One of the most popular ways to use a VPN is for browsing and unblocking smart TV services uninhibited. Every VPN has this capability, but most smart TV or IPTV services don’t have built-in VPN support. It means that it’s up to your VPN service to provide native support for various streaming services. Some do this better than others. There are VPNs that are practically built for television streaming and others that feel like you’re wrestling a bear just to get it to work. In order to avoid unnecessary complications, we’re here to tell you the best VPN services out there for Smart TV and IPTV.
Each option is listed in order of its streaming quality from what we were able to test. However, if you want some specifics on the VPN, as well as a download link to where you can find its software, you’ll find it below each option. When it comes to VPNs, there’s no particular “one to rule them all”. All of them are made for different users and come with unique benefits. You need to know their features and figure out which ones benefit you the most. That’s where we come in. So without further ado, let’s meet our competitors for the best smart TV VPN on the market.
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Obviously, NordVPN’s pros greatly outweigh its cons. After all, there’s a reason it’s known as the best VPN on the market. While you may have trouble with the manual router setup, as it's not as easy as some other VPN services,
NordVPN offers unique, high-quality features to make up for it in just about every category. Speed, reliability, and versatility; Nord reigns supreme in all of them.
If it sounds too good to be true, download NordVPN and give it a free try yourself.
Surfshark places at our second spot as our budget option. That isn’t meant to seem like we’re calling it low quality. It isn’t. It’s only placing this high because of how high quality of a product it is at such an affordable price.
Surfshark gives you an experience almost identical to most high-end premium providers at a fraction of the cost. And with fantastic streaming support and capabilities, it’s a difficult option to ignore if you want an excellent VPN service at a low price.
They even offer a money-back guarantee of 30 days, so there’s no risk in trying it out. If you’d like to try it yourself, you can download Surfshark here.
If price weren’t such a selling point (literally) for VPN providers, ExpressVPN would have easily taken the second spot and maybe even competed for first. By all regards, ExpressVPN has hands-down some of the best features for the average streaming and Smart TV user out there. However, that price tag is just a bit too big to ignore.
That said, if the price isn’t a primary concern of yours, ExpressVPN is a high-quality service that will protect your privacy, perform as an excellent VPN for everyday use, and will offer you one of the best experiences with television streaming that you can find.
It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free when you download ExpressVPN.
Not long ago, Cyberghost was seen as the back of the pack of all the top dogs on the market. It was still a top-quality service, but it was viewed as the weakest of the kings, so to speak. It was good, but not great, especially for streaming. Recently, however, due to a change in leadership, Cyberghost has turned its focus toward Smart TV and television streaming with all major services.
Due to this, it has quickly become one of the best providers for streaming available. It offers incredible speeds (for any function, but especially streaming), great reliability between its massive network of servers, and some of the best privacy settings of any VPN we’ve tried. If you want a nice balance of great speed and sturdy security, Cyberghost might just be the one.
It actually offers a money-back guarantee for 45 days, making it even less of a risk than most if you’re a bit of a procrastinator. If it sounds like a great choice, you can download Cyberghost here.
IPVanish is by no means the fastest on the list, but it deserves a decent spot on the list for one primary reason; its security is fantastic. High encryption, absolutely no logs or data kept on users, and all the tools you need to make your digital footprint virtually invisible.
It offers speeds high enough to make viewing experiences pleasant, but speed doesn’t seem to be IPVanish’s primary focus. However, it’s an excellent service that will allow you to unblock most geo-restrictions, and it will enable you to rest easy, knowing that your privacy is secure while you stream.
It offers a seven-day money-back guarantee. If you’d like to try it, you can download IPVanish here.
Here we’ll find one of the younger VPN services on our list. PrivateVPN hasn’t been around nearly as long as most of these providers, but they’ve already begun to show that their service can dish out just as much as the others. Particularly with streaming, PrivateVPN holds up with its solid speeds and reliability. Due to not being around as long, their server network is definitely on the smaller side, but the speeds of those individual servers are solid.
Coming at an affordable price, PrivateVPN is an excellent option for just about anyone, so long as you’re willing to give the new kid on the block a chance.
PrivateVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so even if you’re uncertain about giving a newer service a try, you can feel secure knowing there’s no risk.
While it offers apps for just about any major platform, Hotspot Shield excels in its mobile software, making it a great option, especially for iOS and Android users. That said, anyone can enjoy the great features of Hotspot Shield, such as its ability to unblock most major streaming and smart TV services from almost anywhere in the world, all with incredible speeds and excellent reliability to make it competitive with some of the highest providers of the market.
Even better, it offers a 45-day money-back guarantee, so if that sounds too good to refuse, you can download Hotspot Shield here.
ProtonVPN isn’t the best option on this list specifically for streaming. That said, it is one of the best values you’ll find for a versatile VPN that can serve any function. ProtonVPN is a reliable, affordable, and secure service that makes for a great all-purpose VPN.
Its capabilities are more than sufficient to allow for streaming, as it unblocks most geo-restrictions and has decent enough speeds to make the viewing experience pleasant so long as you have a good connection. That said, speed isn’t its primary focus. However, assuming you’re looking for a VPN that can serve more functions than just a streaming tool, ProtonVPN is an excellent choice.
Its free subscription option is known as one of the best out there, and it will give you a great taste of what Proton’s other plans have to offer. If you want to try it for free now, you can download ProtonVPN here.
This bear-themed VPN has actually become one of the more popular services out there. While it’s by no means going toe-to-toe with the likes of NordVPN, these bears have found their way into their own share of the spotlight with solid speeds and reliability. However, where this provider truly shines is in the privacy department.
With yearly independent audits to test its no-logging policy and great security features, TunnelBear is a very trusted provider for its stance on privacy. It also sports a wonderfully simple design on its software. All of this is available to you, either for free or for a highly affordable premium subscription.
If it sounds like a great option, you can try out the free version when you download TunnelBear.
Finally, at the end of our list is Private Internet Access. PIA is by no means a low-quality service. It offers an expansive list of additional features that even surpasses most of the other providers on this list and has a straightforward setup for those who don’t feel like fine-tuning every single component of your new VPN service.
When you compare it to the others on this list, its lack of live support and its “passable” speeds and connections make it feel a little lackluster. That said, it’s also one of the cheaper options here, and if you’re on a budget, can make a great choice with a wide array of features to mess with.
It has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you’re on the fence, you can enjoy it risk-free when you download Private Internet Access for the first time.
You’ve made it this far. You’ve read up on every competitor in this list (or briefly skimmed through everything that had a big number next to it, don’t worry, we don’t blame you) and now have your own opinion of who should wear the crown of “best for streaming” as the king or queen of the VPNs. So, who wins?
It’s tough to choose a single “winner” of this competition. We genuinely believe that any of these ten options will make for an excellent service and should give you a great experience when streaming smart TV or IPTV of any kind.
However, as our own choice, we can’t recommend NordVPN and ExpressVPN enough. NordVPN is an excellent service overall and will probably give you the best experience as a versatile VPN. ExpressVPN, on the other hand, while we put it under Surfshark on the list due to Surfshark’s fantastic value, is incredible for streaming. If price isn’t too much of a concern, ExpressVPN made for the best streaming and viewing experience that we tested.
For these reasons, we nominate NordVPN and ExpressVPN as our twin champions.