Best VPNs to Use on Amazon Fire TV Stick
A VPN isn’t just for your phone or laptop, you can add a VPN app to your TV and get all the benefits of removing geo-restrictions, trackers, and ISP tracking. This is easy to do if you have an Amazon Fire TV Stick. All you need to do is install the VPN app from the App Store and enable it.
Why You Should Install a VPN on Fire TV Stick
There are a number of good reasons to install a VPN on your Fire TV Stick.
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Access geo-restricted content . VPNs allow you to bypass geographic restrictions imposed by streaming services. This means you can access content libraries from different regions, for example watching BBC iPlayer outside the UK or accessing Netflix’s US library from another country.
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Stop ISP throttling . Some ISPs may deliberately slow down your Internet connection while streaming in order to manage network traffic. A VPN can prevent your ISP from recognizing that you’re streaming, avoiding any intentional slowdowns, which is especially important when streaming at high quality like 4K.
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Ad blocking : Some VPNs offer ad blocking features that can improve your viewing experience by removing unwanted ads that may appear when using the Fire TV Stick.
Best Fire TV Stick VPN for Speed: NordVPN
If you need speed or minimal speed loss, you should choose NordVPN . Speed tests from PCMag found that NordVPN slowed download speeds by just 0.7%. In comparison, ExpressVPN reduces download speeds by 20.4%. A 10-20% reduction is not uncommon for a VPN, and if you have a really fast connection, you may not even have to worry about it. But if you need maximum performance and regularly plan to stream 4K content on your Fire TV Stick, using NordVPN for speed alone might be a good idea.
NordVPN is good at other things too: it has a simple app, fast servers, and is also good at unblocking content. It offers privacy features such as kill switch, split tunneling, tracker blocking, and more.
NordVPN’s monthly plan costs $12.99 per month, but if you buy a two-year plan, you can get it for $3.39 per month.
Best Budget VPN for Fire TV Stick: Surfshark
If you’re on a budget, Surfshark , which is run by the same parent company as NordVPN, may be a good option. Surfshark offers unlimited simultaneous connections to the same account, so you can run it on your computer, smartphone, and Fire TV Stick at the same time without worrying about slow speeds or lockouts.
Surfshark also does a great job at unblocking content, its speeds are fast enough for 4K streaming, and in PCMag’s tests, download speeds only dropped by 4.8% (though they did run into more serious problems with download speeds and latency). For streaming media, this should be more than enough.
Surfshark’s monthly rates can be a little high, but you start saving a lot of money when you buy an annual or two-year plan, which offers additional discounts on sales days. The monthly rate is $10.99 per month, but if you buy it for two years, it drops to $2.49 per month.
Best overall VPN on Fire TV Stick: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is a solid choice across the board, and that’s true for the Fire TV Stick app as well. The application is quite easy to use and does not require any special settings. It has a strong track record of unblocking regional content from popular services like Disney+ and Netflix, so you can stream Netflix from Singapore while in the US, for example.
Although ExpressVPN is fast enough for media streaming, PCMag found a 20.4% loss in data download speed when using ExpressVPN . This means you’ll need a fast internet connection to get the most out of ExpressVPN.
The app includes features such as kill switch, split tunneling, and protocol selection to enhance user security and privacy. It also offers an additional protection package to block ads, trackers, and malicious sites. ExpressVPN is a great option for travelers as it has servers in over 100 countries.
ExpressVPN is the most expensive option of the bunch, offering just three plans. It costs $12.95 per month, $9.99 per month for the 6-month plan, and $8.32 per month for the annual plan.
While it’s a little pricey, ExpressVPN’s versatility and reliability make it a great option for VPN service on the Fire TV Stick.