SoCalNorCal

Any suggestions for the best VPN to use/watch streaming services while traveling? I travel overseas for ~1 month at a time and am looking to be able to use the streaming services I subscribe to while traveling.

Thanks

scubadu

You are going to get a bunch of answers to this and the reality is that there probably is no "one best" VPN for streaming. Several work well and people choose them for various reasons.

Personally, I use Proton VPN and have for awhile now. It works fine for streaming (so far, in my experience) but I appreciate Proton's privacy aspects so that is part of what drove the decision.

Regards

TGarza

We use Nord VPN and change our city frequently. Some streaming companies are active with a whack a mole attempts for blocking VPN’s.

ikwia

I use PIA. I want to emphasize that using a VPN for streaming can be frustrating for the reason TGarza mentioned.

der_saeufer

Depending on where you are and which streaming service, it may work OK without it. The best way to beat the services' VPN blockers is to run your own at home, that way it looks like you're just sitting at home watching. Otherwise, most of the commercial ones are equally decent but not perfect. Proton, Mullvad, Nord, PIA, etc.

pseudoswede

Especially for Netflix, you should check out what other countries offer through that service. It's often stuff you won't be able to watch on US-based Netflix.

gfunkdave

Since streaming companies often try to block VPNs, I think it's best to run your own so you appear to be at your US home no matter where you are.

TGarza

Except when I don’t want them to know I am home 👍

StuckInYYZ

As others have mentioned, setting up your own is your best bet, hosted by your home network if possible due to transfer costs and if the service uses network fingerprinting.

bocastephen

I bought two small VPN devices, it's about the size of a cup coaster on Amazon, and easy to setup with OpenVPN. The base unit sits in my home in California, and the second unit sits in my mother's apartment in Toronto Canada - her Roku stick connects to the VPN and as far as the stick is concerned, it's sitting in California, she even sees news alerts and commercials from my area. The stick runs Pluto, Max, Netflix, Prime Video, Parmamount+ etc etc and the quality is perfectly fine HD.

I will say that when I am visiting her and using a laptop or phone connection to access the VPN back home, it does not seem to work for certain apps - for example, Facebook somehow knows it's still in Canada and blocks certain functions, but for Netflix, Max, etc, they seem to work fine.

IslesFan

What device?

skitraveler

I've never gotten PIA to work on Windows laptop or Android to access FuboTV US. Nord works on my laptop but not my phone. Might try setting up a VPN at home like bocastephen.

bocastephen

It's a GLiNet 300M - not sure if it's still available, but something similar will be.

skitraveler

I just asked a friend about OpenVPN between two GLiNet routers. He recommends this software that's free for 3 users / 10 devices.
https://tailscale.com/pricing
Setup my always on desktop at home as an Exit Node, install apps on my devices for traveling and it will work. They say you can setup an AppleTV as Exit Node even.
This video certainly makes it look easy. I'm going to Whistler over weekend and will report back in a week if works easily.

Dubai Stu

I use Tailscale and it works great. My only concern is that it may be able to detect the use of an on device VPN easier than it would be to detect that a device was connected to a VPN router. It is also easier to setup a larger number of devices that way instantly.