How to watch Hulu films and TV shows abroad

From ExpressVPN to a newcomer called SurfShark, these six providers can all bypass Hulu’s VPN firewall so you can watch “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Shrill,” and more while traveling.

If there’s anything better than changing into sweatpants, squeezing yourself between the crisp, slightly cold sheets of your hotel bed, and plowing through a half-season of 90 Day Fiancé after a long-haul flight, I have yet to experience it.

That gloriously trashy TLC reality series is my guilty pleasure TV show of choice, and it’s just one of the literal thousands of TV shows and films available on Hulu, the bright green-branded streaming service founded in 2007. 

Chances are you have an account, too: Hulu passed the 28 million subscriber mark last spring, making it the third most popular video streaming service after YouTube and Netflix. If not, you’re seriously missing out: For as little as $5.99 a month, Hulu provides on-demand access to a stacked lineup that includes hit films like Annihilation and Sorry to Bother You; cult-favorite shows like Rick and Morty and This Is Us; and exclusive Hulu originals like Shrill and The Handmaid’s Tale.

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Let’s go back to that hypothetical hotel room for a moment: You’ve booted up your laptop, logged into your Hulu account, and hit “play” on your go-to binge-watch. But instead of resuming the episode where you left off, you’re surprised with a blank screen and an error message. What’s the big idea?

The problem might have something to do with your current location. You see, unlike Netflix, which has expanded internationally, Hulu’s library is strictly limited to viewers in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and U.S. military bases. (It used to be available in Japan, too, but that branch of the company was acquired by the Tokyo-based Nippon TV network in 2014.) That’s because Hulu doesn’t own international streaming rights for any of its shows and films; it only holds the U.S. distribution licenses. If Hulu were to expand the availability of its content abroad, it would have to make new deals with distributors to acquire streaming rights in other regions — and (spoiler!) that requires a lot of negotiating and money-spending.

On the bright side, there’s a chance Hulu will go global as soon as 2021 if Disney (its majority owner as of 2019) follows through with the expansion plans its chairman and CEO revealed during a recent earnings call with investors — more on that here. But until then, you’ll have to circumvent Hulu’s geo-restrictions with the help of something called a virtual private network, or VPN, if you want to stream its content abroad.

Why should you use a VPN with Hulu?

To prevent users outside the U.S. from accessing its shows and films, Hulu requires two things of its accountholders: a U.S.-issued form of payment and a U.S. IP (internet protocol) address — that’s the numerical ID containing information about your location and web activity that gets assigned to your device by your internet search provider, or ISP, when you connect to a local network. (You can check yours here.) It’s like a house’s physical address, but for your computer/smartphone/tablet.

Here’s the thing: Hulu isn’t dumb.

That IP address part is where a VPN comes into play. For the uninitiated, a VPN is a service that creates a safe, secure connection over the internet by routing your device’s traffic through its own private servers. Known as encryption, this process shields your personal information and online activities from the prying eyes of your ISP and — this is key — creates a temporary IP address that hides your true location.

You can probably guess where I’m going with this: If you’re trying to watch Hulu on foreign soil, you can have a VPN spoof your IP address and trick Hulu into thinking you’re based in the U.S. Simple, right?

Actually, not so much. Because here’s the thing: Hulu isn’t dumb.

What’s the best VPN for Hulu?

Just like Netflix, Hulu prohibits its accountholders from using VPNs in an effort to protect its licensed content, and it’ll slap you with an error message if it thinks you’re trying to use one to watch its content. Its tactics are threefold:

1. Hulu blocks anonymous IP addresses whose geographical location it can’t verify 

2. Hulu checks your IP address against its own blacklist of known VPN servers

3. Hulu keeps a lookout for IP addresses with a large number of users. If there are too many people sharing any given server, Hulu will assume you’re all using a VPN and shut that shit down.

If a VPN provider wants to unblock Hulu for its users, it needs to steer clear of Hulu’s blacklist while maintaining a sizeable U.S. server network. These are no easy feats, so the list of VPNs that can consistently bypass Hulu’s ferocious firewall is pretty darn short. 

Need help sorting through your options? Just keep reading: Below, we’ve broken down the pros and cons of six VPN services that are currently capable of unblocking Hulu and keeping you anonymous online, wherever you may actually be. That way, you can make an informed decision on how to spend your hard-earned cash *and* click “Keep Watching” to your heart’s content during your next trip abroad.