Hulu is an incredibly popular streaming service, but for many people, it has one glaring downside — it is only available in the United States and Japan. VPN providers offer a way to bypass that restriction, letting you watch Hulu content from anywhere in the world. With NordVPN being one of the most popular VPNs, you may be wondering: does NordVPN work with Hulu?

Key Takeaways: Does NordVPN Work With Hulu?

• Hulu is an excellent streaming service, but unfortunately, it is only available in the United States and Japan. 
• NordVPN has servers in both the United States and Japan, and you can use them for streaming content on Hulu. 
• There are other VPNs that can make Hulu work outside the U.S. and Japan, but NordVPN is still one of the best VPNs for the job, especially if you’re not keen on paying too much. 

Most streaming services frown upon using a VPN to access their content. They block the VPN providers’ known IP addresses and restrict access for their users. Finding a VPN provider that can access Hulu isn’t exactly a walk in the park. That being said, NordVPN is a great choice if you want to watch Hulu content — like Reservation Dogs and Only Murders in the Building. 

As we mention in our NordVPN review, NordVPN is a great way to get secure IP addresses for unblocking Hulu in the U.S. and Japan. It has a large network of secure servers, checks all the boxes from a security standpoint, and offers features like obfuscated servers and a dedicated IP address. 

Does NordVPN Work With Hulu?

Yes, NordVPN works with Hulu with no known issues. You will need an active NordVPN subscription, and you’ll need to connect to one of the United States servers. NordVPN offers over 1,970 servers in 15 locations in the United States, and we’ve had an excellent experience with all the locations we tested. 

To add to this, in our VPN speed comparison, we noticed that NordVPN has excellent download and upload speeds when connecting to any VPN server in the U.S., and the latency was impressively low, too. This means that you shouldn’t have any issue watching Hulu, even if you want to access Hulu content at higher resolutions such as 4K. 

If you want to access Hulu Japan, NordVPN can do that too. The provider has over 130 servers in Japan, located in Tokyo and Osaka. That means you can unblock Hulu and its Japanese content from anywhere in the world. Connection speeds to NordVPN’s Japanese servers are solid, and we found no latency issues that would result in buffering. 

Why Use NordVPN to Access Hulu?

The main reason why you would want to use NordVPN to watch Hulu is geoblocking. Geoblocking restricts your access to content based on your geographical location. In the case of Hulu, you can’t access the streaming service if you’re not physically in the United States, or more recently, Japan. We cover geoblocking in more detail in our geoblocking guide. 

Whether you’re in the United States and want to access Japanese content, or the other way around, a VPN can help you virtually change your location to unblock Hulu. If you’re not in either of the two countries, a VPN can give you IP addresses for accessing Hulu with relative ease (check out our article on how to get Hulu in Canada, for example). 

To add to this, a VPN will encrypt and route your connection through its server network with secure servers. This provides an additional layer of security and hides your real IP address from the snooping eyes of your internet service provider and data sharing alliances. 

How to Use NordVPN to Watch Hulu

If you want to watch Hulu using U.S. or Japanese IP addresses, doing so with NordVPN is easy — here’s how. 

1. Sign Up With NordVPN

   Go to the NordVPN website, and in the top-right corner, click “get NordVPN.” Choose a subscription plan and follow the instructions to create an account.

   

2. Download NordVPN

   Once you’ve created an account, download the NordVPN app for the device you’re using. NordVPN has an app for almost any device or platform.

   

3. Start NordVPN

   On your device of choice, start the NordVPN app. If you’ve set up NordVPN on a router, skip this step — all devices on your network will tunnel traffic through NordVPN.

   

4. Connect to a Server in the US or Japan

   Depending on whether you want to stream Hulu and its U.S. content or Hulu Japan, click on the arrow to expand the list of servers and search for “United States” or “Japan.” Then, click the server location you want to connect to, and NordVPN will do the rest.

   

5. Start Watching Hulu Content

   Once you’ve connected to the VPN server, open the Hulu app on your device, or navigate to the Hulu website, and enjoy the streaming platform without its geographical restrictions.

   

NordVPN Hulu Troubleshooting

Even though watching Hulu should be a trouble-free experience with NordVPN, there is still a small chance of things not working on the first try. If this happens, you can still use your Hulu account to enjoy the content, but you may need to do some troubleshooting. 

Restart Your Browser or App

The first thing you should try is restarting your browser. If you have opened the Hulu website prior to getting a U.S. or Japan IP address, you may need to restart the browser to clear the browser cache. 

Alternatively, if you’re using the Hulu app, you can try logging out, closing the app, then opening the app and logging in again. 

Restart NordVPN

In some cases, you may need to restart the NordVPN app in order to access Hulu. To do this, we would recommend that you disconnect from the current server, close the NordVPN app, and then try opening the app again and connecting to the server you previously connected to.

Try a Different Server

In the rare case that this doesn’t work, you can try and see if NordVPN works on a different server location. Disconnect from the server you’re connected to and restart NordVPN. Then, instead of connecting to the same server, try a different one from the server list in the VPN app. NordVPN has multiple servers in both the U.S. and Japan, so you should be able to find an alternative. 

Disable Threat Protection

NordVPN offers a Threat Protection feature that keeps your device secure from malware-infected files and helps you avoid malicious websites. However, the feature may sometimes interfere with NordVPN’s operation, in which case you can disable it completely. 

This is done by clicking on the shield icon in the taskbar on the left side of NordVPN, which lets you toggle Threat Protection on or off.

NordVPN Alternatives For Hulu

If you’re looking for the best way to watch Hulu from other countries, NordVPN is among the top choices. However, there are alternatives that you could consider if, for some reason, you’re not a fan of NordVPN. We mention a few in our best VPNs for Hulu article, but the top two alternatives are ExpressVPN and Surfshark.

ExpressVPN is our first recommendation. It tops our list of best VPNs for a few reasons, performance and security chief among them, and it has servers in both the U.S. and Japan. It is, however, very expensive, even if you subscribe to one of the longer plans. You can find out more about it in our ExpressVPN review.

Our second recommendation is Surfshark, which is incredibly affordable and allows unlimited simultaneous connections. While sufficient for unblocking and streaming Hulu, Surfshark doesn’t have the fastest speeds, and it sometimes struggles with latency, which is why it’s not our top recommendation — we cover this in more detail in our Surfshark review.

Final Thoughts

NordVPN is the perfect solution if you want a VPN for Hulu. Thanks to excellent speeds and low latency, you’ll get an excellent streaming experience. You also get security features such as a kill switch, strong encryption and obfuscated servers, as well as the option to get a dedicated IP address. 

Have you tried using Hulu with NordVPN? Did you get a U.S. or Japanese IP address? How did you like the experience? Let us know in the comments, and as always, thank you for reading. 

FAQ

• Can Hulu Ban You for Using VPN?

  No, Hulu won’t ban you for using a VPN. However, Hulu and other streaming platforms keep track of IP addresses known to come from a VPN provider, and it may block the one you’re currently using. A new IP address from your VPN provider will let you stream content again.

• Does NordVPN Work With Hulu?

  Yes, you can use Hulu with NordVPN, thanks to its servers in the U.S. and Japan, as well as the high speeds and low latency.

• Does NordVPN Work With All Streaming Services?

  Yes, NordVPN doesn’t only work with Hulu, but with other streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer.