The Best VPNs for India

India’s intrusive VPN data laws have forced many VPN services to remove their physical servers in the country.

This has made it harder to find a virtual private network (VPN) that offers Indian IP addresses and unblocks India-exclusive streaming services like Disney+ Hotstar and JioCinema.

The three VPNs we recommend all have VPN servers in India. You can use them to get an Indian IP address and unblock Indian streaming services from outside the country. This includes Hotstar, JioCinema, Amazon Prime Video India, and more.

By unblocking Hotstar with a VPN, you’ll be able to watch live cricket, like the Indian Premier League (IPL), from overseas.

You’ll also be able to access other geo-restricted services, like local video games, such as BGMI, and online banking apps.

The table below compares our chosen India VPNs based on the number of India servers, Indian cities you can connect to, access to Indian streaming platforms, price, and more:

The vast majority of VPN services have removed their physical servers from India due to the country’s new data logging requirements, replacing them with virtual servers or removing the server location entirely.

Virtual VPN servers are servers that aren’t physically located in their advertised location, despite providing the correct IP address. In this case, it allows a VPN to still provide an Indian IP address, while removing its actual VPN server from India’s legal jurisdiction.

Physical VPN servers are ones that are physically located in their advertised location. If a VPN implemented this type of server in India, it could become subject to data logging.

As of writing, the only premium VPNs we review that still use physical servers in India are Windscribe, VyprVPN, HMA, and PrivateVPN.

There may also be some insecure, free VPN services with physical servers in India. This is much more difficult for us to verify as their customer support and provider website are usually more limited.

We’ve listed which popular VPN services have servers in India below:

Connecting to a VPN with servers in India is the best way to get an Indian IP address. You could also use a proxy server for India, but it won’t encrypt your connection — leaving your personal data exposed.

We’d recommend using one of our shortlisted VPNs for India, if you want an Indian IP address from a reliable and secure service.

In the video below we’ve demonstrated how easy it is to get an Indian IP address with a VPN:

How to get an Indian IP Address Using a VPN:

1. Subscribe to a VPN service with virtual India servers. We recommend using Surfshark to connect to India due to its large number of India servers, fast connection speeds, and robust encryption.
2. Connect to an Indian server location. Locate the server list in your VPN’s settings and select the India server.
3. Verify your new IP address. Open your preferred internet browser and use our IP checker tool to confirm your changed IP address and geolocation.

You can use an Indian IP address to bypass geo-restrictions on online services, such as streaming platforms, video games, and banking apps.

For the best balance of privacy and ease of use, we recommend using a VPN to get an Indian IP address, rather than using a proxy server.

Below is a summary of content that’s exclusive to India on major streaming services, only accessible with a paid India VPN:

We’ve also listed popular sporting events that can be unblocked with an Indian IP address:

If you’re a PC gamer, you can also use an Indian IP address to change your Steam store location. If you live in a country like the US or UK, then following our instructions could save you up to 50% on Steam games.

We’ve created a unique testing methodology for determining the best VPNs for India. Every VPN is subject to the same stringent process to ensure fair and unbiased rankings.

Here is a table showing how the top-rated India VPNs performed in our testing categories:

VPNs with a data cap receive a reduction to their overall rating.

Below is a more detailed walkthrough of our India-specific testing methodology:

1. India Server Locations: 30%

To qualify for this list, it’s essential for a VPN to have a virtual India server location. Without one, it’s impossible to obtain an Indian IP address.

It’s also important that the VPN service uses a virtual server, instead of a physical one, to avoid India’s intrusive VPN laws.

We expect the very best India VPNs to provide server coverage across the country. This minimizes speed loss by reducing the distance between the user and the VPN server.

2. India Streaming: 30%

Due to licensing and distribution agreements, streaming services are often required to geo-restrict their content to specific regions.

The best VPNs for India are capable of bypassing these geo-blocks and streaming content that’s exclusive to India.

To calculate this category’s rating, we regularly test every VPN’s ability to unblock popular Indian streaming services from outside India.

This includes Disney+ Hotstar, JioCinema, Netflix India, and Amazon’s India originals.

3. Speed: 20%

All of our shortlisted VPNs use fast and modern tunneling protocols to minimize the impact on your connection speeds.

A fast download speed is vital for streaming content in HD quality, without any buffering or long load times.

Additionally, a low ping time ensures that you can play games like BGMI, lag-free.

4.Security: 10%

Without strong VPN encryption, your browsing activity will be visible when connecting into India.

This includes any streaming services you use, websites you access, and files you share.

To anonymize your web activity, the VPNs we’ve shortlisted all use AES-256 or ChaCha20 encryption.

They also use open-sourced and dependable VPN protocols like OpenVPN or WireGuard. This allows the apps to establish a secure connection between your device and the VPN server in India.

5. Privacy: 10%

A VPN provider’s logging policy outlines how much information it monitors and collects about your online activity.

It’s vital to use a VPN with minimal logging practices to safeguard your personal data against hackers and law enforcement agencies.

As a result, every VPN we’ve recommended for India logs a minimal amount of data or no data at all.

We’ve also highlighted VPNs that take extra measures to protect your online privacy, such as using RAM servers.

Additional Testing Criteria

Along with our five key testing categories, we take into consideration other factors when determining the best India VPNs.

These additional factors do not affect the calculation of our overall India rating, but they do influence which VPNs we consider for the shortlist.

We automatically exclude any VPNs with blocked websites in India, or those that have withdrawn their service from the region.

Alongside robust encryption and modern tunneling protocols, we reward VPNs that prioritize users’ online safety and privacy in India. This includes providing anonymous payment methods and implementing virtual servers to sidestep India’s VPN data law.

Lastly, we take into account the availability of free trials and the length of money-back guarantees.