The Best Free VPN for Firestick

What sets Proton VPN apart from every other free VPN is the complete absence of data limits. Once it’s installed, you can leave it running as long as you like.

That’s ultimately why it edges out Windscribe here. Windscribe actually performs better in most of the test categories, but its 10GB monthly cap triggers a rating penalty that Proton VPN avoids entirely.

The unlimited allowance isn’t the only advantage, either. Proton VPN was comfortably the fastest free VPN I tested on Fire TV Stick: my connection speed dropped by just 1%, compared to 9% on Windscribe’s nearest servers.

Bear in mind that Proton VPN’s free plan chooses the server for you, so you can’t deliberately pick a nearby location. In my tests, though, it consistently routed me to one anyway.

Proton VPN uses ChaCha20 encryption via the WireGuard protocol, with built-in IP and DNS leak protection. Throughout my testing, it kept my true IP and DNS information hidden without a single leak.

Its servers also don’t log any personal session or web usage data. This claim is backed up by an independent no-logs security audit rather than just a marketing page.

Where the free plan falls down is streaming. I couldn’t unblock a single major app with it, including US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer.

The lack of manual server selection is a big part of the problem. Proton VPN automatically connects you to the “fastest” available server, so you can’t target the country whose content library you actually want.

Proton VPN also blocks peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic on its free servers, which will cause problems with any P2P-based Kodi add-ons you use.

In short, Proton VPN is excellent if you want an unlimited free VPN to hide your IP address, but it’s the wrong tool if you’re trying to reach geo-restricted content.

The big difference between Windscribe’s and Proton VPN’s free apps is that Windscribe unblocks geo-restricted content in 10 countries, including the US, the UK, and Canada.

Across weeks of testing, my team was impressed to discover that Windscribe’s free VPN works with 5 Netflix regions, BBC iPlayer, Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, and many more region-locked apps.

I even found that the VPN even works with USA’s Peacock to stream 3pm Premier League games from the UK.

If you’re planning on using Kodi addons and IPTV apps that still use P2P delivery, the VPN service supports P2P traffic on all its free servers, another advantage over Proton.

On the security side, Windscribe uses ChaCha20 or AES-256 encryption depending on which protocol you select. Like Proton VPN, it doesn’t log your activity, and it never leaked my real IP or DNS data in testing.

The only real drawback to using Windscribe’s free app is that 10GB monthly data cap.

It’s a generous allowance next to free VPNs like TunnelBear and Avira, but it doesn’t go far on a TV. In my experience, 10GB buys you roughly four hours of HD streaming before you’re cut off for the month.

If you want to stretch it, drop the resolution to Standard Definition. I got noticeably more viewing time that way but it wasn’t exactly a great experience.

IPVanish’s user-friendly Fire TV Stick app has clearly been designed with Fire TV’s interface in mind. Very few VPNs get that right.

Finding my nearest server took seconds, and connecting to it was a single click away with no menu-hunting.

It was just as easy to locate advanced settings like split tunneling, LAN exemption, and obfuscation. They’re a welcome addition if you want them, though beginners can safely ignore them.

The only real nuisance I ran into was switching on the kill switch, which prevents unexpected IP address leaks.

That’s because the kill switch comes as a separate app, a design decision made to protect you better against sudden VPN shutdowns caused by Fire TV’s memory constraints.

Being standalone and lightweight makes it far less likely to fail, so I think the trade-off is worth it. You install it once, then control it from within the main VPN app.

IPVanish has clearly been built with anonymous streamers in mind. Its network of 3,400 no-logs servers hid my IP address in every security test I ran.

All of those servers are now RAM-based, so they never write data to disk. None of them track or store your internet activity, which means you can use your streaming apps privately and securely.

I also ran the connection through Wireshark and confirmed that data flowing through IPVanish’s servers is fully encrypted.

I confirmed that IPVanish encrypts all network traffic.

For all of these reasons, IPVanish is my top-rated VPN for Kodi and IPTV streaming.

Expect fast speeds when you’re connected to a nearby IPVanish server. In my most recent round of speed tests, my testing team recorded a download speed drop of under 4% on short-distance connections.

Losing so little speed compared to your normal connection is exactly what you want for buffer-free streaming on a Firestick.

Long-distance connections cost more, as you’d expect: I measured a 14% speed loss connecting from the US into Japan with IPVanish.

That’s still quick enough for comfortable streaming, but if you only need to conceal your IP address, I recommend you connect to a local server and keep the extra speed.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that no Firestick app I’ve tested handles streaming geo-blocks as well as ExpressVPN’s.

It unblocked 18 Netflix regions for me, and it works particularly smoothly with the American library.

Most of its US servers also opened up HBO Max, Hulu, and even Peacock TV, which let me watch Premier League 3pm kick-offs from the UK.

From outside the UK, I reached BBC iPlayer and ITVX on its UK servers without a single error message.

Speeds hold up well across ExpressVPN’s network of 13,360 servers in 113 countries. Connecting from Europe to the US East Coast, I lost only 6% of my base speed.

Longer hops naturally cost more: connecting into Singapore, the drop was 20%.

That’s still fast enough for HD streaming, and more consistent than most VPNs manage at that distance, though IPVanish narrowly edges ExpressVPN overall.

ExpressVPN’s logging policy commits the provider to keeping no record of your internet activity or your connections to its service.

The VPN is also headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, a genuinely privacy-friendly jurisdiction for a VPN company.

The kill switch is another privacy bonus, since not all VPNs offer one on Firestick. It cuts your internet access the moment the VPN connection fails, so your real IP address is never exposed.

Unlike IPVanish’s, it’s built into the app itself, which in theory leaves it more vulnerable to shutting down if Fire TV’s memory overloads. In years of testing, though, I’ve never seen it happen.