As of March 13, 2024, the US Senate passed legislation to have Tiktok banned in the US. With a blowout vote of 352 supporters to a small 65 opposers in the house. This doesn’t mean Tiktok is going away, it just means it’s getting banned in the US.
So don’t worry yet, because there’s still hope. The US still has a condition out that may allow Tiktok to remain. The condition is the parent company, ByteDance, has to sell the social platform, or else the US will ban Tiktok nationwide!
This will make the US join over 25 other countries that have placed restrictions on the social app already. So of course, this is not the first time this has happened, but it IS the first time a chamber of congress has passed a bill that could shut down an entire social media platform.
So the parent company, for the sake of the US, should go ahead and sell the social platform. Right? Wrong!
Private Internet Access
- The best budget friendly VN company starting at prices as low as $1.98/month.
TikTok Ban Likelihood: INEVITABLE—The CEO Said So
The CEO of TikTok personally said he would fight this ban in court until the end. That means selling the social platform is not an option. This also means it is very likely that tiktok will be banned in the US, with a timeline for that to take effect by early to mid 2025.
This is a highly controversial move.
Many many people use tiktok for commercial and personal reasons, but it is best to take precautions to do your part in this.
To many of its users, the pros of tiktok outweigh the cons because there are countless businesses, individuals, and large corporate companies that have used tiktok as a fast, easy, and cheap way to get a message (i.e., advertisement) out there, and it in some regards supports Americas precious constitutional freedom of speech. Not to mention the immensely large following one can gain on the platform in such a short amount of time.
Imagine all of that content, all of the effort, and all of the resources tiktok provides, gone, just like that…
All those follows, all those like, all those shares, all those saves, all those links on other websites, all those lives, all those products on tiktok shop… gone. This is happening, but that doesn’t mean it’s over just yet…
Of course you have other social media platforms that could suffice, but guess what, what if I told you there is a way you can still use tiktok while you’re in the US? Because there is a way.
How? I’m glad you asked! A VPN, or a virtual private network, which you can use right now and at any time to STILL access tiktok even after it gets banned!
TikTok Bans Are Actually Common In Other Countries
Don’t be too surprised about having to not use this, this is part of something happening all over the world. Social media censorship laws have passed in other countries for their own reasons. For example
- Reddit is banned in North Korea
- Instagram is banned in Turkey
- Facebook is banned Russia
- China has even banned YouTube!
In fact, it’s so bad, China made their own version of YouTube called Bilibili and it’s actually very popular.
One of the beautiful features of a VPN is that it lets you bypass geographic restrictions anywhere in the world so you can access content that’s banned in your country or region.
This is a very popular feature for Netflix and Hulu users because they can access certain shows from their country that aren’t available in their home countries.
Aside from all of the other benefits of having a VPN, this single feature alone is one of the single biggest selling points, and it was the selling point that made me get a VPN.
Thanks to VPN’s becoming so affordable and easy to use, users wreak the benefits most large corporations use on a daily basis for network security for streaming a show netflix took away from your country and granted in another…
What is a VPN?
And just as a refresher, VPN’s are generally devices used for network security and for preventing hackers and data theives from stealing your sensitive data. A VPN’s data encryption, internet “tunneling”, and IP address masking makes just having a VPN that much more valuable!
To translate all that stuff I just said, all it means is everything transmitted and received from your device or devices are unreadable, unidentifiable, super secure, and can be originating from potentially anywhere in the world! Like countries that have not banned tiktok.
How To Get A VPN
So how do you get a VPN? How much does it cost? How do you use it? Which one should you get? Well, if you use tiktok, if you know how to press a button, can fork up as low as $2.03 a month, and can sign up for an account on a website, then you can have a VPN up and running in as soon as 5 minutes!
I won’t go into all the other reasons people get VPN’s in this video, so I’m going to go over the 5 best VPN’s you can get right now for Tiktok! Its important you get one of these 5 because there is such thing as an unfit VPN for tiktok, and all other social media apps.
Don’t even get me started on free VPNs! If you see one of these, just don’t… and there are many reasons for that I covered in another post.
Why These VPN Providers?
Now you may have started to wonder why it’s possible to pick the wrong VPN. Not all VPN’s are created equal, so let’s talk about why I picked these 5.
You’re a social media user using tiktok, so your purpose for using a VPN is only to access and use tiktok. Which is much different from someone who runs a large corporation simply trying to keep their company’s network secure.
So lets discuss whats important to a tiktok user.
The list of countries with the companies VPN servers
The vast majority of VPN companies have VPN servers in countries that allow TikTok. This is the least of youe worries.
Fast video buffer speed
TikTok is technically a video streaming company by technicality. You want the videos to load as fast as possible, which means your need a fast connection speed.
Fast upload speed
You want your upload speed to be fast too. Believe it or not, this is independent of your buffer speed, so it’s important to consider.
Strong live streaming quality
You need a strong connection because you want a reliable live stream. If the connection weakens on the server side, your live connection will fail, and all your viewers are gone.
Connection reliability
For lives, interviews, product showcases, live events you want to stream, and the such, you want your connection to be up above 99.9% of the time.
Ease of use
You’re a tiktoker, not an IT expert. VPN’s need to be easy to use. No worrying about advanced features and what they do. Setup is easy. Just push a button and it’s on. These VPN providers give you that.
Device compatibility
It works on a computer. But can you use it on your phone? If you can, that’s all that matters.
ANY OTHER FEATURES
If you need any of these, then you’e probably interested in a VPN for other reasons, which I’ll make another post about. I won’t go into things like leak protection, no logs policies, ssl security, and other complicated yada yada. VPN’s are very useful tools for internet users of all kinds for all kinds of reasons. It’s better to have one and not need one, than to need one, and not have one.
Express VPN
- Best Overall VPN For TikTok
- Starting price of $8.95/month
- 105 countries with servers
First up we have the highest rated VPN service, Express VPN (best overall)
With VPN servers in over 105 countries, a best-in-class AES-256 encryption standard, and lightning fast server speeds, you’re getting the best all-around VPN service available. The best part is, it’s available across all devices, even linux! But only 8 at a time though.
Their pricing model is simple and to the point too. It starts at $12.95 for the monthly pricing, $9.99 for their 6 month biyearly pricing (that means you’ll pay $59,95 upfront), and $8.95 for their most popular annual pricing (which means you’ll pay $99.95 upfront).
Most VPN services have a similar pricing model, so expect to pay between $10-$15-ish a month for any VPN service.
Notorious for being easy to use, fast, reliable, stable, and robust as a VPN service, it’s a VPN service and is as simple as it gets.
NordVPN
- Best Bang For The Buck
- Pricing starts at $3.93/month
- Servers in 111 countries
Next up we have the most popular VPN service, NordVPN (best bang for the buck)
This is the VPN service I and over 14 million other people and businesses use, and for good reason.
I like NordVPN because their one of the few companies that still have phone support as a means of contacting them in case you run into a problem.
With over 6000 VPN servers in 111 countries around the world, VPN server uptime, robustness, and reliability is unquestionable and indisputed.
With multiple industry standard encryption protocols, including DES, AES, and RSA, encryption of your data is guaranteed!
Servers are screaming fast—almost ranked the fastest—and it works on any of ALL your devices! The number of devices it can work on depends on the plan you purchase.
Speaking of plans, their pricing is broken up into monthly plans, 1 year plans or 2 year plans. They also have their basic, plus, and ultimate plans.
If I were you, I’d go ahead and get the plus plan because it’s not that much of a price difference compared to the basic plan. The features you get included for just a dollar extra a month are worth way more than a dollar a month by themselves.
By the way, it’s so easy to use! There is a little setup because it is a very feature rich app making it super versatile for many users of many kinds, but it’s literally so easy to use. No wonder it’s the most popular.
CyberGhost VPN
- Simplest To Use
- Starting price of $2.03/month
- Servers in 100 countries
Next we have CyberGhost VPN (simplest to use)
CyberGhost is popular among tiktokers and people who want nothing but simplicity at it’s finest! For people who just want to pick a country and push a big fat ON button, this is the one.
With servers in 100 countries, industry leading encryption standards like the AES-256 standard, lightning-fast 10Gbps server connection speeds, and compatibility on all devices of ALL kinds, including gaming consoles, Only 7 at a time though. This makes this VPN service one of the greatest and most versatile out there.
This may not be a big deal, but they also have the longest money back guarantee of 45 days after signing up, just incase you’re not pleased with it for any reason…
Pricing is simple and starts out at $12.95 per month, $6.99 per month for the 6 month or biyearly (which means you’re billed $41.94 every 6 months), and then their 2 whole years and 4 months plan which is $2.03 a month and then you’re billed annually after the first two years and your free 4 months. A little arbirtrary, but hey, that’s what you get.
The plans features are the same across the board. The price you pay is only based on how you want to be charged, not what features you want included. So the question is how much money do you want to save overtime? SO they’re giving you everything they got either way… brilliant.
SurfShark VPN
- Has The Most Features
- Starting price of $2.39/month
- Servers in over 100 countries and growing
Next up we have Surf Shark VPN (most features)
Surfshark is an excellent VPN service because you’re getting premium features other VPN services are charging for as standard features across all plans! That’s not even the best part!
These guys have VPN servers in 100+ countries, an industry leading AES-256-GCM encryption protocol, and, as expected, are lightning fast, and only get faster every day!
They’re also compatible on any of ALL devices, and their absolute best feature in my opinion, you can use their VPN on an UNLIMITED number of devices at once! Yes, as many devices as you’d like no matter how many! This is actually very attractive to me because of the increasing number of devices I use myself, along with some of the other features they have.
Simple to use too; simply pick the country you want to connect to and press a button. Simplicity at its finest.
This service packs the most features I’ve seen out of all these VPN services. However, let’s talk about the price.
Because the price is not the strong suit with Surfshark. Although their cheapest plan starts at $2.39/mth, that’s for 2 years, charged upfront with the new customer discount. After those two years, you’re charged the full price for renewal, which is up there…
Pricing plans are broken up into three plans the higher the plan, the more stuff you get…
Surfshark starter, Surfshark one, and Surfshark one+. Each plan can be charged monthly, annually, or for a 2 year billing period.
As a new customer you will save up to 85% on the annual and 2 year plan, but after that, get ready to pay full price which can be over $200 every period all the way up to $485 for the 2 year period for their most advanced plan.
Even the monthly plan is about $5 above what VPN’s are usually charging for—which actually makes sense.
Even though surfshark is the most expensive, I think they’re worth it based on what all getting out of their service. Which is A LOT to begin with, almost enterprise grade, and I’m actually considering switching to them.
If this is your consideration, I’d go with the Surfshark one plan because, the surfshark starter plan and the surfshark one plan are way to close in price to worry about—less than a dollar difference. They may as well be the same price.
Private Internet Access
- Best Budget Friendly Option
- Starting price of $1.98/month
- Servers in 91 countries and growing
Last but certainly not least, we have Private Internet Access (best budget friendly)
This one is certainly not the least, because this one is rather unbelievable, but this is the least expensive, and is packed and I mean packed with features!
It has servers in 91 countries—that’s more than enough—has industry leading encryption standards like WireGuard and OpenVPN, is lightning fast with 10Gbps servers as expected, is super easy to use, can be used on all devices of all operating systems, and even like cyberghost VPN has a push button interface that’s incredibly easy to use, and guess what, you can use it on as many devices as you want! Unlimited number of devices can use this services VPN! This is a hyper premium feature by itself!!!
But wait there’s more!(I had to) If you’re on a budget, listen to this:
Some of these companies like NordVPN and SurfShark have plans that are a certain price upfront until you have to renew, but Private internet Access isn’t and their prices don’t change—they are what they are. Again, coming in at the most budget friendly on this list!
They have 3 pricing plans, with all their features included across the board, with $11.95 for their monthly plan, $3.33 for their annual plan, and $1.98 a month for their 3 year and 4 additional free months plan. A dollar and 98 cents a month for unlimited devices used simultaneously with all those features??? Seriously?
That claim has me considering switching VPN providers… or even just using nordvpn, and having this VPN service running on all my other devices I don’t really care about in addition because it’s so cheap… IDK!
This company is compelling! With over 15M satisfied users (that’s more than NordVPN) and over 10 years of being in the VPN game, backed by a 30 day money back guarantee… having a push button app you can download on practically any device ever, word class encryption standards, fast servers almost all over the world, for a price that low… Yeah, it’s no wonder tiktokers pick this one! LOL I’d pick this one! I’m just saying…
Now there are some cons about them, not everything is sunshine and rainbows,
Like even though this is the least expensive, it’s not the fastest VPN available, but it’s hard to tell the difference in the real world, and the customer support is not the worlds greatest either. I also hear they’re not what they used to be from a year ago… so you got that.. BUT there’s only one actual way to find out, and that’s to use it for yourself.
Conclusion
So there you have it guys, the 5 best VPN’s you can use for the potentially upcoming tiktok ban.
If your country has already banned tiktok, these VPN companies are amongst the best you can get your hands on today.
Now I understand there are “better” VPN services out there that cost way way way more money, and there are some “honorable mention” VPN services that CAN accomplish the same things, but these I mentioned are the best, most recommended, most accessible, and easy to use VPN companies for users who will be using tiktok as general users, influencers, non-profits, business owners, or anyone who actually uses the platform as part of their living, no matter how that can be.
