels the whole device. IPBurger sells home IPs as a separate proxy product outside its VPN.
Can I use my own home IP while abroad?
Yes, through a home tunnel or travel router: Anywherelan, Travelrouter or Flashedrouter (configuration at $49.99 per server) are built for that.
Does a home IP make me anonymous?
Not by itself. The FBI warned in May 2025 that criminals installed proxies on compromised old home routers and resold the exits.
Short Answer
CitadelVPN (8.63), PureVPN (6.05) and TorGuard (5.54) lead the ranking. Among all 31 services, just two have published an independent no-logs audit, and the median paid plan costs €3.44 a month. Choose exits supplied by the provider or your own hardware, avoid apps that lend out your line, and review refund terms for IP add-ons; the glossary entry explains the address type itself.