Best VPNs for Costa Rica

The freedom to be found in Costa Rica’s nature can equally be found in the state of the country’s internet, too. There are no government restrictions on websites or apps, no active monitoring of people’s activities or even penalties for the most critical voices. This means that – just like VPNs – streaming services and VoIP apps can be used freely, though the country’s slow internet is often an obstacle.

Costa Rica has struggled to improve the quality of its internet over the years, and as such it’s still one of the countries with the slowest speeds in the world, even when it comes to mobile internet. In fact, in February 2017 a report was launched by Open Signal regarding the average mobile speeds on 3G and 4G networks and in a total of 86 countries assessed, sadly Costa Rica placed last with an overall speed of only 2.69Mbps. While speeds are a bit better with fixed broadband, home internet plans rarely reach more than 20Mbit/s, and these are often very expensive for the average consumer.

Considering how much of a holiday paradise Costa Rica is, good internet coverage would make everything even better for both tourists and residents. It’s easy to understand these disappointing speeds, however, since a significant portion of the country is still shaped by nature, which makes it hard to develop the necessary infrastructure and therefore explains why the internet penetration rate is only slightly above 50%.

With that said, none of this affects website access. Costa Rica is a free country both offline and online, so Facebook, YouTube, Skype, WhatsApp, VPNs and many other services are all legal and can be used without any restrictions.

Costa Rica is not only free and relaxing as a place, but its internet as well. There are no records of government intervention on people’s online affairs and the country’s constitution provides for freedom of speech and press, something that is generally respected. Likewise, criticism to the government is openly accepted without reprisal, though laws forbid hate speech.

When it comes to torrenting, though, things are different. Such practice is illegal in Costa Rica, even if the country does have one of the highest percentages of torrenters in Latin America. This has even led to a film distributor launching a creative anti-piracy campaign in 2017, in which a bait site was created that seemed to allow legal torrenting. Instead of the latest movies, though, people were actually downloading the trailers along with a message about the consequences of acts of piracy.

Also, each year the Office of the United States Trade Representative publishes a review “of the state of intellectual property rights protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world”, and in 2016 Costa Rica was one of the 25 countries monitored for piracy.

Such a high rate of online piracy only shows how Costa Ricans enjoy their movies and TV shows. Streaming services rub their hands with glee in situations like this and actively look to update their libraries with the latest titles to keep interest as high as possible. Given this, services like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video have already crossed the Costa Rican border some years ago and though they still can’t compete with the offerings available in America, the country is pretty well served in terms of content. In fact, in Costa Rica alone Netflix has over 500 shows and more than 2,400 movies, which is more than many of its neighboring countries and even some European ones. However, the slow internet may be a barrier to its use.

When it comes to music streaming services, Spotify, Apple Music and all the most popular are available as well.