If Celo VPN's small server network, its Australian base or its slow speeds on distant servers are why you're looking elsewhere, you have better-equipped options. Celo is a capable little service with clean leak tests, but it runs around 20 servers and has never published an independent audit.
We compared six alternatives against Celo on privacy, speed, streaming and price, ranked by the scores from our full reviews. NordVPN is our top pick overall, and Proton VPN is the best free replacement. Our Celo VPN review covers the baseline in full.
Celo VPN Alternatives Compared at a Glance
The picks run in score order, with Celo VPN as the last row for reference. Two-year prices marked "promo" renew higher.
| VPN | Servers / countries | Jurisdiction | Streaming | Obfuscation | Devices | Starting price | Free plan / refund | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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9,000+ / 118-167 | Panama | Strong | NordWhisper | 10 | About $3.49/mo(2 yr, promo) | No / 30 days | Check price → |
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20,000+ / 140+ | Switzerland | Strong on paid plans | Stealth | 10 (1 free) | Free; about $2.99/mo(2 yr, promo) | Yes / 30 days | Check price |
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105-113 countries | British Virgin Islands | Strong | Automatic | 10 (Basic) | About $2.79/mo(2 yr, promo) | No / 30 days | Check price |
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4,500+ / 100 | Netherlands | Strong | Camouflage | Unlimited | $2.49/mo(2 yr) | No / 30 days | Check price |
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69 countries (Pro) | Canada | Inconsistent | Unconfirmed | Unlimited | Free; $69/yr | 10GB/mo / 7 days | Check price |
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200+ / 63 | Sweden | Strong Netflix | Stealth VPN | 10 | $2.00/mo(36 mo) | No / 30 days | Check price |
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About 20 / about 15 | Australia | US Netflix | V2Ray/VMess | 8 | $6/mo | No / 10 days |
Why Look for a Celo VPN Alternative?
Celo VPN is run by CELO NET PTY LTD, a small company in New South Wales, Australia. Our review scored it 6.5/10. The reasons to switch come down to scale, jurisdiction and polish.
What Celo VPN Does Well
Celo secures traffic with AES-256 encryption and RSA-2048 key exchange. In our testing, its leak checks came back clean. Repeated runs on multiple servers showed no IP, DNS or WebRTC leaks. Once configured, connections stayed stable enough to leave running for days.
The protocol list is broad for a service this size. It includes WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 and V2Ray/VMess, plus a SOCKS5 proxy on port 1080. Port forwarding, P2P on most servers and crypto payments round it out. US Netflix also unblocked reliably on its US servers.
Where Celo VPN Falls Short
The network is the first limit. Celo advertises over 20 servers in over 15 countries, and the count shifts as locations come and go. Every alternative below runs hundreds or thousands.
Speed follows from that. Our average throughput sat around 36 Mbps, fine for browsing and HD video but short of the top tier. A UK server cost us about 39 percent of our baseline speed, and an Australian server about 71 percent.
Jurisdiction matters too. Australia is a founding member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and no outside firm has audited Celo's no-logs policy.
Five Eyes membership also puts Australia in the wider Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes groups. That doesn't mean Celo shares data, but it is why privacy-first users often prefer providers based in Switzerland or Panama.
Smaller gaps add up. The kill switch is a manual Windows Firewall rule rather than an app toggle, so how well it works depends on your setup. There's no Smart DNS or split tunneling. V2Ray access needs a support ticket, and live chat runs only during Australian business hours. The 10-day refund window is also short next to the 30 days most rivals give you.
1. NordVPN - Best Celo VPN Alternative Overall
NordVPN fixes Celo's two biggest limits at once: network size and outside verification. Our NordVPN review scores it 9.0/10.
Key features
- 9,000+ servers, with the country count depending on how virtual locations are counted
- $14.99 monthly, or about $3.49 a month on the promotional two-year plan
- NordWhisper obfuscation, plus SmartDNS for TVs that can't run a VPN app
How it compares to Celo VPN
NordVPN is based in Panama, outside the Five Eyes, and Deloitte has now checked its no-logs policy six times. The speed gap showed up the moment we connected. Nearby servers cost us only single-digit percentages of download and upload speed, and 4K streams played without buffering. Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, Disney+ and HBO Max all unblocked. When we forced the tunnel to fail, the kill switch cut traffic straight away. The monthly price is higher than Celo's, but the two-year rate works out cheaper.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Top-tier speeds on nearby servers
- Unblocks every major streaming service
- RAM-only servers and post-quantum encryption
Cons
- No free plan
- The desktop map needs zooming to reach city servers
- Renewal charges land about two weeks early
2. Proton VPN - Best Free Celo VPN Alternative
Proton VPN ties NordVPN on score and adds something Celo never offered: a free plan with no data cap. Our Proton VPN review scores it 9.0/10.
Key features
- Free plan with unlimited data, no ads and no credit card, on 1 device
- VPN Plus at $9.99 monthly or about $2.99 a month on the promotional two-year plan
- Stealth protocol, available on the free plan too
How it compares to Celo VPN
Proton is based in Switzerland, outside all three Eyes groups, and Securitum's 2025 audit of Proton VPN found it fully complies with its no-logs policy.
Installation took us about two minutes, and the apps explain each setting in simple, plain language. On the free tier we saw no throttling, although the app picks the server for you. After we upgraded, nearby servers cut our download speed by under 10 percent. Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and Hulu unblocked without server hopping. We found no DNS, IPv6 or WebRTC leaks across dozens of countries.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free plan with no data cap or speed limit
- Open-source apps with Secure Core routing
- Prorated 30-day refund
Cons
- Free plan skips streaming and P2P
- Live chat is not 24/7
- Email replies can take about two days
3. ExpressVPN - Best for Streaming
Where NordVPN wins on raw speed, ExpressVPN wins on consistency. Our ExpressVPN review scores it 8.8/10.
Key features
- Servers in 105 to 113 countries, a figure that keeps growing
- $12.99 monthly, or about $2.79 a month on the promotional two-year plan
- MediaStreamer Smart DNS for devices without VPN apps
How it compares to Celo VPN
ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands and owned by Kape Technologies. KPMG's 2025 assessment of ExpressVPN's privacy policy gives it the outside check Celo lacks.
Connections stayed rock solid through long daily use, and the Network Lock kill switch tripped only rarely. Download speed dropped roughly 37 to 39 percent on Windows and Mac, with ping rising just 5 to 6 ms. Netflix, Hulu and ESPN+ loaded without issues, and obfuscation runs on every server without any setup.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Very stable for all-day use
- RAM-only TrustedServer setup
- Up to 14 devices on the Pro tier
Cons
- No free plan
- Higher monthly price than Celo
- Bigger speed drop than NordVPN
4. Surfshark - Best Budget Alternative (Unlimited Devices)
Surfshark cuts Celo's $6 monthly price by more than half on its two-year plan and removes the device cap. Our Surfshark review scores it 8.6/10.
Key features
- $2.49 a month on the two-year plan, renewing at $79 a year
- Deloitte no-logs assurance in 2023 and again in 2025
- Camouflage mode and NoBorders mode for restrictive networks
How it compares to Celo VPN
Surfshark is based in the Netherlands, a Nine Eyes member, so it isn't the strongest pick on jurisdiction. Speed was a clear step up, though. Download speed dropped about 17 percent on Windows and about 31 percent on macOS, with steady latency. Netflix worked across regions without VPN detection. The native apps made setup on Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV painless. Surfshark retired its SmartDNS feature on February 2, 2026, so TVs now need the app or a router.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Unlimited devices on one plan
- Lowest two-year price among the big names
- Kill switch cuts access instantly
Cons
- Nine Eyes jurisdiction
- Renewal price is much higher
- SmartDNS is gone
5. Windscribe - Best Free Plan with More Locations
Unlike Proton's free tier, Windscribe's free plan lets you choose your own location. Our Windscribe review scores it 8.5/10.
Key features
- Free plan with 10GB a month after confirming an email address (2GB without)
- Free servers in about 10 countries, which Windscribe rotates
- Pro at $9 a month or $69 a year, or Build-a-Plan from $1 per location
How it compares to Celo VPN
Windscribe is based in Canada, which shares the Five Eyes alliance with Celo's Australia. Its no-logs claim has been tested in court, though: a Greek court dismissed charges against its CEO on April 11, 2025, accepting that Windscribe held no user logs.
The free plan keeps the full feature set, including the R.O.B.E.R.T. blocker and the firewall kill switch. Free servers delivered roughly the same speeds as Pro, but congestion caused sudden drops of up to 90 percent. Netflix access was inconsistent, especially on distant servers.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free plan lets you pick the location
- Unlimited devices, even on the free plan
- No-logs claim tested in court
Cons
- Same Five Eyes jurisdiction as Celo
- Congestion causes sharp speed drops
- Refund only within 7 days and under 10GB used
6. PrivateVPN - Best Small-Provider Alternative
PrivateVPN suits anyone who liked Celo's small-company feel but wants more reach. Our PrivateVPN review scores it 8.4/10.
Key features
- $2.00 a month on the 36-month plan ($72 upfront), or $17.99 for three months
- Stealth VPN mode built on a Shadowsocks proxy
- Dedicated IP and port forwarding included
How it compares to Celo VPN
PrivateVPN is based in Sweden, a 14 Eyes member, and Miss Group has owned it since 2022. Like Celo, it has no independent audit, so its privacy case rests on its stated policy.
On nearby servers we lost only about 4 percent of download speed, and a 1.6 GB torrent finished in under 15 minutes. Speeds do swing between runs, and some checks showed average losses near 67 percent. Netflix unblocked across the US, UK, Canadian and Australian libraries, while Disney+ often needed a couple of server switches.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Cheapest long-term plan on this list
- Netflix across four libraries
- 24/7 live chat reaches a human fast
Cons
- No independent audit
- Kill switch is off by default and can leak while switching servers
- Speeds vary from run to run
What About IPVanish, ZoogVPN, and Other Options?
IPVanish scores 8.0/10 in our IPVanish review and allows unlimited devices. It missed the list because it is US-based, another Five Eyes country, and under previous owners it handed connection logs to US authorities in a 2016 case. It has passed no-logs audits since, but streaming was inconsistent by region.
ZoogVPN has a free plan, but our ZoogVPN review scores it 6.5/10, level with Celo. Netflix was blocked in every library we tried, and its kill switch leaked our real IP on macOS during server switches.
Non-VPN Alternatives: Shadowsocks, Proxies, Tor and SSH Tunnels
A full VPN isn't the only way to get around restrictions, but each option below leaves gaps.
Shadowsocks is an encrypted proxy built to beat censorship. It changes your IP for the apps that use it but doesn't tunnel the whole device. Celo has dropped Shadowsocks from its current plan and server pages, so whether it still offers it is unclear; V2Ray/VMess is its current obfuscation option.
Proxies such as HTTP or SOCKS5 act as a middleman that swaps your IP for one app or browser. They don't encrypt internet traffic system-wide.
Tor routes browser traffic through three volunteer relays. It's free and strong for anonymity, but noticeably slower than a VPN and protects only the browser.
SSH tunneling encrypts traffic between you and a server you control, much like a VPN, but it doesn't change your IP the way a proxy does.
How We Picked These Celo VPN Alternatives
We start every VPN with the same checks. These cover speed loss on near and far servers, IP, DNS and WebRTC leak tests, and whether the big streaming services load. Then we weigh jurisdiction, published audits, network size, apps and device limits, and price.
Each provider's rank comes from its score in our full review, so the order here matches the table. Celo's own results, including its clean leak tests and 36 Mbps average, set the bar each pick had to clear.
Free vs Paid: Which Celo VPN Alternative Should You Choose?
Celo has no free plan, so any free option saves you money. Proton VPN's free tier is the one we'd use first, since it has no data cap. The tradeoffs are one device, an auto-picked server and no streaming or P2P.
Windscribe's free plan suits people who need to pick a location. The 10GB monthly allowance covers browsing and email, but not much video.
Stick to free plans from providers that also sell paid ones. Unknown free VPNs can weaken your security, and ZoogVPN's free Windows and Android apps bundle traffic-sharing code.
Paying makes sense if you stream, torrent or cover a household. Surfshark and PrivateVPN both cost less over a long plan than Celo's monthly rate.
Celo VPN Alternatives FAQ
Is Celo VPN safe?
Is Celo VPN free?
Does Celo VPN work with Netflix?
Does Celo VPN have mobile apps?
Is Australia part of the Five Eyes?
Can I use Shadowsocks without Celo VPN?
Final Verdict
NordVPN is the best Celo VPN alternative for most users, and Proton VPN is the one to try first if you want to pay nothing. Choose ExpressVPN if a TV needs Smart DNS, Surfshark for a household full of devices, or PrivateVPN for the lowest long-term price.
Celo still suits someone who wants a small Australian provider with V2Ray and crypto payments. Its Trustpilot page scores it 2.4 out of 5 from 8 reviews, though, and our Celo VPN review explains where it lands against these bigger networks.
