Best VPN for Streaming in 2024

ExpressVPN is CNET’s Editor’s Choice for best VPN overall and our pick as the best VPN for streaming because of its exceptional content-unblocking capabilities with minimal speed loss. During our testing, we could access foreign libraries in the UK and Canada with Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video and Netflix. For instance, we streamed Prey -- usually available on Hulu only in the US -- via Disney Plus with ExpressVPN connected to a Canadian server. Streaming quality was excellent, with no buffering in our testing, even when playing 4K ultra HD videos. 

Multiple ExpressVPN apps allow for streaming devices, including Android phones or tablets, iPhones, iPads, Android TV boxes, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. You can also run ExpressVPN on Windows, MacOS and Linux PCs. We appreciated the feature-rich ExpressVPN app, which boasts a bevy of options like a kill switch, split tunneling and VPN protocol selection. We especially enjoyed its favorites section, which lets you choose a handful of servers you regularly connect to for quick access. 

You can make ExpressVPN work with smart TVs or devices that don't offer downloadable apps using ExpressVPN’s whole-home VPN router app. If you don’t want to fuss with installing a VPN on your router, ExpressVPN sells a router with a built-in VPN. While ExpressVPN is a feature-packed, user-friendly, fast VPN for streaming, it’s more expensive than many competitors. The monthly option sets you back $13, a six-month plan costs $60, or you’ll pay $100 per year. For that price, we’d prefer more benefits, like greater than eight simultaneous connections. Thankfully, Express’s 30-day money-back guarantee means you can get your cash back if you aren’t happy with its service.

NordVPN is one of the fastest VPNs on the market, making it an outstanding choice for streaming. All virtual private networks make your internet connection slower than without a VPN enabled, but Nord boasted some of the lowest speed dips in our testing. We didn’t suffer any buffering or stuttering when watching videos, even while streaming 4K UHD content. Nord gave us access to UK Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video libraries. With Nord enabled on Chromecast with Google TV, we kicked back to watch Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on Netflix UK (known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the US), typically reserved for Max and Peacock subscribers in the US.

The NordVPN client is simple to navigate without skimping on features. There’s a helpful list of the fastest servers for different countries, such as Canada, the UK, US, France and Germany, alongside access to all available servers. You’ll find Onion over VPN, double VPN and obfuscated servers for even more robust protection. Nord even touts Meshnet access for connecting to a local area network from elsewhere. You can select a preferred VPN protocol, use split tunneling and auto-connect with NordVPN.

A kill switch is notably absent from some of NordVPN’s streaming client apps, including Android TV and Fire TV. That’s normally a dealbreaker for us but shouldn’t be an issue if you’re not concerned about privacy and mostly want to stream movies or TV shows. Nord features an Apple TV app for unblocking content on streaming services. Plus, its whole-home VPN router functionality lets you access foreign Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video libraries on smart TVs or other devices that might not have downloadable VPN apps. The monthly plan retails for $13, its annual subscription costs you $60 for the first year (then $100 annually afterward), or $96 total for two years of service (after which it jumps to $100 yearly).

If you’re on a budget or you’re a Netflix user and want to get the most out of your Netflix subscription, Surfshark is the way to go. It supports almost every device you can think of, including the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV streaming boxes. We found that Surfshark is more than capable of streaming content on various streaming services, like Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video. We ran into a few issues when attempting to stream content on Hulu. It worked on the Fire TV Stick app but not on the iOS app. Though we were able to stream Hulu content through Surfshark’s MacOS app, the titles weren’t loading and we weren’t able to access the entire library -- making for a subpar streaming experience. 

That said, Surfshark really excelled when we tested the provider’s ability to stream Netflix. Surfshark says it can unblock 22 different countries’ Netflix libraries, but it unblocked even more during our testing -- including libraries from countries like Denmark, Bulgaria, Belgium and Hungary. Other VPNs can also unblock multiple Netflix libraries, but it’s rare that a VPN can do it to the degree that Surfshark can. That’s impressive, considering how Netflix has been actively cracking down on VPN use for years. Even so, Netflix doesn’t expressly mention VPN unblocking in its Terms of Use -- just that you should “access Netflix content primarily within the country in which you have established your account and only in geographic locations where we offer your subscription plan and have licensed such content.” 

Surfshark’s speeds are generally fast enough for streaming (even in 4K) but were inconsistent in our testing -- sometimes frustratingly so. This means that, under rare circumstances, you may need to play around with your connection settings to achieve optimal streaming performance, especially for higher-quality streams or from distant regions. As well as being an excellent VPN for streaming, Surfshark packs a ton of useful privacy features into a budget-friendly package. You can boost your privacy by routing your connection through two servers of your choice using Surfshark’s Dynamic Multihop feature, or shuffling your IP address using the VPN’s IP Randomizer or IP Rotator features. Surfshark also offers unlimited simultaneous connections, beyond what most others allow for. Surfshark's monthly plan stays constant at $13 a month. Its yearly plan starts out at $48 for the first year, then jumps to $60 for any additional years of service. If you opt for the two-year plan, you'll pay $53 upfront for the initial two years combined, then $60 per year for any additional years. We don’t recommend committing to a single VPN provider for more than a year at a time, considering how quickly the landscape tends to shift in the VPN industry.

IPVanish is a solid VPN for streaming if you’re new to VPNs and want a solution that’s simple to use and can help you watch content on various streaming platforms. During our testing, we were able to access Netflix libraries from a handful of regions, along with content on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. Although some VPNs may struggle to deliver across platforms, we were able to access each of the streaming services we tested on each of the devices we tested them on with IPVanish. The only area where IPVanish sometimes struggles is its speed. The inconsistency of IPVanish’s speeds may put a damper on your streaming experience, depending on which servers you’re using and if you connect via the VPN’s Quick Connect feature. Using Quick Connect is the easiest way to connect to an IPVanish server, but the feature didn’t always connect us to the most optimal server available. We were able to achieve considerably faster speeds by manually choosing a server indicating a lighter server load. You may have to do the same if you’re experiencing a low-quality stream.

With IPVanish, you’ll have access to servers in 52 countries, which is quite a bit less than other options like ExpressVPN (105 countries) and Surfshark (100 countries), so if you’re looking to stream content from a particular region, you’ll want to check IPVanish’s server page to ensure the provider has servers in those locations before purchasing a subscription. IPVanish isn’t overloaded with tons of bells and whistles, but it includes all the basic features you need in a VPN -- and maybe that’s what makes it such a great option for VPN newbies. Its apps feature a slick interface that requires zero learning curve, so you can get connected and stream immediately even if you’ve never used a VPN before. A monthly subscription to IPVanish costs $13 per month, which is on par with most of the other top VPNs, but its annual plan starts off cheaper than both NordVPN and ExpressVPN at $42 for the first year (then jumps to $90 annually for any additional year). IPVanish offers a two-year plan that costs $72 for the first two years combined, then $90 per year afterward.