Best VPN for Steam
All avid gamers will agree that no other place on the Internet has as much influence on the games they buy other than Steam. The digital distribution platform allows you to go over tons of reviews covering all types of genres, so that you know what the hottest games in the market currently are. You’ll be able to get both free and premium games such as Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto, Warframe, Dota, Doom and Final Fantasy just to mention a few.
Steam Region Restrictions
As soon as you’re done with signing up, there’s an app you need to install just before you start enjoying those games. The one problem you might encounter here is that the games are available based on the country or region you’re in. If you’re content the games that are available in your region, then you’re all set. However, if you’d like to try out some that are meant for other markets, then you need a solution that will hide your location, so that the site won’t be able to pinpoint where you’re accessing it from.
Best VPN for Steam – Summary
The solution i’m referring to here is a VPN service. It works in this case because it would allow you to access geo-restricted content – the games preserved for other countries. Now, choosing which service to subscribe to might present a few challenges on its own, since there are so many providers in the market. We’ve tried to make things a bit easier for you by reviewing 6 that we think are the best, least likely to cause you any problems. Have a look at them below:
Will Using VPN Get You Banned on Steam?
One thing we feel obliged to point out is the subscriber agreement you’ll come across on the Steam website as you’re signing up. This is what it states: “You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose. If you do this, we may terminate your access to your Account.”
Using a VPN service won’t get you automatically banned from the website, as long as you ensure you’re prepared for anything. This means being savvy enough to pay for the gaming site anonymously. You should opt for using Paypal, or even Bitcoin to do this as these methods won’t reveal much about your location. If you use your canadian credit card number for example and you appear to be located in the US, you’ll definitely raise some suspicions, and could get yourself banned.
Best VPN for Steam – Analysis
Below you can find an in-depth analysis of each of the top VPN service you can use with Steam.
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ExpressVPN
Starting off our list we have ExpressVPN, a provider that many VPN users will agree is the best in the market. They’ve got more than 1500 servers scattered across 90+ countries, meaning it’s highly unlikely that you’ll ever experience any sort of downtime or interference with your connection. Their network benefits from being SSL secured, and includes a 256-bit AES encryption that keeps you protected from any sort of gaming threats.
You’ll be assured of your anonymity online since no logs of your browsing activity are kept. There’s a policy to this effect to show you just how committed the guys at ExpressVPN are towards providing your privacy. They’ve also made sure to include all the well known security protocols just so that your connection is never at any time vulnerable of being intercepted.
You’ll also get to enjoy unlimited bandwidth, meaning you can play your games for as long as you want without having to worry about any data caps. The high connection speeds ensure that you don’t experience any lag as the game goes on.
NordVPN
With servers located in over 49 countries, NordVPN is another reliable provider you might consider enlisting with. They’ll be able to secure your data through double encryption; a feature that not many other providers are able to provide. That, alongside the fact that none of your browsing history is stored by the service should do a lot to convince you to sign up with them.
As soon as you’re done with the signup process and have their app installed on your device, you’ll get to experience super fast gaming speeds, courtesy of their unlimited bandwidth. Also, to ensure your location and identity remain concealed at all times, NordVPN has an Internet Kill Switch built in into their software, that ensures you get immediately disconnected from the Internet whenever your VPN connection gets interrupted.
If you’re still unsure about the service, there’s a 30 day money back guarantee period where you can try it out. Best thing is you’ll get your money back if you find the service doesn’t work well for you.
IPVanish
Steam users will no doubt enjoy the great speeds and unlimited bandwidth offered by IPVanish as soon as they make the choice to purchase a subscription with them. Their 256-bit AES encryption assures them of top level security, as well as a range of protocols that safeguard their connection.
Their large network of over 500 servers scattered across more than 60 nations allows players to gain unrestricted access to games only allocated to members of specific countries.They’ll also get to have the chance to secure one more device under the same account, so that the Internet connection through that device also gets protected. If you run into any problems having subscribed to the service, there’s a customer team on standby 24/7 that’s ready to help sort out all your issues.
IPVanish is quite different from other providers in that they only allow you to test out their service for 7 days. Although it’s a very short period, we still believe it’s enough time to see whether you like the service or not.
VyprVPN
Last on our list we have VyprVPN; a service that has gained considerable prominence due to its ‘Chameleon’ security protocol. This feature works by scrambling OpenVPN packet metadata to ensure it’s not recognizable via deep packet inspection (DPI). This therefore allows VyprVPN users to get around any restrictive networks put in place by governments or institutions. This feature is even made better by the fact that VyprVPN manages its over 700 servers located in 50 plus countries directly so that it’s less likely that their customer’s browsing information gets leaked to third parties.
VyprVPN users also get to enjoy an allowance of 5 devices to work simultaneously under one particular account so that all their ways of connecting to the Internet get secured. With over 200,000 IPs to choose from, nobody will ever be able to track down your actual location. Try the service out for yourself and see.
Advantages of Using a VPN Service For Online Gaming
- Access countries that have earlier game title launch dates and be the first to play newly released games.
- Secure your online traffic and keep your data private through encryption.
- Access regionally restricted MMO & MMORPG games, DLC content; or Xbox Live and PSN Exclusives.
- Prevent DDoS attacks which are very common during e-sport tournaments.
- No more dealing with horrible ping times since you’ll get to access game servers from across the world through VPN.
- Shorter routes between you and gaming servers. This only applies to users who subscribe to premium speed rated VPN providers who focus on gaming server location nodes like the ones listed above.
Best VPN for Steam – Conclusion
If you happen to try out any of the 6 services we’ve mentioned, we’d appreciate if you told us how your experience was. Feel free to leave a comment or two in the section below, and we’ll be more than glad to get back to you.
ExpressVPN Review
Name: ExpressVPN
Description: ExpressVPN is a VPN service that allows you to browse the web anonymously and unblock geo-restricted sites.
Price: 12.95
Currency: $
Operating System: Windows, OSX, Android, iOS
Application Category: Multimedia
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About Author
Charles
Streaming gadgets geek. Interested in every little thing there is to know about bypassing regional restrictions. An avid believer in the right to protect online privacy. Charles has also reviewed plenty of VPN service providers and knows how to separate the good apples from the bad ones.