Hotstar is India’s leading streaming platform, with over 350 million users throughout the region. The app has hundreds of movies and TV shows to choose from. Moreover, you can watch live cricket matches, follow your favorite football leagues and even stay updated with the news. Hotstar is an excellent source of entertainment and is probably the most popular choice for entertainment apps amongst Indians.
At the moment, Hotstar can only be accessed in three different countries, India, the US, and Canada. Although the app is available in the United States, it’s a downgrade in terms of the service offered here. For example, most of the content from third-party providers such as HBO, Disney, and StarSports is unavailable outside India. Also, if you’re a fan of Indian entertainment channels such as Star Plus, Asianet, and Life OK, you won’t find them outside of India. Hotstar also stated that Indian memberships could not be transferred between countries.
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How To Watch Hotstar in the USA using VPN:
However, don’t be discouraged; there is a workaround. When you log in to Hotstar from the US, Hotstar will detect that you have an American IP address, and you will be shown American content. That means in order to view Indian content, all you have to do is make Hotstar think you’re logging in from an Indian IP address. This is a relatively easy process, thanks to many VPNs (Virtual Private networks) available on the market. Essentially, a VPN hides your IP address and creates a virtual server address for you; all it takes is a quick installation of a VPN software. Conveniently, some VPN Softwares also come as an extension for your web browser, allowing you to access Hotstar from the US without even having to download an external application.
Which VPN Should I Choose?
Before we show you how to access Hotstar from the US, you’ll need to find a suitable VPN for yourself. Now there are hundreds of VPNs out there, but only some offer quality service. They range from free to premium services, with the premium VPNs offering better internet speed, security, and anonymity. Below is our selection of the two best VPNs for streaming Hotstar from the United States. One is a premium service, and the latter offers free service. Most VPNs have features that make them suitable for specific applications such as torrenting, streaming, or gaming. Therefore it’s important to know which one to choose.
1. The Best Paid VPN Service – ExpressVPN
Express VPN is the best choice for those looking to access Hotstar content from the US. Although there is a small price to pay of $8.32 per month, Express VPN offers a 100% money-back guarantee on your first month. You can access any content all over the globe (over 94 countries), including India’s Hotstar, with no geo-blocks or restrictions. Moreover, you get access to unlimited bandwidth and superfast servers.
Features:
- Cross-platform compatibility allows you to access Express VPN servers from your mobile device as well.
- Has without-doubt the best security and encryption features in the game. It has a unique ‘Network Lock’ which keeps your data secure even if Express VPN stops working for any reason.
- It has excellent speeds and reliability, with three servers in India itself.
- It has a split tunneling feature that allows you to choose which apps you want to run through the VPN tunnel. The apps you don’t select will access the regular internet.
- Absolutely no data leakage.
2. The Best Free VPN Service – Speedify
Speedify is one of the few, if not the only, tested Free VPN service that actually works for Hotstar India. In fact, the number of Free VPN software out there is massive, but most of them don’t have servers that allow you to access Hotstar. You won’t receive the superfast speeds and security protocols that premium VPNs offer, but it does offer some basic security features. Moreover, only one device can be connected at a time using Speedify. It is important to understand that this VPN service uses channel bonding. Channel Bonding allows the websites and stream you’re trying to access to load lag-free, but it uses a combination of multiple network connections such as your Wi-Fi and cellular data. Speedify, like most free VPN services, has a data limit. However, Speedify offered the most amount of bandwidth per month amongst free other free VPNs.
Features:
- Uses Channel Bonding to provide a lag-free stream. (Note this method does consume a large amount of data).
- Encrypts your data with standard encryption standards.
- Reliable since it uses multiple connections.
- Encrypts your traffic and prevents leakage while accessing region-locked content.
- 5GB data per month.
- Has cross-platform compatibility i.e. mobile app.
How To Watch Hotstar Videos In the US
Now that we’ve covered the best VPNs to watch, Hotstar. We’re going to show you step-by-step how to install and access Hotstar India from the United States. We’ll be using Speedify as the example here, but Express VPN or any VPN will follow similar setup procedures.
- Download and install Speedify.
- Add your internet connection. If you have more than one, add both.
- At the moment, your VPN will show that you are disconnected. Click on the gear icon, go to Settings>Server, and then choose ‘India.’
- Now you are connected to Speedify’s Indian server.
- That’s all there is to it. All you have to do now is visit Hotstar and enjoy all your favorite channels that are only offered in India.
Final Words:
Using a VPN is the only way to access Hotstar’s region-locked content from the United States. However, whether you choose to use a free VPN or a paid VPN service is totally up to you. You must understand by now that a paid VPN is far superior to a free VPN. It will offer better network stability, reliability, and security. Moreover, any free VPN that actually allows you to access Hotstar from the US will have a data bandwidth limit, and we found that Speedify offered the most data per month at 5GB. Hence, we recommend that you pay a small price for a premium VPN service. It is definitely worth it.