The Best VPNs for Putlocker [December 2020]

Whether or not you can justify piracy, it’s no secret that Putlocker continues to be a popular way to watch movies online. Of course, using Putlocker to stream pirated films rather than downloading them to your PC doesn’t put you out of harm’s way when it comes to the ramifications of piracy. If you choose to stream pirated movies or TV shows on Putlocker, you’ll still need to keep yourself safe, and that means you’ll want to find a good VPN.

Selecting a VPN provider is about more than just price. If you’re going to be using the service in ways where secrecy and privacy are paramount, you need to look at logging policies, endpoint locations, countries of origin and whether they use traffic management or not. This isn’t going to be a piece about VPN providers but more a piece on how to choose the right VPN for Putlocker, bittorrent or any other video-specific use you might have.

Like most buying decisions, the best product is the one that suits your personal needs and that fits your specific criteria. In the case of VPNs, much depends on what you want to use it for and how much protection you want or need. Once you finish this page you should have a very good idea of what to look for in a VPN provider.

What is a VPN?

A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. It’s an encrypted tunnel created between your device and the VPN server. All traffic between those devices is securely encrypted so nobody knows what you’re doing. This has obvious privacy benefits for everyone regardless of what you’re doing online.

The connection between your device and the VPN server is secure but is not encrypted from the endpoint server onto the internet. Good quality VPN providers will not track traffic between the encrypted part and the clear part so law enforcement, hackers, your ISP or whoever should not be able to link the traffic being accessed from that endpoint to your VPN connection.

What to Look For in a VPN for Putlocker

Most of us want to use VPNs to stop our ISP from collecting browsing data and selling it. Some may also want to avoid geo-blocking, surveillance, or to hold plausible deniability when using file sharing programs. You don’t have to be doing anything illegal to want to use a VPN. If you’re at all interested in privacy, you’re going to want one in your life.

So, with Putlocker, you’ll want to use your VPN to stop your ISP or movie studios from tracking you while watching content online.

Here are a few features to look out for when choosing the best VPN.

No Logging

Using a ‘no log’ VPN is essential for all users, but even more so for those who need to stay under the radar. There are three main types of logs: usage, session, and traffic.

• Usage logs collate online activity: browsing history, connection times, IP addresses, metadata and other identifiable data.
• Session logs collate data about websites visited, traffic downloaded and device type used within a single connection session.
• Traffic logs, also called connection logs, collate data on dates, times, connections and occasionally, IP addresses.

A no log VPN will not keep any of these logs. It will still have to keep very basic logs to help troubleshooting and fault finding within their network but these will be anonymized.

Protocol Support

VPN encryption uses a couple of protocols to maintain the connection between the VPN app on your device and the server. They are PPTP, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec and SSTP. OpenVPN is the most popular ands the easiest to use but others work too.

• The Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is old and should never be used. It uses only 128-bit encryption that isn’t not as secure as it should be.
• L2TP is the Layer Two Tunneling Protocol which is built on PPTP but is stronger and uses 256-bit encryption. It comes with a traffic overhead which can slow connections so is less than ideal.
• The Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) is owned by Microsoft and used only by Windows. It is based on SSL and is very secure. It is less popular than OpenVPN as it is Windows-only and doesn’t support site to site connections.
• OpenVPN uses standard TCP or UDP depending on the VPN. TCP is more reliable but slower as it has a high overhead. UDP is faster as it doesn’t guarantee delivery of traffic or perform any checks.

Of all of these, OpenVPN is the most popular and most flexible. It works on almost any device, is reliable and uses strong encryption.

Device Support

It stands to reason that there is no point using a VPN provider that doesn’t have an app that will work with your device. Most quality VPN providers will provide apps for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux and even allow custom configurations for Raspberry Pi and other devices.

When you’re looking at VPN providers, keep half an eye on device compatibility.

Servers and Locations

VPN providers should have multiple servers in multiple countries. The more servers and endpoint locations the better. If you want to use your VPN to access US Netflix from somewhere else, choose a provider with US endpoint servers. If you’re trying to circumvent government surveillance or something else, choose a provider with endpoint servers in countries with reputations for human rights like Sweden or Norway.

Company Location

Where the provider is based is only really an issue for those looking for ultimate security. Different countries have different legal boundaries and burden of evidence. Law enforcement can force a VPN provider to surrender logs, which is why it is important to go for a no logging provider. They can also force them to surrender payment details which could lead to your bank account.

Knowing where the VPN provider is based allows you to make an informed decision about them. Ironically, US-based VPN providers are one of the more reliable because we don’t (yet) have a mandatory data retention law. Some use Panama as they have no mandatory data retention laws whatsoever.

Secure Payment

As mentioned, your payment method is a theoretical link to your VPN use. If security is paramount, this is a link between you and the VPN provider. While on its own it is not evidence of wrongdoing, if you can avoid this link, all the better.

Many VPN providers allow payment from anonymous sources like cryptocurrency or even gift cards. If you’re trying for the ultimate security, using this is another degree of separation.

Choosing a VPN provider is an interesting journey and your choice should come down to more than just price. Even if you’re not planning to do anything illegal, using a no log VPN that uses OpenVPN is mandatory. Anything less is settling for second best and in the very competitive world of VPNs, there is no need to do that!

So, What’s Our Pick?

You’ve come to us for advice on the best VPN to use for Putlocker, and with our criteria out of the way, we’re finally ready to recommend ExpressVPN as the perfect VPN for streaming movies through Putlocker. ExpressVPN works to keep your connection secure without sacrificing speed, which means you can watch your movies in full HD quality once they’re available on Putlocker. The service also has some special features designed specifically to help users stream movies from services like Netflix, and has apps available for all major platforms and operating systems.

We have a whole list of our favorite VPN services here—including an in-depth look at ExpressVPN—so check out this guide if you want to learn more!

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That wraps up our guide to the best VPN for streaming Putlocker on your laptop. Whether you choose to follow through with our pick or you go about your own path, make sure to look for a VPN that fits the criteria in this guide!

Did you find a VPN for Putlocker? Let us know in the comments below!