Sydney, Australia is the capital and largest city in the country. It is located on the Eastern coast of the country. It has an estimated population of approximately 5.1 million people. The city attracts visitors from all over the world for many reasons including the Sydney Opera House, great food, and wonderful culture. If you are going to visit the land down under and want to use WiFi, be sure to use a VPN first. We’ll tell you why in a moment. First, take a look at our list of the best VPNs for Sydney.
| Rank | VPN Service | Our Score | Server Locations | Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | 9.8 | 160 |  |
| 2 |  | 9.2 | 76 | |
| 3 |  | 9.2 | 87 | |
| 4 |  | 9.0 | 95 | |
| 5 |  | 8.8 | 110 | |
According to a Freedomhouse.org report, Australia is listed as being free for Internet freedoms. Though there are not any specific issues with freedom when in Sydney, you still need to be careful. While the government does not monitor activities, there are plenty of cybercrooks that will. If you are using unsecured WiFi at all, you can bet they are looking to take advantage of the situation. By creating a secure connection, your traffic is encrypted. That makes it much harder for those criminals to get ahold of your personal data. Even though the government does not monitor you, there are stiff penalties for defamation in the country.
The next reason to use a VPN while in Sydney is to help with restrictions. While information is freely available in Australia, accessing material from other regions is blocked. That is often the case with some popular streaming services. By using a VPN, you can access different content, depending on the region you connect to. Simply connect to another region to fool the blocking software into thinking you are located someplace else.
What is the Best VPN for Sydney?
For the answer to this question, we need to look at several factors to make our decision. We’ll use more lenient in our regular criteria for choices. What we will use are:
- High network stability to reduce the number of server disconnects
- Ability to get around geo-restricted content in Sydney and the rest of Australia
- Fast servers that perform well in Sydney and the region
- Strong military-grade encryption to protect the user’s privacy
- Strict no-logs policy
- Multi-platform mobile app support including Amazon Firestick
Now, here is a closer look at the best VPNs for Sydney.
1. Best VPN for Sydney: 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. You may find that issue with servers in Sydney. Simply select the “All” tab, open Oceania, and then open Australia. At this point, you can select servers there. You can also just type Sydney in search. When we tested a server in Sydney, Australia, the speed was 120.63 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 3 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 set up. The MediaStreamer feature adds Smart DNS support to devices like 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 Sydney: IPVanish
Sign up for 12 months for just $4.87 a month (60% discount)
IPVanish offers several servers in the area, so you should not have any issues there. You can expect fast speed in locations in multiple parts of the world as well, though. Because of that, we choose IPVanish as one of our go-to options to use while in Sydney.
As well as quite a bit of coverage in various European regions, IPVanish hosts servers in every continent other than Antarctica. The network produces great speeds and they perform well on our speed tests. You can select a location or an individual server from the drop-down menu.
We just mentioned that IPVanish has servers all over Oceania and they are all available to you. If you happen to see a server that has the letter “a” as part of its server name, those are the fastest in the network. We tested an IPVanish server in Sydney and found the speed to be 98.33 Mbps.
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 for $7.50 a month or $58.49 a year. That works out to just $4.87 a month on the annual plan. A 7-day money back guarantee covers all new members.
3. Best VPN for Sydney: NordVPN
Sign up for 36 months for just $2.99 per month (75% 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 Sydney. 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 located in Sydney, Australia, and the download speed was 69.01 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 from just $2.99 a month with a 3-year membership.
4. Best VPN for Sydney: PIA
Sign up for 24 months for just $3.49 a month (65% 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 in 33 countries. 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.
PIA offers a Windows client and other apps that are simple and easy to use. However, you won’t want to underestimate it. PIA offers different levels of privacy protection depending on your needs. You can control encryption levels to help you find the right balance between privacy and speed. As you can see, our speed test showed that PIA performs well in the region. When we connected to a server in Sydney, we got a speed of 74.67 Mbps.
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 VPN from just $3.49 a month.
5. Best VPN for Sydney: 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 Amazon Prime video content in the US, Germany, or UK. 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 Sydney, 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 Australia and click to the right of the star. This will bring up a full list of servers in the country. The CyberGhost network includes a few servers in Sydney. We connected to one of them and tested the performance. As you can see, our download speed was 48.66 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 from just $2.75 a month during their current promotion.
From this point, we have shown you some great ways to protect your privacy while in Sydney. If you care for other options, please take a look at our top 10 VPN list. There are some great options there, but we made sure our specific choices based on several factors including security, stability, speeds, and price. That way, we made sure our options were optimized for Sydney. No matter what you decide to do while visiting, the above factors are important. By using our guide, we can help you make the right decision to fit your needs.