Top 10 VPNs for Portugal
Netizens of Portugal often need to access certain sites that are unavailable to them for some reason. Be it the geo-restrictions of Netflix or torrenting websites blocked by the government, a Virtual Private Network is a good way for the Portugese to get access to any blocked content they desire.
However, like with many other technologies and services, there is a truly regrettable number of untrustworthy VPN providers that seek nothing else but making money off the users who failed to do some proper research and due diligence before choosing a service. Using backhanded tactics like fake customer reviews and heavy paid promotion, such providers look for unsuspecting netizens and then do their utmost to cheat their money out of them.
Needless to say, such services don’t provide a good level of protection as it’s never their goal to do so.
To help our Portugese readers a little bit, we at VPN-Review have conducted a more than 4-month research into the best VPNs for the country. After rigorous testing of several dozen services, we were able to choose 5 downright best VPNs and 5 free ones of an acceptable level.
How well a VPN works depends on many things including your particular OS build and settings. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to give a service you fancy buying a look before paying for it.
Internet in Portugal
Though a progressive country, Portugal is not entirely without its issues in the Internet field.
With its good Internet penetration, Portugal is an online-heavy country. In 2015, 61% of its population used the Internet and according to the current-day projections, in 2025, this percentage will reach almost 72%.
Unfortunately, such high amounts do not correlate with high freedom of the Internet. In many countries where there are a few Internet users, their freedoms online are severely restricted.
In all honesty, we cannot put Portugal on this list because it is generally a free country. However, the word “generally” was not used here just because. There are certain limitations and restrictions on the use of the World Wide Web.
One example of such is the arbitrary blocking of the resource called Tugaleaks based on rather dubious charges. A WikiLeaks-like website, it was condemned as a terrorist operation all of a sudden.
But the terrorist scare isn’t the only pretense the Portugese government uses to shut down websites for its citizens. In 2015, it also cracked down on the torrenting site ThePirateBay, forcing the ISPs to block access to it. Since then, it has been a problem for many Portugese to go to a P2P tracker (even though the technology itself is as legal as the very Internet) or to an online gambling ring.
For all those cases, a simple, elegant, and powerful solution is using a VPN. Of course, we don’t encourage you to break any laws - but remember that torrenting a legal file is, surprise-surprise, legal. Therefore, you can view getting access to corresponding websites as a countermeasure against the overly-zealous government.
Five best VPNs for Portugal
- ExpressVPN: military-grade encryption, 3,000+ servers in 105+ countries, 5 VPN reliable VPN protocols!
- NordVPN: SmartPlay to unblock streaming sites, servers in 62 countries, in-built kill-switch!
- Surfshark: unlimited number of connections, Kill Switch, P2P-friendly!
- CyberGhost VPN: 11,500 servers around the world, DNS and IP leak protection, 7 gadgets per one account!
- Private Internet Access: 10 multi-logins, 7-day money-back guarantee, unlimited bandwidth!
Our thorough and long tests yielded the following result: the best VPN for Portugal is ExpressVPN. The only disadvantage it has is its slightly steep price but with it, you can be sure your money won’t be spent in vain but indeed buy you the best protection and security money can buy.
But let this endorsement not discourage you from checking all the other services on this list. In fact, as we always say here at VPN-Review, there’s no one-size-fits-all VPN service. By all means, please do your own research prior to committing to a single VPN. In our world, it is the only acceptable course of action.
Best VPNs for Portugal: Main characteristics comparison
| Service | Ranking (out of 10) | Speed, Mbps | Country selection | Number of servers | Price (monthly) |
| ExpressVPN | 9 | >100 | 105 | 3,000+ | $2.49 - 12.99 |
| NordVPN | 10 | >60 | 137 | 9,200+ | $3.49 - 12.99 |
| Surfshark | 10 | >50 | 100 | 4,500+ | $2.79 - 16.45 |
| CyberGhost | 9 | 40-70 | 100 | 11,500+ | $1.59 - 12.99 |
| PIA | 10 | >50 | 91 | 35,000+ | $1.33 - 11.95 |
1. ExpressVPN
Overview
ExpressVPN is the best VPN for Portugal and deservedly so. It has come a long way since its launch in 2011 and now boasts some of the seldom-seen features.
Our website’s pick is, of course, the diskless servers. Though it is true that ExpressVPN has never in its history compromised its customers’ data, in 2020, it implemented this new solution that makes it absolutely impossible to disclose any such data to the authorities.
This service also has more than 3000 servers in 91 countries, which is a lot.
Price
The table lists the ExpressVPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 6 months | 1 year | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.99 | $9.99 | $3.99 |
| Money-back guarantee | - | - | - |
Conclusion
- Easy torrenting
- Slightly expensive
- Superb performance
Read more: ExpressVPN review
2. NordVPN
Overview
NordVPN is another such service that has very few disadvantages. It provides its customers with some of the cutting-edge safety technologies.
One of them is diskless servers. Like ExpressVPN, NordVPN makes sure no one can see its customers’ data.
Other than that, NordVPN has the double VPN function that allows you to make the security a VPN gives you twice as high. It does take away some of the speed, however.
Despite that, NordVPN is a really fast service that won’t let you down.
Price
The table lists the NordVPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.99 | $4.99 | $3.49 (2022 Winter promotion) |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Conclusion
- Great safety
- Not too pricey
- Many servers
Read more: NordVPN review
3. Surfshark
Overview
The firstmost and the indisputable advantage of Surfshark is its incredible price. Luckily, it’s incredible in a good sense, as it is so cheap it won’t make a dent on your budget in the long run at all.
Seriously, you won’t find a cheaper VPN service that actually does its job properly. Of course, there are certain free providers and free plans of paid ones but we’ll talk about them in their own section.
Price
With the Surfshark promo code "OFFCN", you can get this powerful VPN for even less than its usual low price. Scroll down to the pricing table to see which plan gives you the most value.
| 1 month | 6 months | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $16.45 | $6.49 | $2.49 |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Conclusion
- Extremely cheap
- Good security
- Has servers in more than 100 countries
Read more: Surfshark review
4. CyberGhost VPN
Overview
CyberGhost has one of the largest server infrastructures in the industry. Its 11,500+ servers let you choose the one that suits your current need the most very easily.
Unlike some of its competitors, CyberGhost VPN allows you to test it for free on any platform, which is convenient because functionality on one often does not reflect that on the others.
Price
The table lists the CyberGhost VPN plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | 3 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.99 | $4.29 | $1.59 | $2.29 |
| Money-back guarantee | 45 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
Conclusion
- Huge number of servers
- Quite cheap
- Proven security
Read more: CyberGhost VPN review
5. Private Internet Access
Overview
PIA’s main advantage is that it provides its customers with some highly technical settings that no other VPN service gives. Based on your task at hand, you can change practically everything about the VPN connection to your liking, improving speed or security.
Though there have been some unpleasant theories regarding PIA being sold to Kape Technologies - a company with a not-so-unblemished reputation but so far everything is just fine.
Read more: PIA review
Price
The table lists the PIA plans and prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $11.95 | $3.33 | $2.69 |
| Money-back guarantee | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Conclusion
- Quite a lucrative buy
- Great settings
- Easy torrenting
Five best free VPNs for Portugal
It would not be fair for us not to mention some of the free VPN services suitable for Portugal. After all, not everybody has the means to acquire a service subscription, especially since the cheapest ones overall are the ones for the longest terms. If you are going to Portugal just for a month and want to watch the US Netflix while there, for example, no paid option is truly viable.
However, alas, free VPNs are not necessarily the panacea that is going to help you then. They all are severely limited in many ways. Whether it is speed, traffic, or locations that are lacking, you won’t be able to enjoy all the opportunities of browsing with a VPN.
Still, we have chosen 5 most acceptable free services for you to consider.
- ProtonVPN: very secure, no traffic limit, limited speed.
- Windscribe: 10 Gb of free traffic per month.
- Hide.me: 2 Gb of traffic free of charge, no registration needed.
- HotspotShield: a tricky version for iOS but slightly more traffic than with its competitors.
- TunnelBear: very little traffic but a colorful app.
Some of the apps listed below like to show you ads. While all the VPNs we list themselves are safe, bad things can happen to your privacy if you open those ads, so be careful.
Free ProtonVPN
This Swiss service is easily the most powerful of the free ones thanks to the absence of a traffic limit. It has three locations for you to choose from. Its speed, however, isn’t the highest and you can’t use torrents or streaming services.
Free Windscribe
Windscribe is your next best bet in terms of traffic restrictions as it has 10 Gb per month for free. While not much, it’s more than most other free services have. The speed is also low.
Free Hide.me VPN
hide.me is slightly speedier than the previous two services. However, it only gives you 2 Gb per month on its free plan
Free HotspotShield VPN
Be careful when picking this service on a mobile platform as there are some rather nasty caveats here: you can end up signing up for an expensive 1-month plan automatically just by subscribing for a 1-week free plan.
Free TunnelBear
Such a colorful app as TunnelBear’s is a pleasure to use. Unfortunately, there is not much using it on the free plan, as all you get is 500 Mb per month. Certain actions like tweeting about the service help expand this limit to 1500 Mb per month but it’s still too little.
FAQs
Can I improve my security by using two VPNs at once?
That’s not exactly how it works. In fact, different VPNs being active at the same time can conflict with one another and compromise your online security. One service is enough, and in a relatively free country like Portugal, you don’t really need more than the basic protection anyway in most cases.
What additional measures can I take to protect myself in Portugal?
You can always try Tor out. ExpressVPN and NordVPN even allow you to set up Tor over VPN for increased protection.
Are VPNs legal in Portugal?
Yes, they are. Some activities such as sending out threats or spam from under a VPN may not be but don’t let that discourage you from using a VPN for legitimate purposes.
