The Best VPNs for France

ExpressVPN unblocked every French streaming service we tested it with, making it the perfect solution for watching French TV abroad.

ExpressVPN is a great solution for watching French sports, too. You can use it to stream the Tour de France and the French Open on France TV (france.tv), or to bypass Prime Video’s geo-blocks to stream Ligue 1 matches in France.

We used ExpressVPN to stream france.tv, Arte, French Netflix, and more from outside France.

In terms of speeds, ExpressVPN is one of the fastest VPNs available.

In fact, its average download speeds of 85Mbps connecting internationally are some of the fastest we’ve seen.

ExpressVPN has servers in Marseille, Paris, and Strasbourg, giving you the option to get an IP address from the Northern, Southern, and Eastern parts of France.

The ExpressVPN app also displays a server location in Alsace, which our testing found is also in Strasbourg.

ExpressVPN has multiple servers spread across 3 French cities.

While ExpressVPN doesn’t disclose how many French servers it maintains, the service must have a large pool of French IP address in order to deliver the fast and stable connections we experienced.

Another stand-out aspect of ExpressVPN is its compatibility with a very wide selection of devices.

In fact, you can use ExpressVPN’s well-designed apps on Fire TV, Android TV and Apple TV to stream geo-restricted French content on devices beyond your computer and phone.

ExpressVPN is also one of extremely few VPNs with a router app. The app is very intuitive and allows you to use the VPN on devices that don’t support native VPN apps, such as games consoles.

You can also make use of the VPN’s browser extensions on Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, although they require the full app to run at the same time.

CyberGhost doesn’t unblock 100% of French streaming services like ExpressVPN does, but it still works with the vast majority.

The only French TV services we couldn’t access from outside France were TF1 and 6Play.

CyberGhost still works with the following French channels:

• Arte
• Canal+ & MyCanal
• France TV (france.tv)
• Gulli
• Molotov
• Netflix France
• RTBF
• TV5Monde

You can also use CyberGhost’s app for Fire TV Stick, too, which is well-designed and very user-friendly. Sadly, there is no Apple TV app available at present.

We streamed TV5Monde live by using CyberGhost’s Paris server.

CyberGhost’s Smart DNS service can’t be used to unblock French TV, since it doesn’t have DNS configurations for France.

To unblock French TV services on devices that don’t support VPN software, you’ll have to install CyberGhost on your router.

The problem is that there isn’t a custom app for routers, unlike ExpressVPN, therefore the whole experience won’t be as smooth.

CyberGhost has invested into the biggest French server network of any VPN: 938 servers in Marseille, Paris, and Strasbourg.

Fustratingly though, CyberGhost’s French servers are not available via its Chrome and Firefox browser extensions.

This is a shame since VPN extensions are an even quicker way to get a French IP address than using a VPN application.

CyberGhost has IP addresses in 3 French cities.

Despite the impressive server range, CyberGhost’s speeds into France from abroad weren’t as fast as ExpressVPN’s.

CyberGhost’s average download speed connecting internationally is 81Mbps, compared to ExpressVPN’s 85Mbps.

That said, CyberGhost’s speeds are fast enough to stream French content in high definition from outside France.

CyberGhost is three times cheaper than ExpressVPN, costing only $2.03 per month on a two-year plan.

For the level of performance on offer, this represents great value for your money.

There are also several CyberGhost free trials available for you to test the service for free before committing.

You can get a one-day free trial on Windows and macOS, a seven-day one via the Apple App Store, and a three-day one through the Google Play Store.

On top of this, the company offers a very long and rare 45-day money-back guarantee, which it has always honored in our experience.

Windscribe Free was the best-performing free VPN in our France streaming tests. It unblocked 90% of streaming services, via its apps and its browser extensions.

We streamed the following French streaming services without major issues:

• Arte
• Canal+ & MyCanal
• France TV (france.tv)
• Gulli
• M6 (6Play)
• Molotov
• Netflix France
• TF1
• TV5Monde

Windscribe Free unblocks France TV on both its VPN app and browser extension.

Sadly, we did experience some blurriness while streaming. It wasn’t constant, but it was annoying enough.

We were surprised by this picture degradation, considering Windscribe Free’s speed loss of 13% (connecting to foreign server locations) was even better than ExpressVPN’s.

Windscribe Free has 2 servers in Paris, which are available via the VPN app and Windscribe’s browser proxy extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

Considering most free VPNs don’t have French servers at all, this is very good. However, it’s far behind the number of server options on offer from paid VPN services like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.

Windscribe’s apps and browser extensions have French servers.

Unlike so many free VPNs, Windscribe has released intuitive apps covering all major platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Android TV.

It’s also one of the very few VPNs to have a Linux GUI.

However, if you want to set the VPN up on your router, keep in mind there is no dedicated app for it.