The Best VPNs for the UK

NordVPN has 629 secure servers based in London, the second-largest park of UK servers.

Only CyberGhost has more UK servers, which isn’t included in our recommendations since it’s much slower than NordVPN and less reliable for streaming.

Although it doesn’t yet own its entire server infrastructure, all of NordVPN’s servers are bare-metal. Most other VPNs use virtual servers. This means NordVPN’s servers are physically located within the UK and its infrastructure is much safer.

NordVPN has 629 servers spread across the UK.

It has also moved towards a totally diskless RAM server network, meaning that user data can never be seized. On top of that, regular infrastructure audits are commissioned.

However, NordVPN doesn’t permit you to select other UK cities, regions, or countries. If you want an IP address in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, you’re out of luck.

NordVPN’s UK IP addresses are regularly updated to avoid British streaming blocks.

The VPN consistently unblocks BBC iPlayer, UK Netflix, Channel 4, ITVX, and Disney+ UK.

NordVPN is the most reliable VPN for streaming BBC iPlayer.

Both the provider’s Fire TV and Apple TV apps worked very well to stream UK content directly from our TV.

Remember, to download the BBC iPlayer from abroad onto your Firestick you’ll first have to set up a UK Amazon account (which isn’t complicated).

On a less positive note, NordVPN’s Smart DNS tool is only intended for unblocking American streaming apps, and is therefore useless at unblocking British ones.

Using NordVPN to connect to London from abroad, you can expect to see average download speeds of 90Mbps (out of 100Mbps).

This is slightly slower than ExpressVPN, but is still very fast and you won’t experience any buffering or loading time when streaming British video content.

Moreover, NordVPN comes with an affordable price tag of only $2.99 per month on a two-year subscription plan.

There’s also seven-day completely free trial available via Android, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee to try NordVPN risk-free.

ExpressVPN isn’t transparent about how many UK servers and IP addresses it has as part of its server network, but we know they’re all based in London, listed as ‘London’, ‘Docklands’, and ‘East London’.

ExpressVPN has three London-based servers.

This could be limiting if you live outside of London, but this isn’t reflected in ExpressVPN’s speed performance. It’s currently the fastest VPN for connecting into the UK from abroad, with an average download speed loss of 7%.

Based on this, we can deduce that ExpressVPN maintains a large number of UK servers. We’ve never encountered any signs of server congestion, such as annoying CAPTCHAs, or connection issues.

ExpressVPN hasn’t always unblocked BBC iPlayer, and while it’s not our VPN of choice for BBC iPlayer, it has been working very well for many months.

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

ExpressVPN’s Smart DNS tool, 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 tool to watch BBC content on your Smart TV or games console.

ExpressVPN unblocks all British streaming platforms.

The only real downside is that ExpressVPN is more expensive than NordVPN. It’s worth taking advantage of ExpressVPN’s seven-day free trial (via iOS or Android), or its 30-day refund guarantee.

Although ExpressVPN still uses many more virtual servers than NordVPN, all its UK servers are physically located in England.

ExpressVPN actually runs 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 doing it.

It also has TrustedServer technology that stops your data ever being written onto hard drives, along with regular wipes of information stored on RAM only servers. ExpressVPN is a super safe option for UK connections.

We’ve never seen a DNS or IP address leak using ExpressVPN, and its kill switch is 100% reliable, making it ideal for sensitive online searches as well as stopping British broadcasters from seeing your real IP.

Surfshark allows you to get an IP address from Glasgow in Scotland, Manchester in Northern England, and London in the South.

Its server park currently counts 200 servers, which isn’t as high as NordVPN but has never proved to be a problem for us.

Surfshark records average download speeds of 88Mbps when connecting from overseas into the UK. This isn’t as fast as NordVPN or ExpressVPN, but it’s more than good enough for Full HD streaming.

On the subject of streaming, the VPN pretty much matches its rivals, unblocking BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, and Disney+ Uk without hitches.

The only downside, other than the slower download speeds, is that connecting to server locations can take significantly longer.

If ExpressVPN and NordVPN are too expensive for you, Surfshark is one of the cheapest VPNs you can get. It costs only $1.99 on a two-year plan, and won’t disappoint.

Surfshark also runs a VPN free trial that allows you to test the VPN for seven days without payment. If you then subscribe to a paid plan, you’ll get another 30 days for free thanks to the service’s 30-day money back guarantee.

Windscribe is currently the only free VPN that can unblock the British Netflix library from outside the UK.

The provider also unblocks other major British streaming services, including BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, ITVX, and Sky Go from anywhere in the world, despite regular VPN crackdowns from these broadcasters.

Windscribe Free’s London servers unblock iPlayer and stream UK shows like ‘Normal People’.

This allows expats and fans overseas 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.

Even without the WindFlix servers, which are reserved for paying customers, Windscribe Free unblocks four more Netflix libraries.

Moreover, if you’re in the United States you can use Windscribe Free to stream Star content via the UK’s Disney+ library.

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 add an 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, popular free services like TunnelBear and Avira Phantom only offer 2GB and 500MB of free data respectively.

Windscribe also has a free browser extension 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.

Windscribe has two free UK servers. Both are in London, listed as ‘Crumpets’ and ‘Custard’. This is twice as many free UK servers as any other free VPN.

Windscribe has two free UK servers.

As the leader in UK servers, Windscribe spreads user load to avoid congestion, meaning you can get a UK IP address and avoid CAPTCHAs and lag.

Windscribe records excellent download and upload speeds when connecting to the UK.

These are extremely fast speeds for a free VPN service (we tested them using a 100Mbps dedicated connection). We experienced zero issues streaming, downloading and web browsing connected to these UK servers.

This is full list of fserver locations that Windscribe makes available for free:

• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Romania
• Switzerland
• USA

This generous selection of free VPN server locations, combined with impressive speeds and unblocking results, is why Windscribe is our preferred choice of free VPN for Germany, the US, and Canada, too.

Windscribe is by far the best free VPN for the UK. It’s safe to use and lets you stream British TV. Torrenting is allowed, encryption is via AES-256 cipher, and its logging policy is very private.

Sign up is simple enough too – you just have to head to the website and create an account. No payment details are required.