Best VPN for Italy 2023: Simulate an Italian IP-Address

Watching international TV used to be difficult with only news and a few sporting events available. Digital media libraries and streaming platforms have revolutionized the consumption of foreign programming, making it far easier to keep tabs on content from abroad. For watching Italian documentaries, TV shows, or movies, all you'll need is to find the media library or streaming platform holding their rights.

Of course, even if it's online, this content is usually geo-restricted to Italy, making it seemingly impossible to watch. That is unless you use a VPN to change your virtual location. After connecting to an Italian server, you'll be able to watch hours of content on platforms like RaiPlay.

VPNs are not illegal, even though they conflict with most terms of use for digital media libraries. Whenever a platform licenses content, it does so for a specific region and can only provide it there. The platform's operators will actively attempt to close any loopholes that VPN services use. However, the end-user has nothing to fear. In the worst case, a VPN might temporarily be unable to access the platforms in question.

In our comprehensive EXPERTE.com VPN review, we put 27 providers to the test. Below, we'll let you know which of these grant access to Italian content.

We paid attention to three main criteria for our Top 5:

1. 1.
   How the provider did in our comprehensive evaluation.
2. 2.
   How the provider's Italian servers performed.
3. 3.
   Whether it was possible to access Italian media libraries and streaming platforms using the provider's Italian servers.

Just like during our regular speed test, we measured each provider's Italian server speeds to create a baseline. Below, in the "Performance" section, you can see a list of the 10 fastest providers, based on their Italian servers.

To test access to Italian streaming content, we used RaiPlay, Mediaset Infinity, Discovery+, and Sky Italia as benchmarks. In our comprehensive reviews, we gauged the performance of each VPN on international platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+).

Below, are our Top 5 VPNs for streaming Italian content.

NordVPN stormed to first place in our comprehensive review, blazing past the competition with its excellent speeds, high degree of security, variety of features, and intuitive apps. Its polished and dynamic VPN client has a scrollable world map, offering users access to split tunneling and different server categories.

The Panama-based provider also took top honors in our speed test, and its Italian servers weren't far behind, thanks to download and upload speeds of 173.5 and 31.4 MB/s, respectively. More than 60 of NordVPN's 5,400 servers are in Italy.

When it comes to streaming from Italy, NordVPN was reliable, granting us access to RaiPlay, Mediaset Infinity, Discovery+, and Sky Italia content. As such, NordVPN offers the best overall VPN package, as well as that specifically for Italy.

Surfshark, our price-performance winner is almost as fast as NordVPN, but even more affordable. The provider manages to balance features and user-friendliness better than nearly all of its competitors since its multiple configuration options and settings don't impact usability.

In the Italian speed test, Surfshark secured a strong second place (we couldn't tell how many servers it has in Italy) and was able to provide access to all four streaming platforms we tested it on.

ProtonVPN was our favorite free VPN, primarily because it offers unlimited data at high speeds. With that said, video streaming isn't possible with its free or paid "Basic" versions, and is only for "Plus" and "Visionary" subscribers. The provider offers a good overall package, combining ease of use, plenty of features, and a high degree of security.

In the Italian speed test, ProtonVPN took a very respectable third place, powered by its 16 servers (in the "Basic" version, you only get 6 Italian servers). We were only able to access three of the four streaming platforms, RaiPlay, Discovery+, and Sky Italia. Mediaset Infinity thwarted our attempts to view content.

ExpressVPN did very well in our test, taking second place behind NordVPN. Unfortunately, it was also one of the most expensive VPNs we assessed. With that said, it barely puts a foot wrong, offering a good app (with excellent browser extensions) and a huge server network, covering nearly 100 countries.

The provider's Italian servers, based in Milan and Cosenza, propelled it to fifth place in our Italian speed test. For streaming, ExpressVPN takes full points, since it gave us access to all four platforms as if we were in Italy.

hide.me might have missed out on a top spot in our comprehensive evaluation, however, that's no reason to write it off. Thanks to its strong support (including a live chat), solid performance, and feature-laden yet user-friendly desktop client the service impresses when it comes to quality.

We were somewhat disappointed with hide.me's server network, which, in comparison to the top-performing services from our sample, isn't anything to write home about. Similarly, as of the time of testing, hide.me's last security audit was a few years in the past.

The service's Italian servers are based in Milan and Rome. When it comes to speed, hide.me only took 10th place in Italy but still wrangles a spot in our Top 5 owing to its strong performance: We were able to access all four platforms from our benchmark. Make sure to use the designated streaming servers.

In our comprehensive VPN evaluation, we assessed 27 providers, comparing them in six areas, five of which were scored. Below, we've provided a brief explanation for each of these:

Installation and Features

A VPN desktop client or mobile app is your gateway to anonymous and secure Internet surfing and streaming. As such, they should be easy to use, offered for a variety of operating systems and devices, and possess enough features to satisfy more advanced users keen on fine-tuning their VPN experience. The services which did best in our sample had user-friendly clients serving up a range of features and configuration options.

Server Network

Quantity matters: The more servers, the better. But that's not all. We also pay attention to how many countries a provider's network includes. Based on our findings, both vary considerably: Some services offer less than 100 servers, whereas our upper limit is 34,000. A provider with a presence in more than 60 countries is considered "solid".

Performance

During our speed test, we continuously assessed random servers using a 1 GB/s server in Frankfurt. This allowed us to regularly measure the speeds of each provider and get an average. We also checked how the VPN performed on a daily basis, whether connection problems materialized, or if it took too long to create VPN tunnels. How well a service streams content is also factored in our scoring for this category.

We tested each VPN's Italian servers, and below, you can see the Top 10 fastest:

Using the table below, you can check which providers offer access to Italian streaming platforms and media libraries:

Security and Privacy

VPNs are middlemen for your data and have access to quite a bit of your personal information. The question here is how trustworthy are they. Most VPNs promise not to save or log your surfing activity, but we look at their privacy policies to see whether they really practice what they preach. We also perform VPN leak tests and assess each provider's general security practices.

Customer Support

Direct and static support are the two biggest factors in scoring a provider's customer assistance. The former should be available as quickly as possible, preferably through a live chat, with emails or support tickets answered within 24 hours. For static support, we like to see well-supplied and full-text searchable support centers featuring FAQs and guides.

Our Top 5 were the most reliable services from our sample in terms of accessing Italian content from outside of Italy. Should you be looking for the best overall VPN service that also provides good coverage for Italy, you can check out how all 27 of our sample's providers fared below:

Media libraries and streaming platforms make it possible to tour Italy from the comfort of your living room, so long as you have the right VPN. Our Top 5 were the most reliable at accessing Italian content.

More information on all 27 providers from our sample can be found in their detailed reviews as well as our comprehensive VPN evaluation.