5 best BBC iPlayer VPNs in 2024

BBC iPlayer is home to a whole treasure trove of quintessential British content—but if you find yourself outside of the UK, you'll be unable to access it due to geo-restrictions. Luckily, that's where a virtual private network (VPN) can help. These handy privacy tools assign you a new IP address based in the location of your choice—so you'll have no trouble keeping up with Doctor Who, The Traitors, or your favorite soaps.

Picking out the best VPN can be a tricky task, however, because there are a lot of services out there. I've been putting providers under the microscope for years to figure out which VPNs are worth your hard-earned cash—and which ones you're better off avoiding entirely.

So, to help you find your perfect match, I've compared the unblocking power, speed, features, and security measures of today's top contenders to curate this list of the 5 best BBC iPlayer VPNs in 2024.

The three best iPlayer VPNs in 2024

In a hurry? Here are my top 3 BBC iPlayer VPNs today:

1. ExpressVPN: the best BBC iPlayer overall
ExpressVPN claims the top spot in my rankings thanks to its awesome speeds, intuitive apps, and compatibility with just about every device. I was able to unblock BBC iPlayer (and other popular streaming platforms) without any hiccups, too.

Although it's more expensive than NordVPN and Surfshark, you're getting a high-quality product that delivers on all fronts. Try it for yourself with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and get an extra 3 months of coverage, and 1 year of unlimited cloud storage, when you pick up a 12-month plan.

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2: NordVPN: the quickest VPN for streaming
NordVPN is an impressive all-rounder with servers in the UK, the US, and around the globe. You'll have no trouble accessing BBC iPlayer, Netflix, and Amazon Prime with NordVPN, and it's jam-packed with security features, too.

You can put NordVPN to the test, risk-free, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and see how it compares to ExpressVPN.

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3. Surfshark: a budget-friendly alternative
If you're looking for an absolute steal—you'll want to check out Surfshark. It's an awesome low-cost provider that's lightning-fast, unblocks BBC iPlayer and more, and is incredibly easy to use.

Surfshark gives users unlimited simultaneous connections, too, which allows you to protect a whole house of gadgets under one plan. See for yourself with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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The best BBC iPlayer VPN services in 2024:

The best iPlayer VPN overall

Once again, ExpressVPN ends up on top. The only VPN awarded a full 5 star rating, ExpressVPN is the best at what it does across the board, its only downfall being that it's on the pricier side. 

That said, you can benefit from a risk free trial with its 30-day money back guarantee. The fact that it also adds the ability to unblock BBC iPlayer to its repertoire makes it the top choice for a BBC iPlayer VPN.

With over 3,000 severs across 160 locations, ExpressVPN makes jumping over geo-restriction hurdles easy with the ability to access a working server in a number of countries around the world. 

Able to unblock the likes of Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney Plus, too, customers can enjoy extensive bingeing. Better still, in our speed tests it had averages of 420-630Mbps. Though not as fast as its fellow competition, you certainly won't fall victim to the dreaded buffering screen anytime soon.

On top of being the best BBC iPlayer VPN, ExpressVPN also boasts an exceptional user interface that is both straight forward to use and clean in design, making it a smooth experience even for newbies to VPN. This means benefitting from its boatload of features is exceptionally easy, able to breeze through the likes of its split tunnelling feature, which allows you run apps simultaneously with one connected to the VPN, while another could be turned off, or on another server.

The fastest iPlayer VPN

In all honesty, there isn't a whole lot between NordVPN and ExpressVPN, so if you're looking for something a touch more affordable, NordVPN is a fantastic option and potentially a name you'll be more aware of.

Offering exceptional security features, including a dedicated kill switch (something ExpressVPN doesn't have), DNS leak protection, and 2048-bit encryption, NordVPN is also an incredible performer, too. 

Benefitting from its very own version of WireGuard, NordLynx, NordVPN had an incredible set of speeds in our testing with averages of 730-760Mbps. A slight drop since our last tests, these are still exceptionally fast speeds from NordVPN, ticking the boxes for a rapid and consistent performance.

Admittedly its interface can be a bit clunky and awkward to use at times, but this may simply come down to personal preference. That said, as well as unblocking other big streaming services alongside BBC iPlayer like Netflix (in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan), it also comes with a wealth of amazing features and performance stats that put this in our top three best BBC iPlayer VPNs.

The best cheap iPlayer VPN

Surfshark is a well-known and reputable VPN provider that won’t break the bank. However, it’s also one of the best BBC iPlayer VPN services available, no matter where you're based.

Boasting 3,200 VPN servers globally across 65 countries (up from 60), many of which are located in the UK across London, Manchester, and Glasgow. This is great news for accessing BBC iPlayer no matter where you are, as well as other services like Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. Surfshark is also excellent if you're after a Netflix VPN, able to gain access to its libraries in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Japan. 

On top of an excellent unblocking track-record, Surfshark has also really gone in with the big guns when it comes to its performance. Thanks to WireGuard, you can achieve peaks of 720-790Mbps, which is more than fast enough to enjoy great streaming on BBC iPlayer. 

Unlike NordVPN and many other providers, Surfshark enables users to install its VPN apps on an unlimited number of devices, which means you can cover just about every device you own, and then share your plan with those you live with, too. It also offers apps for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and many other platforms. 

Another excellent feature offered by Surfshark is CleanWeb, which offers protection from unwanted adverts, web trackers, malware, and phishing. Other features include a no-logging policy, a built-in kill switch, private DNS and leak protection, a camouflage mode, 256-bit encryption, and various protocols. 

The best of the rest

ProtonVPN is more than capable when it comes to getting your fix of the latest BBC productions. It's proven to be an excellent one for streaming for a number of reasons, including being able to consistently unblock streaming platforms (which seems like a good place to start when it comes to a BBC iPlayer VPN). 

As well as BBC iPlayer, it was able to unblock Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video. While it's been taken over by the likes of NordVPN and Surfshark in terms of Netflix access, ProtonVPN still maintains its stronghold on Netflix in the US, UK, Canada, and, for the most part, Australia.

A speedy performance also goes hand-in-hand when it comes to watching content online. We were impressed with both Proton's WireGuard and OpenVPN speeds, hitting above average figures of 360-670Mbps. While lower lows than we've seen previously, its peaks still impress and, whatever end of the spectrum your connection is, it'll be competent enough to stream and then some.

Alongside BBC iPlayer and Netflix, it also unblocks Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus, making this a superb choice for keen bingers. What's more, its apps are plentiful across operating systems, and it's straight forward to use, too. Note that you will need its more expensive Plus plan to benefit from streaming service unblocking and any other premium features.

Seeing a boost to its network, now with 1,800+ servers across over 63 countries, ProtonVPN seems to be going from strength-to-strength, and is a more than capable BBC iPlayer VPN.

CyberGhost is worthy of its place on our best BBC iPlayer VPN for a number of reasons. It's fast (in fact, it's the fastest VPN on this list), it unblocks BBC iPlayer, and it's got a big network of servers spaced out across the globe. What more could you want from a service?

Of course, it ticks the all-important box of unblocking BBC iPlayer with its 600+ servers based in the UK across London, Berkshire, and Manchester. It also passed our tests and unblocked Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. While it could unblock US Netflix exclusives, it's ability to gain access to overseas Netflix libraries stopped there - though it's fair to say many VPNs are struggling with Netflix now.

Still, if you're in want of a BBC iPlayer VPN, it's got you covered. Not least because of its impressive performance in our speed tests. In fact, this time around CyberGhost comes in not far behind top performers like TorGuard (950Mbps) and Hide.me (900Mbps), peaking with averages of 830-850Mbps with its WireGuard protocol. 

The reason it finds itself at #5 in our line-up rather than further up, is in part due to its fiddly device limitations. While it offers seven simultaneous connections, which is more than some, in order to stretch that across devices you must manually unregister each individual device. It's also well overdue a security audit, and we don't love that we're not notified when CyberGhost connects and disconnects, leaving us potentially vulnerable.

That said, it is a powerful provider with great apps and plenty of features. It also does one better than its competitors, offering a 45-day money-back guarantee period - that bit longer than the standard 30-days.

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