Best VPN for watching Amazon Prime, these 6 still work in 2018

Every Amazon Prime account comes with a subscription to Amazon Prime Video. The popularity of the United States’ most popular ecommerce company translates to a huge number of viewers on its premium video streaming service. Unfortunately, Prime Video is only available in the US. If you’re spending time outside of the country, you’ll need to trick Amazon into thinking you’re on US soil to unblock it, or else get error 4601:

That’s where a VPN, or virtual private network, comes in. A VPN encrypts all your internet traffic and routes it through a middleman server in a location of your choosing. In this case, the location would be somewhere in the United States so you can watch Amazon Prime Video from abroad. VPNs will allow you to watch Amazon Prime and Instant Video from outside the US on a Windows PC, Mac OSX, iPhone, iPad, Android, and Linux.

In the past, Amazon looked the other way when it came to VPN users. Most VPNs with servers in the US would allow users to bypass the geographic restriction. That’s no longer the case, and Amazon’s firewall has gotten much stricter as of our 2018 testing, and attempting to stream through a blacklisted VPN results in error 1042:

Still, a handful of VPNs are able to bypass Amazon’s VPN ban. With that in mind, we’ve curated a list of the best VPNs for Amazon Prime Video from outside the US based on the following criteria:

• Fast and stable speeds
• DNS leak protection
• Plenty of servers in the US
• Apps available for Kindle Fire tablets
• Beat the Amazon Prime VPN block

Best VPNs for Amazon Prime:

1. ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is one of the best all-around VPNs on the market featuring fast speeds, solid security, well-designed apps, and excellent customer service. Amazon Prime Video streams great on select US servers. These change occasionally, so we recommend hitting up ExpressVPN’s 24-hour live chat support to ask which servers currently work with Prime Video.

Subscribers can connect up to three simultaneous devices. ExpressVPN has a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it risk free.

Mobile apps are available for iOS and Android, including on the Amazon app store for Kindle Fire tablets. Windows, MacOS, and Linux apps are also available.

3 MONTHS FREE: You can currently get 3 months extra free with 12 month plans here.

Read our full review of ExpressVPN here.

2. NordVPN

NordVPN operates a handful of servers optimized for Amazon Prime. You can either contact the live chat support or search through the official knowledge base to learn which servers to use. Kindle Fire HD users will need to find the Android APK on a third-party site as the Android app isn’t available on the Amazon app store.

NordVPN uses strong encryption and sticks to a true zero logs policy, so your privacy is protected. Speeds are fast enough in most cases to stream the latest season of The Grand Tour in HD. You can connect up to six devices at one time on a single subscription and use any of them to catch up on The Tick.

Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

DISCOUNTED DEAL: NordVPN is cheaper than most VPNs and is particularly good value at the moment as they are running a year end/new year deal with a 77% discount on their 3 year plan.

Read our full review of NordVPN here.

3. CyberGhost

CyberGhost Pro recently ramped up its unblocking efforts and added several popular streaming sites to its roster, including Amazon Prime Video. The Windows and Android versions even let you select a server based on which streaming service it can unblock, so there’s no need to contact customer support or guess at which ones work. You should have no problem watching Man in the High Castle.

Speeds are excellent according to our tests, and CyberGhost has been adding new servers to its network faster than we can keep articles updated, suffice to say it’s well over 1,000 in some 60+ countries now. Encryption is strong and the provider keeps no logs of users’ activity nor IP address.

Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

OVER 70% OFF: Get CyberGhost Pro’s 2-year subscription at almost a quarter of the normal price.

Read our full CyberGhost review.

4. PrivateVPN

PrivateVPN is a smaller and newer provider, but keeps its stride when walking among giants. It has unblocked everything we’ve thrown at it thus far, including Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, and, of course, Amazon Prime Video. Not all servers work with Prime Video, but some do. You can play trial and error or just message PrivateVPN’s customer support to ask which server location to connect to.

PrivateVPN scored well in our speed tests, despite the relatively small number of servers. Encryption is uncrackable and no logs are stored. A single subscription allows you to connect up to six devices at the same time. Unfortunately, the Android app is only available on Google Play, so Fire tablet and Fire TV users need to either manually configure the VPN or sideload it from another Android device.

Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

EXCLUSIVE DISCOUNT: Our readers get a 67% discount plus 5 months extra free with PrivateVPN’s annual plan.

Read our full PrivateVPN review.

5. SaferVPN

If you’re looking for the fastest and easiest way to unblock Prime Video, this might be your best bet. SaferVPN’s dedicated US streaming server makes short work of Amazon’s VPN ban. It features a novice-friendly app in which the streaming server is separate from the non-streaming US server, so there’s no need to guess or contact support to find out which servers work best. If you encounter any issues, just chat with the 24/7 live support staff. The US streaming server also works with Netflix.

SaferVPN scored well in our speed tests, so you shouldn’t encounter any buffering or quality issues. When we last counted, SaferVPN operated more than 400 servers in 30 countries. Among them is also a dedicated UK streaming server, which unblocks BBC iPlayer. Security is decent and the provider keeps no logs of your activity or real IP address.

SPECIAL OFFER: Save 65% on SaferVPN’s 2-year deal

Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

Read our full SaferVPN review.

6. Keenow Unblocker

Keenow is a combination smart DNS proxy and VPN service. You can choose whether to simply use the DNS proxy or connect to the full-on encrypted VPN. While the VPN is more secure and private, we were able to unblock Amazon Prime Video simply using the proxy, dubbed “Smart Unblocker”. The unblocker is usually the faster of the two as well, which means better video quality in most cases.

Keenow can also unblock US Netflix. You can connect an unlimited number of simultaneous devices. Security is solid. Its server network is on the smaller side, and it didn’t score great when we tested the VPN against competitors.

Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, and Android (sorry, iOS users). The Android app is listed on the Amazon App Store, so you should be able to get it for your Fire Tablet, but unfortunately not yet on Fire TV.

Read our full Keenow review.

VPN’s that don’t unblock Prime Video

The following VPNs do not unblock Amazon Prime Video from outside of the United States, according to our tests or by their own admission:

• Zenmate
• PureVPN
• Hotspot Shield
• LiquidVPN
• Hola
• VyprVPN
• IPVanish
• Tunnelbear
• CactusVPN
• Private Internet Access (PIA)
• Buffered
• HideMyAss
• Windscribe
• Hide.me

Amazon Instant Video vs Amazon Prime Video

It’s worth noting that Amazon Prime Video is not the same as Amazon Instant Video. Amazon Prime Video is a unlimited streaming service that comes as part of an Amazon Prime subscription. Amazon Instant Video is a pay-per-view service where users can buy or rent TV shows and movies. You don’t need an Amazon Prime account to buy or rent on Instant Video, although having a subscription might score you an extra discount.

A VPN is not necessary for Amazon Instant Video purchases, though prices may vary between countries.

How to set up a VPN with Amazon Fire TV stick

Amazon Fire TVs and 2nd-generation-or-newer Fire TV Sticks do support VPN apps, but you’ll have to sideload them since none are available in the default Amazon app store. This process isn’t difficult but isn’t as easy as just installing an app from Google Play. Check out our article on on how to install a VPN on an Amazon Fire TV stick.

The first-generation Amazon Fire TV stick doesn’t have built in support for VPNs and there are no VPN apps you can install on it unless you root it. If you want to watch Amazon Prime Video from outside the US on a Fire TV stick, you’ll need to set up your VPN on a router.

You can use your laptop to set up a virtual router, which makes your laptop into a wifi hotspot similar to smartphone tethering. Then turn on the VPN on your laptop and connect the Fire TV to that. We have instructions on how to do this for both Windows and MacOS.

Alternatively, you can set up a VPN directly on your home wifi router. Doing so will connect all the devices connected to your wifi network to the VPN. This process varies depending on the router firmware.

You can find instructions for how to set up a Fire TV with a VPN here. This tutorial is for Netflix, but the same rules apply to Amazon Prime Video. This approach also works if you want to learn how to watch Amazon Prime video on any other Android-powered device like Roku, Chromecast, or a smart TV.