How to Watch the Women’s World Cup Final with a VPN

This Sunday sees the final of the Women’s World Cup, a soccer event that has grabbed our attention more than ever this year thanks to amazing performances on the pitch, as well as a little controversy off of it.

With the USA through to the final on 7 July, it really has become a must-watch event. In the US, Fox owns the broadcast rights to the soccer match of the year. If you want to watch the match live, you’ll need to be subscribed to a partner TV package. But, if you don’t have one of these, you can watch an overseas feed of the game – for that, you may need a VPN.

A VPN will make sure you watch every shot, every tackle, and every goal hit the net. Lots of online broadcasters do geo-location tracking, preventing overseas visitors from streaming their content. With a VPN, you can swap your usual IP address for one from a server in a different country, unlocking overseas content – including the World Cup.

We’ve picked out three of the very best VPNs out there that will get you front row seats to the match, as well as explaining why a VPN could be a great addition to your internet toolkit.

What is a VPN?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network), connects you to a secure server that bypasses your own internet provider.

The reason why you may want to do this is that it masks your real IP address. This is unique to you and used to identify key information, including your location. Connecting to a VPN enables you to adopt the location of the country the server is located in, giving you full, unfettered access to the services in that location.

Don’t worry – using a VPN is perfectly legal. There are very few countries in the world where it’s against the law to use a VPN.

There are several benefits to this, including being able to access content that you would usually be geo-blocked from, including region specific media content (such as Netflix). It also anonymizes your internet traffic and protects your indentity.

How Can I Use a VPN to Watch the 2019 Women’s World Cup?

There are no end of ways to watch the Women’s World Cup online, no matter where you are in the world, if you use a VPN. Fox has the broadcast rights to the match in the US, and you can watch it on the Fox site or via the app. But, you must already have a subscription with a partnered TV provider to sign in.

However, if you just want the watch the match without committing to a TV subscription (and who could blame you), then there are plenty of options.

Streaming services such as Hulu and Fubo will get you access to the game, and although these subscription services come at a cost, you’ll find that most will offer free trials to new users. Take Fubo for example. Sign up, and you’ll not only get to watch the final, but you’ll also have access to over 100 channels as well as on demand box sets.

While this doesn’t come cheap (the package typically costs $55 a month), the site offers a free 7 day trial. That’s more than enough time to sign up, watch the match, as well as anything else you like the look of, then leave. Similarly, Hulu also offers a trial, giving you another option.

Once you’ve found the right VPN from our recommendations, just download the app and install it on your device. Log in with your account details, created as part of the sign-up process. Now you can access any content from anywhere in the world. Pretty good right?

To access Hulu or Fubo, simply change your location to USA in your VPN’s settings, and then follow the instructions on either site to sign up.

If you don’t want to take out a free trial, then consider accessing the match from a different location. Now you’ve got a VPN, the sky’s the limit.

For example, in the UK, the BBC will be streaming the world cup for free, and in Canada, CTV have the rights. Neither require paid subscriptions.

Scroll horizontally to view full table on mobile devices

	PureVPN	NordVPN	IPVanish VPN	TorGuard	Private Internet Access	Windscribe	Proton VPN	Hide Me VPN	AirVPN	Express VPN
Tech.co Rating	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆
No. of devices	5	5	5	5	5	10	10	5	5	3
No. of servers	750	3605	1000	3000	3035	480	112	150	60	1500
Data logging	–	✓	–	–	–	–	✓	–	✓	–
Killswitch	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Email Support	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Live Chat	✓	✓	✓	✓	–	✓	–	–	–	✓
Ease of use	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★★
Features	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	★★★★★	★★★★★
Privacy	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★
Speed	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★☆☆☆
Help & Support	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★★	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆
Value for Money	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆
Free trial	–	✓	✓	–	–	✓	✓	✓	–	–
Price per month	$2.95 (1-year plan)	$2.99 (3-year plan)	$5.19 (1-year plan)	$4.12 (2-year plan)	$2.91 (2-year plan)	$4.08 (1-year plan)	$4 (1-year plan)	$4.99 (1-year plan)	$2.78 (2-year plan)	$8.32 (1-year plan)
Discounts	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers	See offers

PureVPN

Some VPNs are a great fit for experts, while others are aimed squarely at new starters. PureVPN (click for full review) manages the seemingly impossible and straddles both, offering a fantastic, easy to use VPN that also has a wealth of options for the tech-savvy to play with.

As well as giving you access to region-locked websites (vital for watching the Super Bowl from outside the US), PureVPN is also one of the few apps that can give you the keys to Netflix’s international library. Set the country you want to access the service from, log in with your Netflix subscription, and you’ll have that entire country’s content available to watch.

PureVPN also offers a great suite of data protection options, which is a key benefit of using a VPN. One of these, ‘Privacy’, actually masks your identity when using a file sharing network.

NordVPN

NordVPN (click for full review) is a fast and powerful VPN, and offers excellent value for money, especially if you commit to the year subscription plan, or longer.

If you’re concerned about your online privacy, then NordVPN could well be the right choice for you. Its data encryption is military-grade, which means that you won’t have to worry about online snoopers as you access the web – a particular comfort if you’re using a public WiFi service.

It also has a wide reach, with 3,600 servers across 62 countries, meaning that you’ll never struggle to find a server to route your traffic through.

It’s flexible too, with a single subscription allowing you to use NordVPN on up to six different devices.

IPVanish

IPVanish (click for full review) is aimed more at those who have used VPNs before, and could prove daunting to newcomers. However, for those with some technical acumen, it’s an incredibly powerful tool, with options to change the VPN protocol or enable different levels of leak protection. If that means nothing to you, we’d suggest sticking with the excellent PureVPN or NordVPN, above.

One of the key benefits of IPVanish is its excellent speeds. No VPN will be as fast as your connection when you’re not using one, but some handle slowdown better than others, and IPVanish manages to barely dip at all, keeping a consistent speed that won’t impact your use.

IPVanish owns and operates 1,000 servers in over 60 countries, and allows peer to peer file-sharing, which some other VPNs actively ban.

Can You Use a Free VPN to Watch the World Cup?

We wouldn’t recommend it. While there are numerous day-to-day reasons to avoid using free VPNs – including dubious privacy protections, limited numbers of servers to connect to and being served distracting adverts while you use them – there’s a big one to consider when it comes to streaming a big event: Data.

Yup, most free VPNs have a pretty tight data limit, and that means there’s only so much streaming you can do before you hit the cap.

With a big ticket event like the World Cup, which you’ll want to watch in HD, don’t expect to make it half time using a free VPN.

Should I Keep My VPN After the Women’s World Cup Final?

A VPN is a cheap addition to your internet tools, and in 2019, it’s practically essential for those that care about their online privacy or want to open up the internet and access content they wouldn’t usually even see from their region.

When the World Cup ends and the trophy is hoisted, it’s well worth holding onto your subscription. If you’re a big sports fan, then there’s great coverage across the globe of your favorite teams and games that you could well be missing out on. Fire up a VPN, and you can have instant access to whatever you want, whenever you need. Then there’s streaming content from services such as Netflix, which typically restrict the films and shows you can see dependent on location. This is due to strict licensing agreements which dictate what Netflix is allowed to show in each territory.

With a VPN though, this is no longer an issue. Netflix is aware of the VPN workaround, and tries to detect VPNs in use – not all services are successful in accessing Netflix, so check out our guide to the Best VPNs for Netflix.

There is also a huge privacy benefit to using a VPN, as they actively hide your activities and data. This means that it’s very hard to snoop on anyone using a VPN, or intercept their data. In real terms, this provides immense peace of mind when using public Wi-Fi, or just don’t want your service provider to keep tabs on you.