If you live in Pakistan or you’re just visiting the area for any reason, then you might have grown tired of all the restraints they put on internet usage. Pakistan was deemed as a country that is ‘not free’ by the Freedom on the Net report on 2016, which isn’t surprising given the country’s record for heavy usage restrictions and the arrest of bloggers for more than questionable reasons.
To make things worse, they have recently acquired a very complex surveillance technology from companies abroad that allow their law enforcement agencies to monitor online activity and phone calls. Just residing in Pakistan should give you more than enough reasons to adopt any tools at your disposal to protect you from government surveillance and ensure you have access to all the content that’s regulated within its frontiers.
For this reason, we’ve taken the liberty of listing what we consider to be the best VPN services available. But, what’s a VPN you may be asking? If you have not heard about them before, Virtual Private Networks or VPNs are server networks that reroute your internet traffic and encrypt it in the process. These servers can be located in any part of the world and can fool websites into thinking you’re accessing them from a place completely different to your actual location.
If executed successfully, a VPN connection can help you bypass most location-based restrictions and save you from being monitored, giving you the freedom many people online just don’t have. While it may sound a bit technical, VPN services are usually designed to be easy to use by anyone, so you shouldn’t worry about that kind of matter.
Now that you understand what you’re getting into, we present you with the providers of the best VPNs for Pakistan:
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 |
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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 |
GhostVPN
This proficient service provider’s network counts with over 1000 servers carefully and conveniently distributed in more than 50 different countries. GhostVPN’s service has all the main privacy features you could expect from a decent VPN provider. They have 256-bit AES encryption, fast connection speeds and keep no usage logs of their users.
It is true that this company is a bit younger than the other on this list but they have proved to be more than capable of competing at the level of the real heavyweight lifters. Unfortunately, they don’t support every major platform just yet, so they only earned the fifth spot on this list. Still, they are competent enough to bypass Pakistani restrictions and are surely worth a shot, given the price of their subscription plans and their money back guarantee.
IPVanish
You’ll find that IPVanish will almost always show up high in a VPN ranking. It’s no surprise given their service is one of the most efficient ones available out there. They are a nice choice if you want to bypass geo-restrictions to stream media content because their network has more than 850 servers placed in over 60 countries. They also support P2P connections, meaning you could also download and share torrents anonymously over their network.
They also have strong privacy features, their servers count with DNS leak protection, 256-bit encryption and an automatic kill switch that will protect you from failed VPN connections. Adding this to their strict zero-logs policy and the fact that they accept Bitcoin payments makes them one of the safest VPN choices and definitely places it among the best VPNs for Pakistan.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN’s strong point is speed. They do not put any bandwidth restrictions on their users’ internet connection. This, considering they have over 1500 servers distributed over more than 90 countries, makes us certain that few streaming services will escape your reach when you use this VPN.
You can also be sure your data is safe thanks to all the little security perks they’ve stacked over their servers: automatic kill-switch, DNS leak protection, Strong encryption protocols and a strict no-logs policy that prevents them from keeping any info about your connections and the data exchanged in them.
ExpressVPN approved every test we put it through without breaking a sweat, but unfortunately, it didn’t make it to the top of the list because of its elevated subscription prices. They are what you’d consider a premium VPN service, so we strongly recommend it if you’re willing to pay a little extra to ensure a service with good quality.
Private Internet Access
You may also see it listed as PIA, which is a lot more comfortable to pronounce. This VPN provider, as you’d expect, has all the best features of its predecessors on the list. They have been reviewed by a lot of tech magazines and their good service has always earned it a solid spot in their rankings. On top of all the security features like strong encryption and DNS leak protection, they add malware and tracker blocking, which is an innovative feature that sets them apart.
However, the thing that’s perhaps most impressive about PIA is that their subscription plans are some of the most competitive ones in the VPN market. They are a very solid VPN provider and one of the best VPNs for Pakistan, but they are still weak in one aspect. PIA didn’t make it to the top of the list because of their user interface, on all the platforms they support, is not precisely what you’d call friendly. This still doesn’t make their service any worse, but for inexperienced users, it could create a confusing experience and is something they could easily work on.
TorGuard
We’ve chosen to put TorGuard at the top because of all the little details they’ve included in their client to make themselves stand out from the crowd. Their network is pretty big, with more than 3000 servers in 55 countries, you can be sure you won’t be stopped by any region lock. All of these servers feature the strongest encryption protocols and have a 99.9% uptime that added to their amazing speeds and lack of bandwidth, ensure you’ll have the most stable connections while using this VPN.
Their client includes DNS leak protection, a kill switch for all connections, support for scripting, ad and tracker blocking and a ton of other little things. Some of their servers are optimized for P2P connections, meaning you’ll have the best time if you are a power user who enjoys downloading heavy torrents. They also offer proxy and anonymous emailing services separately, but these can be stacked on top of their VPN service for a little extra in your monthly subscription.
TorGuard is undoubtedly one of the best VPNs for Pakistan and one of the most solid choices you can make if you care about your privacy or just want to be able to bypass any country’s geo-restrictions.
Watch Your Back
As we said, if you’re located in Pakistan, you have more than enough reasons to be worried about your privacy. However, there are many other risks you’re taking when you log online that go beyond the Pakistani state, which make the privacy crisis a lot worse.
By now, it is well known that surveillance is performed by governments from all over the world, sometimes in cooperation. On top of all this, you’d have to add the constant tracking activity that’s constantly being performed on internet users from the part of media giants like Facebook and Google. They are known to power most of the internet’s ad system with algorithms shaped with the personal information of every internet user they can find.
Even if you’re just a visitor, adopting a VPN for your everyday connections is only a healthy habit that everyone should get into if they’re willing to take a stance against all the injustice going on online in the matter of freedom of speech and privacy violations.
