If you’re trying to watch Crackle outside the US, you’ll come across an error saying, “unfortunately, we’re not currently available in this region.”
This can be frustrating if you’re away from home and want to watch some free content. But don’ panic. There’s a simple way to get around this issue.
The reason this error is coming up is because Crackle is blocking you from accessing its service. It’s doing this because you’re outside its broadcast zone, the US.
This article will show you how to watch Crackle outside the US. All you need is a reliable VPN, and I’ll show you how to get one.
See also:
- How to watch Philo outside the US: The EASY 2-minute method!
- Crackle not working with VPN? Try these EASY fixes
- How to use Bet365 in the US: It’s EASY and only takes 2-minutes!
- Peacock not working with VPN? How to EASILY fix!
How to watch Crackle outside the US: Quick Guide
To watch Crackle outside the US you need to make it think you’re watching it from within the US.
To do this, you need a US IP address. This sounds complicated, but there’s an easy way to do this. All you need is a VPN that works with Crackle.
Follow these steps below to get a VPN and watch Crackle outside the US:
Total Time: 2 minutes
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Create a new account with ExpressVPN ($6.67/month)
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Download and install the new VPN app
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Open your new app and connect to a server in the US
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Stream Crackle anywhere in the world
Why can’t I stream Crackle outside the US?
Although Crackle is a free streaming service, it still has to abide by its content and licensing agreements.
Crackle is a US-based streaming service for US customers. It does not have the rights to broadcast its content internationally.
If Crackle made itself available outside the US, it could run into serious financial repercussions, as it would breach its licensing agreements.
To prevent this from happening, Crackle blocks anyone outside the US from accessing its service. This is why you’re running into the “unfortunately, we’re not currently available in this region” error.
How does Crackle know I’m outside the US?
This is all to do with your IP address.
When you go online, you’re allocated a unique IP address. This is used to communicate between your device and the service you’re connecting to, in this case, Crackle.
In order for this communication to work, Crackle needs to know where to send its information back to. For this reason, your IP address contains information about your location.
When you connect to Crackle, it scans your IP address and this geographic information. If it sees you’re outside of the US, it blocks your connection.
How can I get around Crackle’s location-based blocks?
To access Crackle and any online service, you must have an IP address.
For this reason, the best way to get around Crackle’s blocks is by fooling the streaming service into thinking you’re in the US. To do this, you need a US IP address.
The best way to get one is using a reliable VPN like ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month). When you use a VPN like this, your online data is encrypted, so your location cannot be accessed. And they also have services that provide you with a spoof IP address in a country of your choosing.
All you need to do is create an account with ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month), connect to a US server, and you’ll have a spoof US IP address.
Now when Crackle scans your IP, it will think you’re in its broadcast zone, and you’ll be able to access its content. It’s that easy.
Will any VPN work with Crackle?
Because VPNs are a well-known way of watching Crackle outside the US, it tries to block VPNs.
It can’t block VPNs completely, it can only block the IP addresses they provide.
It does this using three main techniques:
- The most common technique is to do with the IP addresses that your VPN can provide. VPN providers have more customers than IP addresses; this means that customers are forced to share the same IP addresses. Usually, only a household with a few devices uses the same IP address. When Crackle sees hundreds or even thousands of connections coming through on the same IP address, it knows that it is a VPN and it blocks it.
- Crackle monitors for IP, DNS and WebRTC leaks that can tip the service off you are using a VPN.
- Crackle teams up with GeoIP databases like Maxmind to identify IP addresses. If the IP address your VPN provides is on one of these databases, Crackle will be able to find out where in the world you are connecting to the internet from and it will block you.
These techniques can be problematic for lesser VPNs as they don’t have measures to get around them. This could potentially mean you waste money on a subscription to a VPN that won’t work with Crackle.
To watch Crackle reliably worldwide, you need a VPN that has measures in place to stay ahead of Crackle’s VPN blocking techniques. You need ExpressVPN ($6.67/month) or Private Internet Access ($2.03/month).
When Crackle identifies an IP address provided by these VPNs, they close that IP and open a new one. This allows you to stay ahead of Crackle’s blocks and means you’ll be able to watch Crackle reliably anywhere in the world.
The best VPNs to watch Crackle outside the US
1. ExpressVPN 🥇
Why You Should Use ExpressVPN? It’s the fastest and MOST reliable VPN of 2023
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
Special Offer for you!
Get 3 extra months free when you sign up for a 12-month ExpressVPN plan. That’s 15 months in total for the price of 12.
Number of servers: 3,000+ | Speed: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 160 in 94 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $6.66/month for 15 months
- $9.99/month for 6 months
- $12.95/month for 1 month
ExpressVPN ($6.66/month) is still the best VPN. And importantly, it ALWAYS has servers that are open with major streaming sites such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
ExpressVPN is usually very good at playing Cat and Mouse with online streaming sites. Meaning, whenever one of its servers is blacklisted it creates a new one – giving its users a constant stream of servers that aren’t blocked. Needless to say, this is a valuable attribute if you’re looking for a VPN to unblock streaming sites.
Its app is easy-to-use and free to download on pretty much any device you can think of. Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, FireStick, Android TV, Roku, PS4, Xbox, Linux, even Apple TV (with a workaround). It’s got it all covered.
The app is another main reason this VPN is so good at unblocking TV streaming sites (that claim they block VPNs) is that its software takes a pragmatic approach to user management. While other VPNs tempt customers by promising them access to hundreds/thousands of servers in multiple countries, ExpressVPN does things differently.
With ExpressVPN you only have a handful of server locations to choose from. Once you select your location the app takes care of the rest. Assigning you to the fastest available server that’s not oversubscribed. This simple technique is so important, as it keeps ExpressVPN’s servers operating at lightning-fast speeds and prevents its IPs from getting blacklisted for “abnormal” usage in the first place.
Check out our full ExpressVPN review.
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(30-day money-back guarantee)
2. Private Internet Access 🥈
The BEST low-cost VPN for streaming!
Pros
- ✅ Fast and reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 10-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons
- ❌ Only 48 server locations
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 25,000+ | Speed: >75% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 70 in 74 countries | Devices supported: 10 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.03/month for 3 years
- $7.50/month for 6 months
- $11.99/month for 1 month
Private Internet Access is one of the leading no-log VPN services with over 1-million paying customers.
This VPN is one of the best in the industry at beating streaming sites’ VPN bans. It provides reliable connections with US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+ Amazon Prime Video, etc. It also allows 10 simultaneous devices to be connected to its servers at the same time, so you can share the account with your close friends.
If – for whatever reason – you’re not happy with Private Internet Access, there’s a 24/7 live chat support available to assist you with your problem. PIA also offers the industry-standard 30-day money-back guarantee.
From my tests (from New Zealand) I was able to get download speeds of 70 Mbps while connected to a UK server using the Private Internet Access VPN (my non-VPN speed is 100 Mbps).
Special Offer – Save 83%
(30-day money-back guarantee)
3. NordVPN 🥉
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ No logs
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 6-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ No refunds for purchases from iTunes/App store
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for a 3-year plan with Private Internet Access and save 83% + 3 months free. That works out at $2.03/month.
Number of servers: 5,000+ | Speeds: >80% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 62 countries | Devices supported: 6 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $3.49/month for 2 years
- $6.99/month for 1 year
- $11.95/month for 1 month
NordVPN is the most widely-used VPN in the world. And it’s easy to see why. It’s a polished app that delivers fast connections (more on this later) to a massive network of VPN servers.
It’s the most reliable at unblocking popular streaming services too – US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. This is because NordVPN hired a full-time technical team (that’s responsible for monitoring its servers’ connections with popular TV streaming services) and has been aggressively investing in its network of IP addresses in key locations.
Another interesting thing to note is that NordVPN is an industry leader in its development of Nordlynx technology. Nordlynx is built using the WireGuard, a new VPN tunneling protocol designed to outperform current standards (OpenVPN and IPSec). The benefits, according to NordVPN, are dramatically faster transfer speeds while connected to a VPN. My tests – New Zealand to London – confirm that Nordlynx is currently the fastest VPN on the market. However, the difference isn’t dramatic, a few Mbps is all.
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4. Ivacy
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ Fast servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ Dedicated streaming servers
- ✅ 5-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ 24/7 Live Chat
Cons
- ❌ Only 5 devices
- ❌ Sometimes runs slow
- ❌ Occasionally block by streaming sites for several days
Special Offer for you!
Sign up for Ivacy and enjoy a 7-day trial with no strings attached
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $1.16/month for 5 years
- $3.50/month for 1 year
- $9.99/month for 1 month
If you’re looking for an excellent VPN, with an even better price tag, Ivacy ($1.16/month) is a great option.
This VPN has all the features you need to stream BBC iPlayer, in HD, from any country in the world. I’ve been testing the app recently on Mac, PC, Android, iOS and FireStick and the results have been impressive – unlocking BBC iPlayer, US Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, etc. with ease.
The Ivacy app is a little different in regards to its UX (user experience). Instead of just selecting a UK server, you need to select the specific BBC iPlayer server. Don’t worry, this isn’t a bad thing – by connecting to a dedicated BBC iPlayer server, it simply means that you’re connecting to an IP address that Ivacy knows works with BBC iPlayer.
For an extra $1.99/month (£1.74) you can add-on a dedicated IP. This will buy you sole access to an IP address in a country of your choice, meaning you won’t have to share your IP (and speeds) with any other use. I don’t recommend this though, using the regular Ivacy servers is enough 95 per cent of the time.
Special Offer – 7-day FREE trial!
(30-day money-back guarantee)
5. CyberGhost
A very quick and trustworthy VPN
Pros
- ✅ 1-day free trial
- ✅ Reliable servers
- ✅ Thousands of IP addresses
- ✅ 7-simultaneous connections
- ✅ 30-day money-back guarantee
- ✅ Easy-to-use app
Cons
- ❌ Expensive
- ❌ Average speed scores
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
Take advantage of CyberGhost’s 1-day FREE TRIAL!
Number of servers: 1,000+ | Speed: >65% | Bandwidth: Unlimited | IP locations: 275 in 100 countries | Devices supported: 5 | Live chat: Yes | 30-day money-back guarantee: Yes
- $2.75/month for 3 years
- $3.69/month for 2 years
- $5.99/month for 1 year
- $12.99/month for 1 month
CyberGhost is one of the more established VPNs on the market. It has a well-established, and well-tested global network of servers that perform well.
From my tests over the past several months, CyberGhost has no trouble at unblocking major streaming services – US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max etc. This VPN performed well at maintaining download speeds, well above 65 per cent of my regular (non VPN) ISP speed.
That said, there’s nothing really unique about the service. Which forces you to look at its price-point. And there’s nothing special here. Its short-term $12.99/month price tag puts is well above the industry average of $10.10/month. Similarly, its long-term $2.75/month for 3 years deal isn’t much of a “deal” either.
Oddly, CyberGhost’s most unique feature is its a 1-day, no obligations, free trial. This is an appealing offer to customers who are new to VPNs. However, it’s important to remember that most reputable VPNs will offer customers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so try not to be too seduced by the offer.
SPECIAL OFFER – 1-DAY FREE TRIAL
(30-day money-back guarantee)
What is Crackle?
Crackle is a completely free streaming platform that’s library consists of original content and acquired programs.
Founded in 2004, Crackle went through a number of different owners and names. It’s now owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul and has been since 2018.
Crackle has content partnerships with some big movie companies like DreamWorks Pictures, Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures and more.
The streaming service is available on tablets, mobile, smart TVs, desktops and gaming consoles.
