Best VPNs for Saudi Arabia
Though the Internet is meant to be a safe place, it’s not really a safe place. Privacy and security issues always crop up. It’s the case everywhere, including Saudi Arabia.
According to the latest research in the sphere of internet censoring, the country is one of the leaders, as soon as such common things for US citizens as Yahoo messenger and Skype are blocked in Saudi Arabia.
Fortunately, VPN service is legal in Saudi Arabia, so if you look for how to unblock open banned sites in Saudi Arabia or want to access the list of blocked sites there, you need a VPN.
- ExpressVPN: the provider is great in terms of security and restrictions bypassing thanks to its unique location – the British Virgin Islands.
- NordVPN: great for the residents of Saudi Arabia due to its rich server network – over 5100 units.
- Surfshark: very beneficial for residents of Saudi Arabia because it provides unrestricted access to the Internet for an unlimited number of devices!
- CyberGhost VPN: its function of an automatic kill switch protects you even when the VPN connection is lost.
- Private Internet Access: protects up to 10 devices simultaneously and get access to unlimited streaming and P2P file-sharing. More than 3380 servers are available!
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 know more about the best characteristics to take into consideration while choosing a VPN provider.
With the help of VPN services, you will be able to protect your privacy. Let’s take a look at the top 5 VPN services in Saudi Arabia below. We’ll learn more about their features as well.
If you are looking for a free VPN in Saudi Arabia, it is easily available. You will always come across the Saudi Arabia VPN for free; it is just that you will not have the luxury of extra features. Now let’s check out the best Saudi Arabia VPN services below.
Internet freedom in Saudi Arabia
It is not always safe to discuss some things in Saudi Arabia to say nothing of posting something on the internet.
Saudi Arabia is stated to be one of the most censoring countries. Thus, internet status is reported not to be free there. There are such violations as obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights.
According to the latest data, there have been such violations last year as:
- Telegram throttling for preventing users from sharing photos and files over the popular network.
- Three lawyers have been sentenced to 10, 9, and 8 years for providing online advocacy against violation of human rights.
- From this year all the mobile operators functioning on the territory of the country are obliged to take fingerprints when selling a new SIM card.
What about the access to the internet?
Although internet freedom in Saudi Arabia has slightly improved this year due to better accessibility, we can see that many human rights are horribly violated in the country, which makes it one of the most censoring regions.
For staying protected from government surveillance you need to provide your network with the best solutions for online protection.
One of the top-notch services popular among business and average customers is the best VPN services for Saudi Arabia. The service helps you stay unidentified and protected from data leakages, as well as various malware. However, VPN usage doesn’t exclude the use of anti-virus software.
What about a VPN for Saudi Arabia?
So, having connected to the internet through one of the VPN servers, your authentic address assigned by the ISP is substituted with a server’s one, which makes your IP invisible even for your provider. Besides, such a possibility can shift your true physical location.
Therefore, when choosing a server for a further connection you should think about the virtual location you need. Thus, for making Netflix unblocked in Saudi Arabia you need to connect to the internet through one of the US-based servers. Whereas for torrenting in Saudi Arabia you should connect through one of the servers placed in Spain, Sweden, or Russia.
Would you like to protect your data?
What is more, having connected to the internet through the best VPN for Saudi Arabia, secure tunneling is to be created by the service between your connected device and a VPN server.
The tunneling is designed with the use of up-to-date protocols and long-term bit keys. When being routed through the tunneling all your generated traffic becomes encoded and thus hindered from all the prying eyes.
Don’t forget about the extra features
However, in such a censoring country like Saudi Arabia, you will need some additional features, which are to make your network experience even more protected.
Thus, such extension as a kill switch will help you avoid data leakages and exposure in case there is a break on the line with a VPN service. When using the add-on you will be in no time disconnected from the internet if there is a break on the line with a VPN server you are connected to.
Read the VPN documents in depth
And also, when choosing the best VPN for Saudi Arabia you need to read all the privacy policy and terms of usage attentively for not to get into a trap. The thing is that some companies providing free services collect data on its customers for further selling.
Is using VPNs in Saudi Arabia legal?
According to the latest data on internet freedom, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that commit total surveillance over its citizens.
An average rate of internet penetration in the country has made up 70%. At the same time social media, political and social content, as well as the press are being blocked and even arrested. Besides, average customers undergo web oppression too.
It has become known that in 2016 Telegram was throttled by the company in order 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 are able to 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.
Is it safe to use a VPN service in Saudi Arabia?
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 is lack of 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:
- a vast variety of server locations;
- strong encryption protocols;
- unlimited bandwidth and speed;
- a free trial version or money-back guarantee;
- support of different payment methods;
- OS compatibility;
- additional facilities such as kill switch;
- strict zero-logging policy;
- 24/7 professional technical group assistance.
In case all the main features are proposed by a service, you have all reasons to subscribe for it without any fear of being compromised. Besides, a free trial version gives you a possibility to test the service before subscribing for 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 really need reliable protection of your web activities, therefore, take a fundamental approach to the choice of a suitable service.
Censorship in Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an absolute theocratic monarchy. Therefore, many spheres are determined by the royal decrees. The ruling dynasty established very strict rules regarding the issues of morality, upbringing, ideology, and news distribution.
Nowadays, the book publishing industry, mass media, and access to the Internet are censored in Saudi Arabia. Officially, the internet censorship appeared here in 2001, but in fact, undesirable websites were blocked at the moment the internet access became available for the residents of Saudi Arabia.
All the internet traffic in the kingdom is monitored thanks to the system of proxy-servers located in the research and development center of King Abdul Aziz.
Besides, a special service was created in Saudi Arabia to block the websites. This service is called the Communications and Information Technology Commission. Any citizen can send a request to ban a site, which breaks the law to his mind. About 1200 requests are accepted daily, and a half of such queries are solved.
The websites are blocked on the basis of the black-list created by the Communications and Information Technology Commission.
What websites are on the black-list in Saudi Arabia?
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, there is no country in the world that 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.
VPNs for Saudi Arabia’s conclusion
The online activity in the country of two relics can’t be called free. People face a lot of restrictions connected with access to numerous services and websites. If a person wants to access Saudi adult sites, he/she may face serious troubles with the regulatory agencies. But there is a way to unblock porn.
The best VPN for Saudi Arabia presented in this article will help not only to bypass the restrictions of the country but to be anonymous and safe while surfing the internet.
Nevertheless, if one wants to use a VPN for Saudi Arabia free, it is possible to do it by means of testing a free trial version of a chosen VPN provider.
Subscribe for the best VPN for Saudi Arabia and feel immune from the internet threats.
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FAQ
🔓 Is anonymous blogging real in Saudi Arabia?
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.
❔ Is it possible to use a free VPN in Saudi Arabia?
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 usually 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.
💬 Why is it recommended to use a VPN in Saudi Arabia?
Virtual Private Networks serve to provide a set of useful services. Among them you’ll find:
- Excellent protection for users’ online activities and total anonymity (which is vital in the country).
- No ISP or government throttling.
- Protected Wi-Fi everywhere. You won’t lose your data or money while making transactions in public places.
- Unrestricted access to the best content from every corner of the world.
Write a review
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:
- bypass geographical restrictions imposed by the authorities of the country;
- use streaming services without buffers and lags;
- keep anonymity while using online services and apps;
- protect the data sent and received on the Internet (emails, messengers and what not).
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.