Want to watch US Netflix, but unfortunately, you live outside the US? 🙁
Netflix is, without a doubt, the biggest and most popular streaming service in the world, with close to 182 million subscribers (as of April 2020).
It’s available in almost every country and has tons of great shows, documentaries, and movies, which we all love.
However, you see, there’s a slight problem.
Netflix has a different library of content for each country. It’s precisely the reason why you’re unable to watch The Office US without being in the US. This restriction comes down to content licensing where there are terms in the agreement between Netflix and the production company behind the show to agree on the geographic locations where the content will be available.
Netflix USA users get around 5,087 titles in their library, but if you’re in Australia, for instance, that number is just 2418 titles in your library.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
The cold truth is that Netflix has to honor the content licensing agreements, which means if you ever try to access the Netflix US from outside the US without hiding your location, Netflix will catch you and may even ban you.
Netflix is strict on this, unlike streaming services such as HBO Max, where they explicitly tell you to use a VPN if you want to access the US content library from outside the US.
So if you want to access and watch Netflix US from outside the US, you will need to make sure that you use the right services to hide your location. If you’re planning to use free alternatives to do this, then it will not work. For those that are available for free, it’s most likely that they are collecting and selling your data to profit from you, or it may not even work at all.
The primary solution which we have found to be effective is the usage of VPN services, although you can choose to use a web proxy service. The reason why we will be heavily focusing on VPN is that we’ve managed to use them and have successfully streamed hundreds of hours of Netflix US content without any buffering or issues encountered.
The VPN services which we will be discussing are the result of hours of reviewing and testing (which we’ve had to put in the costs) to identify their performances when it comes to streaming Netflix content so that you can make the best choice.
:shameless plug: The links for the VPN below are affiliate links, and we earn a little tip if you purchase your VPN plan through our link. 🍺 We’ve also not enabled ads on this page because ads are just annoying.
⚠️ Steps to Follow: Once you sign up with the VPN service, download and install the VPN service’s client onto your device (computer/mobile), change your country to the US, and head over to netflix.com. From there, simply log into your Netflix account (it doesn’t have to be a new account, using a previous account will work), then watch what you want! 😀
1. ExpressVPNExpressVPN
The best all-round VPN service for streaming speed and privacy.
Works on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Streaming sites unblocked: Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+ | 24/7 support: Yes | Trial period: 30 days | Number of servers: 3,000+ | Server locations: 160 | Countries: 94 | Maximum devices supported: 5
ExpressVPN is the best VPN choice we recommend to stream and watch US Netflix from outside the US.
The price can be a little high, but ExpressVPN excels at performing fast, reliable VPN server connection speeds, which is available in over VPN server locations (160) in over 94 countries. On top of that, they also provide enterprise-level encryption as well as an excellent 24/7 live customer support.
When we tested using ExpressVPN to stream Netflix, there weren’t any issues at all. The streaming was smooth, with no buffering, and it was the quickest VPN service for us to connect to a US VPN server (32 seconds) compared to the others, which took somewhat longer to connect.
Besides its speed, ExpressVPN also provides robust security features as well as accessibility for multiple platforms — Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and even Blackberry!
Their encryption is capable of not only allowing you to mask your IP effectively, but also provide benefits in protecting your Bitcoin payments, P2P support, kill switch, and even providing DNS-leak protection.
So all of that sounds good, but what’s the catch? Aside from it’s higher pricing compared to the others in this list, ExpressVPN initially only supported 3 simultaneous connections if you wish to use it to stream content on multiple devices simultaneously. However, since then, they’ve raised that limit to 5 simultaneous communications, which is a much better offering. If you’re looking for much better alternatives where they offer you unlimited simultaneous connections, then take a look at Surfshark below.
There’s also no free trial which we could use to find out how it performed, but they do make up for it by giving you a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee if you aren’t happy with the service.
2. NordVPN
The most popular VPN service for streaming and gaming, as well as one of the best.
Works on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Streaming sites unblocked: Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+ | 24/7 support: Yes | Trial period: 30 days | Number of servers: 5,400+ | Server locations: 80+ | Countries: 59 | Maximum devices supported: 6
NordVPN is also one of the best and most popular VPN services that are often used for streaming, gaming, and even entering the deep web securely!
They also beat all of its competition in just about every aspect (price, service, performance, etc.).
The price is lower than that of ExpressVPN, but what makes it such a great plan to go for is that they offer a generous 2-year plan that is heavily discounted.
NordVPN also has around 5,400 servers in over 80 server locations in 59 countries, 2048-bit encryption, and even supports 6 simultaneous connections in which ExpressVPN only provides 5.
Perhaps one of the best things we’ve experienced with NordVPN is the frequent updates and improvements that they bring to the platform every other week. This makes the user experience a little better each time.
As for streaming Netflix with NordVPN, we did not encounter any issues at all. We were able to connect and stream the Netflix USA content library and stream TV shows, movies, documentaries without any buffering (although this may mainly be dependent on your internet connection speeds). We also never experienced getting abruptly logged out of our Netflix accounts or getting banned.
However, there was this one drawback we experienced where it took a long time to connect to a US VPN server compared to the other in this list. This can be a little frustrating if you want to instantly connect to a server and then begin streaming.
As for other drawbacks, there’s also the issue that NordVPN has undergone security breaches in the past. This may bring out some uncertainty, whether it may ever happen again.
Also, initially, there were user experience issues with the NordVPN application, whereby it was a little complicated to identify which VPN country server you had used previously. This has since been improved.
Again like ExpressVPN, NordVPN does not provide a free trial but instead offers you a 30-day money-back guarantee.
3. Surfshark
The best bang for buck VPN.
Works on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Streaming sites unblocked: Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+ | 24/7 support: Yes | Trial period: 30 days | Number of servers: 1700+ | Server locations: 100+ | Countries: 63 | Maximum devices supported: Unlimited
Surfshark will be the best choice VPN service to get the most out of your money’s worth if you plan to watch Netflix US from outside the US. The service is supported on almost all platforms (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux) and offers fast VPN connection speeds at really affordable prices.
The highlight feature of Surfshark, which we love, is that for the same price as NordVPN, you can use this VPN service on unlimited devices. Meaning, there are no device limits on how many devices can be used simultaneously to use Surfshark VPN for streaming.
This is an excellent option since you can just share the VPN with your family or friends and then split the costs for the VPN that way.
In terms of Surfshark’s security, they do offer OpenVPN UDP and TCP, IKEv2 security protocols, AES-256 encryption, and a kill switch to prevent your details from leaking if and when the VPN connection fails.
When we streamed Netflix using Surfshark, there weren’t any issues at all. The streaming was fast and smooth, and in fact, it was much quicker at connecting to a US VPN server compared to NordVPN, which took a long time.
Surfshark is also a great option if you’re someone who prefers simplicity over functionality. There are a lot of VPN services out there (mind you haha), and a lot of them offer as many features as possible to you but sacrifices the simplicity of the user interface. So if you do not want many sophisticated features and menus when using a VPN, then Surfshark is the way to go. For some users, this can be a turn-off, especially if they’re looking to get as many features as possible for their money’s worth and customizability.
Now for the drawbacks. The Surfshark Android app does have a few bugs and instability issues that occur. When streaming Netflix from an Android device, we found that the app would often crash. However, this issue did not happen for the iOS app.
Aside from that drawback, the only other is that, Again like ExpressVPN and NordVPN, Surfshark does not provide a free trial. They do instead offer you a 30-day money-back guarantee.
4. IPVanish
The most reliable VPN.
Works on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Streaming sites unblocked: Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+ | 24/7 support: Yes | Trial period: 30 days | Number of servers: 1,400 | Server locations: 75 | Countries: 52 | Maximum devices supported: 10
IPVanish is another great, reliable VPN service that is both priced reasonably and offers fast VPN streaming, especially when it comes to watching US Netflix from outside the US.
They also provide excellent customer support and own over 1,400 servers in 75 server locations in over 52 countries around the world.
IPVanish additionally supports up to 10 maximum devices to be used simultaneously with the VPN service. This is a better option compared to that of both ExpressVPN, which only offers 5 and NordVPN, which only provides 6.
Streaming Netflix with IPVanish was without any issues as the servers were quick to connect to with the availability of multiple server locations in the US to choose from.
The price was also affordable compared to the other option in this guide. We also found that their customer support, which is available 24/7, was friendly and quick to address any difficulties we’ve experienced.
Speaking of difficulties, one of the drawbacks for IPVanish is that unlike Surfshark, the user interface was much more complex and overwhelming for a beginner to get comfortable. Unlike the other four VPN services discussed in this post, IPVanish has the most sophisticated interface we’ve come across, and that can be both a blessing or a curse in disguise for you.
Although this is not a big deal, we couldn’t locate a kill switch in the iOS app, which would have been nice to have.
Lastly, IPVanish, just like the others, doesn’t offer a free trial but instead promises you with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
5. CyberGhost
The most feature-packed for VPN customizability.
Works on: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux | Streaming sites unblocked: Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV+ | 24/7 support: Yes | Trial period: 45 days | Number of servers: 6,300+ | Server locations: 110+ | Countries: 89 | Maximum devices supported: 7
CyberGhost is another top-rated VPN service that we’ve found to be the most feature-packed VPN service out of the four we’ve discussed; plus, it comes at a competitive price too!
The platform has applications that support platforms such as Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and offers stellar coverage for its VPN service. They have over 6300 servers in around 110 server locations in 89 countries, making it into our list as one of the most widely covered VPN services you can get.
Aside from that, CyberGhost also offers a maximum device limit of up to 7 devices, which you can use simultaneously when with the VPN service.
The best part about CyberGhost is their app interface philosophy.
Hear us out.
The way you would use the app is a little different contrary to how you would use other VPN services — where instead of selecting a country that you want to connect to it’s VPN servers, you can just select the platform/service that you want to unblock (for instance Netflix). The application will then unblock and automatically redirects you to the site to begin streaming. This saves you a lot of time of having to search through the list and then connecting to the server as CyberGhost will choose the quickest and most reliable VPN server location that best suits your needs.
We found this to be a much simpler and straightforward approach since you can just have the application automate it for us.
Streaming Netflix US with CyberGhost had its fair share of issues. We only needed to choose the Netflix option within the CyberGhost. Then the application automatically connects to the most reliable VPN server and then opens the Netflix site for us to begin streaming. However, the issues were related to the speed and buffering issues we encountered when streaming on Netflix. The issues didn’t occur right away, but they occurred after 1-2 hours of streaming.
We tried to reach out to the customer support about the issue, but they weren’t that helpful. So we assumed that the server site itself was down or the other possibility is that our speeds were being limited in some way. Compared to the other VPN options, we only encountered streaming issues with this VPN service.
CyberGhost does offer robust security options with ad blocking, as well as anti-malware security. To be honest, there are so many features with this VPN service that the price you pay for it is more than worth it. Yes, arguably, there were the issues that occurred sometimes, but this is not to say that the streaming was unbearable.
There weren’t any other drawbacks we encountered.
Lastly, one great benefit we would like to highlight is that unlike the other options in this post, CyberGhost offers a generous 45-day money-back guarantee option, which is also longer than all of the other VPN options which we’ve reviewed with streaming Netflix.
Conclusion
That’s pretty much it! We leave you to decide which VPN is the best. Our primary choice would be ExpressVPN, but price-wise you can’t go wrong with either NordVPN or Surfshark. If you’re looking to get the most out of your money with as many features, then both IPVanish and CyberGhost will be the option for you.
Now take note that this was NOT a sponsored post as we never do sponsored posts on this website or are paid by another company to post such information. The thoughts and reviews that are expressed here are entirely our own and based on our results from our testing. As aforementioned, we get a little tip if you buy from any one of the affiliate links above, which helps us to keep this site running. 🙂
We hope that this guide has helped you on how to watch US Netflix from outside US. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment below, and we will love to help you out. ❤
P.S. If you have found a better VPN solution to the above, please comment down below, and we will credit you when we update this article.
If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂
