Toma Novakovic
Updated on: October 27, 2024
Fact-checked by Eric Goldstein
Short on time? Here’s the best VPN for Michigan in 2024:
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🥇 ExpressVPN
: It has servers in 15 states, including nearby New York and Illinois, and can access top streaming sites that broadcast live sports games. It supports torrenting on all servers, offers intuitive apps, and comes with lots of useful features like an ad and malicious site blocker. All plans are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee.
I researched and tested 20+ VPNs to find the top recommendations for Michigan. All the VPNs I discuss here have server locations either in Michigan or a nearby state. They also have excellent support for many popular live sports streaming platforms like Fubo or ESPN+, and they work very well on restricted networks, like in Michigan’s many universities and colleges.
My No. 1 pick is ExpressVPN, as it has servers in nearby New York and Illinois, among other US states, as well as really good streaming and torrenting support. It includes industry-leading security features, and its speeds are very fast for all sorts of online activities. Editors’ Note: ExpressVPN and this site are in the same ownership group.
Quick Summary of the Best VPNs for Michigan in 2024
Editors’ Note: Intego, Private Internet Access, CyberGhost and ExpressVPN are owned by Kape Technologies, our parent company
🥇1. ExpressVPN — Best Overall VPN for Michigan in 2024
Approved by our experts
ExpressVPN is my no. 1 recommendation for a VPN in Michigan — in fact, it’s the best VPN currently on the market. Even if it doesn’t have servers in Michigan, you’ll easily find server locations near enough for the best possible speeds, including New York and Illinois. It also has servers in 15+ other US states.
ExpressVPN has excellent streaming support. It accesses lots of popular streaming platforms that broadcast sports like ESPN+, Fubo, and DirecTV Stream, as well as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
It’s great if you need to torrent, too, including on restricted networks, such as your college’s Wi-Fi, as it works great with many popular P2P clients, like qBittorrent, uTorrent, or Deluge. What’s more, it’s the fastest VPN currently on the market, so you can stream and torrent without any significant slowdowns.
ExpressVPN’s Advanced Protection is a great way to strengthen your security online. It blocks trackers that would collect your data and stops you from accessing potentially malicious sites. This ensures a safer and smoother browsing experience when accessing local news, services, or content without being interrupted by ads.
ExpressVPN lets you get a dedicated IP address from 27+ locations, including 5+ US states like New York, for a small extra fee. By having a dedicated IP, you can avoid frequent CAPTCHAs or authentication issues, and it’s less likely that sites you frequently visit would block you for using a VPN (for example, streaming sites typically block shared VPN IP addresses).
ExpressVPN’s apps make it easy to find and connect to any server location — you can find any US server in the Americas region of the server list. I also like how you can create 1-click shortcuts to apps like ESPN+ that appear on your screen after you connect to the VPN.
ExpressVPN has plans starting at £4.20 / month. It has a 30-day money-back guarantee on all its plans.
Bottom Line:
ExpressVPN is my top pick for a VPN in Michigan. It has a decent US server network with servers in nearby states like New York and excellent streaming support for popular streaming services. It also allows torrenting and has great extra features, such as split-tunneling and a tracker, malicious site, and ad blocker. It covers all plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full ExpressVPN review
🥈2. Private Internet Access — Excellent VPN With Servers in All 50 US States
Private Internet Access (PIA) has servers in all 50 US states. The Michigan server location is in Detroit, while the other closest locations are in Indianapolis, Columbus, Chicago, and Milwaukee. Because PIA has servers in every state, you’ll always be able to find a nearby server for getting the fastest speeds and securely access sites and services in Michigan. It offers dedicated US IP addresses in 4+ US states.
PIA’s apps are user-friendly, with plenty of customizable features. I like how PIA shows the ping for every server, so you can estimate at a glance how good the Michigan server or any other US server location will be for you. The apps’ home screen has a Quick Connect section, which lists the last 6 servers you connected to, so you can easily reconnect to one of them with a single click, instead of manually searching every time.
PIA has good streaming support. It has 2 specialized US streaming servers (US West Streaming and US East Streaming) that can access 10+ US streaming platforms, like Fubo and DirectTV Stream, as well as Netflix and Hulu.
As for torrenting support, PIA allows P2P traffic on all servers. It has a port forwarding feature, too, that increases your download speeds by letting more peers join the swarm. It also works with all the popular P2P clients, like qBittorrent, Transmission, or Vuze.
I especially like PIA MACE, which is the best VPN ad blocker currently out there. It can noticeably speed up loading times for local news sites like MLive by removing all sorts of intrusive ads, including banners, pop-ups, and invisible overlays that try to steal your clicks. Also, PIA MACE blocks ad trackers and prevents access to shady, potentially malicious sites.
Private Internet Access has really affordable plans, starting at £1.57 / month. What’s more, it offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans.
Bottom Line:
Private Internet Access is a great VPN with at least 1 server location in every US state, so you’ll always have alternatives near Michigan. It also has PIA MACE, which is the best VPN blocker out there. It works with 10+ streaming platforms in the US, and it works with all popular torrenting clients. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full Private Internet Access review
Editors’ Note: Private Internet Access and this site are in the same ownership group.
🥉3. CyberGhost VPN — Great VPN for Streaming in Michigan
CyberGhost VPN is an excellent pick for streaming in Michigan. It has dedicated streaming servers, specialized to work great with 15+ popular streaming platforms, such as Netflix US, Hulu, Paramount+, and Sling TV. These servers are optimized to give you consistently good speeds and stable connections to the platform for the best streaming experience, especially if you want to live stream sports on platforms like DAZN or NFL+.
Aside from the streaming servers, CyberGhost VPN has 10+ server locations in the US, including in Chicago and New York. All servers in the US support torrenting traffic, and work great with popular P2P clients. You can also get a dedicated IP address from 5+ US states, including New York.
My favorite CyberGhost VPN feature is Smart Rules, which lets you automate your VPN connection. For example, you can set it up to automatically connect to a nearby US server location when you launch the app. Another useful thing you could do is set it to open an app, such as your browser or a streaming platform, after you connect to a specific server.
I like that it has Content Blocker, a feature that blocks trackers, ads, and access to malicious sites. While the tracker and shady site blockers work very well, the ad blocker doesn’t remove persistent banner ads as well as PIA MACE.
CyberGhost VPN has a split-tunneling feature but only on Android. There’s a similar tool on the desktop apps, by using the Exceptions tab in Smart Rules to exclude sites from the VPN tunnel. Still, I wish it had a proper split-tunneling feature on desktop, like ExpressVPN.
CyberGhost VPN offers plans starting at £1.78. It has a lengthy 45-day money-back guarantee on all long-term plans and a 14-day refund on its monthly plan.
Bottom Line:
CyberGhost VPN has streaming-optimized servers for 15+ streaming platforms in the US. It also supports torrenting on all of its 10+ US server locations. It has Smart Rules, a feature that gives you a lot of control over your VPN connection. It backs all purchases with a money-back guarantee, lasting 14 days for the monthly plan and 45 days for the long-term subscriptions.
Read the full CyberGhost VPN review
Editors’ Note: CyberGhost and this site are in the same ownership group.
4. NordVPN — Very Secure VPN for Michigan
NordVPN is great for protecting your online activity in Michigan. It has the Threat Protection feature, which blocks ads, trackers, and access to potentially malicious websites. In addition, it even prevents you from downloading files that are infected with malware, so you don’t need to worry about accidentally compromising your device.
NordVPN has servers in 15+ locations in the US. It doesn’t have a server location in Michigan, but you can connect to nearby cities like Chicago and St. Louis. I also like that it’s very simple to find the server you need via the interactive map that allows you to connect to any server by clicking on a state pin. NordVPN offers a dedicated US IP address from 5+ states, too.
NordVPN has really good streaming and torrenting support. It works with 10+ popular streaming platforms in the US, including Fubo, ESPN+, Max, and Hulu, though ExpressVPN works with more. NordVPN works great with popular torrenting clients, and it allows P2P traffic on all its servers in the US, but I wish it had port forwarding like Private Internet Access does.
NordVPN also offers a US-only insurance program that can help you reimburse and cover some of the costs that you could incur as a victim of identity theft or cyber extortion. This is only available on its Ultimate subscription tier.
NordVPN’s plans start at £2.59. It covers all plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
NordVPN is a super secure VPN for Michigan. It’s very good at protecting you from trackers, malicious sites, and even malware-infected downloads. Its apps are very sleek and intuitive, with a quick-connect feature that connects you to the fastest server and an interactive map for 1-click access to any server near Michigan. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
5. Surfshark — Beginner-Friendly VPN With a Server Location in Michigan
Surfshark is a top-tier choice for VPN beginners in Michigan. It has servers in 20+ US cities, including Detroit, and you can buy a dedicated US IP address from 5+ states. You can set Detroit as a Favorite for easy access at the top of the server list, or configure Quick-Connect to connect to it with just one click.
It has good streaming support and can access platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, as well as live sports matches on CBS with Paramount+. As for torrenting support, it works with popular P2P clients on all US servers, but it doesn’t have extra features like port forwarding, which you get with Private Internet Access.
Surfshark has a really interesting feature called IP Rotator, which regularly changes your VPN IP address without disconnecting you from the server. This is especially useful for preventing websites from consistently profiling your behavior.
Another useful security feature I like is Alternative ID, which lets you create a fake online persona if you’re uncomfortable with sharing your personal info with sites and services that could mishandle it. It also creates a relay email address, which you can use to sign up for such sites, and then it’ll forward the incoming emails to your real address.
Surfshark has pretty affordable plans, starting at £1.52 / month, and it backs purchases with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Bottom Line:
Surfshark is a beginner-friendly VPN with easy-to-use apps with 1-click options. It has good streaming and torrenting support, and a couple of interesting extra features, such as IP Rotator or Alternative ID, that you could make use of even as an inexperienced user. Its plans are affordable and backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Read the full Surfshark review
Quick Comparison Table
Editors’ Note: Intego, Private Internet Access, CyberGhost and ExpressVPN are owned by Kape Technologies, our parent company
Testing Methodology: Comparison & Ranking Criteria
I compiled this list of the best VPNs for Michigan by closely following the SafetyDetectives’s VPN testing methodology. I simulated scenarios that a typical internet user in Michigan would likely encounter on a daily basis, and then I evaluated, graded, and ranked each tested VPN in line with these criteria:
- I checked the VPNs’ server networks. All of the VPNs on this list have servers in 10+ US states, including in Michigan (Private Internet Access and Surfshark) or near it.
- I looked into the VPNs’ streaming and torrenting support. The VPNs on this list all work with the most popular streaming services in the US, as well as major P2P clients.
- I measured the VPNs’ speeds. Out of all the VPNs I tested, ExpressVPN is the fastest. However, all the VPNs on this list have pretty good speeds for streaming with minimal buffering, torrenting large files, and browsing the web with quick loading times.
- I tested each VPN’s security. The VPNs on this list have industry-standard VPN security features, such as 256-bit AES encryption (used by banks and militaries), kill switches (shut down your internet connection if the VPN connection drops unexpectedly), and no-logs policies. Also, none of the VPNs on this list leaked my IP address in my tests.
- I estimated how easy each VPN is to use. All the VPNs I discuss here have intuitive apps that are easy to navigate and fine-tune. They also have apps for all major operating systems, like Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS.
- I evaluated each VPN’s value. The VPNs I recommend here let you connect multiple devices on a single subscription, offer extra features (such as an ad blocker or split-tunneling), and cover each plan with a money-back guarantee.
Top Brands That Didn’t Make the Cut
- IPVanish. IPVanish has servers in 15+ US locations, including a server location in Michigan, but it doesn’t work with as many streaming services as the VPNs I recommend above.
- hide.me. hide.me has a server location in Detroit, but I don’t like how uneven its speeds are. The VPNs I picked for my recommended list offer faster speeds.
- VyprVPN. VyprVPN has great speeds and good security, However, its US server network is smaller compared to the VPNs I recommend and it doesn’t offer a lot of extras.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are VPNs legal in Michigan?
Yes, using a VPN in Michigan is entirely legal. Neither US federal law nor Michigan state law prohibits the use of VPNs. That said, please keep in mind that using a VPN for illegal activities is still illegal and can land you in trouble.
All of the VPNs I discuss here have strict no-logs policies, so they don’t monitor or make logs of what you do online. This means that you alone are responsible for how you use the VPN and what you do with it.
Can I use a free VPN in Michigan?
You could, though I don’t recommend it — even the good free VPNs have some annoying flaws and restrictions. This includes things like data caps, speed limits, and bad streaming support. Some free VPNs even lack important industry-standard security features.
I definitely think it’s much better to instead use a high-quality premium VPN for Michigan, such as ExpressVPN, for the best speeds, strongest security, and reliable, stable connections.
What’s the fastest VPN for Michigan?
On average, ExpressVPN is the fastest VPN on the market, but keep in mind that your VPN connection speed depends on several factors, such as distance from the server you connect to. ExpressVPN has server locations near Michigan in New York and Chicago. Also, the VPNs on this list all have some form of ad blocker, which can noticeably decrease your loading times on sites that would usually be ad-heavy.
Which VPNs have a server location in Michigan?
Out of the VPNs that made it onto my list, Private Internet Access (which has a server location in every US state) and Surfshark are the only ones with server locations in Michigan.
However, the other VPNs I discuss here have server locations in nearby states, such as New York or Illinois. So, if you’re in Michigan, you won’t have any trouble finding a server close to you for the best speeds and stable connections.
