Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the United States by population. The city has an estimated 3.97 million people, and the metro area is home to just over 13 million residents. The City of Angels is known for its thriving film industry, glamorous Hollywood A-listers, sun-kissed beaches, sporting teams, and bustling downtown and cultural sites. If visiting L.A. is part of your future plans, make sure you protect your online activity while you’re there by using a VPN. Residents and tourists alike can safely connect to free public Wi-Fi networks and enjoy the benefit of privacy protection and unrestricted access to the entire Internet by using a VPN.
Short on time? Here are the best VPNs for Los Angeles
- ExpressVPN – our top choice for Los Angeles. ExpressVPN offers fast servers in Los Angeles that are perfect for streaming TV and movies, plus a massive network that covers 94 countries should you want to access overseas content. Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days.
- NordVPN – because Los Angeles is such a big area, it isn’t really surprising to see NordVPN offer servers there. This VPN is fast and reliable.
- Private Internet Access – with Silicon Valley in California, this tech-savvy service favorite has servers in L.A. and will do a good job for you while you’re there.
- CyberGhost – with 119 servers in Los Angeles and more than 7600 servers worldwide, CyberGhost offers good speed and security in the City of Angels.
- IPVanish – Since they allow for unlimited connections and have servers in L.A., this favorite of the Kodi community will provide you with solid protection.
Since Los Angeles is so large, they are one of the cities to have two top-tier teams in all of the major sports. The teams in the area include the LA Dodgers and Anaheim Angels (MLB), LA Lakers and Clippers (NBA), LA Rams and Chargers (NFL), LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks (NHL), and the LA Galaxy and LAFC (MLS). Given the size of the metropolitan area, it should be no surprise that these teams have fans worldwide.
A VPN is a great way for sports fans to make sure they never miss their favorite sports team’s games. When a local team is playing, the game will be “blacked out” from the team’s home market. Nationally broadcast games are often also blacked out for local markets. So if you are in the city and the team is playing at home, you are at a disadvantage if you want to watch online. Fortunately, by connecting to a VPN server in a different region, you can bypass these broadcasting blackouts and watch in-market games.
There are a few factors which make L.A. great for conventions: the weather, location, and infrastructure. Whether you want to go to WonderCon (the comic book, sci-fi, and film convention), the Orange County International Auto Show, or even the world-famous E3 Convention (the world’s premier event for computers, video games, and related products), you can attend them as long as you can purchase a ticket. From the convention center to hotels, restaurants, and other places throughout the day, you will no doubt be making use of free Wi-Fi networks to access social media, keep up to date with news, and stay connected. However, these networks are often vulnerable to abuse and you want to protect your online activities. By connecting to a VPN, you can protect your privacy while enjoying your time in California.
Just like with conventions, L.A. has epic festivals. There are many celebrations around the Grammy Awards, Academy Awards, and Emmy Awards. That does not consider the Japanese Festival, the Halloween Carnival, and many music festivals, including Coachella. Much like the conventions, people worldwide flood hotels and Airbnb rentals in the area. If you are going to any festival there, you’ll need downtime, especially if it rains. Luckily, using a VPN will help you access streaming services’ vast content libraries from other regions. Watch your favorite streaming services from home or discover new ones like BBC iPlayer, many of which are free of charge.
How to Use a VPN to get a Los Angeles IP Address
You can connect to an ExpressVPN server in Los Angeles to get a local IP address. By doing so you will obtain an IP in LA to access local content. Just follow these steps:
Sign up for ExpressVPN (includes a 30-day risk-free money-back guarantee).- Install the VPN app on your desktop or mobile device. ExpressVPN offers apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. You can also use its MediaStreamer feature on game consoles and set-top boxes.
- Connect to an ExpressVPN server in Los Angeles to get a local IP address in L. A.
- You can test the location of your IP address from within the ExpressVPN app. Open Settings and click on Help & Support > IP Address Checker. This will verify that you have an IP address in Los Angeles, California.
- The same is true for other server locations. If you have any questions or need help, the ExpressVPN support team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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What is the best VPN for Los Angeles?
We focused on the following to determine our best VPNs for L.A.:
- Speed test results from VPN servers in Los Angeles for each provider
- We gave preference to VPNs with multiple server locations in California
- Ability to unblock popular streaming services and sporting events
- High levels of encryption to protect your online privacy
- Support for torrent traffic and popular online games.
- Mobile apps and support for Amazon Firestick devices
Without further delay, here is the list of the best VPN services for Los Angeles:
1. ExpressVPN – Best VPN with Los Angeles IP Address
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With servers on every continent except Antarctica, ExpressVPN operates 160 server locations in 94 countries. That means they have one of the largest VPN networks, and they have a presence in almost half the counties in the world. While the service may be more expensive than some of its competitors, you get a premium VPN dedicated to privacy (ExpressVPN keeps no activity logs, so your browsing is kept private) with some of the fastest speeds, apps for every device, and 24/7 customer support to help troubleshoot any issues.
ExpressVPN was the fastest performing VPN in our list with a download speed of 425 Mbps when connected to a server in Los Angeles from our office over 2,000 miles away. As you can see, ExpressVPN has a large number of server locations in the United States including Los Angeles and San Francisco. You will be hard pressed to find better network coverage since ExpressVPN hosts servers in 160 cities worldwide.
We feel that no one should have to miss out on watching their favorite sports. Luckily, ExpressVPN agrees with that thought. If you like to travel abroad, are an expat, or you are otherwise outside the viewing area, you may have an issue when you try to watch your home team. The solution to that is to connect to a VPN in the region you want to join. It will get you past any geo-blocking software so you can enjoy the live streams of your favorite sporting events.
ExpressVPN is our top-rated VPN service of 2023. Regardless of your goals for using a VPN, ExpressVPN combines a robust network with privacy features to keep you protected. We commonly use it to protect our privacy while traveling and to access our favorite streaming services back home. While you can sign up for monthly access, we recommend you take advantage of this exclusive deal that gives you 3 extra months free when you sign up for a year. You can also get a full refund within 30 days if you’re not completely satisfied, so you can test their network with ExpressVPN’s money-back-guarantee.
Want to learn more? Read our full ExpressVPN review.
2. NordVPN – good value with 230 servers in L.A.
No matter what you like to stream online, NordVPN can help stop some of the interruptions you will face. If you are not aware, some internet service providers (ISPs) monitor customer’s traffic to look for streaming patterns. While some say they do not, it is not uncommon for companies to throttle speeds, especially during peak times. Connecting to a VPN, however, will mask the traffic so that episode 12 of your binge fest doesn’t include the spinning wheel of death. No one wants to deal with buffering issues.
NordVPN has a large network footprint in California with 230 server in LA and another 170 in San Francisco. You can select any location all the way down to a specific server number. If you ever experience a slow connection you can easily choose a different server. In our case we connected to a server in Los Angeles and achieved a speed of 426 Mbps.
While NordVPN isn’t the oldest player in the VPN community, they have certainly made a splash in the space. They are very popular, and the company took its name from the Nordic ideals of trust, confidence, and innovation. Since their founding in 2012, you can not visit any type of media without seeing an advertisement of some sort. They mention that they have 12 million users worldwide. Given that, you are in great hands if you choose NordVPN. They manage a large network to help meet your goals for using a VPN.
Want to learn more? Read our full NordVPN review.
3. Private Internet Access – US-based VPN based in Silicon Valley
If you are one of the many people that like to stream sports on your favorite mobile device, connecting to a VPN server from Private Internet Access may be useful to you. More and more providers are allowing their users to watch some sports for free. Great examples of that include baseball and American football in the US. However, if you are traveling abroad or are otherwise outside of your home area, you would miss out on those games. By connecting to a VPN server you should be able to regain the access you wish.
Private Internet Access is the only VPN in our list that is based in California. They host servers in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. With a speed of 425 Mbps, PIA’s speed was slower than the other VPNs on our list, but the performance was still fast enough to meet most users needs.
If you are looking for a VPN provider that does not keep logs, Private Internet Access has you covered. Over the years, they have developed a well-known reputation throughout the community. While some companies claim they do not keep logs, but then turn them over to authorities, The team at Private Internet Access continuously takes steps to make sure that they protect their users’ interests. If privacy is important to you, you will find that this one is the right choice to make.
Want to learn more? Read our full Private Internet Access review.
4. CyberGhost – 119 VPN servers in Los Angeles
If you are a gamer, one of the things you can avoid by connecting a VPN server from CyberGhost is what is known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. If you are not aware, a DDoS attack makes a machine or network unavailable by flooding it with requests in an attempt to overload systems. You should not have to worry about attackers or botnets stopping you from playing your favorite games. When you connect to a VPN, though, it will help you prevent that from happening.
Like all the other VPNs in our list, CyberGhost hosts servers in multiple California cities. They currently have over 90 servers in Los Angeles and another 45 in San Francisco. In terms of performance, CyberGhost came in just under ExpressVPN with a download speed of 254 Mbps connected to a VPN server in LA.
Some countries have streaming services that are specific to that country. For example, if you want to watch HBO Now outside the US, Hulu outside the US, Stan outside Australia, or others, you need to connect to a VPN server in that region. Of course, there are excellent streaming services all over the world. We do not feel that you should have to miss out on them, simply because of where you are. Fortunately, the way around that is to connect to a CyberGhost VPN server located in the area you want to see. Then, you should be able to enjoy your favorite streaming services no matter where they are.
Want to learn more? Read our full CyberGhost review.
5. IPVanish – offers members unlimited connections
Unfortunately, not all countries are as free with letting their citizens see content as others are. Some countries openly admit to monitoring the online behaviors of anyone using the internet. That is why you need to connect to a VPN server from IPVanish. If you visit a country like China and view the wrong thing online, you could end up speaking with the authorities. However, connecting to a VPN server will provide you with a layer of encryption that will help keep you safe online no matter where you are.
IPVanish is the second VPN in our list that calls the United States home. They are not based in California, but they do host 75 servers in LA and 41 in San Jose. We find their network to be one of the best in the US. After connecting to an IPVanish server in Los Angeles, we tested our speed and it was 425 Mbps.
If you are a gamer that likes to play online, you probably know that while popular games eventually become available in all regions, it is not always at the same time. The trick to that is to connect to a VPN server from IPVanish located in one of the early access countries. Australia is a popular choice. By doing so, you will make the software think you are there. That way, you can enjoy the game and play it earlier than others in your area.
Want to learn more? Read our full IPVanish review.
