Are you looking for methods to have unrestricted access to the YouTube service? Then you are on the right page, as the article below will show you the methods you can use to unblock YouTube.
Overview of YouTube Unblocker
Free YouTube Unblockers
- HolaVPN: All countries supported – <Free service with an optional paid plan> – Free VPN for unblocking YouTube
- ProtonVPN: Number of countries supported not disclosed – <Free service with an optional paid plan> – Tor over VPN
- TuxlerVPN: Number of countries supported not disclosed – <Free service with an optional paid plan> – Free VPN for unblocking YouTube
Premium YouTube Unblockers
- ExpressVPN: 94 countries supported – <$12.95 monthly subscription fee> – Best VPN for unblocking YouTube
- Surfshark: 65 countries supported – <$12.95 monthly subscription fee> – Premium Features Supported Provider
- NordVPN: 59 countries supported – <$11.95 monthly subscription fee> – High-quality VPN service
Proxies for Unblocking YouTube
- Luminati: 72+ million IPs in Pool- <Starts from $500 for 40GB | $12.5 per GB> – Best proxies for YouTube
- Smartproxy: 40 million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $75 for 5GB | $15 PER GB> – Pocket-Friendly Premium Provider
- Shifter: 31+ million IPs in Pool – <Starts from $249 for 10 ports | $25 per port> – Unlimited Bandwidth
Having unrestricted access to YouTube without experiencing any form of block is what YouTube users expect. Unfortunately, YouTube has not been developed without restriction – you are going to be blocked either because you are from a certain region or because your IP address has been blacklisted or the video requires a YouTube premium subscription.
Let forget the YouTube premium subscription for a second as there is nothing you can do about that aside from paying for the subscription. Our focus in this article is on IP-based blocks users of YouTube are likely to experience as you try watching videos on YouTube.
One thing you will come to understand about YouTube blocks is that they are not as pronounced as restrictions on other websites. I must confess; it’s not up to a year that I knew that YouTube actually has geo-fence around certain videos and except you are from a supported region – you cannot access the video – this is a geo-restriction popularly known with Netflix and Hulu.
Another form of block is when you go against the terms of usage of YouTube, or your IP address belongs to a subnet known for spamming, and YouTube blocks you from accessing its service.
How YouTube Block Users
Are you wondering how YouTube is able to block you even when you are not logged in? Let me tell you a little secret – your IP address is the culprit. An IP address is a unique numerical label assigned to Internet-enabled devices.
This IP address can be resolved to geolocation which is usually the location where the device is located. This means that with your IP address, you are not only unique, but your location is also known. In order to watch a geofenced video, YouTube will check your location to see if you are surfing from a supported region – if you are surfing from an unsupported location, access is denied.
For IP-based blocks related to spam, the process is simple. YouTube keeps a list of IP addresses that have been blacklisted, and only IP addresses not in the blacklisted list are allowed access. The major difference between geo-restriction blocks and spam-based blocks is that for geo-restriction, you are not allowed to watch because of access right or broadcast law, while in the case of spam-based blocks, you are not wanted on the platform.
One thing you need to know is that sometimes, spam-based blocks are by mistake. Whatever is the case, you can unblock YouTube and watch the video you want to watch, provided it is not hidden behind a paywall.
Methods for Unblocking YouTube
If you are suffering from an IP-based block, then I have good news for you – IP -based blocks are the easiest to remove. All you need to do is to spoof your real IP address with a different IP address. For geo-restrictions, you will need to spoof your IP address with an IP address from a supported region.
Let say you are in India and want to watch a video available only to users surfing from the United States; you will need to spoof your IP with a US IP. To spoof your IP address, there are 2 options available to you as far as unblocking YouTube – use either a VPN or Proxy server.
Best YouTube Unblocker: VPN vs. Proxy?
VPN Services for Unblocking YouTube
For VPN, there are two options available to you – you can either use the free services if you do not want to spend money and deal with some of the downsides or go for paid premium VPNs that will provide you the best performance.
Free VPN for Unblocking YouTube
You can actually unblock YouTube for free using some free VPN. But there are caveats – high-speed is not guaranteed, and location support for most free VPNs and other tools that will provide you access is highly limited, and as such, you might not be able to access all geofenced videos. If you do not have money to pay for a premium tool, you can go ahead and use one of the VPNs described below. For maximum performance and experience, skip to the next section to choose a paid VPN.
ProtonVPN
ProtonVPN's headquarters is in Switzerland, which has a strict privacy law, and as such, they do not log users' activities. To keep you even more protected, they utilize the Tor anonymous network. They have got support for many countries across the globe, but only a few are available to free users, which might be obstructive to you for unblocking videos with geo-restrictions.
Hola
Hola VPN is a community-powered VPN service where community members share idle device resources. Hola VPN uses the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network model to source for its IP, and currently, it has over 225 million users ready to provide their IPs and idle system resources.
Hola VPN is focused on entertainment, and it has support for YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and many others – you can use it to surf the Internet too. One thing you will come to like about Hola VPN is its platform and OS support which is one of the best on the list. However, you will have to deal with the issue of speed and sharing your IP and idle resource for other community members to use.
TuxlerVPN
TuxlerVPN is another free VPN service you can use to unblock YouTube. The TuxlerVPN will provide access to the Internet without borders. Just like the other ones described above, TuxlerVPNTuxlerVPN also has a paid subscription plan with better and advanced features than the free plan. However, the free plan is enough for your YouTube activities.
Just like Hola VPN, TuxlerVPNis residential IPs, and they currently have over 70K IPs monthly that is available to their customers. In terms of platform support, TuxlerVPN is available on Windows, Mac, Chrome, and Firefox.
Best Premium VPN for YouTube Unblocking
VPNs are some of the best technologies you can use to unblock YouTube. They help route your requests via a VPN server which will spoof your real IP address with a different one – either from your location or another location that can help you access geofenced videos.
To use a VPN, you are required to install VPN software provided by the VPN provider. As far as YouTube streaming is concerned, the below VPN software are the best you can use.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is arguably the best VPN service provider in the market. Its VPN servers are compatible and work well with the YouTube service without getting detected. This VPN service has support for IPs from 94 countries with servers in 160 locations across the globe.
This means that it is the perfect VPN service if you want to watch geo-targeted videos on YouTube. Interestingly, ExpressVPN is not only effective against YouTube blocks – it will provide you unrestricted access to the world wide web provided the block is IP-based.
ExpressVPN is available on all major platforms and Operating Systems. It is paid but quite affordable and comes with a 30-day guarantee period.
SurfShark
SurfShark is another premium VPN provider you can use their VPN software to evade YouTube restrictions and blocks. One thing you will come to like about SurfShark, just like ExpressVPN, is that it has verified security with verification carried out by Cure53. SurfShark currently has over 3200 VPN servers distributed in 65 countries.
These 65 supported countries are the countries that get videos geo-targeted to them the most. For YouTube, you do not have a problem using SurfShark – its servers are super fast, giving you an enjoyable streaming experience without lags and annoying buffering. SurfShark is also available on popular OS and platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, Chrome, Linux, and Fire TV.
NordVPN
NordVPN will help unblock YouTube for you regardless of the device you want to access YouTube on – and you can use one subscription on up to 6 devices at a time. One thing you will come to like about NordVPN is that even though it is free, it has mouth-watering discounts for everyone, and students also get a special discount too.
NordVPN also has support for a good number of locations across the globe, and their VPN servers have been taunted as some of the fastest. With NordVPN, you will not only bypass IP blocks, but you will also be able to watch videos with geo-restriction.
Best Residential Proxies for Unblocking YouTube
If all you require is to unblock YouTube and have unrestricted access while surfing, then the VPNs described above will do. But what if you want to carry out an automation task using an automation tool and you get blocked? Using proxies is the answer. Residential proxies are the best proxies for unblocking YouTube. Below are some of the best you can use.
Luminati
Luminati is arguably the best proxy provider in the market. It has the largest proxy pool in the market, with over 72 million residential IPs in it. In terms of location support, Luminati has proxies in all countries of the world. This makes it perfect for accessing geo-targeted data from YouTube for all countries of the world.
One thing you will come to like about Luminati is its speed – it is regarded as one of the fastest residential proxy services in the market. You can use it to unblock IP-based restrictions not only on YouTube alone but all other sites on the open Internet. Its proxies are secure, highly anonymous, and quite effective.
Smartproxy
Luminati tick all of the boxes except for the fact that its minimum monetary requirement is not pocket friendly – the minimum monetary commitment for Luminati is $500, which is considered expensive for many Internet users.
Now, this is where Smartproxy comes in – you can get started with just $75. Smartproxy is the best alternative to Luminati for unblocking YouTube – it has IPs in about 195 locations and has a residential proxy pool size of 40 million. Their proxies are quite fast, too, and as such, you can enjoy a hitch-free streaming experience.
Shifter
Shifter is a residential proxy provider that allows its users to enjoy unlimited bandwidth usage, which makes it perfect for streaming YouTube videos – Luminati and Smartproxy subscription comes with limited bandwidth. Shifter has support for many locations too and has over 31 million IPs in its residential IP pool.
Shifter is priced based on ports. Their proxies are perfect for a good number of use cases, including social media automation, site testing, ad verification, market research, and many more. We tested their proxies, and the speed can be said to be moderate and fast enough for streaming.
Conclusion
Even though it does not seem like there are some restrictions at first glance, YouTube has IP-based restrictions that could hinder you from accessing either its platform as a whole or specific video because of geo-fences. If any of these happens, you can make use of either VPN or a proxy server. The above our recommended VPNs and proxies for unblocking YouTube.
