5 Best VPNs for UAE in 2024

Internet censorship in the UAE is substantial. Hence, the providers like Du and Etisalat do their best to restrict VPN services. Of course, they can’t go against VPNs wholeheartedly because they’re too important to keep business as usual in the UAE, but it’s not for lack of trying. That’s why you need a UAE VPN right now that works in Dubai and all over the United Arab Emirates.

This article explains everything about the best VPN services that will make your stay in Dubai a better experience.

The best five VPNs for UAE – The quick list

Elsewhere in this guide, we will describe each of the best five VPNs in Dubai and the UAE. But for the time-challenged readers, here’s the gist of it:

1. NordVPN – It’s consistently the best and most cost-effective VPN service in the industry for any VPN-related task. In the UAE case, though, it’s inconsistent with Etisalat.
2. ExpressVPN – It will cost you a bit more than the rest. But this is one of the best options for the UAE. It excels at privacy and unblocking power.
3. Surfshark – This VPN gives DU users a good service with good speeds and security. However, it might not work as effectively with Etisalat.
4. PrivateVPN – The VPN that fits any budget is also an excellent unblocking tool for UAE-based users.
5. VyprVPN – The stealth feature in this VPN lets you get around even the most intrusive censorship in Dubai and the surrounding areas.

Why should I use a VPN in the UAE?

Internet censorship occurs worldwide for legal, cultural, religious, and political reasons. Some of that is happening in the UAE, but the primary reason for VPN hostility is VoIP services, as we explained earlier. The UAE rulers don’t believe in free phone calls, and it’s as simple as that.

VPNs will open up for every website or service blocked from within the UAE, including voice-over IP services. They will also encrypt all incoming and outgoing traffic, making third parties see nothing but white noise. This protects you from the prying eyes of the authorities or your ISP, hiding your online activities.

That encryption is why a VPN is the only tool that safely gives you a way around censorship. However, because the UAE ISPs work closely with the authorities, you can land in trouble if they find your online activities unwelcoming.

So, if you choose a British server, for instance, from the UAE, you may access the BBC iPlayer content exclusive to the UK. The same goes for Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Primer, and other video streaming platforms.

However, privacy and freedom are not the only advantages of VPNs. They are also convenient. Because while you’re on the VPN network, the server shows you to the world

Internet restrictions in the UAE

The world’s greatest fortunes owe their existence to fossil fuel and the power their holders have reached every aspect of our lives constantly – just stop for a second and ask yourself what the richest are enjoying these days.

Of course, the poster boys for petrodollars are the royal families of Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

However, it’s no secret that we are witnessing the last decades (or years) of the oil and gas bonanza that has fueled (no pun intended) the world’s economic development over the last century. The UAE government is very aware of this reality.

That is why it has spent a lot of effort diversifying the country’s economy away from oil. It has also invested a lot of money in creating a new world economic hub centered in Dubai.

And they are succeeding. The Fly Emirates is now one of the world’s premier airlines after disrupting a market that seemed unassailable. Doing business in Dubai has become de rigueur for many industries. So Telegram is based in Dubai now, and that’s also where Roger Federer’s headquarters is. All is great about UAE so far. Things change from here.

In most jurisdictions with solid limitations on internet use, the motivation is political for the most part. But that’s not so in the UAE. Here, the government owns or controls the local telecom industry. So, it traditionally wants the residents to pay for their phone calls. Therefore, voice-over IP calls are unwelcome competition, and so is everything else that facilitates their use – including VPNs.

Etisalat, a UAE ISP, is particularly keen on blocking VPNs so its users can’t find their way to VoIP calls. It’s become proficient at this art, investing a lot of energy, resources, and knowledge to meet this goal, and it’s achieved a high degree of success because many great VPNs won’t work for Etisalat users.

The other leading internet provider in the country, DU, is also of an anti-VPN persuasion. But it’s nowhere near as good as Etisalat in blocking them.

Choosing a good VPN is never easy. The market is overcrowded, and there are too many mediocre vendors around. However, this task is much more critical when looking for a VPN to use in the UAE. Any negligence here would make you use one of those networks that DU or Etisalat know how to neutralize.

The options listed in this guide are five VPNs that excel in the features you want in any good VPN. Besides, they know how to help users in the UAE despite the ongoing efforts by the local ISPs to nullify them.

We want to save you the hard work of testing the best VPNs as UAE options. We’ve done it for you already, and we’ve had help from domestic UAE users to ensure that each of our picks will do the trick correctly.

We wanted every VPN to offer the following features:

• Solid encryption
• Zero log keeping
• Strategically placed servers
• Security against DNS leaks
• Helpful features such as obfuscation

As you can see, our criteria are pretty stringent; few of the VPNs in the market can meet our specifications. So, let’s look at our five best services to use in UAE that passed all the tests.

The five best UAE VPNs today – The detailed list

1. NordVPN

NordVPN is a premium vendor that offers an excellent service at a reasonable price, only slightly above the industry average of about 3.59 USD monthly – that’s one of the reasons that have made it a leading name in the VPN world. UAE users will be particularly pleased with the NordLynx protocol (based on Wireguard).

The protocol obfuscates your VPN traffic (makes it look like standard HTTPS). Thus, it enables you to circumvent the countermeasures against VPNs implemented by DU and Etisalat.

It offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So, you can use the service for a whole month before paying for it. If anonymity in payments is your cup of tea, it also accepts cryptocurrency for your fee.

NordVPN doesn’t keep any records on your identifiable information, traffic data, bandwidth, or timestamps. This is precisely what we want from a reliable VPN. This vendor claims to have a strict zero-log policy, and it puts its money where its mouth is – it’s invited external audits to back up its privacy assurances.

Moreover, the headquarters is in Panama, a jurisdiction away from the notorious 14-Eyes alliances and other similar jurisdictions. Your traffic gets AES 256-bit encryption, which is the industry standard even in the military and intelligence businesses. It has an automatic kill switch that keeps your traffic within the secure tunnel and is highly customizable.

Unblocking geo-restricted content is quickly becoming the top reason to have a VPN service. And in the UAE, it’s the killer application from the start. In this regard, very few VPNs can compete with NordVPN.

It can unblock all video streaming platforms worth unblocking (Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, Netflix). In this regard, the SmartPlay feature in NordVPN adds to the video streaming experience, and it’s available even for the BlackBerry OS. NordVN even includes a SmartDNS service, but you need to be aware that this feature doesn’t encrypt your traffic, so you must be careful.

Picking and connecting to a server within the NordVPN network (with 6,800+ nodes in 113 countries) is painless and shows that the provider has had the user experience in mind during the development process.

Once connected to the network, VoIP calls, the BitTorrent network, streaming, gaming, and everything else are within your reach, with reliable and fast connections in most servers.

The price is reasonable in NordVPN because it’s only slightly above the average. But the quality is much higher than your run-of-the-mill VPN.

NordVPN works well in Linux, macOS, Android, iOS, and Windows. In addition, the platform includes browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. A single account allows connecting ten devices simultaneously to the VPN. Hence, all or most of your essential toys are VPN-protected at all times.

Other excellent features include multi-hop connections, the CyberSec and malware blocker, split tunneling, and multi-factor authentication. Every single feature will prove helpful for UAE-based users. So NordVPN is our top choice. It’s well-rounded, cost-effective, robust, and does everything you need if you’re in the UAE.

An additional mention about NordVPN is in order. It’s the service most improved from last year. Not that there was anything wrong with it twelve months ago, but the tax it exerted over your speeds to be effective was much higher before.

In the round of tests we performed this year, NordVPN is much faster. So, it’s at the top of the industry, providing excellent security without sacrificing noticeable speeds.

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2. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is a household name in the VPN industry and is the darling of most web VPN reviewers. And there are good reasons for both things. First, this is an excellent option from the UAE user’s point of view because it works for many Etisalat customers and grants access to every critical VoIP streaming service.

Granted, Kape Technologies acquired ExpressVPN on September 13th, 2021, which has raised issues regarding the continuity of the service’s quality and commitment to user privacy. But nothing terrible has happened yet, and it’s unlikely that the new owners will ruin a unique brand by diluting the service’s quality or privacy features. So, let’s assume the best and look at it as we know it.

Remaining private and accessing the internet at large from the UAE requires a bag full of digital tools. ExpressVPN includes all of them and even a few more that increase its value for money.

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, a privacy-friendly country with a strict no-logs policy. That policy is critical. It means that even if the authorities ask for the VPN’s cooperation in an ongoing investigation, the VPN can comply with the request without spilling the beans on any user simply because it has no beans in-store.

And in the case of ExpressVPN, the company’s adherence to the policy has been proven in the courts. Remember the 2016 assassination of Andrei Korlov in Turkey? The courts of law required ExpressVPN to surrender some of its data. However, the VPN complied with the request without delivering any information to its users because it had no logs to hand out to the authorities.

Many excellent VPNs claim to keep zero records, but few have proven it to the public via audits or courts. ExpressVPN has done both.

ExpressVPN is well worth trying. And you will risk nothing as the 30-day money-back guarantee will afford you plenty of time to experience this VPN to the minimum detail. And if it doesn’t meet your expectations, you’ll get your money back, no questions asked.

The primary protocol available in ExpressVPN is OpenVPN, the thoroughly audited industry standard on which every truly great VPN is built. However, you have more expansive choices if you want them. Lightway is a great example. This protocol is ExpressVPN’s own project, developed from the ground up, and it’s meant to be every bit as safe as OpenVPN while saving some resource consumption.

As a result, this protocol is noticeably faster than OpenVPN, and it’s also more friendly with mobile devices because it allows for longer battery life. 

You won’t find an automatic kill switch in this VPN’s features because they call it “Network Lock.” But don’t worry, it’s a kill switch and works fine. An encrypted DNS is also available on each server so no third party can determine what websites you’re trying to reach.

If video streaming is your thing, ExpressVPN will not disappoint you. In fact, it could become your favorite VPN because of that. It unblocks any streaming platform you could ever want to use, will give you access to every domestic or international catalog you want to see, and will get you ESPN live and anything else you would like.

And let’s not forget that VoIP is also a streaming technology, and in this regard, ExpressVPN will serve you well, giving you smooth calls on Skype IMP or any other option.

A unique thing about ExpressVPN and streaming is the MediaStreamer proprietary software that comes with the VPN service.

This wouldn’t be a good option for streaming if the speeds weren’t good in the network. However, stable connections are also a requirement the VPN meets very well. So you will not want bandwidth with ExpressVPN, and any speed-intensive activity (streaming, gaming, torrenting) works well with it.

So, as you can see, this option has everything you need to have a very smooth digital life in the UAE. But there’s even more.

Other niche features in ExpressVPN include split tunneling, P2P support in every server (for BitTorrent), Tor over VPN, a router app, and extensions for Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi. In addition, the SmartLocation feature will help you choose the best server available according to network load, physical distance, and available bandwidth.

Last but not least, the entire ExpressVPN network has consisted of RAM-only servers since 2019, so nothing gets recorded in hard drives, and all the information of every session evaporates when the server reboots – which happens about twice monthly.

ExpressVPN’s monthly fee is slightly higher than the 10 USD market average. But we’re talking about a top-notch service packed with helpful features and, in the UAE case, that works with both primary internet providers. So the slightly higher price is worth it.

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3. Surfshark

Surfshark is a relatively young VPN vendor with a reputation for disrupting the industry by offering a top-tier service at some of the lowest prices in the market. It’s a truly excellent service for any task needing a VPN, and UAE users will find it very helpful, too – unless they are with Etisalat, which has seen the way to neutralize Surfshark. DU users, however, won’t have that problem.

The fact that Surfshark works only from the DU network within the UAE is not to be sneered at – remember that most VPNs in the market won’t work at all with any ISP in the UAE. So yes, having this particular limitation with this VPN could be a little frustrating, but if you’re in DU, you have nothing to worry about.

In any case, if you are still unsure that Surfshark is the right service for you, you can try it out for 30 days and get your money back if it doesn’t convince you.

We consider that a UAE VPN user needs a set of privacy features that are not negotiable, and Surfshark includes them all. We mean an automatic kill switch, DNS leak protection, and traffic obfuscation. The operating protocol is OpenVPN, which is the best in the industry because it’s been heavily audited (successfully).

In addition, the developing open-source community behind it keeps it constantly updated. Finally, the Shadowsocks feature is an encrypted proxy initially designed to bypass the Great Firewall of China, which is why the comparatively mild obstructions in the UAE are not a challenge for it.

Surfshark keeps no logs, which is a policy as essential for user privacy as the technology itself, and independent audits prove this policy.

Because Surfshark’s connections are both speedy and robust, it’s the ideal network to stream video over the internet, even in HD quality. But those features would be useless if this VPN didn’t unlock the best video streaming services correctly.

Fortunately, if you want to see content from Hulu, Amazon Prime, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, or many others, this network will do the trick for you.

Another fantastic feature of Surfshark is its servers – they are RAM-only, meaning nothing gets recorded into hard drives. As a result, the information of every session is 100% volatile, and it evaporates into oblivion each time the server reboots.

Split tunneling is available for the partially paranoid, and an ad and malware blocker is included with the service. Also, Surfshark browses the Dark Web, and if any of your personal data, such as full name or email, turns up in any of the leaked databases traded in there, it will let you know immediately.

The tech platform of Surfshark includes a series of apps for every meaningful operating system, and they’re all straightforward to use. So it makes no difference if this will be your first VPN provider ever or if you’re more of a seasoned user; you’ll have a smooth experience with these apps.

Last but not least, Surfshark doesn’t give you three, five, six, or thirty simultaneous connections to the network per account. Instead, it gives you unlimited connections. So, every gadget in your home and office can enjoy Surfshark’s protection at the meager price this vendor requires.

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4. PrivateVPN

It’s the budget option. If you need to stay free, private, and anonymous on the internet from the UAE at the lowest possible cost, PrivateVPN is the thing for you.

PrivateVPN’s philosophy about serving users differs from the options we’ve given you. The network is not as extensive or impressive and doesn’t include any of the more sophisticated features you can find in Surfshark or NordVPN. The idea for this vendor is to keep the service simple but of the highest possible quality. But make no mistake. It is still a robust VPN with plenty to offer.

Reliability is a hallmark of PrivateVPN’s service. It offers OpenVPN out of the box, and it keeps no logs. Obfuscation is also available; you can make it worse for your snoopers via TCP if you engage port 443. This feature (traffic obfuscation) will ensure your security because your UAE ISP will think that all your traffic is just regular HTTPS.

But you need to know something before you choose PrivateVPN: it only works with DU, so if you’re with Etisalat, you’re out of luck.

The stability and high bandwidth in PrivateVPN make it easy to unblock video streaming services such as BBC iPlayer or Netflix. Zoom or Skype is not a challenge, so you can keep in touch with all the people you love while remaining in Dubai.

The network includes a bit more than 100 servers in 63 countries. It looks tiny compared to Private Internet Access’s estimated 29,650 servers or NordVPN’s 5,000+ nodes. But don’t be deceived; the service in a VPN isn’t always about node numbers. The reliability and resources available to each server are more critical regarding user experience, and PrivateVPN gives you an excellent experience because the servers are exceedingly fast and robust.

PrivateVPN is a VPN that really keeps you private. Encryption is AES 256-bit, the encryption of the champions. Use the OpenVPN protocol to keep your privacy safe (avoid PPTP). In addition, as in the UAE, stealth servers are available, which are the perfect option when facing a digital environment with regressive internet censorship.

There’s one thing about PrivateVPN which is not so cool, however. It’s in Sweden. The country is in one of the Eyes alliances, with data retention laws in place. However, PrivateVPN deals with them by sticking to the no-log policy.

The money-back guarantee for PrivateVPN is not 30 long but 7 days. Still, one whole week is enough for you to look at it and find out if it suits your digital lifestyle.

Your account gives you six concurrent connections to the network.

A singular thing about PrivateVPN is customer service. For instance, it’s not as good as NordVPN’s, but you get help from the developing team directly in this network, which is very cool. They’re friendly and helpful, and they answer fast.

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5. VyprVPN

VyprVPN is cost-effective, excellent in its service, has many servers available in the Middle East, and has the Chameleon protocol, which helps its privacy.

It is an option that highly mobile users will find more valuable because it’s particularly secure in public WiFi connections, which are unavoidable when you’re on the go, whether for holidays or business.

The Chameleon protocol is proprietary to VyprVPN. Generally, we don’t like proprietary encryption technologies because they are harder to test. Also, the code is often not transparent (or even available), and they do not support easy audits. However, we admit that Chameleon is a good thing. This protocol plays around with your metadata, preventing easy data packet inspection.

That trick prevents the existing VPN bans by the UAE ISPs. It enables VyprVPN users to access the full internet even from the most restricted jurisdictions.

VyprVPN’s commitment to user security is supported by independent audits that confirm the no-logs policy and that the servers in the network never record identifiable data. Also, this VPN hails from Switzerland, where data retention laws do not exist, and the country has a lot of respect for users’ rights.

The encryption and DNS protection in Vypr rank is among the best in the industry. The protocols on offer include:

• OpenVPN (a classic)
• WireGuard (a new protocol that’s becoming a favorite because of the high speeds it allows)
• Chameleon (the house’s specialty)

The last option is the best for users in the UAE, whose priority is to fight against domestic bans and censorship measures.

The network spans 70 locations and 700 servers in total. In addition, VyprVPN owns all the hardware it uses, which is something of a rarity in the VPN world (many vendors rent a portion of the servers in their networks), and that’s a good thing for users because it minimizes the chances of outside interference. 

This option is as versatile as the best providers we’ve listed. You can do torrenting, gaming, streaming, or anything else you fancy using this traditional VPN.

You can connect up to five devices at the same time. The customer support service is always ready to help you through email and live chat.

And the final great thing about VyprVPN is how simple it is to use. The apps are obvious and fully functional in every operating system.

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Free VPNs in the UAE: Should I use one?

Before we answer this question in full detail, let’s clarify: if you want to ensure your safety, have excellent functionality, and have high speeds, then paid VPN services are the only way to go.

However, we understand that you could be running out of money (life in the UAE is expensive, after all). So, using a free VPN instead of a paid one could seem like a good idea. Well, you must be exceedingly careful, but hope is not lost.

Some of the best VPN services in the industry have a free plan available for new users. These services are good enough, trustworthy, and accessible but imperfect.

Do not forget that the free plans we are discussing here are advertising. They’re supposed to let you try the goods so that you’ll understand why paying for the full service is a good idea. Consequently, these free VPN trials are restricted.

Your data usage will be capped, your transfer speeds won’t be incredible (nothing like what you need to support HD streams), and you will miss all the best things that VPNs can do for you.

However, if you are the kind of user who doesn’t traffic big files, doesn’t see online videos, has video calls, or does anything that’s bandwidth-intensive (like just browsing around the web), then a free VPN could be good enough for you. Elsewhere on this website, we have listed the best free VPN services available for that.

How to get a UAE IP address anywhere

Suppose you are doing business in the UAE. In that case, the inverse scenario will apply to you at some point – being outside the country and needing internet access as if you were inside, for whatever reason. Fortunately, a good VPN service solves this problem, too, and here’s how you do it.

• Choose the VPN vendor that suits you best. NordVPN is great for all kinds of users, and it’s the one VPN that can outsmart both ISPs in the UAE
• Sign up for an account, pay for it, and download and install the software you need for every device you want in the VPN
• Launch your VPN application
• Choose a server located in the UAE
• Point your browser or other software to the UAE-based content you wish to use
• If it doesn’t work (that happens rarely), don’t panic. Clear your browser’s cache, cookies, and any other location identifier, and try again. This time, it will work fine

Why are UAE ISPs so regressive about VPNs?

In an effort to attract business from all over the globe, the UAE ruling powers have adopted very liberal policies in almost every regard, especially when compared to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and other Islamic countries in the Middle East.

In this context, the hostility towards VPNs looks out of place. But it’s there, and if you’re going to do business in the UAE, you need to be aware of it and have the tools to deal with it. So why is it like this?

The government has internet traffic restrictions in place because it wants to ensure that the phone companies (which it owns) have enough business in the form of traditional long-distance calls. However, the internet has revolutionized phone calls worldwide with Skype, Telegram, WhatsApp, and even Facebook Messenger, among many other options. These are bad for the domestic telecom business, so they’re banned.

VPNs, moreover, can get you access to those services despite the general ban, so they are also banned. As a result, the UAE ISPs are under tremendous pressure to block VPNs. However, they work hard at it and have become quite proficient. Therefore, only the best VPNs in the industry can get around the local ISPs’ measures against them.

So there’s a war going on with the UAE ISPs on one side and the world’s VPNs on the other (not unlike a similar conflagration that has Netflix and the other big video streamers fighting against the same VPN industry).

The VPNs are fighting back, of course. At least some of them. All of the options are on our list, to be sure. However, they need to put in the hard work and resources to stay one step ahead of DU and Etisalat so that their clients can still get the service they pay for, even inside the UAE. The field constantly changes as each side keeps making moves, and status fluctuations are expected now and then.

If you find that you can’t use your VPN from the UAE anymore, it could be because of many things. But, on the other hand, maybe it’s a temporary hiccup that will go away in a matter of minutes or hours.

But it could also be the case that Etisalat or DU finally has the number on your VPN provider. See if you can reach the VPN’s webpage and customer support service. Find out if they can help you restore your service. If they can’t, just ask politely for a refund.

Mobile users

If your digital needs line up more on the mobile side of things, we suggest you sign with DU once you’re in the UAE. Of course, this applies to residential broadband also. We recommend this to you because DU is not nearly as good as Etisalat at blocking VPNs. This means you can increase the probability of successfully using a VPN in the UAE by picking a less hostile ISP.

However, if you are bound to use Etisalat, for whatever reason, there’s always NordVPN, which works even with that ISP and has a money-back guarantee.

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What specifications must a VPN have to be helpful in the UAE?

Accessing restricted services and web pages in the UAE is not one of your holiday games. Instead, it could get you into a legal problem.

In addition, VoIP is unavailable in the country intentionally. That means using or trying to use apps like Skype, Facetime, or Viber requires you to ensure your privacy beforehand. So if such a common thing as Skype needs professional-level precaution, you should always be behind a VPN server online in the UAE.

But what are the features that a good VPN should give you? Here they are:

• Robust OpenVPN encryption. Encryption is the thing that mixes up all your data so that it makes no sense without the decryption key. OpenVPN is the best VPN protocol around. It’s safe and has the best track record in the industry.
• Kill switch. A kill switch feature shuts down all your traffic when it detects that you’re no longer inside the VPN’s secure tunnel. This ensures that every packet leaving your device is encrypted and safe from third-party observation.
• Stealth mode. Also known as obfuscation. Encryption is good, but it’s even better if your ISP thinks everything you’re doing is just HTTPS navigation. That’s what this feature does. It takes whatever you do (say, torrenting), making your ISP think it’s an HTTPS transference.
• Security against DNS leaks. Your DNS requests give away your activities. Your ISP can figure out everything you’re doing from your DNS requests alone. In the UAE, you should disable IPv6 and use IPv5 only. This simple measure will simplify your VPN’s task of preventing your DNS from leaking from WebRTC activities.

Is it legal to use a VPN in the UAE?

There’s no simple answer to this question. It all depends on the purpose for which you’re using the VPN.

Having a VPN installed on your devices is not illegal per se. VPNs are okay in companies, organizations, businesses, and institutions as long as they are integrated into their internal networks. However, using a VPN to manipulate Internet Protocols, engaging in criminal activities, or going against the powers is punishable by law.

However, appearances can be against you. Your use of a VPN could make others suspect your browsing habits.

This is why having an obfuscated VPN is so important in the UAE. If you don’t use obfuscation, your ISP won’t be able to know your activities. But it could detect your VPN connection. However, obfuscation prevents that problem because it will think you’re just browsing the web. Hence, an obfuscated VPN will give you total digital freedom without leaving any traces behind.

And you don’t want your ISP ever to know you’re using a VPN. If you get caught “misusing” such a thing, the consequences are far from trivial. Prosecution, fines, and even prison time are real possibilities.

The last thing you want is to go to jail for using a VPN. We would agree that it’s the worst-case scenario. But the fines are no small thing either. For this particular crime, the minimum fine is half a million AED (about 140k USD).

If you’re reading this, then the chances are that you’ll be a foreigner while in the UAE. As such, you want to stay on the right side of the legal fence. And to be safe, you need a good VPN that has all the features we detailed previously.

A cheaper VPN could have some of those features, indeed. But if only one is missing, then your safety is in jeopardy. Your freedom could be at risk – in any case, two of the options suggested here are exceedingly cheap. So, there is no good excuse not to pick one of our five preferred options.

We researched and tested many VPNs to ensure we give you the best information possible. The five VPNs listed above will likely keep you safe in the UAE.

Using VPNs in UAE

VPNs can secure data for businesses. That’s why these services are not entirely banned in the UAE. So every time you encrypt your traffic with a VPN, you perform a legal action. But if you use that encryption to access restricted websites or services, you’re a pure and simple criminal. That’s why just using a VPN can make you a suspect – be discreet about your VPN use in the UAE.

Downloading your VPN

You should download and install the VPN software before arriving in the UAE if that’s at all possible. However, remember that most VPN websites are banned once you’re inside, so downloading anything you need could be tricky.

However, if you’re already in the country and can’t perform these tasks, you can subscribe to a VPN and have your provider send you the .config files you will need to make things work from your end.

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Using your VPN

We have already explained in detail every essential feature you must use in our VPN while you’re in the UAE. So, once your VPN connection is up and running, ensure you’re safe.

So do not visit any website with your VPN before reviewing your VPN settings. Make sure you’re using OpenVPN encryption and that the following features are available and active:

• Kill switch
• DNS leak protection
• Stealth mode

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What are the blocked websites in the UAE?

The internet in the UAE is considerably more limited than the world’s average. Unblocking restricted websites and using VoIP could get you a date with the police – and we don’t mean Sting’s band. The UAE has high stakes, so we carefully explained all the features a VPN needs to keep you safe in the country.

We’ve done this type of guide for many countries. But we’ve never been so specific as with the UAE because users in this jurisdiction are playing for keeps when they pick a VPN, whether they know it or not.

Some of the most popular websites globally are blocked in the UAE; you could be pretty surprised. Here are the types of websites blocked by the UAE authorities so far:

• Pornographic websites
• LGBTQ websites
• Anti-religious websites, in general
• Anti-Islamic websites
• Gambling websites
• Anti-government websites
• Every Voice over IP website, app, or service

UAE VPNs for Facetime, WhatsApp, Skype, and more

The UAE government is the power behind the domestic telecom provider. So, Skype is taboo, and the government has leaned over the domestic ISPs to support its anti-VoIP position.

But the government’s position on these matters does not limit your choices. If you subscribe to any of the five top UAE VPNs listed above, you’ll retain access to your usual apps in the normal way, just as if you were not in the UAE, even as you are in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, or anywhere else in the country.

But remember: a VoIP app, any VoIP app at all, will only work in the UAE if you use a VPN.

So what about Snapchat or WhatsApp? These are not VoIP services at heart, right? Well, yes, they’re not. But they include some audio and video call capabilities, which are also blocked in the UAE. However, if your smartphone has a VPN installed, all your messaging apps will work fine, retaining all the features.

The average monthly VPN price is 10 USD. Of course, you can save a lot of money by purchasing a more extended plan or choosing a budget option. But, suppose you spend 59 USD yearly on your VPN service (the yearly plan price of our #1 recommended provider for UAE, NordVPN). Does that seem a bit pricy? Well, think about it. In the UAE, you’ll have to pay for every single long-distance phone call, and the prices aren’t exactly low.

However, depending on how many calls you need to make throughout the year, the chances are that your VPN subscription will pay for itself with the money you’ll save from the phone bill for international calls.

So, with a VPN, you will win money in the long run. And that’s not even considering that the VPN will improve your digital experience in entertainment, gaming, torrenting, and almost any other digital activity.

Can a VPN enable me to unblock GeForce now?

The long-awaited Nvidia streaming platform is finally online. And if you want to use it in the UAE, you need a VPN, period.

Nvidia’s new platform allows you to play AAA games from a browser, thus preventing the need for a gaming PC. This is quite exciting! The GeForce Now network can turn any old computer into a gaming computer!

Nvidia is very resource-aware. It wants the network to be as efficient as possible. So, it wants users to only play on servers from its own region. According to the company, it’s all about network optimization.

But the problem with Nvidia’s policy is that the network has no server in the Middle East yet. So if you were expecting hours of playing in GeForce Now, unfortunately, you will get the message “GeForce Now is currently not supported in your region.”

No need to despair, though. Your VPN will give you access to GeForce now if you choose a server based in the USA or Europe, and you will be able to enjoy the new gaming network without any problems at all.

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