The Best VPNs for Kodi

Many popular Kodi add-ons are either geo-blocked or host copyrighted works. By changing your IP address, a VPN for Kodi unblocks region-restricted video content and hides your identity from ISPs and copyright owners.

Many VPNs aren’t private enough to use with Kodi, though. They may log some of your internet activity, are unable to bypass geo-restrictions. Even worse, some leak your IP address, revealing your activity and identity to your ISP.

The table below compares our top-rated Kodi VPNs based on speed, logging policy, Fire TV support, and price.

Crucially, these VPNs are highly secure and don’t log your streaming activity. They passed our IP address leak tests, which we performed using Kodi 21.0 Omega and 20 Nexus.

You can easily set up and use these Kodi VPNs on Android TV boxes, Fire TV Stick, and LibreELEC.

Because of the risks associated with certain Kodi add-ons, we strongly advise using the most private and secure VPNs.

We thoroughly tested 62 VPNs with Kodi, and below is a summary of the test ratings for five very popular services you shouldn’t use.

These risky VPNs below are very popular on Firestick, the most common device used with Kodi. They either log too much internet data, or they suffer from worrying security and privacy flaws.

Here are the two main reasons to use a VPN with Kodi:

1. Hide Your Kodi Activity from Your ISP

Sadly, many Kodi add-ons host copyrighted works. Streaming content from these sources is illegal. The problem is that it’s often hard to tell which add-ons contain files that are not copyrighted, and which ones don’t.

If you accidentally use an illegal Kodi add-on without a VPN, your internet service provider (ISP) can see what you’ve streamed and when. If compelled by law enforcement, your ISP is obliged to pass on this information.

You could be issued a fine, be prevented from accessing Kodi on your network, or even end up in serious legal trouble.

A VPN service prevents this. A VPN encrypts your traffic, changes your IP, and obfuscates your Kodi activity from any third party. As a result, your ISP won’t be able to monitor what you watch on Kodi.

2. Bypass Geo-Restrictions

Some legal streaming services, like BBC iPlayer and Crackle, provide Kodi add-ons. This lets you watch all your content in the same place.

However, these many streaming add-ons geo-restrict their content to specific countries. Without a VPN, you won’t be able to access many or even all the content they offer.

A VPN lets you change your IP address by connecting to a proxy server in another country. For example, we accessed the BBC iPlayer Kodi add-on by connecting to ExpressVPN’s UK server.

Every VPN we review for Kodi is subject to the same rigorous scientific testing process. We do this to ensure fair and unbiased rankings.

Here is a summary table of how our recommended VPNs for Kodi fared in our key testing categories:

VPNs with a data cap receive a reduction to their overall rating.

Below is a more detailed breakdown of our testing and rating methodology:

1. Kodi Device Compatibility: 30%

The VPN you choose must be compatible with the device you stream Kodi on. It’s also key that you can easily use your VPN with Kodi.

We download and test Kodi on several Kodi compatible devices and platforms including:

• FireTV Stick
• PC
• Mac
• Android TV
• Android
• Linux (LibreELEC)

Kodi is most popular on Fire TV Stick and Android-based Kodi boxes. Whether or not a VPN has a good app for these is a key aspect of this rating criteria.

We expect to see these apps designed for easy use. Finding and connecting to servers using a remote needs to be straightforward, and advanced security settings need to be understandable and quick to enable.

2. Privacy & Logging Policy: 30%

We read each VPN’s privacy policy from start to finish. Then, we research the VPN company’s history. We do this to check whether, and how, the service stores your usage and account data.

The best VPNs operate a no-logs policy. This means they don’t keep any records of your activity, not even anonymous timestamps or metadata.

We also research torrenting policies, to make sure providers have no record of forwarding DMCA requests to users.

3. Speed: 30%

If you plan to use Kodi to stream or torrent, then speed is a really important part of finding the best VPN. A fast VPN is vital for buffer-free streaming.

Local download speed is the most relevant to streaming, so we use it as a benchmark to judge performance on Kodi.

We regularly measure the local download speeds of all VPNs on a standard 100Mbps connection.

Unlike many other speed ratings, this ranking criteria also factors in P2P speed, as some popular Kodi add-ons require a P2P connection.

4. P2P Servers: 10%

If you want to torrent or use certain add-ons with Kodi, you’ll need to connect to a server that allows P2P traffic.

Some VPNs allow P2P traffic on every server in the network, but most restrict you to dedicated servers.

For the best speeds, you need a VPN with multiple P2P servers in your country or region.