Best VPN for South Africa in 2018
Nearly 50% of the population of South Africa has internet access, however most people don’t realize that their privacy is at risk. Accessing geo-restricted content and protecting your privacy is difficult unless you use a VPN for South Africa. With a VPN you can surf online via an encrypted server. This ensures that your privacy is protected and that you can access content that is usually restricted in South Africa. With top of the class encryption levels, we would highly recommend ExpressVPN as your go-to VPN, for the utmost privacy and security online.
Best VPN For South Africe: ExpressVPN
Why Is My Privacy Under Threat In South Africa?
While South Africa enjoys pretty good internet freedom, there have been attempts to monitor internet activity and usage.
The General Intelligence Laws Amendment Bill (GILAB) and the Protection of State Information Bill (POSIB) are two examples of means to curb access to online content in South Africa.
It is highly important to encrypt your data when online if you live in or are travelling to South Africa. A VPN for South Africa is crucial and will do the job for you allowing you complete online privacy.
Whether you are worried about your internet activity being tracked or even if you just want to access geo-restricted content that is not available in South Africa, then a VPN will allow for this.
Online Streaming in South Africa
We all love a good movie or even a series marathon every now and then, but unfortunately in South Africa, many of the most popular channels overseas are not available when browsing from within the country.
If you want to dig into some English TV and access geo-restricted content such as BBC iPlayer and 4OD or maybe some American channels like Amazon Prime, DSTV Now, Sky then it is best to use a VPN for South Africa, it will allow you access to all of these channels and more.
These channels are simply impossible to visit due to being geo-blocked, you cannot access them unless you are in the given country.
If you’re bored of the limited choice on South African Netflix and want full access to the US Netflix library, then simply set your VPN IP address to the country of your choice. In this case it would be the US, by doing this you can trick the system into thinking you are physically located in the US, allowing you instant access from within South Africa – genius!
Why Use a VPN in South Africa
With a VPN you can not only protect your privacy but also increase the amount of content you can access.
A VPN will:
- Allow you to change your IP address to another country
- Encrypt all of your data making all of your browsing private
- Delete your logs (perfect for those who like to download torrents) or delete their browsing history
- Give you a secure and private network so that no third parties can spy on you – particularly good if using public Wi-Fi
- Prevent from identity theft online as well as making online banking safer
Best VPN for South Africa
We have re-visited this article to give you a more up-to-date review for the best current VPNs for South Africa by testing the following VPN providers to present you with the best VPNs for South Africa.
It is important to double check that the VPN you sign up for allows you to access the geo-restricted content that you desire. We have made sure that this list only includes relevant VPNs that allow access to US Netflix Library, as well as other TV shows and channels geoblocked in South Africa.
Best VPN for South Africa in 2018
To help you decide which VPN is best for you, we’ve listed 3 top companies and explain what they provide.
#1 ExpressVPN – High encryption and fast speeds
To greatly enhance your privacy and also allow you to get around geo-restrictions, then look no further than ExpressVPN.
ExpressVPN uses a powerful 256 bit SSL secured connection so your data and identify are safe. This connection has also been optimized for high bandwidth use.
This means that unlike other VPNs, ExpressVPN keeps your internet speed fast.
You can download and stream movies and TV shows, play games online or use video services like YouTube and Skype without any problems.
ExpressVPN has great connection reliability, so you won’t find it dropping or cutting out when you are doing something important online.
They also have over 130 VPN locations in 87 countries, so if you want to get around restrictions on content then these are the guys to use.
It is really easy to simply load up the VPN software, choose a server and then access blocked websites and resources in seconds.
Because your South African IP address bans you from accessing a lot of content online, simply choosing another server with ExpressVPN gives you immediate access to geo-restriction content.
They have a 5 star customer service team too. If you have even the smallest of problems with ExpressVPN you can contact them via their live chat and get a response in mere minutes.
You can use their service on two devices at once for the same low price. This means you get high encryption on two separate devices without having to pay for another monthly subscription.
Cost:
- $12.95 a month
- $9.99 a month for a six-month plan
- $6.67 a month for a 15-month plan (including three months free!)
ExpressVPN has a 30 day money back guarantee and also has a great referral program. All you need to do is refer someone to their service and you will get a 30 day subscription free of charge!
To beat content restrictions and privacy violations in South Africa with reliable encryption and great customer service, sign up with ExpressVPN here.
#2 NordVPN – Great VPN but slow in some US servers during peak time
One of the big benefits of NordVPN is that it allows a huge six devices to be connected at once which means you could share the account with a few friends or if you have a large family, this could also be very beneficial.
NordVPN will gain you access to most online streaming service including the US Netflix library operating with a huge amount of servers across 64 countries (including South Africa).
The encryption levels are also high, using doubly encrypted tunnels for added protection and security.
One of the only downsides is that some of the US servers are occasionally maxed out, especially during peak times. Keep in mind though that there are many servers (1,374 to be precise) so you are spoilt for choice and can bounce around until you find a fast streaming server.
Overall, it is a fast and reliable VPN server that should fit all your needs when browsing from within South Africa.
Cost:
- $11.95 a month
- $9.00 a month for a six-month plan
- $6.99 a month for a 12-month plan
- Special deal: $3.99 a month for a 24-month plan
Like ExpressVPN, NordVPN also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can test the waters first.
#3 – PrivateVPN – One of the true no-log VPNs but few server options
PrivateVPN is a very private zero-log VPN making sure that all of your logs are deleted immediately, they are very strict about this process, making them very high up when it comes to security and privacy online.
With top notch privacy, with PrivateVPN (now we know where it got its name), you will be able to access most geo-restricted content, provided you can find a server in that area. We can confirm that although there are only a few server locations (80 in total), there are servers in both the UK and the US, allowing you access to your favorite T.V channels in those areas.
One major con when it comes to PrivateVPN is that the performance can often be a little on the slow side.
Cost:
- $10.95 a month
- $7.50 a month for a three-month plan
- $6.00 a month for a 12-month plan billed annually
This is another great VPN offering a large 30-day money back guarantee, so you can be sure of your choice before committing.
#4 IPVanish – Reasonable VPN but slow speeds
While encryption is one of the main things you want from a VPN for South Africa, sometimes this affects internet speed and many VPNs suffer from slow connection. This is the case with IPVanish.
They do offer decent encryption, but you will find your internet speeds drop. This means that streaming video, downloading large files and even using programs like Skype can be difficult.
Unlike ExpressVPN, these guys are pretty slow at responding to your issues as well. It can take hours to get a response to a query, whereas ExpressVPN will get back to you in minutes.
On the other hand, IPVanish will allow you to successfully change your IP address and gain you access to US Netflix and movies/T.V shows not only in America, but much of the world as well.
Their low cost also makes the service very attractive if you are on a low budget.
Cost:
- $7.50 a month
- $6.74 a month for a three-month plan
- $4.87 a month for a 12-month plan billed annually
They also only have a seven day money-back-guarantee, so you have a limited amount of time to see if IPVanish is for you.
#5 PureVPN
PureVPN is a monster in terms of its spread of servers across the globe. With a massive 180 country locations to choose from, users are spoilt for choice. From a technical point of view it is a great VPN vendor, the issue however is in its performance, simply put, it’s on the slow side.
If you are looking for a very private VPN then we would not recommend PureVPN as it is one of the VPN providers that does log connection information. Though grateful for their honesty on the matter, this is less than ideal if you want to keep your log history private.
Another issue particularly when browsing from South Africa, is that PureVPN is unable to unblock Netflix (that is, any Netflix library outside of SA). So if you want a VPN mainly for accessing certain TV channels abroad, then this is a VPN we would advise steering clear of.
Cost:
- $11.95 a month
- $8.95 a month for a six-month plan
- $2.91 a month for a two-year plan
There’s a seven-day money-back guarantee, so if you want to give it a try and see if your favorite channels abroad actually work or not, at least you’ve got seven days to play around with it.
Conclusion: Best VPN For South Africa
South Africa has a decent level of internet freedom, but there have been recent attempts to curb privacy and monitor internet activity. It can also be hard to access geo-restricted content with a South African IP address making it impossible to watch American Netflix among other shows abroad. By using a VPN to encrypt your data, you will gain full access to the world-wide web without all the geo-restrictions in the way, while also keeping your data safe and remaining totally anonymous online.
All of the VPNs mentioned in this “best VPN review for South Africa” will do the job in allowing you to access all the needed content from within South Africa, but some will do the job better than others, not to mention with higher speeds and top-notch encryption levels (get more information on our VPN reviews page). This is why we would highly recommend ExpressVPN believing it to be the best VPN for South Africa.
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