If you have a Fire TV video streamer, you already know how great it can be to access all the major streaming platforms and thousands of shows and movies in one centralized hub. Seeing all your favorites on a big screen TV is better than watching it on a smaller laptop or smartphone screen.
But what if you want to watch a show or movie and discover it’s not available in your country? Or what if you wanted to watch an award-winning BBC documentary but it was only available on the BBC’s iPlayer and you don’t live in the UK?
This is where a VPN (virtual private network) comes into play. Using a VPN can allow you to unblock geo-blocked content for streaming, even if you’re outside a certain area. And here’s the best part: Unlike archrival Roku, Amazon’s Fire TV system offers VPN apps through its built-in app store. We’ll explain the details and let you know how it works.
Choose the right VPN for your Fire TV
For starters, we’ll assume you have a Fire TV device. If not, we have good news: If you don’t have it on your TV additional devices often sell for $25 or less on Amazon. Catch it If you want a good balance between performance and price, make sure it’s on sale for $40 or less. (Check out our list to see how Fire TV streamers compare to competitors from Roku, Google, Apple, and more. .)
Once you’ve set up your Fire TV hardware, it’s time to choose a VPN — and that’s where the Fire TV operating system shines. A long list of VPNs, including all our current top picks are available on the platform and are as easy to download and install as any video application.
Engadget-approved VPNs currently available on Fire TV include:
We’ll leave it up to you to figure out which VPN offers the best combination of features and value for you, but a word of caution: We don’t recommend using free VPNs, except for the first two listed above, because they collect and sell your data to ad networks to fund poorly secured servers. is famous. Note that you can install as many VPNs as you like on your Fire TV if you want to cross-test them at your leisure.
VPN installation
Once you know which Fire TV VPN you want to use, setting it up is easy. visit the Find > in the main menu and simply search for the name of your preferred VPN – just type “VPN” if you want to scroll through all the available options. There you can find the service you want (or already subscribed to) and start installing it. The process should not take too long. Once it’s done, you’re ready to use it.
Using Fire TV VPN
Once you’ve downloaded the app, navigate to it on your Fire TV dashboard. You must enter your username and password or register to create an account. Some VPNs may require you to create an account on your smartphone or computer beforehand.
Once logged in, you can click “Connect” on the VPN or browse the server list to select the country you want to tunnel to. Once connected, return to the Fire TV home screen and reload your chosen streaming platform to check if the content is different. If so, your VPN is up and running and you’re ready to stream.
