What’s the Best VPN in Ethiopia? Top Three Services Compared 🇪🇹

When it comes to internet freedom, Ethiopia has one of the worst track records on the globe. Whether you're a tourist, expat, or local in the country, having a VPN is the only way not only to protect your online security in general, but also to access to the internet freely and avoid censorship or spying from the government.

In Ethiopia, the internet is censored by the government-run Ethio telecom, which blocks access to many websites and information sources critical of the government, as well all VoIP calling services such as Skype, Facetime, Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, and more. What's more, the Ethiopian government is known to spy on its citizens, seize private information without court approval, and enforce targeted internet disruptions — including social media shutdowns.

In effect, this means that the only way to access the internet freely in Ethiopia is to use a virtual proxy network (VPN), an advanced software that hides your IP address and allows you to browse on the internet anonymously using a server in another country.

Fortunately, the good news is that many premium VPN providers offer advanced features such as top-notch encryption, obfuscated servers, and automatic kill switches which make it possible to browse the internet anonymously in Ethiopia. In this short guide, we examine the top three options to find the best VPN in Ethiopia and explore which might be the best one for you. —

ExpressVPN — Overall Best VPN in Ethiopia

Without a doubt, ExpressVPN is one of the best VPNs on the global market and provides an excellent way to protect your online activity and evade censorship in Ethiopia for all types of users, needs, and preferences.

For example, ExpressVPN is probably the best-in-class for streaming and accessing calling services. It can be used to unblock the Ethio telecom firewall on Skype, WhatsApp, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Facebook Messenger, and many others — all without any technical know-how.

When it comes to security, ExpressVPN leaves nothing to chance. It has a no-log policy (verified by independent audits). It will not track your IP address, browsing history, traffic, Domain Name System (DNS) queries, or your online behaviour in any other way. Obfuscated servers are available, although (on the downside), you'll need to know what you're doing to enable them. The service also allows fully-anonymous browsing in Ethiopia, with a built-in automatic kill switch, AES-256 encryption (the most advanced encryption standard), IPv6 leak protection (meaning your actual IP address won't be leaked), a large number of servers and protocols to choose from, and many other security-first features.

To top things off, ExpressVPN's speeds are excellent, and the service frequently tops the rankings against its competitors in this category. And while ExpressVPN does allow a maximum of only five devices per subscription, in our opinion, this should suit most users just fine.

NordVPN — Best for Security

NordVPN is a world-class VPN that's neck-in-neck with ExpressVPN as the best VPN globally. It's pretty much on par with the latter in every way: blazing-fast speeds, dozens of server locations around the globe, impeccable security, and extensive customer support.

However, the one area in which NordVPN truly shines is its excellent security. Like ExpressVPN, NordVPN has a no-logs policy and won't track your activity (from browsing history to IP address to DNS records). Also, like ExpressVPN, NordVPN comes with a built-in automatic kill switch. However, unlike its chief competitor, NordVPN makes it much easier to connect to an obfuscated server (see the how-to on their website), which is particularly useful in Ethiopia. In fact, NordVPN generally provides you with better control over your security features than the others on this list, and handling security is generally more accessible on its platforms (although it'll help to have some technical knowledge of how VPNs work).

Additionally, NordVPN is integrated with the Tor browser and is easy to configure with the OpenVPN protocol and PPTP and L2TP/IPsec (although these features are for advanced users only — for ordinary users, the default settings with obfuscated servers enabled should be sufficient for using this VPN in Ethiopia.)

All in all, NordVPN is a top contender for the best VPN in Ethiopia and it checks all the boxes. With its many features and privacy-focused platform, you won't go wrong with signing up to secure your connection.

SurfShark — Best Value for Money

An excellent choice if you're looking to save as much money on your VPN subscription as possible, SurfShark is a top-notch VPN service that offers you all of the essential features provided by the giants ExpressVPN and NordVPN — but at nearly half the price on the annual plan.

SurfShark matches NordVPN regarding privacy and security (audited for no-logs, secured with AES-256 encryption, secure tunnelling protocols, etc.), but these features are less customisable than on the latter platform. However, the out-the-box settings are secure, and the VPN will handle blocking unwanted websites and unblocking wanted ones in Ethiopia without any problem, regardless of whether you're interested in streaming, torrenting, video calling, or practically anything else you'd do online.

A big plus about SurfShark is that it comes with unlimited connections and devices. This also makes it a good choice if you have many devices yourself or a family whose devices you'd like to secure.

Most impressive to us is SurfShark's pricing. Although its month-to-month plan is rather pricey (even pricier than NordVPN's), its yearly price is considerably lower than the others on this list and comes to just $3.99 per month (paid annually) — an outstanding deal as far as premium VPNs go. Considering you'll get almost all of the advanced functionality of the other two services for such a low price as this, we think SurfShark easily tops this list in terms of value for money.