The best China VPN: working services in 2024 (2024)

China is notorious for censoring the internet – so much so that its tech even has a nickname: The Great Firewall. Because of this, visitors and citizens alike resort to using the best China VPNs to evade censorship and surveillance.

Whether you're a traveler or you live in the country, you'll need to use one of the best VPNs for China to access sites like YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, and Wikipedia, as well as apps like WhatsApp and TikTok. However, VPN use is restricted in the country, and not all providers work well.

When choosing a China VPN, you should prioritize a feature called "obfuscated servers." Essentially this means that the VPN app can hide the fact you're using a VPN at all. This gives you the best chance of evading the Great Firewall, and should give you access to a free and open internet.

At Tom's Guide we've tested dozens of VPNs, and here, I round up the top VPNs for China I've tested that are most effective In the country. Keep scrolling for an in-depth look at each one, or simply pick from my top three choices just below.

Top 3 best China VPNs at a glance

My list of the very best China VPNs of 2024

All the VPNs below have a track record of being effective at evading Chinese censorship. Out of the many VPNs I've reviewed, these are the providers that I'm trust the most to get access to content, but when it comes to China specifically, there are no guarantees. However, one way to improve your luck is to install your VPN on your devices before you leave home. Some VPN websites are blocked by Chinese authorities, so having them up and running before you leave is essential.

NordVPN: the best China VPN

In my expert NordVPN review, I explored the service’s powerful DNS leak protection, two kill switches, and incredible connection speeds via the secure NordLynx protocol. What's more, for those traveling to or living China, it's the very best option for evading surveillance and censorship.

Obfuscated servers and fully automated protocol selection means that Nord takes the hard work out of setting up your VPN. If you're in China, it'll detect it and apply settings that are best suited to getting you online.

You'll be able to watch the full gamut of streaming media, from Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Prime Video, to Disney Plus, Hulu, and YouTube. Nord’s 5,000+ servers will ensure you'll be able to connect to one that's fairly close to wherever you are in China.

Peaking at over 950 Mbps, Nord is one of the fastest VPNs I've ever tested. However, given that you really only need 20 Mbps for streaming content in HD and that the average internet speed in China is around 90 Mbps, this won't make the biggest difference – but it's nice to know you've got serious speed backing you up.

Something I noticed in my last round of testing is the fact that Nord's increased its server network considerably. While it used to lag behind the competition with only around 60 countries serviced, there are now 110 countries with server locations available. This is now on par with ExpressVPN and Surfshark, and gives me one less thing to complain about.

The new and exciting Meshnet feature functions like a LAN network and allows you to safely connect up to 60 devices directly. This makes file sharing, multiplayer gaming, and collaborating with your work buddies more secure, as you won’t have to send files to a server cloud first.

There’s also a rich database of guides and tutorials available on the website that should be more than enough to troubleshoot most problems. For more help, the 24/7 live and email support should come through nicely.

NordVPN offers 10 simultaneous connections, which is OK if you compare it to big China VPN rival Astrill's 5. If you want a VPN that covers an unlimited number of devices on a single plan, though, it’s worth looking at Surfshark. However, if you're after a VPN for China with tons of additional features for a reasonable price, NordVPN is your best bet – and as you’d expect, there's a 30-day guarantee in case you're not a fan.

ExpressVPN: the best China VPN for beginners

In my hands-on ExpressVPN review, I found it to be one of the best providers I'd tested overall – and it's known to work in China too.

The fact that no servers are run by ExpressVPN in mainland China means the service isn't subject to the data-handling laws domestic companies are, and as such, it can also guarantee that it stores no information that can identify you – excellent if you want to be sure your activity is kept totally private.

Express does have servers in a wide range of locations (160), including Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Mongolia – countries that are neighbors to China. Wherever you are in China, you’ll easily find a nearby server for the best performance.

Unlike big rival Astrill, which I'll get to next, ExpressVPN excels at streaming, easily unblocking all platforms I put in front of it – international Netflix catalogs, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, BBC iPlayer, you name it. However, NordVPN does do the same for a little less cost.

You don’t have to worry about accidental data leaks thanks to ExpressVPN’s powerful kill switch. It’ll keep your internet activity private even if your VPN connection is interrupted.

Threat Manager provides even more assurance of safety and anonymity by blocking any apps or websites on your device from tracking your activity, let alone sharing it with third-party companies.

All ExpressVPN apps, whether on Android or macOS, are beginner-friendly, with the interfaces being straightforward and easy to use. A simple tap on the home screen of the app will establish a connection, and an auto-connect feature allows you to set the VPN and forget – you’ll always be connected to a secure ExpressVPN server.

Overall, ExpressVPN is one of the most secure VPNs for users in China, with special add-ons alongside the essentials like AES 256-bit encryption, RAM-only servers, and an audited no-logs policy.

While it’s pricier than NordVPN or Surfshark, it’s almost half the price of Astrill, and is a top performer anywhere in the world. If you're looking for a super simple way to evade Chinese censorship, ExpressVPN is a great choice.

AstrillVPN: highly regarded and effective in China

Astrill VPN is one of the costliest providers I’ve ever reviewed, but when it comes to bypassing Chinese restrictions, it’s easily one of the most reliable and consistent VPNs around.

Astrill VPN has a proprietary protocol in Stealth VPN that specializes in evading the two most powerful censorship methods by The Great Firewall – deep packet inspection (DPI) and firewall blocks. Stealth VPN is seemingly more reliable at evading detection than the more common OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols.

Deep packet inspection involves scrutinizing data packets as and when they pass through a checkpoint on the network and is one of the most efficient ways of detecting VPN use, so Astrill’s ability to evade it is commendable.

Another feature that makes Astrill VPN a good fit for users in China is its Smart Mode. Instead of assigning you a foreign IP address which is very easy for governments to block, the Smart Mode assigns you a regional IP address. This helps you in two ways: you get the fastest speeds possible which wouldn’t be the case with a foreign IP, and two, you can easily stream local TV and news channels in China.

Now, you may want more security for yourself – this is where Astrill’s multi-hop feature comes into play. This routes your traffic through an additional VPN server so that anyone trying to trace your activities loses the trail – and while it’s probably overkill in most situations, it does offer extra peace of mind.

There are, however, quite a few downsides. First of all, Astrill VPN is poor as a streaming VPN – in my hands-on Astrill VPN review, I could only get access to US Netflix, while services like BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ were totally blocked. Not great, considering rivals such as NordVPN and Surfshark can unblock just about everything under the sun. Both of those providers are also much cheaper than Astrill VPN.

Astrill also has relatively few servers – around 300 – which means at busy times you may find yourself suffering from slower connections.

However, for those who will be truly relying on their China VPN to blend in with the local IP addresses and evade all types of blocks used by the Chinese government, it's probably the most effective VPN for the job, and is widely recommended on forums and Reddit, which can only be a good thing. Just make sure you can afford it.

Surfshark: top-quality cheap China VPN

Netherlands-based Surfshark is my favorite cheap VPN, and it’s also a good choice for those traveling to China. With charmingly simple interfaces, its desktop and mobile apps ranked highly in my expert Surfshark review, are incredibly easy to use and deliver excellent performance.

That doesn't mean that it lacks power, though. While not quite as configurable as ExpressVPN, Surfshark offers great security through strong encryption, a number of different protocols, a useful kill switch, and split tunneling. There's also double-hop, and the NoBorders feature combined with Camouflage Mode is what allows it to unblock content within China.

The Camouflage Mode makes your VPN traffic look like a regular internet connection by removing any VPN traces. This makes bypassing content restrictions easier, as the Chinese government won’t be able to monitor your activities.

The unique NoBorders mode is specially designed to increase maneuverability in highly restricted areas like China, and is analogous to what other providers call 'obfuscation'. If and when the Surfshark app on your device senses any kind of restrictions on your current connection, it’ll switch the NoBorders mode on – it’ll give you a list of servers capable of bypassing those restrictions, ensuring you always enjoy a smooth-sailing VPN connection.

I tested the kill switch on all supported devices, and it performed just as I’d expected on most of them. However, when pushed to the limit, the Windows kill switch did leak – but this was in a situation that’s very unlikely to happen in the real world.

Surfshark is also a very fast bit of kit, and with its unlimited simultaneous connections policy, you can cover absolutely every device you own – whether, for some inexplicable reason, you've taken a dozen phones on holiday to China, or you want to cover every device in your household behind the Great Firewall. Plenty for your money, then.

As one of the most budget-friendly China VPNs, Surfshark offers tremendous value for the price, and if you’re willing to overlook the absence of a few advanced features found in Nord or Express, there’s no beating the speeds, unblocking, and super-friendly customer support of Surfshark. There’s also a month-long money-back guarantee, so you can try it before you commit to it.

TorGuard: speedy and effective, but poor for streaming

Much like Astrill, you won’t often see TorGuard on my other guides, but it’s an excellent option when it comes to acting as a China VPN. It uses similar Stealth VPN technology as Astrill to disguise your VPN traffic as regular web traffic and give you unrestricted internet access when in China.

You can choose one of its many Stealth VPN servers from the app. I recommend “Asia Optimized” for the best experience, as these servers can reach all popular ISPs, such as ChinaTelecom, ChinaUnicom, and Taiwan’s HiNet. It appears that the provider also frequently updates its apps to maintain China VPN support – and this can only be a good thing.

While the 3,000+ servers are more than decent and almost at par with ExpressVPN and Surfshark, TorGuard is present in an underwhelming 50 or so countries, making it the least expansive VPN on the list.

For day-to-day usage, TorGuard's pretty good too. In my TorGuard review, it actually matched Surfshark in terms of connection speeds, at 950 Mbps when using WireGuard.

However, if you're looking for a VPN to unblock streaming content with, TorGuard is not the right choice – I couldn't access any premium streaming site barring BBC iPlayer, when connected.

That said, TorGuard has a paid add-on that works better for streaming but for its standard price, I expected better – ExpressVPN and NordVPN remain my top choices for streaming.

It’s worth noting that to reliably evade the Firewall, you’ll need to configure TorGuard to suit your needs.

While this sort of setup is a bonus for techies, those new to VPN may well have issues. The interface is quite chaotic and clunky, too – certainly not convenient for beginners.

Overall though, TorGuard is a very usable VPN that's dedicated to unblocking the web in China. Its 7-day money-back guarantee isn't as generous as others, but at least you'll still be able to test it out before you commit.

How to choose a China VPN

Since many VPNs won't work in China, simply being able to get online as a China VPN is a useful first step.

The Great Firewall of China is constantly evolving—and that means it just gets better and better at spotting, and banning, VPNs. In addition, China's government imposes strict measures to keep folks away from certain sites, services, and platforms.

I'd recommend opting for a VPN with obfuscation (cloaking) technology that'll help you evade this censorship. Obfuscation disguises the fact that you're using a VPN at all so, to any snoopers, your encrypted connection will look like normal traffic.

DNS leak protection and a reliable kill switch are must-haves, too. If you're relying on your VPN to keep your digital footprint confidential, you won't want to be unknowingly leaking personal information. DNS leak protection makes sure that you're not leaving an identifiable trail across the web—and a kill switch will leap into action and cut your internet connection if the VPN drops, preventing your original IP address from leaking.

Then, I'd highly recommend seeking a service with 24/7 live-chat support. If you run into any issues with your China VPN, you'll be able to contact your provider and they should be able to remedy your problem. A money-back guarantee is also well worth finding, since no VPN can guarantee a 100% success rate in the country. If it fails, at least you'll get your money back.

When reviewing ExpressVPN, the provider ticked all these boxes, which is why it features here. For many, though, the best China VPN will be Astrill VPN. While its apps lacks the polish of bigger names, it's highly regarded and widely recommended as one of the best for getting online in China.

NB: I highly recommend signing up to and installing VPN before you step on the plane to China. Once you're there, you may find your provider's website is blocked and that the app has disappeared from your app store.

What servers should I use in China?

When it comes to picking a server, you'll want to choose one that's located as close to your real-life position as possible. Doing so means that your data doesn't have as far to travel, and ensures that you're getting the best speeds possible and a reliable connection.

If you're in China, however, this can be a tough task. The country is massive and, as a result, sometimes your closest server will be across the border.

For example, if you're looking for a Hong Kong VPN, ExpressVPN has local servers that'll suit you down to the ground. For anyone miles away in Xinjiang, however, you'll be better off joining a server in India, Pakistan, or Mongolia, as they'll be nearer, more stable, and offer better speeds.

How I test the best VPN services

When it comes to recommending a product that users will entrust with quite possibly every byte of their online life, I have to be absolutely sure that my choices are correct, and thoroughly tested.

Unlike some sites, we don't simply reel off a spec sheet and declare the provider with most impressive claims the winner. Instead, we have a dedicated team in-house that gets hands-on with all the providers listed (and more).

Every 6 months, after scouring the website for new claimed features or changes in policy, we sign up to a plan and install it on a range of devices. The Windows app sees the most rigorous testing, and it's here that we'll try to break the kill switch, ensure any leak protection is working correctly, and measure connection speeds.

The other apps, including the Mac VPN, iPhone VPN, and Android VPN also see comprehensive testing, and we'll check every available setting in every app to make sure it's functioning as promised by the provider.

As we use the apps, if anything appears to be behaving strangely we'll investigate that. We might dig into the source code, or view the contents of its RAM. This general usage stage is also how we make decisions on aesthetics and ease of use – although these are admittedly more subjective.

Then comes the streaming testing. We'll test each VPN with all the big streaming sites from a number of locations to ensure it's working as claimed. As Netflix is still hugely popular and somewhat troublesome when it comes to VPNs, we test the biggest providers every month to make sure my recommendations are still relevant.

To find out more, I've outlined exactly how we test VPNs.

Best China VPN FAQ