Bypass Geoblocking

Best VPN for Switzerland 2023: Simulate a Swiss IP-Address

Author
Martin Gschwentner
Last update
20. Mar 2023

Would you like to connect with Switzerland? Perhaps you're longing to watch an SRF documentary or some Swiss sports? Unfortunately, most of the Alpine country's media libraries restrict content to those with Swiss IP addresses. There is a work-around for this though, namely, by enlisting the help of a VPN.

These don't only make your Internet connection more secure, but also, more international. By establishing a link to a server somewhere else, you'll receive an IP address for that country. Websites you visit will treat you as though you were a visitor from whatever country you've selected, and you'll be afforded access to otherwise geo-blocked content.

Annoying: Geo-restrictions prevent you from watching programming.

In our comprehensive EXPERTE.com VPN review, we took a closer look at 27 providers. Below, we'll let you know which of them provides the most reliable access to content from Switzerland.

Best VPNs for Content From Switzerland

To gauge how well a VPN performed for accessing content from Switzerland, we relied on three criteria: The provider's score in our overall review, the speed of its Swiss server(s), and how reliably it unblocked Swiss content.

We measured speed daily, compiling results into an average (for more details, be sure to consult the table in the "Performance" section). For streaming, we used SRF's Mediathek as a benchmark. If you're interested in learning which services from our sample excelled at unblocking international content, don't miss our articles for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.

Without further ado, here are our Top 3:

1.

NordVPN: From $3.99/Month

Best Overall 2023
NordVPN
NordVPN
(754,625 )
NordVPN is our number one VPN because it combines speed, ease-of-use, and functionality in a slick package that's also pretty affordable.
5,500+ servers, 60 countries
excellent performance
no logs
6 devices simultaneously
affordable 2-year package
9.4
excellent
Data Volume
unlimited
Devices
6
Protocols
5
Contract Period
1 - 24 months
NordVPN 2-year plan
$3.49
monthly price
Visit Website »
30 days money-back guarantee

NordVPN emerged ahead of all other providers in our comprehensive EXPERTE.com assessment. Thanks to its polished interface, a nice variety of features, high security, and excellent performance, the service handily won first place in our review. So far as speed is concerned (both overall and for Switzerland specifically), it also secured the top spot in our speed test. Its Swiss download and upload speeds were 168.7 MB/s and 31.4 MB/s, respectively.

NordVPN, first place in our EXPERTE.com review, also offers the best VPN for accessing Swiss content.

With more than 5,000 servers spread across 60 countries, NordVPN's global reach is impressive. Around 100 of the provider's servers are in Switzerland, and these are reliable: We were able to access content from SRF's Mediathek from abroad without issue.

NordVPN's most affordable package will set you back $3.99 per month if agreeing to a 24-month contract. A one-month plan costs $11.99.

  • EXPERTE.com overall winner

  • 100 servers in Switzerland

  • Enables access to SRF's Mediathek

  • Limited protocol options

Review
9.4
excellent
Visit Website
Check Review
Performance
10 / 10
Customer Support
9.4 / 10
Installation and Features
9.4 / 10
Security and Privacy
9.4 / 10
Server Network
8.6 / 10
2.

Surfshark: From $2.49/Month

Surfshark VPN
Surfshark VPN
(121,804 )
Surfshark is one of the cheapest providers on the market, but it's a lot more than a great budget option: the relatively new VPN boasts strong protection, many features, and a great support with 24/7 live chat.
3,200+ servers in 100 countries
unlimited number of devices
many apps (Linux, FireTV, ...)
cheap 24-month plan
expensive monthly plan
8.8
good
Data Volume
unlimited
Devices
unlimited
Protocols
3
Contract Period
1 - 24 months
Surfshark 24 months
$2.49
monthly price
Visit Website »
Get 83% Discount

If you're in the market for a reliable VPN that won't hurt your wallet, you'll likely get the most at the lowest cost with our price-performance pick Surfshark. The relatively young British Virgin Island-based provider only costs $2.49 per month (2-year subscription) or $12.95 on a monthly basis.

Surfshark can also provide you with a Swiss IP that comes in handy for getting around geo-blocks.

Surfshark did well thanks to its feature-laden VPN clients and ability to tweak lots of settings. It also finished just behind NordVPN, securing second place in our speed test.

Our price-performance winner offers access to more than 3,200 servers spread across 65 countries. Unfortunately, we're unable to say how many of its servers are based in Switzerland, however, owing to its third-place finish in our Swiss speed test, the provider certainly isn't overburdened or under-equipped there. Rounding things out, we didn't encounter any issues when streaming content with Surfshark from the SRF Mediathek.

  • EXPERTE.com price-performance pick

  • Top speeds, also on Swiss servers

  • Provides reliable access to the SRF Mediathek

  • Server network could be slightly larger

Review
8.8
good
Visit Website
Check Review
Performance
10 / 10
Installation and Features
9.4 / 10
Customer Support
8.6 / 10
Server Network
8.0 / 10
Security and Privacy
8.0 / 10
3.

ProtonVPN: From $4.00/Month

Proton VPN
Proton VPN
(109,527 )
With its open source philosophy and extra security features, Proton VPN targets security-conscious VPN users. But thanks to its user-friendly interface and suitability for streaming, it's worth a look for a wide audience.
open source & external audits
1,900+ servers in 67 countries
solid performance
free plan without data limit
not suitable for China
8.7
good
Data Volume
unlimited
Devices
1 - 10
Protocols
3
Contract Period
0 - 24 months
Proton VPN Free
$0.00
monthly price
Visit Website »
Free forever

ProtonVPN was our first choice among free VPNs. However, you'll only be able to connect to Swiss servers if you've booked one of its paid subscriptions, which start at $4.00 per month. In our Swiss speed test, ProtonVPN did well enough for fifth place, which should be just fine for streaming.

ProtonVPN offers a number of Swiss servers to choose from.

During testing, ProtonVPN didn't evidence any issues providing us with access to the SRF Mediathek. The provider's main advantage though is its commitment to security: ProtonVPN's apps are completely open-source and include extra features such as Secure Core servers.

  • Good performance in our speed test

  • Enables access to SRF Mediathek content

  • Emphasis on security

  • Server network still growing

  • Free version doesn't include access to Swiss servers

Review
8.7
good
Visit Website
Check Review
Installation and Features
10 / 10
Security and Privacy
10 / 10
Performance
8.6 / 10
Customer Support
7.4 / 10
Server Network
7.4 / 10

Free VPNs for Switzerland

So, you'd like to have a Swiss IP address but aren't ready to commit to a paid VPN subscription? If that's the case, Windscribe is worth looking into.

Windscribe VPN
Windscribe VPN
(131,719 )
With its flexible pricing and a generous free plan, Windscribe is a solid option for budget-minded VPN users. It also has a nice, lean app with lots of features – but sadly, its performance can't keep up.
lots of features
free plan with 10 GB limit
unlimited devices
weaker performance
smaller server network
7.8
good
Data Volume
10 - ∞
Devices
unlimited
Protocols
2
Contract Period
0 - 12 months
Windscribe Free
$0.00
monthly price
Visit Website »
Download for free

However, just to be clear: Owing to both data limits and its blocking of commercial video streaming, even Windscribe's free version isn't going to help you to watch Swiss documentaries or programming.

Of course, if you'd like a Swiss IP address for any other reason, Windscribe is highly recommended, since its 10 GB monthly data limit is very generous. And, should your interests expand beyond Switzerland, Windscribe also offers nine other locations to choose from:

Windscribe's free version is generous in terms of both data and servers locations.

In the event that you want to take full advantage of what a VPN has to offer, there aren't really any alternatives to a paid subscription.

Swiss TV With a VPN: How To

Once you've subscribed to a VPN, you're only a few clicks away from enjoying content from Swiss media libraries. Using Surfshark, we'll show you how to do this below.

1. Download your VPN's client for your operating system. Open the program once installed.

NordVPN offers clients and apps for all popular operating systems and platforms.

2. Search for Switzerland in the country list and click on the result.

You can select Swiss servers manually from the country list or by using the search tool.

3. Once connected, head to the website you'd like to view content from, such as that of SRF's Mediathek. Thanks to your new Swiss IP, you should be able to freely access this.

The previous error message has disappeared: With VPNs, you can watch SRF programming as if you were in Switzerland.

How We Tested

We closely examined all 27 providers from our sample in order to assess their strengths and weaknesses. The overall score we awarded is a composite of individual scores across five categories. Below, we've provided a brief summary of each of these:

Installation and Features

Your VPN's client is your gateway to a more international Internet and should be as user-friendly as possible. We paid attention to which operating systems and platforms each supports. Beyond that, we also took a closer look at the extent to which you can customize your connection's settings, and whether all of the most important features are included. The services that fared best in our evaluation combined intuitive usage with plenty of features.

Server Network

Here, two numbers matter: How many servers are available, and the countries they're based in. Put bluntly, the more the better. Those providers which offered several thousand servers spread nicely around all populated continents took maximum points in this category.

Performance

Speed is the first aspect of performance that we examined, and in our EXPERTE.com VPN speed test, we assessed this continually, by compiling averages for each service. Apart from that, we also checked whether the VPN held up during everyday usage and if we experienced connection problems or interruptions. How well a service did in terms of streaming also factored into our final score.

Specifically for Switzerland, we used SRF's Mediathek as a benchmark. Our Top 10 are presented below:

1.
NordVPN
168.7 Mbit/s
Download
31.4 Mbit/s
Upload
2.
Mullvad
159.7 Mbit/s
Download
15.6 Mbit/s
Upload
3.
Surfshark
142.5 Mbit/s
Download
26.8 Mbit/s
Upload
4.
PrivateVPN
144.4 Mbit/s
Download
14.2 Mbit/s
Upload
5.
Proton VPN
122.5 Mbit/s
Download
23.9 Mbit/s
Upload
6.
PureVPN
127.1 Mbit/s
Download
14.3 Mbit/s
Upload
7.
TunnelBear
122.1 Mbit/s
Download
16.6 Mbit/s
Upload
8.
HideMyAss!
122.5 Mbit/s
Download
13.5 Mbit/s
Upload
9.
ExpressVPN
108.2 Mbit/s
Download
23.0 Mbit/s
Upload
10.
ZenMate
104.0 Mbit/s
Download
14.9 Mbit/s
Upload

From the table below, you can see which of our Top 10 providers make it possible to access the SRF Mediathek's streaming content:

ProviderSRF Mediathek

NordVPN

Mullvad

Surfshark

PrivateVPN

ProtonVPN

PureVPN

Tunnelbear

HideMyAss

ExpressVPN

Hotspot Shield

Security and Privacy

Is your data in good hands with the VPN provider you've selected? We comb through each service's data security guidelines and let you know whether everything is above board. To reinforce our assessment, we also pay attention to general security matters, such as the encryption and protocols on offer, rounding out our opinion by performing VPN leak tests.

Customer Support

To get our stamp of approval for support, VPNs should offer reliable direct contact options as well as a neatly-organized and informative help center. We particularly like live chat options and hope that emailed queries are addressed within 24 hours. Static support should be full-text searchable, clearly arranged, and include FAQs that cover all of the most important topics.

Overall Score

You're not in Switzerland but want to access Swiss content? Based on our experience, you can easily do this with any of the services from our Top 3.

On the other hand, if you're looking for the best VPN overall, that's also reliable for connecting to Switzerland, we recommend taking a look at our EXPERTE.com overall ranking of the leading VPN providers:

1.
NordVPN
9.4
Review
excellent
2.
ExpressVPN
9.4
Review
excellent
3.
Surfshark
8.8
Review
good
4.
Proton VPN
8.7
Review
good
5.
HideMyAss!
8.6
Review
good
6.
hide.me
8.4
Review
good
7.
Private Internet Access
8.2
Review
good
8.
CyberGhost
7.8
Review
good
9.
PureVPN
7.8
Review
good
10.
Windscribe
7.8
Review
good
11.
VyprVPN
7.6
Review
good
12.
Mozilla VPN
7.6
Review
good
13.
Hotspot Shield
7.5
Review
good
14.
Atlas VPN
7.4
Review
good
15.
IPVanish
7.4
Review
good
16.
Mullvad
7.3
Review
good
17.
VPN Unlimited
7.3
Review
good
18.
Bitdefender
7.2
Review
good
19.
PrivateVPN
7.2
Review
good
20.
TorGuard
7.2
Review
good
21.
TunnelBear
7.1
Review
good
22.
ZenMate
7.0
Review
satisfactory
23.
Avast
6.8
Review
satisfactory
24.
PrivadoVPN
6.8
Review
satisfactory
25.
Perfect Privacy
6.6
Review
satisfactory
26.
Avira
6.4
Review
satisfactory
27.
VeePN
6.1
Review
satisfactory

Conclusion

Geo-blocks are annoying, however, as we've shown above, anything but unavoidable. Should you not physically be in Switzerland, but have a longing for the SRF's Mediathek, or other Swiss programming, you can enjoy it with the help of several VPNs. Based on our evaluations, these provide reliable access to Swiss content. Our favorites are NordVPN, Surfshark, and ProtonVPN.

For free access to a Swiss IP address, you can also check out Windscribe, even though it won't help for streaming and you'll be limited to 10 GB of data per month. To gain access to the SRF's Mediathek, you should be ready to pay a few dollars per month.

Detailed reviews of 27 popular VPNs are available in our comprehensive EXPERTE.com VPN assessment.

FAQs

Why should I use a VPN to access Swiss content?

As soon as you're physically outside of Switzerland, you'll lose access to Swiss content and media libraries, such as those of SRF. The main reason for this is that such content is subject to licensing agreements. With VPNs, you can connect to a Swiss server from abroad, and circumvent these blocks with ease.

What is the best VPN for Switzerland?

Only a handful of VPNs from our sample combined solid speeds with reliability in unlocking content found in the SRF's Mediathek. The best overall packages are offered by NordVPN, followed by Surfshark, and ProtonVPN.

Is it legal to use a VPN in Switzerland?

Yes, even though the operators of media libraries frown upon it. The SRF refers to "legal limitations" when citing its restriction of content to users from outside of Switzerland. We couldn't find an explicit prohibition of VPN usage in SRF's terms and conditions, however. Legally, you're all in the clear, and we aren't aware of any other consequences either, such as warnings or notices.

Author ( German Version) : Martin Gschwentner
Martin Gschwentner majored in American Studies and Media Studies in Germany, the USA and France and works as a freelance editor in Paris. He is a doctoral student at the Institute for English and American Studies at the University of Paris Diderot, where he is researching the influence of money on US politics. On EXPERTE.com he writes about IT security, data protection and software for the self-employed and small businesses.
Translator & Editor: D Bare
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