China is home to one of the most advanced security networks around. It’s so grand that the Chinese government nicknamed it the “Great Firewall”–or as the Chinese officials call it, the Golden Shield project. If you’re in China, it undoubtedly protects you from looking at stuff the government doesn’t want them to. Facebook? Too dangerous. Google? To useful. Maybe next time!
If you see past that load of bull, you might want to consider using a real technology like VPN–a virtual private network that protects your Internet by encrypting it through a virtual tunnel that masks your IP address and internet traffic letting you use the Internet how you want to!
There’re hundreds of VPN providers out there–but since the great firewall has been improving and strengthening (and purposefully blocking VPNS), only a select few VPN providers have the power to work in China. A lot of these VPN’s use “Stealth technology” and the methods vary in use and reliability. So that’s why we ranked them for you! Here’s the best VPNS for China!
Torguard
Torguard VPN is one of the strongest VPN providers to protect against deep packet inspection. They’ve made tons of improvements since they started focusing on their Asian client base with multiple stealth offerings (Stealth VPN + Stealth Proxy) as well as Asia optimized servers that provide latency-free connections. Their stealth connections work by obfuscating traffic to make it appear like regular HTTP traffic. Stealth VPN servers, as well as the new stealth proxy feature, come included with the basic lite client. This means you don’t have to pay extra or fiddle around with complex software to get protection (or the shows you want) behind the great firewall!
Pros:
Multiple Stealth Servers in China
Stealth Proxy provides a unique and highly secure double layered security approach
Great Speeds
Easy to Use
5 simultaneous use connections
Multiple applications available with all encryption types
Cheapest Stealth VPN offering
Cons:
None
Astrill
Astrill VPN is one of the few VPNS to offer protection against deep packet inspection in China. Astrill dubs their sneaky VPN bypass “Stealth Mode”. Unfortunately, this stealth mode needs to be paid for as an upgrade/add-on for $2 extra a month. Astrill is also one of the only VPNs to provide multiple VPN technologies like IKEv2, as well as OpenWeb. Astrill only comes with one simultaneous connection, but they do sell VPN routers.
Pros:
Varied protocols to use
Offers stealth mode
Cons:
1 simultaneous connection
Pay to work in China
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is an amazingly fast and easy-to-use client that is impressive not only for its reliability, but also it’s visual fidelity. ExpressVPN is a great looking application that has lots of Chinese servers as well as stealth servers that can prove effective against the great Chinese firewall. While ExpressVPN might not be as focused on providing access or bypassing firewalls in China specifically, it’s still a great VPN to use if you can get it to work.
Pros:
Fast Speeds
Great looking client
Cons:
More expensive than some other VPNS
Doesn’t really brand itself or act as a leader in the DPI protection space
VyprVpn
VyprVpn’s main attraction for Chinese users is their proprietary “Chameleon” anti-censorship technology which scrambles OpenVPN packet metadata so deep packet sniffers can’t detect it. The provider also hosts its server network that leads them to claim that they have the fastest speeds out of anyone. Take that with a grain of salt, as we found otherwise in our review. With three simultaneous connections and a suitable Windows application, VyprVpn is still a decent pick for users in China looking for a way to protect against DPI.
Pros:
Chameleon technology provides high amount of security
Free model
Cons:
Mediocre speeds
Bad mobile application
Free use is extremely limited with 500 MB
Very expensive at $15 a month for full package
Thanks for reading our guide on the best VPNs for China. Make sure you purchase the right VPN with powerful stealth options (named TorGuard in this case) since a lot of VPNs don’t work in China due to heavy censorship and internet restrictions.