The Best VPNs with UK IP Addresses

One of NordVPN’s strongest attributes is its connection speeds, particularly over long distances.

When we connected to a NordVPN UK server, our internet speed dropped by just 10% on average: a marginal decrease.

While this is slightly inferior to ExpressVPN’s measurements, let’s not take anything away from NordVPN. The VPN remains one of the fastest for the UK, and you won’t experience any buffering or long loading times while using it.

Carrying on its tradition, NordVPN continues to evade most geo-restrictions from British streaming services. The VPN consistently unblocks BBC iPlayer, UK Netflix, Channel 4, ITVX, and Disney+ UK.

Not only did we have great success with the provider’s computer and mobile apps, but also its Fire TV and Apple TV VPN apps worked extremely well to stream UK content directly from our TV.

On a less positive note, NordVPN’s Smart DNS proxy is only intended for unblocking American streaming apps, and is therefore useless for streaming UK content.

Surprisingly, we also ran into occasional hiccups trying to access Sky Go and NOW, with several IP addresses blocked by both streaming services.

The big difference between NordVPN and ExpressVPN is how their apps look and work, especially on PC and Mac.

While ExpressVPN’s computer software is slick and compact, NordVPN’s is rather bloated with extra tools that take up too much real estate in our view.

Both its macOS and Windows apps can’t be resized, and feature the Threat Protection Pro and Dark Web Monitor tools on the home screen. While these are useful extras, they’re not core VPN features.

That being said, these are minor drawbacks in the big scheme of things. You can judge this for yourself by trying NordVPN risk-free through its 3-day free trial (via the Google Play Store) or its 30-day refund guarantee.

ExpressVPN has a huge network of 1,750 servers in the UK.

Thanks to this high server count, we’ve rarely encountered signs of server overloads, such as annoying CAPTCHAs, slow page/video loading times, or connection failures.

This was crucial for live sporting events, like streaming the World Cup from abroad, as it meant the increased traffic wouldn’t cause our stream to buffer.

The company’s investment in its UK server infrastructure has also translated into phenomenal speeds. The VPN is currently the fastest for connecting into the UK from abroad, with an average internet speed loss of only 7%.

While we can’t fault ExpressVPN’s tally of servers, they aren’t well distributed across the UK. Having five separate server locations in London feels like overkill, especially given the lack of servers in Scotland and Wales.

ExpressVPN hasn’t always unblocked BBC iPlayer in the past, but it has been working very well for the last few years.

You can also use ExpressVPN to unblock other British content available on Sky Go, ITVX, Channel 4, and the UK’s Netflix library.

ExpressVPN’s Smart DNS proxy, MediaStreamer, enables you to trick BBC iPlayer and Channel 4 into thinking that you’re in the UK without a VPN connection. It’s a great way to watch BBC content on your Smart TV or games console.

But what really separates ExpressVPN is its router app. This lets you connect every device in your household to the VPN, making it ideal for streaming British TV on devices that don’t support VPN apps.

Its modern Android TV, Apple TV and Fire TV apps were really simple to use and allowed us to watch the Six Nations, the FA Cup, and other popular events on our TV with minimal setup or fuss.

Just like NordVPN, all of ExpressVPN’s UK servers are physically located in England.

They’re also zero-knowledge DNS servers, meaning when you connect to a UK website ExpressVPN will handle and encrypt your DNS request itself and stop a third-party from doing it.

And its TrustedServer technology stops your data from ever being written onto hard drives, along with regular wipes of information stored on its RAM-only servers.

We’ve never experienced unexpected DNS or IP leaks using ExpressVPN, and its kill switch (called Network Lock) will prevent your real IP address from displaying in the event of a connection failure.

You can test drive all the benefits above through ExpressVPN’s 3-day free trial (via iOS and Android) and its 30-day money-back guarantee.

Windscribe is currently the only free VPN that can access the British Netflix catalog from outside the UK.

The VPN provider also unblocks other major British content platforms, including BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, ITVX, and Sky Go from outside the UK.

It’s astonishing how Windscribe’s free UK servers can still do this, despite regular VPN crackdowns from these broadcasters.

This allows UK expats and fans abroad to stream geo-restricted movies for free and watch shows like The Great British Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing without hassle, security risks, or intrusive pop-up ads.

What’s more, Windscribe’s free VPN unblocks 4 more Netflix regions.

And if you’re in the United States, you can use Windscribe’s free VPN to access Star content on Disney+’s UK library.

Windscribe has two free UK servers, both in London and labeled ‘Crumpets’ and ‘Custard’. Both servers slowed our internet speed down by a very respectable 13%, although we found the connections less stable than with our premium recommendations.

This impact on stability is most likely due to the number of people connected at the same time, and therefore overloading the servers.

As such, don’t be surprised if you have to go through CAPTCHAs while connected, or experience periodic blurriness during popular live streams.

The main downside of Windscribe’s free plan is that it limits your data usage to 2GB of data a month when you create an account, and 10GB per month if you register your email address.

We worked out that 10GB of data equals roughly four hours of HD streaming time, which isn’t a lot.

That said, it’s actually one of the more generous data allowances we’ve seen from a secure free VPN. For instance, rival free apps like TunnelBear and Avira Phantom only offer 2GB and 500MB, respectively.

Windscribe also has free browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge. There’s no registration necessary, it has one free UK server, but it’s limited to 2GB of data per month.