Living in Saudi Arabia comes with its pros and cons just like living in a part of the world. Turns out ‘the internet’ is a primary factor in any country’s economy and here, Saudi has some repressive and restrictive rules governing the same. Changing an IP address using VPN is one of the popular methods to get access to otherwise banned or blocked content such as sports, movies, web series, news, the internet, and more.
Let’s say you want to get an Indian IP address in Saudi Arabia. Why would you do it? Well, we have answered the question in this next segment along with the exact procedure on how you can do it. Accessing an Indian IP address opens the floodgate of content that either the government or the respective services geo-restricted in Saudi Arabia. Certain calling apps don’t work in the country but with an Indian IP address, you can call your friends and family without any hassle.
We will be taking considerations from ExpressVPN which is a leading VPN app out there available across iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows OS among others.
Why Do You Need a VPN to Get an Indian IP Address in Saudi Arabia?
It might be difficult to wrap your head around why you would need a VPN to access an Indian IP address in Saudi Arabia. For starters, using VPN in Saudi Arabia is legal and you can use it without any issues. The only problem is, the Saudi Arabia government blocks access to many websites and apps where a VPN can help bypass it.
One of the primary examples is Disney+ Hotstar. It is a great app if you love streaming shows, movies, and live events such as crickets and kabaddi among others. Since Disney+ Hotstar is available in a handful of countries, it may not be available in Saudi Arabia. Even if it’s available in the MENA region, it might be localized or limited in terms of content available, defeating the purpose of a subscription to Hotstar in the first place.
Accessing social media and messaging services that are active in India only. It is only one of the potential reasons why anyone living in Saudi Arabia would use a VPN to change their IP address.
Also, Saudi Arabia often has repressive policies when it comes to the internet. You might not be able to roam around the web as freely as you would outside the country. There might be restrictions on certain world events, current affairs, and sports events, among others. Thus, a VPN such as ExpressVPN can give you access to the world by changing your Saudi IP address to an Indian IP address to get access to more content online.
How To Choose the Best VPN?
You might ask, how do you actually choose the best VPN? Here are a few pointers that will help you get the best premium VPN out there.
Servers and Locations: As a general rule of thumb, the more servers you have and the corresponding locations, the better a VPN is. Getting more servers ensures you are always in line with a less-crowded and nearby server out there.
Speeds: More servers often translates into the fact that you might have servers in the same country or neighboring ones. Speeds are directly proportional to the distance. Thus, the closer you are to a closer, the faster the speed. Moreover, having a good speed ensures you are able to access VPN without any hassle.
Security: You are obviously entrusting a VPN app with your data and privacy. Thus, it becomes imperative to choose a VPN app that satisfies your internet requirements while ensuring complete anonymity on the web and security for your data exchanged from one node to another.
Compatibility: Freemium VPNs might be available for Android but not for Windows OS or iOS. However, a premium VPN will be compatible with most of the platforms out there giving you access to its VPN service no matter what device you pair it with.
Advanced Features: Kill switch, split tunneling, multi-hop, simultaneous connections, and Tor over VPN, are a few advanced features that you will need for a better VPN experience.
Customer Support: When you use a product or service, having customer support ensures you have someone to turn to in case something doesn’t work out. Premium VPNs such as ExpressVPN, and SurfShark, among others, have customer support that gives a sense of truth and reliability to the users.
How to Get an Indian IP Address in Saudi Arabia?
Finally, we are at the helm of this blog where we will talk about how you can get an Indian IP address while in Saudi Arabia.
Here’s the situation. Assume that you want to stream or access something from India that may not be available in Saudi Arabia i.e. geoblocked or simply regulated by the local government and thus, unavailable in Saudi Arabia. I will be using ExpressVPN for the procedure although it is rather similar across all the premium VPNs you can try except for the difference in UI and the deliverables.
1. First up, you need to download ExpressVPN on your phone or PC. Go to its website (www.expressvpn.com) or you can go via Play Store or App Store to get your hands on it.
2. Once you have installed it, launch the app on your device.
3. You can avail ExpressVPN Free Version for 7 days or get a premium subscription that comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Note: If you will be using VPN for a long time, I would suggest going for a subscription since you have a money-back guarantee anyways.
4. If you are connected to a server by default i.e. Smart Location, you can tap on ‘Disconnect’. If not, proceed with the next step.
5. Tap on the ellipses icon i.e. three horizontally stacked dots to access VPN locations.
6. You can check out the ‘Recommended‘ section to spot Indian servers. Or go to the ‘All Locations’ section.
7. Tap on ‘Asia Pacific’ to scan through the list of servers.
8. Search for servers in India. You can even search for the servers directly via the ‘Search Bar’ on top without scouring the list.
9. Connect to the nearest server residing in India that will give you an Indian IP address while you are physically in Saudi Arabia.
10. You should be able to check the current server location on the home screen of the app to verify your connection. The IP address would change too.
11. Click on the centrally placed button to ‘Disconnect‘.
The Best VPNs For Indian IP Address in Saudi Arabia in 2023
ExpressVPN
| Servers | 3,000+ Servers |
| Locations | 94 Countries |
| Simultaneous Connections | Up to 5 Devices |
| Encryption and Protocol | AES 256-bit CBC encryption with OpenVPN TCP/UDP, Lightway, IKEv2, and L2TP/IPSec |
| Advanced Features | Split Tunneling, Kill Switch |
With 3,000+ servers and 94 countries, there’s no way you could miss ExpressVPN from this list. Its subscription unlocks up to 5 simultaneous connections, split tunneling, and a kill switch among others. Express uses military-grade encryption and protocol for a speedy and secure connection keeping the intruders outside. The VPN uses a no-logs policy as well so no activities you’d do online are recorded whatsoever.
SurfShark VPN
| Servers | 3,200+ Servers |
| Locations | 100+ Countries |
| Simultaneous Connections | Unlimited |
| Encryption and Protocol | AES 256-bit CBC encryption with OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP, Shadowsocks, WireGuard and IKEv2 |
| Advanced Features | SurfShark One, Split Tunneling, Smart DNS, Multi-hop, Kill Switch |
With more than 3,200+ servers across 100+ countries, SurfShark is a leading VPN app available for Android, iOS, and other platforms. It offers advanced features such as Split Tunneling, Multi-hop, Kill Switch, Smart DNS, among other features. The military-grade encryption protects all your data while the ability to choose between multiple protocols aids in speedier and more secure connection from a node to node. You can read our SurfShark review to know more.
Private Internet Access VPN
| Servers | 29,650+ Servers |
| Locations | 84 Countries |
| Simultaneous Connections | Up to 10 Devices |
| Encryption and Protocol | AES-128 and AES-256-GCM encryption with PPTP, WireGuard, IPSec/L2TP, OpenVPN, and SOCKS5 |
| Advanced Features | Split Tunneling, Multi-hop, Kill Switch, Ad & Tracker Blocker |
With a catalog of 29,650+ servers, Private Internet Access VPN is a to-go VPN app if you are looking for a volume of servers. Spread across 84 countries and with up to 10 simultaneous connections, the Private Internet Access VPN is said to give you exceptional streaming and torrenting capabilities. Its no-logs policy has been audited by Deloitte giving a much-needed gravitas to it. Read our Private Internet Access VPN Review for detailed info.
CyberGhost VPN
With 9,079+ servers and 91+ countries, CyberGhost VPN has established its foothold being one of the few VPNs with servers in thousands. It has 29 virtual servers in India giving you access to it’s military-grade encryption, unlimited simultaneous connections, and advanced features such as a kill switch, SafeSwap, and multi-hop among others. Affordable pricing is the cherry on the cake. Read the CyberGhost review.
Wrapping Up
With that, we come to the end of the blog crafted around “How to get an Indian IP address in Saudi Arabia”. Social media platforms; streaming platforms for movies, web series, and games, and browsing geo-restricted websites including some finance apps (if not all) among others appear to be one of the leading reasons why people switch to VPN while living in countries that have internet censorship. Saudi Arabia is in the 4th position when it comes to VPN downloads as of 2022.
The extract gives you step-by-step instructions on how you can get an Indian IP address in Saudi Arabia. We have packed in our take on some of the leading VPN apps you can download and enjoy borderless and censor-free internet. Do note that using VPN may expose you to threats on the web so user discretion is advised.
