You could say that BBC iPlayer is to the UK what Hulu is to the US. It’s the streaming arm of the BBC. With BBC iPlayer access, you can watch episodes of Showtrial, Doctor Who: Flux, Top Gear, The Outlaws, Sports and all the BBC channels.
Unfortunately, you can’t stream on BBC iPlayer outside the UK. This is because the streaming service only has the right to distribute content within the UK. BBC iPlayer can detect that you are abroad by your IP address. So, if you want to access BBC iPlayer content, you’ll need a VPN.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) can help you get rid of your foreign IP address. You can then swap it with a UK IP address and watch BBC iPlayer content as if you had never left the UK. This review shows you the best free VPNs that you can use to unlock BBC iPlayer outside the UK.
Windscribe
Windscribe is the best free VPN in the UK, offering two servers in the UK for users to unlock BBC iPlayer. it offers 10GB/mo of free data, limiting your BBC iPlayer binge-watching ideas but allowing you to stream around six movies in standard definition (SD). But to make it even more fun, you can only unlock 5GB of free data by posting a tweet about Windscribe.
Windscribe offers 10 server locations on its free version, including 2 in the U.K., for unlocking BBC iPlayer. on our first try, we couldn’t access BBC iPlayer, but on our second attempt, it worked fine. It also provided decent speed as we didn’t experience any buffering or delays.
We connected to Windscribe’s UK-London server to check its unlocking capabilities and we were able to access BBC iPlayer without any problem. we were able to watch BBC iPlayer for free abroad and play Frozen 2 without any buffering.
Windscribe also offers P2P optimized servers for seed downloads and a strict no-logging policy, so you can stay anonymous online while downloading seeds. It is also compatible with various devices such as Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, etc. Amazingly, you can also stream BBC iPlayer to the big screen using Windscribe on your Firestick.
According to our Windscribe speed tests on its UK servers, we recorded an average download speed of 59.11 Mbps and an upload speed of 37.07 Mbps on a 100 Mbps connection.
The VPN offers decent speeds and can bypass geo-restrictions with its robust security features. Just ask your questions in the live chat and they will provide you with effective customer support services. It also offers chatbot and live chat features.
TunnelBear
TunnelBear is a completely free VPN for watching BBC iPlayer. it has a feature called GhostBear that disguises your encrypted VPN traffic as regular Internet traffic, so BBC iPlayer can’t tell you’re using a VPN. when I turn on GhostBear in my security settings, I can access BBC iPlayer without any When I turned off GhostBear, the BBC immediately flagged TunnelBear as a VPN and blocked my access.
I was pleased to find that TunnelBear’s download speed was fast. From my 115Mbps internet speed, TunnelBear only slowed down by 30% to 80Mbps, which surprised me because TunnelBear only has 1 UK server – which usually causes overcrowding or connection problems for users.
Unfortunately, you only get 500MB of free data traffic per month. This gives you about 45 minutes of SD streaming, which in most cases isn’t even full episodes. It also takes about 15 seconds to establish a VPN connection. This is slower than other VPNs that have almost instant connections.
To create a free TunnelBear account and watch BBC iPlayer, you’ll need a valid email to verify your subscription. Fortunately, TunnelBear is not supported by advertising and its zero-log policy has been independently verified. You can rest assured that your data is private and anonymous at the time of connection.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the best VPNs on the market for the BBC iPlayer. Its ultra-fast speeds and ability to easily traverse geographical restrictions are among the features that make it one of the top VPNs for BBC iPlayer. ExpressVPN lets you watch as many BBC iPlayer programs as you want without low-quality images or buffering.
ExpressVPN users are free to choose their VPN security protocol, depending on whether they want anonymity, speed, privacy or a balance of speed and privacy. If you want a balance between privacy and speed, Lightway is an excellent choice. If security is your main concern, then OpenVPN is the way to go.
The only downside to ExpressVPN is its price, which is slightly above average for a VPN. However, the VPN’s sleek and advanced features make up for this and give you value for money.
AtlasVPN
AtlasVPN is easily one of the best VPNs for streaming. It has impressive speeds thanks to its WireGuard implementation, and irt has UK servers with Netflix UK, BBC iPlayer, Sky TV, Now TV, BT Sport, All4, and Channel 5. In addition, VPN has servers in several US cities for accessing US services such as Hulu, HBO Max and Netflix America.
VPN offers unlimited bandwidth, so streaming HD video is never a problem. It also has apps for all platforms, which means you can play i Player or any other TV service on any device, whether at home, on your phone or using public wifi. live chat is available on its website, but only for subscribers who are logged in.
While Atlas is somewhat weak on features compared to some of the world’s best and most secure VPNs, it still features military-grade encryption (IKEv2 and Wireguard protocols), protection against DNS and WebRTC leaks, and split tunnels. It also allows for flooding and includes malware filtering.
Apps are available for Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS and are incredibly relatively inexpensive; you can connect an unlimited number of devices with a single account.
ZenMate VPN
ZenMate is the third paid VPN service, but it’s a completely different kind of free service compared to ExpressVPN and NordVPN. That’s because ZenMate offers a free trial, which means you never actually pay for it. In any case, the service offers a large number of premium servers around the world (including the UK), which means you can watch BBC iPlayer abroad for free.
In total, ZenMate can offer servers in over 30 countries. This means that you can access a huge amount of content available online. Many of the countries included in ZenMate’s server list offer free content, such as BBC iPlayer, for you to live in that country. Of course, with the right IP address you can access this content.
However, accessing free content usually comes with compromises, especially considering that VPN services can lose some connection speed. Thankfully, ZenMate ranks among the best services in terms of keeping your high-speed Internet connection, thus providing a streaming experience similar to your non-VPN streams.
The free trial period is 7 days, which means you can test the service and all its features completely free of charge for 7 days. There are no strings attached, so if you don’t think this is the right VPN service for you, you can move on. If you only want to watch one movie on the service, the ZenMate free trial is a great option for watching BBC iPlayer abroad for free.