The Best VPNs for Apple TV

ExpressVPN was already highly intuitive on Apple TV, but its updated app is even nicer to use.

It now displays your most recent location and favorited ones on the home screen, which saved me scrolling the full server list every time I sat down to watch something.

I loved this change. Not only did it save time, but I liked how it mirrored the ExpressVPN app on iPhone. Keeping all the Apple apps consistent made switching between them much easier.

Also, you can log in to the app using a QR code from another device. This was much more efficient compared to other apps, like IPVanish and Hide.me, where I had to insert my login credentials using the remote.

I was pleased to see OpenVPN and WireGuard finally added to the app. While I’m a fan of Lightway, open-source options are always welcome.

The limitations of the tvOS app are that it’s only available in dark mode, and doesn’t offer many customizable settings. You can’t enable split tunneling, for example.

If your Apple TV doesn’t support tvOS 17, you can still use ExpressVPN without an 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 MediaStreamer in my tests, I was able to unblock US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and many more content platforms.

That’s all it can do, though, since MediaStreamer 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 isn’t compatible with AirPlay.

I regularly test ExpressVPN’s speed over local and international connections, and the results are always exceptional.

Compared to my baseline, I recorded an international download speed loss of 15% while using ExpressVPN’s servers.

In general, your download speed needs to be over 5Mbps to stream in HD on your Apple TV, so it’s very likely you’ll reach that threshold with ExpressVPN.

In my personal life, I’m yet to experience any buffering while using ExpressVPN on my Apple TV 4K.

The fact IPVanish even has an app available in the tvOS App Store made it far easier to use and set up compared to many of the other VPNs I evaluated.

IPVanish lets you search for a server location via Siri on the tvOS remote, which I found substantially faster than scrolling through a server list.

Like with ExpressVPN, you can also favorite specific server locations and pin them to the app’s home screen.

Setup wasn’t as smooth, though. I couldn’t activate the app via another device so had to insert my login details with the remote.

Using IPVanish on my Apple TV, I 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.

That said, IPVanish unblocks far fewer international streaming platforms than ExpressVPN.

IPVanish doesn’t include as many features on its tvOS app as its desktop counterparts, though this is changing.

Addressing my past criticism, IPVanish has added OpenVPN and WireGuard on Apple TV. I’m really pleased to see this, given they’re the two most reputable and secure VPN protocols.

OpenVPN also now includes ‘Scramble’ mode on tvOS, which is IPVanish’s obfuscation tool.

I want to see this upward trend continue, specifically with the additions of split tunneling and a kill switch.

Exceptionally for a free VPN, Windscribe unblocks almost every streaming service.

While connected to its free servers, I was able to unblock every popular streaming service, including harder-to-access ones like DAZN Canada, YouTube TV, and Sky Go.

US Netflix was the one significant miss. I could access 5 other Netflix libraries without trouble, but the American catalog stayed shut throughout my testing.

The main downside is that it only allows you to connect to servers in 10 countries, which is 103 fewer than ExpressVPN.

That ruled out a lot of the places I wanted to watch from, Australia and Japan among them. With no server there, I couldn’t even attempt to load their region-locked content.

I’ve used Windscribe on my Apple TV over several months, and the experience has exposed some glaring pain points in its app design.

The text and UI elements are disproportionately large, making the interface look like an inflated iOS app rather than something tailored for a TV screen.

Navigating the app is unnecessarily cumbersome, especially if you (like me) 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.

Despite these design flaws, the app’s functionality matters more than its design. Once the initial setup is complete, you barely have to interact with the interface anyway.

Ultimately, Windscribe’s unmatched ability to bypass geo-blocks more than compensates for its clunky UI.

On Windscribe’s free plan, data usage is capped at 10GB per month. I could only stream four hours of video on my Apple TV before using up all of my data allowance.

If you need unlimited bandwidth for free, I 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.