The world’s best-known digital censorship device is probably the Great Firewall of China. However, other jurisdictions are as restrictive as China. They just don’t get the bad press they deserve. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is probably one of those. The government filters the internet content very strictly. Religion, the royal family, and politics are national taboo, and you must tread carefully around them. Suppose you want an idea of the “not free” score in the Freedomhouse list. In that case, other countries in that category include Afghanistan, Angola, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Iran, and Iraq.
The country’s big-brotherish agents also pay attention to social media content and posts. Voice over IP calls, BitTorrent, and other P2P networks are restricted. The government allows for Netflix but in a thoroughly censored version.
The usual internet that includes torrents, the entire Netflix catalog, phone calls on Skype or WhatsApp, free news about politics, and religious neutrality, doesn’t exist in Saudi Arabia.
So if you need to visit the country for business or vacation, or even move there, what can you do to ensure you’ll be able to have the internet you already know and love? The answer is: to get a top-notch VPN service that can bypass Saudi restrictions.
And why is a VPN the solution to this problem? Let us answer you.
A VPN performs two fundamental operations on your internet traffic. The first is full encryption, and the second is routing through a server that will mask your IP address so nobody can figure out your actual physical location and other IP-related data. Any service that does these two things correctly deserves the name of VPN. However, the best VPNs in the market will do much more for you, giving you many additional features that significantly enhance your security and overall internet experience.
So the VPN solves the censorship problem in Saudi Arabia because it encrypts everything. The ciphering guarantees that no third party can look at your data stream and make sense of it. Encryption turns a data stream into white noise. So everything you do will be beyond the government’s eyes. Then, the IP address you get from your VPN will tell a different location of yours to the servers you connect. Consequently, they will serve you based on that knowledge. So, for example, if you click through a VPN server in Canada, you can do everything that Canadian users do regularly.
So, let us show you how you can adopt a good VPN service in Saudi Arabia that will enable you to use the internet as if no censorship existed.
How to use a VPN in Saudi Arabia – Quick steps
VPNs are legal for Saudi internet users. However, while the government doesn’t penalize VPNs, you could still be in trouble if you use them to do the things they don’t want you to do.
If you’re one of those users in Saudi Arabia (or will be there for whatever reason) and want the Kingdom’s government to mind its own business where your internet life is concerned, you can use a VPN to achieve that goal. Here’s what you do:
- Choose a VPN from our top five list. Our favorite for this task is ExpressVPN, but any of our picks will do.
- Find the software that your VPN provides for your computer or device. Download and then install it.
Launch your VPN app. - Log in using your credentials.
- Pick a VPN server located anywhere in Saudi Arabia.
- Welcome back to the digital world of internet freedom!
Top Saudi Arabia VPNs – Quick list
So what are those five VPNs that will make the magic happen for you, we hear you ask? We will review them all in detail further on in this article. But if you’re in a rush and want the gist, here’s the quick list:
- ExpressVPN. It’s the biggest name in the VPN market for excellent reasons. This is the top VPN that will fix all your Saudi digital problems.
- Private Internet Access (PIA). The largest VPN network in the world will spoil you for choices as you look for a good server from Saudi Arabia.
- NordVPN. A VPN with traffic obfuscation, double VPN servers, fast connections, a kill switch, and many more features.
- Surfshark. The ultimate VPN regarding value for money offers a service beyond the meager prices it collects.
- PrivateVPN. A small VPN network but a stealth VPN feature that perfectly fits a Saudi user’s needs.
The best five VPNs for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Detailed list
Our staff dug deep into their considerable knowledge of the VPN world to find the best five VPNs for Saudi Arabian users. They came up with five options that have the following common characteristics:
- Keep no logs of any kind.
- Provide solid connections.
- Use encryption that is at least on par with the market standards.
- Have an automatic kill switch.
- Have an extensive server network that covers the globe.
- Support all the primary platforms and operating systems.
So here are the chosen ones!