The Best VPNs for YouTube TV in 2024

1. NordVPN - Best YouTube TV VPN Overall

SecurityScore:

9.7 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Ask anyone in the U.S. to name a VPN, and there’s a good chance they’ll say NordVPN. NordVPN pricing plans are popular here (and abroad too) because Nord is reliable, fast, and makes easy-to-use apps. Even with its well-known brand and high-quality services, NordVPN still makes our list of the best cheap VPNs. But I also found that NordVPN is one of the best VPNs for sneaking past YouTube TV’s substantial VPN-blocking resources, thanks to its obfuscated servers and Smart Play feature, a combination DNS switcher and IP mask designed especially for incognito streaming.

Unblocking Content

Stateside, I had no trouble streaming ABC’s San Francisco programming from my sister-in-law’s house in Buffalo. I just switched servers on the NordVPN Android app, and as far as YouTube TV was concerned, I was in the Golden State. NordVPN had servers in 16 U.S. cities when I checked, so finding one close enough to you shouldn’t be a problem. For comparison, one of our other favorite VPNs, CyberGhost, only has servers in 11 U.S. cities. Find out what difference this makes in our comparison between NordVPN and CyberGhost.

But I’d tested NordVPN before. I knew it wouldn’t break a sweat unblocking YouTube TV in the U.S. To mix things up, I also jumped online with one of our testers in London and asked her if she could catch the end of ABC Dallas’ morning report. Again, NordVPN got it right. Keep reading to learn why.

Streaming Performance and Stealth

Using NordVPN to stream YouTube TV on the day to day, I had one big advantage right out the gate: obfuscated servers. Not to go into too much detail, but obfuscated servers are designed to mimic the behavior of regular, rule-abiding servers, which is precisely how they snuck past YouTube TV’s VPN sentries in my tests on both sides of the Atlantic. We both just had to tweak our VPN protocols from the speedier NordLynx to OpenVPN and we were in stealth mode.

To be clear, you might not have to resort to stealth servers. It all depends on how crowded a VPN’s servers are when you’re streaming and how savvy YouTube TV is on a given day. But if you ever need to connect to YouTube TV, or any other streaming platform, in a pinch, obfuscated servers would be my go-to.

>> Learn About: Best VPNs for Streaming

Security and Privacy

I’ll be honest. As a privacy-minded citizen, I wasn’t too crazy about having to log in to Google, the world’s leading surveillance outfit, to stream content on YouTube TV. But I did find that NordVPN lightened the load a bit with two key features.

NordVPN’s Threat Protection feature, a native ad blocker, worked well, swatting intrusive ads off my screen like flies. These are the kinds of ads swarming with malware.

For extra-safe streaming, I also toggled on NordVPN’s auto-connect feature. Auto-connect automatically switched on my VPN when I needed it most: streaming YouTube TV in places like the dentist’s office, where I’m most likely to connect to an unsafe network without thinking. This is particularly dangerous because playing content on streaming services like YouTube TV is when the majority of us get hacked.2

2. Surfshark - Best YouTube TV VPN for Smart TVs

SecurityScore:

9.5 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Surfshark threw me a few curve balls in this series of tests. It introduced some new advanced streaming features that made unblocking YouTube TV in or outside the U.S. easier — even from my Android TV. It also had the edge over NordVPN in U.S. coverage with servers in 24 cities. Find out what else differentiates Surfshark and NordVPN in our comparison guide. And at $3 per month (annual) for unlimited devices, Surfshark subscriptions were substantially cheaper and more generous.

Unblocking Content

I happen to own an Android TV, so I could see firsthand if Surfshark VPN’s unblocking claims held water on a bigger screen. Honestly, I wasn’t super optimistic. I’ve had hit-or-miss experiences with VPNs on my Android TV in the past, with Max (formerly HBO Max) being the eternal thorn in my side.

As it turns out, I didn’t run into any hiccups getting Surfshark’s app up and running on my TV. That’s why it made our list of the best VPNs for Android. When it was time to breach YouTube TV’s moat, I switched on OpenVPN and went into camouflage mode (more on this below). I have a fast 900 Mbps wired connection, so streaming Animal Planet in HD was a piece of cake with Surfshark, despite the substantial hit my speeds took streaming over OpenVPN.

Streaming Performance and Stealth

Like NordVPN, Surfshark had a few stealth options under its hood. When it was time to stream, I morphed into camouflage mode, which was easy. I just switched my protocol to OpenVPN UDP, reconnected, and my VPN was undetectable to YouTube TV.

One thing I noticed in this round of tests is that Surfshark had launched a new stealth feature called IP Rotator, which assigned me a new IP (in the same location) every few minutes. This way I wasn’t a sitting duck for cybercriminals. In the past, Surfshark’s IP addresses were static, so this was nice to see.

>> Further Reading: What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address?

Privacy and Security

Every once in a while I find out that a VPN I like a lot might not be as secure as I thought. Netherlands-based Surfshark, I knew from previous tests, was firmly within reach of the Nine Eyes, the world’s second-largest data surveillance consortium. So if push came to shove, I also knew that the company could be forced to hand over records to participating governments, the U.S. included.

However, a little digging showed that Surfshark had a strict no-logs policy, so it shouldn’t, in theory, have had anything of mine to turn over. That’s in addition to the fact that Surfshark passed all my leak tests repeatedly.

Bottom line? As long as you’re just copping some Atlanta YouTube in Denver (and not selling rocket-propelled grenades on the dark web), I really wouldn’t worry about the feds busting down Surfshark’s doors. If you want a VPN that’s outside of the Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes, check out how Surfshark stacks up against ExpressVPN.

Although privacy might be a concern, security shouldn’t be with Surfshark. When we tested Surfshark’s antivirus offerings, we really liked it. So, you can combine Surfshark’s VPN with its antivirus software to optimize your digital security.

3. ExpressVPN - Best YouTube TV VPN for Privacy

SecurityScore:

9.1 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	No
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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Accessing geo-blocked content by using a VPN isn’t illegal, but streaming platforms don’t like it. And while they may not cancel your account, somewhere in their many terms and conditions, they probably reserve the right to. ExpressVPN takes internet privacy very seriously. All my tests over the years have borne this out. Because of their privacy focus, the fact that ExpressVPN also turned out to be good at giving YouTube TV the runaround wasn’t much of a surprise.

Unblocking Content

Express VPN didn’t have any special stealth features, though presumably choosing the OpenVPN UDP protocol would get the job done. For this round of tests, I went back to London and had our tester unblock AMC (via YouTube TV) and then ESPN. Both channels are available only in the U.S. YouTubeTV didn’t notice a thing.

Unlike some one-trick ponies I’ve tested, ExpressVPN also unblocked Netflix, Prime Video, Max, Disney+, and Hulu. That will cover just about anyone. Although ExpressVPN is definitely not the only VPN that can do this. When we put ExpressVPN head-to-head with ProtonVPN, we found that they both worked with all of the common streaming services. My only gripe is that my ExpressVPN plan didn’t come with an ad blocker, because ads did slip through on desktop and mobile devices.

>>Read About: Best VPNs for ESPN+

Streaming Performance and Stealth

Stateside, ExpressVPN dropped my 900 Mbps up/250 Mbps down connection to a pretty sluggish 80 Mbps up/30 Mbps down. That was with the stealthier OpenVPN protocol running under the hood; 80 Mbps was more than enough to stream YouTube TV, but if you’ve got a slower connection, I’d recommend sticking with Lightway, ExpressVPN’s featherweight, proprietary protocol — at least until YouTube TV blocks you.

When I switched gears to torrenting, I found that ExpressVPN was pretty tight-lipped about its torrent compatibility. I didn’t find any dedicated peer-to-peer (P2P) servers, for instance. Surfshark had them. But that wasn’t a problem. Here’s why.

Typically, VPNs corral users into a handful of dedicated torrenting servers, which can squash speeds when they’re overcrowded. With carte blanche on server choice, you might actually get quicker downloads. If you’re looking for a VPN that works particularly well with torrents, check out my top VPN picks for torrenting or best free VPNs for torrenting.

Security and Privacy

No matter how much content a VPN may open up for us, it’s not much fun watching it if we don’t feel safe while we’re doing it. That’s why I always look at server hygiene very closely before recommending a VPN. External audits confirmed that ExpressVPN was meticulous about server security.3 Only 5 percent of their servers turned out to be virtual, for example. Using virtual servers isn’t necessarily cheating. Sometimes VPN providers can’t physically get servers into countries and need to spoof IPs. China is a case in point.

>> Learn More: Best VPNs That Work in China

For my Express VPN tests, this meant that when I connected to a server in Atlanta or London, that server was physically in Atlanta or London, not miles away in Toronto or Belgium. And because Express VPN’s servers are all diskless, they stored no user data. If you need any further proof of ExpressVPN’s privacy bona fides, the company is based in the British Virgin Islands, which has no treaties with any of the data-gathering outfits.

Bottom line? If the U.S. government ever did ask for user info, ExpressVPN would not only be within its rights not to comply, but it would also have nothing to hand over. Security rating: 10/10.

4. IPVanish - Best Youtube TV VPN for Families

SecurityScore:

9.3 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	No
Camouflage Mode	No
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes, with uTorrent

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Who gets to stream now? That’s not a question you’re going to hear a lot with an IPVanish subscription. That’s because families can connect on up to 10 devices at the same time with one IPVanish account. This could be a potential bandwidth drain, but IPVanish didn’t dampen my internet speeds much in my streaming tests. But keep reading for my full report.

Unblocking Content

If IPVanish was going to have any issues jailbreaking YouTube TV, it wasn’t because it didn’t have enough servers. I counted 2,200, covering 20 U.S. cities, plus servers in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Canada. That’s a lot of coverage in North and Central America. By the way, if you’re looking to stream south of the border, here are my top four VPN picks for Mexico.

Like Express VPN, IPVanish also claimed to unblock a number of streaming platforms that broadcast sports, including ESPN+, NBC Sports, MLB.TV, CBS Sports, and the WWE Network. And like Express VPN, it doesn’t have any special tools for doing that — though when it was time to tune into NBC Charlotte, I stuck with my go-to protocol, WireGuard, and didn’t have any trouble.

The only fly in the ointment? IPVanish snuck around YouTube TV, but not Netflix. That was a bit of a bummer. On the plus side, because it’s based in the Lone Star State, IPVanish is one of the few VPN providers on this list that had decent customer support (more on this below).

Streaming Performance and Stealth

The truth is, unless you’re living abroad, it’s very unlikely that your 10-year-old is going to need a VPN to unblock YouTube TV’s regional offerings. But everyone in the family should ideally be connecting to networks through a VPN, especially outside the house. That’s where IPVanish’s 10-device limit came in handy for my family.

My kids are constantly plugged into YouTube. They aren’t doing anything sneaky. They’re just streaming channels, each of which is potentially a Petri dish for internet infections. My job as their internet guardian is to keep them safe. Four family members times two devices each meant my IPVanish family subscription had us all covered.

» More Info: Best VPNs for the Firestick

To be clear, the typical five or six connections many VPN providers offer may sound like a lot on paper, until you figure in mobile devices. In that case, you may run into trouble securing your family’s gear on a NordVPN plan with its punier five-device limit. If you’re a bigger family, on the other hand, take a look at PureVPN’s family plan. PureVPN covers up to 50 devices. If you’re looking for unlimited connections, I’d try Surfshark.

Security and Privacy

I was blown away by IPVanish’s customer service — bear with me here, I’m getting to the point — mainly because they were the first heavy hitter on our list that had human telephone support. IPVanish’s instant support was, of course, only possible because IPVanish is based in the U.S.A.

Ordinarily, that would be a good thing, something I’d actually seek out. But when it comes to VPNs, the “made in the U.S.A.” stamp also unfortunately opens it up to potential U.S. government surveillance. Otherwise, IPVanish’s no-logs policy was straightforward and sound.

5. CyberGhost - Best Youtube TV VPN for Macs

SecurityScore:

8.9 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	No
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

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If you’re setting up a VPN on your Mac, like I was, CyberGhost’s biggest asset is its convenience. Its Mac apps are simpler, if a bit barer, than its Windows counterparts, with pretty fast streaming speeds if you stick with the WireGuard protocol. CyberGhost is also based in Romania, which is outside 14 Eyes’ surveillance, and operates a whopping 8,400-plus servers.

CyberGhost’s service, which costs nearly $13 per month ($4.75 per month on the yearly plan), was no super saver, but it did give me seven simultaneously connected devices, which is a cut above NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

Unblocking Content

In my CyberGhost review, I found that this VPN has about 8,500 servers, so I wasn’t worried I wasn’t going to find a free one to stream my daily dose of YouTube TV. None of those was a stealth server, however. CyberGhost’s new “NoSpy” servers might have fit the bill, but my monthly plan didn’t give me access. I did find one useful tool under CyberGhost’s hood, however, that I fully recommend using to stream content on platforms like YouTube TV.

CyberGhost’s Smart Rules was like a logic map for my VPN connections. It went beyond split tunneling, which let me exclude certain apps or websites from my VPN tunnel. Smart Rules let me specify actual locations and servers to connect to.

To make this concrete, I’m based in New York. If I wanted to watch the news from my hometown of Denver, I’d just tell CyberGhost to connect to a server in Denver every time I streamed YouTube TV.

It might not sound like much, but running this process in the background over a month actually saved me a lot of time. If you don’t buy it, imagine having to set your bedtime routine on your Pixel 6 every night because your phone didn’t remember when you wanted to wake up. (If anyone at Google is reading this, please fix this bug today!)

Streaming Performance and Stealth

Streaming-optimized servers don’t always deliver the speeds they tout. If it’s just you streaming YouTube TV, OK. But when thousands of VPN subscribers jump on the same server at the same time, you might have a harder time streaming without buffering. Worse, YouTube TV might get spooked by the hoards of users camping out at the same IP address and blacklist everyone.

When I tested CyberGhost’s streaming-optimized servers from a Wi-Fi connection at a half-empty café, my speeds were better than expected. I was on a MacBook Air M2, running WireGuard, and I took only a 3 percent hit (download). That was hardly any loss at all. Upload speeds were 8 percent slower, which is still above average.

Of course, it was seven in the morning on the East Coast, a fairly early hour for streaming. When I duplicated the test two hours later at nine, CyberGhost’s servers had obviously gotten busier (as did the café!), because my speeds had dropped to about 10 and 20 percent up and down, respectively.

>>Learn More: The Fastest VPNs of 2024

Security and Privacy

CyberGhost doesn’t have a fancy name for its ad-and-tracker-blocking feature, but it performed reasonably well in my tests. CyberGhost caught nearly all the invisible trackers bombarding my Mac, which was impressive.

When it came to screening malware and ads, the results were less than spectacular, especially after testing Surfshark’s massively improved CleanWeb 2.0. For now, if you’re running CyberGhost on your Mac, I recommend choosing a tracker-blocking browser like Firefox alongside some quality antivirus software.

Otherwise, CyberGhost has the standard privacy story to tell. It’s outside the 14 Eyes and doesn’t log user info. If you’re the skeptical sort, which you should be, you can always read its latest transparency report.

6. Hotspot Shield - Best Free VPN for Youtube TV

SecurityScore:

8.9 /10

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How We Review

Product Specs

Multi-hop	Yes
Camouflage Mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes, but not in all regions
Torrenting	Yes

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Is free ever any good? When it comes to VPNs, there’s usually a catch — most often bandwidth limits. When I originally tested Hotspot Shield, I was pretty impressed to see that its free plan had no limits, which made it my favorite free VPN.

Of course, Hotspot Shield’s free plan isn’t perfect. It gave me one only measly server location and one device, and it hobbled its native ad-and-tracker blocker. That said, if it’s just you and you need a VPN to unlock YouTube TV (or Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney+), Hotspot Shield’s no-cost plan is worth checking out.

Unblocking Content

Hotspot Shield was one of the few VPNs I found that offered a free version of its service. But, as I mentioned above, the free version came with some limitations. My download speed was stuck at 2 Mbps, for one. That’s extremely slow. And there is only one U.S. server.

Compared to the folks on the paid plan, with 3,200 servers and blazing fast connections courtesy of Hotspot’s Hydra Catapult protocol, I began to feel like the guy driving the 1989 Toyota Corolla with two underinflated tires in the far right lane of the expressway. So it wasn’t surprising that I didn’t manage to outwit and stream YouTubeTV successfully more than once out of five tries.

Streaming Performance and Stealth

Hotspot Shield didn’t have any stealth options, but it did offer streaming- and gaming-optimized servers. But on the free plan, it’s safe to say, I wasn’t using them.

I will say this, though. Hotspot Shield’s free plan wasn’t a seven-day trial or some sort of promotional gimmick. I had a fully functional VPN with military-grade encryption and multiple VPN protocols at absolutely no cost. If my goal had been reading the news and checking my email securely once or twice a day, I might have considered it. But my goal was to stream YouTube TV, and the free plan just wasn’t cutting it.

Final verdict? If I was seriously considering a Hotspot Shield plan to unblock streaming platforms like YouTube TV, I’d definitely go with a paid subscription. Server selection is good, with coverage in 20 U.S. cities; the mobile apps are easy to use; and pricing isn’t unreasonable at $7.99 per month with a yearly subscription.

Plus, after Hotspot Shield’s merger with premier identity theft protection provider Aura in 2020, it has also rolled in a 1Password plan and an Identity Guard identity theft protection plan, both for free. That’s a ton of digital security for under eight bucks per month.

Security and Privacy

Hotspot Shield’s dynamic, or changing, IP address feature didn’t help me evade YouTube’s VPN dragnet, but it did add an extra layer of security to my internet browsing. Instead of giving me a fixed IP, which hackers could have used to home in on my devices, my IP address changed every time I connected to a new network, mixing up my virtual locations.

>> Read More: How to Change Location on YouTube TV

Hotspot Shield’s privacy stance, on the other hand, wasn’t so straightforward. After the buyout by Aura, Hotspot moved its headquarters to Delaware. That meant its user logs were potentially up for grabs if the DOJ ever came knocking.

To my knowledge, Hotspot has also never submitted to or published a third-party security audit. While its privacy policy states that it can’t tie any of the data it collects to individual users, I’d advise anyone looking for a more transparent VPN provider to stick to a service closer to the top of this list.

7. Astrill VPN - Best YouTube TV VPN for Stealth

SecurityScore:

8.5 /10

See Our Top 10 VPNs

How We Review

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Camouflage mode	Yes
Kill switch	Yes
Split tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

See Our Top 10 VPNs

Astrill is a smallish (300-server) VPN service based in Liechtenstein, a tiny, German-speaking country that’s not a member of the Fourteen Eyes. Astrill has a name for bypassing censorship restrictions thanks to its proprietary stealth protocol, StealthVPN. On the books, StealthVPN should have also unblocked most major streaming platforms for me. However, that wasn’t always the case. Even if I had been smitten with Astrill’s streaming performance, at $15 per month (on the annual plan), I’d have needed more than pocket change to swipe up an Astrill personal VPN package.

Unblocking Content

Astrill’s server numbers are on the low side (300 or so worldwide), and none of them is designed for streaming, like Surfshark or CyberGhost. But Astrill does have coverage in 30 U.S. cities, which is above average and a good sign as far as jailbreaking regional programming goes.

Astrill VPN also has its own trick for duping streaming services like YouTube TV: an OpenVPN-based protocol called StealthVPN. Like an obfuscated server, StealthVPN would presumably disguise my VPN traffic so that it could pass for a normal HTTPS transmission. In principle, I should have had no trouble breezing past YouTube’s defenses. Here’s what actually happened.

Astrill had no problem dealing with YouTube TV stateside. I picked up the Bulls live 1,500 miles away in New York. When our U.K.-based tester tried to stream Adult Swim from across the pond, however, Astrill was a no-show. The same went for Netflix. In light of this, I’d say if streaming is your No. 1 priority, you’d be better off sticking with our top three VPNs on this list. They’re also the best VPNs for streaming on Netflix.

Streaming Performance and Stealth

Speed is the usual compromise we make when streaming over OpenVPN. Lighter protocols like WireGuard are almost always faster. Astrill VPN wasn’t burning rubber, but it was fast enough. Running in stealth mode, Astrill cut a 50 Mbps Wi-Fi connection to under 25 Mbps. It wasn’t great, but it was more than enough to stream the Bulls live.

Security and Privacy

Privacy-wise, Astrill, which isn’t a member of the 14 Eyes, is a bit of a mystery. It logs sessions to improve user experience, but it doesn’t store our individual IP addresses, so there’s nothing to connect that data back to us. That sort of thing doesn’t necessarily bother me.

But in my Astrill VPN review, I also found a disclaimer in its privacy policy stating that Astrill may require “phone numbers” and “addresses” for certain registration processes, like when paying with crypto, which made no sense at all. Astrill has also never submitted to an external security audit, to my knowledge, so whatever claims it made, I had to take the company at its word. Considering all that, I’d rate Astrill’s privacy stance as hazy at best.

>> Read More: The Best VPNs for Cryptocurrency