The Best VPNs for Apple TV in 2025

1. NordVPN - Best VPN for Smart DNS Setup

SecurityScore:

9.7 /10

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Product Specs

Server locations	126 countries
Average Speed Loss	6% download & 4% upload
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Android TV, tvOS
Best Monthly Rate	$3.39/mo with a 2-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days full refund

View Plans Links to NordVPN

Apple TV Setup

NordVPN’s Apple TV app is hot off the press. It’s very simple and straightforward. We got it from our Apple TV App Store, and after a quick sign-in, we were ready to go. The Apple TV app is unlike the elaborate NordVPN apps for PCs and smartphones we’ve tested before. It’s barebones and it doesn’t allow for a lot of customizations, but if all you want is an Apple TV VPN that can change your location so you can stream from a different Netflix or Disney+ region, it’s perfect.

Streaming Experience

The Apple TV app for NordVPN gave us access to 111 countries. It takes a while to scroll through all of them, but you can use the search function at the top to quickly find the country you’re looking for. You can even look up a city, as long as NordVPN has a server there.

Now, NordVPN doesn’t have streaming-optimized servers, unfortunately, but that didn’t stop it from unblocking geo-restricted content from the top streaming services. We personally tried it for streaming Amazon Prime, Disney+, Max (formerly HBO Go), Fox, and ABC, as well as international Netflix libraries, Paramount Plus, and Peacock TV.

» Learn more: Change Region on Netflix

We know, that’s probably not enough for a hardcore binge-watcher, but NordVPN still offered more options than other VPNs. For example, with Surfshark’s Smart DNS setup, the options are limited to U.S. streaming services.1

Speed

Using a VPN can slow down your internet speed, but NordVPN didn’t slow us down too much. We still enjoyed 4K-capable speeds with NordVPN running, reading around 220 Mbps for downloads. That’s a 10-percent drop compared to our network speed and one of the most consistent options when we tested VPN speeds.

Digging deeper, we think we found out how it retained such speed – NordLynx. NordLynx is a VPN protocol built on WireGuard, which is known for its impressive speed. It’s faster than OpenVPN, currently the gold standard of VPN tunneling. NordVPN adopted WireGuard and gave it a few security upgrades while retaining its speed advantage. It still offers impressive VPN encryption, but thanks to its lightweight architecture, NordLynx can provide near-lossless VPN speeds.

Being new, NordVPN’s Apple TV app doesn’t actually do a lot. Like we said, it’s barebones. There’s no option to customize your VPN settings, you can’t connect to a multi-hop connection, there’s not even a kill switch in sight. That means if your NordVPN connection drops, Netflix will find your real location and you could get kicked out of the movie you’re watching.

The only real thing you can do with the VPN app is connect to the VPN, and that it does very well. We tried a Japan connection to see if it can really give us a Japan IP address. It worked! Within seconds, we were already browsing the hottest anime Netflix Japan has to offer.

We’re lucky it worked, though, because when connecting to a location, NordVPN doesn’t let you choose a specific server in that country. So if we happened to get a server that’s already blacklisted by Netflix, we would have been stuck with it. So that’s something to keep in mind. With ExpressVPN, another VPN with an Apple TV app, we were able to select a specific server within a country. That can make streaming a little easier, in our opinion. We’ll dig into ExpressVPN down below.

2. Surfshark - Best VPN for Virtual Router Setup

SecurityScore:

9.5 /10

View Plans Links to Surfshark

Product Specs

Server locations	100 countries
Average Speed Loss	8% download & 50% upload
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Edge
Best Monthly Rate	$1.99/mo with a 2-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days full refund

View Plans Links to Surfshark

Apple TV Setup

As the best Windows VPN for changing IP address location, we set up Surfshark on our Windows laptop to use as a virtual Wi-Fi router for our Apple TV. It turned out to be a smart choice because we later found out that if we set up Surfshark via smart DNS, we would have gotten only U.S. locations. Setting up the VPN on our router was also a no-go because our router wasn’t supported. We would have had to “jailbreak” it to install Surfshark, which we don’t recommend doing unless you’re a networking expert.

Streaming Experience

Since we used the Windows Surfshark app to set up a VPN connection, we were able to freely use all 100 locations in Surfshark’s server network. That’s a huge difference compared to NordVPN’s 60 VPN locations. Moreover, Surfshark released a study on which countries have the best Netflix shows and films2, so that’s a good place to start if you’re looking for locations to explore.

Changing IP address location was also easy. We simply clicked a different country from Surfshark’s server menu. We didn’t even have to restart the VPN or reconnect our Apple TV.

Speed

While we noticed that Surfshark’s upload speed tended to be sluggish – it notched a decrease of up to 45-percent compared to our network speed – the downstream speed was above the industry average. Our readings were 218 Mbps on our laptop and 206 Mbps on the Apple TV. It was faster than both ExpressVPN (197 Mbps) and CyberGhost (201 Mbps) in the virtual router configuration.

» Read more: Best VPN of 2025

While configuring a laptop or Macbook as a virtual router is only a temporary fix for connecting Apple TV to a VPN, it’s a good setup for occasional movie nights. This was especially true with Surfshark, with its healthy selection of servers and easy-to-use PC and Macbook interfaces.

Our one gripe with Surfshark is that it doesn’t have servers optimized specifically for streaming. We see a lot of VPNs, like when we reviewed Hotspot Shield, that have servers configured to better get around the geo-restrictions of certain streaming services. Still, even without specialty servers, Surfshark proved reliable. In the five times we tried to watch Disney+ and Netflix on our Apple TV, Surfshark hid our IP address and real location well.

We also liked that Surfshark offers dedicated IP addresses. This feature comes at a steep price of $3.75 per month on top of your Surfshark subscription, but it’s a surefire way to avoid getting blocked by Netflix. Streaming sites detect VPN users when they see that multiple users are streaming from a shared IP address, which happens when two or more VPN users connect to the same server. With a dedicated IP address, no matter which server you connect to, you’ll always get your own unique IP address.

3. Proton VPN - Best Apple TV VPN for Streaming

SecurityScore:

9.3 /10

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Product Specs

Server locations	122 countries
Average Speed Loss	8% download & 4% upload
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Android TV, tvOS, Firestick
Best Monthly Rate	$4.49/mo with a 2-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days prorated refund

View Plans Links to Proton VPN

Apple TV Setup

Proton VPN has a native Apple TV app, so it shouldn’t take you more than two minutes to install it. In our case, we quickly found it on the app store, downloaded it, and waited for the installation process to finish.

If you need help with the installation, Proton VPN offers a step-by-step tutorial for its Apple TV app. We read through it and found it extremely reader-friendly. The guide offers clear instructions on what to do and also includes screenshots.

>> Find Out More: Proton VPN 2025 Review

Streaming Experience

Proton VPN offers excellent streaming support. Our research shows that it’s compatible with over 90 streaming services. We also tested it and can confirm that it’s able to access popular streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Max, BBC iPlayer, CBC, Paramount+, and ESPN+.

The VPN can also access tons of libraries from popular streaming platforms. For example, it’s compatible with 25 Netflix libraries, including Netflix US, Netflix UK, and Netflix Japan. It also works with 22 Disney+ libraries and 16 Paramount+ libraries.

Speed

Proton VPN maintained very fast speeds in our tests. In fact, it ranks pretty high on our list of the fastest VPNs in 2025. On average, it doesn’t slow down download and upload speeds by more than eight percent.

We used Proton VPN to watch 4K videos over the course of several hours. We never had to wait more than two or three seconds for the videos to fully load. Plus, when we skipped through the videos, we never experienced any buffering.

We like how easy it is to watch any streaming content you want with Proton VPN. It’s compatible with over 90 streaming services, and also allows streaming via servers in 117 countries. So, you just need to launch the app, use your remote to connect to your desired server location, and then binge your favorite titles.

We also found Proton VPN’s Apple TV app really intuitive. It’s very easy to navigate the app with a TV remote, and it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to find and connect to a server.

4. Private Internet Access - Best for Accessing U.S. Streaming Content

SecurityScore:

9.4 /10

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Product Specs

Server locations	91 countries
Average Speed Loss	5% download & 84% download
Apps	Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Android TV, tvOS
Best Monthly Rate	$2.03/mo with a 3-year plan
Money-Back Guarantee	30 days full refund

View Plans Links to Private Internet Access

Apple TV setup

Similar to Surfshark, Private Internet Access was too difficult to set up on a router for us, so we opted to use a virtual router setup. It was quick and easy thanks to PIA’s user-friendly Windows app. Smart DNS was also an option, but we found the VPN’s five DNS locations (Germany, U.K., U.S., Netherlands, Japan) limiting.

Streaming experience

Installed on our laptop, Private Internet Access gave us access to 84 server locations. Not only that, but it had servers optimized specifically for streaming. They were marked ‘Streaming Optimized’ in the server list, or you could simply search ‘streaming’ using the app’s search bar. There are nine servers in total, including two in the U.S. (East and West Coasts), Australia, Japan, Italy, and Denmark.

Speed

We’ve always known that Private Internet Access performs well on Windows, and this time was no different. Although the latency (ping) of the streaming optimized servers were quite high (over 200 ms), it didn’t stop us from streaming 4K movies on our Apple TV buffering-free. Our speed test readings on the Apple TV ranged from 212 (lowest) to 227 (highest) Mbps, so while there were fluctuations, Private Internet Access was fast overall.

We found Private Internet Access to be the best choice if you want to access U.S. streaming content, whether you’re vacationing with the Apple TV in tow or living outside the U.S. That’s because Private Internet Access, which is based in Denver, has at least one server in each U.S. state. No other VPN we tested had a network as focused to the U.S. as Private Internet Access.

Granted, not all those servers are optimized for streaming. There were a couple of times when Netflix detected that we were using a VPN and blocked us. However, six of the nine servers we used worked, and we think that’s a pretty good reliability rate.

We also appreciated the fact that Private Internet Access has two U.S. servers optimized for streaming – East and West. We live on the East Coast, so we get the East Coast programming of YouTube TV. Connecting our laptop, and hence our Apple TV, to PIA’s U.S. West server was an easy way for us to change our YouTube TV location and access the West Coast programming of ESPN.

5. ExpressVPN - Best App and User Experience

SecurityScore:

9.1 /10

View Plans Links to ExpressVPN

Product Specs

Multihop	No
Obfuscated Servers	Yes
Kill Switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

View Plans Links to ExpressVPN

Apple TV Setup

ExpressVPN is another one of the few VPNs right now that offer an app for Apple TV, but besides that, it’s also the best provider of a VPN router. VPN routers are typically the most difficult to set up, but ExpressVPN is an exception. ExpressVPN offers a ready-to-use router VPN called Aircove. The downside? It comes with a hefty price tag of $189, and you still need to maintain an ExpressVPN subscription.

The upside, though, is that it’s super easy to set up. We managed to get our hands on (borrow) an Aircove router to take for a quick spin. We set it up as a Wi-Fi access point and in under 15 minutes, we were able to connect it to our network, configure our VPN settings, and connect our Apple TV to it.

Streaming Experience

ExpressVPN has tons of server locations – it offers 105 server locations compared to Surfshark (another top pick of ours) with 100 locations. All those locations were available through the ExpressVPN Apple TV app and Aircove.

Moreover, since Aircove is a direct product of ExpressVPN, we were able to manage its VPN connection via our ExpressVPN online dashboard. When we were done watching anime on Netflix Japan, we easily switched over to a U.K. server using only our iPhone to binge Doctor Who. The user experience was on point, something we expected from the best VPN router on the market.

Speed

With the Aircove plugged into our modem via an Ethernet cable, we enjoyed speeds of around 230 Mbps, both for uploads and downloads. It also helped that the Aircove broadcasts Wi-Fi 6 signals, which is significantly faster and more stable than older iterations of the Wi-Fi protocol.3

As for the Apple TV app from ExpressVPN, we enjoyed slightly lower speeds, but not too slow that it caused buffering. Our download speed was around 215 Mbps, which was still more than capable of 4K streaming.

The fact that ExpressVPN offers both an app for Apple TV and an easy-to-use router in Aircove makes it the best Apple TV VPN overall. Between the app and the router, we’d say go with the app if all you want is to change your Apple TV’s location to a different region or country, but go with Aircove if you want to safeguard your entire household’s internet connection.

Downloading the ExpressVPN Apple TV app was a breeze. It was like downloading any other app into the Apple TV; we went to the App Store and searched “ExpressVPN,” selected “Get,” and within minutes, we were already signing in. We recommend creating an ExpressVPN account and buying a subscription beforehand, ideally using an iPhone. That way, you can sign in using just the QR code that will flash on your TV screen.

If you’re opting for Aircove, on the other hand, the setup process is going to be a little more difficult, but again, it’s easier to set up than most VPN routers. Once it’s all set up as a Wi-Fi router, you can enjoy a lot of user-friendly features that most VPN routers don’t provide.

For starters, with a typical VPN router, all devices connected to the network use the same VPN tunnel, IP address, and location. With Aircove, we were able to set our Apple TV to connect to a U.K. server and, at the same time, our laptop to a U.S. server. We later learned that it can maintain up to five VPN tunnels leading to different locations at the same time.

6. CyberGhost VPN - Best Value VPN for Your Money

SecurityScore:

8.9 /10

View Plans Links To CyberGhost

Product Specs

Multihop	Yes
Obfuscated Servers	No
Kill Switch	Yes
Split Tunneling	Yes
Netflix	Yes
Torrenting	Yes

View Plans Links To CyberGhost

Apple TV setup

CyberGhost is another VPN best used for a virtual router setup, but this time, we used a Macbook. It’s possible to share a Macbook’s VPN connection with other devices, but one caveat we found is that you need a VPN that supports the L2TP VPN protocol. This is an older VPN protocol, considered less secure than options like OpenVPN, but it works great for the purpose of streaming because it’s fast.

CyberGhost is part of the dwindling number of VPNs that offer L2TP, so we took advantage and set it up on our Macbook to get a feel of the setup process. We found it similar to setting up a Windows virtual router, except for the part that the Macbook has to be connected to the internet via an Ethernet cable.

Streaming experience

CyberGhost has a really large network of servers designated for streaming. We counted over 80 servers for different services and locations. Private Internet Access’ nine optimized servers are a far cry from CyberGhost’s network. That is, if you use CyberGhost on a virtual router. If you use smart DNS, we hate to break it to you but there are only three available options: Hulu U.S., Netflix U.S., and Netflix U.K.

Speed

As we briefly touched on earlier, CyberGhost was a little on the sluggish side. With a Macbook set up as a virtual router, we got an average download speed of 201 Mbps from our CyberGhost connection. That’s still plenty fast if your internet is as fast as ours, but that’s still about a 20-percent decrease for our 250 Mbps network.

After shelling out over $100 on your Apple TV and buying monthly subscriptions to your favorite streaming services, the last thing you probably want is another bill to pay. Unfortunately, all the best VPNs to use with Apple TV require a subscription, so the next best option is an affordable VPN. That is exactly what you get from CyberGhost. For its two-year package, you’ll pay only around $57. You’ll even get two months free, bringing the average cost down to $2.19 per month.

While CyberGhost doesn’t stand out next to our other top picks, for that price, you get a lot of value for your money. It works quite well for an affordable VPN. You’ll have to live with some quirks, like its slower speed and device limit, but after testing CyberGhost for a week, we can say that this is a reliable option.

We also liked that CyberGhost has a 45-day money-back guarantee, 15 days longer than the refund period of even some of the top options such as NordVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN. This gives you a longer time to get a feel for CyberGhost, and if it doesn’t pan out, you can invoke the money-back guarantee to get a full refund.