Best VPNs For Streaming
Several entertainment platforms have emerged in the 21st century to fulfill the need for recreation. There was a time when outdoor entertainment was popular but as times changed and technology advanced the rise in online activities led people to stay at home in their free time more often than going out and about. Among the vast array of online activities lies the most popular and enjoyable service called streaming that everyone using an internet connection would be familiar with.
Streaming includes everything from music and movies to games and tutorials. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu allow you to access uncountable movies and TV shows 24/7 for a monthly subscription fee. There’s no doubt about how incredible these services are but the problem is that the content they offer is restricted in some countries whereas others ban it completely. This poses a problem for travelers to these countries who can’t do without a daily fix of streaming.
Even though you may have been told by the residents of such countries what you need to do without your streaming service for the period you’ll be staying in their country. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) could be your genie in the lamp that saves the day. If you’re not sure how this genie works and how it can help you then let me explain it to you.
A VPN hides your IP addresses and connects you to the internet through a temporary IP address located in a different country that is assigned to you by the VPN software. The VPN also creates an encryption tunnel that allows all your data to be transmitted over the internet without any hackers and even your ISP being able to access it. The encryption also hinders your ISP from throttling your bandwidth in times of network congestion. Since the ISP can’t see you there’s not much it can do to slow your internet connection down.
Even though it is usually DSL internet providers that most commonly use this technique to balance out traffic. Cable providers that offer internet connections with limited data allowance may also do it. Providers offering unlimited data are less prone to use throttling as they have built their infrastructure to deal with peak hours. For example, Spectrum offers unlimited data allowance with all its internet packages regardless of the speed you subscribe to. This is why Spectrum users usually do not have to worry about network congestion-related reduced speeds.
Free Or Paid
Like most services offered online, there are two versions of VPNs available. Paid as well as free. Even though free versions are good enough for casual use, it is not recommended to use them for regular streaming. Not that I’m against free stuff or anything. I love free stuff and would take it anytime as long as it is something I can benefit from. I do not have a habit of collecting useless free stuff.
One thing that usually puts me off of free stuff is the fact that there is always a catch. With free VPNs, there are things like monthly data caps on your usage, slow internet, etc. that you may encounter. Both issues will work against the purpose you want to use it for because limited data and slow internet would simply not work for optimal streaming.
Besides this free VPNs will also collect your usage data to be sold to companies for them to run targeted advertising campaigns. This simply kills the purpose of using an encrypted network, however, you cannot blame someone for making money by other means if you’re not paying for their service. Afterall everyone is out there to make money out of their ventures.
If you’re still willing to try a free version before you spend your hard-earned money on a paid VPN there are some reliable VPNs available that you can choose from. These include Hotspot Shield Free, TunnelBear, ProtonVPN, Windscribe, and Speedify. These companies also provide premium versions, thus have less motivation to collect and sell your data since they’re already making money. The free versions are more of a marketing strategy to pull you in.
Let’s look into the paid versions of the top VPN services for streaming, available in the industry. You must at least look into these before making up your mind upon whichever VPN you’re going to use. They’re not very pricey but offer the peace of mind that no free version can offer.
Express VPN
This is the top-rated VPN out there. You can connect up to 5 devices through it’s 3000 remote servers while maintaining good internet speed. It supports a wide range of operating systems including Windows, Macintosh, iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Linux. It automatically connects your device to the best server available to ensure you receive the fastest speed possible.
Other features include a kill switch, manual and automatic security settings, zero-knowledge DNS, 256-bit encryption, and no data log policy, making it the ideal VPN software for security and privacy. However, just like everything good it pulls towards the expensive side when it comes to pricing, but there’s a 30 days money-back guarantee available in case you’re not satisfied with the service.
IPVanish
A wonderful mix of power and performance. This VPN offers you 1300 servers to connect through and supports up to 10 devices simultaneously, providing great internet speed irrespective of the distance between your device and the server. This VPN service uses 256-AES encryption and provides support to all key security platforms. Other incredible features include IPv6 leak protection, a kill switch, DNS protection, and no-log policy.
NordVPN
If you’re a serious streamer then this is the VPN for you. It’s Smart Play technology allows you to evade geo-restrictions to gain access to about 400 streaming services. With over 5500 servers to connect through speeds are always consistently fast but latency could be a little higher when connected to a far off server. The most interesting feature is that this VPN encrypts your data twice through two different servers. It also provides 256-bit encryption for up to 6 devices, kill switch, a dedicated IP address, and a no-log policy.
Conclusion
The above mention VPN software are the top three in the market and all of them possess the ability to unlock your favorite streaming services including Netflix. They all offer high performance that is crucial for streaming and are compatible with the majority of devices used in households all over the U.S. making them ideal for anyone and everyone.