ExpressVPN is CNET’s Editors’ Choice for Best Overall VPN. It’s also the best VPN for Fire TV Stick because it’s super fast and secure, can reliably unblock content, and has an excellent app that’s optimized for the Fire TV Stick. I didn’t experience any buffering issues during my tests, and all of the streaming channels loaded up and started playing immediately, seemingly unfettered by the VPN. I was able to stream content on Disney Plus, Max, Amazon Prime Video and the US and UK Netflix libraries.

ExpressVPN’s app for Fire TV Stick is packed with features, yet nicely minimalistic and easy to navigate. The app includes features like auto-connect, kill switch, split tunneling and protocol selection, along with a DNS and WebRTC leak testing tool, IP address checker and even a password generator. One additional feature that’s pretty useful is the shortcuts section, which lets you set shortcuts for five different apps. You can create shortcuts for any app you have on your Fire TV Stick like Neltifx, Hulu or a web browser, and launch the app directly from within the ExpressVPN interface after you’ve connected to the VPN. ExpressVPN is the best VPN for Fire TV Stick, but it’s also the most expensive. Subscription plans are billed at $100 per year, $60 every six months or $13 a month. Express offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied with your purchase.

Surfshark’s unblocking capabilities are some of the best in the business, making the VPN a popular choice for folks who want to stream a lot of content. It’s also secure and plenty fast for streaming through Amazon’s Fire TV Stick. Surfshark also delivers excellent value for your money, making it an excellent choice for anyone on a budget. During my tests, I was able to use Surfshark’s Fire TV Stick app to stream content on Max, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime Video. It was encouraging that I was able to stream Disney Plus without any issues, because I had trouble accessing the streaming service during my earlier testing of Surfshark. Unblocking content is always a bit of a cat and mouse game, but perhaps this is an indication that Surfshark has been working on the issue since I last tested it. Notably, I was also able to stream content from a variety of Netflix libraries, including the US, UK, Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Denmark — which is more than what Express and NordVPN were able to unblock. So if you want to maximize your Netflix streaming experience, Surfshark would be a good choice.

Surfshark’s Fire TV Stick app is simple to use and includes features like split-tunneling, auto-connect, kill switch, protocol selection and CleanWeb ad and malware blocker. You can easily quick-connect to the fastest available server or nearest location and set up multihop double VPN connections as well as use static IPs. The connections were stable and streaming was smooth during testing, without any buffering or interruptions of any sort, as was to be expected from a VPN with only a 19% speed loss. (Most VPNs will cut your speed by 50% or more.) Surfshark offers a quality package that’s cheaper than many of its competitors, which has helped it earn CNET’s Editors’ Choice for Best Value VPN. A yearly subscription costs $60 per year (following the $48 introductory rate for the first year) or $13 per month. The company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans.

NordVPN is the current fastest VPN, based on CNET’s latest speed tests, which helps make this VPN one of the top choices for streaming on a Fire TV Stick. Streaming was smooth and easy, whether I was watching content on Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video, or the US and UK Netflix libraries. NordVPN’s Fire TV Stick app interface is set up differently than the provider’s apps on other platforms, but the pertinent features are mostly accounted for and easy to access. The app includes features like split-tunneling (which is useful if you don’t want all your Fire TV Stick apps to route through the VPN connection), auto-connect, protocol selection and threat protection lite (a malicious-website blocker). You can also connect to NordVPN’s Onion over VPN and double VPN servers if you want to add an extra layer of privacy to your Fire TV Stick activities. 

The one thing that’s missing from NordVPN’s Fire TV Stick app is a kill switch — an essential VPN feature that prevents your data from leaking unencrypted by cutting your internet should the VPN connection drop for any reason. The absence of that feature puts NordVPN lower on this list than ExpressVPN and Surfshark, which both offer it. I also noticed that the “Help us improve” setting in the app was enabled by default. If you don’t want to send aggregated anonymous data that could include “crash reports, OS version, marketing performance and feature usage data” over to NordVPN as you use its Fire TV Stick app, then be sure to disable it from the Settings menu. NordVPN’s network offers more total servers (5,300-plus) than either ExpressVPN or Surfshark, but fewer countries (60), which could potentially limit the scope of your streaming options. NordVPN’s prices are lower overall than ExpressVPN but more expensive than its sister company, Surfshark. The annual plan is priced at $100 per year (following the $60 introductory rate for the first year) or $12 per month. NordVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all subscription plans.