Netflix just launched in India as part of a global rollout. The company has confirmed that it is not censoring any content, and will be adding more shows, movies, and even looking at locally produced content.
Signing up and getting started is so simple it’ll take just two minutes to read everything you need to know. One thing that a lot of Indian users who’ve started their free trials might have noticed by now though, is that the catalogue being offered in India is pretty limited when compared to the US.
(Also see: Netflix India Catalogue Only 7 Percent of What’s Available in the US?)
That’s not ideal but there is actually a lot of good stuff there, particularly if you’re a fan of Netflix’s original shows. However, the account you’ve signed up for isn’t actually linked to your region – Netflix chooses what to show you based on where you’re watching from instead. That means that you can easily get around this and watch shows from other parts of the world. This applies to US users as well – they might have the biggest library, but there is often content that is not available on Netflix US but is still available in other parts of the world. And doing this is pretty simple. Here’s what you can do to watch Netflix content available in other countries:
1) Smartflix
You could change your region in a number of ways, and look up the regions where content you want is available. But if you’re watching on your laptop then you can try out the Smartflix app, available from Smartflix.io instead. It uses proxies to bypass location restrictions, and shows you the entire global collection of Netflix content – instead of checking just Netflix US or Netflix India or any other country one at a time, you can see content from all of these sites in a single place.
You have to sign in with your Netflix credentials, but you’re not giving them to Smartflix – it opens a window inside the app and you sign in on Netflix directly, and an India account works just fine – so this should mean that there won’t be a security issue with using the site, though of course, it’s not possible to rule it out entirely.
It’s the easiest way to watch movies from around the world on Netflix though, requiring almost no effort on the part of the users. The app is free for now, but after it exits beta, the developers plan to charge a one time fee of $7.99 (approximately Rs. 500) for it.
2) UnoDNS
There are several programs you can install that will show content providers such as Netflix or YouTube that you’re coming from the US or some other country of your choosing. Of these, the best known and most popular is probably UnoDNS.
UnoTelly UnoDNS allows you to use online services such as Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and other region locked channels. It works on your PC whether you’re on Windows, Mac, or Linux, and also works on iPhone, iPad, Android, and most of the popular game consoles. To find out how to install UnoDNS on your device, check the Devices page, go to your device and check the instructions.
You can sign up for a free trial, but after that you have to pay $4.95 (approximately Rs. 300) per month for UnoDNS, and you can use it for viewing much more than just Netflix, since many TV channels in the US also put up their content for free online, but it is region locked.
3) TunnelBear
The best choice though is probably to sign up for a VPN service – not only will this allow you to change your region, but will also help keep your data private, even from your ISP; this could be used to keep someone from tracking the sites you are visiting, or to add an added layer of protection to your browsing.
Though Hola is a free VPN that was extremely popular, it was revealed to be selling user bandwith for botnets, which used your Internet connection to launch attacks on websites.
Most people we asked – offline and online both – recommend using TunnelBear, a paid VPN service that will work on your PC, and on iOS and Android devices. You’ll need to set it up on each of these, but you’ll find help pages for all devices listed on this page that should get you started.
Once you’ve installed it and gotten it running, you just choose the country you want to connect from, and then you can run Netflix or any other app or open any website normally.
TunnelBear gives you 500MB of free data every month, and if you take part in some Twitter contests it gives 1GB – good enough if you’re trying to keep your mails secure, but not for watching movies. You can choose to pay $6.99 (approximately Rs. 450) for unlimited connections on 5 devices, but if you pay in bulk, you can get a year’s connection for $49.99 (approximately Rs. 3,300).
These are the three easiest and most reliable methods we found to watch Netflix from any region you want to. Of course, you must be wondering if this is legal – there are no rules against using VPNs and proxies when browsing and some would even say that you should be using a VPN at all times.