How to Get a Swedish IP Address in 2020

Sweden is known for many things: brutal winters, vikings, the northern lights and even a particular interest in metal music. It’s also known for a stable banking system and multiple public access stations, including TV4 and Sveriges Television. To access any of those, though, you’ll need a Swedish IP address.

In this guide on how to get a Swedish IP address, we’ll show you the safest way to access the network of the Scandinavian country, while ensuring your privacy and network security are kept intact. After all, while accessing stuff is cool, staying safe is even better.

How to Get a Swedish IP Address

Your IP address is like your physical address. It lets websites, and anyone else with access to your connection, see your general geographic location. By changing your IP address, you can appear as though you’re somewhere else virtually, opening up the possibilities of what you can access online.

Geoblocks, as they’re called, restrict what you can and can’t see based on your location. It’s not censorship, though it can be used for that, but rather a way that companies distribute content to the intended audience. For example, BBC iPlayer is only available to those who live in the UK (read our best VPN for BBC iPlayer guide).

Replacing your IP address bypasses geoblocks, and there are a few ways to do it. The most obvious route for getting a Swedish IP address is to use a proxy, but as you can see in our VPN vs proxy vs Tor and our best free proxy guides, there are a lot of downsides.

Proxies work by connecting you to a remote server before going to the open internet. They’re generally unencrypted, though, opening up the possibility of cybercrime, as well as surveillance by government entities. We’re pretty sure the NSA is grateful every time people use a proxy to break through a geoblock.

A virtual private network works in the same way, but it encrypts your initial connection. By doing so, it scrambles the requests you’re sending, effectively hiding you and what you do online. As long as the VPN you’re using abides by the best in VPN security, you’ll go full incognito. Our best VPN and most secure VPN guides are good places to start.

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN ranks first when it comes to security, usability and privacy. It took the crown in our fastest VPN guide, too, with the incredible ability to stay fast over long distances. That, combined with a solid privacy policy and large server network, makes it a great choice for getting a Swedish IP address.

There are over 3,000 servers in the network split into 160 server locations. Two of those locations are dedicated to Sweden, which, though not as many locations as there are in the U.S., is more than most. You can learn more in our ExpressVPN review or try it with its 30-day money-back guarantee.

NordVPN

NordVPN isn’t quite as good as ExpressVPN, but it gets close thanks to its specialty servers. Those servers earned it a spot in our best VPN for torrenting guide, and though it’s great for that, it’s perfect for Sweden, too. NordVPN has just shy of 190 servers in Sweden, and unlike ExpressVPN, you can choose the individual one you want to connect to.

Not all of the specialty servers are available in Sweden, but NordVPN still offers its P2P, obfuscated and Double VPN offerings there. You can learn more about those in our NordVPN review or try it with its 30-day money-back guarantee.

CyberGhost

CyberGhost earned a place in our best VPN for streaming guide, and it’s easy to see why. With specialty servers designed for streaming and torrenting, along with a long list of additional features, it’s an excellent choice in VPN. It has 83 servers in Sweden, too, so access shouldn’t be a problem.

What stands out most about CyberGhost, though, is its price. It’s cheaper than ExpressVPN and NordVPN, especially on multi-year plans. Plus, it allows you to run more devices per account, with a limit of seven simultaneous connections per login. You can learn more in our CyberGhost review or see how you like it with its generous 45-day money-back guarantee.

Dangers of Using a Swedish IP Address

There’s little danger when using a Swedish IP address seeing as it was the first country to abolish censorship and is a world leader in internet freedom. Though you don’t have to worry about the Swedes tracking you, you may have to worry about your government.

Our best VPN services for China guide talks about an extreme example, but other governments monitor traffic, too. That means it’s important for you to use a VPN and not a proxy because the encryption applied to your connection can mask what you’re doing online and make it next to impossible for any government to infiltrate.

Privacy is also a concern. When using a VPN, you’re putting trust in the provider that it won’t monitor or log your data, and some providers have been caught lying about that (read our IPVanish review for an example).  

The providers above, along with any VPN we rate highly, maintain a strict privacy policy that’s been proven over time. For example, Private Internet Access has been called into court twice, and both times it maintained that it had no information on record (read our PIA review).

Final Thoughts

It’s not difficult to get a Swedish IP address, but protecting your online identity is. Our hope is that this guide has eased that process, providing you with a few of our best VPN providers that can get you into Sweden while keeping your connection secure.

Now that you know how to get a Swedish IP address, check out our online security archive. There, you’ll find articles like this one, along with recommendations for staying safe online.

Which VPN are you using to get into Sweden? Let us know in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.