The Best VPNs for the UK

NordVPN has 629 secure servers based in London, the second-largest park of UK servers.

Only CyberGhost has more UK servers, which isn’t included in our recommendations since it’s much slower than NordVPN and less reliable for streaming.

Although it doesn’t yet own its entire server infrastructure, all of NordVPN’s servers are bare-metal. Most other VPNs use virtual servers. This means NordVPN’s servers are physically located within the UK and its infrastructure is much safer.

NordVPN has 629 servers spread across the UK.

It has also moved towards a totally diskless RAM server network, meaning that user data can never be seized. On top of that, regular infrastructure audits are commissioned.

However, NordVPN doesn’t permit you to select other UK cities, regions, or countries. If you want an IP address in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, you’re out of luck.

NordVPN’s UK IP addresses are regularly updated to avoid British streaming blocks.

In fact, the VPN is currently our top-choice for consistent access to BBC iPlayer. It also works with UK Netflix, Channel 4, ITVX, and Disney+ UK.

NordVPN is the most reliable VPNs for streaming BBC iPlayer.

Unfortunately, NordVPN’s Smart DNS tool is only intended for unblocking American streaming apps, and is therefore useless at unblocking British ones.

On the plus side, the VPN’s Fire TV or Apple TV apps worked very well to stream UK content directly from our TV.

Importantly, Firestick users have to first set up a UK Amazon account in order to download the BBC iPlayer app.

Using NordVPN to connect to London from abroad, you can expect to see average download speeds of 90Mbps (out of 100Mbps).

This is slightly slower than ExpressVPN, but is still very fast and you won’t experience any buffering or loading time when streaming British video content.

Moreover, NordVPN comes with an affordable price tag of only $3.29 per month on a two-year subscription plan.

There’s also seven-day completely free trial available via Android, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee to try NordVPN risk-free.

ExpressVPN isn’t transparent about how many UK servers and IP addresses it has as part of its server network, but we know they’re all based in London, listed as ‘London’, ‘Docklands’, and ‘East London’.

ExpressVPN has three London-based servers.

This could be limiting if you live outside of London, but this isn’t reflected in ExpressVPN’s speed performance. It’s currently the fastest VPN for connecting into the UK from abroad, with an average download speed loss of 7%.

Based on this, we can deduce that ExpressVPN maintains a large number of UK servers. We’ve never encountered any signs of server congestion, such as annoying CAPTCHAs, or connection issues.

ExpressVPN hasn’t always unblocked BBC iPlayer, and while it’s not our top-rated VPN for BBC iPlayer, it has been working very well for many months.

You can also use ExpressVPN to unblock other British on-demand content available on ITVX, Channel 4, and the UK’s Netflix library.

ExpressVPN’s Smart DNS tool, MediaStreamer, enables you to trick BBC iPlayer and Channel 4 into thinking that you’re in the UK without a VPN connection. It’s a great tool to watch BBC content on your Smart TV or games console.

ExpressVPN unblocks all British streaming platforms.

The only real downside is that ExpressVPN is more expensive than NordVPN. It’s worth taking advantage of ExpressVPN’s seven-day free trial (via iOS or Android), or its 30-day refund guarantee.

Although ExpressVPN still uses many more virtual servers than NordVPN, all its UK servers are physically located in England.

ExpressVPN actually runs zero-knowledge DNS servers, meaning when you connect to a UK website ExpressVPN will handle and encrypt your DNS request itself and stop a third-party doing it.

It also has TrustedServer technology that stops your data ever being written onto hard drives, along with regular wipes of information stored on RAM only servers. ExpressVPN is a super safe option for UK connections.

We’ve never seen a DNS or IP address leak using ExpressVPN, and its kill switch is 100% reliable, making it ideal for sensitive online searches as well as stopping British broadcasters from seeing your real IP.

Surfshark allows you to connect between Glasgow in Scotland, Manchester in Northern England, and London in the South. These are all physical servers.

Surfshark doesn’t list the exact number of UK servers it maintains, but it did inform us:

“We cannot disclose the exact amount. But it’s over 200.”

If correct, this is a substantial amount. It’s not as high as NordVPN, or CyberGhost, but it’s more than you’ll ever need for connecting to the UK.

Surfshark records average download speeds of 88Mbps when connecting from the US to the UK. This isn’t as fast as NordVPN or ExpressVPN, but it’s more than good enough for Full HD streaming of British TV.

Surfshark is a good streaming VPN as it gets around blocks for BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Channel 4, and it’s our number one recommendation for Disney+. If you want to access the UK’s Disney+ for Star content that you get on Hulu in the US at extra cost, it’s worth thinking about Surfshark.

If ExpressVPN and NordVPN are too expensive, go for Surfshark, which is one of the cheapest VPNs you can get. It costs $2.29 on its cheapest deal, which is excellent value for money.

Surfshark also runs one of the best genuine VPN free trials, so you can even test it completely free. If you do subscribe to Surfshark, you’ll get another month free thanks to a no questions asked 30-day money back guarantee.

Windscribe is the only free VPN that manages to access UK Netflix from outside the UK. It also unblocks all the major British streaming services, including BBC iPlayer, Channel 4, and ITVX wherever you are in the world, despite VPN crackdowns from British broadcasters.

This means that expats and fans overseas will be able to stream movies for free and watch shows like The Great British Bake-Off, Peaky Blinders, and Strictly Come Dancing without hassle or intrusive pop-up ads.

Even without the WindFlix servers, which are reserved for paying customers, Windscribe Free unblocks nine more Netflix libraries. If you’re in the US looking to stream Star on the UK’s Disney Plus you can also use Windscribe Free.

Windscribe Free’s main downside is that it limits your data usage to 10GB of data a month. That means you’ll have to ration your streaming and downloading.

This is actually one of the more generous data allowances from a free service. Other popular free VPNs like TunnelBear and Avira Phantom have a data cap of only 2GB and 500MB / 1GB respectively, so you’re protected for much longer with Windscribe.

Windscribe has two free UK servers. Both are in London, listed as ‘Crumpets’ and ‘Custard’. This is twice as many free UK servers as any other free VPN.

Windscribe has two free UK servers.

As the leader in UK servers, Windscribe spreads user load to avoid congestion, meaning you can get a UK IP address and avoid CAPTCHAs and lag.

Windscribe records excellent download and upload speeds when connecting to the UK.

These are extremely fast speeds for a free VPN service (we tested them using a 100Mbps dedicated connection). You’ll experience no issues streaming or performing any other online activity on a UK server.

Windscribe lets you connect to VPN servers in nine other locations, too, making it the best free VPN for Germany, the US, and Canada, too.

The full list of servers are:

• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Hong Kong
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Romania
• Switzerland
• USA

You can always select ‘Best Location’ to connect to an optimal server.

Windscribe also has a free browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge. This is useful for light browsing of the web. There’s no sign-up necessary. You can install it without an account, it has one free UK server, and it’s limited to 2GB per month.

Windscribe is by far the best free VPN for the UK. It’s safe to use and lets you stream British TV. Torrenting is allowed, encryption is via AES-256 cipher, and its logging policy is very private.

Sign up is simple enough too – you just have to head to the website and create an account. No payment details are required.