Best VPN Australia: For Security, Streaming, & Speed

If you are looking for the best VPN for Australia to achieve ultimate online security while unblocking limitless VoD services at a decent network speed, then you have come to the right place.

Suppose you wish to protect yourself from Australian government surveillance and avoid the 90% of the population whose data is recorded by every ISP. In that case, you will need a virtual private network. Using a VPN will help you defend your online privacy, data and provide you unlimited access to geo-blocked content.

This guide will recommend the six best VPN services to guarantee complete online freedom and protection.

6 Best VPN Services For Australia (December 2021 In-Depth Analysis)

We spent 48 hours testing 150+ VPNs to find the following six VPN companies. We tested them based on security, geo-blocking, encryption, money-back guarantee, torrenting, and multi-logins.

The following premium VPNs are fully capable of boosting your online privacy, security from online surveillance, bypassing geo-restrictions, and giving you uninterrupted and unlimited access to all restricted websites in the country:

1. The top VPN – ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is the top VPN in Australia and a great choice to defend Australia’s online privacy and personal data.

Since its headquarters is located in the British Virgin Islands, outside the five eyes, nine eyes, and fourteen eyes jurisdiction, it makes this provider a perfect candidate for protecting your internet activity, privacy, and personal data in cyberspace.

ExpressVPN offers around 3,000+ servers in 94 countries, including Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane servers. There are plenty of servers in the Asia Pacific region as well. It is a great VPN if you want to access international VoD services such as Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Paramount Plus, and Netflix US in Australia. I ran a speed test with ExpressVPN and got an amazing download speed of 95 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection.

With its Australian servers, our friends who wish to catch up with the local Australian content such as ABC TV, SBS, NITV, and Seven from abroad can enjoy all those and much more on their devices such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Linux, and on Firestick without issues.

While the provider offers AES-256-Bit encryption for your online privacy and security, its additional features such as RAM servers, Lightway protocol, and Secure DNS ensure that once you go online with ExpressVPN, your actual identity, IP address, and location is completely hidden, as you can witness in the below screenshot. For the experiment, I connected to a US server from Australia.

You can subscribe to ExpressVPN for $6.67/mo (Save 49% and get 3 extra months FREE with 12-month plan this Black Friday) per month with the 30-days money-back guarantee. You can purchase ExpressVPN through PayPal, credit card, and even crypto. With this much to offer, ExpressVPN should be your first choice to use in AU’s cyberspace.

Check out all ExpressVPN’s pros and cons in our detailed ExpressVPN review.

2. Budget-friendly VPN – Surfshark

In comparison to ExpressVPN, Surfshark is a budget-friendly VPN in Australia that belongs to the British Virgin Islands as well. Although, ExpressVPN justifies its costs with unmatched performance in online security and unblocking of various geo-restricted content.

The runner-up recommendation for Australia, Surfhsark has 3,200+ VPN servers and is available in 65 countries. This should be more than enough for our Australian friends to unblock various international VoD services such as Hotstar, Vudu, BT-Sports, DAZN, and HBO Max in Australia. It is also a great VPN for streaming Netflix.

It is fast too and also comes with ad blockers. After running a quick speed test, I got a download speed of 78 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection.

There are 36 servers spread across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide. With so many servers people abroad can easily keep themselves updated with the local shows on SBS Viceland HD, 7HD, 7two, 7mate, and 7flix.

Surfshark VPN is also compatible with all the major platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Perhaps the unique feature of this provider is its ability to support an unlimited number of devices with a single account at highly affordable prices.

AES 256- bit encryption, Intenet Kill switch, 24/7 support via live chat, CleanWeb, and Multi-hop (double VPN) are among the few features Surfshark has in its arsenal for hiding your actual presence over the internet. You also get P2P support on most of its servers.

Also, Surfshark VPN has a no-logs policy audited by an independent organization, Cure53 itself. Surfshark easily passed the DNS and IP leak test as well and kept my IP address hidden. I connected to the Singapore location from Australia and took the test.

If you wish to purchase and use a VPN service that doesn’t put a dent in your pocket, then there’s no better VPN to get other than Surfshark. It’s also one of the most affordable VPNs in the industry, available for only $2.21/mo per month.

Check out all Surfshark’s pros and cons in our detailed Surfshark review.

3. Secure VPN – NordVPN

NordVPN is one of the most secure VPN providers for bypassing geo-restrictions. This is primarily because of the state-of-the-art and rare encryption tools this provider offers while giving good unblocking power to the user.

To start with, NordVPN boasts a huge network of 5,200+ VPN servers in 59 countries. Therefore, Australian users should have no trouble unblocking torrent websites with NordVPN and accessing US Netflix, Zee5 USA,  ITV, Apple TV, EuroSports, and PBS.

Similarly, people living abroad can stream their favorite shows on any streaming service they want with so many servers in Australia. You can access Racing.com, STQ, 9HD, 9Gem, and 9Go!, thanks to NordVPN’s Australian servers in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne Perth, Sydney.

NordVPN offers CybserSec, Double VPN, Onion Over VPN, no-logs policy, and an Internet Kill Switch in security features. These security features will safeguard your privacy and security, keeping your internet connection protected from various online threats lurking about in Australian cyberspace even on public Wi-Fi.

Just like Surfshark, NordVPN is fast too as it offers good internet speeds on its servers. You can get good download speeds of 82 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection which is super fast as per our extensive speed tests.

As you can see, it completes disguises our presence in Australia. I connected to Albania for the DNS leak test, and here are the results:

The provider also guarantees a zero-logging policy, ideal for users seeking to stay under the Australian government’s surveillance radar.

It also offers a 30-day money-back policy and can be simultaneously connected on 6 devices such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Firestick, and Android TV devices altogether with a single subscription. You also get multiple anonymous payment options as well.

Check out all NordVPN’s pros and cons in our detailed NordVPN review.

4. Fastest VPN – IPVanish

IPVanish is the fastest VPN service, with an average network speed of 96 Mbps on 100 Mbps. Due to this provider’s lightning-fast speeds, there wasn’t any show or websites we couldn’t access in Ultra-HD.

In total, IPVanish offers 1,600+ servers in 75+ countries. With so many servers in the world, accessing streaming services like CBS, NBC, ABC, Crackle TV, Disney+ and YouTube TV in Australia has never been easier.

It has 52 servers in Australia alone and five cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane. In addition, local Australian content such as 9Life, 9Rush, NBN, 10 HD, 10 Peach, and TVSN is always accessible via IPVanish if you are an Australian expatriate or traveling abroad.

IPVanish is headquartered in the USA, which has mandatory data retention laws. However, IPVanish has no-log privacy policies and refrains from storing any privacy-sensitive information of users. Therefore, it is a perfect companion if you wish to mask your online location and activities from various hackers and third-party advertising agencies.

IPVanish was able to pass the DNS leak protection test with flying colors. As you can witness, my Australian IP and DNS are completely secure after connecting to its VPN server in Austria:

Other than that, it offers advanced security features such as Split-Tunneling, a no-logs policy, and Internet Kill Switch. You can secure your Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Firestick, Android TV, PS4, Xbox, and Roku altogether with unlimited device connections.

IPVanish is the fastest VPN available at only $3.96/mo per month with a 30-day refund policy.

Check out all the IPVanish’s pros /cons and the level of VPN protection that it offers in our detailed IPVanish reviews.

5. User-Friendly VPN – CyberGhost

Next up, we have CyberGhost – The most user-friendly VPN service. In total, CyberGhost offers about 7,000+ servers in 90 countries. I tried accessing services like Netflix, Hulu, YuppTV, EPSN+, HBO Max, and CCTV inside Australia, and it worked flawlessly.

Just in Australia, CyberGhost has 179 servers located in Melbourne and Sydney. Thanks to these servers, you can easily watch Prime7, ishop TV, GWN7, Nine Regional, and Aspire TV from abroad.

CyberGhost offers user-friendly applications on all the major operating systems and devices such as macOS, Android, iOS, Windows, Firestick, and Linux. You get customized modes for various purposes, including gaming, torrenting, and streaming.

As far as security features are involved, you get AES-256-Bit encryption, no-logs policy, Internet Kill Switch, and Wi-Fi protection. To test how strong this provider is in securing my digital footprints, I decided to run DNS and IP leak test with CyberGhost.

There was no DNS, and IP leak reported during my testing from Australia, confirming this provider to be completely safe for your internet activity. I ran speed tests with CyberGhost too. Just like other VPNs, it is fast, but not the fastest on the list, as per my speed test. I got a download speed of 62 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection.

It does make up for the lack of speed with security add-ons. It also offers a 45-day money-back policy with support for 7 devices.

Check out all the CyberGhost’s pros and cons in our detailed CyberGhost review.

6. Best VPN for Torrenting in AU – PIA VPN

Private Internet Access provides strong encryption that completely hides Australians internet activity. It offers 35,500+ servers in 78 countries that will allow our Australian friends to view geo-restricted streaming services such as Hotstar, Sony Liv, Channel 4, Crave TV, Oxygen TV with ease. It is fast too. You can get a download speed of around 67 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection on most servers as per our speed tests.

What we really like about PIA is that it offers 3,000+ Australian servers for people living abroad, so they can watch local Australian content on SCA Seven, Imparja, MTN, MDN, Sky News, and 10 Peach on any AU VPN server. There are plenty of VPN servers in New Zealand as well.

It is also easily configurable on popular devices such as macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, Android TV, Firestick, Linux, and Router.

Private Internet Access is renowned for providing stable and efficient torrent support. In addition, it has Internet Kill Switch features that will completely protect your actual location and IP address in case of VPN disconnection. It also offers an ad-blocking feature called MACE and a strict no-logs policy.

With its Socks5 feature, you can embed it in your torrent client to achieve maximum speed and throughput when downloading torrents and P2P file sharing. This way, Australians can avoid being detected by their internet service provider (ISP) for copyright infringement.

As far as security encryption is concerned, PIA offers industry-standard 256-Bit encryption to encrypt your internet connection and traffic from any prying eyes. We could not locate any leaks from Australia on the US server during our DNS and IP leak test.

It is also fairly affordable at $2.08/mo per month with a 30-day refund policy and supports 10 devices on a single subscription. Let’s not forget that it offers a 24/7 customer support as well.

Check out all the PIA’s pros and cons in our detailed Private Internet Access review.

Test Methodology: How we tested the top VPNs

To provide you with the six most reliable VPNs, I set up some benchmarks based on my investigation and review. Following are the six criteria you should consider while selecting the best options.

1. Security and Privacy

The best VPNs for Australia must be secure and anonymous. A deep study of their privacy policy and security features is necessary to ensure that you remain protected from Australian government surveillance.

2. Encryption

As Australia is a part of the 5-eyes alliance, strong encryption and security features such as Internet Kill Switch, no-log policy, and DNS leak protection are mandatory for your online privacy.

3. Geo-blocking

Apart from security, the best VPNs for Australia should be able to grant you access to unlimited geo-restricted content from all around the globe at high speed. Many VPN services are not capable of bypassing geo-blocks for streaming Netflix and other restricted platforms.

4. Torrenting

A good virtual private network (VPN) should be able to offer you P2P-compatible servers so you can download torrents without any hesitation or worry. VPNs also allow you safe and secure P2P file sharing.

5. Simultaneous connection

Simultaneous connections allow you to use a VPN you choose on more than a single device at any time. All the VPN companies we have listed allow five or more simultaneous connections so that you can share them with friends and family.

With Surfshark and IPVanish you can connect unlimited devices simultaneously.

6. Money-back guarantee

A back-door to get you out of the subscription if the service doesn’t perform as per your expectations. All the top-rated VPNs suggested by me come with a tried and tested money-back guarantee.

Why do you need a VPN for Australia?

The Australian government enjoys easy access to the metadata of civilians on the pretext of national security. However, a survey showed that Australians are not, on the whole, opposed to surveillance for their security.

However, the Australians are only mildly accepting government surveillance, so they are not very happy about it either.

Law enforcement agencies can request your internet and telephone records from relevant companies, which are now obliged to retain your information for at least two years.

This is a serious privacy concern and raises VPNs’ importance in the country more than ever before.

In addition, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), Australians on average report 164 cybercrime each day – a single cybercrime report every 10 minutes.

Between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, the ACSC responded to 2,266 cybersecurity incidents and received 59,806 cybercrime reports.

While online fraud topped the most common category of cybercrime experienced by Australians, identity theft secured the second spot, with cyber abuse getting the third place.

While the numbers paint a completely different picture, ACSC evaluates ransomware as the highest threat.

No matter the case, a VPN will always offer adequate protection to Australians against frauds, identity thefts, and ransomware.

If we refer to streaming services, Australian Netflix gets only a fraction of the available content in other regions such as the US, UK, and Canada. To close the content gap Australians face and to bypass internet censorship, they require assistance from a reliable VPN provider such as ExpressVPN.

Moreover, Australia also imposes a so-called Online Goods Tax. This tax allows the Australian Government to charge 10% on all digital goods under AUD 1000 in value.

Thanks to this law, the price of an average Netflix subscription has increased by 20%. Considering the limited content in the Australian Netflix library, such a hefty price adjustment is not justifiable.

Australian Netflix’s basic subscription plan costs $10.99 (AUD), whereas the same subscription plan in US Netflix would cost $8.34 (USD). So Australians can simply change their IP addresses and enjoy the same service for cheap.

That’s not all. In 2018, Australia was ranked the fifth most vulnerable country globally in data breaches and exposed records, with an average of 834,833 exposed records per breach.

While originally, government censorship was focused on stopping serious crimes such as child abuse and the like, but in 2015 it was expanded to cover copyright material infringement.

The government has ordered ISPs to censor torrenting websites like The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, and TorenHound.

These are all essential reasons you need to use the best VPNs for Australia right now. To summarize, you need the best VPN if you care about any of the following:

• Hiding from government surveillance
• Accessing geo-restricted content on Netflix and other streaming/entertainment services
• Staying safe from hackers and data breaches
• The government is filtering your web services

Data Logging & Anti-Piracy Laws in Australia

Australia is becoming stricter against copyright infringement and invading users’ privacy through mandatory data logging requirements by law.

These only make it easier for surveillance agencies to do their job and poke their noses into the business of innocent citizens.

Data logging and surveillance

The data retention laws in Australia compel ISPs and telecom companies to log metadata of customers, including emails and text messages, for a minimum of two years!

Several key organizations follow Australia’s interception and access law, including Centrelink, Australia Post Corporate Security Group, and the Australian Taxation Office.

The data that companies are logging for every individual in Australia include:

• Websites visited

• Location of user

• Session duration

• Date/time of connection

• Personal details (username etc.) of users

• Network type (Wi-Fi, broadband, 4G, etc.)

If you thought that was crazy, then brace yourself for more:

Authorities in Australia have been accessing journalists’ metadata in Australia without even bothering for a legal warrant.

Nonetheless, it can certainly make the state’s job more difficult. Therefore, you should defiantly use a VPN. VPNs are indeed a preventive measure against online surveillance.

P2P Filesharing & Torrenting in Australia

Since 2016, the state has started taking torrenting quite seriously in Australia. The federal court of Australia ordered ISPs to flat out block sites like The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, IsoHunt, Torrent Hound, and Solar Movie.

The initiative proved successful. In fact, according to a report by Australian Site-Blocking Efficacy, Australian traffic to these websites dropped by 53%.

A major hit indeed!

To further escalate the crackdown, another major chunk of pirate sites was added to the blocked list in 2017. As a result, 59 more torrent sites got blocked, bringing the total count to 340.

Starting from 2018, the Australian government shifted its focus towards mirrors and proxies associated with torrent sites.

To deliver the final blow, the Australian Parliament added a new amendment to the Copyright Act. The new amendment ordered ISPs to take down popular mirrors and proxy sites.

The new amendment also forces Google to deindex URL links to torrent sites and their mirrors and proxies.

Should I Use Free VPNs for Australia?

No, you shouldn’t use free VPN services in Australia. As much as the idea of using a free option is tempting, we highly recommend avoiding doing that.

Free VPN companies offer limited bandwidth on their subscription accounts, along with a limited number of VPN locations. Unfortunately, they will either run out of the allotted bandwidth or won’t be able to unblock your desired geo-restricted website.

With such a small quantity of servers and bandwidth, you can not determine if the VPN is perfect for your requirement.

Also, as the number of servers is limited and the number of users connecting to them is large, the server usually faces congestion. Which ultimately results in slow server speeds.

Furthermore, free companies do not invest in their security and encryption infrastructure. Due to a lack of management, your online data and privacy are at high risk. These providers also sell out their user’s online data and personal information to various third-party advertising agencies.

However, if you are looking for the best free VPN to use in Australia that can help you access foreign geo-restricted content, then check out these free VPNs:

1. Hide.Me

2. ProtonVPN

3. Windscribe

VPNs to Avoid in Australia

Not all VPNs for Australia can be trusted. Take a look at some of the free VPNs to avoid in Australia:

Hola

Hola is an Israeli-based VPN provider, which performs as a VPN by utilizing bandwidth from a P2P network. This is a huge security and privacy concern. Users can easily penetrate each other’s networks and initiate cyberattacks such as DDoS attacks. This is why you should avoid this VPN in Australia at all costs.

HideMyAss

HMA complied with a court order by providing evidence that led to Cody Kretsinger’s arrest, a hacker connected with an attack on the Sony Pictures website.

Now that the UK has passed the Snooper’s Charter, which requires service providers to maintain detailed logs of what their users do online, UK-based HideMyAss seems like the last service any privacy-conscious person would want to sign up for. If you value your privacy, you should definitely use a VPN before you access the web.

FAQs

Let’s check out some frequently asked questions about the best VPNs for Australia.

Bottom Line

The privacy situation in Australia is getting worse by the day. This makes it important to use one of the best VPNs for Australia. Not only will you be able to stay safe from online surveillance, to some extent, in Australia, but you will also gain access to restricted/censored content in the country.

Hence, a VPN, especially ExpressVPN, is the top-recommended VPN for Australian users, covering all the features necessary to deal with particular issues prevailing in Australia.

After ExpressVPN, Australians can also trust Surfshark – a provider with unlimited device connections, and NordVPN for a secure VPN connection.

If you hurry up and use the links on our site, you can avail of ExpressVPN’s limited time “12 months + 3 months free“ offer, which also comes with a 30-day refund policy. You can also test the service beforehand with ExpressVPN’s free trial. Long story short, you should use a VPN to stay safe and secure in AU’s cyberspace.