Who Owns Your VPN? The 2026 Ownership Guide to Every Major Brand

A VPN sees every site you visit. So the company behind it matters more than the logo, the price, or the server count.

Why VPN ownership matters

• Your traffic passes through their servers. You are trusting the owner's logging policy, its legal jurisdiction, and the owner's other business interests.
• "Competitors" are often one company. Two apps can look like rivals and share the same owner, infrastructure and data policies.
• Review sites are owned too. Kape bought vpnMentor and WizCase in 2021, so some "best VPN" lists are written by a VPN owner.
• Ownership changes. VPNs get bought and sold. A no-logs promise from the founder doesn't guarantee what the next owner will do.

VPN ownership table (2026)

The big groups, in one paragraph each

Kape Technologies. Formerly Crossrider, an ad-software company. It renamed itself in 2018 and spent the next three years buying VPNs: CyberGhost (2017), ZenMate (2018), Private Internet Access (2019) and ExpressVPN (2021, $936M). It also bought Webselenese, the publisher of vpnMentor and WizCase. Kape is controlled by Teddy Sagi through Unikmind and was taken private.

Nord Security. Owner of NordVPN. It merged with Surfshark in 2022. The two brands still market against each other, but they share a parent. Atlas VPN was also part of the group before it shut down in 2024.

Ziff Davis. A US media and internet company (it owns IGN, Mashable and Speedtest by Ookla). It bought IPVanish, StrongVPN and Encrypt.me. Note: Ziff Davis also publishes tech review sites.

Gen Digital. The company formed when NortonLifeLock merged with Avast. Its VPNs ship bundled with antivirus subscriptions.

How to check who owns any VPN in 5 minutes

1. Read the Terms of Service. The legal entity that provides the service is named there. Search the page for "Ltd", "Inc", "AB", "AG" or "S.A.".
2. Look the entity up in a company registry. UK Companies House, OpenCorporates, or the national registry for the country in the terms.
3. Search the parent's name plus "acquisition". Deals get press releases. If the parent owns other VPNs, they'll show up.
4. Check the App Store developer name. Tap the developer on the app's page. One developer listing many VPN and "cleaner" apps is a red flag.
5. Check for an independent audit. Who did it, when, and whether the full report is public.

What to look for in a VPN owner

• The owner's name is on the website, not just in the legal fine print.
• The VPN is the company's main business, not a side product next to ad tech or data brokerage.
• A public, recent no-logs audit by a named firm.
• A clear jurisdiction and a published law-enforcement request policy.
• No owned review sites ranking its own product.

Where Buycat VPN fits

Buycat VPN is built and owned by Boycat, the company behind the Boycat ethical-shopping app. Boycat has no parent company and no ad-tech owners, and revenue comes from subscriptions. Buycat VPN keeps no browsing history, DNS queries or traffic content. Plans start at $37.69/year with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you'd rather pick another independent option, Proton VPN, Mullvad, Windscribe and IVPN are all solid choices, and we'll say so.

See Buycat VPN plans →