The Best VPN for Australia: For Netflix, iOS, Android & Privacy!

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

If you wish to protect yourself from Australian government surveillance and avoid the 90% of the population whose data is being recorded by every ISP of the country, then you will need a VPN to defend your online privacy, data and provide you unlimited access to geo-blocked content.

In this guide, I will recommend the 6 best VPNs for Australians to guarantee complete online freedom and protection.

6 Best VPNs For Australia (August 2021 In-Depth Analysis)

We spent 48 hours testing 150+ VPNs to find the following 6 best VPNs for Australia. We tested them based on security, geo-blocking, encryption, money-back guarantee, torrenting, and simultaneous connections.

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

1. Best VPN for Australia – ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is the best VPN for Australia and is a great choice to defend your online privacy and personal data in Australia.

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 online activities, privacy, and personal data in cyberspace.

ExpressVPN offers around 3,000+ servers in 94 countries, including servers in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane. With such a vast network of servers, you can effortlessly view international streaming services such as Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Paramount Plus, and American Netflix 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 security 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 with the 30-days refund policy. With this much to offer, ExpressVPN is definitely the best VPN for Australia.

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

2. Budget-friendly VPN for Australia – Surfshark

In comparison to ExpressVPN, Surfhsark is a budget-friendly VPN for Australia. 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+ servers and is available in 65 countries. This should be more than enough for our Australian friends to unblock various international streaming services such as Hotstar, Vudu, BT-Sports, DAZN, and HBO Max in Australia. It is fast too. After running a quick speed test, I got a download speed of 78 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection.

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

The service is also compatible with all the major platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, Android TV, 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, CleanWeb, and Multi-hop are among the few features Surfshark has in its arsenal for hiding your actual presence over the internet.

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

If you wish to get a VPN 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 $2.49/mo .

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

3. Secure VPN for Australia – NordVPN

NordVPN is the most secure VPN for Australia. 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+ servers in 59 countries. Therefore, Australian users should have no trouble unblocking torrent websites with NordVPN and access US Netflix, ITV, Apple TV, EuroSports, and PBS.

Similarly, people living abroad can stream their favorite shows on Racing.com, STQ, 9HD, 9Gem, and 9Go!, thanks to NordVPN’s Australian servers in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne Perth, Sydney.

NordVPN offers CybserSec, DoubleVPN, Onion Over VPN, and an Internet Kill Switch in terms of security features. These features will safeguard your privacy and security, keeping you protected from various online threats lurking about in Australian cyberspace. Just like Surfshark, NordVPN is fast too. You can get a downloading speed of 82 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection which is super fast.

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, which is 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.

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

4. Fastest VPN for Australia – IPVanish

IPVanish is the fastest VPN for Australia, 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 that we couldn’t access in Ultra-HD.

In total, IPVanish offers 1,600+ servers in 75+ countries. With such a widespread network, accessing CBS, NBC, ABC, Crackle TV, and Disney+ in Australia has never been easier.

It has 52 servers in Australia alone and a presence in 5 cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, and Brisbane. 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 travelling abroad.

IPVanish is headquartered in the USA, which has mandatory data retention laws. However, IPVanish has a no-log policy and refrains from storing any privacy-sensitive information of users. 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 and IP leak test with flying colours. As you can witness, my Australian IP and DNS are completely secure:

Other than that, it offers advanced security features such as Split-Tunneling and Internet Kill Switch. You can secure your Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Firestick, Android TV, PS4, Xbox, and Roku altogether with unlimited simultaneous connections.

IPVanish is the fastest VPN in Australia available at only $2.67/mo with a 30-day refund policy.

Check out all the IPVanish’s pros and cons in our detailed IPVanish reviews.

5. User-Friendly VPN for Australia – CyberGhost

Next up, we have CyberGhost – The most user-friendly VPN in Australia. In total, CyberGhost offers about 7,000+ servers in 90 countries. I tried accessing 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. The best part about its application is that you receive customized modes for various purposes, including gaming, torrenting, and streaming.

As far as security features are involved, you get AES–256-Bit encryption, Internet Kill Switch, and Wi-Fi protection. To test how strong this provider really 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 online activities. I ran a speed test with CyberGhost too. Just like other VPNs, it is fast too.  I got a download speed of 62 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection.

Furthermore, the provider has a privacy-affirming logging policy for the Aussie’s peace of mind. It also offers a 45-day money-back policy with seven simultaneous connections.

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

6. Best VPN for Torrenting in Australia – PIA VPN

Private Internet Access provides strong encryption that completely hides Australians online 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.

It also offers 3,000+ servers in Australia for people living abroad, so they can watch local Australian content on SCA Seven, Imparja, MTN, MDN, Sky News, and 10 Peach. 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. It has Internet Kill Switch features that will completely protect your actual location and IP address in case of VPN disconnection.

With its Socks5 feature, you can embed it in your torrent client to achieve maximum speed and throughput when downloading torrents. This way, Australians can avoid being detected by their ISPs for copyright infringement.

As far as security encryption is concerned, PIA offers industry-standard 256-Bit encryption to encrypt your network 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  with a 30-day money-back policy and offers 10 simultaneous connections on a single subscription. Check out all the PIA’s pros and cons in our detailed Private Internet Access review.

Test Methodology: How we tested the best VPN for Australia

To provide you with the 6 best VPNs for Australia, I had to set up some benchmarks on which my investigation and review were based. Following are the 6 criteria you should consider while selecting the best VPN for Australia.

• 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 will remain protected from Australian government surveillance.
• 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.
• Geo-blocking – Apart from security, the best Australian VPN should be able to grant you access to unlimited geo-restricted content from all around the globe at high speed.
• Torrenting – VPN providers should be able to offer you P2P-compatible servers so you can download torrents without any hesitation or worry.
• Simultaneous connection – Simultaneous connections allow you to use your account on more than a single device at any time. All the VPN providers we have listed allow 5 or more simultaneous connections so that you can share them among friends and family.
• 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 best VPNs for Australia suggested by me come with a tried and tested money-back guarantee.

Why do you need a VPN in Australia?

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

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

Intelligence agencies in the country can request your internet and telephone records from relevant companies, which are now obliged to retain your information for at least 2 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 what is 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 have to face, 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 an extra 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). 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, 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 more torrenting websites such as The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, and TorenHound.

These are all essential reasons you need to start taking measures to improve online privacy in Australia right now. To summarize, you need the best VPN for Australia 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 Retention & Anti-Piracy Laws in Australia

Australia is becoming stricter against copyright infringement and invading user’s privacy through mandatory data retention 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 retention 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 this interception and access law in Australia, 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. In this sense, 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 a Free VPN for Australia?

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

Free VPNs offer limited bandwidth on their subscription accounts, along with a limited number of VPN locations. 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 VPN provides 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 in Australia that you can use to access foreign geo-restricted content, then check out these:

1. Hide.Me
2. ProtonVPN
3. Windscribe

VPNs to Avoid in Australia

Not every VPN can be trusted in Australia. Take a look at some of the VPN to avoid in Australia:

Hola

Hola is an Israeli-based VPN provider, which performs as a VPN by utilizing bandwidth from a P2P network. Clearly, this is a huge security and privacy concern. Users can easily penetrate each other’s networks and initiate cyberattacks such as DDoS attacks.

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.

FAQs – Best VPN Australia

Let’s see some frequently asked questions about Australian VPNs.

Wrapping Up

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 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 place their trust in Surfshark – a provider with unlimited simultaneous connections and NordVPN – the most secure VPN on the planet.

If you hurry up, you can avail of ExpressVPN’s limited time “12 months + 3 months free“ offer, which also comes with a 30-day money-back policy. You can also test the service beforehand with ExpressVPN’s free trial. Long story short, using the best VPNs in Australia is the only way to stay safe and secure.