The Best VPNs for Canada

Windscribe Free has the largest Canadian server network of any free VPN. You can use it to get a free IP address in Montreal (Quebec), Toronto (Ontario), and Vancouver (British Columbia).

Rarely for a free service, Windscribe has servers in Canada.

There are far fewer individual Canadian servers compared to NordVPN and PIA, so the chance of overloading the servers are high, but Windscribe covers just as many cities and provinces.

We tested Windscribe Free with five Canadian streaming sites. Here are our results:

Windscribe Free unblocks the majority of Canadian streaming services. Based on our experience, it’s by far the best free VPN for accessing DAZN Canada and Fubo.

The only negative result was its inability to access Canada’s Netflix region, which is disappointing when it’s one of the most comprehensive libraries available.

Windscribe Free unblocks all local Canadian streaming sites except for Netflix

We’ve calculated that when streaming in HD, Windscribe Free’s 10GB data cap will provide only 4 hours of streaming time.

Windscribe Free’s speed performance connecting into Canada is impressive, especially for a free VPN. Connecting into Vancouver from New York and testing our speed, we calculated a minimal speed loss of 6%.

More broadly, we calculated Windscribe Free’s average international speed as 87Mbps. Our results show that using Windscribe Free to connect into Canada will provide fast and stable connections for any online activity, including watching Canadian TV.

Windscribe Free is the best way to secure your connection and protect your privacy in Canada without paying the price of a VPN subscription.

It logs more than NordVPN and PIA, including your bandwidth usage, but we’re still comfortable recommending it because none of this data is personally identifiable. It’s also never been able to share data with requesting authorities because it doesn’t retain them.

From a security standpoint, Windscribe uses best-in-class encryption. But it did suffer the consequences of not encrypting its Ukraine servers, which were subsequently seized. We’ve since tested its Canada servers using WireGuard and can confirm they’re encrypted.

Windscribe Free offers all the same apps as the paid version. It can be installed on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Fire TV Stick, and Linux. There are browser extensions, too, which allow you to get a Canadian IP address even faster than with the VPN app.

All of these apps are easy to install and work to unblock Canadian websites, so you can stream content on your favorite home devices.

One feature not available to free users is Windscribe’s Control D Smart DNS. It works to unblock Canadian streaming services like DAZN, but it costs an additional sum on top of a Windscribe subscription.

PrivadoVPN is free to download and comes with servers in Montreal, allowing you to get a Canadian IP address from anywhere without any cost attached.

PrivadoVPN Free has servers based in Montreal.

The inability to select multiple city locations is disappointing, especially as users in Quebec won’t be able to bypass any website blocks caused by Bill 101.

However, the biggest issue is PrivadoVPN’s 10GB data cap, which won’t last for very long – especially if you’re streaming content in Full HD.

By connecting to PrivadoVPN’s Canadian IP address you can unblock content on these services:

This creates a mixed picture. PrivadoVPN performs well when accessing Canadian content on free-to-air services like CBC Gem, Citytv, and TVA+, but struggles with subscription services such as Netflix, DAZN, and Fubo. This is likely due to more sophisticated geo-blocking technology.

The content we could access streamed in full high-definition, thanks to PrivadoVPN Free’s exceptional speeds. When connecting to Canada from the US, we experienced only a 6% speed loss.

We checked and can confirm that PrivadoVPN Free encrypts your traffic securely. It also doesn’t log any identifiable data about you. This makes it useful for those looking for a free privacy solution in Canada.

However, we’d like to see further investment in security features. Notably, it still lacks a kill switch on iOS, which is a concern.

NordVPN has 259 servers within Canada. It’s one of the largest Canadian server networks on offer, with IP addresses spread across Montreal (Québec), Toronto (Ontario), and Vancouver (British Columbia).

This is particularly useful if you live in Québec and encounter blocked websites often.

We never felt we needed any more servers than this. However, if you want the absolute highest number, PIA has the largest Canadian network of any VPN.

We tested NordVPN with the most popular Canadian streaming services. Here are our results:

As you can see, NordVPN delivers flawless results for Canadian streaming. It unblocks every streaming site we tested, allowing us to stream a show like ‘Law and Order: Toronto’ on Citytv.

Using NordVPN, we had no issue unblocking CBC Gem or any other Canadian streaming site.

Videos loaded quickly and streamed without buffering as a result of NordVPN’s excellent speeds connecting into Canada . For example, from New York to Vancouver, our speeds dropped just 3% compared to our normal internet connection.

If you’re worried about online privacy and security in Canada, NordVPN is a good solution.

With its non-intrusive logging policy, NordVPN protects your online privacy from government overreach and corporate data collection, ensuring your online activity is hidden from third parties.

It retains a small amount of data about the time you connect to a VPN, but it’s not enough to compromise your anonymity.

It also uses ChaCha20 cipher to encrypt your data and commissions regular security audits.

Even if you’re a beginner, NordVPN’s apps are a pleasure to use. They’re available on mobile devices, so you can protect your data on-the-go, as well as on Mac and Windows.

If you want to stream Canadian or international content on large screen devices, you can also install NordVPN on Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, and Android TV — easily and without any manual installation involved.

We were happy about the consistent interface across platforms, making accessing Canadian content simple on whichever device you have. NordVPN even lets you connect to a VPN server on 10 different devices simultaneously.

The one downside is NordVPN’s Smart DNS feature, which cannot be used to unblock Canadian websites. This meant we weren’t able to bypass sports blackouts on devices that don’t support VPN apps, like our TCL Smart TV.

PIA has an industry-leading Canadian server network, counting 3,000 servers across 3 cities, including Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

There is a separate server for the Ontario region broadly, but Montreal and Vancouver covers Quebec and British Columbia provinces. This is more than every other VPN we tested.

With a server network this large, it’s unlikely you’ll ever run into server congestion and, with so many IP addresses available, you can narrow down your region to access provincial content.

We tested PIA with a number of Canadian streaming sites. These are the results:

Unfortunately, despite having a server optimized for Canadian streaming, PIA fails to unblock the majority of Canadians streaming sites. We only had success accessing CBC Gem, CTV, and Télé-Québec outside of Canada. All other attempts were detected and blocked.

PIA is a lot better for accessing streaming sites outside of Canada, including BBC iPlayer, Max, and US Netflix.

It also delivers excellent speeds connecting into Canada. Our tests found that you can expect an average download speed loss of 6% when connecting to Canada from the US.

PIA is the best choice for protecting your online privacy due to its proven no-logs policy, which has been verified in multiple court cases.

Its secure ChaCha20 encryption will also make your data undecipherable and protect you when using public WiFi networks across Canada.

Since many Canadian companies store user data in the US, where privacy laws are less protective, PIA keeps your data secure by encrypting it and preventing unauthorized access.

The VPN also includes PIA MACE, a reliable ad blocker that effectively prevents websites and social media companies from tracking your online activity.

PIA is one of the best value VPNs available, despite its huge server offering and proven no-logs privacy policy. It only costs $2.03 on its best price deal, which is a lot cheaper than NordVPN’s $2.99.

However, this comes at the cost of limited streaming capabilities. If accessing Canadian streaming sites is your main priority, we suggest using NordVPN instead.

You can also get PIA for free for 7 days if you sign up via the App Store or Play Store. After that, you can take advantage of its 1-month refund policy for even more free use.