Best VPN for China

Astrill made its name as the VPN for China and although it’s not as reliable as it once was since the ban, it remains one of the better options even if it’s pricey.

The biggest selling points are the two proprietary protocols: Stealth and OpenWeb. Combined with the standard VPN protocols, this means you have plenty of options during crackdowns.

City-level server choices in Asia, as well as the US, are great for optimizing your connection, even if the number of servers/IP addresses isn’t best-in-class.

Less appealing is the ineligibility of China users for the free trial and a consumer-unfriendly refund policy that doesn’t allow for change of mind. Speeds and reliability also lag behind the bar recently set by ExpressVPN.

The price doesn’t drop below $8.33 even with 12-month plans, so combined with the drop in performance, Astrill is an at-your-own-risk VPN despite its many plus points for China.

NordVPN is a great budget pick for China as long as you are comfortable with the small amount of manual setup required to use the L2TP protocol. Fortunately, this will frequently get you over the Great Firewall, although don’t expect ExpressVPN levels of reliability.

A three-year commitment brings the price down to an incredibly cheap $2.99 monthly. The tradeoff is you can’t always use the app itself in China as it is OpenVPN-only, which is blocked by censors. Some users report that obfuscated servers work in the country, but it’s not always guaranteed and these aren’t included for iOS.

Performance is solid thanks to almost 50 servers across Hong Kong and Taiwan. You can also select west coast US servers to ensure an optimal connection.

A strict zero-logs VPN based in a friendly jurisdiction, NordVPN offers a series of specialty server types that are useful during crackdowns, including double VPN and onion over VPN.

Customer support is good quality but blocked without a VPN so set up before you go. Overall very good value but more fiddly and less reliable than our top picks.

PrivateVPN is an alternative budget option for China that doesn’t require as much commitment as NordVPN to make some big savings. It’s also a smart choice if you plan to use it outside China thanks to superb speeds and access to major streaming services.

You can connect using PrivateVPN’s proprietary stealth protocol to mask the fact you’re using a VPN, which massively reduces your chances of being detected by government censors and makes accessing blocked sites simple.

The availability of servers in nearby Hong Kong and Taiwan are big selling points, as is the fact this smaller VPN service is yet to attract the attentions of Chinese censors. A 30-day money-back guarantee is another bonus.

This strictly zero-logs VPN offers super fast, reliable performance and is very attractive at $3.60 monthly if you sign up for 17 months, especially if you are a heavy P2P user or streamer.

VyprVPN makes the grade as it still works in China following that ban, thanks to its proprietary Chameleon protocol. It’s not as reliable as ExpressVPN or Astrill but is still worth considering if those VPN services aren’t for you.

Server locations are China-friendly with options in nearby Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea and Japan, along with options down the west coast of the US and Mexico.

Speed and reliability could be better, especially since the latest crackdown, but if unrestricted internet access is vital, VyprVPN can be a valuable part of your toolset along with other services.

Why choose VyprVPN over our top picks? If you use it with multiple devices, it’s more configurable experience than ExpressVPN and more user-friendly than Astrill.

It’s currently only $4.17 per month over two years for the premium plan that includes the Chameleon protocol along with a NAT Firewall.