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Best VPN for Australia
Australia is a part of the Five Eyes, an international government data-sharing scheme and a privacy nightmare.
You’ll need a good VPN to ensure that you stay safe, secure and unmonitored while connecting to the internet in Australia.
We’ve tested 99 VPN services, and these five VPNs are the best for speed, privacy, torrenting and P2P, and unlocking streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer.
The Most Important Factors When We Review a VPN for Australia
- Has city-level choice of servers in Australia
- Works with Netflix
- Reliable and fast speeds
- Useful privacy features
- Transparent, fair and privacy-focused logging policies
- Well-designed and easy to use apps
Wondering why you should trust our reviews? Take a look at How We Test VPNs
Read More Information on the Top 5 Best VPN Services for Australia
Works with
Netflix, Hulu, Sky, Now TV, HBO, SlingTV, Torrenting, Kodi
Available on
The Bottom Line
ExpressVPN is our top pick for Australia – not only is it the best all-round VPN but it also has the most reliable international speeds.
Local connections top a zippy 139Mbps, and speeds to Singapore (41Mbps) are best-in-class – more than fast enough for HD streaming.
ExpressVPN is just as strong on privacy with a sensible minimal-logs policy and some great extra security features.
Works with
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Sky, HBO, Torrenting, Kodi
Available on
The Bottom Line
NordVPN is a smart pick for Australia if your budget doesn’t stretch to ExpressVPN.
It’s pretty fast locally (74Mbps down) but it only performs adequately internationally.
Local upload speeds are a little below average at 21Mbps, but a strict zero logs policy and strong security make NordVPN great for P2P.
Works with
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, Torrenting, Kodi
Available on
The Bottom Line
IPVanish is our pick for torrenting in Australia thanks to its raw speed on local connections and strong privacy features.
It’s very fast in Australia with 150Mbps down and 123Mbps up. International connections are much slower, though.
The desktop apps could be more user-friendly but it makes up for it with powerful privacy features and a strict zero-logs policy.
Works with
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Sky, HBO, Torrenting
Available on
The Bottom Line
Cyberghost is a smart budget pick for Australia, particularly for streaming fans – there are servers optimized for that purpose.
You can expect 157Mbps down and 94Mbps up locally, and speeds into the US East Coast are impressive too at 23Mbps.
A strict zero logs policy makes CyberGhost a top privacy pick, but P2P activity isn’t permitted on local servers.
Works with
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Sky, HBO, Torrenting, Kodi
Available on
The Bottom Line
PrivateVPN is a great VPN for Australia if you are on a budget but need strong privacy and decent speeds into the US.
Local speeds are incredibly quick at 145Mbps down. Connections into east coast USA (26Mbps) are also more than good enough for HD streaming.
A strict zero logs policy and first-party DNS servers means no data exists to identify you even despite a base in privacy-unfriendly Sweden.
How We Picked the Best VPN for Australia
Our top VPN picks for Australia are the VPN services that performed the best in our speed tests, both on local and international server connections. They also have the most reliable and unrestricted access to major streaming services, such as Netflix.
We also looked for privacy-friendly and transparent logging and privacy policies along with advanced privacy features such as DNS and IPv6 leak blocking to make sure you’re protected and stay private no matter what you’re doing online.
We manually test all VPN apps and keep our recommendations up-to-day so we can share what they are really like to use. Our regular speed tests accurately monitor VPN performance in that country on devices such as PCs, Macs, iPhones, Android smartphones and Firesticks.
Do I Need a VPN in Australia?
If you want to prevent your personal information being logged by your ISP then using a VPN in Australia is absolutely essential.
Data privacy laws in Australia actually force your ISP to record and store metadata about all your internet activity and electronic communication for two years.
A VPN will allow you to keep your activity private from your ISP by creating an encrypted tunnel to the internet via a VPN server. Your ISP will log your visit to the VPN server but won’t be able to see your onwards destinations.
Australian ISPs also aggressively block certain websites, including torrenting sites. By using a VPN, you will be able to beat that government censorship and browse the web freely.
Are VPNs Legal in Australia?
Yes. Using a VPN in Australia in order to protect your personal data and mask your true IP address is completely legal.
However, you need to remember that using a VPN doesn’t mean you can ignore state or national laws, including those regarding copyright.
In other words, we wouldn’t recommend doing anything whilst using a VPN that you wouldn’t do without one.
How to Choose a VPN for Australia: 8 Tips
Physical proximity to a server makes a big difference to speed and latency even more so.
With a country as huge as Australia, it’s well worth checking that there are servers in suitable locations, especially if you don’t live in a state capital metro area.
More servers tends to mean less congestion and therefore improved speeds, however this isn’t always the case.
Check out our independent speed test results to get the best idea of what performance is like in specific locations. We test connections from Australia to the most popular global destinations so you can actually see which VPN is fastest for your needs.
Nearly all VPN providers will claim to be ‘zero logs’, however unfortunately this is rarely the case.
In order to maintain a high level of performance across a global server network, most providers will need to collect at least some basic connection metadata from their customers, such as the amount of bandwidth used.
Ideally you want a VPN provider that collects a minimal amount of logs, and nothing that could be used to personally identify you. Better still, a provider that doesn’t collect or store any logs is the best option, however these are few and far between.
We look through all the privacy policies so you don’t have to, and summarize them in plain English in the logging policy section of our VPN reviews.
Enjoy watching Netflix? Not every provider will work with these apps, especially since the recent VPN crackdowns.
We’re constantly testing whether each provider is working with Netflix and other popular sites, and we share these results with you in our VPN reviews.
Almost all VPN software will work on Windows, MacOS, and Linux machines, along with iOS and Android mobile devices.
Some VPN services are also compatible with other internet-connected items, such as routers, games consoles, and streaming devices, such as the Amazon Fire Stick.
Do you want to protect your family’s devices as well as your own? Look for as many connections as you are likely to use at the same time (most providers will allow around 3-5 simultaneously).
No one likes a clunky, confusing app. Look for a VPN with software that’s well-designed, simple and powerful and you will be much more likely to use it all the time.
We share the results of our hands-on testing of each VPN app in the the Ease of Use part of its review. We spend all day testing VPN apps, so hopefully we know a thing or two!
Even the most expensive VPN plans can be made affordable by taking out a longer subscription.
Don’t bother with a one-month plan – 12-month plans typically offer the best value and you can reduce the risk of buyer’s remorse by choosing one with a long refund period.
We’d advise a 30-day no-questions-asked guarantee – they essentially act as a free trial period.
Make the right choice, though, and you hopefully won’t be thinking about a refund at all.
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