Trouble with VPN’s for Netflix on the Amazon Fire TV

Yesterday, I wanted to sit down with an Amazon Fire TV to watch Netflix. I decided to try some of the best VPN services for the Fire TV and I wanted to simply watch some content on American Netflix. To my great surprise, all of them were blocked, except for one!

To be honest, I have a feeling that this might be a temporary error, or maybe due to some recent changes in the Netflix application for the Fire TV. I really don’t know, but I do know that these providers work perfectly in Windows and on iOS and Android devices, so what happened with the Amazon Fire TV?

In general, I would say that NordVPN and SurfsharkVPN are the ideal solutions if you want to watch Netflix on an Amazon Fire TV. Do you know why? They are using a sort of SmartDNS services inside their VPN services, making sure that you never get the proxy and unblocker error message as you visit Netflix.com or open the Netflix application. As a result, if you connect to a server blocked by Netflix, you should be able to watch Netflix still as they present you to Netflix.com with a different IP address (working with Netflix) as you visit their website. And yes, that is very practical indeed, and that is why I thought they would be the best for the Netflix application on the Fire TV.

The best VPN for Netflix on the Amazon Fire TV Stick
The best VPN for Netflix on the Amazon Fire TV Stick

And then they didn’t work with Netflix on the Fire TV…

I was greatly surprised as I got the proxy and unblocker error message using both Surfshark and NordVPN. I don’t know why, and I guess they might have fixed it already (or not), but I tried connecting to several servers. However, I kept on getting the message, and that is why I moved on to the next provider.

After this, I decided to give ExpressVPN a try. They are the best VPN provider for unblocking many sites, but I had my doubts. I connected to a server in the United States, and it quickly connected. I went back to the home screen on the Fire TV and opened the Netflix application. I made sure that I actually looked at the content on American Netflix and started a show. Guess what… it worked! I didn’t get the error message, and I could stream happily.

Again, this might be temporary, but based on my tests yesterday, ExpressVPN was the only VPN service of the three that worked nicely with Netflix.

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Let me just say, I didn’t expect this article to end up being an ExpressVPN commercial. Seriously, I thought Surfshark VPN and NordVPN would perform better, but I was wrong this time. It also should be said, that the ExpressVPN application itself loads much faster and is quicker than the apps of Surfshark and NordVPN. You might not care much about that, but considering how slow the Fire TV Stick I have gets after running an application or two, this is actually something I find refreshing after spending minutes waiting for things to load and open.

What about Fubo TV, CBS All Access, and Hulu?

My main goal was to test and watch Netflix, but since I first had those VPN apps running, I thought I would try to see whether or not they worked with Fubo TV, CBS All Access, and Hulu as well. Luckily for all of them, they all worked with all the three applications. In other words, it is possible to watch Fubo TV, CBS All Access on your Amazon Fire TV using the VPN services of NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN.

But… there is a but… there is quite a difference between the download speeds you get using the three services, meaning that once again ExpressVPN became the winner, providing better speeds, and thus, better streaming quality than the two other providers.

It might be a coincidence that ExpressVPN outperformed the other two VPN providers during my tests yesterday… I don’t know. But, I will do more testing in the near future and return with even more information.

  • Did you know that the VPN applications don’t run on the first generation of the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Which generation is your Fire TV Stick? Find out here!

Which VPN do you use on your Amazon Fire TV Stick? Have you experienced problems lately, or do you have a problem-free and peaceful relationship with your VPN provider?

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