5 Best VPNs Turkey in 2024: Safe, Unrestricted Web Access (2024)

More than 130,000 websites were blocked in Turkey in 2019 and things are only getting worse.

A new law passed in 2020 that forces Social Media companies to store user data, remove content, and slow bandwidth at the government’s demand.

Several VPN providers are also blocked!

This is why you need the best VPN for privacy and security– so you don’t end up in jail like several bloggers and independent journalists.

At the same time, the chosen VPN needs to unblock a wide range of websites and any that might be blocked in the future.

Speed is also relevant, considering that the Turkish internet isn’t the fastest in the world.

Uploading your last travel photos to the cloud can take hours!

Believe me, it happened to me a week ago.

Find in the following sections the 5 VPN services which cover the mentioned features and more!

Here are the chosen ones:

• ExpressVPN – Best overall for Turkey & streaming international series and local content with its Turkish server in Istanbul.
• Surfshark – Best for privacy.No one will know you are using a VPN in Turkey.
• NordVPN – Unique set of security features to be protected from surveillance.
• VyprVPN – Fastest in Turkey & best price.
• CyberGhost – More Turkish servers to access local content when abroad.

Join me for an in-depth analysis of each VPN service and find the one better fitting your needs in or out of Turkey.

The following analysis focuses on the key areas that a VPN service should cover for Turkey, such as privacy, security, and unblocking content.

I also performed some speed tests.

For reference, here’s my speed without any VPN.

You need a VPN with state-of-the-art technology to be protected from mass surveillance systems.

That way, the Turkish government can’t access your private information.

It should have:

• AES 256-bit encryption, or stronger
• No leaks of any kind (IP, DNS, or WebRTC)
• A kill-switch
• A feature or special servers for obfuscation
• No-logs policy. Proven by independent audits or even better, by a court case. If the VPN service offers RAM-only servers, that’s a plus.

The VPN service should come with an ad-blocker and anti-malware to block trackers which can steal your data while browsing in Turkey.

Features like multi-hopping, TOR integrations, and modern protocols (like WireGuard) are also a big plus.

The VPN you choose should be capable of bypassing online censorship to access popular websites and apps.

Not long ago, Turkish authorities blocked Facebook, Whatsapp, and other platforms.

We’ll cover that in the following sections.

Even better if the VPN unblocks streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer.

Fast speeds are especially necessary if you plan on using obfuscation or special security features.

The Turkish Internet is slow, and extra protection will impact your connection negatively.

Numbers may vary a lot per country and server but take as a reference that your internet speed shouldn’t drop more than 30% with the VPN on.

The price doesn’t always reflect the quality of the service.

Analyze which features come in the basic subscription (security and reliability are essential for Turkey), the different plan fees, and how many devices you can connect with one subscription.

Have these values in mind:

• A monthly plan costs around $10/month
• A 1-year plan costs around $5/month
• VPN providers usually allow at least 5 multiple connections
• The best VPN providers include special features for security and obfuscation in their basic subscription
• Most VPN providers give a 30-day money-back guarantee

If you plan on visiting other countries, having a VPN with servers in Turkey will help you access local content that’s blocked outside of it.

With a Turkish IP, you can:

• Stream on Netflix great Turkish movies and films like Aşk Tesadüfleri Sever 2 (I liked it more than the first one!) and Recep İvedik 6.
• Watch all the football matches of the Süper Lig on TRT Spor.
• Access Türk Bankası e-banking portal from abroad, and more!

Are you planning to use the VPN on your iOS Tablet?

Check the VPN provider has compatibility with your devices and that they offer all the relevant features for them too.

Sometimes a feature is included for one OS but not another.

Also, check the VPN service isn’t currently banned in Turkey.

Some of the most renowned VPN providers’ websites are blocked in the country.

Thereby, you won’t be able to access their resources.

You may need to download the application before arriving if you’re traveling to Turkey.

Why?

In 2007, the Internet Act of 2007 (Law No. 5651) was enacted to regulate Turkish internet space.

This Law prohibits:

• crimes against Atatürk, founder father of Republic of Turkey
• offering or promoting prostitution
• providing place and opportunity for gambling
• unauthorized online gambling and betting
• sexual abuse of children
• encouraging suicide
• supplying drugs that are dangerous for health
• facilitation of the abuse of drugs
• downloading of MP3 and movies in violation of copyright laws
• insults against state organizations and private persons
• crimes related to terrorism
• violation of trademark regulations
• unfair trade regulated under the Turkish Commercial Code
• violation of Articles 24, 25, 26, and 28 of the Constitution (freedoms of religion, expression, thought, and freedom of press)

In February 2014, the Turkish Parliament changed that law, providing legal means to enforce it.

The reason?

The government stated it’s trying to fight internet crime and determine liability.

The modified law from 2014:

• allows the telecommunications authority (TIB) to block any website within 4 hours without first seeking a court ruling.
• requires internet providers to store all data on web users’ activities for two years and make it available to the authorities upon request.

There were more amendments in 2015, adding “national security” as a basis for broad access bans.

In practice, these laws have been frequently used to convict political dissidents and to block independent news sources, popular social media platforms, messenger applications, and even some VPN providers’ websites.

Some examples:

• In September 2017, Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled that having ByLock mobile messaging application installed on their phone is enough evidence to convict a suspect as a member of the FETÖ
• In July 2019, the Turkish independent news site Bianet was banned. It later emerged that the ban was made by accident, and only specific articles were supposed to be blocked. But 135 other independent news sites which were also blocked remained offline.
• According to data published by NetBlocks, social media platforms and messaging services were blocked in Turkey for 16 hours after the country launched airstrikes against Syria between 27 and 28 February 2020.

In 2021, the government passed a new amendment of Law No. 5651, forcing social media platforms with over one million daily users to open offices in Turkey and store user data.

That targets companies like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and others, forcing them to comply when the government demands they remove content or even slow bandwidth.

If you’re concerned about your personal information, using a free VPN in Turkey (or elsewhere) isn’t a good idea.

Running a VPN service has several costs like the physical servers, webpage, offices, employees, marketing, etc.

How are these costs covered?

If the VPN service is provided for free, it may:

• be fake and full of malware
• sell your personal information
• have very limited features and/or poorly implemented security

These aren’t only assumptions.

There are many examples.

According to this 2019 paper performed by CSIRO, UNSW, ICSI, and UC Berkeley, 38% of free Android VPN apps contain Malware.

Here’s an example of one of the most popular free VPN services.

It was discovered selling users’ bandwidth for botnets.

In the less-bad scenario of a VPN service cutting corners, it may:

• have bandwidth restrictions
• offer a very limited server selection
• lack proper security. For example, using a less computationally exhaustive cryptographic protocol that is known to be vulnerable.

In 2018, a free VPN service browser extension was hacked twice in 3 months, and many users got their crypto wallets compromised.

If you need to use a free VPN, choose a freemium VPN service (a free VPN with a premium option) from a reliable provider.

A good example is ProtonVPN.

Their free version offers 17 servers in 3 countries (US, Netherlands, and Japan) and no data limits, though it’s only for one device.

Yet, the ProtonVPN free version lacks important security features (Secure Core), which are especially useful in a country enforcing censorship like Turkey.

The service provider webpage is also sometimes blocked in the country.

You can get a discount on the ProtonVPN premium version here.

Or you can get my number one VPN for Turkey here!

Starting to use a VPN in Turkey is fast and straightforward.

Here’s how:

1. Choose the best VPN service for your needs and buy a subscription. In this example, we’ll be showing how to do it with ExpressVPN.
2. Download and install the VPN app on your device(s).

3. Open the VPN app and sign in to your account.
4. Click the Power button to let ExpressVPN choose the fastest server near you. Or, if you need a server from a specific country, click the … and select your preferred location.

5. Open your browser and check for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks.
6. It’s important to verify everything is working properly!
7. Enjoy! 🙂

With an IP address from Turkey, you’ll be able to access local content, for example:

• your favorite series on BluTV, Puhu TV, Kanal D and more!
• the football matches of your team in TRT Sport
• the online banking webpage of your Turkish bank

And getting a Turkish IP address is also very easy!

Follow these steps:

1. Choose a VPN with servers in Turkey. Here you can see how many Turkish servers each provider on my list has:

2. Buy a subscription, download, install, open the VPN app, and sign in to your account. For the following steps, we’ll be showing how to do it with ExpressVPN.
3. Open the servers list window clicking on … and type in the search bar Turkey.

4. Click on Turkey to connect.

5. Open your browser and check for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks. It’s important to verify everything is working properly!
6. Enjoy local content from anywhere 🙂

To use a VPN to watch Netflix US in Turkey, follow these easy steps:

1. Choose from my list of recommended VPNs (all work with Netflix) or use another one you found.
2. Purchase a subscription, download the app, and sign in.
3. Choose a US server. Check if any are explicitly optimized for streaming or Netflix. For ExpressVPN you won’t need to do any check as all US servers work great for Netflix US.

4. Open your browser and check for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks. It’s important to verify everything is working properly!
5. Navigate to the Netflix app or website.
6. Enjoy 🙂

What’s Port Forwarding?

Port forwarding is a method used to tell your router to send data through a specific port to your device’s dedicated IP, which is different from your network IP.

This also allows you to send and receive data that the network firewall usually blocks.

Turkish authorities use two methods for blocking VPNs:

• Identifying every VPN server in the world and adding it to a blacklist to be blocked by ISP’s firewalls. That’s very resource-consuming, so only some VPN providers are being targeted.
• Blocking internet traffic from traveling to and from ports that VPNs often use. The frequently used ports for VPN traffic depend on the protocol used. For example, IPSec uses ports 500 and 4500 UDP, and OpenVPN uses 1194 TCP/UDP.

One of OpenVPN’s greatest strengths is that its traffic can be forwarded to any port on the TCP and UDP range.

Port 443 is primarily used for HTTPS traffic, which is encrypted using the same algorithm as OpenVPN traffic: SSL.

That means HTTPS and OpenVPN traffic looks very similar for someone sniffing your network packages.

HTTPS is also essential for internet browsing, so authorities can’t block it.

That makes forwarding your OpenVPN traffic to port 443 TCP an attractive alternative for bypassing internet blocks in Turkey.

You can configure Port forwarding on your WiFi router.

The procedure will depend on your router’s firmware.

Here’s how to change the OpenVPN port for the VPN service in our list, VyprVPN.

Some VPN services allow performing port forwarding from within their apps.

You can read our guide to find out which are the best VPNs with built-in port forwarding.

As we saw in previous sections, using a P2P file-sharing site or service to download or distribute copyright material is forbidden by Turkish (and International) law.

In practice, popular tracker websites aren’t blocked nor are authorities enforcing this law (yet).

However, if your ISP detects you’re downloading too much, they may limit your bandwidth.

To avoid problems or slow speeds, use a VPN service for torrenting in Turkey.

All the VPN services on our list offer P2P-optimized servers, unlimited bandwidth, and fast speeds.

For blogging securely, you need to use a VPN service with a proven no-logs policy and robust privacy & security features.

Follow the steps in the previous sections on how to connect to your preferred VPN service.

Then, consider this checklist to verify you have the most secure configuration:

• Enable obfuscation features or connect to obfuscated servers
• Enable ad-blocker and anti-malware if available
• Verify the kill-switch is on for your entire internet connection

• Open your browser and check for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks

Websites showing content prohibited by law No. 5651 and, in practice, independent media articles or even posts on social media platforms.

Renowned platforms blocked in the past by Turkish authorities include:

• BlogSpot
• Deezer
• Dropbox
• Facebook (and Messenger)
• Google Apps (Docs, Drive, Translate, etc.)
• IMDB
• Instagram
• Metacafe (still blocked 09/2021)
• OneDrive
• Periscope
• Twitter
• Wikipedia
• WikiLeaks (still blocked 09/2021)
• WhatsApp
• WordPress
• YouTube
• Vimeo
• Paypal (stopped operations in Turkey in 2016)

Others are blocked or rate-limited some days or at random times.

For example, ThePirateBay and NordVPN websites.

VPNs are legal in Turkey, but some major providers are blocked or limited.

According to Turkish authorities, the ban on some VPNs started in 2016 as a way of fighting against criminality and terrorism.

Nowadays, several VPNs are still blocked or working intermittently in Turkey.

This is the list of VPN services that currently (09/2021) have their domains blocked:

• Hotspot Shield
• IPVanish
• ProtonVPN
• Tunnelbear
• HolaVPN
• Mullvad
• NordVPN (works irregularly)
• VyprVPN (works irregularly)
• Private Internet Access (PIA)

TOR anonymous browsing network has been blocked in Turkey since 2016, as part of a set of actions by the Turkish government to “fight online crime and terrorism.”

You may use it by connecting to a VPN first.

Another option is to use a VPN that offers this setup in their features, like NordVPN’s Onion Over VPN.

No, a physical server is physically located in the country, while a virtual server has an IP address registered in it but is physically located somewhere else.

A virtual server is especially useful for countries with high censorship, where having a physical server may not be possible or too risky for the privacy of the information handled.

However, as the virtual server is in another location, your data will have an additional journey to where the physical server is.

That will make your connection slower than if you connected to a server nearby.

For example, NordVPN and Surfshark’s Turkish servers are physically located in Turkey.

ExpressVPN’s Turkish virtual server is located in the Netherlands.

Turkey actively blocks content, and the situation is getting worse year by year.

For that reason, you need a reliable VPN provider capable of unblocking any content.

In case you require special obfuscation, consider Surfshark.

If you need special security features and better speed, try NordVPN.

Both NordVPN and Surfshark offer better pricing than ExpressVPN.

Here you have a discount for Surfshark, and here for NordVPN.

But if you care about reliability, ExpressVPN is the provider you are looking for!

Sign-up with a monumental discount by clicking here.