How it started

FixYourVPN was created by Thomas Richard, a technology journalist based in the UK with a first-class honours BA in Journalism and over a decade of experience reviewing consumer technology.

The site came out of a personal frustration. Regular trips between the UK and the US to see family made the problem real: Thomas wanted to keep watching British television and Premier League football while travelling, and wanted a bit more privacy and security on hotel wi-fi. So he went looking for a VPN.

When I was looking for my first VPN, I spent more time than I should have trying to find advice that was actually current and written by someone who had genuinely tested what they were recommending. FixYourVPN is the resource I was looking for and couldn't find.

Thomas Richard
Thomas RichardEditor, FixYourVPN.com

What he found was a mess. Outdated forum posts, reviews that were years old, and advice sites that seemed more interested in pushing affiliate deals than actually helping. Streaming services update their VPN detection constantly, which means a fix that works in January can be useless by March. Most of what was out there wasn't keeping up.

What this site is

So we built FixYourVPN: a free, independent site with step-by-step guides written in plain English. You don't need to know how VPNs work to follow them. The guides cover streaming services (BBC iPlayer, ITVX, Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and dozens more), social and messaging apps, and everything in between.

We also have a free IP address checker that shows exactly what any website or streaming service can see when your VPN is on. It's handy for checking your VPN is actually working before you try to watch something, and for working out why a block is happening when switching servers alone hasn't fixed it.

The site started with a UK audience in mind, but the guides now cover streaming services across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, India, and the US, among others. Whether you're an expat trying to watch content from home, or someone travelling and hitting an unexpected geo-block, the fixes here apply wherever you happen to be.

Every guide is kept up to date. Streaming services change their detection regularly, and advice that worked a few months ago can quietly stop working. When something no longer holds, we update it.

The VPNs we recommend are ones we've actually tested. Over the years we've tried more than 20 different services: the three on our recommendations page have been through proper testing for speed, streaming unblocking, privacy, and how easy they are to actually use day to day.

What you'll find here

Most people who find this site have a specific problem: a streaming service that stopped working, a VPN that won't connect, or an error message they can't decode. There are 90+ guides on the site covering most of the popular services. These are some of the most-read:

There are also general guides for when the problem isn't tied to a specific service. If your VPN is blocked, leaking your location, or just behaving strangely, these are the ones to start with:

Not sure where your problem fits? Browse everything on the advice page. Everything on the site is free and no account is needed.

Our independence

FixYourVPN is independently run. We don't write positive reviews because a company has paid us to, and we don't soften criticism to protect a commercial relationship.

Some pages contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you click through and buy something. That never changes what we write. If a VPN underperforms in our testing, you'll read about it.

The VPNs we recommend are ones we've actually subscribed to and tested ourselves. You can read our full testing methodology to see exactly how we test, what we look for, and how we decide what to recommend.

On accuracy

VPN technology moves fast. Streaming services update their detection, providers change their apps, and the rules around VPN use in different countries shift. We aim to keep every guide current, but sometimes things slip through, or we get something wrong.

If you spot an error or something that's out of date, please let us know via the contact form. We take accuracy seriously and will fix any mistake as soon as we're aware of it.

Get in touch

If you've spotted something in a guide that needs updating, there's a service we haven't covered yet, or you're stuck on a problem and can't find the answer, we'd love to hear from you. Drop us a message via the contact form and we'll do our best to help.