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The best VPN for Apple TV is ExpressVPN thanks to its user-friendly tvOS app, which consistently unblocks popular geo-restricted apps like Netflix, Disney+, and Prime Video. Windscribe is a good free option, but its 10GB monthly data cap and limited server locations won’t satisfy some users.
As long as your Apple TV is running tvOS 17 or 18, you can install a VPN app on it. That said, only 12 VPN services have so far developed dedicated tvOS apps.
We tested each of these apps on our Apple TV 4K, and our picks were the most effective at unblocking popular geo-restricted streaming apps in the highest possible resolution, including 4K HDR.
Based on our streaming tests, we recommend using one of these three VPNs with your Apple TV:
We’re fully independent and have been reviewing VPNs since 2016. Our ratings are based on our own testing results and are unaffected by financial incentives. Learn who we are and how we test VPNs.
There are many ways to set up and use a VPN with Apple TV, including Smart DNS, and AirPlay, but the most straightforward method is to use a native tvOS app.
But, as we mentioned earlier, most VPN services don’t have a dedicated tvOS app yet, including popular ones like CyberGhost, TunnelBear and Hotspot Shield.
This is the full list of the VPNs with an Apple TV app:
The table below compares our top-rated Apple TV VPNs based on streaming speed, access to geo-blocked Netflix catalogs, Apple TV setup options, and price.
| Pricing Plans |
|
|---|---|
| Free Trial Duration | 7 Days |
| Local Download Speed | 85Mbps (15% loss) |
| Servers | 3,000 |
| Countries with Servers | 106 |
| Simultaneous Connections | 8 |
| Compatible with |
|
ExpressVPN is a superb choice for Apple TV. It’s dedicated tvOS app is extremely fast and highly effective at unblocking over 95% of geo-restricted apps.
The streaming-optimized VPN successfully unblocked 18 Netflix regions, Prime Video, Disney+, Max (HBO), and many other popular services.
ExpressVPN also offers a great Smart DNS tool called MediaStreamer, although you can only unblock American and British apps through it.
ExpressVPN’s tvOS app is highly intuitive, just like the other applications released by the VPN provider.
Differently to its other software, ExpressVPN has chosen to group locations by continent, which made it easier for us to find desired locations.
Testing ExpressVPN’s Apple TV app.
Also, you can log in to the app using a QR code from another device. This saved us a lot of time compared to other apps, like IPVanish and Hide.me, where we had to insert our login credentials using the remote.
The only limitations of the tvOS app is that it’s only available in dark mode, and doesn’t offer any customizable settings.
This means you can’t change protocol (the app uses Lightway by default) or enable split tunneling, for example.
If you have an Apple TV model that doesn’t support tvOS 17, you can also use ExpressVPN on Apple TV without using its app.
Thanks to its Smart DNS tool called MediaStreamer, you can route your DNS requests through a proxy server to stream geo-blocked TV shows and movies.
Using ExpressVPN’s MediaStreamer in our tests, we were able to unblock US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and many more content platforms.
The only issue with using MediaStreamer is that you can only unblock US and UK apps.
Alternatively, you can share content from your iPhone or Mac to Apple TV via AirPlay.
ExpressVPN has the most user-friendly iOS and macOS apps, making this a simple task. However, keep in mind that Netflix is not compatible with AirPlay.
We regularly test ExpressVPN’s speed, both locally and internationally, and the results are always exceptional.
In general, your download speed has to be over 5Mbps to stream in HD on your Apple TV.
We recorded average international download speeds of 85Mbps in our latest ExpressVPN tests. That’s just a 15% drop from our regular internet speeds.
Using ExpressVPN we have yet to experience buffering or lag unblocking content on our Apple TV 4K.
| Pricing Plans |
|
|---|---|
| Free Trial Duration | N/A |
| Local Download Speed | 88Mbps (12% loss) |
| Servers | 2,400 |
| Countries with Servers | 107 |
| Simultaneous Connections | Unlimited |
| Compatible with |
|
Similarly to ExpressVPN, IPVanish also offers a native tvOS VPN app, which delivered fast download speeds and good unblocking results.
While IPVanish’s app isn’t as well-designed as ExpressVPN’s, the service is considerably cheaper. On a two-year plan it costs $2.19/mo over 24 months versus ExpressVPN’s $4.99/mo over 28 months.
The fact IPVanish has an app available in the tvOS App Store made it far easier to use and set up the VPN compared to many of the other VPNs we evaluated.
We particularly appreciated searching for a server location using Siri on the remote.
We also favorited certain server locations and pinned them to the app’s home screen.
In doing so, we avoided scrolling through a large server list using the Apple TV’s remote.
Having said that, ExpressVPN’s server locations grouping by continent is a lot more effective to find specific countries.
Annoyingly, we also couldn’t activate the app via another device and had to insert our login details via our remote.
We had to enter our login details manually.
Using IPVanish on our Apple TV, we consistently accessed US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, and many other streaming services.
IPVanish’s international download speed loss of just 12% resulted in Full HD and 4K streaming without any buffering.
But, IPVanish doesn’t unblock as many video apps as ExpressVPN, which truly shines when it comes to the sheer range of international streaming services it works with.
Though user-friendly, we were disappointed with the lack of features on IPVanish’s tvOS app compared to its other applications.
While the app’s Settings menu is accessible, it only allows you to log out of your account.
Also, only the older IKEv2 protocol is available, with no support for advanced protocols such as WireGuard or OpenVPN.
Moreover, weren’t able to configure split tunneling, a kill switch, and all other security features.
Only 6 completely free VPNs have released a native tvOS app: Hide.me, Hola, PrivadoVPN, Proton VPN, Windscribe and X-VPN.
However, the free versions of Hide.me, Proton VPN, and X-VPN failed to unblock any streaming app on our Apple TV, making them effectively useless.
Though PrivadoVPN worked well with American streaming apps, it failed to access BBC iPlayer, JioCinema, and almost every other geo-blocked app from outside the US.
While Hola did manage to access US Netflix and other streaming apps, it compromises your privacy by logging browsing activity and originating IP addresses. Using a VPN to bypass geo-blocks is not worth it if it also puts your personal data at risk.
As a result, Windscribe is currently the only free VPN we recommend for Apple TV.
| Data Cap | 10GB per month |
|---|---|
| Local Download Speed | 87Mbps (13% loss) |
| Servers | 10 |
| Countries with Servers | 10 |
| Simultaneous Connections | Unlimited |
| Compatible with |
|
The best 100% free Apple TV VPN is Windscribe, which unblocks several streaming apps.
In our use, it reliably unblocked Prime Video, Disney+, Max, and 5 Netflix libraries.
While its tvOS app design isn’t as polished or user-friendly as the paid options on this list or even free alternatives like Proton VPN, Windscribe earns its spot as our top recommendation for its unmatched streaming performance.
Exceptionally for a free VPN, Windscribe unblocks almost every streaming service.
While connected to its free servers, we were able to unblock every popular streaming service, including harder-to-access ones like DAZN Canada, YouTube TV, and Sky Go.
The main downside is that it only allows you to access 10 server locations, which is 96 fewer than ExpressVPN.
Using Windscribe, we were unable to get an IP address from many popular countries, like Australia and Japan. We weren’t even able to attempt to access region-locked content from these countries.
Thankfully, Windscribe has finally released a tvOS app, months after its competitors launched on the platform.
However, after using it for a while, we’ve been left disappointed with the app’s design.
Text and UI elements are disproportionately large, making the interface resemble an inflated iOS app rather than one specifically tailored for televisions. Navigating the app is unnecessarily cumbersome, especially if you (like us) have the older touch-sensitive Apple TV remote.
For example, free servers are mixed with paid options, forcing you to scroll through a long list to find the ones available for free. Competing VPNs like PrivadoVPN offer a more streamlined experience by providing separate tabs for free and premium servers.
Windscribe’s tvOS app can be a pain to use.
Despite these shortcomings, the app’s functionality matters more than its design in practice. Once the initial setup is complete, interaction with the app is minimal, and its unmatched ability to unblock streaming services more than compensates for its design flaws.
On Windscribe’s free plan, data usage is capped at 10GB per month. We could only stream four hours of video on our Apple TV before using up all of our data allowance.
If you need unlimited bandwidth for free, we recommend choosing Proton VPN instead. However, this will only protect your device’s privacy and security as the VPN doesn’t work with any streaming service.
Out of the 61 VPNs we tested for Apple TV, only three met our strict standards.
We used every Apple TV VPN hands-on.
Below is a summary of why we don’t recommend some popular VPNs for Apple TV.
| VPN Service | Drawbacks |
|---|---|
| NordVPN |
|
| CyberGhost |
|
| Private Internet Access |
|
| Proton VPN Free |
|
| PureVPN |
|
| Hide.me Free |
|
| Hotspot Shield Basic |
|
| TunnelBear Free |
|
Dedicated tvOS VPN applications are much easier to use and often more effective than previous workarounds to use a VPN on Apple TV.
During our hands-on testing, it took us on average five minutes to set up a VPN application on our Apple TV.
In contrast, router-based VPN configurations took 30 minutes, while Smart DNS setup required 10.
The table below highlights the advantages of using a VPN app over these alternative (older) methods:
| VPN Set-up Method | Set-Up Difficulty | Set-Up Time | Server Locations | US Netflix Compatibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VPN App | Easy | 5 mins | Many | Yes |
| Smart DNS | Moderate | 10 mins | Limited | Yes |
| AirPlay | Easy | 5 mins | Many | No |
| Install VPN on Router | Hard | 30 mins | Many | Yes |
When ranking VPNs for Apple TV, we focus on three key performance attributes. We combine these to calculate an overall Apple TV rating for every VPN.
Importantly, we no longer factor in workarounds like Smart DNS and router compatibility in our Apple TV ratings. That’s because they are inferior solutions to using native tvOS VPN apps, as we’ve highlighted on this page.
Use the table below to see how the best Apple TV VPNs performed in each testing category:
VPNs with a data cap receive a reduction to their overall rating.
Here’s a more detailed explanation of all of our Apple TV testing criteria:
Free VPNs often set data limits to encourage users to upgrade to paid subscription plans.
Since streaming on Apple TV can consume a significant amount of data, our methodology favors VPNs with generous or unlimited data allowance.
We apply the following penalties to the VPN’s Apple TV rating based on its data cap:
No, a VPN alone will not change your Apple App Store location.
To change App Store location, go to Settings > General > Apple TV Language. Then go to General > Region Format and select the correct region.
After doing this, you’ll be able to download geo-blocked tvOS apps, like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and Max.
