Servers in country

VPNs with servers in the United Arab Emirates

The law in the United Arab Emirates puts a VPN provider with servers in the country under obligations to the state — keeping records about its users, registering, or giving the authorities access. On record here: licensing and lawful-interception obligations.

Some of the providers listed here say they removed their physical servers and serve the country from hardware elsewhere; each row carries the provider’s own answer. Which companies are registered in the United Arab Emirates is a different question, with a page of its own.

28 providersOrdered by securityUpdated 14 September 2026One company registered here

The HushFleet teamRegister of 26 September 2026

Providers with exit locations in a country — a fact about a network, kept deliberately apart from where the company is registered. Only providers whose country list has a source appear: a provider that publishes nothing simply does not show up, which is a criterion already in the data rather than an editorial one.

An exit here is under a retention mandate. Licensing and lawful-interception obligations. From the contract's country table — the same field that marks a country on a record's own list.

Using a VPN is legal in the UAE; using one to commit or conceal a crime is an offence, and services whose purpose is reaching blocked content are blocked. An exit standing here stands on a licensed network that must stay open to lawful interception.

Under the Telecommunications Law (Federal Law by Decree No. 3 of 2003) nobody may provide telecoms services without a licence from the regulator, the TDRA, and two operators, e& and du, run the public networks. Their licences carry security conditions, among them keeping the network open to lawful interception.

What the law requires of a provider standing here

The terms are not published in full. What is plain is that a server here sits on a line its operator can be required to open to the authorities.

What is restricted

The regulator’s Internet Access Management policy (2017) obliges licensees to block listed categories of content. The first is content that helps users reach blocked material, “including the proxy servers and Virtual Private Networks” that mainly serve that purpose; another is “illegal communication services”, under which calling apps without TDRA approval are blocked.

Companies, institutions and banks may use VPNs to reach their own networks.

Whether posting can be prosecuted

Yes. Federal Decree-Law 34 of 2021 on countering rumours and cybercrimes punishes spreading false news with at least a year in prison (article 52) and mocking the state, its institutions or its leaders with up to five years (article 25).

Article 10 punishes using another’s IP address, or any other means, to commit a crime or prevent its detection with prison and/or a fine of AED 500,000 to 2,000,000. The case still starts from the account.

What it means for the rows below

An exit in the UAE is an exit under those licence terms, and the register marks the mandate on a record’s own country list.

28 of the 77 records publish an exit here. That is a usability fact — reach — and it is not a recommendation: the order of the rows is the security score, and the mandate above sits on the provider, not on the reader.

United Arab Emirates

Ranked by security

Only a provider that publishes a country list appears here at all — 41 of the 77 on file. The other 27 are not missing research: they publish no list, and U02_server_countries is unknown for them rather than filled from the number their marketing claims.

A provider that says “100+ countries” and enumerates none gets no page on any of them, and the count printed on its own record is the length of the list, never the claim. With 41 providers behind 180 countries, the long tail of these pages carries one or two rows.

29 Aug 20263 changes

ExpressVPNResponse to a national logging mandateP04_mandate_response

not on the record changed to withdrew_physical

NordVPNResponse to a national logging mandateP04_mandate_response

not on the record changed to withdrew_physical

SurfsharkResponse to a national logging mandateP04_mandate_response

not on the record changed to withdrew_physical

VPNs with servers in the United Arab Emirates

Ranked by security

The other 179 countries

Changes to the country lists and mandate postures of the providers listed here

Private Internet Access

Proton VPN

hide.me

X-VPN

NordVPN

Surfshark

ExpressVPN

CyberGhost VPN

ClearVPN

PrivateVPN

StrongVPN

AdGuard

Planet VPN

Red Shield VPN

ZoogVPN

FlyVPN

VyprVPN

BTGuard

VeePN

Norton VPN

Betternet

FastestVPN

Amnezia

Bitdefender

Speedify

VPN Proxy Master

Urban VPN

Turbo VPN