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Plex is best known as the media player that lets you stream your own content to a variety of devices, but has since expanded to become an all-in-one solution, bringing together a selection of free, music-funded podcasts publicity. , movies, TV and live TV, as well as on-demand services via plugins.
This is great for most people, but if the content you are looking for is not available in your area, the convenience of Plex means very little. Fortunately, connecting to a virtual private network (VPN) is a simple solution for unlocking different content libraries around the world.
Here's everything you need to know when using a Plex VPN to unblock content.
What are the best VPNs to use with Plex?
Below, we take a closer look at the VPNs we recommend using with Plex.
1. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN regularly tops our list of fastest VPNs and has servers in 94 different countries
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ExpressVPN is a newspaperless VPN that has made a name for itself as one of the must-have services for unblocking Netflix, BBC iPlayer and a range of other streaming services, making it the perfect VPN for Plex.
Each of its 3000 servers is fast, which means you can stream from almost any service in HD or even 4K. And with 94 countries to choose from, it has more servers than any other VPN on this list. It still manages to stay one step ahead of blacklists and geographic restrictions, and even has a built-in speed test tool to test connections to its servers before making your choice.
You may notice that ExpressVPN is a little more expensive than the other VPNs on this list, but after increasing its simultaneous connections to up to 5 devices and maintaining 24/7 live chat support, it is safe to say it's worth every penny. You can try it for yourself with the company's 30-day money back guarantee, or ask a subscribed friend to recommend it, as it will earn you 30 days free.
2. CyberGhost VPN
CyberGhost has dedicated streaming servers to make sure you unlock all the Plex plugins you need
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CyberGhost is a newspaper-less VPN based in Romania that bluntly guarantees that it will unblock Netflix US with its “ optimized streaming servers ”. This is an assertion that we never had to test, as they have always worked flawlessly, with servers from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other dedicated servers. It should be mentioned that CyberGhost has a BBC iPlayer checkered history, but currently claims to unlock the service as well as several other streaming platforms.
Covering slightly more devices than your average with 7 simultaneous connections, CyberGhost offers applications for all the main platforms, making it a versatile tool. VPNOnlineFree's internal speed tests also reveal that CyberGhost is fast enough to broadcast in 4K, not to mention your standard HD.
If you're having trouble, 24/7 live chat support is here to help, and you can try CyberGhost for free for 24 hours without having to enter your credit card details. Beyond that, CyberGhost offers a 7-day money-back guarantee for monthly subscribers and a 45-day long refund period for those who buy longer plans.
3. Private Internet Access
PIA remains Reddit's favorite VPN service and great for Plex users
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Private Internet Access, otherwise known as PIA, is a newspaper-free provider based in the United States. This would generally be a concern, but PIA has already proven in court its claims from zero more surveillance fears to rest.
Plex users will be able to take advantage of several different streaming services, including Netflix US and UK HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max and BBC iPlayer. However, it sometimes struggles with hulu, so keep that in mind before choosing the right VPN for you. However, it allows peer-to-peer (P2P) torrent with its higher level encryption and port forwarding via its NAT firewall.
PIA's customer service is a slight point of contention without live chat, but it is accessible by email and many questions are answered in its FAQ section and blog. If you liked to try before you buy, PIA offers a 7-day money back guarantee.
4. Surfshark
Surfshark is the first VPN to offer unlimited simultaneous connections, perfect for all your Plex devices
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Surfshark is a newspaperless VPN based in the British Virgin Islands. Although it is relatively new compared to the others on this list, it has taken the stage by offering robust service and excellent value for money. It manages to unblock Netflix in over 16 countries and appears to be reliably accessing BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime and hulu with little to no problem.
In fact, Surfshark is growing fast, now offering over 1,700 servers in over 63 different countries, each with private DNS and all of them can be used for torrenting without worry. It completely removed the simultaneous connection limit, allowing you to use the VPN on as many devices as you want – perfect for large families who value their privacy.
You can dip your toes in the water with Surfshark's 7-dasy free trial, though this requires you to enter your payment details and cancel within one week if you don't want to be billed. Live chat is available 24/7 if you have a problem and continue with your subscription, you have a 30-day money back guarantee that protects you if you change your mind.
5. VyprVPN
VyprVPN offers super fast speeds for streaming on Plex
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VyprVPN is a newspaper-free service based in Switzerland which recently left the United States, alleviating previous privacy concerns. It is very unique in that it has its own CDN network. This means that it can guarantee confidentiality, without having to rent the infrastructure provided by third parties, and it can optimize speeds to be as fast as possible.
VyprVPN is a great choice for Plex users who want to unblock Netflix, hulu, BBC iPlayer and other services, although it has fewer servers than others on this list. At the time of writing, it offers around 700 servers on all major continents, which is enough for the average user, but leaves room for improvement. The important thing is that VpyrVPN remains at the top of the unblocking services while the platforms play to type to prohibit the IP of the VPN.
On the positive side, VyprVPN offers incredible confidentiality being one of the only services to receive a full independent audit from a third party security company. This ensures that his claims of no newspapers are true and ensures that it operates as the business claims, thereby protecting torrent and streamers. Try it for yourself with VyprVPN's 30 day money back guarantee.
Why do I need a VPN for Plex?
Still not convinced? Below we look at several common use cases for a Plex VPN.
Regional Plex Streaming Restrictions
Plex is a versatile media player with a range of different plugins available to host all of your content in one place. Unfortunately, many of them are geographically blocked in some countries due to regional licensing – often seen as an outdated practice that is slowly collapsing in on itself with the recent spate of first-party streaming services .
Basically, if a company in one country (e.g. the BBC) licenses its content to a local distributor in another country (e.g. Doctor Who, which will switch to HBO Max in the United States when the platform goes live debuts May 27, 2020), so that the distributor becomes the copyright holder in this region and is the only place legally authorized to broadcast this media.
Since hulu, HBO Now, HBO Max, and HBO Go are all exclusive to the United States, BBC iPlayer is exclusive to the United Kingdom, and Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney +, and many others have streaming libraries that differ depending on the country you are in. , things can get pretty confusing.
Fortunately, if you choose one of our recommended VPNs, you can connect to one of these countries, subscribe to the platform, install the plug-in, and watch the content as if you were yourself. In the region.
Local censorship
Some countries are more oppressive than others, preventing their citizens from broadcasting certain types of content. China is one of the most notorious examples of this censorship, but there are many more who impose their own restrictions. However, this is not a solution for a VPN.
Connecting to a VPN deceives local censors because your traffic is encrypted. Although your data usage may make it easier to detect the streaming, the authorities will not know exactly what you stream as a VPN disguises your activities, allowing you to bypass geo-blocks.
However, you do so at your own risk. VPNs themselves are generally legal everywhere, but what you do with them may not be. If it is illegal in your country to watch certain platforms, using a VPN to watch them is almost certainly illegal and can incur penalties if caught.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can know when you are connected to a VPN, even if they do not know what you are doing with it. This could possibly attract the attention of the authorities. Fortunately, all of our recommended VPNs have obfuscation technology, superior encryption and security policies to protect your identity.
Bandwidth limitation
In addition to playing online video games, streaming videos is one of the most bandwidth intensive tasks you can do. ISPs are not fond of this because it weighs more on their systems, but rather than reinvesting in their infrastructure to track how modern society uses the Internet, they decide to take it away from their customers.
ISPs will intentionally slow internet speeds if they detect that you are broadcasting too much, which can cause the quality of Plex and other streams to drop – if not simply buffering. Of course, this shady tactic is also used to entice people to upgrade their package.
Connecting to a VPN for Plex completely eliminates this problem. Since VPNs encrypt your traffic, ISPs will know when you're broadcasting because of your data packets, but all of your traffic is merged into a single unreadable code string. And because ISPs can't limit your entire connection to lighten the load on their systems, they just can't slow your speeds down.
Protection of privacy
Unlike the other issues presented here, privacy may not seem to affect you directly. Unfortunately, we live in an era where your data is the most precious commodity in the world and everyone try to get hold of it.
As we briefly touched on earlier, your ISP uses deep packet inspection (DPI) to see what you get online, and it tends to sell that data to the highest bidder or hand it over to prying authorities with a warrant.
All of our suggested Plex VPNs have features that prevent that, whether it's its obfuscation technology that hides what you're doing, a circuit breaker that cuts your connection if your VPN goes down, or a log-free policy that ensures that the service won't keep an eye on you if the government hits.
Can I use a free VPN?
While there are reputable free VPNs out there, many of them act as a gateway to their premium service, with a limited set of features and download limit that cannot be streamed.
And those without caps that seem too good to be true are usually so. At best, they make their money by collecting and selling as much of your data as possible. At worst, they peddle malicious malware that infects your device, potentially stealing sensitive information such as passwords or bank details.
Suffice to say, it's best to stay away from free VPNs unless you just try before you buy. Our VPNs recommended for Plex all offer great value for money with the features they provide, as they increase the content available to you by a factor of ten.
Best VPNs for Plex: Conclusion
Plex can be a great way to stream content. But if you want to display content that is not available wherever you are, you will need to use a VPN. With the right VPN, Plex users can stream content from anywhere while avoiding geographic restrictions, local censorship and their ISPs try to limit their connection.
The VPNs we recommend to Plex users all excel at doing these things for you. These are reputable services offering strong encryption, strong security and lightning speeds to make streaming content fast and reliable. And they all offer free trials or money back guarantees, so you can test them for yourself without risk.
If streaming content via Plex is important to you, we invite you to try these Plex VPNs.
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