Who owns your VPN?

Why VPN ownership matters

A VPN moves trust from your internet provider to the VPN company. Its servers see your real IP address and where your traffic goes. The owner decides what is recorded, who is hired to run the servers, which audits are paid for, and what happens when a court order arrives. A no-logs policy is a promise made by that owner, and owners can change.

There are four practical reasons to look past the brand name:

• Policies can change after a sale. IPVanish handed US investigators connection data in a 2016 case under its then-owner Highwinds, despite a policy saying it never logged. It has changed hands twice since and now has recent audits. The brand stayed the same while the people behind it changed.
• Several brands, one owner. Buying a second VPN "just in case" gives you no extra independence if both belong to the same group.
• The owner's other businesses. A company that also sells advertising, data services or other software has its own incentives. Those don't prove anything about the VPN, but they are worth knowing.
• Who reviews the VPN. Some VPN owners also own review sites, which affects how much weight their rankings deserve.

The table above shows each provider's current owner and legal home as recorded in our provider files, with notes where the record is unclear. The sections below explain the main groups.

Kape Technologies: ExpressVPN, CyberGhost and PIA

Kape Technologies began as Crossrider, founded in 2011. Its software kit for building browser extensions with built-in monetization was used by ad injectors and increasingly misused by adware and malware makers, according to Wikipedia. Under new management in 2016 it left that business, and in March 2018 it renamed itself Kape Technologies. Teddy Sagi has controlled it since buying Crossrider in 2012.

Kape bought CyberGhost in 2017, ZenMate in 2018, Private Internet Access in 2019 and ExpressVPN in 2021 for a reported $936 million. It also owns the Mac security company Intego. In 2023 Unikmind, a company controlled by Sagi, took Kape private and it left London's AIM market. As a private company it now publishes less financial information. We checked for a later change of the group's corporate name and found none in the sources we could read on 2026-11-13; the brands' own pages and our provider files still name Kape Technologies.

The Kape brands don't share an evidence record. ExpressVPN has KPMG and PwC reviews and audits of its open-source Lightway protocol. PIA has court cases in which it had no logs to hand over, and open-source apps. CyberGhost has three Deloitte reports. See CyberGhost vs PIA.

Nord Security: NordVPN and Surfshark

NordVPN and Surfshark merged under one holding company in a deal that closed in early 2022. Both said they would remain separate services with their own infrastructure. Their legal entities sit in different countries: NordVPN's apps are sold by Nordvpn S.A. in Panama, and Surfshark's contract is with Surfshark B.V. in Amsterdam. Both have repeated Deloitte no-logs checks. If you're choosing two providers for independence, these count as one group. See NordVPN vs Surfshark.

Ziff Davis: IPVanish and StrongVPN

On April 30, 2019 J2 Global completed its purchase of IPVanish, StrongVPN and Encrypt.me from StackPath. J2 later renamed itself Ziff Davis, which reports cybersecurity as a business segment and said in 2026 that IPVanish grew year over year. The IPVanish review covers its 2016 logs case and its audits since 2022.

Ziff Davis is also a large publisher. Its brands include PCMag, Mashable and IGN, and in August 2024 it agreed to buy CNET from Red Ventures. All of them publish technology coverage, and several publish VPN advice. That makes Ziff Davis both a seller of VPNs and an owner of sites that review them, which readers should know when weighing those sites' recommendations.

Hotspot Shield, Pango, Aura and Point Wild

Hotspot Shield's ownership is the least clear of the providers we cover. Its website footer credits Anchorfree, LLC, and Wikipedia says the operator AnchorFree is now called Pango. Point Wild's own timeline says Pango Group was formed in June 2021 as a sister business of the identity-protection company Aura, separated from Aura in August 2024, and merged with Total Security in December 2024, with the combined company renamed Point Wild. The December 2024 merger announcement listed Hotspot Shield, Betternet and Comparitech among Point Wild's brands. Point Wild's current website doesn't name Hotspot Shield, though, while Hotspot Shield's account links use an aura.com address and its Mac app's copyright is held by Intersections, LLC. Point Wild is the most likely owner on the 2024 announcement, but the brand's own pages don't confirm it, so check the table for how our provider file records it. See the Hotspot Shield review.

Antivirus companies, foundations and smaller owners

• McAfee and TunnelBear. McAfee bought the Toronto-based TunnelBear in March 2018 and said the team would keep working under the TunnelBear brand. McAfee itself was taken private in March 2022 by an investor group led by Advent International and Permira. Check the table for TunnelBear's current owner as our file records it.
• Proton AG. Proton VPN's maker is a Swiss company. In June 2024 Proton said the new non-profit Proton Foundation had become its largest voting shareholder and that no change of control could happen without the foundation's consent. That structure is designed to make a takeover harder.
• PureVPN. PureVPN is a trading name of GZ Systems Limited in the British Virgin Islands; its terms name an associated company, GZT Associates Limited, in Cyprus.
• Smaller providers. Several services we review are not part of the large groups above. The table lists the legal entity each one names and how that was sourced. A small owner isn't automatically safer; it means fewer brands, and usually fewer outside checks, depend on one company's choices.

When a VPN company owns the reviewer

Three ownership links between VPN companies and review sites are on the public record:

• Kape and Webselenese. In 2021 Kape bought Webselenese, publisher of the review sites vpnMentor and Wizcase. CyberInsider, itself a VPN review site, reported in September 2021 that both sites' best-VPN rankings then put Kape's three VPN brands in the top three, and that ExpressVPN had held first place even before the deal.
• Pango and Comparitech. Point Wild's timeline says Pango Group bought Comparitech, which it calls a consumer security review site, in October 2021. Point Wild's December 2024 merger announcement lists Comparitech and Hotspot Shield side by side among its brands.
• Ziff Davis. The same group owns IPVanish and StrongVPN and publishes PCMag, Mashable, IGN and CNET.

None of this proves a given review is biased. It means you should look for disclosures, check whether the reviewer names its owner, and prefer claims you can check against a primary source. Tunnelcheck may earn commissions from some providers, which our affiliate disclosure explains, and our method says how verdicts are set.

Owner, legal entity and jurisdiction

Three different things often get lumped together. The parent company owns the brand. The legal entity is the company you actually contract with, named in the terms of service. The jurisdiction is the country whose courts and laws apply to that entity. They can all differ: NordVPN's seller is in Panama while its group has Lithuanian roots, according to Wikipedia; PIA is a US company under Kape. Jurisdiction decides which legal orders a provider must answer. What it stores decides what it can hand over. See are VPNs legal and no-logs policies explained.

How to check who owns a VPN yourself

1. Read the terms of service Search for "agreement between you and" or "operated by". That names the legal entity and usually the governing law.
2. Check the app store seller Apple and Google list the seller or developer on each app page. It should match the terms.
3. Look at the footer and copyright line An old company name in the copyright line can point to a sale or rename, as with Hotspot Shield.
4. Search company registers Registers such as UK Companies House and aggregators such as OpenCorporates show directors and parent companies for many entities.
5. Search for acquisition news Search the brand name with "acquired" or "merger". Prefer press releases, filings and major news outlets.
6. Check the reviewer too Before trusting a ranking, look up who owns the site that published it.