Since the passing of the Cybercrime Prevention Act in the Philippines in 2012, government surveillance has increased. In addition, freedom of speech remains under attack under the reign of Duterte. This has lead to an increase in the use of the best VPN Philippines in the country.
A VPN can help you secure your online freedom and bypass ISP snooping. Another reason why you might need a VPN is to access foreign websites and content that are blocked in your country like Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, Hulu or to unblock Philippines local content from outside.
After testing 150+ VPNs, we have come up with a list of the 6 best VPNs for the Philippines that will help with your online privacy and give you access to any website from anywhere.
Quick Overview – 6 Best VPNs for Philippines
Here is a quick overview of some of the 6 best VPNs for Philippines in 2021:
- ExpressVPN– The Best VPN for Philippines. 3000+ servers in 94 countries, 1 in Philippines. Offers fast speed of 88 Mbps on 100 Mbps connection, 256-bit strong encryption, and an excellent unblocking ability for bypassing geo-blocks in just $6.67/mo . Offers a 30-day money-back guarantee to try out the service risk-free.
- Surfshark– Budget-friendly VPN for Philippines. Best value VPN costing only $2.49/mo . Offers 75.12 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection. Offers advanced security features, with 256-bit encryption, CleanWeb, OpenVPN, and NoBorders with 3200+ servers in 65 countries, 1 in Philippines. Unblocks Netflix, Hotstar and more in Philippines. Supports unlimited connections and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- NordVPN – Secure VPN for Philippines. Offers advanced security features like Nordlynx, CyberSec, Double VPN, and 256-bit encryption at the cost of just $3.30/mo (VPN Awareness Month - 2 year plan at 72% off + 3 months FREE). Offers 5200+ servers in 60 locations. Works with Netflix, BBC, Amazon Prime, and more with a fast speed of 88.2 Mbps. Also offers 30-day money-back guarantee.
- IPVanish – Fastest VPN for Philippines with 1900+ servers in 75+ countries. The fastest VPN for your online experience, including streaming, torrenting, and online gaming. Offers a connection speed of 90 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection for only $3.75/mo with a 30-day refund policy.
- CyberGhost – User-Friendly VPN for Philippines. Easy-to-use apps for all OS. 7000+ fast-speed servers (71 Mbps on a 100 Mbps base connection) optimized for streaming, gaming, and more for only $2.25/mo . 28 servers in Manila, Philippines. Offers a 45-day money-back guarantee.
- Private Internet Access – Best VPN for Torrenting in Philippines. 35500+ P2P optimized servers in 78 countries including 24 in Philippines with a fast speed of 64 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection. Offers a kill switch, & SOCKS5 proxy for ultimate security at the cost of $2.08/mo . Offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
6 Best VPN Philippines (September 2021 In-Depth Analysis)
Unfortunately, not all VPNs are a good choice for users in the Philippines as most don’t work in the country and offer poor services. For this reason, we have tested over 150+ VPNs to find the 6 best VPNs for Philippines. These VPNs have been tested on various performance criteria like security, speed, geo-blocking, money-back guarantee, and more.
1. The Best VPN for Philippines – ExpressVPN
Key Features:
- 3000+ servers in 94 countries, 1 in Philippines
- 5 simultaneous connections
- AES-256-bit military-grade encryption
- Internet Kill Switch, Split-Tunneling, and Trusted Server Technology
- Free MediaStreamer SmartDNS
- 88 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection
- 30-day money-back guarantee
ExpressVPN is no doubt the best VPN for Philippines. In the Philippines, it offers 1 Filipino server, and with over 3000+ servers worldwide, ExpressVPN certainly lives up to the hype.
It is one of the most premium VPNs in the industry. It comes with excellent unblocking ability and works with all major streaming platforms. With ExpressVPN you can unblock Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, CW, Disney+, and more in the Philippines.
If you’re traveling outside the Philippines and feel homesick, then you can use the Filipino servers to stream all of the local TV channels in the Philippines from outside the country. These include HOOQ, iflix, iWant TFC, and more.
ExpressVPN is compatible with a wide range of devices like macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, Android TV, Firestick, Linux, routers, PS4, Xbox, and more. With one ExpressVPN account, you can connect up to 5 devices at the same time.
Aside from being super compatible, ExpressVPN comes packed with tons of security features. Speaking of which, ExpressVPN offers Network Lock, Zero-knowledge DNS, Split tunneling, and even utilizes powerful 256-bit AES encryption for data encryption.
It also offers IP and DNS leak protection, offering ultimate protection. To check its leak protection, we decided to run an IP leak test. As you can see from the screenshot below, we found no leaks whatsoever.
All these features come at a cost of $6.67/mo with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free for 30 days in the Philippines.
Read our ExpressVPN review for details.
2. Budget-friendly VPN for Philippines – Surfshark
Key Features:
- 3200+ servers in 65 countries, 1 in Philippines
- Infinite simultaneous connections
- AES-256-bit military-grade encryption
- Internet Kill Switch, CleanWeb, and Multi-Hop
- 75.12 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Starting from just $2.49/mo Surfshark is the most budget-friendly VPN for the Philippines, offering some of the best unblocking and security features. And that’s not it. Surfshark also allows unlimited VPN connections on a single account. So, you can connect as many devices as you want with one Surfshark subscription in the Philippines.
It has a total of 3200+ servers across 65 countries that will let you stream geo-restricted content from within the Philippines. You can unblock Netflix US, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, and more in the Philippines with Surfshark’s international servers.
Surfshark also offers 1 server in the Philippines that you can use to access local sites like iwantTV, HOOQ, iFlix, and more from anywhere abroad.
If we talk about features, Surfshark offers top-of-the-line 256-bit AES encryption, and other features like CleanWeb (ad-blocker), NoBorders, MultiHop, Static IPs, etc.
That’s not all. Surfshark is headquartered in the British Virgin Islands and guarantees a strict no-data logging policy. It also offers IP and DNS leak protection for perfect anonymity over the web. We also tested Surfshark for potential IP leaks and found no leaks whatsoever. You can see the results in the screenshot below:
Surfshark also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. For a complete list of features, check out our Surfshark Review.
3. Secure VPN for Philippines – NordVPN
Key Features:
- 5200+ servers in 60 countries (offers no servers in the Philippines)
- 6 simultaneous connections
- AES-256-bit military-grade encryption
- Double VPN, Onion over VPN, and Obfuscated servers
- 88.2 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection
- 30-day money-back guarantee
NordVPN is the most secure VPN for Philippines. It features some of the most advanced security and encryption tools like CyberSec (adblocker), Double VPN, and obfuscated servers. NordVPN is headquartered in Panama, a jurisdiction that is a privacy haven for citizens due to its lack of data retention laws.
The provider has more than 5200+ servers in 60 countries. However, there are no servers within the Philippines, but there are plenty in Malaysia, Indonesia, and other bordering countries.
Despite the lack of Philippines servers, NordVPN can still be very useful if you want to unblock foreign content that may be geo-restricted. You can access US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, or Hulu in the Philippines using NordVPN’s international servers.
Other than that, NordVPN is also very effective at protecting your privacy. It has excellent features in the form of DoubleVPN, Onion Over VPN, CyberSec, AES-256 encryption, and kill switch. These will make sure that your online activities remain obscured from the view of any third parties, giving you the freedom to surf the web in complete privacy in your country.
The no-logging stance of the provider is also very reassuring as they keep no records of your sensitive information for any period of time. It also offers IP and DNS leak protection that we tested. NordVPN passed our IP leak test as there were no data leaks.
You can get NordVPN for $3.30/mo (VPN Awareness Month - 2 year plan at 72% off + 3 months FREE) which comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and support for 6 simultaneous connections.
For a complete list of features, check out our NordVPN in-depth review.
4. Fastest VPN for Philippines – IPVanish
Key Features:
- 1900+ servers in 75+ countries (offers no servers in the Philippines)
- Infinite simultaneous connections
- AES-256-bit military-grade encryption
- Ransomware Protection, Online Backup, and File Sharing Controls
- 90 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection
- 30-day money-back guarantee
IPVanish is one of the fastest VPNs for Philippines offering amazing connection speeds. During testing, it managed to output a high speed of 90 Mbps on our 100 Mbps base connection. It is more than enough for data-intensive tasks like HD streaming, lag-free gaming, fast torrenting, and downloading large files.
IPVanish offers access to over 1900+ servers in 75+ countries to unblock streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer and access foreign websites that are blocked in the Philippines. However, it does not have any servers in the Philippines.
Features like military-grade 256-bit encryption, OpenVPN protocol, kill switch, among others comes standard with all IPVanishs subscription plans. It also offers DNS and IP leak protection. We ran IP leak tests by connecting to IPVanish’s Singapore server and found no leaks.
Best of all, IPVanish is easy on the pocket as it only costs $3.75/mo . If that’s not enough for you, IPVanish also offers a full 30-day refund policy.
Read our IPVanish review for more information on this provider.
5. User-friendly VPN for Philippines – CyberGhost
Key Features:
- 7000+ servers in 90 countries, 28 in Manila, Philippines
- 7 simultaneous connections
- AES-256-bit military-grade encryption
- Wi-Fi protection, Streaming dedicated IPs
- 71.4 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection
- 45-day money-back guarantee
CyberGhost is the most user-friendly VPN Philippines. It offers easy to use app for macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, Android TV, Firestick, and more. CyberGhost has a very user-friendly design for all of its VPN applications. It is a great choice for beginners in the Philippines who want to achieve online privacy and access blocked streaming sites in the country.
With over 7000+ servers in over 90 countries and a premium mode selection feature, you can literally unblock any geo-restricted website in the Philippines. You can watch Netflix US, YouTube TV, BBC iPlayer, and more.
CyberGhost also offers 28 servers in Manila, Philippines. That’s a good number of servers to help unblock any local channel, content, or website from abroad. If you are living outside the Philippines, you can stream some local Filipino TV channels like ABS-CBN, GMA 7 Manila, Fox Sports Asia, and more.
Cyberghost is headquartered in Romania and comes with just the right features for ultimate privacy. Not only that but this best VPN Philippines is also praised for its benchmark encryption and protocols. Speaking of which, CyberGhost uses 256-bit encryption with OpenVPN protocol for impenetrable security.
It also offers fool-proof protection against IP and DNS leaks. We ran an IP leak test by connecting to its Japan server and were more than satisfied with the results as there were no IP leaks.
Best of all, CyberGhost only costs $2.25/mo and is covered by a full 45-day money-back guarantee. For a complete list of features, check out our CyberGhost Review.
6. Best VPN for Torrenting in Philippines – PIA VPN
Key Features:
- 35500+ servers in 78 countries, 24 in Philippines
- 10 simultaneous connections
- AES-256-bit military-grade encryption
- Ad and malware blocking (MACE), Open-source software, WireGuard protocol
- 64 Mbps speed on a 100 Mbps connection
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Private Internet Access (PIA) is the best VPN for torrenting in Philippines offering advanced features like SOCKS5 proxy, and a kill switch to ensure online safety. It has over 35500 servers across 78 countries, and all these servers are optimized for P2P.
PIA also has 24 servers in Manila, Philippines to watch local TV channels, news, and sports from outside the country.
With its international servers, you can unblock US Netflix in the Philippines using PIA, HBO, Amazon Prime, and more foreign channels and websites.
Just like other Philippines VPNs, PIA offers support for a wide range of popular devices including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, etc. It also features specialty servers that are designed to offer top-notch privacy and access to heavily geo-restricted content.
Security features unique to PIA include an automatic kill switch, split tunneling, port forwarding, and dedicated IP. PIA also offers IPv6 protection and DNS leak protection that safeguards users from unexpected data leaks.
We also ran an IP leak test while connected to PIA’s Australia server, and it did not leak our real IP address, as you can see from the screenshot below:
PIA only costs $2.08/mo and comes with a solid 30-day money-back guarantee.
For a complete list of features, including pros and cons, check out our PIA Review.
Verdict
ExpressVPN is the best VPN for the Philippines. Its AES-256-bit encryption, RAM servers, and kill switch will offer you complete protection from online threats.
With its 3000+ servers in 94 countries, you can circumvent online censorship. You can also unblock any streaming site you want in the Philippines, like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and more with ExpressVPN owing to its strong unblocking ability.
With 5 simultaneous connections, you can protect multiple devices at the same time. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee and if you like the service, you can get 3 months free on its 12-months plan.
Test Methodology: How we tested the best VPN for the Philippines
To shortlist the 6 best VPNs for Philippines, we tested 150+ VPNs on various criteria. Following are the criteria you should consider while selecting the best VPN Philippines:
- Robust encryption – It is essential for the best VPN Philippines to have the latest 256-bit AES encryption. It should also offer other security features like a kill switch, IP leak protection, and more.
- Server network– The VPN Philippines should have an adequate amount of servers across the world in different countries, so you can have unrestricted access to the internet. This way, you can unblock various international sites from all over the world.
- Bypass geo-blocking – One of the most popular reasons behind subscribing to a VPN is to unblock various geo-blocked content. Make sure the VPN you choose is fully capable of unblocking popular streaming services in the Philippines.
- Simultaneous connection – Make sure the VPN allows you to connect multiple devices on a single subscription. All of the providers in our list support 5 or more multi-logins so that you can use the VPN on more than one device at the same time.
- Money-back guarantee – Make sure the VPN offers a money-back guarantee. All of our best VPNs for Philippines offer a 30-day or more money-back guarantee. If you go for CyberGhost, you get a 45-day money-back guarantee.
3 Reasons Why You Need a VPN in the Philippines
If I haven’t already made it clear enough, here are 3 reasons why you should be using the best VPN for the Philippines:
1. Scarce freedom of speech
Journalists and bloggers have long objected to the suppression of criticism and free speech by the Duterte government. Some notable journalists have been detained by the government in recent times for criticizing the president and government policies.
This reeks of censorship and authoritarian control over people’s thoughts. In this environment, the need for the best VPNs Philippines is increasing with every passing day.
2. Speculated government surveillance and data retention
From official leaked documents, it is speculated that the Philippines government is looking to invest in covert surveillance programs.
Even more shockingly, there is documented proof of the Philippine government purchasing high-tech IMSI-catchers worth approximately $200,000 for supposed eavesdropping on telephonic conversations.
Not only that, back in 2014, the Philippine government acquired a Radio Frequency Test Equipment (RFTE) intended for surveillance from a German company.
In addition, according to the Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act, local internet service providers must collect and store user data for up to six months. This stored data can be investigated by law enforcement authorities and the National Bureau of Investigation with proper court orders.
3. Geo-restrictions
While geo-blocks aren’t much of an issue in the Philippines, but VoD services like Netflix U.S, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and Disney+ are not available in the country.
Therefore, if you wish to unblock these sites, your best option is to use a reliable Philippine VPN with tons of servers worldwide. With a VPN in the Philippines, you can access all international content and streaming sites in the country.
VPN Guides for Other Countries
- VPN for Malaysia
- VPN for Taiwan
- VPN for Indonesia
- VPN for Thailand
- VPN for Vietnam
- VPN for Kazakhstan
Best VPN Philippines FAQs
Yes, using a VPN is legal in the Philippines. While the Filipino government has strict rules against internet usage, it has not imposed any restrictions on using a virtual private network (VPN) in the country.
No, we don’t recommend using a free VPN in the Philippines. Considering that many free services have been caught red-handed selling user information for a profit, it’s best to avoid free VPNs altogether.
Similarly, free VPNs cannot help you access blocked websites in the Philippines and they offer a limited number of servers only that are crowded with users, offering extremely slow speeds. Instead of free VPNs, you can use ExpressVPN that offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Yes, NordVPN works in the Philippines although it has no servers within the country. But, if you reside in the Philippines and want to access websites and services from across the world, then it’s certainly possible using NordVPN’s 5500+ servers.
Yes, ExpressVPN works in the Philippines and also offers servers in the country. You can either connect to ExpressVPN and unblock geo-restricted services from across the world using its 3000+ servers, or you can access local Filipino services like HOOQ and iFlix using ExpressVPN’s servers within the Philippines.
Several VPNs offer servers in the Philippines including ExpressVPN, Surfshark, CyberGhost, and PIA. These VPNs then allow users to access local channels and streaming services within the Philippines from outside the country.
Yes, you can watch Hulu in the Philippines with a VPN. Hulu is geo-restricted and is only available in the US. You can always connect to the best VPNs for the Philippines like ExpressVPN or NordVPN and use its vast range of American servers to enjoy Hulu within the country.
To unblock US Netflix in the Philippines, follow these steps below:
- Subscribe to a VPN from the list mentioned above (I recommend ExpressVPN as it has 23+ US servers)
- Download and install the app on your device
- Connect to a US server
- Head over to Netflix
- Enter your Netflix username and password. It will automatically take you to Netflix US.
Wrapping up
With the growing number of cyberattacks, scarce freedom of speech, and deteriorating cyberspace in the Philippines, a VPN is an absolute must. If you care about your privacy and want to freely use the internet without worrying about government surveillance or oppression, you must invest in one of the best VPNs for the Philippines today.
Our top recommendation for users in the Philippines is ExpressVPN. This VPN is all you need to secure your online privacy, while at the same time have unrestricted access to the internet.
It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can give it a try risk-free in the Philippines. To make it even more appealing, ExpressVPN comes with a 3 months free subscription if you purchase its 12 monthly plan.
