FreeTaxUSA is a great solution for anyone looking to reduce the costs involved with keeping accounts in order and filing tax returns. And, considering it is kind on your wallet the tax preparation service packs plenty of features that let you pick your way through the filing process with relative ease.
While FreeTaxUSA isn’t as sophisticated as other options such as TaxAct, TaxSlayer, Jackson Hewitt Online or Credit Karma Tax, it covers all bases in terms of working with relevant IRS forms and, ultimately, lets you file your federal taxes. For the state tax route though you’ll need to pay a fee, albeit a small one.
A downside, it has to be said, is the lack of ability to import your W-2 or 1099 forms, which something like TurboTax can do. Other than that, FreeTaxUSA impresses with its overall look and feel.
While the basic version is free a Deluxe edition requires minimal outlay (Image credit: FreeTaxUSA)
FreeTaxUSA: Pricing
Although FreeTaxUSA, as the name implies, is largely free to use there is cost involved, albeit nominal. So, the service will charge you $14.99 for a state return though federal filing costs zero dollars.
There’s also a Deluxe Return edition, that comes with a pretty trifling $6.99 price tag attached to it and for that you get the benefit of being able to submit unlimited returns if you’ve needed to make amendments. Better still, there is fast-lane access to live chat support, and these tax specialists can help guide you in the right direction if you’re getting stuck at any stage in the process.
Dig deeper into the service and you’ll find there’s also no charge for tax extensions, while prior year tax filing comes in at $14.99 for state and $0 for federal. It’s the same pattern for self-employed and small business owners too.
The filing solution covers a raft of financial areas and simplifies the process accordingly (Image credit: FreeTaxUSA)
FreeTaxUSA: Features
Considering that FreeTaxUSA is, by and large, free to use it still packs a decent punch. Once you get into it you find that it’ll handle all of the main areas required for filing those 1099 forms. That means retirement, government payments, debt cancellation, payment processing, sale of your home, tuition program distributions, social security as well as stocks and interest too.
The self-employed are also well catered for. Indeed, you’ll find that FreeTaxUSA ultimately has the ability to deal with each and every state and federal form, including common credits, which is quite something given its miserly charges.
Such is the versatility of the service you can also import your previous year's return from another one (Image credit: FreeTaxUSA)
FreeTaxUSA: Performance
FreeTaxUSA is an online service and, as such, works fine and dandy just as long as you have the obvious internet connection. There’s a mobile version too, for both iOS and Android, although in reality this is less of an app and more of a version of the same site you’d use on the desktop edition.
Nevertheless, FreeTaxUSA works nicely enough if you don't mind filing your tax details in the rather confined working area, especially on a phone. The tablet experience is rather better though, but we still tend to favour the desktop FreeTaxUSA experience over the mobile one.
The designers have worked hard to make both editions reasonably enjoyable and either version feels nicely optimized to work without trouble.
As you'd hope for there is a decent level of support on the FreeTaxUSA site with live help also available (Image credit: FreeTaxUSA)
FreeTaxUSA: Ease of use
There’s nothing too intimidating about the FreeTaxUSA interface, with a pretty basic though effective page layout. Before you deep dive into the step-by-step stages there’s also a neat primer screen, which highlights the features and functionality of the following site content. From there on in it’s much like the other filing packages, with text boxes to populate with all of your data.
Overall it's a nicely laid out affair that emulates all of the sections of the 1040. As mentioned earlier though, a weakness with FreeTaxUSA is the inability to import W-2s and 1099s, which is something that makes TurboTax such a handy option for its one-stop-shop feature set.
FreeTaxUSA lets you tackle your tax filing chores without the need for any outlay (Image credit: FreeTaxUSA)
FreeTaxUSA: Support
Much like the other aspects of FreeTaxUSA, customer support is certainly not overly complicated, but it is available as and when you need it. Customers can head along to a dedicated area on the FreeTaxUSA website and type in a basic query to search the help database. That’s okay and does a no-nonsense job of answering more obvious queries.
However, if you need additional assistance then that’s at hand while you’re signed in, or using an online form, plus there’s a dedicated email address to send messages to. Better still though is the Live Chat feature, which you get if you upgrade to the still good value Deluxe package, that hooks you up with real people, who can hopefully offer real answers to your questions.
FreeTaxUSA: Final verdict
FreeTaxUSA is a good bet if you want an uncomplicated and, crucially, free way of e-filing your taxes. While the Deluxe version beefs up what's on offer in terms of support, if you’re reasonably competent with your bookkeeping and have kept an organized pile of paperwork in the run up to file time then the basic incarnation is perfectly acceptable.
There are some drawbacks here, as we’ve outlined above, but if you’re keen to keep your overheads to an absolute minimum then FreeTaxUSA will get you to filing point without putting a dent in your finances.
Intuit’s TurboTax has been around in tax software circles for a long time, over a quarter of a century in fact, which sounds like an age. But, that’s helped it get better over the years too. It’s got a well-proven track history as being a solution for all kinds of business users, from those who have lone filing to do as well as those with more complex tax ground to cover.
While TurboTax is powerful, it’s not intimidating either, which will be reassuring to any filing newbies or people who aren’t confident using online filing systems. In fact, TurboTax is a real help because of its simple and almost chatty screen-by-screen interface. Other similar tax software options come in the shape of TaxAct, TaxSlayer, Jackson Hewitt Online, Credit Karma Tax and FreeTaxUSA.
TurboTax is available in various incarnations, depending on your requirements and, naturally, how much you want to spend. There’s a free edition(~37% of taxpayers qualify. Form 1040 + limited credits only) that’s suitable for simple tax returns. Next up, the Deluxe package is ideal for maximizing tax deductions and credits, and that allows you to start for free for simple tax returns only (you only pay when you file) and costs $39 plus $39 state additional. The more you spend with TurboTax the more features get added on. So if you want to spend $90 (plus state additional) for Premier you get everything that comes with the Free and Deluxe editions, plus more functionality. The TurboTax Self-Employed package costs $120 (plus the $50 each state additional once again) and that too can be started for free with payment only being necessary when you file.
However, if you’re not keen on doing things yourself then it is possible to get TurboTax Live, which gets real tax experts to review your return. Live Basic(~37% of taxpayers qualify. Form 1040 + limited credits only) is for simple tax returns and can be started for free. Live Deluxe costs $89 plus state additional, Live Premier is $169 and Live Self-Employed is $200. These packages emulate what’s on offer with the packages shown above, but you gain by having a tac expert on demand. The fact that you ultimately get a final review by a professional should give plenty of piece of mind, which also makes the pricing seem more than justified.
On top of that, TurboTax is available on a CD or as a download, with four different variations on the theme. There’s Basic, which at $49.99 plus state additional and 5 federal e-files included rates as very useful for its step-by-step guidance. Deluxe, meanwhile, is recommended for maximizing your deductions, costs $79.99 and offers 1 state download. Intuit explains that once you've completed your federal tax return, they'll automatically transfer your information and give you the option of completing your state taxes using TurboTax. The same goes for the Premier edition of TurboTax, which costs $109.99 and the Home & Business package, that’s suitable for personal and self-employed returns. That costs $119.99 and also features 1 state download and 5 federal e-files as part of the deal.
Features
Any software package can have its own unique idiosyncrasies but the good news is that TurboTax is reassuringly intuitive to use. In fact, even if you’re only a casual user it can be mastered with relative ease.
That’s mainly down to the way TurboTax has been designed, with in its most basic guise the need for inputting details of your tax year, what you do and have earned from that along with adding own or rent details, made charitable donations and so on.
You can even get a headstart by scanning in your W-2 form, which allows the system to work out much of the overall picture for your financial year affairs. The online help aspect is impressive too and works as your fast-responding and easy-to-navigate aid as you work through the various input screens.
Performance
TurboTax performs well and so it should as much of the work is done online, which means it's the wonderful world of the cloud that is doing most of the work. With support for importing your W-2 the system is able to handle much of the grind in the background and will also prepare your final account details.
Thanks to a fairly minimal interface – we won't say sparse as it’s got everything you’ll need without being fussy about it – it chunters along very nicely as you progress through the various stages. A practical toolbar allows you quick and easy access to core filing topics, such as your overall information as well as letting you drill down into Federal and State tax areas respectively.
Similarly, you can import any relevant 1099 forms to cover other earnings and all without disappearing into a convoluted accounting software hole.
Ease of use
As mentioned earlier, TurboTax shouldn't faze you too much and it has the added benefit of being able to be used across all of your devices. That’s perfect if you’re pushed for time and prefer to dip into your details as and when the moment arrives.
What’s more, once you’ve set yourself up with an account – you’ll need a username and password - the step-by-step process is sensible and organized, which is a bonus if you’re not the most organized of people when it comes to accounts. Indeed, the way TurboTax has been designed means that you’re always working in a common sense order; in other words, you’ll be asked to enter details into the system in a logical way.
When you reach the end of a section the system dips in, checks your data and highlights any issues. When you’re good to go it’s on to the next stage. It’s all pretty simple to be honest.
Support
TurboTax is big on assistance and for good reason as filing tax returns can be stressful for all of us, especially those of us with a less than comprehensive accounting background. The built-in Expert Help area of the interface holds your hand for much of the way, and is the go-to location for more obvious enquiries as you pick you way through the filing process.
Much more help is at hand, however, with TurboTax boasting a raft of online assistance tools. These include a powerful knowledge base along with video tutorials for excellent visual hand-holding. While the online community area is a boon, anyone needing help from a real person can enlist the assistance of the TurboTax Live option.
Final verdict
We like TurboTax a lot, especially in its welcoming desktop incarnation. Anyone keen to spend time on their mobile device using the app version will be happy too, though this is slightly trickier to use due to the obviously more condensed working area.
Nevertheless, you can get it for both iOS and Android, and TurboTax is one of the better options on the mobile accounting and tax software side of things. While there are costly aspects here, the core package is intuitive, dependable and good value.
Most of the best VPNs on the market claim to be able to unblock geo-restricted content on streaming platforms like Netflix and the BBC - and that’s the big boast made by VPNLand, whose website proudly boasts that it’s a “premium stealth VPN with dedicated IPs for BBC and Netflix.” So, we decided to give it a try.
VPNLand, a virtual private network service in Canada - a country that belongs to the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes surveillance alliances; a group of nations that gather intelligence data from their various regions of the world and automatically share it. This is a bad location for a VPN, especially one billing itself as a “stealth VPN”. The service claims to have over 700 VPN servers located in 13 countries and 10,000 IP addresses around the world.
VPNLand: Pricing & plans
(Image credit: VPNLand)
VPNLand's price starts at $100 per year for the annual VPN account. This offers access to all of VPNLand’s servers. The monthly VPN account costs $15 a month for the same features as the annual VPN account.
There is also the option of customizing plans to meet the needs of individual customers; for example, an account for poker players is available for $75 monthly.
Unfortunately, there is no free VPN option here. There isn’t even a free trial available, and refunds are only given if the service doesn't work. You must provide valid proof to confirm that fact before receiving a refund.
VPNLand: Privacy & encryption
(Image credit: Future)
According to VPNLand's privacy policy, no logs are kept, and it does not keep track of DNS requests, but it may occasionally see its customers' real IP address in diagnostic logs. However, it claims not to collect any device-related data. Keep in mind that these assertions should not be taken at face value as no VPN audit has been undertaken and claims independently verified by an auditor.
Since VPNLand is based in a country that’s part of the "14-Eyes Alliance", if asked, it may disclose your personal information. We advise looking at our suggested alternative to this VPN if you are concerned about your privacy and anonymity online. AES (128–256 bit) encryption and a variety of VPN tunneling protocols, such as OpenVPN, L2TP, PPTP, and SSTP, are employed by VPNLand.
VPNLand: Streaming
Despite VPNLand's claims of being a streaming VPN - and specifically name-checking itself as a VPN for Netflix and BBC - when we looked for information on how to do so on the website, it only directed us to the page of another VPN service.
VPNLand: Speed & experience
For all its promises of being one of the fastest VPNs out there, the reality is far harsher, and slow. So slow, in fact, that we were unable to fully test it because our account was never activated, despite paying the price. If we’re being generous, we believe this service is no longer fully operational - but, regardless, the practice seems highly questionable. According to existing users, download speeds are average or below-average.
VPNLand: Apps
(Image credit: VPNLand)
VPNLand has tools for Windows and Mac, as well as mobile VPN apps for Android and iOS. You can even enable it on other platforms like Linux, or VPN routers through third-party applications or the firm’s manual installation guide.
VPNLand: Customer support
Email and support tickets are the two support channels that VPNLand customers can use to contact customer service. Customers can also get assistance via live chat and phone during business hours. On the service provider's website, there are useful troubleshooting guidelines, so you shouldn't have any trouble resolving common VPN issues on your own. However, we were unable to reach customer service.
VPNLand: Alternatives
You can try any of our alternative VPN services as we are not sure if this VPN is active at the time of this review.
NordVPN
NordVPN has been available for more than ten years. You can access your preferred websites without any restrictions and take advantage of online security that meets military standards. Additionally, it has a 30-day money-back guarantee, doesn't log your data, and supports multiple concurrent device connections.
ExpressVPN is based in a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, is quick and safe, unblocks major streaming platforms, supports torrents, doesn't log your data, has thousands of servers dispersed throughout the world, and is simple to use. has a 3-month free trial and allows for five connections at once.
IVPN has a no-logging policy that has been independently audited, provides a unique blend of power and usability, is relatively priced, and has servers in 45 countries.
In theory, VPN Land has some good qualities to offer - it unblocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and other geo-restricted streaming channels, and bills itself as a VPN for torrenting. It even allows up to 10 simultaneous connections. However, this is not the case in practice.
We observed that the provider’s website was very slow and had no security certificate. Our account was never activated. Customer support remained silent. All in all, a poor user experience.
To avoid all these issues - and at roughly the same price - we strongly recommend checking out superior alternatives.
BlackVPN promises to keep your data private – but can it deliver? We’ve put theirVPN servers to the test to see if they can match up to other products on the market, looking at popular features like VPN torrenting capabilities, quick browsing, streaming capabilities and anonymity.
The service was founded in 2009 and is based in Kowloon, Hong Kong. This is considered a privacy-friendly location, because it is outside of the Five Eyes jurisdiction and therefore other countries cannot legally request your data. There is also no mandatory data retention policy in Hong Kong, which is a positive thing for those using the service
As of the time of this review, BlackVPN only has 31 servers spread across 18 different locations. This makes it quite small compared to most VPNs, with many boasting thousands of servers dispersed across multiple nations.
Pricing & plans
To use BlackVPN you need to purchase a full year’s worth of service, with three different packages to choose from. There’s no free VPN option but you can select your plan based on the server you want to use and the features you desire.
There’s a TV option for people who want astreaming VPN to use from the UK or the US, a separate package for unrestricted P2P/Bittorrent services, or a Global Package that bundles all of their services into one package. Subscribing to their plan gets you an unlimited amount of server switches and seven simultaneous device connections.
Global
€99.00 per year
Privacy
€49.00 per year
TV
€75.00 per year
BlackVPN also offers a 14-day cash-back guarantee and a 3-day trial that doesn't require any credit card information. You can purchase their service with credit cards, PayPal, cryptocurrencies, bank transfers, gift cards, or e-wallets via PaymentWall.
(Image credit: Future)
Privacy & encryption
To protect your traffic, BlackVPN employs the military-grade 256-bit encryption standard as well as 4096-bit RSA certificates, which are unbreakable even by the most effective current computers. It also supports the PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, andOpenVPN protocols.
BlackVPN has a no-logs policy that states it doesn't keep any of your data anywhere. However when we checked the privacy policy for more details, we discovered a worrisome sentence that states the VPN will comply with data requests if forced to do so.
It also states that copyright infringement (torrenting) isn't allowed on the platform, which means the company will monitor the VPN account if it receives infringement notices from copyright owners. Therefore, they do log data. Ideally, you should use a VPN that has undergone an independentVPN audit. For this reason, we advise looking at our suggested alternatives to this VPN if you are worried about your security and anonymity online.
Streaming
The majority of market leaders claim to be VPNs for Netflix, giving you access to popular geo-restricted streaming services. When we tested BlackVPN the situation was mixed. It has servers made for VPN streaming and can unblock Netflix US, HBO NOW, Kodi media player, and Disney+. Unfortunately we weren’t able to unblock Amazon Prime Video or Hulu.
(Image credit: Future)
Speed & experience
Despite the fact that all VPNs will, in some way, slow down your connection, the best ones have a minimal impact and avoid lags or buffering. Likewise, speed can differ based on your location, connection, and internet service provider.
Our internet speed was 32 Mbps when we ran aspeed test with BlackVPN on a server in Spain; after connecting, it dropped to 11.43 Mbps. The Australian servers underwent predictably worse performance, achieving only 3.8 Mbps on a 64 Mbps test connection. Brazil reached 5.4 Mbps, which also wasn't manageable.
Apps
The BlackVPN app was simple to download and compatible with Windows, macOS, Linux, and routers. You'll also find mobile VPN apps for Android and iOS.
Be aware that there are multiple applications with the same name in the Google Play store so double-check that you’re downloading the right one.
Customer support
To get support, you can try their live chat option or fill out a support ticket. However, you must exercise patience; it took some time before we received a response.
We also advise looking at their knowledge base, which includes FAQs, installation instructions, troubleshooting articles, and more, before contacting the customer support.
(Image credit: Future)
Black VPN alternatives
BlackVPN is deeply inferior to many of today’s popular VPN names. If you want a safe VPN, we recommend checking out these alternative options.
NordVPN
The service has more than 5,200 servers spread across 60 different countries, offers live chat support, round-the-clock email support, military-grade internet security, and supports up to six simultaneous device connections. It also has the ability to unblock all popular streaming services.
Express VPN has servers in over 94 countries with live chat support available 24/7, and excellent security measures. It unblocks all streaming platforms, allows you to stream in HD and also allows for five simultaneous connections on devices. Additionally, it adheres strictly to no-log and privacy policies, giving you peace of mind that your information won't be disclosed.
Internet access to streaming websites from all over the globe can be unblocked using the incredibly user-friendly VPN CyberGhost. It has 24/7 live support and safeguards your data with features like an automaticVPN kill switch that cannot be turned off and has military-grade 256-bit encryption. CyberGhost can be trusted to protect your data thanks to independent audits, transparency reports, and a strict privacy policy.
BlackVPN was probably an excellent VPN platform once. However, it is now a barely working shell of a service that only has a nice website to show off and a bunch of unusable apps and servers that occasionally connect. It may unblock Netflix and BBC iPlayer but what’s the point if you can’t even connect to a server in a country where such services are available?
Due to its privacy policy, BlackVPN is unable to compete with the best VPNs currently available. To be candid there are better VPNs out there that offer more bang for your buck.
Who wants a VPN with an OpenAI-powered chatbot? Yeah, me neither. But, as brands try to jump on the AI bandwagon and stand out in the crowded VPN space, that's what FlowVPN has given us
Needless to say, it's far from being one of the best VPN services on the market, but keep reading as I take a look at whether the AI chatbot offers any benefit to the VPN, how FlowVPN stacks up with the rest of the VPN market, and answer the all-important question—should you try FlowVPN for yourself?
FlowVPN isn't exactly a newcomer to the industry, rather its ultimate owner Portable LTD was formed in the UK in 2011. They're a medium-scale provider that operates "over 100 servers" in 60+ locations, but the exact number isn't publicly stated (which doesn't exactly inspire confidence).
The first real red flag for FlowVPN is the jurisdiction it's based in. The United Kingdom is part of the Five Eyes information-sharing pact, which means that it is one of the least suitable locations for a VPN provider. The relationship between GCHQ and the NSA is well documented, and both organizations are keen to undermine VPN privacy wherever possible. Combined with their lack of no-logs policy, FlowVPN isn’t a suitable choice when it comes to handling sensitive personal information.
FlowVPN pricing
FlowVPN is positioned as a cheap and cheerful budget VPN provider. There are three different plans on offer: monthly, quarterly, and annual. All of the plans offer the same functionality and features, and the only difference between them is the duration of the subscription and the prices.
FlowVPN’s monthly plan is priced at $6.99 per month. This is pretty cheap compared to most VPN providers, especially considering there are 60+ locations on offer. Unfortunately, the discounts don’t drop much lower from here.
Their quarterly plan is priced at $18, or $5.99 per month, which is roughly a 15% discount. Here’s another issue with FlowVPN: Their discount on the monthly plan is advertised at 30%. That’s not true. I'm not sure if this is just an issue in how their marketing is coded or outright deception, but either way, it's an odd claim.
Lastly, their annual plan is priced at $50.04, or $4.17 per month, which comes out to around a 40% discount. Unlike the previous plan, the website states this one correctly.
FlowVPN does not offer a free version and, while it does offer a five-day free trial, there's no money-back guarantee period. This is a real problem, and we've received a few reports of users being unable to cancel their free trial without contacting their payment provider, and being unable to get refunds if their trial expired and they began paying before they were able to cancel. You should therefore exercise caution when signing up for the free trial. At the bare minimum, you should use a virtual credit card that you can easily cancel.
For payments, FlowVPN accepts a wide variety of options, including the classic credit/debit cards such as American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. They also offer PayPal, various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and even gift cards as an option.
Privacy and encryption
FlowVPN uses AES-128 encryption to protect your data. While this can't be cracked with current supercomputer processing power, it’s surprising that FlowVPN doesn't offer an AES-256 option for added security. This more secure standard is supported by many of the leaders in the VPN space, and its absence speaks to how FlowVPN’s overall approach to security is lagging behind current industry practice.
FlowVPN offers access to the highly secure and widely trusted OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard protocols. The inclusion of WireGuard here is a major plus, however, it can only be used on certain platforms such as iOS and Mac. Unfortunately, FlowVPN also allows you to use several insecure protocols, such as PPTP and VPN over SSH.
In terms of features, FlowVPN doesn't seem to provide even the bare minimum. There is no mention of a killswitch anywhere, let alone anything more advanced such as split-tunneling or multi-hopping. Not having a killswitch is a major failing, it provides an extra layer of security and should be included with every VPN these days. FlowVPN should add a kill switch ASAP but there are far more pressing issues with this VPN.
A no-logs policy? Ha, forget it. FlowVPN's privacy policy explicitly states that the company actively monitors usage for a broad range of illegal activities, as well as some perfectly legal ones (like sending an email with an attachment over 20MB). Client information is handed over in response to any inquiry or warrant by law enforcement, so FlowVPN essentially tells you that your traffic is being monitored.
While it seems like this VPN works in China, the lack of technical competency and awful privacy policy means I cannot recommend this VPN for use inside China (in fact, it may be dangerous to do so). Instead, I'd suggest you check out NordVPN or ExpressVPN—especially if you’re looking for a P2P-friendly VPN, as none of FlowVPN’s servers support P2P traffic.
Streaming
The good news is that FlowVPN can unblock most major streaming services, including the likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer. Well, sometimes. FlowVPN just cannot do this consistently and I had to try multiple servers in the hope that one would suddenly work. Even after my testing, there didn't seem to be any real pattern when it came to accessing geo-blocked content, it just randomly worked at some point. In short, FlowVPN can unblock geo-restricted content on these services, but it cannot do so smoothly or consistently.
If streaming geo-blocked content is one of your top priorities, I recommend you go for ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN will consistently and effortlessly unblock all the geo-blocked content on the major streaming services listed above, and its superb speeds mean you'll get the smoothest streaming experience possible.
Speed and experience
I tested out three different servers in various locations to get an idea of how fast FlowVPN is. All of my tests were conducted on the same 100 Mbps connection using Ookla Speedtest for consistency.
First off, I connected to the UK server. As this is the server that's closest to my actual location, you would expect to see the highest numbers here. After a few inconsistent results at the beginning of my connection, I came back an hour later and found that the best results I got were 61.40 Mbps download and 17.93 Mbps upload. Honestly, this is a pretty decent result. There are certainly faster VPNs out there, but this isn’t awful by a long shot.
I tested the server in Germany next. This connection was far more consistent, clocking in at 55.74 Mbps download and 12.84 Mbps upload. All in all, these results were roughly in line with what I expected based on the UK tests.
Finally, I tested FlowVPN's US Northeast server. This performed a little lower than expected, clocking in at 38.62 Mbps download and 7.99 Mbps upload. Like the German server, the results of all my tests were consistent, so I can surmise that their servers are working properly. All in all, these results are pretty middling, but nothing egregious.
Customer support
FlowVPN's customer support provides the bare minimum. There's no live-chat support system, which is a major downside in this category, just a basic support ticket system and an FAQ on their website.
That's not great, and it gets worse. When I tested the support ticket system, I did not receive a reply. As there's no other way of getting help, this essentially means that FlowVPN provides no customer support. The FAQ is also very barebones and does not seem to provide any valuable information whatsoever. I found it particularly disconcerting that there’s a section with no meaningful advice on which VPN protocol to use beyond recommending PPTP and L2TP over OpenVPN.
I’ve also heard reports of customers being unable to cancel their free trials because of this apparently nonexistent customer support. As the terms of service make it clear that no refund will be given once the free trial is over, this means that signing up for a trial locks you into a payment. That's a situation that's shady at best, and frankly malicious at worst.
Compatibility
FlowVPN has Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android apps. Check the fine print here, however, as these apps were not created equal. You can only use the WireGuard protocol on the Mac and iOS apps, making them vastly superior. It’s a rare case where the Apple apps are better than the Windows and Android equivalents, but it took me a few connection attempts to get the Windows app working at all. There is no mention of Linux whatsoever on the FlowVPN website.
FlowVPN allows you to use up to 10 devices at a time according to their website. This is roughly consistent with the industry standard, but this number is going up all the time and many top-tier VPN providers are switching to an unlimited subscription policy.
Alternatives
1. The best VPN overall: NordVPN
NordVPN tops our list as the best VPN overall thanks to its excellent privacy, high speeds, and integrated suite of security tools. With unbeatable content unblocking power, amazing speeds, and customizable pricing, you'll only pay for what you need. See for yourself with a 30-day money-back guarantee, and get the best VPN on the market.View Deal
2. The best VPN for beginners: ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN offers a simple one-click connect interface so you can set it and forget it. Plus, it consistently unblocks Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+. Unlike FlowVPN, ExpressVPN has a strict no-logs policy that has been independently audited by third parties on an ongoing basis. With a 30-day money-back guarantee you can even put it to the test risk-free, too.View Deal
3. The best cheap VPN: Surfshark
If you've got a lot of devices to protect, or you just don't want to spend too much money on a VPN, Surfshark is a great choice. One subscription covers unlimited devices, so you can use as many as you want simultaneously. On top of fast connection speeds, Surfshark also keeps you safe with a password protection system that evaluates if your details are easy to guess, reused, or have been leaked online. Plus, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, you can try it for yourself and see how it compares to the more expensive services.View Deal
Verdict
FlowVPN is a medium-scale VPN provider with some major issues. Their privacy policy is barely worthy of the name as it allows far too much leeway for data collection and essentially gives FlowVPN carte blanche to kick you off the platform for practically any infraction. However, it’s far more likely that you won’t be able to get the service working effectively and be left out of pocket with no chance of a refund.
Beyond the frankly abysmal customer service, the VPN is based in a Five-Eyes jurisdiction, does not support P2P, and lacks features that any decent VPN has had for years. Their VPN protocol support is also not up to industry standards, allowing for the use of several outdated and dangerous protocols
In conclusion, I simply can't recommend this VPN. The blatant logging and sharing of personal data is unacceptable, and the combo of terrible customer support and no money-back guarantee is downright predatory and leaves users unable to get their money back. In short, I’d advise you to avoid this VPN and use a top-tier VPN like ExpressVPN instead.
H&R Block has a very high profile in the USA and for good reason. It provides a range of personal tax preparation services that range from the zero outlay basic edition right on through to sophisticated paid-for variants for those with advanced filing needs.
All this is backed up with physical outlets for in-person help if you need it. Considering the base level edition costs nothing it’s very impressive and has all the features and functionality you could realistically want.
H&R Block offers a hugely flexible array of package options, which allow you to file online or work with a professional who can do a lot of the work for you. This is broken down even further, with options tailored to just how much of the work you want to do yourself.
If you do your own taxes then get started with Online, which allows you to file easily and securely from either a computer or a smartphone. Choose Free Online if you have a W-2, have kids and education costs and there’s a $0 charge per state filed too.
Deluxe Online is for maximizing credits and deductions, plus HSA contributions and currently costs $37.49 instead of the usual $49.99, plus $44.99 per state filed. You can initially start for free.
Premium Online is aimed at freelancers, contractors and investors and is currently $52.49 instead of the usual $69.99 plus $44.99 per state filed and also allows you to start for free.
Self-employed Online, meanwhile, normally costs $104.99 and is currently $78.74, plus $44.99 per state filed. It's aimed at small business owners as well as the self-employed. That too allows you to start for free.
H&R Block’s Online Assist packages on the other hand, allow you to file online with on-demand help from a tax expert, enrolled agent or CPA. Basic Online Assist costs $49.99 plus $0 per state filed and suits if you have a W-2, kids and education costs.
Deluxe Online Assist is $99.99 plus $44.99 per state filed and is for maximizing credits and deductions, plus HAS contributions. You can start for free. Premium Online Assist is aimed at freelancers, contractors and investors and is $139.99 plus $44.99 per state filed. That too allows you to start for free. Self-employed Online Assist, finally, is just that with help when you need it and costs $169.99 plus $44.99 per state filed, with a start for free option available.
H&R Block offers more however, including tax offices and virtual filing. Its Drop-Off service lets you drop off your documents at your local tax office and starts from $69 plus additional fees per state. Tax Pro Go, meanwhile, lets you get expert tax preparation remotely, from $49 plus additional fees per state. There’s a Student/Retired option for $129 plus $45 per state filed, a Family/Investor package for $199 plus $45 per state filed and a Business Owner option for $249 plus $45 per state filed package too.
Their In Office option, meanwhile, lets you work together with a tax pro and starts from $69 plus additional fees per state.
Finally, H&R Block does have downloadable software options. These include its Basic Tax Software for $29.95, for simple tax situations, Deluxe and State Tax Software, for homeowners or investors at $54.95, Premium Tax Software for self-employed/1099-MISC or rental property owners for $74.95 along with Premium and Business Tax Software for small business owners with 10 plus itemized expenses for $89.95. Additional fees may also apply for these however.
H&R Block has a reassuringly safe and secure interface that includes two-step verification (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Features
Thankfully, whatever version of H&R Block you use you’ll find that it should have more than enough features to suit your requirements. The page layouts follow a familiar theme with a methodical series of steps to work through that, eventually, get you to the last stage in the process, the filing bit.
Prior to that you’ll work through basic overview screens and move on to Federal and State sections where you’ll be able to enter more personal information as well as details on your income, deductions, credits and everything else needed to produce a complete picture of your current position.
Of course, the bonus if you’ve used the service before is that much of the information gets held in the system, and you should get access to that one you’ve logged in using your username and password.
Simplistic screens with assistants along the way means this is a very straightforward tax filing system (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Performance
Being an online service means that there’s not much to go wrong in terms of performance, just as long as your internet connection remains up that is. The wizard-style arrangement of the site design means that there’s very little you need to worry about, especially when it comes to complex IRS topics that might make your progress grind to a halt.
This is where the performance of H&R Block really impresses, as it has been honed to cover changes in legislation. This is particularly useful if you’ve used the service before and need to make sure the current year doesn't pull through the wrong information from previous years.
There are versions for all with the self-employed edition proving to be very capable (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Ease of use
H&R Block’s online filing system is hardly intimidating as it follows a theme similar to others in the marketplace. After registering and doing all the foundation housekeeping you then progress through the various screens that help build up a picture of your finances.
Overall, the fit and finish of the interface is really pretty good, with not much in the way of areas that can trip you up. The experience is made all the better thanks to practical interface tweaks including the ability to import the details from your W-2, via either a PDF or a digital image of it from your phone, all of which is done securely so your prized personal information isn't compromised.
Help is always at hand if you find yourself getting bogged down with taxing questions (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Support
H&R Block has also been well thought out when it comes to the amount of online help you can get. While some of this assistance becomes available as you progress through the series of screens, there are other areas that contain more advanced information that gets pulled in from a searchable knowledge base.
Thankfully the H&R Block user experience folks have been mindful to help you stay on track while you delve into these knowledge base articles, so it’s easy to emerge from the other side in the same place. Paid-for editions also come with help from live assistants, while the 24/7 chat support adds another level of reassurance for people who’ve got a little bogged down by the process.
Having the ability to share your screen with a live expert can be valuable and saves time, so if you’re in need of a helping hand then it’s worth the additional fees - $39.99 for Free and Deluxe users, or $49.99 for the Premium and Self-Employed editions.
H&R Block has dedicated areas that can help solve some of your most troubling tax filing issues (Image credit: H&R Block)
H&R Block: Final verdict
There’s a version of H&R Block tax software for everyone and, no matter which one you choose, all are very well put together. The user experience, even if you’re working with the free online model, is largely stress free too.
It's also good to know that there are plenty of help options available should you need it, even though you’ll need to spend some money if you want to get access to the best there is – a real person.
However, if you’re fairly organized and have your paperwork – digital or otherwise – to hand you can also make perfectly decent use of the built-in help sections of the H&R Block website. It's a package that sits nicely alongside the competition, including the likes of TurboTax, TaxAct, TaxSlayer, Jackson Hewitt Online, Credit Karma Tax and FreeTaxUSA.
iPage is a budget web hosting company with close to 25 years in the business, and more than a million websites on its platform.
iPage is owned and run by Newfold Digital (formerly known as Endurance International Group), the company who also owns big-name hosting competitors like Bluehost and HostGator.
iPage offers simple, low-cost shared hosting, aimed at small, low-traffic personal and business sites.
A website builder range provides an easy way to create a site, then customize its content by dragging and dropping. The top website builder plan also supports creating a web store.
WordPress hosting plans include extra features to optimize WordPress speed and security.
iPage doesn't offer more powerful VPS, dedicated or cloud server products, making it unsuitable for large business sites, or any web projects where speed and reliability are important.
Next, we'll break down the various iPage products, find out what they have to offer, and whether they could work for you.
iPage shared hosting
Shared hosting is a technology where several websites are hosted on the same physical server. This keeps prices low because the cost of the server is spread across many accounts. But the websites also share the same CPU, RAM and network connections, and if the sites get busy, that means everyone takes a big performance hit.
iPage's shared hosting is as simple as it gets, with just one plan. It's seriously cheap at $1.99 a month over three years ($7.99 on renewal), but still has a reasonable feature list. There are no storage or bandwidth limits, for instance. The plan allows you to host unlimited websites (a welcome touch, as most plans at this price only support one). There's a free domain, free SSL, a bundled website builder, 1-click WordPress installation, unlimited email addresses and more.
That's reasonable for $1.99 a month, but there are some issues here. The plan doesn't offer backups, for instance, and it costs from $2.27 a month to add them, more than doubling the price. There's no free migration, and your hosting management tools are below par. iPage uses a horribly basic 1-click WordPress installer, for example, which doesn't begin to match the top-notch Softaculous installer often used elsewhere. And its own control panel, where you'll create email accounts, work with files and more, is short on features and awkward to use.
There are potential setup complications, too. Sign up and the website insists you register a new domain or transfer an existing domain to iPage; unlike almost all the competition, there’s no option to use a domain managed elsewhere. We asked support, they said this was possible but they'd have to manually create the account for us (a hassle, and not an option most users would even realize existed.)
Compare all this with Hostinger. It's a very similar price (from $2.99 a month over four years, $6.99 on renewal), but includes backups, offers a free WordPress migration, has a far better WordPress installer and control panel, and was much faster in our tests (more on that, later). Hostinger is a far better choice for budget shared hosting, but if you need extra power and are happy to pay for it, our Best Shared Web Hosting guide has more ideas.
(Image credit: iPage)
iPage WordPress hosting
IPage's WordPress hosting plans improve on its shared hosting by preinstalling WordPress, a collection of themes and plugins, and a custom WordPress control panel. The company says its WordPress platform 'has been designed to increase load speeds by up to 2.5 times', and the premium plan ($6.95 a month initially, $10.49 on renewal) throws in specialist WordPress support, SiteLock-based security and automatic malware removal.
This is fair value - you can sometimes pay more for standard shared hosting - but the feature list is a little short.
As an alternative, IONOS' 'One' WordPress plan has very basic specs (10GB storage and supports just one website) but it includes staging, daily cloud backups and smart WordPress plugin updates, and it's priced at $18 billed monthly (no long-term contract required.)
And if you don't really need these more advanced features, after all, IONOS WordPress Essential plan supports one WordPress site, 25GB storage and 10 email accounts, and includes a free domain and wildcard SSL certificate, all for just $3 billed monthly. (Again, that's the standard deal, so you won't see a drastic price hike once the first term is up.)
IPage's VPS hosting plans are relatively ordinary: there are just three, they're Linux only, and even the starter product (1 core, 1GB RAM, 40GB storage and 1TB bandwidth) is priced at a mid-range $19.99 for the first term, renewing at $24.99.
These are managed plans (iPage looks after the technical management of the VPS for you), so the prices aren't bad, but you'll get more options and control elsewhere. Hostwinds has ten main plans, in managed and unmanaged, Windows and Linux flavors, and if you know what you're doing, you can get an unmanaged 2 core, 1GB RAM, 30GB storage and 2TB bandwidth plan from as little as $8.99 a month.
It's a similar story with iPage small range of dedicated servers (just three plans). They're a little underpowered - the $119.99 Startup plan ($149.99 on renewal) gets you a 2 core CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB disk space and 5TB bandwidth - but they don't really stand out in any way. A company like InterServer has a wider choice of servers, more configuration options, and you can find more powerful setups priced from $80 a month billed monthly.
(Image credit: iPage)
Does iPage have a website builder?
iPage has a simple website builder which aims to make it easy to create a small personal or business website. The company bundles a free version with its shared hosting plans, and we gave it a try.
The builder began by asking us what our site was about (music, food, technology etc) and whether we needed a blog. We chose a name and a free cover photo from the iPage library. There were options to tweak fonts, colors and navigation style, add a logo or contact details, but we skipped all that and our site was ready in seconds.
The free version is limited to six pages, but still created a decent site. It added Home, Menu, About and Contact pages for our restaurant site, and a simple blog. We could add sections such as maps, images, forms, videos and more, then preview and publish the results in a couple of clicks.
The website builder has a couple of paid options, too.
The Business plan supports unlimited pages, adds tools to analyze your web traffic and offers phone support, and is priced from $6.99 billed monthly.
The Ecommerce plan adds the ability to create an online store, with unlimited products, PayPal and shipping integration, and comes with priority support. It's priced from $12.99 billed monthly.
The free website builder is a worthwhile addition to iPage's free shared hosting plan. It's easy to use and could be enough to create simple, low-traffic personal and business sites. But we wouldn't pay to upgrade. The site designs are relatively basic, the editor isn't as polished or powerful, and the e-commerce plan doesn't have the features to build a quality web store.
If you're looking for a website builder and you're serious about selling online, consider Wix. Templates are top quality, there are loads of pre-built page sections and elements, and it's very easy to use. And if you need to upgrade to a web store, it doesn't compromise on functionality: there's as much power here as in regular stand-alone ecommerce platforms. Prices range from $16 a month for personal sites, to $59 for the top-of-the-range Business VIP.
(Image credit: iPage)
Is iPage easy to use?
iPage offers shared hosting, the simplest and most straightforward hosting type, which should give it an immediate usability advantage. Unfortunately, it doesn't work out that way.
One key problem is that iPage uses its own control panel and auto-installer tools. These are limited, with fewer features than the best alternatives, less reliable and more awkward to navigate.
Many hosts use Softaculous as an auto-installer, for instance. This can install WordPress and 150+ apps, has all kinds of options to ensure you get the setup you need, reliably installs apps (often in seconds) and can help you manage your app afterwards.
iPage's installer works with WordPress and its own website builder only. It has no significant setup options, doesn't delete a previous WordPress database by default, has left us looking at a 'Setting up' message for more than an hour, failed to properly install WordPress once, and doesn't have any management options (beyond deleting your installation).
This may not matter much to everyone. If you've a simple site, and once you've created it, you'll spend minimal time adding content or making changes, hosting management tools aren't so important. You might spend 15 minutes finding out how to do something, but that's about it.
But if you're a web hosting newbie, or you've a more complex site to build, maybe a blog where you'll regularly add new content, then iPage's usability issues could become a problem.
We used Uptime.com to measure the performance of our iPage site (Image credit: Uptime.com)
How fast is iPage?
We measure hosting performance by installing a template WordPress site on a test account, then using various tools to measure server response times and how quickly the page loads.
GTMetrix analyzed a test page and calculated how long it took for the main content to load (technically speaking, that's a value called Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP). A low LCP makes your site feel snappy and more responsive, encouraging your users to stick around.
IPage's LCP was slow at 1.6 seconds, the longest wait we've seen in our last 15 hosting reviews. Most providers are somewhere in the 0.6 to 0.8 second range, significantly faster.
(Image credit: K6)
K6 is a website load testing service which measures how a site responds when it has several users active at the time. IPage coped better here, and our site handled up to 25 requests a second. But again, average response times were lower than average at 1.119 seconds.
Put it all together and iPage is slower than most of the hosts we've tested. With no high-powered or dedicated hosting, you can't upgrade to improve the situation, either. But although this makes iPage a poor choice for any kind of heavy-duty web project, it's still fast enough for personal or small business sites where you might not see 100 visitors a day.
The support site isn't as detailed as it appears (Image credit: iPage)
What is iPage's support like?
iPage offers support on the website, via live chat, and telephone (7am to 12am Eastern Time, seven days a week). That's probably enough to get by, but the best hosts do better, with a 24/7 phone line and ticket or email support, too.
We opened a live chat window to see how the service performed. A window prompted us to choose a topic, then select a category from an annoyingly short list which didn't cover our test question. We made a best guess, and entered a description of our fictitious problem in an 'Additional Information' box.
Hitting Next submitted the question, and an agent arrived very quickly, within seconds. What happened next depended very much on the issue.
iPage support had no problems with our simple technical and product queries, providing speedy and accurate replies, with occasional links to relevant help pages. Ask an unfamiliar question, though, and it's a very different story.
iPage offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but we couldn't see any document explaining how this works. And so we opened a text window and asked if the guarantee was described anywhere.
'Are we facing an issue with slowness or the control panel', asked the baffled agent? No, uptime, we explained again.
He asked for a few minutes to research the problem. Finally, he returned. 'I'd like to inform you about bandwidth', he said, going on to explain what iPage means by unlimited bandwidth. We thanked him, and left.
Our problem here isn't that our agent didn't know the answer (this probably isn't a topic that comes up often), as much as he clearly didn't even understand the question, despite us explaining it twice. Perhaps that's less likely to happen when troubleshooting web hosting issues, but it doesn't give us much confidence.
Final verdict
With no VPS or dedicated server hosting these days, iPage is all about its shared plans. These have rock-bottom prices, but they're also poor performers, awkward to use and missing some key features. IPage might work for the simplest sites, or to learn WordPress or some other web technology, but it doesn't have the power or features to handle anything more serious.
iPage FAQs
What payment types does iPage support?
iPage accepts payment by card and PayPal.
Does iPage offer refunds?
iPage has a 30-day money-back guarantee covering 'all basic hosting fees.' 'Domain registration fees, setup fees, or any fees for additional Services' are excluded.
That's a very standard guarantee, but there are a couple of exceptions you need to know about.
The first is the guarantee is valid for PayPal and card only; keep that in mind when you're paying.
The second is only first-time hosting accounts are eligible. If you've had an account before, canceled and signed up again, you won't be able to claim a refund.
Does iPage have an uptime guarantee?
iPage quotes a '99.9% uptime guarantee' for its shared hosting packages. We found no website documentation to explain what this meant, though, how it was calculated, what counts as downtime, what doesn't, and whether you might receive any compensation if the target isn't achieved.
The end result is that although iPage says it has an uptime guarantee, there's no way to assess whether it meets the 99.9% figure or not, making it essentially meaningless.
Where are iPage's data centers?
The iPage website says the company uses two data centers, but doesn't give any further details.
We entered our server IP address at iplocation.net to find out more, and the site checked it with eight geolocation services. Every one said our server was in Jacksonville, Florida.
(Image credit: iPage)
What is my iPage IP address?
Learning your web server IP address can be helpful when you're first setting up a site, for example in configuring a domain hosted elsewhere to point at your new web space.
To find your iPage server's IP address, first log into its Control Panel.
Click the Hosting Tools icon (nine dots arranged in a square).
Your server IP address is displayed as 'Website IP' in the left-hand System Settings box.
What are IPage's nameservers?
iPage's nameservers are ns1.ipage.com and ns2.ipage.com.
(Image credit: iPage)
How do I cancel a product?
Log into the iPage Control Panel. Click the Hosting Tools icon at the top of the screen. Click 'Logged in as ' at the top of the screen, and choose Hosting Renewal.
Choose the option to cancel your account today, or when it expires. These won't necessarily stop all payments; if you've registered a domain with iPage, for instance, that's a separate product and is renewed separately. Read the warnings on the Cancel page carefully for advice on this and other issues.
• Original review date: June 2022
• Yet to be replaced
• Launch price: $399.99 / £269 / AU$699
• Official price now: $349.99 / £239 / AU$599
Update: February 2024. Although it was launched back in 2020, the Nextbase 622GW is still the top model in the Nextbase dash cam range. It also continues to occupy the top spot in our list of the best dash cams, thanks to its combination of excellent 4K video quality and a comprehensive feature set, including effective image stabilization and clever what3words integration. Those skills do come with a significant outlay, though. If you’re interested in a Nextbase camera but don’t need all of the features offered by the 622GW, it’s worth looking at its sibling models. For example, the 522GW doesn’t have image stabilization, but it records 2K video and includes support for Alexa. It’s also significantly cheaper than the 622GW. That said, if you’re looking for the very best dash cam you can currently buy, we think the 622GW is worth the money. The rest of this review remains as previously published.
Nextbase has long been at the forefront of advanced dash cam tech, and its latest Nextbase 622GW model comes positively packed with the latest video recording smarts, making it one of the best dash cams on the market.
For a start, the 622GW features a new Ambarella H22 quad-core chipset, which lets you capture pin-sharp 4K footage at 30fps. Better still, the firm has installed a removable polarizing filter, which allows drivers to rotate a bezel on the front of the lens to produce beautiful, glare-free footage.
Nextbase 622GW release date and price
The Nextbase 622GW is available to buy right now for £249 / $319.99 / AU$549.99. If you're in the UK, the camera also gives you up to 30% off Nextbase's own Insurance.
When recording in normal, well-lit situations, the resulting 4K clips are up there with basic GoPro offerings, and it’s extremely easy to slow playback down to 120fps via a Super Slow Motion setting.
This is particularly useful for snaring a license plate during a hit-and-run incident, or capturing individual frames during an accident, for example.
There’s also an option to add a rear camera module that films at 1080p/30fps, but this is sold separately. On a positive note, this doesn’t require an irritatingly long wire dangling from the rear window because it neatly plugs into the side of the 622GW.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
You interact with the Nextbase 622GW via a sharp, three-inch full-color rear touchscreen display that features small icons for navigating the various menu screens. These can be a little fiddly to locate, especially when you’re driving (not advised), while the touchscreen requires obvious digit swipes before it recognizes the command.
Alternatively, there’s the option to link Amazon Alexa voice control to the 622GW via the accompanying MyNextbase Connect app, which is available for both iOS and Android devices. Once the two pieces of software are linked, you can simply say, “Alexa, ask my dash cam to take a picture” and the camera will oblige. It generally works well, although if you’re in a noisy vehicle Alexa can have trouble recognizing commands.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
Nextbase also now offers an upgrade to its coveted EmergencySOS feature in this camera, thanks to the addition of what3words geocoding.
Emergency and breakdown services are increasingly looking to the innovative geocode system to provide help faster, as the technology can precisely pinpoint a location within three meters of a stricken vehicle, for example.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
How does what3words work? If you find yourself in a remote area, this GPS alternative will let you precisely locate yourself, though you'll still need to make a phone call for help. For more serious incidents, there's also EmergencySOS, which can apparently work on very low data connection speeds (GPRS, or under 0.1Mbit/s).
Customers in all territories receive a year’s free trial of this EmergencySOS feature, but you’ll need to pay a subscription after that period.
Regardless, most of us carry a mobile phone these days, meaning EmergencySOS can be used with the accompanying app, and thanks to dual 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi, cameras now tether to said app with fewer issues than previous Nextbase cams – although these issues haven’t been ironed out completely.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
Previous generations of Nextbase dash cams have been massively frustrating to use, often failing to provide a stable connection to transfer still images and video between phone and camera, but things have improved. The set-up process is still a little fiddly and time-consuming, and the Wi-Fi connection between devices sometimes fails, but we managed to retrieve some imagery and footage after a few attempts.
It is, however, much simpler to plug the camera into a laptop or PC to access the footage, and playback is far slicker this way. We could imagine the app and its connection issues becoming frustrating to use if you were desperately trying to review footage directly after an incident, and this is something Nextbase, in our opinion, needs to address.
But otherwise, the 622GW is an extremely easy camera to set up and use. Its 140-degree viewing angle isn’t the most extreme on the market, but it easily captures everything through the windscreen, and both its low-light and extreme weather recording modes, which use clever algorithms to improve the quality of the image, are great for capturing crisp footage in difficult situations.
(Image credit: Nextbase)
New image stabilization technology also does its bit to ensure buttery smooth footage, cleverly soaking up bumps and vibrations from potholes or poor road surfaces.
The improvements in sensor and processor technology means the resulting files are large, and Nextbase suggests investing in a 128GB U3 SD card, which isn’t supplied with the unit. These cost around $25 / £30 / AU$45, but opting for anything smaller will seriously restrict recording times.
Like most cameras on the market, the 622GW features a built-in G-Sensor, which will automatically save footage to the device if it detects a bump or crash. The sensitivity of this can be adjusted via the touchscreen display, but there’s also a handy Parking Mode that will automatically record footage if the G Sensor is activated, even when the camera isn’t drawing power.
The Nextbase 622GW is a clever little unit that now produces fantastic footage. Granted, the Nextbase app isn’t the easiest to use, but Alexa and what3words integration work extremely well, and have the potential to increase safety out on the road.
ScalaHosting is an experienced Dallas-based provider with 15 years of experience in the web hosting business.
ScalaHosting's range includes everything from shared hosting for simple sites, and VPS for more demanding business projects, to custom-built managed clusters (a group of servers handling the same site) with the power to manage even the largest websites.
ScalaHosting's shared hosting offers lots for your money (Image credit: ScalaHosting)
ScalaHosting shared hosting
ScalaHosting's starter shared hosting plan looks a little basic, with only 20GB storage and support for a single site. But otherwise, it delivers everything we'd expect - free domain, free SSL, free site migration, unlimited bandwidth, a 1-click WordPress installer, live chat and email support (not phone) - and some welcome extras, including remote backups of your sites for the last seven days.
It's reasonably priced, too, at $2.95 a month over three years, $6.95 on renewal.
Upgrading gets you more CPU resources, support for unlimited websites, hacking protection, priority support, and SEO advice to (hopefully) raise your Google ranking. The price jumps to $5.95 a month over three years ($8.95 when you renew), but that's fair for what you're getting.
ScalaHosting only has total of 16 hosting locations, including Amsterdam and Singapore, similar to that of A2 Hosting. Adaxially, all ScalaHosting's shared hosting plans use NVMe storage (which isn't used by many of its competitors). These type of disks are at least ten times faster than a normal SSD.
On the whole, these are quality shared hosting packages, easy to use, with all the key features you'll need, and fairly priced for what you get. A smart choice for hosting newcomers, or for small to medium personal and small business sites where speed isn't critical.
ScalaHosting WordPress hosting
ScalaHosting's WordPress plans look identical to its shared range, with the same features (as we discuss above) for the same price (from $2.95 a month). But that's not necessarily a problem, because there are decent shared plans, and there are some useful WordPress-related features, too.
The company says it will migrate as many sites as you ask for free, for instance. Many providers limit you to one, a few don't offer free migration at all.
ScalaHosting's servers are optimized for WordPress performance, with custom security rules to block '99.9% of the web attacks.'
The support team go beyond the usual server problem-solving to help you with more WordPress-specific issues, such as troubleshooting plugins.
All plans get daily backups covering the last 7 days (something we don't always see with budget WordPress offerings), while malware scans and removal keeps your site and visitors safe.
If you're looking to learn WordPress, or use it to build a small personal or business site, ScalaHosting's range more than covers the basics for a very low price. But if you're more interested in features than rock-bottom prices, WordPress, IONOS and A2 Hosting have powerful specialist plans with more powerful WordPress tools and valuable business and other extras.
All of ScalaHosting's VPS plans are fully configurable (Image credit: ScalaHosting)
ScalaHosting VPS hosting
ScalaHosting's VPS (Virtual Private Server) plans give your website more resources than shared hosting, significantly improving load times, and avoiding the slowdowns you'll often see with shared plans.
Prices look relatively high at $29.95 a month for a 2 CPU core, 4GB RAM, 50GB SSD system, but you're getting a lot for your money. Unmetered bandwidth; free migrations, domain and SSL; daily backups; WordPress backup, cloning and staging; malware and hacking protection; and no need to buy a cPanel license, because the cPanel-compatible SPanel is thrown in.
If the standard four plans don't suit your needs, you can build your own by choosing whatever mix of CPU sores (2-24), RAM (4-128GB) and storage (50GB-2000GB) works best.
There's even the option to host your VPS with Amazon AWS, instead of ScalaHosting. They're more expensive, but have far larger networks and can host your server in data centers around the world.
These aren't plans for casual users or bargain hunters, but if you're working on a heavy-duty project for medium to large or business-critical sites, ScalaHosting almost certainly has a VPS for you.
We assess website speed by using a tool called GTmetrix to calculate how long it takes to load and display the main content of a page (a figure known technically as Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP). The lower the LCP value is, the faster your site pops up in the browser, and the snappier and more responsive your site feels.
ScalaHosting delivered an LCP of 0.730 seconds. That's fractionally slower than average, but still within reach of big names including GoDaddy (0.667 seconds) and GreenGeeks (0.692 seconds), and much better than budget providers such as Domain.com (1.5 seconds) and iPage (1.6 seconds.) Overall, ScalaHosting's shared hosting delivers decent performance which should cope with small to mid-range personal and business sites.
Reliability is another important element of hosting performance. Your website might download almost instantly, but if it's regularly down, your visitors won't be happy.
We assess reliability by using Uptime.com to check a test website every 5 minutes for 14 days, logging any passes and fails. Scala Hosting's result was easy to calculate because it had no failures, scoring a perfect 100% uptime. That's what we'd expect for a short test, but it's a good start. We've left the Uptime.com test running, too, and will update this review from time to time with longer-term results.
ScalaHosting's web dashboard is clear and intuitive. Log in and your hosting plan is displayed up-front. Common tools are easy to find, often just a click or two away. A 'launch cPanel' button gives you speedy access to cPanel's many hosting management tools, and the company uses the excellent Softaculous as its 1-click WordPress installer, another usability plus. We've installed a lot of test WordPress sites, and Softaculous is faster, more configurable and reliable than anything else.
We did notice a surprising security issue. Although the dashboard's 'launch cPanel' button logs you into cPanel, it doesn't establish an encrypted HTTPS connection. It's HTTP-only, which left our browser displaying a 'not secure' error. If we accessed cPanel via unprotected public Wi-Fi, that may allow others to intercept our communications and perhaps steal sensitive information.
This must be some temporary issue relating to our account, we thought, and opened a support ticket to ask. An agent replied in four minutes, but the news wasn't good. The dashboard automatically uses a URL beginning hydra.vivawebhost.com:2082, and he explained we had to use hydra.vivawebhost.com:2083 to get a secure connection, before adding: 'I will report that to our developers and they will check if this can be fixed so you will be redirected to a secure connection from your client profile as well.'
In other words, while you can securely log into cPanel via other URLs, try it from the dashboard and it creates an insecure connection as standard. Your browser should clearly warn you of the problem, so hopefully users will notice and try a different login route, but that really shouldn't be necessary. Web hosts have access to some very sensitive data, and customers have the right to expect more attention to security details than we see here.
What is ScalaHosting's support like?
ScalaHosting offers 24/7 support via its website, live chat and ticket/ email.
The web knowledgebase is smaller than average but the company makes up for it with its YouTube knowledge channel. For example, the Hosting section has only 304 articles to cover shared, VPS, and reseller hosting, domains, DNS, security, email and more. There is useful content here, but it's mixed with generic 'how to' advice, and a weak search engine can make it tricky to find what you need.
Fortunately, if the website can't help, accessing the support team is quick and easy. Our live chat sessions generally got a reply within a minute, and the agents gave accurate and helpful responses to our test questions.
Using tickets can make more sense for complex problems, and ScalaHosting performed well here, too. Replies were helpful and detailed, and arrived in anything from four to just under 40 minutes.
Final verdict
ScalaHosting's shared plans aren't the fastest we've seen, but they give you plenty of power for your cash, and could work for bargain hunters with personal or small business sites. The real highlight here is the company's professional and highly configurable VPS hosting, which has the power to handle serious business-critical sites.
ScalaHosting FAQs
What payment types does ScalaHosting support?
ScalaHosting accepts payments via card, PayPal and bank transfer.
Does ScalaHosting offer refunds?
ScalaHosting has a 30-day money-back guarantee for shared, VPS and reseller hosting, along with cloud servers and (something you won't get with all providers) SSL certificates. Dedicated servers and domain names are not included.
While that's a fairly typical guarantee, there is one catch: it's available for new customers only, which seems a little unfair. If you have one package and buy another, you're not covered by the guarantee.
Does ScalaHosting have uptime guarantee?
ScalaHosting has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. If your server has more than 0.1% unscheduled downtime over a month (around 45 minutes), you'll receive 10% credit on your hosting fees for every further 0.1% your site is unavailable. So that's 10% for 1:30, 20% for 2:!5, up to a 100% credit for a total 8:15 downtime.
(Image credit: ScalaHosting)
Where are ScalaHosting's data centers?
ScalaHosting has its own data centers in the USA (New York, Dallas) and Sofia, Bulgaria, but it also uses Digital Ocean’s data centers in Bangalore, London, Singapore, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, San Francisco and Toronto.
That's good news, as the more data centers a host has, the more likely you can choose one near your audience, improving speeds.
Beware, though, you can't choose all of these data centers with every product. We were offered only four locations for our review shared hosting package: Dallas, New York, Europe and India.
What is my ScalaHosting IP address?
Knowing your web server's IP address can be handy when you're pointing a domain managed elsewhere to your web space.
The easiest way to find the address is with cPanel, if it's available on your account.
Log in to the Scala Hosting client area (https://my.scalahosting.com).
Find your hosting product in the My Services list.
Click Manage, Log Into cPanel.
Look to the right, and your server IP address is displayed as 'Shared IP Address' in the General Information box.
(There is no 'General Information' box? Find and click the Server Information link.)
What are ScalaHosting's nameservers?
ScalaHosting's nameservers are:
ns1.scalahosting.com
ns2.scalahosting.com
How to cancel a ScalaHosting service (Image credit: ScalaHosting)
How do I cancel a ScalaHosting product?
Access your ScalaHosting client area (https://my.scalahosting.com).
Find the plan you'd like to cancel in the My Services list.
Click Manage, Request cancellation.
Choose a reason, decide whether you'd like to cancel the hosting immediately or at the end of the billing period, and click Request Cancellation.
ScalaHosting warns that 'cancellation requests may take up to 7 days to be completed', so if you're looking to avoid the plan automatically renewing, don't leave this until the last minute.
Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 service is a private DNS that encrypts the site requests you make, hiding them from your ISP. It’s offered in conjunction with WARP, a VPN service built on top of 1.1.1.1 that also encrypts your traffic.
WARP is a free service, and while we’d usually warn against using free VPNs, we're fairly happy with WARP’s pedigree. Cloudflare is one of the largest network service providers on the internet, and it had 1.1.1.1 audited to demonstrate its no-logs policy.
However, WARP does not hide your IP address or offer the full range of features provided by traditional VPNs. While it's a good choice if you’re looking for a free service for basic privacy needs, it’s not going to compete with the best VPNs we’ve reviewed in the past, such as NordVPN or Surfshark.
Features
While the 1.1.1.1 DNS service offers a few different features, there’s significantly less available from WARP. In fact, several key features are missing.
There’s no kill switch, meaning you’ll be vulnerable to data leaks if your connection to Cloudflare’s servers goes down. Split tunnelling is available, but you can only specify which domains and IPs aren’t covered by the WARP VPN tunnel. Other than that, it’s a very bog-standard VPN client.
It was also surprising to see that there was no way to select a VPN server location. When you connect to WARP, you get access to your best local server. That’s it. Given that our top-rated VPNs allow you to pick and choose servers in individual cities, this is something we'd like to see WARP integrate into its own offering.
The DNS service is a little more interesting. 1.1.1.1 allows you to request DNS over both HTTPS and TLS, obfuscating your domain requests completely. There’s also Oblivious DNS available, which proxies your DNS requests through 1.1.1.1 without exposing the original IP requesting the domain.
You can optionally connect through “Family” 1.1.1.1 instead, a version of the domain resolver which also adds filtering for malware and inappropriate content. It’s not quite as granular as something like Windscribe’s ROBERT DNS, however, which provides several categories and allows you to add individual IPs to a custom blocklist.
There’s even the option to route your DNS requests through Tor for extra privacy. It’s still in the experimental stage, so don’t expect any official support if it doesn’t work, but it’s an interesting idea. Routing your DNS this way will definitely slow your domain requests down compared to using 1.1.1.1 directly, but if you need to be absolutely sure your requests aren’t being spied on, it’s worth a shot.
You might expect some of WARP’s features to be gated behind WARP+, the optional upgrade subscription. This is not the case. WARP+ is functionally identical to the normal WARP client, except you’re getting some extra-fast routing on the back end.
Server network
It’s a mixed bag. On the one hand, Cloudflare runs an incredibly powerful worldwide server network unparalleled by anything but other top-tier CDNs. On the other hand, you can’t choose which location you connect to through WARP.
All traffic is routed through Cloudflare's global network, but WARP+ uses Cloudflare’s Argo backbone, which is optimized for high-speed connectivity. We didn’t find any particular differences in performance between the two networks, unfortunately.
Apps
There’s not much to say about the WARP app. Install it, hit the “On” button, and you’re in business. That’s really it for most users. On Android and iOS, it’s perfectly functional. On the desktop, the client comes up as a pop-up from the system tray instead of a full window that you can drag around.
In practice, it’s a little annoying to use because you’ll probably end up referring to guides and accidentally closing the window if you’re doing anything more complex than just hitting connect.
On the surface, there are almost no extra settings or customization options, which makes it great if you need a “simple as” VPN that anyone can use. However, dig a little deeper, and there are expert-level settings relating to DNS that the average user will never need to touch.
It’s also not immediately obvious where you’re connected when you check the location on the app, as WARP uses co-location codes for specific regions (LHR for London Heathrow, for example) instead of telling you which country you’re connected to.
The WARP app is available on iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux. There are no dedicated apps for smart TVs, streaming devices, or gaming consoles. However, you will be able to take advantage of 1.1.1.1’s improved DNS resolution speeds by entering the DNS address directly into most devices.
Ease of use
WARP with 1.1.1.1 doesn’t require any particularly difficult setup. The fact that it’s feature-light is actually a plus here: all you do is hit “On” and you’re connected.
It’s hard to see how WARP could be made any simpler. There’s no need to log in, no subscription to set up, no locations to choose, just a download and install process. You can get stuck into all of the complex options on the back-end or try implementing some of 1.1.1.1’s more esoteric features into your own app, but that’s not necessary to get the VPN working.
That said, you might hit a snag while looking for the app on the iOS store. Simply put: it’s not there, so you’ll have to download it from the Cloudflare site directly.
Speed and performance
WARP is not particularly quick, but keep in mind that it’s free. Our testing rig uses a 1 Gbit connection to stress test the full capabilities of each VPN we review. WARP didn’t even come close to maxing out our line at only 197 Mbps.
How we perform speed tests
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
We test from two different virtual PCs, one in the UK and one in the US. We’re expecting big things out of NordVPN, as both of these servers have a 1 Gbs connection. You can find out more in our VPN testing methodology.
We should point out that this is a free service, so you get what you pay for. It’s also more than fast enough to stream even 4K content, so you’re only really going to notice if you’re heavily into downloading.
You’d expect better from the paid WARP+ service, but unfortunately, our recorded speeds were… basically the same. Scarily so, clocking in at 198 Mbps. That definitely says something for Cloudflare’s consistency.
We can only assume that we’re already being connected to one of the best servers in the region by default, so don’t upgrade to WARP+ if you’re expecting an extreme jump in speeds. You’d be better off purchasing a subscription to Surfshark, instead, which reigns supreme as the fastest VPN on our books.
Unblocking
Don’t expect anything from WARP if you’re hunting for a streaming VPN. It’s not designed to bypass geo-restrictions and it doesn’t allow you to choose which server you’re connected to. At most, you’re going to have your traffic routed through a server geographically close to you. In our case, we found that we were still able to access ITV and Channel 4, but couldn’t access BBC iPlayer with WARP enabled.
Neither service blocks P2P connections, so if you’re looking to torrent on WARP it’s theoretically not a problem. In practice, the lack of port forwarding means you won’t get the same connectivity as using your home connection. Also, you’re not getting the IP masking protections afforded by most VPN providers. Together, this means that torrenting on WARP is an actively worse experience.
One plus side to WARP working differently from most VPN providers is that it’s not detected by nearly as many VPN scanners. We took WARP for a quick test-run and saw that nearly two-thirds of the sites we tested couldn’t tell we were using a VPN, which is significantly better than most of our top VPN providers. As a result, we’d expect you to run into fewer CAPTCHAs while using WARP, too.
Privacy and Security
There are some solid points here in favour of Cloudflare’s approach to privacy and security, but also a lot of areas where it could massively improve.
First, the positives. WARP uses BoringTUN to power the encrypted VPN tunnel you use to access the internet through its servers. It’s essentially another WireGuard implementation run inside the userspace, but instead of being written in the Go language, it uses Rust.
Cloudflare claims it’s a faster and potentially safer implementation of WireGuard, which is plausible, but it really remains to be seen whether this is the case.
Cloudflare has previously commissioned a no-logs audit of its 1.1.1.1 service by KPMG in 2019. KPMG indicated that Cloudflare handles data according to its privacy policy, essentially giving it a clean bill of health. However, there are still some issues here. For one, Cloudflare hasn’t commissioned another audit since then. There has also been no audit for the actual WARP service. Worst of all, by its own admission, Cloudflare does log some minor data about the use of WARP.
While WARP doesn’t require you to share an email address (or any personal information for that matter) to use the service, it does log an aggregated record of how much data you transfer and as well as your average connection speed. This isn’t a huge problem for WARP, but it is slightly more worrying if you add your personal information when you sign up via WARP+.
For 1.1.1.1, Cloudflare supports multiple encrypted and obfuscated methods of sending DNS requests. No problem here, these are great to see. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the actual WARP client. There are no obfuscation options, so it’ll be fairly obvious you’re using a VPN to access the internet.
If you’re worried about your network admin or ISP blocking your traffic, you need to look for another secure VPN – like ExpressVPN.
WARP also doesn’t hide your IP, which is a huge negative for a VPN. It’s one of the core selling points, but WARP isn’t really designed for privacy from the wider web. It’s just to stop your ISP from recording your traffic, but without a kill switch implemented, there’s no guarantee this will work 24/7.
The 1.1.1.1 DNS service gets a pass, but we cannot recommend WARP as a serious privacy tool.
Track record
Considering how large Cloudflare is, it isn’t surprising it's run into one or two security issues in the past.
As for the actual app, there have been several exploits discovered for WARP that would allow a local attacker to escalate privileges or otherwise interfere with the system running WARP. It’s not the best track record, and we expect better from an organisation with so many resources to dedicate to security.
From a privacy perspective, WARP performs better, although we have run into at least one case where a user on the local network would still be able to sniff DNS requests made through WARP. This is now fixed, but on the whole, it doesn’t build massive confidence in WARP as a tool that'll keep you safe online.
Customer support
Cloudflare has some very thorough documentation on offer for both 1.1.1.1 and WARP. However, it’s very much tailored towards developers who are using 1.1.1.1 as part of larger applications.
While you might find the answers you’re looking for, it’s not particularly accessible for new VPN users. This is a little disappointing, considering one of WARP’s benefits is supposed to be its simplicity.
Otherwise, you’ll need to check out the community support forum or its Discord. Cloudflare staff regularly check the forum, but you can’t rely on getting an answer if you’ve got a connection problem. Upgrading to WARP+ gets you access to a support portal, but this is strictly for solving billing issues.
Pricing and plans
Both 1.1.1.1 and WARP are free to use forever with no bandwidth limits. The only paid part of the package is WARP+, which is priced at $4.99 per month and is only available through the iOS and Google Play stores. WARP+ is literally just a speed and connectivity upgrade, there are no extra features on offer for the upgrade price.
In comparison, you could subscribe to Mullvad VPN for the same price and access a VPN with fleshed-out privacy features and the ability to connect to servers all over the world. There’s no money-back guarantee for WARP+, so if you find that it hasn’t significantly increased your speeds, you’re out of luck.
Should you use 1.1.1.1.?
As a free private DNS service, 1.1.1.1 ticks all the right boxes. As a free VPN, WARP leaves some key features out that leave much to be desired. The lack of a kill switch and IP masking are the most egregious problems. Proton VPN Free offers a free version with all the functionality of WARP and more, plus some marginally better location selection.
If you’re just looking to upgrade your DNS, giving 1.1.1.1 a shot isn’t the worst idea in the world. However, there are better free VPNs out there that do a better job of improving your privacy.
Furthermore, if you’re going to pay for WARP+, you may as well just pay for a VPN that actually protects your IP address instead, as the speed upgrades you’re getting are marginal at best.
1.1.1.1. alternatives
1. NordVPN – from $3.09 per month The best VPN overall One of the most well-rounded VPNs out there. NordVPN offers connection locations all over the world in 118+ countries, top-tier security features like Threat Protection, and consistently fast speeds. It's the total package, and you can take it for a risk-free test drive with its 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal
2. Surfshark – from $1.99 per month The best cheap VPN (and the fastest!) A fantastic choice if you’re concerned about value for money. Surfshark is one of the few providers that offers unlimited simultaneous device connections. There’s also some top-tier connectivity here, powered by the Nexus network, which allows you to create multi-hop connections between any two servers whenever you feel like it. Try it today with a 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal
3. ExpressVPN – from $4.99 per month The best VPN for beginners It’s a little pricier, but in return, you get best-in-class custom encryption protocols and a 24/7 support team ready to assist you whenever you have an issue with your VPN. ExpressVPN balances a powerful feature set with a streamlined, easy-to-use app that works on basically any platform you can think of. Best of all, you and try before commiting to a long-term subscription thanks to its 30-day money-back guarantee.View Deal
