The Best VPNs for Singapore

After thousands of streaming tests, ExpressVPN continues to outclass all other VPNs when it comes to streaming.

Out of the 120 content platforms we tested it with, it unblocked an incredible 95% of them.

These services include some of the most popular in the world, including Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and Kayo Sports.

We watched HBO Max USA smoothly from abroad.

The VPN can also access 18 international Netflix regions, including in-demand content in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

Its VPN servers in India and Korea also worked flawlessly to access local Netflix content titles, which other VPNs like NordVPN struggle with.

And if you’re located outside Singapore, you can also use ExpressVPN to stream geo-restricted content on mewatch, Viu Singapore, Catchplay, and iQIYI.

ExpressVPN is also one of the fastest VPNs available, with exceptional long-distance download speeds in and out of Singapore.

From our accommodation in Katong, we connected to dozens of locations spread around the world and our internet speed dipped by only 15%, sometimes on connections stretching over 10,000 miles!

What really impressed us was also the consistency of these outstanding speeds, which rarely fluctuate.

ExpressVPN is a great VPN for gaming, especially on PC and game consoles, thanks to consistently low latency and lag-free gameplay.

Connecting from nearby locations to servers in Singapore and the other 25 Asian countries on offer was instant, helping reduce our ping and packet loss.

The great value ExpressVPN offers is undeniable: user-friendly apps with advanced built-in security, excellent speeds, and effective unblocking abilities across the widest range of devices.

If you’re still not convinced and want to test the VPN first, you can sign up to ExpressVPN’s 7-day free trial via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Once you’ve created your free account, you can then use it on up to 10 other devices.

Similarly to ExpressVPN, NordVPN is one of the most effective VPNs at bypassing streaming geo-blocks, whether it’s Singaporean or foreign IP restrictions.

This is largely due to its extensive and regularly-refreshed pool of IP addresses covering 127 countries, combined with incredibly fast and stable connections.

The end result is smooth and reliable access to most geo-restricted streaming services around the world.

If you’re traveling to Singapore, you can use NordVPN to access all your favorite streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, Kayo Sports, and many more.

Unblocking BBC iPlayer with NordVPN.

Where NordVPN struggles is bypassing strict country firewalls in authoritarian countries like China. It used to perform quite well, but in recent years its performance has drastically worsened, as our China VPN tests show.

NordVPN has massively expanded its server coverage around the world in recent years, with servers in 127 countries, including 32 in Asia.

This is several more than ExpressVPN’s 109 countries, so if you need your VPN to cover the highest number of countries, then NordVPN is the one for you.

Connecting to all these server locations was quick and smooth with no speed fluctuations or sudden interruptions.

NordVPN’s apps are much busier than ExpressVPN’s, though, because of the advanced features NordVPN wants you to use.

We preferred ExpressVPN’s cleaner look, with fewer home screen distractions and tabs.

Something that separates NordVPN from ExpressVPN is the number of additional features it makes available within its software.

Two of these extra settings we’ve experimented the most with were its multi-hop (Double VPN) servers, for greater privacy and security, and Meshnet, to use your home IP address while you’re traveling.

With Meshnet you can connect remotely into your home network for free.

If you want to keep using same VPN IP address, NordVPN offers the most dedicated VPN IP locations of any VPN service. Bear in mind that they cost extra, and they aren’t as private as ExpressVPN’s.

Surfshark’s 7-day free trial is one of the most flexible on the market.

You can access it via the provider’s website or through your mobile app store. It’s only available on its 12- or 24-month plans and you’ll have to submit payment details to enroll.

Once you’ve signed up, the free trial will automatically start and you’ll be able to try out all the VPN’s features without being charged.

That said, don’t forget to cancel to avoid being charged after seven days. We recommend canceling auto-renewal in your account right away for peace of mind.

Surfshark is one of our favorite VPNs for playing online games on smartphones and tablets.

The service’s Android, iOS, and iPadOS apps are very intuitive to use, and come with helpful settings for enhanced gaming.

Unlike most mobile VPNs that only hide your IP address, Surfshark’s ‘Override GPS Location’ function in its Android app also spoofs your phone’s physical coordinates.

Setting up Surfshark’s ‘Override GPS’ location setting.

It worked flawlessly for playing location-based AR games such as Pokémon GO and Monster Hunter Now.

And if you’re on the move and experiencing a shaky mobile connection, Surfshark’s ‘Use Small Packets’ (MTU) setting optimizes data transfers over weaker cellular networks, significantly reducing jitter.

The MTU setting really helped with patchy signal on the MRT Downtown Line. The only issue we had was the mobile app taking a few extra seconds to connect to a server compared to ExpressVPN.

Surfshark is fully loaded with free extra features. On top of the ones above, you’ll also get access to ‘Dynamic MultiHop’ for encrypting your connections twice (via two different VPN servers), and free static IPs.

‘Rotating IP’ is another useful feature to keep your IP address changing in the background while maintaining your location. It’s very similar to ExpressVPN’s ShuffleIP technology.

Crucially, the provider takes privacy seriously, operating under a strict, independently audited logging policy.

This reassuringly private stance makes Surfshark also a good choice for torrenting, which it fully supports across its server network.

It isn’t the best P2P VPN there is, but it’s a solid option for occasional torrenters.

Hotspot Shield’s desktop and mobile apps have clearly been designed with users in mind. Finding a server to connect to takes no time, and the apps connect very quickly.

What’s more, no other free VPN can match Hotspot Shield’s connection speeds right now. Connecting from Singapore all the way to the US, internet speeds fell by just 3% on average.

We experienced the same fantastic results connecting to the Singaporean and UK VPN servers.

Not only are the provider’s servers incredibly fast, but they also beat streaming geo-restrictions other free VPNs (and some paid ones, too) struggle with.

For instance, we accessed the American Netflix and HBO Max content libraries, as well as Netflix Singapore, mewatch, and ViuSingapore from abroad.

Hotspot Shield’s free app works with US Netflix.

The UK servers weren’t as effective, though, failing to stream BBC iPlayer and Sky Go.

Obviously only 3 countries with free servers is a very limited range, but that isn’t what disappointed us the most.

User privacy is the area where we expected the company to do a lot better, but whose policies surprised us instead.

When you use Hotspot Shield’s free apps, they will log your bandwidth usage, connection timestamps, browsing activity, account information, and your approximate true IP location.

This only happens for the duration of your VPN session, and the data is aggregated together, but it’s still a lot of information.

Moreover, the advertising SDKs the app uses to serve ads use your actual originating IP address for marketing purposes.

If you’re concerned about Hotspot Shield’s practices, even if temporary, then Windscribe is a much more private service.

On the topic of advertising, Hotspot Shield’s mobile app will force you to watch an ad every 15 minutes to unlock free data. Thankfully, this only happens on the mobile app and not on desktop.

Windscribe allows you to stream geo-blocked content across 10 countries: Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.

Notably, it stands out as one of the very few free VPNs that can reliably unblock BBC iPlayer from abroad.

All of Windscribe’s free UK servers worked with BBC iPlayer.

The free version also defeats strict geo-blocks on tough platforms like Sky Go, DAZN, Hulu, and HBO Max, while also unlocking 5 international Netflix regions, including Canada and the UK.

Keep in mind that the 10GB monthly bandwidth cap will only give you roughly four hours of HD streaming time.

If you simply want to bypass Singapore’s website blocks, then we recommend connecting to Windscribe’s VPN server in Hong Kong for the fastest connection speeds.

Across all of its applications, Windscribe utilizes robust AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption ciphers, alongside a reliable selection of secure protocols including WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2.

Matched with the service’s solid privacy policy, you can rest assured that your internet activity won’t be logged or leaked.

The VPN also uses RAM-only servers that never write data to a hard drive. This means that even if seized, these servers wouldn’t hold any of your internet activity (which has been proven to be true).

During our extensive testing, Windscribe didn’t suffer any IP or DNS leaks: the built-in ‘Windscribe Firewall’ (kill switch) duly cut out all connectivity the moment we forced the VPN connection to drop.