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The Best VPNs for Turkey
Callum Tennent
Callum Tennent oversees how we test and review VPN services. He's a member of the IAPP, and his VPN advice has featured in Forbes and the Internet Society. Read full bio
Our favorite VPN for Turkey is Astrill VPN, earning a rating of 9.2/10 in our testing process. It consistently unblocked social media websites and apps, and unlike free alternatives, it has a server in Turkey and doesn’t limit data usage.
We find that using the internet in Turkey without a VPN is frustrating.
Over the years, the Turkish government has banned hundreds of thousands of websites including news publications, streaming services, and popular social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and X.
As recently as October 2024, we were suddenly unable to use Discord, after it was blocked by the Turkish government.
To bypass these geo-restrictions and access the open internet, you’ll need a high-quality VPN that works to bypass online censorship.
We’ve tested 61 VPNs, and we found that only a handful of popular services can bypass the country’s sophisticated web domain blocks.
Summary: The Best VPNs for Turkey
Based on our latest tests, these are our most highly-rated Turkey VPNs at the moment:
We’re fully independent and have been reviewing VPNs since 2016. Our ratings are based on our own testing results and are unaffected by financial incentives. Learn who we are and how we test VPNs.
If you are traveling to or living in Turkey, the VPNs we recommend above will let you access censored media, visit banned websites like Wikipedia, and communicate privately.
Comparison of the Best VPNs for Turkey
The table below compares our most highly-rated VPNs for Turkey based on their ability to bypass web censorship, VPN obfuscation technology, Turkish server locations, affordability, and more:
Astrill VPN is our top recommendation for Turkey and other highly-censored countries.
The VPN is extremely effective at bypassing internet censorship and VPN blocks thanks to its obfuscation protocol, StealthVPN, which consistently avoids detection by Turkish government firewalls.
If you’re living in Turkey or planning to be there for a long period of time, Astrill VPN is the best tool to use for unrestricted access to the internet.
Effective Stealth Protocols
In our hands-on tests over the past four years, Astrill is the only VPN able to connect in countries with censorship and unblock websites 100% of the time.
Astrill’s highly-effective StealthVPN and OpenWeb protocols do this by obfuscating VPN connections, making them appear as normal HTTPS web traffic.
One of our readers confirmed that Astrill VPN works flawlessly to unblock censored websites.
The VPN also offers a full range of encryption and security settings, (AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption) and the choice between OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols.
Its built-in IP, WebRTC, and DNS leak protection has never failed in our tests, and its kill switch is reliable on its desktop apps.
Astrill doesn’t offer a kill switch on its mobile apps, though, so we suggest using PrivateVPN or Windscribe Free if you plan to use a VPN on your phone.
Servers in Turkey, Greece & Bulgaria
The service only operates 56 server locations, which is smaller than other top-tier VPNs like ExpressVPN (106 countries) and NordVPN (111 countries).
One advantage of Astrill VPN is that it owns and manages all of its servers, allowing it to oversee security directly.
Moreover, there are servers physically located in Turkey, but also in nearby countries Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, and Israel for faster connections out of Turkey.
Astrill has servers in Turkey and nearby countries to choose from.
Expensive & Slower Than Competitors
Astrill VPN is the most expensive VPN we’ve tested. So those looking for a cheaper subscription might be better off turning to PrivateVPN or Windscribe Free.
If you’re traveling to Turkey for a holiday, a higher 1-month plan might be worth the peace of mind you can access any websites you need while abroad.
Sadly, Astrill doesn’t have a free trial or refund period to try out the service.
In our tests, Astrill proved consistently slower than its top-tier rivals, especially if you’re using the StealthVPN protocol.
But we found a great workaround. The best way to combat slowdowns is to use Astrill’s SuperCharged servers for the fastest speeds.
Our last bugbear with Astrill is its privacy policy. The VPN doesn’t have a strict no-logs policy (like PrivateVPN does), and logs sensitive data for the duration of every VPN session.
Thankfully, this information is permanently deleted after every session. But we would prefer it if Astrill was completely no-logs.
Servers in Istanbul, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus & Israel
Bypasses censorship 82% of the time
Strict no-logs policy
Unblocks many streaming platforms
Small number of VPN servers
No ad or tracker blocker, double VPN, SOCKS5 proxy or split tunneling
Only server location in Turkey
Turkey Server Locations
Istanbul
Bypassing Censorship Success Rate
82%
Turkish Netflix
No
Countries with Servers
62
Logging Policy
No Logs
PrivateVPN is an affordable, no-logs VPN with an effective obfuscation for Turkey. It has a 85% success rate in bypassing sophisticated online firewalls.
Thanks to its fast international speeds, easy-to-use apps, and impressive streaming performance, it’s a worthy alternative to Astrill when it comes to Turkey — especially if you don’t like Astrill’s heavy price tag.
This Sweden-based VPN has servers in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, and Cyprus — making it one of the best VPNs for the region.
Excellent Value for Long-Term Subscriptions
PrivateVPN is significantly more affordable than most VPNs in Turkey, costing just $2.00 per month, or $72.00, every three years.
We’re glad to see live chat is available 24/7, so you can get in touch quickly to ask questions or request a refund.
At this price, PrivateVPN can unblock censored apps and websites in Turkey, and give you access to 10 Netflix libraries, including the US and UK, as well as BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Max, and Amazon Prime Video.
All this makes PrivateVPN a top choice for those on a budget in Turkey.
Astrill may perform better at bypassing censorship, but PrivateVPN provides excellent value for money – especially for long-term subscriptions.
Go to Advanced View > Stealth VPN to turn on obfuscation.
Strictly No-Logs & No IP or DNS Leaks
PrivateVPN is an excellent all-round VPN. It doesn’t leak IP, DNS, or WebRTC information, which is a must-have when bypassing censorship.
It is also a 100% no-logs provider, so you can be confident of your anonymity with the service.
All of its apps are easy to navigate and well-designed. We’re able to change servers, select protocols, and connect within seconds.
Security essentials are all covered: AES-256 encryption, a kill switch, and the option to purchase dedicated IP addresses. Torrenting is permitted on all servers as well.
We do have one issue with PrivateVPN’s kill switch. Instead of working like a normal kill switch, the VPN warns it’s with a pop-up to disconnect before switching servers.
We would prefer if PrivateVPN fixed its kill switch so it always disconnects from the internet — even when switching servers.
Servers in Turkey, Cyprus & Bulgaria
PrivateVPNs has a slightly larger server network than Astrill (62 countries compared to Astrill’s 56).
Both VPNs should really invest in expanding their server networks, but they have a good selection of server for bypassing online censorship.
PrivateVPN has a great selection of nearby servers in Bulgaria, Greece, and Cyprus — ideal for fast, reliable connections when accessing content from outside Turkey.
There’s also a VPN server in Turkey if you want to get a Turkish IP address.
We had no issues connecting to PrivateVPN’s Istanbul and Limassol servers on Windows.
We used 23 free VPNs and were disappointed to find that none of them offer a Turkish server.
Windscribe offered one until recently, but removed it due to “unmanageable abuse”. Still, Windscribe’s unmatched ability to bypass censorship and streaming geo-blocks makes it the best option for Turkey, both inside and outside the country.
Windscribe Free is the best free VPN that works in Turkey. Connecting to nearby countries like Romania and Germany, it unblocks apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Wikipedia 85% of the time.
However, you can’t use it to get a Turkish IP address because it doesn’t offer a server in the country. It used to be the only safe free VPN with a turkey server.
But its AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption is secure, and its speeds are very fast compared to most free VPN services.
Stealth & WStunnel Available for Free
In most cases, we don’t recommend using a free VPN in highly-censored countries because most come with security flaws and poor privacy policies.
Free VPNs are also much less likely to successfully connect in countries with censorship, let alone unblock censored websites in Turkey.
Fortunately, Windscribe Free comes with two extremely effective obfuscation protocols called Stealth and WStunnel.
These protocols are specifically designed to work in highly-censored countries like Turkey, China, and Russia.
We recommend installing Windscribe Free as a back-up option before you travel to Turkey, since the provider website is blocked in Istanbul and Ankara.
Windscribe gives you access to obfuscation protocols for free.
Servers in 10 Countries
With Windscribe Free, you get access to VPN servers in 10 countries, including the US, and Romania, and Germany to name a few.
This is a much better selection than with a majority of free VPNs. To compare, Proton VPN Free is very secure, but it doesn’t let you choose a server location on its free tier.
However, you should be warned that Windscribe no longer has a free server in Turkey, which means you can’t unblock Turkish streaming services or Turkish Netflix.
Keep in mind, Windscribe Free’s monthly data cap limits the amount of browsing you can do or TV shows you can watch.
10GB Data Cap & Frustrating Server Navigation
Windscribe Free has some considerable flaws compared to our paid recommendations for Turkey.
Most notably, it comes with 10GB monthly data limit. This might be enough for some people, but if you want to rely on a VPN daily, it probably won’t be enough.
Another bugbear we have with Windscribe’s app is that it’s quite complicated to change protocols. You have to go into Preferences > Connection > Connection Mode > Manual > Protocol.
This is quite a long-winded process for something that could just take a couple taps.
One final complaint we have about Windscribe Free is that its free servers are hidden among its list of paid servers. This means you have to scroll through the list to find a server that hasn’t been labeled with a premium star.
To avoid this happening, we recommend marking your favorite free servers so they show up in your favorites tab.
We added all the free VPN servers to our favorites tab for easy navigation.
Of the 61 we’ve tested and reviewed, only 3 made our list of recommendations for Turkey.
Below are some other VPNs we considered for Turkey recommendations:
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is an exceptional VPN in all testing categories. It doesn’t collect identifying data, has diskless servers, and it’s regularly audited for security vulnerabilities.
However, the VPN is not performing so well in countries with censorship recently. Its obfuscation currently isn’t as effective as Astrill, PrivateVPN, or Windscribe Free.
Despite having servers in nearby countries, ExpressVPN’s poor performance at bypassing web censorship lets it down.
NordVPN
NordVPN is a great VPN with exceptional security standards, fast speeds, and the ability to unblock popular streaming services. But it doesn’t perform well in countries with sophisticated online censorship.
In our hands-on testing, we discovered it often fails to unblock websites in China, making it a poor choice for bypassing online censorship and use in Turkey.
VyprVPN
VyprVPN shouldn’t be trusted with your sensitive data.
We used to recommend VyprVPN for Turkey because of its obfuscation capabilities. However, its new owners, Certida, have proven to be untrustworthy.
They quietly changed the VPN’s jurisdiction to the privacy-unfriendly US. Bizarrely, they also removed its VPN privacy policy and replaced it with an auto-generated Termly policy. You should never trust a VPN that uses an auto-generated privacy policy.
Proton VPN
Proton VPN and Proton VPN Free are extremely fast, secure, and private. In fact, Proton VPN Free is the best free VPN we’ve reviewed.
However, like other VPNs we considered but dismissed for Turkey, Proton VPN (paid and free) doesn’t work well in countries with online censorship.
Urban VPN
Urban VPN is not safe enough to use in Turkey.
Urban VPN Free claims to be a VPN service, but is in fact a peer-to-peer proxy network. This means it doesn’t encrypt your data properly and collects your IP address, and browsing activity.
Overall, it’s not a safe VPN service and shouldn’t be used in Turkey.
How to Download a VPN in Turkey
Turkey has ramped up its censorship of VPN websites in the past few years, so it’s much more difficult to download a VPN than it was just a few years ago.
The top VPNs for Turkey can provide an alternative URL that has not been banned by the censors and sometimes host app files on GitHub, a website for sharing code available worldwide.
Here are our tips for downloading a VPN for Turkey:
If you are traveling to Turkey for a vacation, we recommend downloading Astrill on your mobile, tablet, and computer before leaving your home country to guarantee you can use it once you are there.
If you live in Turkey and want to download a VPN to your mobile or streaming device, simply change your app store region to another country, like the USA. App stores hide certain apps based on the country your account is tied to, not by your IP address.
If you’re already in Turkey and need to install a VPN on desktop, we suggest contacting customer support via email to request a download link or using these links to install a VPN app:
We used Astrill’s mirror download link to install the service in countries like China, Turkey, and the UAE.
How to Use a VPN in Turkey
If you’re having trouble getting a VPN to work in Turkey, we recommend switching to a VPN we recommend and following these instructions exactly.
How to use a VPN in Turkey:
Subscribe to a trustworthy VPN service with servers in Turkey: We recommend Astrill or PrivateVPN.
Install the app and login.
Turn on any obfuscation protocols or features: Astrill has a StealthVPN and OpenWeb protocols, whereas PrivateVPN has a StealthVPN mode.
Connect to a nearby VPN server: If you want a Turkish IP address, connect to a server in Turkey. To unblock websites in Turkey, connect to a nearby server in Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, or Romania. Check your new IP using our IP checker tool.
Is It Legal to Use a VPN in Turkey?
VPNs are completely legal in Turkey, but their use is restricted. This means the Turkish government frequently blocks websites, but citizens are not prosecuted for using a VPN to access them.
However, it’s important to note that any activity conducted while using a VPN is still subject to Turkish law.
In October 2022, just months before the 2023 presidential election, Turkey’s government passed new legislation known as the “censorship law” amending its Internet Law, Press Law, and Penal Code.
It made “disseminating false information” with “intent to cause anxiety” a criminal offense, with prison sentences between one and three years. This law was used just a couple of months later to arrest a journalist for tweeting “disinformation.”
There is legislation for prison sentences of up to two years for anyone who “publicly denigrates the Turkish nation.”
This law has been used to actively punish criticism of the Turkish government, its leaders, and its actions. Beyond this, there have been large numbers of arrests in the past four years over Twitter comments critical of the government.
If you log onto a Twitter account associated with your real name or identity and then start criticizing Erdoğan, you could encounter harsh consequences.
VPNs are legal in Turkey, but their use is restricted.
Are VPNs Blocked in Turkey?
Only specific VPN services have been blocked in Turkey. ISPs use deep packet inspection (DPI) to inspect, identify, and block traffic if it belongs to one of these VPN services.
In November 2016, Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority ordered Turkish ISPs to block access to Tor and several VPNs services including Hotspot Shield, Psiphon, TunnelBear, VyprVPN and ExpressVPN.
For this reason, despite being banned, many VPNs with obfuscation technology still work in Turkey, including ExpressVPN.
Which VPNs Are Banned in Turkey?
Here’s a comprehensive list of all the VPNs that have been targeted and blocked by the Turkish government:
CyberGhost
ExpressVPN
Hide.me
HMA VPN
Hola VPN
Hotspot Shield
IPVanish
NordVPN
Private Internet Access
Proton VPN
Psiphon
PureVPN
SurfEasy
Surfshark
Touch VPN
Turbo VPN
TunnelBear
VPN Unlimited
Which Websites Are Blocked in Turkey?
Under Erdoğan’s leadership, an increasingly large number of websites have been blocked.
To access these sites and services during a government blackout, you’ll need a VPN or another reliable method of circumventing your Turkish ISP’s restrictions.
Websites blocked in Turkey include:
Wikipedia
Bianet
Imgur
TikTok
Facebook
Discord
X (Twitter)
YouTube
Instagram
WhatsApp
Skype
Telegram
There is very little transparency from the Turkish government, so it is hard to tell when a website might go down and whether it will come back online.
VPN software is the most versatile option for accessing blocked websites and apps. A good VPN will be able to tunnel your web traffic outside of Turkey without catching the attention of your ISP or the government.
How We Test VPNs for Turkey
To make sure our recommendations are accurate, we use a scientific rating system to find the best VPNs for Turkey.
We test every VPN in five key areas, each of which are weighted according to their importance. We then combine this data to calculate an overall rating for Turkey.
Here’s a more detailed overview of the six categories we test for and how much of the overall rating they account for:
1. Bypassing Turkish Censorship: 40%
A VPN’s ability to work in Turkey and unblock websites is the most important attribute for a Turkey VPN, which is why it is weighted highest in our ratings.
We test to make sure that every VPN we recommend is capable of functioning safely in Turkey without being identified by authorities.
VPN services that work in Turkey on the majority of its international servers are rewarded, while those that are banned or blocked by ISPs are penalized.
2. Obfuscation Technology: 20%
Obfuscation technology is a key feature for any anti-censorship VPN. Obfuscation protocols disguise your VPN traffic as normal HTTP traffic, which helps it evade detection.
We test every VPN’s encryption and security settings to find out whether it offers obfuscation. VPNs with AES-256 encryption, no IP leaks, and a range of obfuscation settings are rewarded in the overall rating for Turkey.
To evaluate a VPN’s obfuscation technology, we take into account how many obfuscation protocols and features it has, and how effective they are at bypassing online censorship.
3. Privacy: 10%
A good privacy policy is important for every VPN, not just those for Turkey. It reveals how much sensitive data is monitored and stored about your identity and activity.
To evaluate a VPN’s privacy policy, we analyze every policy and note which data points it saves about its users. The best VPNs for Turkey do not store identifying data and use diskless VPN servers to avoid storing sensitive information that can be exposed.
We only recommend VPN services that log as little identifying information as possible.
4. Speed: 10%
We manually test the average download speed, upload speed, and ping time of every VPN before and after connecting to servers in Turkey.
Furthermore, we calculate a percentage speed loss rating that reflects the impact each VPN is likely to have on your VPN speeds.
VPNs with an average speed loss of 20% or less perform better in the overall ratings.
5. Turkey Server Locations: 10%
The availability of nearby VPN servers is also tested when rating VPNs for Turkey.
The best VPNs for Turkey offer reliable servers in Turkey, as well as servers in nearby countries. A virtual or physical Turkey server is a necessity for getting a Turkish IP address.
In addition, if you want to connect out of Turkey, having a VPN server close to your physical location will give you the best speeds.
To qualify for recommendation, a VPN must have at least one server in Turkey and in nearby countries like Armenia, Greece, and Bulgaria.
6. Security: 10%
We use packet-inspection software to assess how well a VPN encrypts our traffic. The best VPNs offer AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption to completely scramble your activity.
We also test every VPN’s kill switch to judge whether it leaks your real IP address, and conduct a DNS leak test to judge the security of a VPN.
To achieve a high rating in this category, a VPN must avoid all leaks and offer WireGuard, OpenVPN, or another safe proprietary protocol.
Data Cap Penalty
Almost all free VPNs come with a data cap. Like with most limitations on free VPNs, this is imposed to encourage users to upgrade to a paid subscription.
If you use up your data cap, the rest of your internet activity will be outside the VPN tunnel. Consequently, your ISP can monitor the web pages you visit, and you won’t be able to access blocked websites in Turkey.
We apply a penalty to the VPN’s final overall rating for Turkey based on its data cap:
Unlimited bandwidth: No deduction to the overall rating
10GB per month: -20% to the overall rating
500MB per day: -25% to the overall rating
5GB per month: -30% to the overall rating
1GB or 2GB per month: -35% to the overall rating
200MB per day: -40% to the overall rating
500MB per month: -50% to the overall rating
FAQs
How Do I Fix My VPN Not Working in Turkey?
If your VPN isn’t working in Turkey, it’s likely because the VPN has been detected and blocked by government firewalls.
Otherwise, you can try switching to a different server, ensure obfuscation is enabled, or contact the VPN’s customer support team.
Which VPN Works in Turkey?
Our latest tests confirm that Astrill VPN, PrivateVPN, and Windscribe all work reliably in Turkey.
They all have obfuscation technology, AES-256 encryption, fast speeds, and private logging policies.
Which Free VPN Has a Server in Turkey?
There are currently no free VPNs with a Turkey server. Windscribe Free used to be the only safe free VPN with a server in Turkey (Istanbul), but it removed it in 2024.
Is It Safe to Post Online in Turkey?
There are often legal punishments for controversial social media posts in Turkey.
This doesn’t mean you can’t post holiday pictures on Instagram, but if you want to organize politically, then online anonymity is crucial.
A VPN will keep your activity hidden from your ISP, but this won’t matter if you are posting on a Twitter account under your own name.
If you want to be completely anonymous online, you need to use Tor or a good VPN and avoid anything that might expose your identity.
Can I Use Tor in Turkey?
Tor was banned in Turkey in 2016. The Turkish government is able to identify traffic routed through the Tor network and block it. However, it is still possible to use Tor in Turkey. You will need to make use of something called a “bridge.”
A bridge allows you to connect to the Tor network without your ISP or government knowing what you are doing. This will only work if your government or ISP does not know the server you are connecting to is a bridge into the Tor network.
Tor is an alternative to a VPN if you need complete anonymity online. However, it comes with serious risks: your identity will be hidden, but your activity will be exposed on the Tor network.
Generally, we recommend using a VPN if your main aim is to circumvent censorship.