Best Shudder VPN services in 2024 - Unblock horror movies from the USA

ExpressVPN Demo

ExpressVPN is the provider I've selected as the best VPN for Shudder. It has apps for all platforms and allows up to five simultaneous connections per account. ExpressVPN is a brilliant choice regardless of whether you're new to the VPN game or an old hat looking for an upgrade. Easy to use, but incredibly effective and reliable.  

Provider history: can you trust ExpressVPN? 

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands, which is a big plus in terms of privacy and has been protecting users across the globe since 2009. ExpressVPN has an incredible track record when it comes to privacy, and they commission regular third-party security audits from respected auditors like PwC. This is part of the reason that so many users, reviewers, and experts have good things to say about ExpressVPN.

Their credentials have been tested on this front in the past too. When a server was seized as part of a Turkish criminal investigation in 2017, no logs of user activity could be recovered, enforcing ExpressVPN's claim that they don't keep any records of user activity. In recent years, ExpressVPN has pioneered its own protocol, Lightway, which is designed to increase speeds and bolster security. 

Servers for Shudder 

ExpressVPN should definitely be your go-to for streaming Shudder considering it has servers in the US, UK, Canada, and Ireland. I'd advise choosing the country closest to you to connect to, as it makes the journey your data has to take shorter and it will improve your connection times. 

The provider, however, is useful for a lot more than just unblocking Shudder from outside of these territories. ExpressVPN has over 3,000 servers worldwide in 94 locations, the latter of which is a real standout point in favor of this provider. Few providers have servers in more countries than this, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a provider that performs as consistently as ExpressVPN and also has more locations. 

Best-in-class security 

ExpressVPN ticks all the boxes in terms of security. RAM-only servers mean nothing is ever written to hard drives; a kill-switch will drop your internet connection if you disconnect from the VPN, and it uses the AES-256 encryption standard (the toughest in the business). ExpressVPN's servers, on top of being RAM-only, also house obfuscation (stealth) technology. There are also additional features such as a private DNS service and the provider offers split-tunneling too, which lets you run some traffic through your VPN and other traffic through a standard internet connection. 

Nord Demo

NordVPN is another provider that, like ExpressVPN, is incredibly reliable and really quick, and has an excellent track record of unblocking popular channels and streaming websites. The great thing about NordVPN, compared with ExpressVPN for instance, is the price – it's not only one of the most feature-rich VPNs on the market, but one of the cheapest, too. 

Provider history: can you trust NordVPN?

NordVPN has been around since 2012, meaning next year will mark a decade on the marketplace for the Panama-based service. Being located in this central American country – which is notoriously privacy-conscious – is a big plus for those of you worried about security. Over the past 9 years, NordVPN has attracted around 14 million customers from all corners of the globe, making it one of the most subscribed to VPN services in the world. 

NordVPN's security track record isn't as clean as ExpressVPN – just a couple of years ago, the company confirmed one of their servers in Finland had been hacked by someone using a remote management system. However, NordVPN said no user data had been accessed and has taken great steps to avoid this happening again. Since then, NordVPN has developed a protocol called NordLynx, similar to Lightway by ExpressVPN, and the provider started to overhaul their server infrastructure last year to instate co-located servers, which are run, managed, and maintained by NordVPN.* 

*Not all VPN companies own the servers they use, and rather rent them out, nor the buildings the servers are based in. 

Features, servers, and speed 

NordVPN has, most importantly, servers in the locations necessary to unblock Shudder – the US, UK, Ireland, and Canada are all covered. NordVPN doesn't have the biggest network in the world (it has over 5,000 servers, but a large proportion is in the US) but it at least serves locations that have the most sought-after streaming services that VPN users want to unblock. 

NordVPN is one of the quickest providers in the game and consistently finds itself at the very top of our daily speed tests, within which all the major providers are tested. This is really useful for streaming horror movies if you want to avoid lag or delays at crucial moments, but as with ExpressVPN, I recommend selecting a server in the country closest to you for the best connection (e.g. if you live in France, pick the UK/Ireland over Canada). 

This provider has all the standard security features like a kill-switch and AES-256 encryption – as well as obfuscated (stealth) servers – but also a lot of innovative features you won't really find many other providers offering to subscribers, like Onion-over-VPN, which hooks you up to the Tor Network. I also think NordVPN's ad and malware blocker, called CyberSec, excels when compared to similar features provided by other VPN companies. 

Are there any downsides?

NordVPN is a great provider, so finding things that it could improve on is quite hard. One thing I'd like to see from NordVPN is upping the number of simultaneous connections you're allowed on one account. NordVPN only offers six, but if you're going to use it on your phone and your laptop, that's only another four you have to work with, meaning only maybe one or two family members or friends can share your subscription. Other providers offer a bit more. To be fair to NordVPN, however, considering their service is so reasonably priced, this is a very minor issue. 

PIA Demo

Private Internet Access (PIA) is the third provider on our list, with apps for all major platforms you could want and a simultaneous connections limit of up to 10. PIA is a good choice for those of you planning to share your account with family and friends so they can unblock Shudder – or any other streaming service for that matter – and there's also a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can road test PIA's software without incurring any permanent cost. 

Provider profile: can you trust PIA? 

Private Internet access is based in the US and has been around since 2010 and has built up a stellar reputation for protecting user privacy in that time, a fine regard that has led to the provider amassing a reported 100,000 users on their network. Although it's owned by Kape technologies (you'll find more on their previously shady business under another name when we discuss CyberGhost), which doesn't have a great reputation, all the evidence has suggested PIA is being managed correctly. 

Private Internet Access has had its no-logs claims proven in court not once, but twice, and both after the US government tried to obtain user logs from the provider. PIA announced late last year that it was building a Next Generation Network with RAM servers and support for the WireGuard protocol.

Servers for Shudder

PIA has servers in all the countries where Shudder is not blocked. As with all the other providers, ensure you're connecting to servers geographically close to you. There are also tens of thousands of servers in the USA, which is great for unblocking content from the country and would be my go-to for unblocking Shudder if you're trying to access it from anywhere in the Americas. 

All of the provider's servers are bare metal – which means PIA is the only client using them and they aren't shared – which is a big plus in terms of physical server security because no one else has or needs access. PIA's speeds might not be as impressive as VPNs like NordVPN, but it would be wrong to call the service slow considering thousands of people happily use it daily to stream shows. 

Is PIA secure?

PIA has excellent security features that have helped it forge a reputation as one of the most reliable VPNs out there, including a kill-switch, AES-256 bit encryption, and a private DNS server. There's also an ad and malware blocker called PIA MACE which serves its purpose pretty well. 

The VPN for Linux users 

As well as 10 simultaneous connections, the other thing that stands out for me about PIA is its fully-featured Linux client. This is somewhat of a rarity amongst major VPN companies, with some, like Surfshark (more on this provider later) only offering a command-line client for the operating system. PIA has support for a lot of different Linux distros and has good customer support provision for if you get stuck at any point. 

Surfshark Demo

Surfshark is a relative newcomer to the VPN scene but is packed with enough features to make you think it's been around for years and years. Quick out of the starting blocks, Surfshark is now competing with some of the top-tier providers and holding its own thanks to a string of excellent security options and a track record untouched by controversy, and is capable of unblocking sites like Shudder without much hassle.

Provider profile: can you trust Surfshark?

Surfshark is based in the British Virgin Islands (great for privacy) and is the youngest provider on this list, having only been available for download since 2018. In that time though, Surfshark has gone from strength to strength, establishing itself as one of the best-known names in the industry.

The provider likes to keep pace with the competition, following the trend of deploying diskless/RAM-only servers to make its network even more secure. Surfshark has had its browser extensions and server infrastructure audited by a third-party security company since its inception, and will likely continue with regular audits to bolster its privacy claims.

Unlimited connections 

Although it's not the only VPN in the world to provide unlimited simultaneous connections, this is still one of Surfshark's unique selling points when compared to widely-used providers like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost. So, if you're from a family of horror buffs, this might be the provider for you if you want to save them time and money. Surfshark has 3,200 servers in over 65 countries, so make sure to go beyond Shudder and make use of its well-maintained network and unblocking powers.

Speeds and security

As VPNs go, Surfshark is pretty speedy, and quite regularly finds itself amongst good company near the summit of our daily speed tests. Surfshark is pretty feature-rich when compared to the other VPNs on this list too, and in addition to all the essential security features VPNs have to have, like kill-switches and AES-256 encryption, Surfshark also has Camouflage mode, which hides the fact you're using a VPN, a CleanWeb tool for blocking malware and adverts and multi-hop, which will reroute your connection through two servers rather than one.

CyberGhost Demo

CyberGhost is an all-rounder with some really easy-to-use apps available on a number of different platforms. The provider is a great VPN for beginners and aside from a few minor areas that could be improved, is a fantastic product at a very reasonable price. CyberGhost offer a money-back guarantee of 45 days, two weeks longer than all the other providers on this list, but its service is extremely good value for money. 

Provider profile: can you trust CyberGhost?

CyberGhost is owned by Kape Technologies, a company that used to produce adware and malware regularly as CrossRider but had a change of name in 2018 - not a great start. But there's been little evidence to suggest that they haven't changed their ways – CyberGhost functions well and is known as a reliable service. CyberGhost 8 has been released in recent years with support for WireGuard and various other improvements. 

Superb streaming servers

CyberGhost has an impressive list of countries it has servers in, a huge 91 overall, meaning it's the only real provider that can compete with ExpressVPN on that front. It's also second to PIA in terms of the size of its network, which consists of over 7,000 servers total. Most importantly though, CyberGhost has servers in all the territories where you can access Shudder, including Ireland. 

One element of CyberGhost's apps that I really like is that it tells you which specific servers are the best at unblocking certain sites, which not a lot of other providers do. 

Decent features, but somewhat lacking

Don't get me wrong, CyberGhost is an excellent provider that will unblock a whole tonne of sites for you. The newest iteration of the company's software, CyberGhost 8, gives users the ability to block ads and malicious websites and utilize DNS blocklists to keep them safe. There's also a kill-switch and AES-256 encryption.

My main problem with CyberGhost is that it's the only VPN on this list that doesn't offer obfuscated (stealth) servers. This is quite important if you're trying to unblock shudder from inside a territory governed by an authoritarian government that has banned VPNs, and they won't be able to see you're using the technology in the first place. Considering that horror films seem to be banned for all sorts of reasons in all sorts of countries, if you'd like to unblock Shudder from a country like this, go with a different provider. If you live in a country like France, Mexico, or Australia, where movies and entertainment media is largely unfettered, CyberGhost will do you just fine!