When using the Internet in any country, a person must take a lot of necessary precautions not to get in trouble. India is no exception, and citizens and visitors of this country should also be careful. One - and arguably the best one - way to ensure one’s privacy and security online there is by using a VPN.
To choose a right VPN service, however, can sometimes be a real chore for someone who does it for the first time. The proper choice should include many rounds of testing of multiple services but not everyone has the time and opportunity to do that.
Additionally, many people even today have a very tenuous grasp on this technology. We don’t want to imply that it’s their fault - in an ideal world, no third-party solutions should be necessary to simply browse the Internet in a secure way, but in an ideal world we live not.
Therefore, there are netizens who have heard about VPNs but can’t even imagine that certain pitfalls exist in the market that can endanger their safety. Forewarned is forearmed, so everyone should know that not all VPNs are created equal.
This is, in fact, done on purpose in many cases. Making a good service requires a company to seriously invest in technology, servers, programmers, etc. The market is quite saturated as it is, so even a great new service will have a hard time getting in unless it has some really unique advantages.
Some untrustworthy VPNs take the easy route and pour more money in intrusive and oftentimes, misleading advertisements than in actually building up the power of their services. Unfortunately, it’s not immediately seen - especially to a novice’s eye.
To help the people of India make sense of the multitude of VPNs available today, we at CoolTechZone decided to compile these two VPN lists.
The first one includes the very best services there are.
The second one is composed of reasonably powerful free services.
They both are the result of our long and scrutinous test in which we tried to take into account every important aspect of using virtual private network technology in India.
Recommendation: Most paid services provide a free trial period. It’s a good idea to make use of it to see which one suits you the best personally. As in this review, we specify strictly objective facts, you might want to check some more minute things such as app design to find the best one for you.
The purpose of VPNs for India
India is one of those countries which lead a policy of total censorship and here are some arguments:
There is a new law on prosecution and financial responsibility, in the amount of $4.465, of Internet users visiting banned websites, such as Weebly, Vimeo, Github, and 857 new ones.
Indian Competent Government Authority impinges upon online user rights and keeps moving on towards the authoritarian regime and absolute censorship.
According to Wikipedia, over 200 websites have been blocked, including 1Fichier, Playwire, uploadsat, and ummah.com. The government in 2015 gave the order to have over 800 websites blocked. Most of these websites contain adult content.
Some may think that’s pretty enough for taking some preventive measures and he will be right. In addition, we can mention some globally spread threats for Internet users such as hacker attacks and computer fraudulence, of which you have to take care of yourself. Nobody is interested in your online privacy except you. You should try to find the best up-to-date technology that helps you with avoiding all the restrictions and encrypting all your sensitive data.
Fortunately, there is a reliable privacy tool for one’s online security and anonymity and it is called the best VPN for India. When choosing between a detached VPN for India or a built-in Chrome extension, you shouldn’t forget that a fully-fledged service is more qualitative. A free VPN for Android in India is not a good example of online protection too, as soon as it doesn’t provide the whole set of features a paid variant can give you. Whereas, a free VPN trial is a great solution for your needs, as soon as you can test the service before subscribing for it.
If speaking about internet freedom in India, it should be noticed that according to the latest estimates the internet is stated to be partially free there. The main infringements have been detected in such forms as access obstacles, limits on content, violation of user rights.
The latest infringements have taken the following forms:
Local mobile internet services have been asked to be shot down to prevent cheating at the government.
Strong net regulations have been passed to prevent service providers from charging more from some web-resources.
Defamation is now legally adopted as a criminal activity.
More than 17 WhatsApp users have been arrested for the information circulated there.
Direct government surveillance of online traffic has been committed by The Central Monitoring System.
Joginder Singh, a journalist, died when assailants set him on fire after he posted some comments on government politics on Facebook.
A well-known social network Twitter has been losing its status due to multiple hackers attacks and accounts’ breaks. The tendency has grown at an exponential rate and concerned not only average users but also its own CEO Jack Dorsey whose official account was hacked just at the beginning of this month. This poses a question: do you feel safe on Twitter? Can you be sure that your private info is completely protected?
After Dorsey’s account was compromised, hackers tried a shot breaking official Twitter pages of the Indian National Congress and its Vice-President Rahul Gandhi that had crowned with success. Having gained control over accounts over a period of 24 hours, a group of strangers posted several rude tweets abusing the personality of Rahul Gandhi and the Indian Government as a whole that raised a public furious reaction against the Head of Congress.
Due to these and many other vivid reasons you need to arm your network with top-notch protection when visiting the country. Being interested in online protection methods you might have already come across a VPN service. The tool is definitely recognized as one of the best solutions for your web privacy, security, and anonymity.
However, the internet is overloaded with numerous suggestions from different VPN companies, therefore, you need to know what information is to rely on when choosing a VPN service.
How to choose the best VPN for India?
a vast variety of server locations;
Having subscribed for a VPN for India, you should be able to connect to any geo-restricted web-service. Therefore, when choosing a future VPN service you should pay attention to the server park.
As long as you need the service for making it free for accessing torrenting websites, you should pay attention to servers located in Spain, Russia, and Switzerland.
If you need the service to unblock the US-based streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, etc, you’d better choose a VPN that offers several US-based servers for staying on the safe side. When one of the servers will be overloaded you will be able to switch to another one.
For making your network free from censorship you should subscribe for a VPN service, which offers as many locations as possible.
strong encryption protocols;
When choosing a protocol you need to think about the level of protection you need in the future. The strongest protection is supplied with OpenVPN and L2TP/IPSec variants.
However, the protocols are known to be bandwidth consuming. Therefore, having assured your average internet upload and download speeds are low, you’d better choose another protocol, as long as all the streaming resources are to be watched with lags and hits.
Therefore, for this reason, it will be more objective to run a PPTP tunneling protocol alternative. Although the protocol is stated by many security experts as out-of-date, it is still considered as strong and fast, which attracts many customers and heavy traffic streamers.
unlimited bandwidth;
This characteristic is pretty important, as it determines how often you will manage to access restricted websites and services. Besides, if one aims at protecting the internet connection permanently, bandwidth should NOT be limited.
Otherwise, VPN protection will be stopped as soon as the ceiling is reached. Let us carry out some simple calculations. If the bandwidth is limited up to 1 GB a day, how many movies will you watch? Only one at the best.
That is why it is important to show preference to the VPN for India without bandwidth limits.
trial version or money-back guarantee;
What can a consumer do in case he or she is dissatisfied with the goods bought? Change it or get money back. In this regard, it is vital to prefer the VPN that gives such opportunity, as there is no warranty that the service is useful until it is not tried.
A free trial period for a VPN in India is an utterly beneficial feature, as it allows testing the VPN in India without payment. The free trial of VPN providers usually lasts from several hours up to 30 days.
support of different payment methods;
The diversity of payment procedures shows how much a VPN provider cares for its potential clients. The more methods are allowed the more clients may subscribe to it.
Moreover, it is recommended to opt for anonymous payment methods like Bitcoin.
24/7 professional technical group assistance.
This point cannot be ignored as in case of any troubles with the service we scroll web pages in search of the FAQ section, guides, or live chat support. In case you appreciate the immediate assistance, choose the VPN for India that allows live chat support.
If you want to unblock websites in India and can’t make a decision on whether to use a VPN for India or a proxy, you should look through a VPN’s main advantages of the service. Some of the things you need to check into when looking for the best VPN for India to stay protected while networking are:
Protect you from the prying eyes of the government and hackers.
Geo-spoofing your current location so that you can watch all streaming websites that are blocked at your location.
Bypassing all censorships in place in your workplace, school, or college or by the government.
You should choose a VPN service that offers you quite a lot of VPN features at the most affordable prices. No quality VPN service is offered for free. Hence, choose one that offers the best features at the lowest plan prices.
Another purpose is unblocking American Netflix in India.
A VPN service defends users’ online activity. Besides, it helps to bypass geo-limits for unblocking limited web-content. You are able to mask your real IP-address by connecting via the one that a VPN can offer. ISPs won’t be able to guess that it is you who performs these online actions. Moreover, you become less susceptible to falling a victim to hacking or identity theft.
First and foremost, define which VPN provider is the top for your requirements. The info on the 5 best VPNs for India for the current year can be found in the dedicated article on the site.
Then purchase any plan for the best India VPN you have chosen. After that set up a VPN appliance for your gadget. Finally, choose any of the servers situated in the US for unlocking American Netflix from India and connect via this VPN server. Now you are able to stream Netflix programs in India.
By the way, having obtained a VPN one is able to get access to other versions of Netflix. It is just necessary to link through the appropriate VPN server.
Due to severe internet censorship in India, a number of torrent services are not accessible there. How to make them unblocked for netizens? What is the way to bypass restrictions for torrenting?
Want to know the best part?
There is a sustainable manner for internet users to torrent in India. It is believed to be a VPN service.
How VPNs really avoid torrent blocking in India
The info you pass through the network is strongly encoded with data codifying instruments. Modern reliable VPN providers apply 128-bit and higher encryption. It allows you to feel free from ISPs’ monitoring. Besides that, you are connected via one of the foreign VPN servers, and your authentic IP is camouflaged when you are on the web.
5 fast steps to unblock torrent sites in India with VPNs
Want to torrent in India as soon as possible? Do not waste your precious time and unblock torrent sites step by step:
Obtain a subscription for the best VPNs for India
Before purchasing a VPN plan, weigh all the pros and cons concerning 5 best VPN providers for India. You can reread the reviews of 5 Best VPNs for India on our Website.
Download a VPN app for gadgets
Check what operating systems the VPN service is compliant with. Then choose the one you need for your device and load for further installing.
Install the app on your computer
All the necessary instructions can be found on the VPN’s website. In case of any difficulties, contact the customer support service.
Perform a connection via a VPN server
You should choose any server location for which torrenting is not restricted. Make all the preparations for hooking up with a server.
Take pleasure in torrenting with a VPN in India
Now you can bypass restrictions for torrenting in India.
5 best VPNs for India
Based on our test results, ExpressVPN becomes the best VPN for India in 2022. The other four services are also suitable to be used in that country and each has some advantages unique to it.
ExpressVPN is rightfully considered the best VPN for India because of its many strong points. Among them are its great security, unbesmirched reputation, and high speeds.
This service was founded in 2009 and is, by that virtue, one of the oldest VPNs around. Its age, however, doesn’t preclude it from developing further: just this year it installed diskless servers that make it impossible to store its customers’ browsing data.
NordVPN is a very strong competitor to ExpressVPN. In some ways such as having obfuscation and the number of servers it even outdoes the leader of our ranking.
While the advantage of having more servers is obvious, obfuscation allows you to hide the very fact you’re using a VPN. It’s useful to get access to sites that don’t allow browsing or posting if they detect a proxy address.
Surfshark is the most affordable VPN service period. While we’ll talk about free providers in the next section, as long as you’re willing to pay, Surfshark is the cheapest solution there is.
Not only does it cost a fraction of what the other top services do but also it offers an unlimited number of device connections per subscription.
CyberGhost is a service with a good coverage: around 6000 servers in more than 90 countries. Some of these servers are specifically designed to give you access to particular streaming content of various countries.
Another great thing about it is its 45-day refund period. Most services don’t make it longer than a month.
PIA is a VPN that will suit those technically-minded as it allows one to change a lot of settings most others don’t. This way, you can find the optimal ratio of speed-to-security for any given task.
Apart from that, it’s a fairly powerful service in its own right.
1 month
1 year
2 years
Monthly price
$9.95
$3.33
$2.69
Refund guarantee
+
+
+
Conclusion
High level of customizability
Speedy
Owned by Kape Technologies
5 okay free VPNs for India
Despite the number of imperfections any free VPN service carries, we have also compiled this list.
Recommendation: you can download several free VPNs to expand your traffic limit.
Though it has faster speeds than ProtonVPN or Windscribe, hide.me can’t be called the best of the three because it only gives you 2 Gb of monthly traffic.
Hotspot’s relatively generous limit of 500 Mb/day is compensated by the fact you can only make use of the free version for a week on the mobile platforms.
Visually pleasing, TunnelBear skimps the most on the traffic of the free plan, giving you only 500 Mb per month.
FAQ
Is it legal to use a VPN in India?
It is as there are no laws that would restrict it.
What server should I choose when browsing from India?
The answer to this question depends on the aim you pursue. If the speed is not important to you and the objective is to bypass online censorship, it’s recommended to connect to the European servers.
However, if you are interested in streaming or torrenting and speed is vital, you’d better connect to the nearest servers.
Why am I getting search results for a different country while browsing in India?
A user gets search results of the country which IP address is used. It doesn’t matter where a user is located, as soon as he is connected to the Internet through a VPN app, he gets search results of the country which IP is used.
Cybersecurity and online privacy expert and researcher. He's been published on OpenVPN, EC-Council Blog, DevSecOps, AT-T Business, SAP Community, etc. Dean has been testing VPNs for 8 years.
Leave a comment
7 comments for Best VPNs for India
Anonymous
5
Saturday, February 10, 2018 - 08:09
Hi Dean, nice article. Realy!
Hi Dean, nice article. Realy! I’m from India and I’ve read somewhere that VPN Gate is the best free VPN for India. But you say it’s useless to opt for free VPN service. Too much info and too many different comments. Some experts say it’s better ignore free VPNs for India, others say that’s ok. What to believe in?
Dean Chester
Sunday, February 11, 2018 - 08:13
Hi Arif. There is no doubt
Hi Arif. There is no doubt that it is only up to you to decide what VPN to prefer: free or a paid one. But if you can afford a paid VPN for India, you’ll get more bonuses:
vast number of IPs and servers;
dedicated IPs instead of shared ones;
servers will be located in different countries;
unlimited bandwidth and speed, so that you’ll manage to stream, download files, exchange messages, make both voice and video calls through VoIP apps and what not;
additional security features like kill switch, NAT firewall, split tunneling;
no ads while browsing various pages;
access to the websites that underwent restrictions or censorship in your country;
protection against various types of hacking attacks.
In case you can’t afford a paid VPN in India, you’d better read the article about free VPN services and find the one that will seem to be attractive for you.
Anonymous
5
Monday, January 29, 2018 - 07:58
Hi everyone! I spend my New
Hi everyone! I spend my New Year holiday there in Goa. Luckily I have already had a VPN app installed. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even open social media sites. First I surfed the internet without the VPN on. And know what I faced? Troubles with the access to many sites and services. I thought that something has happened to my smartphone, but later the inhabitants explained me that social media platforms as well as many other sites are blocked by the ISP. When I asked about other ISP I was said that the situation will be the same. The Indian authorities are too strict towards video broadcasting, opinion sharing and many other things I got used to. So that many sites are the victims of Indian censorship. At home I used free VPN. And as any free VPN service, there were some restrictions (traffic is among them). So my holiday in India would be a bit spoilt but for the VPN. I could open at the sites I wanted but I couldn’t use it very often. I’ve read lots of positive reviews on ExpressVPN written by both users and experts. But I still hesitate. Maybe there’s not so good for India?
Dean Chester
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 08:02
Hello Carl! ExpressVPN is one
Hello Carl! ExpressVPN is one of the most reliable VPN providers not only for India but for other countries as well. That is exactly why ExpressVPN takes the leading position in our rating of the best VPN providers for India in 2018. If you need some additional information on ExpressVPN tariff plans, servers, facilities and want to read the comments about ExpressVPN read ExpressVPN review.
Anonymous
5
Friday, February 9, 2018 - 08:03
Agreed upon this Dean.
Agreed upon this Dean. ExpressVPN is one of the VPN services that provides the best facilities for a reasonable price.
Anonymous
5
Saturday, December 30, 2017 - 08:16
Hallo. Very hard for me to
Hallo. Very hard for me to understand it all. Very small information. In English only, but I know it very bad. Help. What VPN to India to choose to use internet free. My friend say I will no pay ISP for internet with India VPN. No money I have. I want free.
Dean Chester
Saturday, December 30, 2017 - 08:19
Hi Gowri. I dare assume that
Hi Gowri. I dare assume that your friend and you have understood the facilities of VPNs wrong. When a person uses VPN services, it is still impossible to avoid payment for the Internet. The freedom that is discussed all the time in the articles devoted to the VPN services is concerned the possibility to open the websites and use the service on the Internet that were inaccessible without a VPN connection. Among other useful functions of a VPN for India is the facility to use the Internet anonymously.
