Country research
Which VPNs work in Pakistan in 2026?
Windscribe, Proton VPN and NordVPN have recent reports of working connections in Pakistan, alongside failures. The options below also include Mullvad, Surfshark and alternatives with older supporting reports. Your internet provider and connection settings can make the difference.
This research is based on public material online, not our own tests in Pakistan. For VPN availability, we consider information from the last six months.
Which options should you consider?
| Service | Confidence | Conditions and limitations |
|---|---|---|
| Windscribe | Medium | Positive reports include Zong and Telenor. Stealth can help, but connections may take time. |
| Proton VPN | Medium | Stealth has worked on Jazz; access to the website and account can be a separate problem. |
| NordVPN | Medium | Works for some broadband and mobile users; elsewhere connection is slow or fails. |
| Mullvad VPN | Medium | Repeated reports of successful use, but little detail about operators or connection settings. |
| Surfshark | Medium | Home internet may work while mobile data fails. Paying for access does not resolve that difference. |
| Psiphon | Medium | A fallback for reaching blocked services; reported speed can be very low. |
| AdGuard VPN | Medium | Several positive June reports, with little information about networks or settings. |
| Hotspot Shield | Medium | June accounts describe successful use; current speed and network coverage remain unclear. |
What to know before choosing
Windscribe
Confidence: Medium
Windscribe has several reports of working connections, including a September account on Zong. Earlier accounts describe use on home broadband and mobile data; one reports success with Stealth, which masks VPN traffic, and another with UDP on Telenor.
It is a reasonable starting option, especially where other VPNs have failed. Some users describe slow connection setup and needing to change servers. The reports do not establish one setting that works across all Pakistani networks.
Proton VPN
Confidence: Medium
Proton VPN has positive reports through September. A more specific June account describes Stealth working on Jazz. Stealth is a traffic-masking mode available on both free and paid plans.
Other users cannot connect even with Stealth, or cannot reach Proton services to sign in. This makes Proton worth considering, but upgrading to a paid plan is not an established solution to these restrictions.
Service detailsNordVPN
Confidence: Medium
NordVPN has several positive accounts, including September reports and an earlier account covering both broadband and mobile data. There are also clear failures: one user could connect at work but not through a home Transworld connection.
The evidence supports considering NordVPN, but does not identify a consistently successful mode. Long connection times and differences between server locations appear in the reports; the service cannot be described as reliably available across the country.
Service detailsMullvad VPN
Confidence: Medium
Mullvad has positive reports within the research period, including September. It is a plausible alternative to the more frequently mentioned services, with more than a single recommendation supporting its inclusion.
The accounts provide little information about the networks and settings used. We cannot point to a particular protocol or operator combination that has been corroborated in Pakistan, so the evidence supports considering the service rather than promising an easy connection.
Surfshark
Confidence: Medium
Surfshark has mixed reports, with successful use as well as failed connections. A September account makes a useful distinction: it works over Wi-Fi but not over mobile data. Earlier users also report both outcomes.
This is an option to consider for a fixed internet connection, with more uncertainty for mobile use. The reports do not establish a particular Surfshark setting that reliably fixes failed connections in Pakistan.
Service detailsPsiphon
Confidence: Medium
Psiphon has reports from May and June of providing access when another VPN would not connect. Its emphasis is on getting through restrictions, and it can be considered as a fallback when access matters more than speed.
Slow performance is a material limitation in these accounts. They support trying Psiphon for basic access, not assuming that video calls or large downloads will work well. Its supporting reports are older than those for the first five services.
AdGuard VPN
Confidence: Medium
AdGuard VPN has positive reports from more than one user in June. That gives it a place among the alternatives, although the available accounts are brief.
We did not establish a newer corroborated result or a specific operator and mode combination. It is an option to consider with greater uncertainty about present-day performance; the reports do not justify assuming that it works everywhere.
Hotspot Shield
Confidence: Medium
Hotspot Shield has June reports describing use in Pakistan, including a paid subscription and use of the free service alongside another VPN. These are accounts of use, rather than just mentions of the brand.
The evidence is older and does not establish a reliable connection mode, speed or coverage across operators. It belongs among the alternatives, with less recent support than the services with September reports.
Service detailsHow is VPN access restricted in Pakistan?
Restrictions are uneven. Recent reports describe the same VPN working on one connection and failing on another, including differences between home broadband and mobile data. There is no basis for treating every connection failure as a nationwide ban on that service.
Access can fail before the VPN connects
Users report being unable to reach VPN websites or sign in, especially to Proton services. Access to a website, an account and a VPN server are separate stages: a working tunnel does not mean that the service’s website is reachable without it.
Traffic filtering and connection protocols
Reports of ordinary connections failing while a masked mode works are consistent with protocol filtering. DPI can recognise traffic patterns without reading the encrypted contents. These accounts do not establish the exact filtering rules on each operator, and changing the protocol does not always help.
Mobile and fixed networks behave differently
There are both working and failed mobile connections in the available accounts. A blanket claim that all mobile VPN traffic or all UDP traffic is blocked would contradict that evidence. Congestion and routing faults can also cause failures, so a user report alone cannot identify every failure as deliberate blocking.
Could your own VPN server help?
Yes, a personal server can work where a commercial service is inaccessible, but it is not automatically immune to filtering. Both the server address and the traffic it produces must remain reachable. Reports from Pakistan support several approaches, with different limits.
WireGuard
There are reports of working personal WireGuard servers, including on mobile data, alongside accounts of failed connections. It is a viable straightforward option on networks that allow it. WireGuard uses UDP and does not disguise its traffic, so a new server alone may not solve protocol filtering.
OpenVPN
A personal OpenVPN connection has been reported working on one network and failing on another. It is worth considering for your own server, but its availability depends on the internet provider and the filtering in place.
AmneziaWG
A June account describes recovering connectivity by moving to AmneziaWG. It modifies WireGuard traffic to make its usual signatures harder to recognise. This supports it as an alternative when ordinary WireGuard fails, but it still relies on UDP and the local evidence is limited.
XRay with VLESS and REALITY
There is a first-hand account of using VLESS with REALITY, plus a separate report of VLESS/V2Ray working on Jazz and Ufone. XRay is software that can provide such connections; VLESS with REALITY is designed to make the connection harder to distinguish from ordinary TLS traffic. This is a plausible choice where conventional VPN protocols fail, with more setup work and no guarantee on every network.
Tools for setting up a server
Amnezia and Hiddify can simplify deployment and configuration. Choose the connection technology first: the name of the management app does not determine whether your provider will let the traffic through. A server hosted abroad also adds hosting costs and maintenance.
How we assessed these options
We searched in English, Urdu and Roman Urdu, checking public accounts of use alongside technical documentation. We considered successful connections and failures, distinguished repeated posts from independent reports, and excluded unsupported recommendations. Most of the usable local accounts came from community discussions in English and Roman Urdu.
Medium confidence means there is enough evidence to consider an option within the limits described. It is not a probability of success or a guarantee. None of these services has enough recent, detailed independent confirmation for high confidence; some alternatives rely on older reports within the six-month window.