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In 2012, a blogger was convicted of defamation after he published a post satirizing the then president of the country. The same year, Poland enacted several laws that restricted access to public information, which significantly affects online journalists and bloggers. It makes the use of VPN apps necessary.
That’s why I’m here to help you.
In this article, I’ll answer the most common questions and give guidance on how to choose a VPN. Also, I’ll explain what a VPN can do in 2022.
Recommendation: If your aim is to make your browsing history hidden from third parties, you’ll need a VPN with the best security functions like kill switch, double VPN, diverse protocols, etc. Unfortunately, free VPN usually lack such features and cannot guarantee privacy on the Internet.
The constitution of Poland explicitly prohibits censorship and guarantees freedom of expression. As a result, Polish web users largely enjoy an experience close to complete digital freedom. Poland gets stellar ratings from human rights and net freedom watchdogs, at least until recently.
Things took a turn for the worse early in 2016 when Poland passed the ‘Bill Changing the Bill about Police and Several Other Laws’. Amusing title aside, this bill gives the Polish police and security services the authority to access web browsing and other telecommunication data generated by citizens without judicial review or approval.
A draft bill even adds online data to the existing clauses. This widely condemned legislation, which is largely a knee-jerk reaction to ISIS propaganda circulating online, is set to significantly reshape how the Polish access the internet. The online content that was freely accessible before may not be so once the bill comes into effect.
The reasons to use a VPN are diverse, but here we are going to enlist the most significant of them for the Polish residents namely. Let’s start.
Reason #1
Polish financial organizations appeared on the list of targets of criminals. Thus, Poland was one of 31 countries targeted by adversaries. However, not only state establishment suffers from cyberattacks but individuals as well. In such a way, over 60% of the residents of Poland are concerned about criminals on the Internet.
VPN services solve this problem efficiently. Due to military-grade encryption, cybercriminals fail to make use of stolen data.
Reason #2
According to the law accepted in Poland on January 26, 2018, the discussion of some historical events (e.g. Nazi crimes) is forbidden. The fines for disobedience are presupposed.
Reason #3
Although there are no considerable restrictions on the Internet, access to some websites and services may be limited to the authorities’ request. The same situation is about monitoring.
Virtual Private Network providers guarantee safe and secure web browsing due to traffic encryption. Besides, through constant IP changing, the online fingerprint of a user becomes unique, and it is almost impossible to identify a VPN subscriber.
Comparison of the main features of VPN services for Poland
| Service | Ranking (out of 10) | Stealth level (out of 10) |
Speed, Mbps | Country selection | Number of servers | Price (monthly) |
| ExpressVPN | 10 | 9 | >100 | 94 | 3000+ | $6.67-12.95 |
| NordVPN | 10 | 10 | >60 | 59 | 5700+ | $3.29-11.95 |
| Surfshark | 10 | 10 | >50 | 63 | 1700+ | $2.49-12.95 |
| CyberGhost | 9 | 9 | 40-70 | 90 | 6000+ | $2.25-12.99 |
| PIA | 9 | 10 | >50 | 45 | 3300+ | $2.69-9.95 |
When choosing a VPN service that would solve all necessary tasks in Poland, I took into consideration their speed test results, studied logging policies and server networks, and checked security functions.
ExpressVPN showed the best results by every measure. Also, you’ll find 4 more VPN apps that I can recommend for Poland.
Main advantages
ExpressVPN is a VPN provider with zero-knowledge DNS and diskless servers. It guarantees that the company doesn’t keep logs which is vital for people in Poland.
Its servers are placed in 94 countries including Poland. It allows access to sites and services available with Polish IP when you are abroad!
ExpressVPN app is one of the fastest ones I’ve tried. The speed drops by 10% only. It’s a great result if you aim at streaming.
The table lists the ExpressVPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 6 months | 1 year | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.95 | $9.99 | $6.67 |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
|
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Main advantages
NordVPN is on the list as a consequence of its advanced security features. Thus, NordVPN offers automatic kill switch, personal IP addresses, double protection, and Onion over VPN.
Besides, the service will make your web surfing even more attractive because it can block ads and malware!
The speed of NordVPN is high enough to stream Netflix content in HD quality. There are 1703 US servers so that’s won’t be a struggle.
The table lists the NordVPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $11.95 | $4.92 | $3.29 (2022 Winter promotion) |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
|
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Main advantages
Surfshark is one of the best VPNs for Poland in the market. Among its outstanding features, I’ve found Whitelister (split tunneling) and CleanWeb (trackers, ads, and malware blocker).
Besides, it offers something more common VPN providers suggest. Surfshark informs its users when their emails and passwords are about to be hacked thanks to the HackLock function.
The table lists the Surfshark plans and prices
| 1 month | 6 months | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.95 | $6.49 | $2.49 |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
|
CyberGhost is a VPN with specially optimized servers for streaming and torrenting. Besides, it offers NoSpy servers that make your web surfing 100% anonymous.
On some servers, I’ve experienced a significant speed drop. Thus, it’s recommended to switch between the servers until you find the fastest one.
The table lists the CyberGhost VPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | 3 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.99 | $3.99 | $3.49 | $2.25 |
| Money-back guarantee | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
|
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Main advantages
Private Internet Access is another VPN provider I recommend to use in Poland. It has an automatic kill switch (you can enable or disable it) and PIA MACE that blocks the domain names used for trackers, ads, and malicious software.
Also, you can redirect your secure VPN connections through an additional location – SOCKS5 Proxy or Shadowsocks.
The table lists the PIA plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $9.95 | $3.33 | $2.69 |
| Money-back guarantee | 7 | 7 | 7 |
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Although I usually don’t recommend using free VPN providers, some of them that can be used in Poland.
Main qualities
Free ProtonVPN plan allows using it without a time limit. However, you are to be ready for a significant speed drop. If you want to prevent it, it’s better to subscribe to its ‘Plus’ plan.
Main qualities
I don’t recommend to use it on iOS because of inefficient security on this platform. But it’s quite ok for Android or Windows. Besides, P2P is allowed.
Main qualities
The credit card is not required to make use of the Hide.me free plan. But be ready for the lack of some functions available for paid plan users (dynamic port forwarding, streaming, and fixed IP).
Main qualities
The security of HotspotShield is great. However, its free plan limits the speed to 2 Mbps, which makes streaming and torrenting hardly possible. At the same time, it’s enough to access blacklisted news portals.
Main qualities
While testing TunnelBear VPN in Poland, I’ve noticed unstable speed. But I’ve decided to mention it on this list because there were no troubles with security.
Having subscribed for a VPN service, one benefits from:
Under the new bill, any Polish citizen can come under surveillance. The authorities do not need evidence to officially suspect an internet user before starting to spy on them online. Needless to say, Polish citizens who value their privacy may now want to take measures to keep the authorities out of their personal computers. The best, and perhaps the only, step towards online security is to use a VPN service when browsing the web from Poland.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) ensure that users can access the internet without censorship filters, regulatory spying, getting hacked, or having personal data stolen. There several VPNs Polish users can purchase, but only the best ensures the features mentioned.
Definitely! You are to subscribe to one of the VPNs from the list, connect to a server located in Poland, and the service (TVP1, Polsat, or any other) will be unblocked.
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