Best VPNs for Streaming Netflix, Hulu & More in 2026
Surfshark is my pick for streaming in 2026 if several people watch at home: it costs £2.49 a month on its 12-month plan and sets no limit on devices. A year on that plan comes to £29.88. The VPN Advisor's own comparison data, checked in October 2026, puts Surfshark's download speed at 96 Mbps with 23 ms of latency, against 15.19 ms for NordVPN.
Streaming services block VPNs over licensing
Netflix pays rights owners a fixed fee to show each title to a set audience for a set period, so knowingly allowing breaches could cost it that title. Getting around a region block isn't illegal, but it leaves Netflix in an awkward spot with the studios it licenses from.
Netflix started blocking DNS and VPN services in August 2021, first on US content and later in every region. It keeps a list of known VPN addresses and blocks any connection that matches. Services also watch for a reused address carrying unusual traffic, so a VPN that worked last night can fail tonight.
Deep packet inspection hunts for traffic patterns that give a VPN away. Some platforms also shut the ports VPNs tend to use. A few mobile apps compare your GPS position with where the connection appears to come from, while some sites check the device's time zone against the region. Logging in from the UK and then from the US moments later counts as impossible travel, and services read it as VPN use or account sharing.
Getting past a block starts with the right server
Pick a server in the country whose catalog you want, such as a US server for US Netflix or a UK one for BBC iPlayer. If one server gets blocked, switch to another in the same country, since Netflix blocks VPN addresses server by server. A proxy error can also come from location data cached in your browser. Clearing the cache and cookies, or opening an incognito window, can fix it.
Some providers disguise VPN traffic as ordinary browsing with obfuscation. None of them publish exactly how their workarounds operate. Your Netflix plan matters too, since the ad-supported tier blocks VPN use outright and only a standard or premium plan streams through one. PCMag suggests a monthly VPN plan over a long contract if regional catalogs are your main reason to subscribe, because detection keeps changing.
Surfshark unblocks the most for the money
Surfshark covers Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, according to The VPN Advisor's data. Gizmodo saw it unblock 13 of 14 services. Only ITVX kept it out. No other VPN in that test opened Disney+ straight from its desktop app. Gizmodo clocked its UK server at 186.96 Mbps, the top UK figure in those tests, with an average speed loss of 9.6%.
Camouflage Mode hides VPN traffic on restrictive networks. CleanWeb strips ads from streaming sites. Its no-log policy has been through Deloitte audits twice, in 2023 and 2025. It has no Smart DNS, though, so a Samsung or LG TV needs a router setup to use it.
NordVPN SmartPlay handles streaming DNS for you
NordVPN costs £4.09 a month on its 12-month plan, or £49.08 for the year. Set against Surfshark, a year of NordVPN costs £19.20 more, a gap our NordVPN vs Surfshark page lays out in full. It covers 10 devices at once.
SmartPlay spots DNS requests bound for streaming services and sends them through NordVPN's own DNS servers, with your traffic still encrypted. The app switches it on automatically, with nothing to configure. Plain Smart DNS sits separately in the settings. It skips encryption, so it's quick but gives you no privacy.
NordVPN's streaming list in The VPN Advisor's data holds the same five services as Surfshark's. NordVPN points streamers to its NordLynx protocol, which keeps speed loss small even in 4K. If NordLynx fails, you can move to OpenVPN over UDP or TCP instead. Use the Netflix app. It tends to run more steadily than a browser does.
ExpressVPN reaches TVs and consoles
In CNET's testing, ExpressVPN reached geo-restricted Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Max and Amazon Prime Video through servers around the world without buffering, even in 4K. Its apps run on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Apple TV, Android TV and Fire TV Stick. ExpressVPN caps you at 10 devices at once.
A Samsung smart TV, an Xbox, a PlayStation or a Nintendo Switch can't install a VPN, so ExpressVPN offers MediaStreamer for them. MediaStreamer carries no privacy or security protection and can't switch countries for the same service. It handles many popular US and UK services, though smaller ones may not work.
ExpressVPN's Aircove router counts itself and every device behind it as one connection against the limit. Aircove also supports split tunneling, so each device can use a chosen VPN location, no VPN, or MediaStreamer. No streaming account comes with ExpressVPN, so you still pay for Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu or Prime Video yourself.
Router setups cover consoles and Roku
A VPN on your router reaches devices with no VPN app of their own, such as a PlayStation 5, an Xbox or a Roku streamer. That router protects every device on the network while using just one of your plan's connections. Apple TV owners have more choice, with NordVPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN, PIA and IPVanish among the providers offering an app for it. Free VPN tiers fail on the same services as one another, so Netflix is possible on one but little else is.
Surfshark for a full house, NordVPN or ExpressVPN for the TV
Choose Surfshark if several people stream at home, since it sets no device limit for the family and costs less of the two VPNs priced here, though a smart TV leans on your router. Pick NordVPN if you want SmartPlay to sort out streaming DNS without any setup, accepting the higher yearly cost. Pick ExpressVPN for consoles and smart TVs that can't install a VPN, through MediaStreamer and the Aircove router, if its device cap on the apps covers your phones and laptops.
