How To Access Hulu in Canada

Want to access Hulu in Canada or another country? Want access to the full suite of programming while you travel out of the country? Think borders are so last century and want to watch what you want when you want? If you answered yes to any of those this is the tutorial for you. I’m going to show you how to access Hulu anywhere you like.

Hulu is one of the best TV streaming services around but is only available in the US. Thanks to the antiquated business practices used by the TV and movie industry, it takes longer to read their license agreements than it does to watch a full movie. Thanks to this outdated model, Hulu and any service that offers TV and movies has to pander to the whims of license holders who like to make life difficult for everyone but themselves.

When checking out Hulu, you see “Hulu is only accessible within the U.S. and on certain U.S. overseas military installations, as we only have streaming rights for our content in these regions.” If you want Hulu Live TV, you see “Live TV is available in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia only.”

If you live in the US and travel outside and try to watch something on Hulu, you will likely see “We’re sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States.” Or “Your Account is not valid in this region.”

I asked a friend to test Hulu Live TV from outside the US and we couldn’t get it to work. I’m not sure how their location identification service works but we couldn’t get it to play. Normal Hulu worked fine though.

Hulu anywhere

However, as always, where there is a will there is a way. That way isn’t technically legit and will contravene Hulu’s terms and conditions, but who reads that stuff anyway? If you want to access Hulu in Canada or anywhere for that matter, you can. It doesn’t matter if you live there or are staying there, you can still watch Hulu. Here’s how.

You will need a VPN to make this work and there are lots of them out there. Check out What is the Best VPN Service? – April 2018 for an idea of what service to buy. Ideally, you want a VPN that says it works with Hulu or Netflix. This means the service uses random IP addresses and regularly changes them to stay one step ahead of the block lists that each streaming service operates.

If you live outside the US, you will also need a way to pay. Fortunately, Hulu offers gift cards. As long as the seller delivers to your region, you can buy these cards, load up your VPN and watch Hulu in Canada or anywhere. This avoids the requirement to have a US credit card that matches your address.

Accessing Hulu with a VPN

You can set up a Hulu account with Facebook but I wouldn’t suggest that if you have your real location listed on the app. Instead, set up your Hulu account manually. You do have to answer the annoying gender question unfortunately.

1. Select a VPN that states it works with streaming TV services.
2. Download and install the VPN software and connect to a US server.
3. Navigate to the Hulu website and set up an account.
4. Select your plan, enter some details and log into the platform.
5. Enter your gift card code into the payment section when prompted. You get a free month so you may not have to enter it immediately.
6. Download the app and install it on your device.
7. Watch TV!

If you cannot get Hulu gift cards delivered to your home address you may need to set up a US PayPal account. This requires you use a credit card number generator to create a US credit card number and a fake US address. Both of which are easily available online but are a little too close to legal gray areas for me to want to venture into. A quick search should get you what you need should you want to use this method instead.

VPN or DNS proxy?

If you don’t want to use a VPN you can use a DNS proxy. You will need to check whether your ISP uses DNS hijacking before you use a proxy. Some ISPs, force your traffic through their own DNS servers even if you have different servers configured on your router. If your ISP does this, a VPN is your only option.

DNS proxies work just as well as a VPN for allowing access to geolocked content but do not encrypt your traffic. You need to choose whether security is a priority or not and acquire a service accordingly.

As you can see, it is quite possible to access Hulu in Canada or anywhere else in the world. It just requires a little research, some informed decisions and a little ingenuity. Enjoy!