Technologies
Best VPN for Amazon Fire TV Stick in 2023
Turn any TV into a smart TV and stream content with privacy using one of the best VPNs for Fire TV Stick.
Not every television comes packed with all the top streaming apps, but with a handy device like Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, you can turn almost any TV into a smart TV. Simply by plugging the device in to your TV, you can easily access streaming services like Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, along with live TV, apps and games. There’s a lot you can do with a Fire TV Stick, but to get the most out of the device and maintain your privacy while doing so, you’ll want to pair it with a VPN, short for «virtual private network.»
The Fire TV Stick, as well as TVs that have the Amazon Fire TV system operating system built into them, have a distinct advantage over other streaming products such as Apple TV and Roku. Fire TV is the only major platform to support VPNs built into its online store. You can download and run a VPN alongside most of the streaming services listed above.
After hooking up the device to a television, you can use your VPN to avoid ISP throttling and get around geoblocks while streaming content or gaming (whether you’re at home or traveling abroad), without the need for VPN-compatible routers or complicated home network setups. And with prices as low as $30 for Fire Stick hardware, it remains the easiest way to set up a VPN on your smart TV.
Remember to check local laws and verify that VPN use is permitted by the terms of service with your internet service provider.
You can use a VPN with your Amazon Fire TV Stick to protect your privacy and get past streaming geoblocking.
How we tested VPNs on Fire TV Stick
Each of CNET’s top VPNs offers a native VPN app for the Fire TV Stick, but a few of them stood out during our tests. In addition to evaluating the usability and features of the Fire TV Stick VPN apps, we prioritized other important factors like security, speed and unblocking capabilities of each VPN we tested.
We opened each app on the Fire TV Stick and first tried to get a sense of the usability and the features available. Is the app easy to navigate and are the servers accessible? Are the features useful, organized and simple to access?
We then evaluated the overall performance of the app to see if the servers connected quickly, whether or not the connections were stable and how well the features performed. Finally, we tested how each VPN was able to provide access to various popular streaming services. Did the streaming services load up and start playing content quickly? Was the streaming experience smooth and absent of buffering? Was the VPN able to provide access to each streaming service we tested, and from multiple server locations? The VPNs that consistently passed these tests earned a spot among our top picks.
Best VPNs for Fire TV Stick
- Latest tests: No leaks detected, 2% speed loss in spring 2022 tests
- Network: 3,000-plus servers in 160 locations across 94 countries
- Jurisdiction: British Virgin Islands
- Price: 5 simultaneous connections for $13 per month, $60 for six months or $100 for a year (current discount: 3 months free). 2-year subscriptions available.
ExpressVPN is CNET’s Editors’ Choice for Best Overall VPN. It’s also the best VPN for Fire TV Stick because it’s super fast and secure, can reliably unblock content and has an excellent app that’s optimized for the Fire TV Stick.
The 2% speed loss we calculated in our spring 2022 tests helped catapult ExpressVPN to the top of our list of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested. Provided you’re getting decent speeds from your ISP, using ExpressVPN can help guarantee a smooth streaming experience whether you’re streaming in HD or 4K.
We didn’t experience any buffering issues during our tests, and all of the streaming channels loaded up and started playing immediately, seemingly unfettered by the VPN. We were able to stream content on Disney Plus, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video and the US and UK Netflix libraries.
ExpressVPN’s app for Fire TV Stick is packed with features, yet nicely minimalistic and easy to navigate. The app includes features like auto-connect, kill switch, split tunneling and protocol selection, along with a DNS and WebRTC leak testing tool, IP address checker and even a password generator. One additional feature that’s pretty neat and useful is shortcuts, which lets you set shortcuts for five different apps. You can create shortcuts for any app you have on your Fire TV Stick like Neltifx, Hulu or a web browser, and launch the app directly from within the ExpressVPN interface after you’ve connected to the VPN.
The VPN provider has an impressive network of server locations that span 94 countries, meaning you’ll have plenty of options for unblocking content from all over the globe. When connected to ExpressVPN’s servers, your traffic is secured with industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption, which will keep your Fire TV Stick activity private.
ExpressVPN is the best VPN for Fire TV Stick, but it’s also the most expensive. Subscription plans are billed at $100 per year, $60 every six months or $13 a month. A 30-day money-back guarantee is available if you’re not satisfied with your purchase. Read our ExpressVPN review.
- Latest tests: Zero data leaks and 19% internet speed loss in fall 2022 tests
- Network: 3,200-plus in 100 countries
- Jurisdiction: Netherlands
- Price: Unlimited connections for $48 for the first year (then $60 annually) or $13 per month
Surfshark boasts an impressive suite of privacy and security features, unlimited simultaneous connections, easy-to-use interface and expansive global network. And it’s still significantly cheaper than most of its competitors. That’s what helped Surfshark earn CNET’s Editors’ Choice for Best Value VPN in 2022.
Along with standard VPN features such as a kill switch and DNS leak protection, some of the more notable Surfshark features include camouflage mode (which hides the fact you’re using a VPN), split-tunneling, NoBorders mode (which lets you use Surfshark in regions where VPNs are restricted) and multihop VPN connections. You’ll also get access to Surfshark’s CleanWeb technology, which blocks ads and malware and helps you avoid phishing attacks.
One innovation we’re excited to see Surfshark roll out over the next year is its Nexus network, which connects the VPN’s entire network of servers together and allows you to choose multiple servers to route your connection through. The functionality is somewhat similar to Tor, but Surfshark says it’s faster. With its Dynamic MultiHop, IP Randomizer and IP Rotator functions, the Nexus network can give you a few extra layers of protection while you use the VPN — which can be particularly beneficial to users with critical privacy needs.
Surfshark says it doesn’t log any user activity. And although no-logging claims are virtually impossible to prove with 100% certainty, German cybersecurity firm Cure53 declared Surfshark’s security to be «solid» in its 2021 security audit of the VPN. Surfshark says a new audit is forthcoming by the end of this year.
As of February 2022, both Surfshark and NordVPN have the same corporate parent (Tesonet), but Surfshark said it is legally bound not to share any information between the entities that would go against its privacy policy or terms of service. We didn’t find any language in either document that would indicate Surfshark has any obligation to share user data with its parent company or any sibling companies, which include NordVPN.
Surfshark rates consistently as one of the fastest VPNs available, which is why we were surprised that one of the only issues we had with Surfshark came in our speed test. While it still ranks as one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested — with an internet speed loss of just 19% — we were disappointed with the inconsistent speed results we got to certain locations. Speeds to Europe and Singapore were erratic (dipping as low as 9Mbps to Singapore), while speeds to New York were slower than speeds to the UK and even Australia. Surfshark is in the process of significantly expanding its server network, now offering more than 3,200 servers in 99 countries. The continued expansion of its server network could potentially help bring some more consistency to VPN speeds.
In our tests, Surfshark had no problems unblocking Netflix and Amazon Prime Video content, but we did run into a fair bit of trouble accessing Disney Plus. After testing various servers in the US and other countries where Disney Plus is available, we were finally able to access the content when we connected to a server in Boston. You may need to test a few servers yourself before gaining access to Disney Plus content with Surfshark.
Surfshark offers cheaper introductory prices that jump after the first billing cycle. Even so, Surfshark manages to keep its prices lower than most other VPNs. The yearly plan starts out at $48 for the first year, then jumps to $60 for any additional years of service. If you opt for the two-year plan, you’ll pay $60 upfront for the initial two years combined, then $60 per year for any additional years. Surfshark’s monthly plan stays constant at $13 a month. If you’re not satisfied with the service for any reason, Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Latest tests: No leaks detected, 13% speed loss in summer 2022 tests
- Network: 5,600-plus servers in 84 locations across 60 countries
- Jurisdiction: Panama
- Price: 6 simultaneous connections for $12 per month or $67 for a year (current discount: 3 months free). 2-year subscriptions available.
NordVPN’s speeds weren’t quite as fast as ExpressVPN’s, but were faster than Surfshark’s, which helps make this VPN one of the top choices for streaming on a Fire TV Stick.
Streaming was smooth and easy whether we were watching content on Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video or the US and UK Netflix libraries. NordVPN’s Fire TV Stick app interface is set up differently than the provider’s apps on other platforms, but the pertinent features are mostly accounted for and easy to access.
The app includes features like split-tunneling (which is useful if you don’t want all your Fire TV Stick apps to route through the VPN connection), auto-connect, protocol selection and threat protection lite (a malicious-website blocker). You can also connect to NordVPN’s Onion over VPN and double VPN servers if you want to add an extra layer of privacy to your Fire TV Stick activities. The one thing that’s missing from NordVPN’s Fire TV Stick app is a kill switch — an essential VPN feature that prevents your data from leaking unencrypted by cutting your internet should the VPN connection drop for any reason. The absence of that feature puts NordVPN lower on this list than ExpressVPN and Surfshark, which both offer it.
We noticed that the «Help us improve» setting in the app was enabled by default. If you don’t want to send aggregated anonymous data that could include «crash reports, OS version, marketing performance and feature usage data» over to NordVPN as you use its Fire TV Stick app, then be sure to disable it from the Settings menu.
NordVPN’s network offers more total servers (5,300-plus) than either ExpressVPN or Surfshark, but fewer countries (60), which could potentially limit the breadth of your streaming options. Like our other top picks, NordVPN encrypts VPN traffic using AES 256-bit encryption. NordVPN’s prices are lower overall than ExpressVPN, but more expensive than its sister company, Surfshark. The annual plan is priced at $100 per year (following the $60 introductory rate for the first year) or $12 per month. NordVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all subscription plans. Read our NordVPN review.
Other VPNs we tested on the Fire TV Stick
We also tested ProtonVPN and IPVanish on the Fire TV Stick. While both providers have native Fire TV Stick apps and are excellent options for various VPN use cases, they didn’t perform to our standards during our Fire TV Stick tests.
Proton VPN’s Fire TV Stick app is very basic and offers no options beyond connecting to a server or reporting an issue. It’s slow to connect and the overall app experience was clunky and awkward. Once we were finally able to connect to a server, we weren’t successful in our attempts to stream content from any streaming service. Oddly enough, it was when we tested Proton VPN’s free version on Fire TV Stick that we were able to access Netflix. Even though Proton VPN’s free tier is one of the only free VPNs that is actually worth using, it’s not optimized for streaming, so it may not always work for accessing geoblocked content.
IPVanish was a little better — the app included various settings and features to tool around with, but we weren’t able to stream UK Netflix or Amazon Prime Video. The automatic app launch feature allowing users to select an app to launch automatically after a successful connection is a nice addition and worked well in our testing when we set it to auto-launch Netflix. But besides that, there wasn’t much more to like about IPVanish’s performance on the Fire TV Stick in terms of features, and it failed to access some streaming services. We decided we couldn’t enthusiastically recommend it as a viable VPN solution for the Fire TV Stick.
We’ll continue to test these and other VPNs on the Fire TV Stick, so be sure to check back often.
Amazon Fire TV Stick VPN FAQs
How do I install a VPN on Amazon’s Fire TV Stick?
Installing a VPN on the Fire TV Stick is easy. You can either navigate to the magnifying glass search icon on your Fire TV home screen and use your remote or Fire TV app on your smartphone to type in the name of the VPN you want to download, or you can use the Alexa function on your Fire TV remote and say the name of the VPN. Then, click on the logo of your selected VPN and click on Get to initiate the download. Click on Open to launch the app and log into your account. Once you’ve logged in, your VPN will ask for your permission to set up a VPN connection. Click on OK to allow the VPN to create the connection. Once you’ve given your VPN permission to connect, you can start using the VPN on your Fire TV Stick.
Can I use a free VPN on the Fire TV Stick?
We don’t recommend using free VPNs on the Fire TV Stick (or in most other situations) because free VPNs typically impose usage and bandwidth restrictions that make them virtually unusable for streaming purposes. They also often sell user information to advertisers and can sometimes even contain malware. If you’re on a budget, we’d recommend choosing Surfshark as your Fire TV Stick VPN as it’s cheaper than a lot of the competition and works well on the streaming device.
Does VPN work on all Fire TV Stick generations?
No, VPNs are not compatible with the first generation of Fire TV Stick. VPNs work on second- and third-generation Fire TV Sticks as well as the Fire TV Stick 4K and 4K Max.
Can I use a VPN on Fire TV Cube?
Yes, Amazon’s Fire TV Cube has the same interface as the Fire TV Stick. You can install and use a VPN on the Fire TV Cube the same way you would on a Fire TV Stick. The Fire TV Cube acts as an Alexa speaker that delivers audio and allows you to use voice commands to control your Fire TV interface without having to press and hold the Alexa button on your remote.
More VPN recommendations
Technologies
Verum Messenger: Data Protection at Its Finest
Verum Messenger positions itself as a tool for those who value privacy and security above all.
Verum Messenger stands out from other messengers thanks to its approach to security, anonymity, and innovations in communication.
Here are some key aspects that highlight its uniqueness:
- Default encryption: Verum Messenger uses end-to-end (E2E) encryption for all chats, meaning messages are encrypted on the sender’s device and decrypted only on the recipient’s device. This makes it impossible for third parties, including app developers, to access the content of the messages.
- Anonymity: When registering with Verum, there’s no need to provide a phone number or email. Users simply choose a nickname and password, significantly enhancing their level of anonymity. This contrasts with many other messengers, where anonymity can be compromised through linked personal data.
- Built-in VPN: An additional layer of protection that hides the user’s IP address, making their location and internet activity less trackable.
- Data control: Users can set messages to be automatically deleted after a specified time, ranging from a few seconds to a week. There’s also a quick deletion feature for all chats, calls, and even contacts, which is useful for maintaining privacy.
- Large groups: The ability to create chat rooms with up to 10,000 participants makes Verum attractive for organizing large events, discussions, or communities while maintaining a high level of security.
- Security innovations: Verum actively develops technologies aimed at protecting user data, as seen in their documentation and discussions online. This includes not only technical solutions but also approaches to data minimization, which reduces the risk of leaks.
- Feedback and discussions: On platform X (formerly Twitter), discussions can be found where users and experts praise Verum for its approach to anonymity and security, although questions are raised about how much anonymity can truly be guaranteed in an age of modern tracking and de-anonymization technologies.
Verum Messenger positions itself as a tool for those who value privacy and security above all. Its innovations in encryption, anonymity, and data control make it an intriguing choice for those seeking alternatives to traditional messaging platforms. However, as with any technology, it’s important to remember that absolute anonymity on the internet remains a complex challenge, and users should be aware of potential risks and limitations.
Technologies
Verum Coin Debuts on XT Exchange, Broadening its Reach in the DeFi Space
A Strategic Listing Enhancing Verum Coin’s Visibility
In a significant development for the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, Verum Coin (VERUM) has been officially listed on XT Exchange. The new trading pair, VERUM/USDT, is now available in the exchange’s Innovative Zone, marking a pivotal expansion for this digital asset into the DeFi ecosystem.
A Strategic Listing Enhancing Verum Coin’s Visibility
The addition of Verum Coin to the XT Exchange is seen as a strategic move to enhance the accessibility and liquidity of VERUM among traders who are keen on exploring innovative digital assets. XT Exchange, known for its robust platform supporting a wide variety of cryptocurrencies, provides an ideal environment for fostering growth and ensuring the broad reach of new tokens.
Albin Varin, CEO of XT Exchange, expressed enthusiasm about the new listing, stating, «We are delighted to welcome Verum Coin to our platform. This listing reflects our ongoing commitment to providing our users access to innovative digital assets that transform the landscape of global finance.» This comments underscore the exchange’s focus on integrating cutting-edge technologies and financial instruments that have the potential to redefine the market.
About XT
Founded in 2018, XT Exchange serves more than 7.8M registered users, over 1M monthly active users, 40+ million users in the ecosystem, and more than 800 tokens with 1000+ trading pairs. XT crypto exchange offers a rich variety of trading categories to provide a secure, trusted, and intuitive trading experience for its large user base. This includes crypto futures trading (USDT-M Futures and coin-M futures perpetual contracts) and copy trading that allows users to replicate top traders in real time with just one click. Additionally, the futures grid allows users to automate the buying and selling of futures contracts for profits.
Future Prospects
With its new position on XT Exchange, Verum Coin is expected to attract a broader audience, enhancing its trading volume and market presence. This could potentially lead to increased stability and recognition as a viable player in the DeFi space. For investors and users of XT Exchange, this addition provides a fresh avenue to diversify portfolios with a cryptocurrency that is positioned at the intersection of innovation and financial evolution.
The listing of Verum Coin on XT Exchange not only highlights the ongoing expansion of cryptocurrency markets into new areas like DeFi but also illustrates a growing recognition of digital assets that offer promising technological advancements and financial opportunities. As the crypto market continues to evolve, partnerships like these are pivotal for fostering growth and offering users access to the next generation of financial tools.
Technologies
Verum Coin Gains International Spotlight with AP Coverage and Listing on XT Exchange
This listing on XT is expected to further propel Verum Coin into the spotlight
In a noteworthy development for the cryptocurrency community, Verum Coin (VERUM) has been featured in an Associated Press article, highlighting its upcoming listing on the XT Exchange. This significant media coverage underscores the growing interest and potential of Verum Coin in the global financial landscape.
The AP article delves into the details of Verum Coin’s innovative features and its alignment with the latest trends in the cryptocurrency market. This attention comes at an opportune moment as Verum Coin prepares for its new listing on XT Exchange, a platform renowned for its extensive user base and a wide array of trading options.
This listing on XT is expected to further propel Verum Coin into the spotlight, providing both traders and investors with new opportunities to engage with this emerging digital asset. The exchange’s robust infrastructure and diverse trading offerings are ideal for supporting Verum Coin’s growth and enhancing its visibility in the competitive cryptocurrency market.
For more details, you can read the full article on the AP website here.
This milestone is a testament to Verum Coin’s advancing presence in the crypto world and its ongoing efforts to be at the forefront of digital currency innovation and adoption.
