![](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/A984E7HLRUJebRYWdEQET9-200-100.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBy using one of the best streaming VPNs, you can easily spoof your location, meaning you’ll never have to deal with the sitting down to stream your favorite movie or TV show, only to find out it’s not available in your region anymore.<\/p>\n
We’ve tested dozens of the best VPNs (and some not so good VPNs) to see what their streaming support is like. I’ve also taken a look at how easy they are to use, how fast they are, how good their server spread is and what (if any) extra features they offer to determine the top 5 VPNs for streaming. Overall, Surfshark was a surprise #1, NordVPN was a good premium alternative, and ExpressVPN was the best for beginners.<\/p>\n
I’ll be going in-depth into these VPNs and more below, but if you’re in a hurry, you can check out my brief evaluation of my top 3 streaming VPNs – NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN – below.<\/p>\n
The 3 best streaming VPNs at a glance<\/h2>\n
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Surfshark: the best streaming VPN overall<\/strong> View Deal NordVPN: a streaming VPN and security suite<\/strong> View Deal ExpressVPN: the easiest to use streaming VPN<\/strong> View DealHow we chose the best streaming VPNs<\/h2>\n Why you can trust Tom’s Guide<\/p>\n Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what’s best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.\n<\/p>\n By using a semi-automatic tool built by our in-house VPN tester, we’re able to test dozens of VPNs to get a good overview of which streaming platforms they are able to access. This gives us an idea of what to expect from them, as well as overall how good they tend to be in terms of streaming support.<\/p>\n Once we have our overviews, I also individually test each VPN’s ability to unblock multiple different streaming services (including Netflix in the UK, US, Canada and Japan, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, 10 Play, BBC iPlayer and ITVX) on both a Dell laptop and an iPhone 11 – my personal devices. This gives me a good idea of how the VPNs were like to use during real-life streaming sessions, both on desktop and mobile.<\/p>\n To test the VPN’s ability to unblock these streaming services, I connected to a server in the country I wanted to test the streaming service from, then attempted to stream content only available in that region. If VPN use was detected, I would switch to a different server.<\/p>\n If, after testing multiple servers, I was unable to stream content, I classed this as the VPN service being unable to unblock this streaming service. Errors often occur, so this isn’t the end of the world – but the support we get to remedy the issues can be make or break. If this happened, I contacted their support, and I’ve factored this into each provider’s placing on this list, if relevant.<\/p>\n Additionally, connection speeds are important to ensure you’re not held up by buffering while streaming. So, we’ve also tested all our VPNs to determine their maximum speeds on a 1 Gbps line. While speeds of just 25 Mbps are needed to stream in 4K and a VPN cannot increase your internet connection speed, a lower impact on your base connection will help keep your streams reliable.<\/p>\n Other factors – including server count and server spread – also impact how well a VPN is able to unblock streaming services. So, I’ve included the amount of servers a VPN provider has, and where they’re located, as part of my evaluation.<\/p>\n While good security might not be your top priority if you’re just looking for a VPN for streaming, it is integral to a VPN functioning as expected. So, I’ve taken the security offered by the VPNs into consideration too, as it is still an important feature for general VPN use and data security and privacy.<\/p>\n Finally, I’ve also taken a look at what additional features beyond a strong, secure VPN connection these VPN providers offer for example password managers, or ad or malware blocking. While these tend to be nice-to-have rather than must-have features, they may make certain VPN providers more appealing than others to some users.<\/p>\n Read more about how we test VPNs for an in-depth look at our testing process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By using one of..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/vpn-Reviews-ge4hs41z4yg.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11,6,7,9,13],"class_list":["post-273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-vpn","tag-best-vpn-services","tag-vpn","tag-vpn-news","tag-vpn-reviews","tag-vpn-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialvpns.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Surfshark has stolen the #1 spot from NordVPN thanks to its flawless performance in my streaming tests. Not only did it unblock every streaming site I tested it with, its super fast speeds meant that I wasn’t slowed down once during. Prices start at $1.99 per month ($53 plus tax up front for 27 months’ service), and it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it out risk-free.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Mu9vi5xkQ7kvsVGuYcFNjT-200-100.jpg\")
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NordVPN performed excellently in our streaming tests, and unblocked every streaming service we tried it with. It also has tons of handy cybersecurity extra features, like protection from ads, malware, phishing attempts, tracking and scams. Prices start from $3.09 per month ($83 up front plus tax for 27 months’ coverage), and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it out risk-free.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/CN7zd8dgAK3GY7fAiqWPUV-200-100.jpg\")
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ExpressVPN has a lot to offer as a streaming VPN, unblocking every site I tested it with. It also delivers great speeds too, and it’s easy to use – the simple apps stay consistent across all platforms. This means that no matter what you’re streaming from, you’ll be familiar with how it works. Prices start from $4.99 per month ($139 paid up front, for 28 months’ coverage), with a 30-day money-back guarantee.<\/p>\n