The Best VPNs for Pornhub in 2025
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Over 12 states have passed age verification laws demanding adult sites check, store, and verify users' ages and IDs, including Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and others. In response, Pornhub has pulled out of the affected states, declining to potentially violate the privacy of its users by collecting such personal data and by blocking access for anyone who tries to connect from an IP address originating from within their borders. Fortunately, getting around this sort of geographical restriction is precisely the kind of task VPNs excel at. Below we list the best VPNs for Pornhub, followed by how they can protect you and why you should use one no matter where you're going online.
What Is the Pornhub Ban?
For those out of the loop, Aylo, owner of Pornhub and many other online adult properties, has been embroiled in a legal battle down in the Lone Star state. This fight first started in Louisiana in January of 2023 and has since spread to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.
For example, those in Texas who try to access Pornhub using an ISP located in the state will see this message the next time they try to log on:
"As you may know, your elected officials in Texas are requiring us to verify your age before allowing you access to our website.
"Not only does this impinge on the rights of adults to access protected speech, it fails strict scrutiny by employing the least effective and yet also most restrictive means of accomplishing Texas' stated purpose of allegedly protecting minors."
Using a VPN will allow you to access Pornhub from your device or router while connecting from any of the states listed above.
Remember: If you don't see your state in this list, you don't need a VPN to access Pornhub. However, as you'll read below, there are more reasons than just state legislation to consider using one.
Do I Really Need a VPN for Pornhub?
In short: Yes, you have to have a VPN to access Pornhub from the states where it's blocked. Once Pornhub pulls out of a state, there's no way to access it other than by obfuscating the origin of your traffic requests. VPNs and proxy servers can handle this job, though proxies generally serve a more client-focused crowd, and streaming over their networks can quickly become expensive.
A VPN should also be part of a layered approach to security. It can't replace other critical security tools, such as good antivirus software, a password manager, and multi-factor authentication enabled wherever possible. Wouldn't want someone getting access to the History tab in your Pornhub account now, would you?
Several VPNs we've listed here have companion software packages or features that include password managers, and they can also help block ads on the site, prevent malware from getting in, and protect your privacy by anonymizing cookies and stifling trackers. Pornhub doesn't exactly work with the most savory advertisers in the business, and if any of them hide trackers in their banner ads, those could follow you to the next site you visit after Pornhub and beyond.
Will a VPN Hide Pornhub From My ISP or the Police?
In a word, yes, a VPN can shield your online activities from your ISP. It also adds a layer of obfuscation for anyone on the web who might want to attribute particular traffic to you or a household member. Remember: Everyone using it can technically be held accountable for its recorded traffic if it comes from any device connected to a single Wi-Fi router (such as the one in your living room).
In some cases, though, the problem might actually be the VPN itself. A VPN may sometimes log just as much, if not more, information about you than your ISP or any law enforcement agency would ever think to. We rarely recommend VPNs that admit to any logging. Of those who do, we only review companies that are open, transparent, and forthcoming about what happens to that data over time.
Can I Access Pornhub Using My VPN?
Most VPN services are completely fine with you using Pornhub. None of our top-rated VPN services prohibit adult content. As always, we recommend reading through the terms of service for any VPN provider before you hand over your credit card information—or even sign up for a free account.
If the service explicitly disagrees with streaming or downloading adult content over its networks, that will likely be near the top or one of the more easily visible aspects of the company's privacy policy. Again, it's rare to find a clause like this, and no such issue has come up in any of the VPN recommendations here.
Some VPNs actually have tools that are useful for adult content. They let you designate the kind of traffic traveling through your VPN connection using a feature called split tunneling. You can use split tunneling to send your Pornhub activity through the VPN, freeing up the rest of your bandwidth for other activities.
How Will a VPN Affect My Pornhub Streaming Speeds?
Using a VPN, your web traffic usually travels more distance to new server locations. Regardless of the service you pick, you should almost always expect slower upload and download speeds and higher latency.
In our latest round of testing, we recorded the median from 10 consecutive tests with and without a VPN running and then calculated the percentage change between the two. The greater the change, the more impact the VPN has on your internet connection speeds and latency. To measure speeds, we use the Ookla Speedtest tool. (Note: Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com's parent company. For more, see the ethics policy in our Editorial Mission Statement.)
You can see all the latest results from our testing in the chart below:
Networks are finicky, and we don't claim our work to be the be-all and end-all of VPN speed testing. Instead, we offer a snapshot of how a particular service performed on a specific day, almost always from a box based in New York City running to a server also based in New York City. These are optimal conditions on optimal servers, and your experience may change depending on where you are in the world.
Do My VPN's Server Locations Matter?
Of course! The primary way a VPN grants access to websites like Pornhub that are being specifically geo-blocked either by local governments or the company itself is by scanning the origin of your IP address.
The Pornhub block works by detecting the location of every IP that tries to connect to its servers first. Before access is granted, its filtering system blocks any addresses that originate from within the borders of any of the states mentioned in this post thus far. This isn't as complicated as it seems, as Pornhub's servers can usually catch 99% of traffic by registering which internet service providers are active in the area and blocking their IP addresses in huge numbers at a time.
Even if you don't live or work in any of the states mentioned above, we still recommend using a VPN when connecting to Pornhub anyway. Adult websites are frequent targets for malware, malicious ads, and scammers. Whether you can only afford a cheap VPN or you want to dip your toe in with a free VPN, there's a service that will allow you to access the site from any US state of your choosing.
Looking for more information about browsing adult content online safely? Read our collection of helpful tips on the subject here! Finally, if you're concerned about the possibility of exploitation in the videos you are served, check out our sister site Mashable's excellent article on how to find ethical porn.
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