Recommendations for VPN to use Netflix in Europe

I use Express VPN.

Alternatively, can you just download before leaving US? It saves on streaming speeds, and (possibly) eating up someone else's monthly wifi allotment. (When staying in a short let apartment, this used to be a problem).

I had Hulu and Netflix on my phone and tablet if I had internet access I could watch both of them in France, Austria and Germany. I also downloaded a few shows so I could watch off line. Like you said sometimes in the evening before going to sleep you might like to watch a something.

I have my own VPN setup at home. (It's fairly easy if you are a techie.) Consider asking someone to set up a home VPN for you before you leave. If you have to pay someone to do it, at least you won't have to pay for the VPN, and you will not have to rely on a third party for VPN support. Some home routers already support a VPN. If not, a spare router that supports VPN can be set up with VPN and can be added to your home network. Again, I assume the average person is not tech savvy enough to do this so that you'd need to have someone set it up for you. It wouldn't be worth paying $500 to have it set up, but it might be worth $100 - or buy dinner for a tech savvy friend who does it for you.

I use Express VPN.

Me too. I am currently in Spain and watching Netflix on my iPad most nights. My threshold for dubbed episodes of Bonanza, CSI, Rizzoli and Isles and Crossing Jordan is pretty low and the only English language options are CNN and BBC Global.

I still have my US Netflix's account and can access most everything. But a lot of expats here use Nord VPN.

I watch a lot of travel vloggers and they all pitch Surfshark (obviously because they are paid to do so). Each vlogger also offers a discount code. Try finding one at Paul Lucas Winging It, for example.

Apparently Netflix is one of the harder sites to geo-game, you should also google up some tech articles about VPNs (realizing that they too are often "compensated").

Notwithstanding Netflix's machinations over password sharing, a VPN is not going to be necessary to stream Netflix in Europe. The VPN will certainly allow you to get the US Netflix catalog and your saved list uninterrupted. Plus there are US only streaming services that a VPN would work for.

But the problem with streaming in the US is that the market is structured to the point that every little production house believes their catalog is worth being paid for through their own streaming service and are stingy with licensing in the US. It truly becomes a matter of quantity over quality. The US Netflix catalog just blows. On the other hand the European Netflix catalog is superior with content not licensed to Netflix in the US, is licensed to Netflix in Europe.

I am American, I live in Austria, I have Netflix and I use Express VPN. Of course I can watch Austria Netflix without my VPN as everything is in English. Very little is German or Austrian. That said, the VPN allows us to drop anywhere in the world and watch that country’s Netflix catalog. This has been handy many times.

My NetFlix works fine in Europe. Watched it last night. Sure, what's available is a bit different, but not much, and it gives me the chance to see things not available in the US. So what could be a restriction can also be a benefit.

Does using a VPN to trick a service provider like Netflix violate the service contract?

We were in Europe twice last year for one month each time (Germany and England) and found that most of our streaming services did not allow us to access what we wanted to watch on our iPhones and iPads. After some online research we chose NordVPN, and it worked well. It allows for multiple devises to be connected at the same time (although we hardly ever used that feature), and had a similar annual cost to the other vpn services. Also the download speed was very similar to that observed without using the vpn.

We will be traveling abroad again this year and we plan on renewing our service with NordVPN as they have a good sale on right now.

Using a VPN does not technically violate their terms of service. But legally, they are not allowed to show certain content outside of the country where you have an account, so if you are using a VPN to do that, you would be violating their TOS.

Thank you Andrew H, so we are discussing the best way to violate a service contract? Excellent.

I tried to find the service contract on line, but no luck. I did find hundreds of articles about how to watch content that is not being offered .... which I take to mean, take what isn't being paid for (because neither you, nor NetFlix could possibly afford to buy world wide rights to all the copyrighted material on NetFlix).

And I did find where NetFlix has no problem with VPN that is not set up to fool the system, in which case you can watch programming for which NetFlix owns the rights, but not programming for which NetFlix doesn't actually own the rights. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/114701

Interesting.....

Yeah, it's like discussing driving 57mph in a 55mph zone. Technically illegal but not something anyone, even law enforcement, is really worried about. Netflix and the companies that license their content to Netflix don't care if a US Netflix subscriber is watching content from their US Netflix account while on vacation in Europe. They don't want people who live in other countries watching it - they want those people to pay to watch via local licensing agreements.

Oh geez. NetFlix may have a ToS against the use of VPNs and proxy servers, but its not a matter of legality. It is a matter of Netflix's licensing agreements with the owners of properties meaning the movies or tv shows are supposed to be offered to certain audiences or countries.

Watched Netflix on my iPad in Spain and France using our rental apartment Wi-Fi. No problems whatsoever, except when I got home and discovered that the last season of Outlander wasn’t available yet in the US.

In Spain in 2019 I was able to download the next episode of a show I was watching back home to my iPad by using my phone as a hotspot. (I tried the hotel’s WiFi first but got the not licensed in Spain msg.) I don’t know it that’s a loophole that’s been closed but it worked fine and with no additional cost. I get tired of news only in English on hotel TVs too.

Again, Netflix works everywhere in Europe. When you sign on, you will access the Netflix catalog available in the country you are visiting, which might not be the same as the US catalog.

Much ado about nothing. If you don’t already have a VPN then don’t bother setting one up. Simply use your Netflix as at home. What do you feel you have to watch so badly that you need access to the same content overseas?

I lived in Liberia, West Africa for two years in the recent past. I watched Netflix almost every day, no VPN. No problem with initial sign-in (I remained signed-in), just a slight difference in what was available to view (for example, I wasn't able to watch The Great British Baking Show, but no problem accessing Seinfeld). Have a great stay!

A US Netflix account works fine in Europe. The lineup is a little different but not drastically different. All the really good stuff us there and you can watch some pretty good content that isn't available in the US.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend expressvpn in the past, but now I often can't get around the restrictions. I have now started using vpngpt, unfortunately he is only available for iOS.