I've found a $30 VPN that's faster than Nord VPN, Surfshark, and Express VPN, can unblock your favorite streaming services, and has the best built-in ad blocker of any VPN I've tested — here's how to get yourself protected | Tech Radar

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Privado VPN is my $30 traveling companion for watching Beef, Grey's Anatomy, Yellowstone and everything that Netflix has to offer, wherever I go in the world – and there’s a sneaky hack to save on the price

Ideal for Netflix and seriously light on the wallet

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We run regular tests of the streaming service unblocking abilitiy of each VPN and we'll tell you for free that Privado VPN is not the very best that there is.

That accolade belongs to Nord VPN right now but Nord VPN is expensive and Privado VPN is super-duper cheap, and, more importantly, Privado VPN is absolutely perfect if the only streaming service you need to unblock is Netflix.

We test VPN unblocking across six different regions: USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. We open up the VPN app, choose to connect to a server in one of those countries, then head to Netflix and see if we're able to stream shows that are only available in those regions. You can take a look at the kinds of shows we're talking about here.

We tested Privado VPN in May 2026. It successfully unblocked all of those regional Netflix libraries on the first attempt, every time. So, if you're traveling the world and you want to be able to watch your Netflix TV shows as usual, Privado VPN is actually a very good choice.

It's particularly good because it only costs

So, if Netflix streaming and some browsing privacy is all you need from your VPN, save yourself some money.

But, before you do, there is a little hack to make sure you're getting the best Privado VPN price.

Privado VPN: Pay in dollars for the best price and save 26% Choose to pay in USD when you get to the check out page in the link above. (You might need to use a free VPN to appear to be in the US first). Then you can be sure you're getting the very best price for the cheapest and most effective Netflix streaming VPN there is. At

Privado VPN charges in either GBP, USD or Euros, and when you get to the checkout page to buy, you'll see in the very bottom right corner that you can select which currency you pay in.

Now, whichever you choose, it's 30 of that currency. A quick look at the exchange rates will show you that USD is the lowest value of those three, so that's definitely the one to pay in. $30 is approximately £22 at the time of writing, for example.

If you can't see dollars as an option in the bottom corner, then here's the hack: download Privado VPN Free first. You'll find 'Free Plan' as a grey button slightly higher up the page on the right. It almost looks like you can't press it, but you can.

The free plan isn't much good for streaming because you only get a limited choice of server locations and a small amount of data to use. However, you can set yourself to appear to be in the US.

Then install Privado VPN free, choose the US server to connect to, reload the checkout page (you might need an Incognito Window) and, hey presto, you should find that the price is now available in USD. Win.

Now get out there and get Netflix streaming, and have fun on your travels, wherever you go.

Dan is Editor-in-Chief, VPN and How to Watch, at Future. He heads up all the VPN content and how to watch articles. So, if you want to know about what is the best VPN or how to watch just about anything on TV, anywhere in the world, he's a good bet to ask. Dan has worked in tech journalism for over 15 years, writing for Tech Digest, Pocket-lint, MSN Tech, Wareable and What Hi-Fi? as well as freelancing for T3, Metro and the Independent. Dan has a keen interest in playing and watching football. He has also written about it for the Observer and Four Four Two and ghost authored John Toshack's autobiography, Toshack's Way.

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Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards
• Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
• Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards