Best VPN for China 2023

VPN
1

Hi all, will be back in China later this year after a few month hiatus, and I want some thoughts on a good VPN to use for now in 2023.

Express is known trash, as is Nord. Used both end of last year 2022 in China and reliability was trash.

PureVPN worked well enough then, but reliability was very imperfect and slow, so easily detected by GFW. A good backup at this point IMO.

What are some good options? Astrill I hear is good, but pricey. I don’t mind re-flashing my router with dd-wrt and configuring it that way, but seems like more trouble than it’s worth. Also open to some local Chinese options.

Deeper Network card? Shadowsocks? I’m looking for something GFW-bypassing solutions with a balance of minimal setup, maximum uptime, minimal throttling, and lowest price. Any suggestions?

Edit: the ideal solution would work equally well on both MacOS and iOS

2

100$ per year, where please?

it’s 180€ for me before tax, the final price at point of credit card entry was 230€ per year.

Paying 230€ for something that works 90% of the time while there are better alternatives is up to each individual.

Seems like these are now becoming ads for astrill, read old posts ffs, there are two per day now that China has opened.

3

Astrill works 99% of the time for me. I spend more in two days to satisfy my coffee habit than I spend on Astrill each month.

I also need it for work so the yearly fee is covered after two-three hours of work.

It is well-worth it.

4

Wouldn’t suggest VPN, just use some self built proxy server, they are the best, I used dlercloud.com, pretty good, on their website they have the software to use for everything platform.

5

I usually say Astrill but for the past week it’s been unreliable and not loading pages, for the first time ever.

6

Astril is ~$100 a year, its works perfectly. How much are you guys earning over here that it comes off as pricey? Do you need to move to China to be a barista at starbucks?

(not specifically you, i’ve just heard astril described as pricey a lot recently in this subreddit)

It’s the only one that works in China probably because OpenWeb has some backdoors.

7

Astrill. Don’t know why everyone is complaining about the price. (No you, OP. Just this sub in general). You pay $100-200 a year to have full access to the Internet, after making a deliberate decision of moving to a Communist country where most of the Internet is blocked.

Edit: looks like astrill’s gone up. So $100-200 depending on where / when you subscribed

8

I’m in China now, LetsVPN is working no problem. It’s cheap as chips. It’s worked in Shanghai and Xian so far. Would defo recommend.

9

I had Express and Nord and veee+ …Astrill is the only one that’s stable so I cancelled the others.

10

A small VPN called PremierVPN works very well in China, a few friends also use it, it’s not well known and probably one of the reasons it works really well but it does not support port forwarding if you need this.

11

I am planning a trip to China and need to access Zoom. Anyone can recommend a VPN for Zoom service in China? Thanks!

12

Pick 2:
reliable, cheap, easy/quick to setup.

Sorry, can’t have all three.
Astrill and UU Booster are a good combo for reliable and easy setup. Also works on Mac.

13

chinese gov does not block foreigner. if u use global data plan on your cell phone. you are open to go. Also, the hotel wifi is block free.

14

Any recent updates of best vpn to get for China? I’ll be there for almost a month. Was considering proton though not sure of recent experiences? Thanks in advance!

15

Do you have to tweak Astrill’s settings for it to work in China?

It didn’t work for me, ProtonVPN’s free version worked for me luckily and I ended up using it for a month while I was there.

16

Astrill stole my money so I even though I paid the $160 (idk where $100 is coming from) I never got to use them. I like the strategy of having one of the better ones of the ones you can buy before you come and just getting a Chinese vpn once you get here. The only veep I’ve had (Express, SurfShark, one that will remain unnamed bc it works alright, and the one I bought here: Agakoti) that consistently works on everything is Agakoti

17

Astrill is the best option by far. The price is high, but when you willingly move to China you can’t really complain about it. Restricted internet is a thing here. Astrill is very reliable and a necessary expenditure.

18

I used astrill and found out later some apps still knew my location. The internet worked fine but I needed a location scrambler to use “music” on instagram. Not super big deal but was annoying

19

I still haven’t heard back whether Astrill has good streaming unlocking capabilities, say for Hbomax. I know Proton is good enough for Netflix and Disney+

20

Naxum and wannaflix. Dm If you need more details.