The Best VPNs for Australia

NordVPN has the largest Australian server network of any VPN, with 190 servers spread across 5 Australian cities. You can easily get IP addresses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney.

With more Australian servers than any other VPN, we didn’t encounter any server congestion, and therefore avoided connection issues and CAPTCHAs. This made using NordVPN smooth and bug-free.

NordVPN unblocked every Australian service we tested. Here are the full results of our Australian streaming tests:

With such easy access to Australian streaming sites, our tests found that it’s the best VPN for streaming the AFL — it was able to unblock Kayo Sports on every Australian server.

The downside is that NordVPN’s Smart DNS feature does not work with Australian streaming sites, so you’ll have to stick to using the VPN software.

We unblocked Australian streaming services like SBS On Demand with NordVPN.

We experienced excellent speeds connecting into Australia from abroad with NordVPN. After connecting to Sydney from New York, our speed loss was only 16%.

On average, NordVPN’s US to Australia download speed is 84Mbps, which is more than enough for any online activity. In fact, it is the fastest VPN for connecting into Australia.

NordVPN has user-friendly and attractive apps. You can install it on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, and Android TV. You’re also allowed to establish a VPN connection on 10 devices simultaneously, which is generous compared to many similar VPNs.

Although NordVPN feels nice to use, we enjoyed using ExpressVPN slightly more. Unlike NordVPN, its features are labeled and its compact design takes up less screen size compared to NordVPN’s desktop apps.

Considering its impressive Australian performance, NordVPN is excellent value for money. It costs $3.29 per month on its best deal. This is less than half the price of ExpressVPN.

However, this price increases when your subscription is renewed, ultimately reaching the same price as ExpressVPN. Put simply, you lose the budget factor after two years of use.

NordVPN has a 7 day free trial if you download the app and sign up for a subscription on Android. All of NordVPN’s plans have a 30-day refund offer, too — you don’t even need to explain why you want your money back.

ExpressVPN has Australian IP addresses in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. This is the same as NordVPN, but it includes the ability to manually select local Sydney servers, so you can get IP addresses in the Wooloomooloo district.

ExpressVPN doesn’t disclose exactly how many servers are in its Australian network, so it’s difficult to compare it to NordVPN like-for-like. However, the stable connections and lack of slowdowns we experienced indicate that ExpressVPN maintains quite a lot.

ExpressVPN comes with a large number of Australian city servers.

We tested ExpressVPN with every major Australian streaming site. Here are the results:

ExpressVPN successfully bypasses geo-blocks on the majority of Australian streaming services. Each site streamed quickly at maximum picture quality with little or no buffering.

The only disappointment was its failure to bypass Kayo Sports geo-blocks outside Australia. For that, use NordVPN.

ExpressVPN unblocks Australian on demand streaming services like ABC iView.

Using ExpressVPN, we connected to Sydney from the US and recorded just a 17% loss in our download speed. This is an impressive result considering a distance of 10,000 miles.

The average download speed you can expect connecting into Australia is 83Mbps, which is more than enough for streaming Australian content in Full HD and 4K without any buffering.

ExpressVPN makes getting an Australian IP address quick and easy, thanks to its intuitive and well-designed apps that quickly connect you to Australian servers.

It’s the most widely compatible VPN on the market, with apps for every major platform, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. There are also bespoke apps for Apple TV, Fire TV Stick, and Android TV, so you can stream Australian sports and TV on your home devices.

ExpressVPN is the only VPN that has an app for routers, but its Smart DNS cannot be used to unblock Australian streaming services.

ExpressVPN’s cheapest subscription works out at $6.67 per month. This is not cheap when compared to competing VPNs, including NordVPN, but we believe its reliable Australia performance justifies the cost.

You can test ExpressVPN for free by taking advantage of its 30-day money back guarantee or signing up to ExpressVPN on iOS or Android, where a 7-day free trial is available.

TunnelBear is the only free VPN service with an Australia server. It allows you to connect to a Sydney IP address from any country without any cost. This is useful if you want to access Australian websites from abroad.

Its server list is identical to the paid version, but we’d like to see more Australian cities added. Australia covers 3,000 square miles, so including servers on the west coast in Perth would be better for users connecting to Australia from Europe or Asia.

Using TunnelBear Free to connect to an Australian IP address.

Here are the results of TunnelBear Free’s Australian streaming tests:

Sadly, TunnelBear Free was detected and blocked by most Australian streaming services. The only exception is 7Plus.

If you want to access Australian streaming services for free, TunnelBear Free is not useful and we’d recommend signing up to a NordVPN or ExpressVPN free trial instead.

TunnelBear Free doesn’t work with most Australian streaming services.

Connecting to TunnelBear’s free Sydney server from New York, we enjoyed fast and stable internet connections into Australia. Our speed loss was only 26%.

We’re pleased that TunnelBear Free does not cap or throttle its connection speeds like other free VPNs do. Our average download speed was 74Mbps, which means smooth internet connections despite the geographical distance.

TunnelBear has some of the most user-friendly VPN apps around, and it’s available to install on popular platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. You can also install it as a browser extension for even quicker access to an Australian IP address.

However, TunnelBear’s apps are nowhere near as advanced as those on offer from ExpressVPN and NordVPN, and there are no bespoke clients for streaming devices like Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, or Android TV. It’s not compatible with routers, either.

That means there’s no way to stream Australian content or access Australian websites on anything other than your desktop and mobile.

TunnelBear’s free VPN requires no account or credit card details before you can install it. It makes getting an Australian IP address easy, free, and privacy-friendly.

The downsides are substantial though, including a data cap of 2GB per month. This is one of the most restrictive data caps of any free VPN service. For contrast, Windscribe Free offers 10GB per month. However, it is an improvement — TunnelBear used to only offer 500MB.

After years of testing, we have also noticed that TunnelBear’s free data no longer accumulates if you don’t use it. Previously, unused data used to pile up, but TunnelBear has removed this feature.