Panama certainly doesn’t have one of the most tightly controlled Internet infrastructures in the world, and today they enjoy a relatively safe, secure, and open Internet. For this reason, a lot of VPN services like to maintain servers within this country. However, there are a lot of neighboring countries that aren’t so fortunate such as Mexico and Cuba. However, everything isn’t perfect within this country.
One area where people have had a lot of problems in the past is with journalism and reporting. Though Reporters Without Borders ranked them 87 out of 180 countries (with #180 being the worst), many journalists have run into trouble in the recent past when reported on the government. Essentially they were threatened and harassed. Admittedly, this is likely due to the former President Ricardo Martinelli, but he lost office last year.
But the largest concern for Internet users in Panama is likely their stringent copyright infringement laws. This can be a huge problem not only if you want to download torrents and other files hosted with P2P technologies, but also streaming content. Streaming video and audio content has some very complex copyright laws that make them inaccessible in many locations around the world. While Panama doesn’t necessarily bar access to these sites or impose harsh censorship laws, you’ll still find that you won’t be able to access sites such as Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, and other similar services within the country. But if the government doesn’t block access to these sites, why are they inaccessible?
Well, many of these types of services actually block incoming connection attempts based on IP address. They do this because their licensing agreements and copyrights don’t allow them to share their services with foreign nations. Really, they are just trying to cover themselves legally. The good news is that you can easily access this content if you have a VPN tunnel. A VPN tunnel certainly has the benefit of allowing you to access your favorite content if it has been blocked, but it has much greater value. You see, a VPN tunnel will encrypt your communications and give you complete anonymity on the Internet. By hiding your traffic and masking your IP address, ISPs, hackers, and governments won’t be able to intercept your data and read it when it is encrypted. While some VPN providers do keep logs, the best services won’t keep any records of your information – essentially giving you the ability to browse the web without the fear that someone could be seeing what you are up to online. With that said, let’s go ahead and take a look at the best VPNs for Panama.
ExpressVPN – Full Review
ExpressVPN is our first pick for users located in Panama. You’ll find that many VPN services have servers located in Panama like Express does, but that isn’t why they made the top of the list. To put it bluntly, their service is amazing. Not only is it extremely fast, but they don’t impose restrictive data limits or bandwidth throttling, and they have servers in 78 countries to give you a myriad of connection options. And their money back guarantee is longer than just about any other provider – they give you a whole month to test their service! There are only two downsides to their service. The first is that they cost a little bit more than most other providers, but you do get what you pay for. Secondly, they are based out of the USA which isn’t attractive to some people who are paranoid about the N.S.A.
VyprVPN – Full Review
VyprVPN is our next choice for users in Panama, and they are very comparable to Express with a few minor caveats. The first is that they offer fewer global connection options than ExpressVPN with servers in 50 countries, but they have 700+ servers so it is highly unlikely that you would ever run into capacity problems. But one thing that sets them apart from Express VPN is their free trial, which will give you all the time in the world to test out their VPN tunnel in Panama. The only problem with the free trial is that they impose data limits, but hey…it’s free! When you want to upgrade and get the full-featured package, you’ll find that their pro service can be cheaper than ExpressVPNs prices.
VPN Area – Full Review
VPN Area is our third alternative because they have some really attractive features to their service and the quality of their VPNs is on par with the previous two providers. First off, understand that they will allow you to establish VPN connections in 51 countries, and they are always expanding their network as their business grows. Also, you should realize that they will let you connect up to 5 devices with a single VPN account. Some other services, like Express VPN, will only allow you to connect up to 2 devices. They have middle-of-the-road pricing that isn’t too cheap or too expensive, and they offer a 7-day money back guarantee to top it all off.
Private Internet Access – Full Review
PIA is a clear choice for users connecting from Panama. Like the other providers, they will help you unblock content and secure foreign and domestic communications. They don’t, admittedly, have servers in as many countries as some of their competitors, but they do have more servers and a higher capacity than many other providers. Currently they have about 3096 servers in 24 countries, and one of the more attractive features of their service is the ability to connect up to 5 devices concurrently with the same account. To give you time to test their service, they offer a 7-day money back guarantee. But one reason many people turn to PIA to secure their Internet communications is because they are cheaper than just about every other notable provider.
NordVPN – Full Review
NordVPN is our last pick for Panama, and they offer a fast and reliable service that keeps up with many of the leading providers. They don’t have as many servers as much of the competition, but they do offer global connections in 27 countries, which is more than PIA. They also beat PIA slightly by allowing you to connect up to 6 devices with a single account, and they offer a 30-day money back guarantee just like ExpressVPN – but they are significantly cheaper than Express. In fact, they can be about half the price when you get a full-year subscription.
