How to Choose a VPN Location: Why the Nearest Server Isn't Always Faster

Intuition suggests: the closer a server is geographically, the faster the connection will be. In practice, this doesn't always hold — and here's why.

Distance isn't the same as route

Traffic doesn't travel in a straight line to the nearest point — it follows the actual backbone links between data centers and providers. Sometimes the route to a server in a neighboring country is physically longer and more congested than the route to a server across an ocean, if the backbone connectivity (peering) between them is better established.

Channel load matters more than distance

A server 500 km away with a congested channel will be slower than a server 5000 km away with a wide, lightly-loaded channel. That's exactly why we say not "pick the nearest," but "pick a proven one": what matters isn't distance itself, but how stable and unloaded a specific node is.

What actually affects speed

• Data center quality — the real throughput of the channel, not what's advertised.
• Time of day — peak load on a location depends on how many users are active there simultaneously.
• A specific provider's routing — different internet providers can take completely different paths to the same server.

Why we test locations manually at all

This is a direct continuation of what we say on the homepage: we don't add a location just because we can — every one goes through a check for real channel stability. That's why none of our locations are random: each was chosen deliberately.