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In 2013, the government of the kingdom took measures to block WhatsApp and Skype on the wording of that communication as part of its economic reforms. In 2017, they became available again, but the government monitors and censors the calls through such apps.
Fortunately, the use of VPN services is legal in Saudi Arabia, so if you look for how to open banned sites in Saudi Arabia, you need a VPN.
Keep on reading this article, and you will get to know why it is recommended to use a VPN in this place. Besides, you will learn more about the best characteristics to take into consideration while choosing a VPN provider.
Table of contents:
Recommendation: Although it’s legal to use VPN services in the kingdom, not all of them are available there. The ones I mention in this article are 100% available at the time of testing.
According to the latest data, the following cases took place in the country:
As you can see, a VPN is a must-have tool in the country. It serves to mask your IP and protect your traffic (including traffic history).
Comparison of VPN services for Saudi Arabia
| Service | Speed, Mbps | Country selection | Number of servers | Price (monthly) |
| ExpressVPN | >100 | 94 | 3000+ | $6.67-12.95 |
| NordVPN | >60 | 59 | 5400+ | $3.29-11.95 |
| Surfshark | >50 | 63 | 1700+ | $2.49-12.95 |
| CyberGhost | 40-70 | 90 | 6900+ | $2.25-12.99 |
| PIA | >50 | 74 | 13000+ | $2.69-9.95 |
Considering such VPN features as server locations, security protocols, logging policy, IP leak tests, speed, and security features, I’ve selected 5 VPN providers that will make your web surfing in Saudi Arabia safe and secure.
Main advantages:
This VPN provider offers first-class encryption and reliable privacy protection. Its user-friendly apps can be set up on any device or platform.
Users have an opportunity to combine anonymous payment for subscription through Bitcoin transactions and a one-use email address to keep their payment details private. It guarantees 100% confidentiality in Saudi Arabia.
ExpressVPN 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:
Obfuscation feature, double VPN, fast connections serve to be one of the best VPN providers for the residents of Saudi Arabia. This Panama-based VPN offers you data privacy while surfing the web.
Extra protection is achieved through a double VPN that routes your traffic through 2 VPN servers to reach the highest level of protection.
NordVPN prices
| 1 month | 1 year | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $11.95 | $4.92 | $3.29 |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
Read more:
Main advantages:
Surfshark is a relatively young but advantageous VPN with numerous servers worldwide and low-budget packages. Its functions make your web surfing safe and convenient.
CleanWeb serves to block pop-ups with ads, malware, and phishing attacks. Besides, the number of devices one might use per account is unlimited.
Surfshark prices
| 1 month | 6 months | 2 years | |
| Price (monthly) | $12.95 | $6.49 | $2.49 |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 | 30 | 30 |
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Main advantages:
Using 5 different operating modes, you’ll find the most appropriate server in a matter of seconds. The smart system of the app helps you to choose the most optimal server for your needs.
At the same time, reliable tunneling protocols in combination with AES 256-bit encryption method make your online activity hidden from the prying eyes in Saudi Arabia.
CyberGhost VPN 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 |
Read more:
Main advantages:
The last worthwhile VPN on the list for Saudi Arabia provides unlimited access to web content without speed limits. You can use it on 10 gadgets simultaneously.
The provider doesn’t keep logs on users’ activity.
PIA 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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The reason to use a VPN service is usually to become less restricted on the Internet. And only reputable and trustworthy providers cope with this task successfully. Unfortunately, free VPNs are usually less reliable. Their speeds are slower, whereas the number of servers and functions is limited.
If you are resource-constraint, you can use a free trial of the best VPN providers.
Warning: Here, you’ll find VPN apps that are rather reliable because they are free plans of premium providers. But you should know that there are some limits you should consider.
This Swiss-based VPN provider doesn’t impose restrictions on speed or bandwidth for the users of its free plan users.
The restrictions for the users of a free package are not so severe – 10 GB of traffic per month and servers in 10 countries.
The credit card is not required to make use of the hide.me free plan. Your traffic (but only 10 GB/mo) will route through secure tunneling protocols.
The monthly traffic for the free plan users is limited to 15 GB monthly. But only 500 MB is available daily.
Although this VPN’s free plan traffic is only 500 MB per month, it deserves being mentioned here because it offers access to all its servers.
Bloggers and vloggers in Saudi Arabia frequently undergo arrests, fines, and other types of punishments. Some actions that might seem to be legal are reckoned to be unethical in the country.
A good VPN is a way-out in this situation. It serves to mask the user’s IP and make him unknown. Thus, a person can express his ideas without fear to be punished.
An average rate of internet penetration in the country has made up to 70%. At the same time social media, political and social content, as well as the press are being blocked. Besides, average customers undergo web oppression too.
It has become known that in 2016 Telegram was throttled by the company to deprive people of sharing photos and files over the messenger. Besides, mobile service providers are now obliged to save fingerprints when selling new SIM cards to their clients.
However, numerous Saudi customers have switched to the usage of such up-to-date technology as a VPN. Nevertheless, many VPNs are banned by the government, whereas only the best outputs of the market can provide their customers with reliable protection on the internet in the country.
Therefore, having decided to make your internet free for surfing in the country, you need to look for the most credible services that run all the military-grade measures for making a network protected from unauthorized penetration. So, if you want to avoid any content manipulations, you need to apply for one of the best VPN products presented on the market today.
Although VPN usage is not prohibited by law in the country, you may have some difficulties with establishing such a protected connection. However, the censorship policy followed by the government is illegal if it looks at it on the part of some democratic countries.
Providing that Saudi Arabia has scored 34 to 40 grades in violation of users' rights, you need top-notch protection for your network there. In case you have subscribed for a service that lacks all the main characteristics the best service should possess, you need to reverse your decision, otherwise, it can lead to some undesired consequences like network penetration or data leakage.
For you to choose a reliable service you need to pay attention to such basic characteristics as:
In case all the main features are proposed by a service, you have all reasons to subscribe to it without any fear of being compromised. Besides, a free trial version gives you a possibility to test the service before subscribing to it, which makes you protected from extra expenses and monetary losses.
With the help of a money-back guarantee, you can get all your money back in case you are dissatisfied with the service. So, living in the country you need reliable protection of your web activities, therefore, take a fundamental approach to the choice of a suitable service.
Like the majority of eastern countries, Saudi Arabia is quite negative towards the websites popularizing pornography, gambling, and LGBT. Thus, any website possessing the materials (articles, photos, videos, etc.) connected with such spheres will be banned by Internet Service Providers.
Besides, the websites with undesirable political and religious content are blocked as well. For example, a lot of articles in English and Arabian on Wikipedia are blocked.
In general, it can’t be said that the censorship in Saudi Arabia is heavy-handed. To put it subjectively, it is stricter than in China but less strict than in Iran and North Korea. Nevertheless, no country in the world can be compared with North Korea.
Not only sites but some applications are banned in Saudi Arabia as well. The apps for information exchange are banned first of all. Among forbidden messengers, one will find WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, Telegram, Snapchat, and whatnot.
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Well, it goes without saying that as soon as I landed in Saudi Arabia, I had to change my IP to Saudi Arabia IP address. And now I know how is it to browse with a Saudi Arabia IP address. I’ll try to describe it in a couple of sentences. First of all, the list of available sites is reduced. Thus, it may happen to you that the pages you’re regularly browse to read news, listen to music, communicate with friends, watch video may become inaccessible because of a local Internet Service Provider. Well, it’s necessary to find the way to make these sites available again. Well, if you’re looking for the way how to open blocked sites without any software, it’s time to forget about it! As the only really worthy and efficient way to do it is to subscribe for a VPN service for Saudi Arabia. As far as I may conclude, the fastest VPN for Saudi Arabia is CyberGhost VPN. I really like it for its flash-like servers. Besides, it’s not expensive, which I like. Even a person with not a high income can afford this VPN. One more good news for those who use FaceTime and are going to KSA.
ExpressVPN is a great VPN service to bypass Saudi Arabia Internet censorship. Due to this VPN provider one gets an opportunity to:
VPN for Saudi Arabia is definitely the right decision, as the Internet is too restricted here.
My greetings to everyone! That’s absolutely unbelievable!!! I just came from Saudi Arabia and I can’t share the opinion of other people who say that it’s a wonderful place to spend several days and forget about all problems. Of course it was evident for me that this country differs a lot from Russia (actually, I’m from the Russian Federation, Moscow), but I can’t express with words my emotions when I came there. And now I’m talking not about the local rules and culture. I understand that all people are different and I respect every nationality and every country. But the misunderstanding I faced in Saudi Arabia is something different. As any other person in the world I’m an active social media user. I use social media sites not only to share photos as the majority of teenagers do it. I use such sites to read news and communicate via their messengers. That’s very convenient. In such a way, when I came to Saudi Arabia it became absolutely impossible to communicate via Facebook messenger. I wasn’t prepared for it, and didn’t take use of roaming function being in the country of residence. So I spent quite an impressive sum of money to make a call and say my parents that I’m fine. One could say that I might use email to send a letter to my parents, but they don’t use such type of means of communication. All in all, that’s incredible for the 21st century! Besides, one more thing made me conclude that the Internet in Russia is not limited at all. And in general, it’s not a problem for the citizens of my country to find out about news. We get access to radio, television, news sites, social media and many more. But… I’ve never heard that state of things in Saudi is so dreadful. I think that in case you are going to Saudi Arabia VPN is a must! Without Arab VPN it’ll be more than difficult even to share a photo on the internet. If I’ll make up my mind to come to Saudi Arabia some day, I’ll subscribe for the best VPN service for Saudi Arabia notwithstanding its price. There’re three reasons to do it. Fits, I want to keep in touch with my friends and parents when I’m abroad. Second, I want to read news on the sites I got used to without such stupid restrictions. Third, I want use YouTube when I’m on vocation to watch films and series or simply listen to music and relax.
Hello Ruslan! If only you have read the article about the best VPN services for Saudi Arabia before coming to this country, you would not face such unpleasant situation. Thus, before visiting a foreign county, find the place you are going to visit on our website (rating) and check if it is necessary to use a VPN in this place. Best wishes!
good day! how to enable facetime in Saudi Arabia without jailbreak? I want to make video calls so I need the fastest VPN for Saudi Arabia. P.S. I’ve heard that VPNs may reduce the speed, but I need the VPN for messaging so it should have fast speed!
Some time ago I also was in search of how to unlock FaceTime in Saudi Arabia. Proxies are total shit! They don’t work in the proper way. Proxy sires for KSA don’t even deserve to be mentioned here. Don’t waste your time and choose the VPN. It’s more reliable. Besides, it’s easy to set up and use. And for sure, it’s always available, if not – contact the support team and that’s it. There’s plenty of good VPNs, so choose one of them and unblock FaceTime in Saudi Arabia or any other country you’ll visit.
Hi! If you are interested in the best VPN for Saudi Arabia, you have opened the right website! Having subscribed for a VPN from the list (see Top 5), you will not be identifies by Saudi authorities, so no one will accuse you of crime. FaceTime app is easily unblocked by the VPN presented in the list notwithstanding you are in Saudi Arabia. What is more beneficial, the discussed VPNs do NOT reduce the speed, so you may communicate at a distance without any technical troubles.
Hello! First of all I want to say sorry for my bad English. I studied it at school and at the university, so I read a lot about the Internet, bans and throttling on foreign sites like this. I want to explain why. I live in Saudi Arabia and the Internet here differs a lot from the Internet abroad. Saudi Arabian sites don’t give information that is permitted by the government. So if the government doesn’t want Saudi people to know about even “X”, this event willnot be covered by media. What is more dreadful, we will never know about such events. The only solution is to visit foreign sites. But here we face another problem – no access to many sites. Saudi government bans them. I am not ready to live in an isolated world. Soo I decided to download VPN for Saudi Arabia. Not everyone will understand what I felt when I used VPN for Saudi Arabia for the first time. It was amazing. Just imagine: when I used search engines to find something without VPN software, I got 2000-5000 thousands results. But after I switched on the VPN and connected to one of American servers, the number of results increased up to millions! Now I want to describe VPN I have subscribed for. I decided on NordVPN. I like it because of a very attractive price: I spend $80 dollars per year. Another characteristic I took into account was server locations. They placed hundreds servers in America and other countries of the world. I like it very much because I like American sites, they offer diverse content and the information presented there is unbiased (as far as I can compare it). Different points of view are presented. They even discuss their president in a tricky manner, which is impossible in my country. Besides there are many other characteristics that I liked: 1) 6 devices may be connected to the VPN 2) P2P function allows download files without any problems 3) Extensions for browsers 4) Lack of limits High quality of support service specialists (I estimated it while the process of installation NordVPN on my computer) As I am a NordVPN user I am justified to say that NordVPN is the best VPN service for Saudi Arabia. This site became very useful for me, as it helped me find the best VPN software. So I want to be useful for readers of this site in return. If you are in search of a VPN, just know that you shouldn’t look for a VPN provider with a server in Saudi Arabia, as it is very difficult to browse with Saudi Arabia IP address. Or you will face restrictions and censorship. I believe my comment will be useful for you! Be safe!
Hello Sa’ad! It is a great pleasure to get to know that the article about the best VPN services for Saudi Arabia helped you to go round the restrictions of your country. Follow us and be informed about the latest news in the sphere of cyber security and worthy VPN providers.
Thanks God, this site is not blocked in Saudi Arabia and we know how to visit sites we want. I will follow your advice and try Express and Nord first for free and then decide what to subscribe to. I think it will help me to solve my problems. I don’t want to watch Saudi porn, I just want to be less restricted in the content to watch and read.
Amir, you make the right choice, as ExpressVPN and Nord VPNs are the best VPN services to use in Saudi Arabia. Having subscribed for one of them, you not only get access to blocked content but get additional level of protection against cyber hackers and data leaks.
I want to visit this country since I turned my 18th birthday. And now I earned enough money to make my dream com true. I’m planning to spend about a month or so there. But I don’t want anyone to monitor my activity on the net or block the sites I want to access. Besides, to be protected against any troubles conneted with the net, It would be better to use a VPN. I don’t know a lot about local laws, but it’s the fact that they are too strict for me. So, to evade unpleasant moments or trobles with the law, I’m going to install ExpressVPN. To my mind it’s a real treasure for us – users. Having studied the characteristics of this VPN service I was really impressed. Besides, the price is more than attractive. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be well-informed on the topic of internet security in Saudi Arabia.
You are welcome, Dack! Be convinced that with ExpressVPN protection you will be totally protected in Saudi Arabia. It would be useful for you to study the list of blocked websites in this country. But be sure, the VPN service you have decided to use will help to bypass such restrictions successfully.
