There are many advantages of using a VPN for Fortnite, and, in some cases, a Fortnite VPN is needed to connect and play. Banned IPs, slow connectivity, and even erroneously being marked for cheating - have all been reported by disgruntled players- as causes for disrupted gameplay. Using a VPN for Fortnite can help to solve all these problems.
In this article, we explain the benefits of using a Fortnite VPN. We evaluate which VPNs are best for maximizing your gameplay while minimizing the hassle that some of the game-crafters’ policies, and even random errors, can cause.
List of the Best VPNs for Fortnite
Take a look at the table below to see what our experts rated as the best VPNs for Fortnite.
- ExpressVPN - The fastest VPN we test, unblocks everything, with amazing service all round
- NordVPN - Large brand with very good value, and a budget price
- CyberGhost VPN - Longtime top ranked VPN, with great price and speeds
- PrivateInternetAccess - No logs, apps for all platforms
- Surfshark - Strong presence, no-logs policy
What is a VPN for Fortnite?
A VPN allows you to connect to the Internet via an intermediary device. That is, when you are online, you are connecting to a VPN server which in turn is connecting to the Internet on your behalf. All of your traffic is directed through this device before it travels into cyberspace. This has many advantages, some of which are very helpful to use with Fortnite.
VPN connections can encrypt traffic and hide your physical location. The most useful element of a VPN for Fortnite is the fact that Fortnite servers won’t see your real IP address when you connect. Instead, they will see the VPN server's IP.
Secondly, under certain circumstances, a VPN may also decrease the network lag that you might be experiencing and that you might even be kicked out of a match for.
In the following sections, you’ll see how these VPN benefits can be useful for playing Fortnite.
Why do I need a VPN for Fortnite?
One of the most cited reasons for connectivity problems to Fortnite is an error message that pops up stating: “You were removed from the match due to your IP, VPN, machine, or cheating. We recommend not utilizing VPN or proxy services while attempting to play Fortnite.”
For Fortnite players this invokes similar emotional responses to those experienced by Windows users when they see the Blue Screen of Death. Having experienced this myself, it is not a very enjoyable experience.
Fortnite’s publisher suggests that this error appears under several conditions. The most common is having your IP address blacklisted because of cheating or other prohibited activities, or having an unacceptably high network lag. A VPN can help to solve both situations.
VPN for Fortnite Terms of Service
Before getting into the technical part of how a VPN for Fortnite can help solve these complications, let’s take a look at some legal issues. Yes, they might be a bit tedious, but they do shed a lot of light as to why using a VPN may be necessary for you.
According to Epic Games’ Terms of Service, any use of its services, including playing Fortnite, in a way or for “purpose[s] that [are] illegal or beyond the scope of the Services’ intended use” is prohibited. This means they have certain mechanisms in place that can detect so-called prohibited purposes.
However, they mention that “Epic also has the right to terminate your access to all or part of the Services for any or no reason, including without limitation, any violation of these Terms.” So, if for whatever reason you are blocked from playing Fortnite, there is no obligatory transparency on Epic’s part as to why such action has been taken.
This has led to more than one occasion where users have been banned for seemingly unknown reasons. Indeed it is one of the most common complaints found on Epic’s forum.
Now, it should be made clear that using a VPN with Fortnite is by no means a violation of the Terms of Service. It is not stated anywhere that such use is prohibited. So the mere mention of the use of a VPN in the above-stated error message can be somewhat misleading.
Regardless of whatever the reason, you can use a VPN to sort out problems that may arise.
Fortnite IP Address banned
Although it is unclear what mechanisms Epic Games uses to determine if someone is violating their terms of service, what is clear is the method by which players are reprimanded for allegedly doing so. The IP address of the offending player is blacklisted or banned, either for a specific period of time (several hours or days) or in some cases indefinitely.
This means that any attempt at connecting from a banned IP address will result in the above-mentioned error message. In such cases, what a VPN can do is to act as a middle-man between you and the Fortnite servers, essentially hiding your banned IP address and displaying the IP address provided by the VPN server you connect to.
You must keep in mind, however, that the IP address the Fortnite servers see when you use a VPN may also become banned if you do subsequently abuse the service or violate Fortnite’s terms of service. It may also be the case that another player has used and abused Fortnite via that specific VPN server and has banned that IP address before you even use it!
The listed VPN services in this article have all affirmed that their services can be used to successfully and effectively connect to Fortnite servers, which indicates that their servers are indeed allowed IPs on the game’s network infrastructure. What's more they have hundreds if not thousands of IPs to choose from.
Resolving network latency and lag on Fortnite
Fortnite players need to be aware that VPNs are not always a solution for decreasing latency and lag. A VPN makes your traffic travel further: which causes your net to slow down a small percentage (even when you use the best VPNs in the world). The slower your net is, to begin with, the more a VPN can affect your internet speed. That is why it is so vital for you to choose a fast VPN in the first place. Sadly, most VPNs are not fast. In fact, the vast majority of VPNs have slow cumbersome servers.
Sometimes, ISPs introduce bandwidth limitations when people are doing data-intensive tasks like watching HD videos or gaming. This is where a VPN can improve your internet speeds. A VPNs encryption completely bypasses ISP bandwidth throttling, allowing you to play Fortnite at the fastest speeds available to you.
By using a fast VPN service from this guide, selecting a server that is geographically near a Fortnite server, and selecting appropriate encryption mechanisms, you may be able to decrease latency and improve your gameplay experience. This is something you will need to test from your location and is where money back guarantees come in useful.
Remember: this must be assessed on a case by case basis. In order to find the best server location, you must actually try various solutions and choose the best one for your situation.
How to set up a VPN for Fortnite
So, you want to install a VPN for Fortnite? How would you practically go about doing that, you might ask? Well, the first thing you must do is choose a provider. In this review, we have listed the five best Fortnite VPNs.
You can try each one out and test it to see what works best for you. Remember that all our recommendations provide a money back guarantee to test them risk-free. Many of the services above do offer a free VPN for Xbox, Playstation and PC, however, free services often lack speed and important features.
Follow the links to each provider in this article and choose the plan that suits you best. Once you subscribe and obtain your login credentials, you can download the VPN client. This is a piece of software that must be installed on your computer and is used to connect to the VPN using your credentials.
During this process, you are given several options - including the location of the VPN server to which you want to connect and some choices about the type of encryption you prefer to use. Recommendations on how to properly choose these parameters can be found in the following sections.
Once you are successfully connected to your VPN, you can connect to Fortnite as you usually do to play Fortnite.
VPN for Fortnite Considerations
In order to optimize your playing experience, several considerations should be taken into account.
VPN for Fortnite Speed
When playing games like Fortnite where innumerable players around the world connect and battle it out, milliseconds could be the difference between winning and losing. If you’re going to lose, it’s better to do so because you’re an inexperienced player rather than because your connection to the servers failed you.
Speed is of utmost importance, so anything you can do to maintain a high velocity on the Net should be examined and implemented. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that although raw speed is significant, it is not as crucial as low latency. If a VPN service provides fast upload and download speeds, that’s awesome, but it should also offer low network lag as well.
Raw speed depends on the VPN provider (and the speed of your connection to the ISP of course), however, latency is greatly influenced by how you configure your VPN connection. The next two sections give guidelines on how to optimize your VPN configuration.
Server Locations
Your choice of VPN server is vital. You should select a VPN server that is geographically close to the Fortnite server that you connect to. Fortnite has a website called Fortnite Server Status which displays the status of the available servers. Before connecting to your VPN, it is always a good idea to consult this site to find the best server to use.
As shown in the image above, depending on where in the world you are, different servers will appear as the best choice. Once you determine the best Fortnite server, connect to your VPN and choose a server that is as close as possible to the Fortnite server.
Now Fortnite does not disclose the specific location of its servers, as many users have asked on the forum without getting an answer. Nonetheless, they are hosted by Amazon Web Services and in North America, have been rumored to be located on the east coast of the United States, possibly Virginia.
In each case, you may experiment with various VPN server locations and reopen the Fortnite Server Status page to see what kind of results you get. With a little bit of experimentation, you can optimize your connectivity speed to get the best playing experience possible.
Security and Encryption
For most players, security and encryption over the VPN connection when playing games like Fortnite are not so much of a concern. But, they do come into play when the choice of configuration affects the speed of your connection to the servers.
Having said that, if security is more important for you than speed, make sure you choose wisely. In this section, however, we will be emphasizing how to make encryption configuration choices that will speed up your gameplay, often sacrificing security to a certain extent.
Each VPN provider has different encryption options. Here are some guidelines that will help you make the best choice. The most common encryption protocols found are PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, and IKEv2.
Point to Point Tunneling Protocol or PPTP is a VPN protocol that is easy to set up. Ideal for Fortnite, it requires low computation overhead so it is quite quick even though it uses TCP as a transport protocol which is inherently slower than UDP. Keep in mind that it is one of the least secure choices.
Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol is often implemented with IP Security, thus referred to as L2TP/IPsec. It offers better security than PPTP and reasonable speeds.
A fast choice is Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) which is considered at least as good as L2TP/IPsec. It was primarily developed for use with specific OSs such as Microsoft Windows 7, Blackberry and Apple iOS, so it is less common among VPN providers.
OpenVPN is a highly configurable option guaranteeing the best balance between speed and security. It can be configured to use UDP instead of TCP thereby providing a much better playing experience.
Ultimately the choice of encryption configuration depends on the options made available by the VPN service as well as your personal experience with each setting.
Know the advantages and disadvantages of each and continue to tweak your configurations until you get the optimum possible gaming experience. For more details on encryption methods, security features and speed, take a look at our Complete Guide to VPN Encryption.
VPN for Fortnite: Conclusion
Fortnite is a fast-paced and exciting sandbox survival game. If you’re experiencing connectivity problems due to your IP address being banned or due to problematic latency issues, a VPN is the best solution.
To maintain an optimum gameplay experience, the proper VPN servers should be chosen, and the appropriate encryption configuration and server locations should be selected.
Ultimately, Fortnite is about gameplay, excitement, awesome online experiences and just having fun. Using our recommended VPNs, and our detailed analysis of how VPNs can be of benefit you, you will be able to continue playing and enjoying the game to the fullest!
- ExpressVPN - The fastest VPN we test, unblocks everything, with amazing service all round
- NordVPN - Large brand with very good value, and a budget price
- CyberGhost VPN - Longtime top ranked VPN, with great price and speeds
- PrivateInternetAccess - No logs, apps for all platforms
- Surfshark - Strong presence, no-logs policy
Title Image Credit: By Syda Productions/Shutterstock.
For more information about using a VPN with your console, take a look at the guides below: