The best VPNs for streaming in 2026: Fast and user-friendly

Free trial: 7 days, plus 30-day refund guarantee

Monthly price: $15.45

Best deal: $1.99 per month for 27 months

Read Engadget's in-depth Surfshark VPN review.

Every VPN wants to be the fastest, but there can only be one champion. Right now, it's Surfshark. In my tests, it maintained about 95 percent of my starting internet speed — and that's an average, taken from six server locations spaced around the world.

You need a speed of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) to watch Netflix in 4K UHD. Doing the math, you can see that even if you start with only 30 Mbps, Surfshark can still get you the best video quality with no buffering or stuttering.

Speaking of servers around the world: Surfshark has servers in 100 countries worldwide. For a globally available streaming platform like Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, that means 100 different content libraries to expand your viewing horizons. I tried using Surfshark to unblock Netflix in five countries and got through every time (though I did have to disconnect and reconnect once to unblock Netflix Japan).

All that comes at a reasonable price, so long as you go with a long-term deal. One month of Surfshark is a bit too expensive, even for such a well-oiled streaming VPN, but the introductory two-year deal provides far better value for your money. As another big perk, you can connect to Surfshark on an unlimited number of devices at a time, so you can share your newfound access with family and friends.

Free trial: Fully free plan; 30-day money-back guarantee on paid plans

Monthly price: $9.99

Best deal: $2.99 per month for 24 months

Read a detailed Proton VPN review on Engadget.

Several VPNs have gotten perfect scores in my unblocking test, including CyberGhost and Windscribe, but Proton VPN is the best of them all. To check how well a VPN unblocks streaming sites, I connect to five different servers, then check each server three times to see if it can get into Netflix and change the content library. I usually need to disconnect and reconnect in at least one of the five locations — even Surfshark tripped up once.

But Proton VPN never faltered. Every location unblocked Netflix every time I tried. I also saw different content in every country, which proves the VPN was doing its job and changing my virtual location.

If Proton VPN tested better than Surfshark, you might wonder why it's not at the top of my list. There are two main reasons. First, it's not quite as fast as Surfshark. Proton's speed test does look great, with a parallel processing technology called VPN Accelerator giving it an average download speed drop of just 12 percent. That's excellent — it's just that Surfshark only drops 5 percent.

Also, there's the price. Proton VPN is a much better choice if you need a streaming VPN for just a short time, with a month of service costing less than average. However, if you're in it for the long term, Proton's discounts only get the price down so far. Surfshark is a better long-haul deal.

Free trial: 7 days on mobile; 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans

Monthly price: $12.95

Best deal: $2.44 per month for 28 months

Engadget has a complete ExpressVPN review with more details.

ExpressVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market for a lot of reasons, but its streaming prowess is a big factor pushing it toward the top. It's not quite as fast as NordVPN or Surfshark — but it's fast, its connections are steady and there are some pretty good pricing deals available.

I've named ExpressVPN the best VPN for streaming in ultra high-definition based on two main factors. First, there's download speed: ExpressVPN only lost an average of 6.9 percent of speed in my tests. Even better, one server thousands of miles away lost only 2.6 percent, which is one of the best readings I've ever gotten in a single location. If you're after the higher speeds you need for 4K/UHD streaming, ExpressVPN gives you a great chance of getting them.

Reliability is the other reason ExpressVPN makes this list. All its apps are easy to use and it never drops connections or gets hung up when establishing them. In 15 tests of its ability to change my virtual location, it only got caught by Netflix once. Refreshing the VPN connection quickly fixed that problem.

It is a little pricey, especially compared to Surfshark, but the introductory two-year offer will get you excellent service for some time to come. It also has one of the biggest server networks with 164 locations in 105 countries, giving you more options for where to check out new shows.

Free trial: 14 day refund guarantee except on cash and crypto payments

Monthly price: 5 Euro

Best deal: 5 Euro per month

Check out Engadget's complete Mullvad review.

Mullvad is a VPN I tend to recommend first for anonymity. It's one of the only VPNs you can sign up for without any personal information at all — no names or email addresses, and you can even pay in cash if you really want to cover all your bases. This makes it the best VPN for journalists and activists who want to really make sure they aren't exposed.

However, it's not all work and no play here. Mullvad also makes a great discount VPN for checking out new streaming libraries. It costs €5 per month, no matter what. You put as much money as you want into your account, then top it up as needed like a parking meter. Exchange rates fluctuate, but unless the dollar implodes, Mullvad will always be the cheapest VPN month-to-month.

Mullvad also comes with a minimalist and user-friendly interface on all mobile and desktop platforms, so it's easy to set it up and get to watching your shows. I haven't tested it as much as some other VPNs, but I do use it personally, and I've never been permanently blocked on any location or experienced serious lag.

Take note that Mullvad only uses physical servers, so its network of locations isn't very large. Before you subscribe, check its server list to make sure it can unblock the country with the streaming library you want.

Free trial: 7 days on Android; 30 day refund on all plans

Monthly price: $12.99

Best deal: $3.09 per month for 24 months

Learn more from Engadget's full NordVPN review.

NordVPN is cheap, but you have to cheat a little to get the best prices. The discount on a two-year Basic plan drops the price of NordVPN to one of the best per-month rates on the market. Now, that's only an introductory rate, and renewals will be more expensive. But there's a trick you can use to get the best price again: log out, then get a new NordVPN subscription with the same email address as last time.

With that out of the way, let's talk about NordVPN for streaming. In short, it feels great to use. Its servers are very fast on average, no matter how far around the world your signal is traveling. In my tests, download speeds dropped only 6.4 percent on average, and no more than 10.4 percent anywhere. Videos never paused or lagged.

That consistency also applies to unblocking streaming sites, which NordVPN never failed to do. Once, it got into Netflix without actually changing the content library, which was probably a one-off server problem. Every other test went perfectly.

NordVPN isn't at the top of this list because its apps can sometimes be difficult to use, and because of the finagling required to renew at a good price. But as far as the actual streaming goes, I give it a near-perfect score.

Free trial: 24 hours on Windows and macOS, three days on Android, seven days on iOS; 30 day refund on all plans

Monthly price: $12.99

Best deal: $2.03 per month for 26 months

Visit the full CyberGhost review on Engadget to learn more.

CyberGhost has one particular perk that makes it a top choice for streaming — a list of servers optimized to get onto TV and sports platforms. Not only are the servers built for streaming, but each one is aimed at unblocking one particular streaming service. Instead of one general Netflix server, for example, it has one designed to unblock Netflix UK on an Android TV (among many others).

CyberGhost has 106 of these servers in 22 different countries, which is itself a small fraction of a network that reaches 100 countries overall. Although all the servers are great for streaming, the optimized locations went above and beyond, getting a perfect score in my unblocking test.

Still, it’s not ideal compared to the VPNs above it on the list. My download speeds declined by about 25 percent when I used CyberGhost, just enough to become a problem when watching shows in UHD. The actual process of connecting to a server can drag sometimes, too.

Those are small flaws in a service that's otherwise great value. If you're concerned about it, though, CyberGhost has one of the only VPN free trials that doesn't require any payment information at all. Just download the free trial app and you'll get between 24 hours and seven days to see if CyberGhost can handle the type of streaming you want to do.