Best VPNs for New Zealand

Not even some of the most developed countries in the world can dodge the unsightly urge to block their citizens from accessing certain Internet content. Be it based on legal peculiarities or on worries about the stability of the ruling regime, such restrictions seldom sit well with the populace and instead push them to searching means to bypass the blocks. As many New Zealanders have learned, virtual private networks are among the best ways to do so.

The good thing about VPNs is that they are not centralized or monopolized in any way. Therefore, customers have full agency and can choose whatever service they desire or stop using one as soon as it becomes not up to their liking.

This advantage, however, does have a dark side.

The problem is, the VPN market is not really regulated by the government - at least, not in New Zealand. While it is a good thing as no one can force the providers to block access to certain websites, this also means that there is no way to put sketchy and untrustworthy VPN services out of business until they straighten up their ways.

This situation results in people often not being able to tell a good service apart from a bad one. Too frequently do the scammers who don’t care about providing you with online security buy reviews and advertisements to make you think they are the real deal.

It's no secret that most people don’t bother reading privacy policies and terms of service of the software they use. It’s no wonder, either: to trudge through screens upon screens of legal phrases which are at times purposely made even harder to understand is boring and time-consuming.

With this article, we want to take the heaviest burden off the shoulders of the New Zealanders who would like to improve their online privacy and security. To do that, we have analyzed more than forty VPNs that offer service for New Zealand and determined 10 best ones. 5 of them are paid and the other 5 are free. We’ll focus on the differences between the two later.

Of course, you don’t have to believe every word we say. In fact, we strongly encourage you to always carefully peruse the privacy policies of the services you’d like to use, look them up in the news to see if there have been any scandals, and to make acquaintance with the customer reviews on sites like Reddit. What we do is simply suggest where to look and what to look for.

Table of contents:

• Internet in New Zealand
• 5 best VPNs for New Zealand
• 5 okay free VPNs for New Zealand
• FAQ

• Warning! Always be sure to test a VPN (or any other piece of software, for that matter) if it’s got a free trial. This way, you’ll see if it suits you personally.

Internet in New Zealand

New Zealand is certainly not a country you think of when mulling over Internet censorship. Indeed, the situation with freedom of speech in general and specifically with that on the Internet is not bad there.

However, not everything is so sunny in New Zealand.

A filter called Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System (DCEFS) has been implemented to prevent people from accessing content that depicts child abuse. Here is how it works:

It is, no doubt, a noble goal. However, the system is in place that can be used - in theory - to block anything online, down to political commentary and the like.

Moreover, in March 2015 the Harmful Digital Communications Act was passed in New Zealand. In such a way any person suffering from emotional discomfort, humiliations, and insults may lodge a complaint. The offender faces the 2 year imprisonment and the penalty of $32750.

While we do not condone insulting anyone whether online or offline, it’s necessary to understand that some people may use this legislation deliberately to get back at someone by provoking them into saying a harmful thing to then sue them. In addition to that, different people have different understandings of what qualifies as a harmful thing and a judge can be more inclined to agree with the plaintiff.

A good VPN service helps against both problems. It makes sure that your ISP doesn’t see what requests you are sending off to the Internet and, therefore, cannot filter them out. Additionally, your IP also cannot be traced and you cannot be found for bantering with someone online.

Still, we should emphasize that no one should be using a VPN to promote violence, hate, and other illegal and/or abusive behaviors. Use it to get access to a fuller Netflix library instead!

5 best VPNs for New Zealand

According to our test results, the best VPN service for New Zealand is ExpressVPN. A true veteran of the VPN market, it keeps going strong even 11 years into its existence.

The other four services are great as well. They may be inferior to ExpressVPN in some ways, but each one has some unique advantages.

Best VPNs for New Zealand: Main characteristics comparison

ExpressVPN

Main advantages:

• A lot of countries
• Diskless servers
• Easy torrenting and streaming

Overview

ExpressVPN is a great VPN service that is currently the best in New Zealand in 2022. Its adherence to the high standards of security and personal online privacy make it a good fit for anyone independent of the purposes they might have.

This service allows you to watch geo-restricted content of pretty much any streaming service and doesn’t store your browsing data.

Conclusion

Protect your online life

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• Read the review of ExpressVPN

NordVPN

Main advantages:

• Incredible security
• Many servers
• A lot of rare features

Overview

NordVPN is another great VPN service to use in New Zealand. While not as speedy as ExpressVPN, it still provides a high level of data security thanks to its implementation of diskless servers - something that besides it only ExpressVPN has done so far.

Additionally, you can use such features as Double VPN and obfuscation to make your online activities even more protected. Though there is little need to do so in New Zealand, they are incredibly useful if you are going to a country like China.

Price

Conclusion

NordVPN’s limited offer

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• Read the review of NordVPN

Surfshark

Main advantages:

• Cheap price
• Good country coverage
• Unlimited device connections

Overview

If you are looking for a lucrative VPN, look no further than to Surfshark. Not only is its price the lowest among the good services (and, to be quite honest with you, we haven’t seen even a poor VPN that would sell for as little money) but also it allows you to connect as many devices per account as you want.

Its speeds are pretty good, too. Moreover, Surfshark has servers in 63 countries.

Price

Conclusion

Save money on a VPN

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• Read the full review of Surfshark

CyberGhost VPN

Main advantages

• Great coverage
• Dedicated servers

Overview

CyberGhost possesses more than 6200 servers worldwide. While this number fluctuates a bit, it still remains one of the highest - if not the highest full stop - in the market.

A few of these servers are specifically meant and set up to be used for torrenting or streaming definite services. For customers’ convenience, they are marked in the app.

Price

Conclusion

• Read the review of CyberGhost VPN

Private Internet Access

Main advantages

• In-depth settings
• Secure connections

Overview

For netizens who wish to be fully in control of what is going on behind the scenes of their VPN service, PIA is the best option. It allows you to tune the connection as much as you like.

This, of course, would’ve been useless without a good security base to support it. Luckily, PIA has just that: it is a reliable and secure service.

Price

Conclusion

• Read the full review of PIA

Five okay free VPNs for New Zealand

Now that you know about the five best VPNs for New Zealand, it’s time to talk about another five. These are free VPNs.

Warning! Free VPNs always have restrictions in terms of speed, traffic, and location number. However, good free services won’t put you in trouble. Therefore, it is advisable that one picks up a free plan of a good paid VPN if they need a virtual network for free and not a “fully free” service. Notice the quotation marks - no service is actually fully free because there is always some caveat.

ProtonVPN

ProtonVPN is the best free VPN just because it doesn’t limit your monthly traffic usage. Its speeds leave much to be desired, though.

Windscribe

Windscribe has 10 Gb per month and lets you choose from various protocols including WStunnel and Stealth.

hide.me

A speedier option than the previous two, hide.me only grants you 2 Gb per month.

Hotspot Shield

Its 500 Mb a day limit is fairly generous. However, there is a risk of getting switched to a paid plan after a week of using the free one.

TunnelBear

With just 500-1500 Mb per month, TunnelBear is not suited for most traffic-intensive tasks. However, it can be used together with some other service to give you more options.

FAQ

Can I use a VPN bought in New Zealand when travelling?

Of course! Unless you exceed the number of device connections (and with Surfshark that’s not a concern at all), you can use your VPN wherever it is not blocked (countries like China, the UAE, etc.)

I don’t really know much about VPNs. How do I ensure everything is working correctly?

You can use such websites as https://ipleak.net/ to make sure your VPN allows no data leaks. Additionally, enable the kill switch in the options to prevent them.

Are there any New Zealand-based VPNs?

There are but we don’t recommend using them. New Zealand is a part of the 5 Eyes agreement. Most likely, it shouldn’t really matter all that much - it’s unlikely your Internet activities would interest the CIA - but just to be safe, pick a VPN with a more favorable jurisdiction.

Further reading:

• Best VPNs for Android
• Best VPNs for Instagram