The best VPN for Egypt

On the surface, Egypt is a traveller’s dream. With its legendary structures and necropolises, the country was attracting nearly 15 million tourists per year in 2010. Since then, however, Egypt has suffered several setbacks that have caused tourist figures to fall by over 60%.

Egypt’s tourism has been impacted by several factors: the Arab Spring protests that lasted well over a year; a dramatic uptick in terrorist attacks by the Islamic State; and the Mashrou’ Leila concert that led to a shutdown and the arrest of several LGBT band members and attendees.

These events are linked through a connection to online surveillance and security. Since the Arab Spring, online political discourse has been heavily monitored under the anti-terrorism laws.

This led to several arrests of users whose online content criticized President Sisi during the 2018 elections. More generally, the Egyptian authorities have begun to monitor and arrest queer citizens on a disturbingly frequent basis since the Mashrou’ Leila concert.

Whether you’re an Egyptian resident or simply ticking its attractions off your bucket list, it’s imperative that you invest in a virtual private network (VPN). This is a service that conceals your identity by connecting you to a remote server and then encrypting your connection to make it untraceable.

In order to help you find the best VPN for Egypt, we’ve assessed several VPNs on the following criteria:

• Strong privacy and security
• Combination of price and features
• Location outside the 5/9/14 Eyes (surveillance groups of countries)

1. ExpressVPN ‣

• Location: British Virgin Islands
• Pricing: starts at $8.32
• Features: military-grade encryption, browser extensions, private DNS server

When searching for a VPN that will keep your personal information locked up and secure while you’re in Egypt, you need to look at where the company is registered to determine its legal jurisdiction.

For example, ExpressVPN is registered in the British Virgin Islands, which has no data retention laws and thus leaves the company under no obligation to surrender the information stored on its servers to any legal authority!

Express also lives up to the gold standard of VPN data practices by logging zero user information whatsoever. As well as this, the service also features a private DNS server to fully safeguard your connection against leaks, and it also uses AES-256-GCM encryption – which is, simply put, unhackable.

This VPN is on the more expensive side, but for the asking price, you receive unbreakable security and great connection speeds to ensure your base download speeds are barely hampered.

2. NordVPN ‣

• Location: Panama
• Pricing: starts at $2.99
• Features: military-grade encryption, massive server list, 24/7 live chat support

As with Express, NordVPN is top-of-the-range software that handles the official cybersecurity for Liverpool F.C. There is an added bonus, too: it’s much cheaper!

Ordinarily, we’d equate lower prices with lower quality. With NordVPN, though, that certainly isn’t the case. It uses the same hacker-proof encryption cipher which, as we’ve seen, reliably keeps your data on lockdown.

NordVPN also uses an industry-leading server fleet, with over five thousand servers available to connect to across sixty-five different countries. Resultantly, no matter where you are in the world – Egypt, for instance – you’ll have countless servers on hand for a speedy connection.

Something going wrong? Never fear: Nord benefits from some of the best live chat support in the game. With a dedicated team on hand at all times, you’ll never have to worry about losing out on one of the best VPNs for Egypt.

3. VyprVPN ‣

• Location: Switzerland
• Pricing: starts at $5.00
• Features: great security, server list, geo-unblocking, torrenting, download speeds

The pricing of VyprVPN is decidedly mid-range because the product itself is a great all-rounder. Its registry in the privacy haven of Switzerland makes it easy to trust, and that trust is rewarded by a solid privacy policy that means the company does not log any of your user activity on its servers.

As well as this, VyprVPN benefits from its support of the Chameleon protocol, which was developed by partner company Golden Frog specifically for this VPN. It’s a protocol designed to ensure your server connection is never throttled by your ISP, which makes VyprVPN a great candidate for fans of torrenting.

VyprVPN also stands out through its use of the AES-256-CBC encryption cipher, which is a faster version of the usual AES-256-GCM cipher used in the other VPN we’ve mentioned. As well as working much more quickly, it also works just as well to make sure your information can never be hacked.

4. Astrill VPN ‣

• Location: Seychelles
• Pricing: starts at $8.33
• Features: military-grade encryption, obfuscated server, high-speed connections

While it may not quite be the best VPN for Egypt overall, Astrill VPN nevertheless shines in its own right, offering some features that some users may find preferable over our top two choices.

First off, the security features easily match that of NordVPN and ExpressVPN: AES-256-GCM encryption and a Seychelles registry, which means you information cannot be acquired by hacker nor government, no matter how hard they try.

However, Astrill’s ace card is their support for the StealthVPN protocol, which is an improved version of the industry go-to OpenVPN that allows for obfuscated connections – basically, it’s an additional layer of security.

The added heft of its security features do not stop Astrill from offering seriously impressive connection speeds. Of all the VPN we’ve ever tested, Astrill is one of the fastest overall.

Alas, the price may not quite be ideal, but if you’re willing to go the extra mile and safeguard your personal information to the hilt, Astrill can certainly be one of the best VPN for Egypt.

5. Ivacy VPN ‣

• Location: Singapore
• Pricing: starts at $1.33
• Features: military-grade encryption, high-speed connections, split tunneling, kill switch

Ivacy is something of an underdog in the VPN market. Part of this may be to do with the fact that it’s registered in Singapore, which immediately sends up red flags for those with a knowledge of cybersecurity.

Singapore is not a part of the Five Eyes group, but it has been known to cooperate with the said alliance in the past. This has granted it authoritative power over the data surveillance of internet users in Singapore.

However, Ivacy itself ensures this never becomes an issue – it adheres to a strict no-logs policy and encrypts user data with an AES-256-GCM lock. As well as this, it also features a reliable kill switch that protects your personal information in the event of a server connection drop.

As well as this, Ivacy provides great speeds for a very reasonable price. As such, it maybe isn’t the best VPN for Egypt under our original criteria, but if you’re strapped for cash, it can do the job well enough.

6. PrivateVPN ‣

• Location: Sweden
• Pricing: starts at $3.82
• Features: great speeds, security, geo-unblocking, torrent support

PrivateVPN is another speedy service that, like Ivacy, comes a great deal cheaper than the majority of candidates for the title of best VPN for Egypt.

What gives it the edge over Ivacy is that it has better torrent support overall. It’s also great for unblocking geo-restricted content and has plenty enough servers to be able to do that.

However, one thing we dislike about PrivateVPN is that it’s registered in Sweden, a member of the Fourteen Eyes surveillance group.

This makes it difficult to trust PrivateVPN, but thankfully, its independently-audited privacy policy, which makes good on its claims to never store usage logs, restores our faith in this VPN.

As with the other options we’ve covered thus far, PrivateVPN uses a top-of-the-range encryption cipher. It also uses StealthVPN, which as we’ve mentioned gives users that extra kick in terms of online security.

7. TorGuard ‣

• Location: USA
• Pricing: starts at $4.99
• Features: great security, geo-unblocking, torrent support, download speeds

Again, TorGuard is a VPN service located in a country that is less-than-ideal for cybersecurity.

Although the US is a member of the 5e Eyes alliance, though, TorGuard remains completely safe to use; we’ve tested it for its DNS, IPv6, and WebRTC leak protection, and it kept our data firmly under wraps no matter what.

As well as this, TorGuard’s independently audited privacy policy verifies a promise to never store your usage logs. As such, anyone who attempts to spy on your internet activity will never be able to discern anything about you.

Furthermore, TorGuard is actively supporting torrenting (that’s what ‘Tor’ stands for, not the deep web tool The Onion Router as many assume on first glance). Better yet, its download speeds are second to none.

While its country of registry might raise some eyebrows, then, we can fully vouch for TorGuard as one of the best VPN for Egypt.

And the best VPN for Egypt is…

If you want to remain totally anonymous and secure in order to express yourself online, look no further than ExpressVPN.

Quite simply, it has it all: great security, great speeds, torrenting support, and geo-unblocking support.

Those looking for a cheaper alternative, though, should remember to try NordVPN or Surfshark, both of which offer similar services on a budget. If you’re simply after the best in torrent support, look no further than VyprVPN, which delivers on that front better than any VPN currently on the market.

If you’re in Egypt, which of these VPNs have you used before? Did we miss any great VPNs for Egypt? Let us know in the comments below.