What does it mean when a VPN program displays the phrase "virtual location" in some countries?
Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows you to connect to the internet as if you were in another country. This is useful for bypassing geographical restrictions, for example. However, you might encounter the term "virtual location" in some applications. What does it mean? We'll explain this in this article to help you understand the difference between this term and your actual location in that specific country.
Keep in mind that there are many VPN options for mobile phones and computers, so not all of them will offer this feature. We always recommend using reliable and secure options that protect you when connecting to potentially insecure public Wi-Fi networks.
This is what we observe, for example, when using the Surfshark VPN app. Upon opening the app, we see countries listed only by name, while many others are categorized as "virtual." This is especially true for smaller or less frequently used countries.
The term "virtual location" indicates that the service does not have physical servers in that region. For example, as shown in the image above, the service does not have physical servers in Albania, but rather virtual servers. However, your assigned IP address will still be associated with that country, even though the physical servers are not located there.
In other countries, where the term "virtual location" doesn't appear, it means the service has physical servers there. For example, in the case of Surfshark, you can see it listed in Portugal, Germany, France, the United States, Japan, and many other countries.
The use of virtual locations may be due to several reasons, including saving resources, given the difficulty of having servers in every country, or for legal reasons, or to improve performance (since you connect to a different server, even if the IP address belongs to that country), or to avoid some technical restrictions.
Will it work badly?
This won't necessarily be a problem. In fact, if you're concerned about privacy, you'll be able to browse without compromising your data, just as if you were connecting to a physical server in another country. You can use it, for example, when connecting via public Wi-Fi, such as in airports or shopping malls.
It's also usually sufficient to bypass geographical restrictions. If you need to access a website that's only available in that location, even if you connect to a virtual server, it will work, and you won't encounter any limitations.
You might experience some speed issues. This doesn't always happen, but you might notice that the connection isn't as smooth as when connecting to physical servers. Therefore, if you have the option to use physical servers, try connecting to them instead of virtual servers.
In short, virtual servers in a VPN mean they don't have a physical location in that country. However, this can still be beneficial for improving privacy, and you won't necessarily experience browsing problems.