Lagos (also known as Eko in Yoruba) is the most populous city in Nigeria and one of the fastest-growing cities in the world. It has an estimated 21 million people with a whopping metro density of 20,100 per square mile. There are a number of reasons that people travel to the city including the fact that it is a financial center, has a great music scene, has wonderful food, and more. If you are planning on being one of those visitors for whatever reason, you will want to connect to a VPN. We can explain the reasoning behind that in a few moments. First, though, we ask that you take a look at our guide of the best VPNs for Lagos.
| Rank | VPN Service | Our Score | Server Locations | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 9.8 | 160 |  |
| 2 |  | 9.4 | 87 | |
| 3 |  | 9.2 | 95 | |
| 4 |  | 9.0 | 110 | |
| 5 |  | 8.8 | 73 | |
Being in the top 20 largest cities in the world, the biggest reason to use a VPN while in Lagos is to protect your privacy. With the number of people that are in the city at any given time ranging from 16-21 million people, the whole city is rampant with cyber crooks. While the country is listed by Freedomhouse.org as partially free, you are at a very big risk, any time you connect to the internet. That is because of the criminals. You can bet they are ready to take advantage of anyone that they consider to be a vulnerable target. By creating a VPN connection, though, you create a layer of encryption that will make it much tougher for the government or cyber crooks to monitor your activities.
The second reason to connect to a VPN will help you get around government censorship and geo-restrictions. If you are there as a traveler, you will find out quickly that you will be restricted from seeing some content. By connecting to a VPN in this case, you choose a different region to connect to. That will make the censorship software think you are located someplace else. In doing so, you can see the websites that would normally be blocked.
What is the best VPN for Lagos?
We’ll take a look at the best factors below to give you our list of the best VPNs for Lagos:
- High levels of military-grade, strong encryption to protect you from prying eyes of cyber crooks
- Providers with a no-logs policy
- Ability to get around geo-blocks and government censorship from the Nigerian government
- Fast servers that perform well in area while there
- Network stability to lessen the number of disconnects
- Support for many kinds of devices including Amazon Firestick
Now, onto the list of the best VPN services for Lagos:
1. Best VPN for Lagos: ExpressVPN
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ExpressVPN brings together fast VPN access with MediaStreamer which acts as a Smart DNS service to unblock access to geo-restricted content. The VPN service will help encrypt your connection and unblock live sporting events. You will even find a list of the latest live entertainment and sporting events on their website. Being in the British Virgin Islands puts ExpressVPN outside the 5 eyes and 14 eyes countries. They maintain a no-log policy that has been verified through high profile legal requests over the years.
ExpressVPN manages a very large VPN network. Beyond the USA, the ExpressVPN network boasts thousands of servers in key locations to help protect their user’s privacy. You can use their network to protect your privacy, unblock censorship, and watch your favorite streaming services from anywhere.
The ExpressVPN app allows you to select a server location down to the city but you do not need to choose a specific server. Instead, the client will select the fastest server in your chosen location. You also need to know that some cities are not shown on the recommended tab inside the client. Of course, that may be true for South Africa (because it is the closest). You will want to select the “All” tab, open Africa and Asia, and then open South Africa. At this point, you can select a server location there. As you can see, we tested a server there to a speed test server in Lagos and the speed was 139.46 Mbps.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of using ExpressVPN is their support for a wide range of devices. ExpressVPN offers custom VPN software for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Connect from your desktop and mobile at the same time with up to 5 simultaneous connections. You can also install the ExpressVPN web extension for Chrome or Firefox. Want to protect your entire home network with a single VPN account? If so you can use the ExpressVPN router app to get all setup. The MediaStreamer feature adds Smart DNS support to game consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, etc.), media boxes (Apple TV, Roku, Nvidia Shield TV, etc.), and Smart TVs.
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ExpressVPN performed very well in our speed tests. They are a great choice for privacy and to unblock geo-restrictions. Customer support is available 24/7 to provide assistance and answer any questions. Enjoy the best VPN for less with confidence as ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
2. Best VPN for Lagos: NordVPN
Sign up for 36 months for just $3.49 per month (70% discount)
NordVPN is based in Panama which some users prefer to using a VPN company that’s actually headquartered in the United States. You will find that NordVPN has a strong presence in the US with servers located throughout the country. Members have full access to their network in the USA and beyond for a very good price.
You will find that NordVPN has perhaps the best mix of services for the price if you subscribe to a longer-term account. All users have full access to their network and custom software. You can connect using the VPN client for Windows or Mac. They also have an easy to use mobile app for both Android and iOS (iPhone, iPad) devices.
NordVPN hosts a number of servers in Israel, and you can use any of them. From the console, clicking on the 3 horizontal dots to the right of the country, you can locate the server area and see the percentages of the servers available. We tested a server in South Africa and we got a download speed of 92.84 Mbps.
Want to access streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world? If so NordVPN is a great choice. They are one of the only VPN services that can still unblock Netflix. You can sign up for unlimited VPN and SmartDNS service with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3. Best VPN for Lagos: PIA
Sign up for 12 months for just $3.33 a month (72% discount)
Private Internet Access (PIA) gives users a few different options. Unlike in the past, you no longer have to set up a profile for each VPN server. Now, you can connect to any of their server locations. As you can see below, the PIA team has organized their servers by region, country, and city. The server locations are listed in alphabetical order by country.
There are a lot of torrent users who love Private Internet Access. The service includes a feature that will stop your system from communicating if the connection to their service drops. Meaning if your encrypted VPN access is dropped for any reason it will keep you safe.
We use PIA’s Windows client and there isn’t much to it in terms of set up and usage. While the service is streamlined, it is still packed with features. PIA offers different levels of privacy protection depending on your needs. You can control encryption levels and find the right balance between privacy and speed. As you can see, our speed test showed that PIA was running at 83.07 Mbps while connected to South Africa.
When it comes to their Windows client the PIA team has included an Internet kill switch. The kill switch will kill your Internet connection anytime the VPN fails. That can really come in handy for those wanting to ensure anonymity. Private Internet Access offers members a 30-day money back guarantee.
4. Best VPN for Lagos: CyberGhost
Sign up for 36 months for just $2.75 a month (79% discount)
CyberGhost was founded in 2001 by 7 enthusiastic young team members in Bucharest, Romania. Since that time the company has grown into one of the largest VPN services in the world. The team of 50+ members is focused on protecting users’ privacy. Robert Knapp, co-founder and CEO, continues to lead the team even after they joined the Crossrider group in 2017. Since that time the CyberGhost network has expanded quite a bit.
CyberGhost offers a nice mix of server locations, strong encryption, and the ability to unblock popular streaming services like Netflix, YouTube Red, and Amazon Prime. Some of the channels even let you unblock geo-restrictions for multiple regions. For example, you can access Netflix content in the US, UK, Italy, Germany, France and Japan. The Windows client also gives you the option to surf anonymously, protect WiFi, torrent anonymously, unblock basic websites (Google, Facebook Instagram, etc.), and choose a server.
Since we wanted to test a server in Lagos, we opened the Windows client and expanded the interface. From there you will want to click on the “All Servers” tab if it isn’t already active. Scroll down to Africa and click to the right of the star. This will bring up a full list of servers in Africa. The CyberGhost network includes a number of servers in South Africa. We connected to one of them and tested the performance. As you can see, our download speed was 23.69 Mbps.
The CyberGhost VPN client is one of our favorites. It is very easy to use and includes a number of advanced features to help protect your online privacy. They have a development team in Germany that is continually adding features to the client and mobile apps. You can sign up for full access to the CyberGhost network with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
5. Best VPN for Lagos: IPVanish
Sign up for 12 months for just $5.20 a month (57% discount)
IPVanish is a very popular service and has many servers located all over the world. No matter which continent you are on, you can a solid performance from the servers there. They are typically fast, and the provider has one of the largest networks in the world.
Along with its large world network, IPVanish hosts servers in every continent other than Antarctica. As we mentioned, they usually are one of the fastest providers in the marketplace. It is known for having multiple server locations in a number of countries. You can select a location or get more specific by picking an individual server. IPVanish is excellent for protecting your privacy but can be hit and miss for unblocking popular streaming services.
IPVanish hosts a number of servers in South Africa and you can choose to connect to any of them. We suggest selecting one that starts with “a” in the server name. In most cases, those are the ones that are the fastest. We tested an IPVanish server in South Africa and found the speed to be 59.84 Mbps on our cable Internet connection.
When it comes to value IPVanish is hard to beat. They offer unlimited access to their VPN network and custom software for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Amazon Firestick and more. You can even set up your router to protect every device on your network. A 30-day money-back guarantee covers all new members.
If Lagos is on the list of the places you wish to visit, connecting to a VPN is very important. In the above sections, we have provided you with some of our favorite options. That said, we have listed more on our top 10 VPN list. Even though they will all work, the ones above are the best options. That is why we made our decisions to give you the best access and protection while in Lagos. Please have a look at our guide to help you make the right decision to meet your needs.