In these modern times, we prefer going everywhere with our small but pretty handy devices. That includes laptops, tablets, smartphones, and alike. Smartphones are especially something that almost nobody goes around without.
And smartphones with an Android OS are popular and owned by almost half of the smartphone holders. Because of it, it’s important for them to know how to protect themselves, as well as access restricted online content. That and several other questions will be answered today while we’re looking for the best VPN for Android in the UK.
Why do you need to protect your Android?
People are walking around with their phones in the pocket whole day, every day. Our phones contain much of our private data, especially now when they’re no different than computers when it comes to power and capacity.
Everything from contact lists to private emails, from our plans and routine to our bank accounts, we keep on the phone. And that phone then goes around, connects to all the different networks during our day. Sometimes it’s on purpose, sometimes it’s because we forgot to turn off the auto-connection system.
Whatever the reason may be, it’s very dangerous to just leave it without protection, especially with hackers lurking around every online corner.
If you’re a citizen of the UK, you deal with even more issues than just safety. You have to deal with constant censorships and content restrictions, and not to mention the ever-increasing surveillance and privacy breaches. These are done by the US government itself, which forces ISPs to keep track of their users and record everything they can.
And if you’re not from the UK, and you wish to use your Android for accessing their TV channels and programs, you’re out of luck too. The UK is very strict about things like that as well. Even their BBC iPlayer only gives access to those who live in the UK and hold TV license.
Everyone else is just out of luck. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can bypass all of these censorships and restrictions, and even protect your device and your connection from ISPs, the government, hackers, and any other danger. To do that, however, you’ll need help from the best VPN for Android in the UK. But first, let’s take a look at what’s the real issue with these restrictions, and how to they work.
UK’s censorship and geo-restrictions
Whether you’re in the UK or out, you’re likely dealing with a pretty much the same problem, and that’s inability to access online content.
Those within the UK can’t access much of the content that many others can due to copyright laws or other reasons. At the same time, those from outside of the UK can’t access the UK’s own content, since it doesn’t take much interest in sharing.
Both of these problems are caused by the same thing, and that’s blocking of the IP addresses.
For those who don’t know, IP addresses are your online signatures, and you can think of them as your internet ID cards. They carry information like who’s your ISP, and where you’re at right now.
That goes for Android phones as much as for desktops and laptops, and pretty much any other device with internet connection. So, when the certain government want’s to prohibit access to some of the online content, they go to their ISPs. ISPs have the power to block IP addresses or to put certain websites on their black lists. That way, nobody who’s IP belongs to this ISP can access that website.
The only way for you to go around this is to change your own IP. And no, changing your ISP won’t help, because your government wouldn’t enforce these restrictions halfheartedly. No, you’ll have to find a different way of doing so, and that’s to start using the best VPN for Android in the UK.
What is a VPN?
Let’s first explain what VPNs are, and what they do.
First of all, VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. Just like the name suggests, these are private networks that have their own servers, as well as a certain set of rules. They were invented to ensure the privacy of information and the protection of data. After they were invented, they were mostly used by companies.
Soon after that, the regular users found out about them, and their popularity influenced their heavy development. These days there are hundreds of them, mostly because of an increase in need, and not popularity. Surveillance, privacy breaches, hacker attacks, malware, censorship, and geo-restrictions have become major issues.
So, the popularity of the VPNs is bigger than ever, and all because of what they can do. And make no mistake, they can do a lot. Their offer tons of different security features, but most of them are small enhancements. Their main features are the three big ones, and those are encryption, safe tunneling, and the ability to mask your IP.
VPN features
Through the use of VPN, you can take your Android anywhere and connect it to any network, even the public ones. It’s safer for you not to do so, but if there’s no other option, then you can do it safely, knowing all the while that VPN will protect you.
As mentioned, they have three main features. The first one we’ll discuss is safe tunneling. VPNs use different security protocols to create safe tunnels between your device and the internet. Your internet connection is secure inside of the tunnel, and nobody from the outside can access it, or even see it.
It also encrypts it via the strongest encryptions, so that your data and online activities are safe even in the case of a data leak. Anyone who collects some of the data won’t know what they’re looking at. Last but not least, there’s the ability to change your IP address.
This is very handy when it comes to achieving anonymity since your data flow gets assigned to another IP address. Your own will remain clean and clear, and none of your actions will point at you.
A very useful side effect of this is the unblocking of geo-restricted content. Let’s say that you’re a citizen of the UK and you wish to access the US Netflix. Now you can, and all you need to do is connect to the US server via your Android VPN. Alternatively, if you’re located outside of the UK, and you wish access to the BBC’s iPlayer, simply connect to the UK server and you’re good to go.
These are the three biggest VPN features, but they also have a lot of smaller ones. They serve as accessories to the big ones. Through their help, the big ones work better, or they might simply be there to provide users with a better deal. Either way, due to them, VPNs can do their jobs right, and help you stay safe and anonymous. The only issue now is which is the best VPN for Android in the UK, and how to find it.
Choosing a VPN for your Android
Finding a good VPN can be tricky, especially since there truly are many of them. You don’t have to worry since we’re here to help as much as we can. To do so, we thought it would be best to test as many of them as possible, and after doing so, and after some handpicking, we found four of them that will work great. Those are IPVanish, TorGuard, GhostVPN, and PIA.
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|---|---|---|
| Multi-platform Compatible | ||
| 256-AES Encryption | ||
| PRICE | $5 for 1 month with code "best10VPN" | $6.95 a month |
| Website Rating | 9.9 | 8.8 |
| 24/7 Live Chat | ||
| Residential / Dedicated IP for permanent streaming access | ||
| Has Mobile App + PC / Mac Support | ||
| Stealth VPN / Advanced Obfuscation techniques | ||
| Visit VPN Provider | Visit TorGuard | Visit PIA |
IPVanish
Not many VPNs are as good for your Android as IPVanish. Its speeds make it one of the best candidates for the best VPN for you to use. It’s so fast because it actually owns its own server networks, while many other VPNs just rent the servers. And while we’re on the subject of servers, IPVanish offers over 500 of them in 60 different countries.
That means that you’ll hardly have problems with finding a country that offers access to anything you want to access. It offers great encryption, as well as multiple protocols, and tons of other features. Those include no logging policy, money-back guarantee that lasts for a week, and even five simultaneous connections.
TorGuard
This provider is one of the best ones, and it definitely has the most features. In fact, it also has four different packages, and they differ greatly. TorGuard doesn’t think that you should pay for a full VPN service if you only need email security or a proxy. So, they made separate packages that are experts in their areas, and their areas only. If you need the full service, however, it offers that as well.
They have 3000+ servers in over 55 countries, which makes TorGuards network one of the largest ones on the market. And let’s not forget all the other features like different protocols, unlimited bandwidth, easy-to-use software. and also a great customer support that’s even available to simple visitors. Those, and many more things are waiting for TorGuard users, so hurry up and sign up.
GhostVPN
This is a very young VPN that only started last year. However, it’s so good that it deserves the place on this list. It offers over 1600 servers in 50 different countries, and it’s still growing. There are predictions that GhostVPN will be the dominant VPN when it reaches its full potential.
Despite the fact that that day is still in the future, this VPN has a lot to offer. It’s still a bit weak when it comes to features like live chat with the customer support, but its team works hard to organize it. Other than that, all of its other features work great, and they include 2 weeks of money back guarantee, no logging policy, great encryptions, kill switch, and more.
PIA
PIA or Private Internet Access is the last on our list, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not just as good as the previous ones. It offers much, but the most interesting part about it are the incredibly low prices. For example, the monthly fee is only $6.95. And, if you take an annual subscription, it will cost you only $3.33 per month.
These prices are amazing, especially since PIA has one of the largest server counts in the VPN world, and that number is 3250+. It has many different features, just like the rest of them, but it also offers a pretty undecorated interface. This doesn’t affect its quality in any way. And yet, many who hold aesthetics in high regard choose to avoid it because of it. Still, if it works, it hardly matters what it looks like, and PIA works great.
Conclusion
Ensuring the safety of your Android is important, and to do that, you’ll need the best VPN for Android in the UK. Anyone from the ones we’ve mentioned will do the trick. All that you need to do is take your pick, sign up, and start browsing safely at any time.
Also, with all of the internet’s content at your disposal, you’ll find that there’s a lot more to do online than previously thought. Hopefully, this guide could help you achieve that.
