The Best VPNs for Getting a US IP Address

What we love about ExpressVPN is how easily it can get around US content geo-restrictions on all popular devices.

We unblocked every single American streaming service from abroad: as an example, the VPN unblocked HBO Max, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, and Prime Video.

ExpressVPN was also formidable at accessing Peacock TV from outside the US and streaming 3pm Premier League games.

One of the great benefits of using ExpressVPN is that it delivers exceptionally fast and unrestricted access across an incredibly wide range of devices.

On top of its standard computer and mobile apps, ExpressVPN has also developed equally streamlined Android TV, Fire TV and Apple TV software.

Every subscription plan also comes with a free Smart DNS proxy (called MediaStreamer) that worked sublimely with game consoles.

ExpressVPN provides IP addresses from 56 different US cities, including popular locations like Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

The only major cities ExpressVPN doesn’t offer IPs from (but NordVPN does) are Kansas City, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo.

ExpressVPN has always had a highly dependable server network in the US and, over many years, we’ve rarely experienced unexpected internet slowdowns, which are typically linked to server congestion.

With thousands more US-based servers in its arsenal, with regularly refreshed IP addresses, we’ve seen further improvements in speed stability and IP location accuracy.

Plus, these servers connect near-instantaneously, which significantly outperforms the multi-second delay we found with both PIA and NordVPN.

ExpressVPN performed exceptionally well in all our tests, but this high level of performance used to come with a price tag to match.

That changed recently when the company overhauled its pricing plans. Now, ExpressVPN costs $2.79/mo over 28 months, which is similar to what NordVPN charges.

It renews at a much lower price than NordVPN, too: $99.00 compared to $139.08!

If you don’t want to commit to a subscription just yet, there are ways for you to try ExpressVPN for free.

You can either sign up to a 7-day free trial via iOS or Android, or take advantage of the provider’s 30-day money-back guarantee that, in our experience, the company has always honored.

NordVPN is a great solution if you want to watch US streaming services from anywhere in the world. Everything ExpressVPN unblocks in the US, NordVPN can too.

You can unblock US Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Prime Video and all other American content platforms on the VPN’s US servers.

You can do this on its intuitive computer and smartphone apps, via its Fire TV Stick and Apple TV apps, and using its Smart DNS service, which worked well on our PS5 and Xbox consoles.

NordVPN runs 3,400 servers located in America, giving its customers access to one of the widest ranges of US VPN IP addresses.

Up until recently, the VPN’s city and state coverage wasn’t as extensive as ExpressVPN’s or PIA’s, but it has now leveled the playing field.

Key cities that ExpressVPN covers but NordVPN doesn’t are: Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Tampa, and Washington D.C.

Putting the coverage shortcomings aside, NordVPN’s NordLynx protocol performed amazingly and slowed our internet speed by only 14% connecting from abroad.

This excellent speed result is marginally better than both ExpressVPN and PIA, with all US connections maintaining a high speed throughout each session, and ensuring maximum resolution streaming.

NordVPN and ExpressVPN are almost equal in many areas, but not for dedicated American IPs.

If you need your US IP address to never change, or you simply don’t want to share it with other users, then your own dedicated VPN IP is the way to go.

While ExpressVPN’s IPs give you greater privacy, NordVPN’s cover more US locations: 11 versus seven to be exact, including popular cities like Atlanta, Boston, and Dallas.

As for user experience, NordVPN’s apps aren’t as well designed in our opinion.

The desktop UI in particular can’t be resized, and it gives way too much prominence to useful but non-essential add-ons, such as Threat Protection and Dark Web.

This makes the UI bigger than necessary, and distracts from the core use of the software.

Private Internet Access is almost as good as ExpressVPN when it comes to its range of US IP locations, with 50 on offer.

If you’re often abroad and want to access specific region-restricted content, such as local sports and news broadcasts, then PIA VPN is an excellent choice, especially if you’re on a tighter budget.

Additionally, the VPN’s US speeds are among the fastest we’ve ever recorded. When connecting to locations like New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, our download speed decreased by only 14%.

Throughout many years of testing, we’ve never experienced traffic congestion thanks to the sheer number of servers on offer.

PIA is an effective streaming VPN, able to get around the geo-blocks of platforms like Netflix, YouTube TV, HBO Max, Hulu, and ESPN+.

That said, PIA’s streaming compatibility isn’t as reliable across different devices as ExpressVPN’s or NordVPN’s.

For instance, the Fire TV Stick app only works with Hulu and Peacock, but no other major American streaming apps.

Moreover, PIA’s Smart DNS proxy doesn’t work with streaming apps at all, which is bizarre.

On devices that don’t support VPN apps, like on PlayStation and Xbox, you’ll therefore have to set up PIA on your router. It’ll be a painful experience compared to using ExpressVPN’s router, though.

For a very affordable cost, you can get one of the safest and most trustworthy VPNs with a verified no-logs policy.

Every subscription plan comes with extra features like an ad and tracker blocker (MACE), split tunneling, port forwarding, and various encryption options. There’s also a SOCKS5 proxy included with the VPN.

PIA’s apps are also compact and user-friendly, which makes them suitable for beginners and experienced VPN users alike.

All of the above is available for just $1.75/mo over 26 months, making PIA one of the cheapest VPNs on the market.

You can also take advantage of a 7-day VPN free trial, available via the Apple and Google Play app stores.

PrivadoVPN is one of the very few free VPNs that stream US Netflix. Most other free services we tested couldn’t do it, not even Windscribe.

On top of that, PrivadoVPN unblocks a variety of other major US streaming services, including HBO Max’s, Paramount+’s, and Prime Video’s American content libraries.

PrivadoVPN has also fixed its previously faulty Fire TV Stick app, so you can now use it to stream geo-restricted content on your TV.

PrivadoVPN has free servers in four US city locations: Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C.

We always love to see a good coast-to-coast reach. It’d be even better if there were servers located in the Midwest and in the South.

While Windscribe offers more free US server locations, we generally found PrivadoVPN’s server speeds not only faster but more stable, too.

In fact, our speed tests revealed an impact on download speed of just 8% while connected to PrivadoVPN’s free US servers.

We connected quickly to each server location, with no noticeable delay to page loading times.

As with Windscribe, PrivadoVPN limits free use of its service to 10GB per month.

While this is restrictive for regular VPN users, it’s still more generous than the allowances of most other trustworthy free VPNs, like TunnelBear’s 2GB data allowance.

One thing we found very annoying using PrivadoVPN was the need to manually refresh our free data each month.

We couldn’t even do this in-app — only via our online account — which made the whole process really frustrating.

Windscribe lets you connect to eight US cities in seven different states for free:

• Atlanta, Georgia
• Chicago, Illinois
• Dallas, Texas
• Los Angeles, California
• Miami, Florida
• New York City, New York
• Seattle, Washington
• Washington D.C.

For a free VPN, this is a very generous number of US server locations, with options on the East Coast, West Coast, and in the South.

You can also connect to 9 other countries, with especially fast UK VPN servers and Canadian VPN locations available.

While this is a small selection of countries compared to the paid version of Windscribe, it’s still an impressive and diverse range of free locations to connect to.

Windscribe’s free VPN can surprisingly access most major US streaming services. It’s not quite as good as PrivadoVPN in this area, but it comes very close.

We found it an exceptionally effective free VPN for Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, and Hulu.

Sadly, Windscribe’s free US servers no longer work with US Netflix. They used to work smoothly in the past, but Netflix now blocks all of the VPN’s free US IP addresses.

As with any free service, Windscribe has its drawbacks. The key one being its 10GB monthly bandwidth limit, which will frustrate frequent VPN users.

The other limitation concerns the VPN’s streaming performance.

Despite clocking fast internet speeds, we regularly experienced fluctuations that led to picture degradation and, sometimes, even buffering.

Finally, Windscribe’s free US servers trigger an awful lot of CAPTCHAs, particularly on search engines. At times we got stuck in endless loops, which completely derailed our browsing.