How to watch Amazon Prime Video outside USA – VPN vs DNS Proxy

How to watch American Amazon Prime Video outside the USA

Important Update: Amazon recently launched their Amazon Prime Video service globally. If you have signed up for a local Prime Video account, you can use it along with ExpressVPN, BulletVPN, or Unlocator to change your Amazon Prime Video region to the USA.

VPN 101 – Inside Virtual Private Networks

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) has the ability to reroute your internet traffic and make it seem to be coming from a different country of your choosing.

It all depends on the server you connect to. If you connect to an American server, you’ll appear to be browsing the web from the United States. Furthermore, once you connect, the VPN will encrypt your data, hide your IP address, and assign you a new one in the US.

As a result, you’ll be able to enjoy services and internet television that are restricted to the US. Expats outside USA (Australia, Canada, UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Dubai) can also greatly benefit from the many advantages of VPN:

• VPN allows you to anonymously surf the web so that websites won’t be able to track your activity.
• VPN will encrypt all your online data and thus shields you from hackers and spies.
• The software will give you access to various geo-restricted services and applications such as American Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, US Netflix, Crackle and many more.
• You can easily change and hide your IP address using a VPN.
• Connecting to a VPN server can help you get around some of the restrictions that your ISP might impose on your browsing or streaming activities (Throttling, DNS hijacking, and transparent proxies).

Take a look at the best VPN providers we have tested in order to watch Amazon Prime outside the US.

How to Get American Amazon Prime Video Abroad

Amazon Prime has over 100 million subscribers in the USA alone. That number has significantly risen due to the fact that Amazon Prime Video is now available in almost every country around the world. Despite being available almost everywhere though, geo-restrictions still apply to Prime’s content.

Each country has a certain Amazon Prime catalog due to distribution rights. In other words, you might be able to watch a certain movie or TV show in one region but not another. The US catalog is still superior to all others both in terms of quality and quantity of available titles.

In order to spoof your geo-location and get American Amazon Prime Video, follow these steps. You don’t have to register for a new Amazon account i.e. you can use whatever Amazon Prime account you already have and in addition to a VPN to access American Amazon Prime from abroad.

1. Sign up with ExpressVPN.
2. Download and install the VPN application on your PC, Mac, Amazon Fire Stick, iPhone, iPad, or Android device.
3. Launch the app, sign in, and connect to an American VPN server.
4. Head over to Amazon Prime Video or launch the Amazon Prime Video app.
5. Watch American Amazon Prime Video outside the USA.

Beware that some VPN services can hugely impact your internet speed. So be careful when choosing your VPN provider. Express VPN, for example, has minimal effect on internet speed based on our tests.

The provider has dedicated apps for Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, and iPad to aid you with your VPN setup. ExpressVPN also offers Smart DNS proxies that work on PS3, PS4, Xbox, Roku, Smart TVs, and routers.

These devices do not have VPN clients. Therefore you cannot install a VPN directly on them. A Smart DNS proxy allows you to work around that obstacle.

How to Unlock Amazon Prime Video using Smart DNS proxies

As mentioned in the introduction, a VPN isn’t the only way to bypass regional restrictions. Smart DNS Proxies grant you access to websites, services, and applications that are exclusively available in other regions of the world.

Unlike VPN, however, Smart DNS only redirects some chunks of your connection. Instead of downloading a VPN app, you need to configure your streaming device’s DNS server addresses. The new DNS codes will be provided to you by your Smart DNS proxy service provider. Here are the main features of setting up Smart DNS on your streaming platforms:

• Smart DNS won’t affect your internet speed in any way. This is mainly due to the fact that Smart DNS does not encrypt your Internet traffic.
• It will allow you to retain your local IP address so that you can still access your local websites while unblocking geographically restricted services.
• Smart DNS grants you the ability to watch multinational streaming services simultaneously. This means you get to watch American Amazon Instant Video and UK’s Now TV at the same time without having to configure your DNS server addresses again.
• Smart DNS works on all devices. Whether you want to unblock channels on your PC, iPhone, PS4, Xbox, Android, or Apple TV, Smart DNS will help you do that.
• If your ISP implements DNS hijacking or transparent proxies, Smart DNS will probably not function properly on your devices.

All of the VPN providers we included in the table above offer Smart DNS proxies as part of their subscription. In the case of Unlocator though, you can save some money by subscribing to their cheaper ‘Smart DNS only’ plan instead of the ‘VPN + Smart DNS’ package.

Unlocator even allows new users to benefit from a free 7-day trial period without asking for billing details during the sign-up process.

Amazon Prime Video – Device Compatibility

Now you know how you can get Amazon Prime wherever you may be. However, a problem will be at hand if you don’t have the right device for the streaming platforms. So, here’s a list of Amazon Prime compatible devices. Check if yours is among them:

• Roku
• Smart TVs
• PlayStation
• Xbox

• Nintendo Wii
• iPhone
• iPad
• Apple TV

• Android
• PC & Mac
• Amazon Fire Stick
• Chromecast

What’s on Amazon Prime?

Amazon Prime has millions of subscribers due to the fact that it offers a huge selection of content. It doesn’t matter what genre the content belongs to, it’s all there. As we’ve mentioned before, the content you get to access depends on which region you currently reside in.

Prime Video’s biggest hits include The Man in the High Castle, Grand Tour, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and so much more:

• Patriot
• Forever
• The Tick
• The Boys
• Bosch
• Modern Love

• Goliath
• Good Omens
• Carnival Row
• Hanna
• The Grand Tour
• Homecoming

• The Expanse
• Transparent
• Downton Abbey
• Sneaky Pete
• The Romanoffs
• The Widow

The aforementioned titles are just a simple look at what Amazon Prime has up its sleeves. You can find hundreds of other titles once you unblock the American version of the streaming giant.

The Bottom Line

Have you tried using a VPN, Smart DNS proxy, or both in order to access US Amazon Prime Video from overseas? Did you run into any trouble during the setup process or were you able to get it up and running without any issues? Make sure you leave some feedback in the comment section below.