Best VPN for Fire TV Stick: Our 5 top choices

Introduced back in 2014, the Fire TV Stick is Amazon’s rival to Chromecast and Roku. The device plugs into an HDMI port to allow any TV to stream content over a Wi-Fi network, effectively turning the set into a very well-featured smart TV.

However, much of that content is geo-locked, meaning it’s only available from a certain country or region due to the likes of content licensing agreements and broadcast rights. Of course, one way you can get round such content blocking is by using a VPN.

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How to choose the best VPN service for Amazon’s Fire TV Stick

Obviously, performance is always important for streaming, so you want a VPN provider that offers fast and reliable connections. A plentiful server count is helpful for finding a swift server – the more options you have, the better – and it’s also good to have a lightweight app which won’t affect performance levels, too.

You won’t always find a dedicated app for the Fire TV Stick, though, and it’s obviously a bonus when you do, because it means you can avoid having to set things up manually. Support for Kodi add-ons is also a boon.

Here are our top five picks for the best VPN service for Amazon’s Fire TV Stick.

The best VPN services of 2017

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IPVanish certainly delivers on the performance front, over both short hops and long-distance connections, with the former being up to five times quicker than some rivals, and the latter showing a commendable average increase of 15% in download speeds. There are plenty of servers to choose from, with impressive global coverage.

There’s also a dedicated Fire TV app that is easy to setup and use. It has some handy options like automatic IP switching and fastest server optimisation, although note that it doesn’t support the first-generation Fire Stick. IPVanish doesn’t log any traffic or connection data when you use the service.

Price is probably going to be an issue for some as this provider is slightly more expensive than the average VPN. There is no free trial either, but the three plans on offer do come with a 7-day money-back guarantee. Your best bet is the yearly subscription which is the most affordable option. The packages available are:

This VPN is blazingly fast and delivered more than twice our normal download rates, which will be pure streaming heaven for users watching 4K content (or HD, for that matter). The server count is very impressive as well, with more than 700 servers in 70+ locations around the globe.

VyprVPN has its own Fire TV app, available in the APK format or directly through the Amazon Store. The app offers lots of speed optimisation options and will automatically connect to the fastest server available, also providing you with upload and download speed graphs, a ping test and so on.

OpenVPN and Chameleon protocols are used here, with the latter being VyprVPN’s proprietary solution that’s designed to avoid deep packet inspection, and your VPN connection being detected and throttled or blocked (note that this is only available on the Premium plan). The provider also has its own DNS solution, and a very clear and concise privacy policy which guarantees that no logs of user activity are kept.

You can test the service with a free 3-day trial – and it’s a good idea to exercise that right, as VyprVPN doesn’t allow refunds after you’ve signed up. When it comes to subscription plans, the best all-round choice is the Premium plan billed annually, because this comes with all the advanced features on offer – and monthly billing is expensive (for either plan). The packages available are:

In our testing, NordVPN delivered very good performance, with impressive speeds on short connections, and some very serviceable results with longer distances. There are plenty of servers to choose from, too. The provider offers tutorials on how to set up your router with a VPN or share the VPN connection from your PC in order to use the service with the Fire Stick.

NordVPN excels on the security front, offering double data encryption (where your connection gets passed through two separate VPN servers), along with support for all the major security protocols. On top of that, there is a firm ‘no logging’ policy on the privacy front.

There’s a free trial but you’d never know about it unless you dig around the website – find it here. Out of the four available price plans (all of which have a 30-day money-back guarantee), the monthly plan is very expensive, but the two-year subscription is a fantastic deal. The packages available are:

With over a thousand servers in close to 100 countries, this British Virgin Islands-based provider offers a lot of connection choices. In our testing, we found speeds were fractionally lower than our normal rates on shorter hops, with little change in long-distance connections.

While known for its quality apps, ExpressVPN doesn’t have a dedicated app for Amazon’s stick. Instead, there is a tutorial to set up the ExpressVPN app on the Fire Stick by ‘sideloading’ (the process of downloading an application in APK format and manually installing it) the Android app. The app immediately recommends the location that gives you the best connection speed once you fire it up.

ExpressVPN offers an excellent level of technical support, including lots of troubleshooting guides and 24/7 live chat support, plus you can also get in touch via email if that’s more convenient.

The Android app uses the OpenVPN protocol, encrypting all traffic with 256-bit encryption. The privacy policy clearly explains that the company doesn't collect or log traffic data or browsing activity from individual users.

Price plans start off a little more expensive than most. That’s somewhat mitigated by ExpressVPN's ‘no hassle’ money-back guarantee which allows you to try the full service for up to 30 days, with no sneaky small print restrictions on bandwidth or similar. That certainly comes in handy as there’s no free plan or trial. As ever, the yearly plan offers the best bang for your buck (with three months thrown in for free). The packages available are:

KeepSolid gives you plenty of servers to choose from with some satisfying speeds. Download speeds were only 12% down on our regular rates in our performance tests, with a laudable consistency throughout the entire network.

Fire Stick support is enabled through a VPN connection for your router, and the provider does its best to help you get things set up, with multiple tutorials for a number of routers. If you plan to switch between devices – you can have up to five active with this VPN – do note that you can only delete one managed device per week.

On the security front, KeepSolid recently introduced a DNS Firewall feature that blocks malware, adverts and web tracking. The company logs only basic details about service activity, including session duration and bandwidth use. Otherwise, there's no routine logging of any online activity.

There’s a 7-day free trial which is always good to see, and the subscription plans are competitively priced. In total, there are three price plans at your disposal, including a Lifetime affair which is a bargain. If you don’t want to make that much of a commitment, the yearly subscription is among the cheapest you’ll find anywhere. The packages available are:

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