The Best VPNs for Canada

NordVPN runs 350 servers in Canada, which is one of the largest Canadian server networks on the market. Only Private Internet Access has more.

You’ll be able to get anonymous IP addresses from Montreal (Québec), Toronto (Ontario), and Vancouver (British Columbia).

All servers are RAM-based (diskless), and with no hard drives in use, none of your data is stored on disk.

Instead, any usage data is held in temporary memory and wiped 15 minutes after each session.

Combined with NordVPN’s logging policy, independently verified by Deloitte, you can use the VPN with complete confidence that what you do online won’t be tracked or stored.

Outside of Canada, NordVPN’s network spreads across a further 126 countries, with excellent speeds and reliability throughout.

If you want to get a British, Australian, or US VPN IP addresses, NordVPN is one of the best in the business.

Thanks to its phenomenal speeds, streaming with NordVPN is so much more enjoyable than with many other VPNs.

Videos, both live and on-demand, played quickly and without buffering.

As an example, from New York to Vancouver, our internet speed dipped by only 3%, and in general we averaged a 14% slowdown connecting around the world. Very few VPNs can match, let alone beat, these results.

We tested NordVPN with the most popular Canadian streaming services, and these are the results:

Table showing popular Canadian streaming services NordVPN unblocks. Streaming Service Unblocked? CBC Gem Yes Crave Yes CTV Yes DAZN Canada Yes Fubo Canada Yes Netflix Canada Yes Sportsnet+ Yes TSN Yes TVA+ Yes

As you can see, NordVPN delivered flawless results, unblocking every geo-restricted content platform in Canada.

Around the world, the VPN also worked really well with a further 16 Netflix regions, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and many other popular services.

As we’ve said, NordVPN operates one of the most private and secure server networks in the industry.

If you’re in Canada and are concerned about your online privacy and security, then NordVPN is a great option for greater protection.

With its non-intrusive logging policy and excellent record in keeping your IP address concealed, the VPN will shield you from government overreach and ISP data collection.

NordVPN also meets our strict security expectations. Via its NordLynx protocol, it secures connections using ChaCha20 encryption, and it regularly passes third-party security audits.

NordLynx also protects your connections from ‘Store Now, Decrypt Later’ (SNDL) attacks through post-quantum cryptography (PQC).

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned user, NordVPN’s apps are enjoyable to use, especially on smartphones and tablets.

If you want to stream geo-blocked content on large-screen devices, you can also make use of its dedicated apps for Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, and Android TV.

Truth be told, we don’t love NordVPN’s desktop apps, as we find them unnecessarily cluttered.

In an effort to display the server map, Threat Protection (the ad and malware blocker), and Dark Web monitor all on the home screen, the end result damages user experience.

Unlike ExpressVPN, NordVPN also lacks a dedicated router with its own app, which is a game changer for game consoles and Roku sticks.

Instead, you’d have to manually configure the VPN on your home router, but honestly you’re better off using ExpressVPN’s router (although it costs extra).

ExpressVPN is the only VPN that can almost claim to be plug-and-play.

Its apps are so well-designed and intuitive that getting them to change your IP address is child’s play.

The software’s UI is pretty much identical across every platform, with the home screen featuring a large connect button surrounded by secondary options to access the full server list, the previous last location, or the nearest (fastest) server.

Unlike NordVPN’s apps, ExpressVPN doesn’t try to put its additional features or add-ons in front of your face.

Equally, ExpressVPN’s device compatibility is unrivaled, with apps for all popular devices, including its own VPN router with a dedicated app that lets you assign different IPs to different devices on your home network.

The router is called Aircove, and it costs extra, but it makes using a VPN so much easier with devices that don’t support VPN apps natively, like game consoles and Roku sticks.

Just like NordVPN, ExpressVPN gives you access to anonymous IP addresses from Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

The key difference is that ExpressVPN’s servers connect much quicker than any other VPN we’ve tested, even NordVPN.

In just under 3 seconds, our IP address had changed to a Canadian one, while NordVPN’s apps took well over 5.

ExpressVPN’s servers are just as secure as NordVPN’s, using RAM to instantly destroy any VPN session data.

They also run ‘ShuffleIP’ in the background, a technology that changes your IP address (but not your location) every time you use a website or app.

You’ll find all these protections in use throughout ExpressVPN’s network of 13,360 servers spread across 109 countries.

In general, no VPN can match ExpressVPN’s ability to bypass streaming geo-restrictions.

It continues to be one of our go-to VPNs for India, Australia, the UK, and the US.

If you want to use a VPN to unblock Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, Kayo Sports, and the likes, you can’t go wrong with ExpressVPN.

On Netflix, in particular, we were able to access geo-locked content in 18 different regions, including the US, the UK, India, and Korea.

As for Canadian content, ExpressVPN worked smoothly with most platforms, but not all. NordVPN did better here, which doesn’t happen very often.

Here are the results of our streaming tests:

Table showing how ExpressVPN performed with popular Canadian content platforms. Streaming Service Unblocked? CBC Gem Yes Crave Yes CTV Yes DAZN Canada Yes Fubo Canada Sometimes Netflix Canada Yes Sportsnet+ Sometimes TSN Yes TVA+ Yes

As you can see, ExpressVPN bypassed most Canadian content geo-blocks, with videos loading instantly and streaming at the highest possible resolution.

The only blemish to an otherwise excellent performance was the occasional VPN block from Fubo and Sportsnet+.

Once again, ExpressVPN and NordVPN were neck-and-neck in terms of speed, too. Both VPNs will barely affect your internet speed, sometimes leaving you to wonder whether the VPN is actually on!

Connecting to nearby servers, ExpressVPN is even slightly faster than NordVPN, with a fantastic 2% slowdown, compared to its rival’s 4%.

Connecting to Canada from outside the country, we average a speed loss of just 5%, which is slightly worse than NordVPN’s 3%, but an outstanding result nonetheless.

PIA VPN counts 3,000 servers across Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. No other VPN has this many servers in Canada.

There is a separate server for the Ontario region broadly, but Montreal and Vancouver cover Quebec and British Columbia provinces.

With such an extensive server park, we’ve never had any server congestion issues, with an average download speed loss of only 6% connecting into Canada from abroad.

Connecting inside Canada, we only lost 4% of speed, which you’ll barely notice on a fast internet line.

While speeds were slightly slower than NordVPN and ExpressVPN, they were still better than most other VPNs we tested.

PIA’s US network is genuinely impressive, too. Other than ExpressVPN, it’s the only VPN to offer servers in all 50 states while maintaining optimal IP location accuracy.

PIA’s world-class ability to protect your online privacy is undeniable, thanks to a proven no-logs policy that’s been verified in multiple court cases.

Its secure ChaCha20 encryption, via the WireGuard protocol, will ensure your data transfers are undecipherable, and protect you when using unsecured WiFi networks in Canada, in the US, or abroad.

PIA’s no-logs policy, fast connection speeds, and wide range of security settings are exactly what torrenting enthusiasts need from a VPN.

To enhance your privacy protections even more, you could consider using the service’s multi-hop servers, although they’ll affect your speed.

Every PIA subscription plan also includes MACE, a reliable ad and tracker blocker that effectively prevents websites and advertisers from tracking you online.

PIA is one of the best value VPNs available. It only costs $1.98/mo over 40 months, which is a lot more affordable than NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

That being said, this comes at the cost of limited streaming capabilities.

PIA’s certainly good enough at unblocking American content platforms, such as US Netflix and ESPN+ in the US, which shows many NHL regular season games.

But if accessing Canadian content from abroad is a priority, then NordVPN and ExpressVPN are by far the better choices.

That’s because in our streaming tests, PIA failed to access Canadian Netflix and DAZN, as well as Crave and Fubo.

Windscribe runs the largest free VPN server network in Canada, with endpoints located in Montreal (Quebec), Toronto (Ontario), and Vancouver (British Columbia).

While the service covers just as many cities as NordVPN, ExpressVPN and PIA, the number of servers is vastly inferior and therefore the chances of server overloads are higher.

This is exactly what we experienced while using Windscribe: very fast speeds at times, but unstable connections that fluctuated on a regular basis.

At the best of times, speeds into Canada slowed down by only 6%, but occasionally they reduced further, causing our stream to lose sharpness.

This happened mostly during high-traffic sporting events, for instance while watching blackout NFL games on DAZN Canada from the US.

We tested Windscribe’s free VPN with popular Canadian streaming services, and here are the results:

Table showing our Canadian streaming test results with Windscribe. Streaming Service Unblocked? CBC Gem Yes Crave No CTV Yes DAZN Canada Yes Fubo Canada Yes Netflix Canada No Sportsnet+ No TSN No TVA+ Yes

Windscribe unblocked many Canadian streaming services, and we can safely say it’s by far the best free VPN for watching DAZN Canada and Fubo.

As our results show, it wasn’t smooth sailing across the board, though, with issues accessing Crave, TSN, and Netflix Canada.

It’d be slightly unfair to expect more but, considering its success with US content platforms, we were secretly hoping Windscribe would repeat itself in Canada.

Windscribe’s free service is a great option to anonymize your internet activities and further secure your connections.

The VPN does log more data than our very best VPN picks, including your bandwidth usage, but we’re still comfortable recommending Windscribe since none of the internet data it collects is personally identifiable.

From a security standpoint, Windscribe uses best-in-class ChaCha20 encryption and the industry’s VPN protocol of choice, WireGuard.

We’ve repeatedly tested Windscribe’s encryption (using Wireshark) and our data transfers have always been properly encrypted.

You’ll find the same security and privacy standards across all the VPN’s free apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, and Linux.

Windscribe’s free Chrome and Firefox extensions are also worth shouting about. They include useful add-ons such as an ad and tracker blocker, as well as user agent and time zone spoofing.

PrivadoVPN’s free servers in Montreal delivered the fastest internet speeds we’ve seen from a free VPN.

Whether it was connecting to a nearby or a far away location, its performance was fantastic.

Our internet speed fell by just 8% connecting into Canada from abroad, and 3% within Canada.

The numbers clearly speak for themselves, with PrivadoVPN’s free service even giving top-tier VPNs like NordVPN and ExpressVPN a run for their money speed-wise.

Offering just one location in Canada is very limiting, though. You do have to wonder how long its Montreal servers will be able to perform at these levels.

In addition to its fast connection speeds, PrivadoVPN further secures your web traffic through the use of AES-256 encryption.

Combine that with its privacy-friendly logging policy, and in PrivadoVPN you have one of the most reliable free VPNs for torrenting.

That being said, the free VPN needs to add to its scarce range of privacy and security settings.

It should also allow free users to use the service’s browser extensions, which are currently only reserved to paying customers.

Unblocking Canadian geo-restricted content with PrivadoVPN is a mixed bag.

The service performed well accessing free-to-air services like CBC Gem and TVA+, but struggled with subscription services like Netflix, DAZN, and Crave.

Since the VPN service doesn’t refresh its free Canadian IPs regularly enough, this prevents it from evading the more sophisticated VPN blocks of paid streaming platforms.

Having a single Canadian server location, in Montreal, also doesn’t help.

At least the content we could access streamed in full high-definition, thanks to PrivadoVPN’s outstanding speeds.

Internationally, the free VPN works with US Netflix as well as several other US content platforms, including Peacock, HBO Max and Hulu.