It seems like all the big security companies offer a VPN these days, but Norton Secure VPN is better than most. It's easy to use, has more features than you might expect, and is still surprisingly affordable.
Norton's network is a little small, with only 29 countries available and no city-level selections. Most are in Europe and North America, although there are servers in Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Africa.
There are apps for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. You can connect one, five, or 10 devices simultaneously, depending on your plan. Sounds reasonable, but beware, these have to be specific devices. If you buy a five-device plan and install the app on two laptops, two phones, and a tablet, you can't install it anywhere else until it's removed from one of your other devices.
P2P is supported, though not with all locations. Choose the ‘Torrent-Optimized Region' option in Norton's app and it'll connect to the nearest torrent-friendly location.
It's easy to hook up with the nearest torrent-friendly location (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
The service uses the speedy and secure WireGuard protocol but doesn't provide any way to get it working manually on other devices.
Checking the Windows app Settings box reveals some welcome features including a kill switch that protects your connection if the VPN drops, split tunneling which enables you to choose which app traffic should be routed through the VPN and which uses your regular connection, and built-in ad, tracker, and malware blocking, too.
Both monthly and annual plans are available (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
Plans and pricing
Norton Secure VPN prices start at just $4.99 billed monthly for a single device license. Most providers ask $10-$13 for monthly plans, so if you only need to protect that one device, Norton looks like a very good deal.
Norton's five-device plan starts cheap at $3.33 a month billed annually, although that doubles to $6.66 on renewal.
The 10-device plan is priced at $5 a month on the annual subscription, rising to $8.33 on renewal. That looks a little costly to us but when bought in a bundle it can be more cost effective.
Buy Norton Secure VPN as a bundle with Norton 360 Deluxe and you'll also get an excellent antivirus for up to five PCs, Macs, mobiles and tablets, a firewall for PC and Mac, parental controls, a password manager, 50GB cloud backup space, and more. It's only fractionally more expensive at $4.17 a month for the first year of the annual plan, and still reasonable at $9.58 on renewal ($114.99 a year). If you're in the market for a new antivirus or security suite, that could be the best option.
Whatever your product preferences, Norton protects you with a 14-day money-back guarantee for monthly-billed subscriptions and a generous 60-days with annual plans.
Norton Secure VPN can block trackers and more, but the service does keep some logs on its users (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
Privacy and logging
The website claims that “unlike some other VPNs, we don't track, log, or save your browsing activities.” Sounds promising, but there's no more detail on the front page.
A 'What is a no-log VPN?' blog post vaguely states that although “Norton Secure VPN does not log information about where you browse on the Internet”, it does collect “other limited data in accordance with the NortonLifeLock Global Privacy Statement and the Product Privacy Notice.”
The Norton Secure VPN privacy policy says the service collects or accesses your device name, type, and identifier, OS version (for mobile devices), license identifier, a running total of bandwidth used, usage data, and some very basic diagnostic information to help solve any issues (an error state code, for instance).
One unusual clause says “if suspicious behavior is detected or blocked” Norton might collect your IP address, license identifier, device identifier, and frequency of abuse of services for up to 7 days.
This leaves us with more questions than answers. What does Norton regard as suspicious behavior, for instance? Surely this must mean it's monitoring at least some user actions. In which case, will this data be shared with others? Norton's Global Privacy Statement does say that it will disclose personal data in response to a subpoena, warrant, discovery request, or a request with the purpose of identifying and/or preventing credit card fraud, identity theft, and other crimes.
This is all just too vague for us, and we'd like more detail on how the company handles your data. A Transparency Report giving some specifics on what Norton has disclosed to the authorities might be interesting. It's hard to see why a name as big as Norton can't join the likes ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and TunnelBear in putting itself through a public audit, to give potential customers real information on how it's looking after their privacy.
Norton Secure VPN's Windows app is very simple and straightforward (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
Apps
Norton Secure VPN's Windows app has a simple and straightforward interface which even the greenest of VPN newbies will figure out immediately.
Click the On button and the app connects to your nearest server. Alternatively, make your own choice from 29 countries in the location list. This is as basic as it gets – no ping times, server load stats, Favorites system, filters, or anything else.
You can pick a server from a very basic location list (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
Both the desktop and mobile apps have optional ad, tracker, and malware blocking. Many VPNs now offer some kind of content filtering, but can you be sure it's doing anything useful? To get an idea, we turned the feature on and tried a few tests.
Norton scored below 40% on our ad-blocking test (most VPNs average 70-90%.) It blocked a very respectable 69% of our test trackers, though, and (maybe unsurprisingly for a security company) protected us against 100% of our malicious test URLs.
Split tunneling lets you specify apps that don't use the VPN tunnel (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
The app doesn't include many settings, but what you get is worthwhile. These include settings to select whether to launch the app and automatically connect when Windows starts, enable the Kill Switch, and to set up split tunneling.
The main omission is any way to change protocol or customize how the VPN connects – it's WireGuard-only.
Oddly, the app doesn't provide any way to close it down entirely. There's no Exit, Quit, or similar button. Closing the app window simply minimizes it to an icon in the system tray and there's no right-click, Exit option there either.
The kill switch did not impress us (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
We ran some extreme tests on the kill switch by ceasing Secure VPN's WireGuard processes and stopping its services. The connection dropped, but the app didn't warn us, the kill switch didn't block our internet, and our device used its regular unprotected internet connection as usual. Not good.
Maybe we were unlucky? We tried turning our router off and on to simulate a dropped network. A good kill switch should block everything apart from the VPN app until it can reconnect. Secure VPN didn't block our internet, didn't reconnect, and told us to try connecting again later.
Put this all together and it looks like the Windows kill switch is unreliable in the extreme. There's no way to be sure it will kick in and block your internet if the VPN drops, and that could mean your device traffic is unprotected for at least a few seconds, and possibly until you notice there's a problem. That may not matter much if you're just unblocking Netflix, but it's a disaster if you're doing anything more privacy-critical.
Keep in mind that this test was for the Windows kill switch only. It can't tell us what might happen with other apps. If you're only running Norton Secure VPN on Android, for instance, you won't be relying on Norton's app; you'll be using the very well-tested and reliable Android system kill switch.
This is the user interface of Norton Secure VPN's Android app (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
Mac and mobile apps
The Mac app looks more appealing than Norton's Windows offering, with a colorful map highlighting your current location. It has the ad, malware, and tracker blocker, but is missing some of the more advanced features seen in the Windows app, namely WireGuard support, split tunneling, and the kill switch.
It's much the same with Secure VPN Android and iOS apps. Norton has tweaked the interface a little to suit portrait mode and smaller screens, but it follows the same minimalist approach. There is just the big ‘Connect' button, a plain location list, and a few tiny icons. Very simple and straightforward.
There are a handful of useful bonus features in the background. The iOS app has the ad blocker, and a ‘Wi-Fi Security' feature which can make the VPN automatically connect when you access an unsecured or compromised network.
Android has the ad blocker, split tunneling, and the kill switch, but its version of ‘Wi-Fi Security' is more basic. It'll warn you when accessing an unsecured network, but won't automatically connect. You're left to do that yourself.
Overall, Norton Secure VPN's apps are easy to use, and the Windows app has a few useful features. The other apps are distinctly short on functionality, and the Windows kill switch looks unreliable in the extreme, so there's plenty of work for the company to do yet.
Norton Secure VPN did fairly well in our unblocking tests (Image credit: Shutterstock / sitthiphong)
Netflix and streaming
Norton Secure VPN is mostly sold on its ability to protect your details from cybercriminals when you're using Wi-Fi, and the website doesn't make any big claims (or even small ones) about unblocking big-name streaming platforms.
Our unblocking tests found some notable successes, with Secure VPN getting us into US and Australian Netflix, but failing in the UK, Canada, and Japan.
It was a similar story with other US platforms, as Secure VPN unblocked Amazon Prime, but didn't get us access to the Disney Plus site.
The mixed picture continued in Australia, with Secure VPN getting us into 9Now but failing with 10 Play.
Norton finished strongly in the UK, though, unblocking BBC iPlayer, ITV and, Channel 4.
That's far from a perfect performance, but Secure VPN clearly has some unblocking skills, and there's a chance it'll help you access other platforms we didn't test.
If you're looking to unblock just about anything, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark each got us into every test site we tried in our latest reviews.
We use a number of different speed tests to gauge the performance of each VPN we review (Image credit: Ookla)
Performance
We measured Norton Secure VPN's performance by accessing its nearest server from a UK data center with a 1Gbps connection. We then checked download speeds using benchmarking sites and services including SpeedTest.net (website and the command line app), Measurement Lab, Cloudflare, and others.
The results were amazing, with Norton Secure VPN reaching a median 950Mbps+ across its best sessions. That puts the service alongside big names like NordVPN and Surshark on the performance front.
If your internet connection or Wi-Fi barely reaches 95Mbps, let alone 950Mbps, this won't in itself bring you a lot of benefit. 16 out of our top 20 VPNs reach at least 500Mbps, and it's likely that any of those will have all the speed you'll be able to use.
However, the ability to reach such an exceptional peak performance does suggest Norton Secure VPN has capable servers with high-speed connections, which aren't overloaded by other users. That's good news for everyone, regardless of personal connection speeds.
NortonLifeLock offers 24/7 support via live chat and phone (Image credit: NortonLifeLock)
Support
Run into problems with Norton Secure VPN and you could head off to the support site, but be prepared for disappointment. Although there’s plenty of content, most of it is on Norton’s core security products. There are a few FAQs, setup and usage guides, but nothing that begins to compete with the specialist VPN providers.
This makes sense for Norton’s core consumer market, and the site does a fair job of explaining the service basics to VPN newcomers. But there’s not much here for more technical users. We went searching for protocols, for instance, to see if we could find any advanced articles, but there were no hits for ‘WireGuard’, and ‘IKEv2’ had only three.
You can contact the support team direct via live chat and phone. We had quick responses to our test questions, the agents were friendly and helpful, and went above and beyond to help. When a previously lengthy chat couldn’t solve our issue, for instance, an agent remotely accessed our device (with permission) to try to fix the problem.
Overall, the support team doesn’t appear to have the level of specialist VPN knowledge we see with the top providers. But that’s no great surprise, considering it has to cover the full Norton range, not just Secure VPN. And the reality is if, like most people, you just want to ask a straightforward product question – what does this mean, where do I find that, is my local server down right now? – then Norton’s support should generally deliver what you need.
Norton Secure VPN review: Final verdict
Norton Secure VPN is simple and very fast, and if that's all you need – or, maybe, you're looking for a VPN and a security suite – then its back-to-basics approach might appeal. Experts will be frustrated by the lack of features, though, plus the Windows kill switch is a big concern, and there are many more capable and better value VPNs around.
Mozilla VPN began life as a simple Firefox browser extension but its now a full standalone service that can shield all your internet traffic on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux.
The network has expanded recently and now offers 600+ servers across 73 locations in 43 countries.
Mozilla VPN is powered by Mullvad's speedy and secure network. Some companies keep quiet about the fact that they're reselling someone else's service, not Mozilla. Click the 'see our full list of servers' link on the Mozilla VPN website, for instance, and it takes you to the server list on Mullvad's site.
You can elect to use ad or tracker-blocking DNS servers (Image credit: Mozilla)
Features
Mozilla VPN's feature list has grown considerably since launch. Now, the service competes well with many big VPN names. The network is P2P-friendly, for instance (we torrented successfully on three test locations), support for the speedy WireGuard protocol optimizes performance, and there's a kill switch to protect you if the VPN drops. Multi-Hop VPN enables connecting to the VPN from one location and exiting from another, making it even more difficult for others to track your activities. There is also split tunneling support (called App Exclusions here) that allows you to decide which apps are protected by the VPN and which use your regular internet connection.
Other highlights include IPv6 support, and the ability to choose an ad or tracker-blocking DNS server, or to use your preferred DNS.
Firefox users get an unusual bonus in support for Multi-Account Containers. Each Firefox tab can be connected to a separate VPN location, so instead of forever connecting, changing location, and disconnecting, you can just switch to whatever tab you need. This Mozilla blog post has more details.
There are still weaknesses. Mozilla VPN only supports the WireGuard protocol, so if that won't connect on your network, you're out of luck. There's no support for manually setting up the service on routers or anything else. Additionally, you still can't set up the apps to automatically connect when you access public Wi-Fi, either.
There's no live chat support, but Mozilla does have a decent number of support articles. You can also send questions to the support team from the website if you're in serious trouble.
Only five devices can be registered to use the VPN at one time (Image credit: Mozilla)
We spotted one potential annoyance. Although Mozilla VPN says it works with up to five devices, that means specific, registered devices. If you use the service on two mobiles, two laptops, and a tablet, for instance, you can't use it on a new device until you've signed out of one of the others.
Although that's not expensive overall, keep in mind that you're paying for access to Mullvad's servers. Sign up for Mullvad instead and you'll pay a flat rate of €5 a month (around $5.50), whatever the length of your subscription.
Payments are accepted via card and PayPal only.
If you sign up and the service doesn't work for you, no problem, you're protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee. There are no sneaky catches or exclusions, as far as we can tell and we spent quite some time looking. If you're unhappy, just tell the company within the first 30 days, and you'll get a refund.
Mozilla VPN puts user privacy first (Image credit: Mozilla)
Privacy and logging
Mozilla sells its VPN partly on being from 'a name you can trust' and that's a major plus. Even if you think Mozilla's reputation comes largely from not being Google or Microsoft, it's still way ahead of many VPNs in the trustworthiness stakes, and its partner, Mullvad, is one of the most privacy-focused providers around.
The Mozilla VPN website makes its general approach very clear – ''Your privacy comes first'', ''We don't store your online activity logs on our servers'' – and the company provides more information in a brief Privacy Notice.
The firm collects your IP address when you sign up and use the service, along with technical information about the setup such as the app version, operating system, hardware configuration, and interaction data. Interaction data includes the time that you log in, when the app requests the server information, and other stuff. Mozilla says the IP is only held temporarily, although it doesn't explain how long 'temporary' might be.
If you're unhappy with this, you can disable some of it. Our Windows app installer asked us whether we wanted to send usage data to Mozilla, making it clear what was going on, and giving us a chance to say 'no, thanks'. If you don't notice the installer option, you can also turn this off later in the settings.
Mozilla points users to the Mullvad Privacy Policy for more detail and that explains there's no logging of traffic, DNS requests, IP addresses, session times, or bandwidth used.
Mozilla VPN was given a thorough audit by Cure53 (Image credit: Mozilla)
Audit
Mozilla says all the right things about privacy, but users shouldn't be left to take any provider's words on trust. We like to see some independent evidence that a VPN is living up to its promises.
In August 2021, Mozilla provided just that by publishing the results of a second Cure53 audit into its service.
This didn't look at the servers, but Cure53 did have an in-depth look at the apps, including the source code.
Cure53's report was positive overall, saying that only a single medium scale vulnerability was uncovered, and that the apps had 'grown significantly in security' since its last review.
Overall, we think the audit is positive news in a number of ways. The scope was significant, covering all Mozilla's apps; the company shared its source code; the audit results were reasonable, and it published the report in full. We give Mozilla a lot of credit for putting itself under that level of scrutiny, something which most VPNs still haven't done.
Mozilla VPN is available across a number of platforms (Image credit: Mozilla)
Apps
Signing up with Mozilla VPN begins by providing your email address and age to create a Firefox account. Although most providers also ask you to register with your email address, Mullvad doesn't need any personal details at all, which could be another reason to just buy it from Mullvad directly.
With the account set up, we handed over our cash and the website directed us to the Downloads page. We grabbed a copy of the Windows app, which was downloaded and installed within seconds.
This is the user interface of Mozilla VPN's Windows app (Image credit: Mozilla)
Mozilla VPN's Windows offering has a straightforward and very standard interface. A small console displays your default location, and you can click this to select another. A big On/Off switch connects and disconnects you as required, and icons plus a status display make it clear when you're protected, and when you're not.
The client doesn't have an 'Automatic' setting where it chooses the fastest server for you, and there's no Search box, filtering, or Favorites system to quickly find your most-used locations. Getting connected takes a little more scrolling and clicking than we'd like. There's some compensation in Mozilla's use of the ultra-speedy WireGuard protocol, which typically got us connected in 1-2 seconds.
Our connection stress testing caused the app to get stuck at this point (Image credit: Mozilla)
The app didn't perform as well in our connection stress tests, where we see how a VPN can handle awkward network situations like no internet connection, when another VPN is connected, and so on. It occasionally hung on ‘Connecting' or ‘Disconnecting' screens for so long that we had to restart to recover.
If you're only ever accessing the same few very standard Wi-Fi hotspots, you might instantly connect each time, and this won't matter at all; however, if you're traveling more widely, you could find Mozilla VPN has the occasional connection issue. If you're signing up for the trial, use your time to test the service on as many different networks as you can to see how it works for you.
Unfortunately Mozilla VPN has very few settings (Image credit: Mozilla)
Settings
We started by looking at Mozilla VPN's Windows split tunneling system. This enables setting up specific apps to use your normal internet connection rather than the VPN, which can be handy to improve performance or fix problems like banking apps not running if you seem to be in another country.
A DNS Settings screen allows you to choose DNS servers that block ads, trackers, or both, and you can also enter a custom DNS server of your own.
A 'Privacy features' page allows selectively blocking ads, trackers, and malware. We turned everything on and tried accessing 156 common trackers. Mozilla VPN blocked a very acceptable 115, including all the most important such as Google and Facebook.
Switching to malware, we tried accessing 379 very new malicious websites and watched as Mozilla VPN blocked 99.2% (it missed only three.) Even ad blocking worked better than we expected, with our VPN-enabled connection scoring 90% protection in one test (that's better than uBlock Origin.)
A Notifications page includes an option to display an alert if you connect to an unsecured Wi-Fi network. That's useful, although more powerful apps can automatically connect to the VPN as required, too.
A handful of more technical features include the ability to use port 53 for connections, which might help you use the service in countries or on networks where a VPN is normally blocked.
As we mentioned above, there's no option to change protocol but otherwise, there's a fair amount of configurability here and Mozilla VPN certainly outperforms many competitors.
Mozilla VPN's Windows client has a kill switch but there is no option to turn it on or off (Image credit: Mozilla)
Kill switch
While Mozilla's Windows client has a kill switch, there's no option to turn it on or off or tweak how it works. That's good for security, as there's no way you can accidentally disable it. Still, this could be bad news if the kill switch causes some problems on your device, as there's no way to try and fix that.
We ran a few tests and found the kill switch correctly blocked our internet if the VPN connection dropped.
We did notice problems in some extreme situations. If one of Mozilla's Windows services fails, for instance, protection is lost but the kill switch doesn't kick in. The app warns the user about the disconnection but there's a chance their identity and some traffic will be exposed.
Problems like this aren't common and while you may never encounter them in real-world use, they suggest Mozilla's Windows app isn't the best at handling unusual network conditions. We're left wondering what other issues might be lurking under the hood.
The Mac app looks like the Windows build, and offers some useful touches (Image credit: Mozilla)
Mac app
Mozilla VPN's Mac app looks and feels almost identical to the Windows version and that's both good and bad. On the plus side, it's exceptionally consistent. Learn how the app works on one platform and you'll have no problem using it on the other. On the downside, it means the Mac inherits all the same Windows limitations. There's no 'Fastest server' option to automatically choose the best location, no Favorites system, and no choice of protocol, for instance. It's also missing Mozilla's 'App Exclusions' split tunneling feature.
The app does have a few interesting touches. It also includes Mozilla's effective ad, tracker, and malicious website blocking DNS. It can also give you notifications if you connect to unsecured Wi-Fi. Other apps go further – the best VPN software can automatically connect when you access untrusted networks – but these are still features worth having.
Put it all together, and although it's not exactly powerful, this is a decent Mac app. It's simple to use and worked well for us. It connected quickly and delivered decent performance all-round.
Mozilla VPN's Android app is very much built the same as the Windows client (Image credit: Mozilla)
Mobile apps
The Mozilla Android and iOS apps are near clones of the desktop builds, easy to use but with few features.
Browsing the menus, we managed to spot some differences between the desktop clients. For example, the Android app supports the split tunneling feature which isn't supported on Mac, allowing you to choose specific apps that won't have their traffic routed through the VPN.
The iOS app doesn't have split tunneling (not Mozilla's fault, it's not supported on iOS), but you do still get ad, malware, and tracker blocking DNS and some basic notification settings.
Mozilla's mobile apps aren't exactly exciting then, but like the rest of the range, they're not bad either. They all do a reasonable job of the VPN essentials, and if that's all you need, they might be good enough.
Mozilla VPN put in an okay performance in our speed testing (Image credit: Speedtest.net)
Performance
Mozilla focuses more on security and privacy than website unblocking, and our tests reflected that. The service didn't get us access to BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, or Netflix in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, or Japan.
There were one or two successes in particular countries. Mozilla got us into ITV and Channel 4 in the UK, for instance, as well as Australia's 9 Now.
Not a total disaster, then, but Mozilla is trailing far behind the best providers. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark all unblocked every one of our test platforms in their last reviews.
Our performance tests found Mozilla's WireGuard-powered download speeds peaked at 360Mbps. That's far behind the likes of NordVPN, Surfshark, and Windscribe. All these VPNs reached 950Mbps+ in their last tests. If your regular internet connections only ever reach a fraction of that speed, or you're using a VPN to protect normal browsing or streaming, Mozilla VPN is fast enough.
The company ended on a positive note in our final privacy checks, as multiple test sites found Mozilla VPN blocked all DNS and WebRTC leaks.
Mozilla VPN review: Final verdict
Mozilla VPN might appeal to fans of the company, and those who'd prefer a VPN from a well-known and trusted name. However, it can't match top providers like ExpressVPN and NordVPN in features, apps, locations, range of plans, or unblocking. Demanding users will be happier elsewhere.
Hotspot Shield is a popular VPN with just enough interesting and unusual features to help it stand out from the crowd.
The core service has a sizable network of over 1,800 servers across 90 countries and 130+ locations. Malware blocking and anti-phishing are included for free, P2P is supported everywhere, and there are servers optimized for streaming, gaming, and more.
There are apps for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS, a command line app for Linux, and a TV app for Amazon Fire TV or any smart TV with access to Google Play. If all that still isn't enough, the support site has guides on manually setting up the service on these and other platforms (routers, too).
WireGuard support has made a big difference to performance (more on that below), with Hotspot Shield's Hydra protocol, OpenVPN, or IKEv2 available as a backup in some situations.
The service supports from one to twenty-five simultaneous connections, depending on your plan.
You can either pay by card or PayPal (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Hotspot Shield pricing
Hotspot Shield's free VPN plan offers just one US location, almost no features, support for one device only, no email or live chat support, and a host of annoying ads on the mobile apps. There is one big plus to the free plan: there are no annoying "per month" bandwidth limits. You can use it as much as you like, but unless you really have no VPN budget at all, it's hard to recommend.
The paid VPN starts at $12.99 billed monthly and supports up to ten devices, dropping to $7.99 on the annual plan.
That's at the high end of the normal VPN price range. Most providers charge around $3 to $5 per month for annual products and even less for longer-term contracts (Private Internet Access offers a three-year plan covering up to 10 devices for an initial $2.03 a month).
Hotspot Shield does have a handy option in the Family plan, which gets you coverage for five people, with five devices each, for only $19.99 billed monthly, or $11.99 on the annual plan.
If you'll use all those licenses, that translates to $2.40 per user per month.
There's no Bitcoin payment option, unfortunately, but you can use a card or PayPal, and if anything goes wrong later you're protected by an unusually generous 45-day money-back guarantee.
Hotspot Shield allows you to choose your preferred VPN protocol from its Settings menu (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Privacy
Hotspot Shield's Privacy Policy begins with some reassuring details on the company's logging practices. There's no record of your browsing history, and although it logs your IP address when you connect, this is deleted at the end of the session.
There is still some logging, the policy explains, including:
"The duration of VPN sessions and the bandwidth consumed.
"The domains that have been accessed by our users, but on an anonymized basis such that we do not know which user accessed which domain (we also aggregate this information on an approximately monthly basis).
"device hashes, which are used to identify devices and associate them with other data we collect... Device hashes are not linked to VPN browsing activity."
There's some scope for problems here. Anonymising URLs is more difficult than it sounds, and we just have to hope that Hotspot Shield is doing it properly. And even if it doesn't log your browsing, there's still scope for building fairly detailed profiles on how you use the service. For example, the company could keep a record of the time and date of every session, the device used, your approximate location, and how much data you transferred.
That's just speculation, but there's also real-world evidence of Hotspot Shield taking some tracking-related liberties. We expected the web dashboard's Download button to point us to an installer file hosted on the Hotspot Shield website, for instance, but in reality, it links directly to web analytics company Kochava. That doesn't feel like the action of a company putting your privacy first.
Our real concern here is that although Hotspot Shield promises there's nothing to link your account to any VPN browsing activity, it's not yet confirmed with an independent audit. We're left to take Hotspot Shield's words on trust.
According to its privacy policy, Hotspot Shield does not keep any logs on its users (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Kill switch
Hotspot Shield's apps include a kill switch to block your internet connection if the VPN drops, preventing IP leaks. It's a very useful feature, but not all kill switches deliver on their promises, so we were keen to run some tests.
One immediate problem we noticed is the Windows kill switch only works Hotspot Shield's own Hydra protocol. It's automatically disabled if you use WireGuard or IKEv2. That's unusually feeble; we can't think of any other VPN who offers a kill switch that doesn't support the most standard protocols.
There's another issue. The kill switch is turned off by default, so we expect one of the first things any experienced user will do is jump into Settings and turn it on. Great! Very sensible. Except if you switch to the Protocols tab and choose WireGuard for speed, the app will disable the kill switch without warning. You'll assume you're protected, but you're not, and you'll never realize unless you check Settings again (and why would you?)
It may be even worse than that. The default protocol setting is Automatic, which means even if the app mostly chooses Hydra, which supports the kill switch, there's always the chance it'll choose WireGuard or IKEv2, which do not. That means, with the default settings, the kill switch sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, depending on the app's preferred protocol.
You can avoid this by activating the kill switch, and changing the Protocols setting from Automatic to Hydra. But that's far from obvious, and even experienced technical users might not realize that's necessary.
When we figured out how to reliably activate the kill switch, the results were initially very good. We tried forcibly closing the connection, and simulated a crash by terminating the Hotspot Shield process, but the results were the same: the kill switch activated, the app recovered and reconnected, and our traffic was never unprotected.
We did find problems with some more extreme situations. If we stopped Hotspot Shield's Windows service, for instance, the VPN dropped, but this time the kill switch didn't activate, and the device automatically switched to its regular unprotected connection.
Overall, the app offers a decent kill switch for Hydra connections but the lack of support for WireGuard and IKEv2 is a major weakness. The app desperately needs an update to ensure the kill switch protects everyone, no matter which protocol they're using.
You can also enable Hotspot Shield's kill switch from the Settings menu (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
We used various speed tests to measure the performance of Hotspot Shield (Image credit: nPerf)
Performance
Hotspot Shield makes big claims about the performance of its Catapult Hydra protocol, but does it live up to the hype? We tested the service with SpeedTest's website and command line app, along with a number of other benchmarking sites to find out.
Our tests revealed Hydra download speeds of 210 Mbps in the UK and 190 Mbps to 195 Mbps in the US. That's a poor result and below the OpenVPN speeds of some providers.
Switching to WireGuard saw speeds close to triple that in the US, at a very acceptable 570 Mbps. While other providers are better—NordVPN, IPVanish, Surfshark, and others all beat 900Mbps in recent tests—it's more than fast enough for most devices and situations.
Hotspot Shield was able to unblock Netflix and much more (Image credit: Netflix)
Virtual locations
Many VPNs make use of virtual locations. For example, they might offer a location in Malta, which returns a Maltese IP address, but actually use a server that is physically based somewhere else. This can be useful if, say, the location doesn't have great connectivity, or it has a repressive regime that might be monitoring your traffic. But if you're in that country and think you're connecting to a local server, but it's actually 10,000 miles away, you’re not going to get the performance you might expect.
Hotspot Shield hosts its India servers in Singapore to avoid the upcoming data logging laws, and that looks like a smart move to us. But the company doesn't say if it uses other virtual locations, so we ran some tests to find out more.
The service appears to use several virtual locations. Some of these are similar to other providers: Cambodia, India, and Pakistan all appear to be hosted in Singapore. But others are more of an issue. Algeria, Azerbaijan, Israel, and Malta all seem to use servers in Amsterdam, for instance. Every other VPN we've checked hosts its Israel location in or close to Tel Aviv, and when it does use virtual locations, they're usually much closer.
This won't matter to everyone. Yes, if you're in Israel, then routing your traffic through Amsterdam won't help speeds. But if you're actually in or near the Netherlands, having local servers for several countries could be a performance plus.
What's important is that a provider is clear and up-front about its use of virtual locations, so potential customers can decide for themselves.
ExpressVPN says exactly which of its locations are virtual, for example, and also tells you where they're really hosted. We'd like to see Hotspot Shield (and the rest of the industry) do the same.
Netflix and streaming
Hotspot Shield claims to be the best Netflix VPN, avoiding detection and getting you "unrestricted access to the content you love." Sounds promising, but we decided to check this by trying to access Netflix and a bunch of other top streaming services from Hotspot Shield locations around the world.
Our US tests got off to a great start, as Hotspot Shield's specialist streaming location unblocked US Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime Video.
Need access to other Netflix libraries? The service also got us into Netflix UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
The perfect record came to an end in Australia, where Hotspot Shield couldn't get us access to 9Now (normally relatively easy) or 10 Play.
The service recovered for our final tests in the UK, though, unblocking BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Channel 4.
10 successes out of 12 is still a great result, and if you're looking to unblock Netflix (or most other platforms), Hotspot Shield is a must for your shortlist.
Other providers worth considering include ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark. These great VPNs all scored 100% in their last unblocking tests.
Torrents
Like most VPNs, Hotspot Shield doesn't like to boast about its P2P support, but pay close attention to the website and you'll discover some good news.
The service fully supports P2P on all servers, so once you've connected with any of the clients (Windows, Mac, Android or iOS), you're ready to start downloading.
We don't like to take website claims for granted, so we verified Hotspot Shield's torrent-friendliness by successfully downloading torrents while connected to the US, UK and Japan.
Search the support site for the keywords P2P or torrent and you won't find anything at all, but there are a few simple guides for beginners in the Resources and Blog sections (try searching here), including advice on why you might want to use a VPN for torrenting, and pointers on how to download torrents anonymously.
Whatever method you're using, Hotspot Shield doesn't have any bandwidth limits or restrictions, so you should be able to use the service as much as you like.
This is what you'll see when you first open the Hotspot Shield app (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Windows app
Hotspot Shield's Windows app opens with a dark panel displaying the current default location, a large On/Off button, and a tiny sidebar with more options. There are more buttons and settings than most apps but it's not difficult to use. Even total VPN newbies are likely to be able to explore the app's features right away.
Tapping the On button got us connected in a reasonably speedy 4 to 5 seconds. Some VPNs are faster—IVPN's WireGuard connections can be up and running in around a second—but others can take 10 to 20 seconds, occasionally even longer.
Hotspot Shield displays a lot more data about your connection once you turn on its VPN. (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Once connected, a map appears showing your new virtual location, while other panels display a host of connection details: your server IP address, load and latency, the amount of data used on the current day, your current transfer speeds, and the name of your local network (handy as a reminder when you're connecting to wireless hotspots, say). It's a little cluttered and could intimidate not-so-technical users, but if you're not interested in the stats, they can all be safely ignored.
Hotspot Shield has VPN servers in 80+ countries all over the world (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Clicking the current location displays a list of other countries and cities you can choose from. The top of the list has shortcuts to the best streaming and gaming servers, a handy touch which should save you some scrolling.
There are no server load figures or ping times to help with your decision, though, and no Favorites system to group commonly-used locations, a surprise considering the rest of the app looks so feature-packed.
Hotspot Shield's settings dialog box is more accessible, with a choice of protocols (WireGuard, IKEv2 or Hydra), and switches to run the client when Windows starts, prevent IP leaks, and enable the kill switch.
Hotspot Shield suggests different locations based on whether you plan on streaming or even gaming (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
There's a handy bonus feature in the client's ability to automatically connect to Hotspot Shield when you access unsafe Wi-Fi hotspots, safe hotspots, or all networks. That option isn't available nearly as often as we'd like, especially on Windows, and it's good to see it here.
Split Tunneling is a handy feature that enables choosing both websites and apps that won't have their traffic routed through the VPN. If a website doesn't work as usual when the VPN is on, or perhaps gaming performance is affected, add them to the Bypass list and they'll use your regular connection instead of the VPN tunnel.
Support for keyboard shortcuts is a small usability plus. Ctrl+Shift+C connects and then disconnects, for instance, while Ctrl+Shift+V displays and enables choosing a virtual location.
This all worked well for us, but if you run into difficulties, a Support page includes links to open the FAQ, Live Chat, and "Leave a message" pages on the Hotspot Shield website.
Hotspot Shield's Mac app is disappointingly pared-down compared to the Windows edition (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Mac app
Hotspot Shield's Mac app is a stripped-back version of the Windows edition, with many features dropped and some unexpected and (we suspect) unnecessary differences.
The opening panel has the same color scheme and visual style, for instance, but there's no auto-connect option to automatically choose a location. The Mac location picker uses a conventional list, rather than the tiles used on the Windows app, and there are no Streaming or Gaming icons to access specific server types more quickly.
The Settings box is distinctly short on options. You can choose Hydra, WireGuard, or IKEv2 protocols, and there's the same split tunneling system. But the app doesn't include the kill switch, configurable IP leak protection, keyboard shortcuts, or the ability to automatically connect on launch or when you access insecure Wi-Fi.
If you only need the VPN basics, and you never use the Windows app, this may not matter very much. But for everyone else, the interface inconsistencies and shortage of features make this a below-par Mac choice.
Hotspot Shield's Android app provides some useful options in its Settings menu (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Android and iOS apps
Mobile apps typically lag far behind their desktop cousins on the features front, but Hotspot Shield's Android and iOS releases are a surprising exception to that extremely common rule.
The Android app has the same sleek black interface that we saw on Windows and Mac. Getting protected is as easy as tapping the Connect button, and the app displays a whole host of stats on the current connection if you're interested.
Although it's missing one or two small features (no IKEv2 support, for instance), the app is just as powerful as the desktop builds. There's WireGuard and Hydra support, split tunneling, and integration with Android's system-wide kill switch. You can use Connection Center to set the app to automatically connect when Android starts, when the app is launched, when you access unsecured (or all) networks, or even when you access cellular networks.
Hotspot Shield's iOS app can't quite match this level of power. In particular, it's missing the auto-connect options and split tunneling apps. But there are still some real surprises here.
The app has WireGuard, Hydra, and even IKEv2 support, for instance. Split tunneling for websites allows you to choose whether you access a site via the VPN or your regular connection. The kill switch disables internet access if the VPN drops, while the Always-on VPN feature gets you reconnected as soon as possible.
There are some small annoyances, too. We tapped Privacy Settings and the app asked us to consent to using our personal data, "in order to keep this app free." This doesn't affect anyone on the paid plan, so we're really not clear why the app displays this at all.
There's room for improvement, but overall, these are decent apps, easy to use, fast enough for most purposes, and they unblock almost everything.
The Chrome extension is a simple way to protect browser traffic only (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Browser extensions
Hotspot Shield's Chrome and Firefox extensions are lightweight tools that allow you to connect to new VPN locations from inside your browser. This only protects your browser traffic, but if you're trying a little website unblocking, it's often the most convenient solution. Even better, it's also available for free.
Hotspot Shield's split tunneling for websites comes included, too. Add websites to your Auto Protect list and the extension automatically turns on the VPN whenever you access them. Add websites that don't work with the VPN to your Bypass list, and they're directed through your regular location.
Just in case that's not enough, Hotspot Shield has also crammed in ad, cookie, tracker, malware, and WebRTC blockers, along with a handy option to ignore any resources you're accessing which are hosted within your local network.
This has all worked very well for us in the past, but not so much this time around. The extension regularly told us it was connected, when we were still using our normal connection.
We don't know if it was related, but later the extension disappeared from the Chrome store. Hotspot Shield told us that it was 'temporarily unavailable' and the developer was "looking into it," but that was it.
Our own connection problems were bad enough, but having your Chrome extension pulled from the store makes this sound like a major issue. We can't give any definitive verdict without more details, though. Whatever the cause, chances are it'll be fixed by the time you read this.
You can reach Hotspot Shield's support team from within its apps (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Support
If Hotspot Shield isn't working for you, the various apps give you instant access to advice on common issues by embedding documents from the website. As usual, if your issue is more complex, you can head off to the support website for more in-depth guidance.
A web-based Support Center organizes its articles by platform, as well as categories like Payments and Subscriptions, Manage Account, and Common Issues. There is some useful information on the website that you won't always get elsewhere (release notes, for instance), but most articles can't match the depth or reliability you'll get with providers like ExpressVPN.
The 'Why is my speed slow when I'm connected?' Android article, for instance, includes the dubious claim that it's normal to experience speed reduction from 30-50% when using any VPN service, and the only fix it can suggest is to switch the connection off and on a few times. If you've any VPN experience then we'll bet you could write a far more helpful article in about five minutes.
We weren't impressed by an assortment of technical issues, either, including repeated warnings that "you're not authorized to access this page" when we clicked links to some documents.
Hotspot Shield offers live chat to solve any issues you can't figure out after searching its knowledgebase (Image credit: Hotspot Shield)
Fortunately, if you can't find an answer in the knowledgebase, you're able to get in touch with the support team via live chat or email.
We tried live chat, and were a little disappointed when a basic chatbot arrived first. It did a reasonable job of answering our simple product question, though, and asked if we were satisfied. We tapped the thumbs-down icon, and the bot passed us to a friendly and knowledgeable agent in under a minute.
There's room for improvement on the support site, but many users should quickly find the core details they need, and a quality support team is always on hand to help with anything else.
Hotspot Shield is a decent VPN with plenty of apps, which unblocks almost everything, and has good live chat support for help if you need it.
But it's also slow, with a flawed Windows kill switch and a bunch of usability and other annoyances. A lack of significant updates recently suggests we won't see major improvements any time soon.
PureVPN has been in the VPN business since 2007, so it's no surprise that the company has built up a lengthy list of features.
The service covers most of the technical basics including strong encryption via WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2, DNS and IPv6 leak protection, torrent support, split tunneling to control which apps use the VPN, and a smart kill switch to protect you if the VPN drops.
Platform support is a highlight, with dedicated apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and Linux, extensions for Chrome and Firefox, and more downloads and tutorials to help you set up the service on routers, Kodi, Android TV, Amazon's Fire TV Stick and more.
You can use PureVPN on up to 10 devices simultaneously, and in an unusual bonus, this provider allows you to share these 10 slots with your family. This is great if you want to share your VPN with others and not have to worry about sharing credentials. Other users can each install and use PureVPN with their own login, so you can keep your username and password to yourself.
PureVPN has thousands of servers across the world (Image credit: PureVPN)
PureVPN's network has a sizable 6,500 servers across 88 locations and 69 countries. That can’t quite match the likes of CyberGhost that has 9,100+ servers spread over 116 locations and 91 countries but it’s a far larger network than most and it’s fast, too. While other providers boast about 10Gbps server connections, PureVPN began upgrading its servers to 20Gbps in late 2021.
What’s new?
PureVPN has gone through a major rebrand since our last review. There’s a new logo, new color scheme, and redesigned interfaces everywhere.
There are a host of technical improvements across PureVPN's app range too. WireGuard is now supported by the Linux CLI app and on all versions of Android. A smarter location screen has many ways to filter the server list making it easier to find what you need. There's also better in-app troubleshooting, the Linux app now has a kill switch, and there are all kinds of other usability tweaks and improvements.
The company has extended its privacy range, too, with major new products and services. This includes PureDome, a teams-oriented business VPN; PureKeep, a capable password manager; PurePrivacy, which helps control your social media privacy settings and data; and PureEncrypt, which is a Windows and Mac data encryption tool. Android and iOS apps will be 'live soon'.
PureVPN accepts payments from PayPal, credit cards and Bitcoin (via CoinGate) (Image credit: PureVPN)
PureVPN pricing
Pricing starts at a fairly average $10.95 billed monthly. In comparison, many top providers charge between $10 and $13 for the same monthly subscription.The annual plan is good value at $3.74 a month, especially as that's covering up to 10 family members; however, the low price is partly due to a one-off discount. The annual plan renews at $4.58 after the first year. There is a special two-year plan that’s priced at $2.29 a month, but it also renews at $4.58 after it ends.
The Plus plan includes PureVPN, PureEncrypt's file encryption, and PureKeep's password manager. It's priced at $15.95 billed monthly but only $5.82 on the annual plan, or $3.33 for the first two years renewing at the same $5.83 annual rate.
The Max plan includes PureVPN, PureEncrypt, PureKeep, and the personal encryption manager PurePrivacy. It's available for $19.95 billed monthly, $7.49 on the annual plan, or $4.99 for the first two years renewing $7.49, the same as the annual plan.
Be aware that PureVPN often offers incredible Black Friday VPN deals, so it's worth heading through to the company's website to check them out.
Optional extras include dedicated IPs at a cheap $1.99 a month for addresses in the US, UK, Singapore, Canada, Germany, Malta, and Australia. Private Internet Access, NordVPN, and Astrill charge $4 to $5, and others more. Port forwarding is an optional extra at $0.99 a month if you want it. Previously, PureVPN offered DDoS protection for an extra $3.99 a month, but it looks like that's been dropped.
There's support for paying via cryptocurrency if you're looking for anonymity, and cards and PayPal are accepted too.If you sign up for a full plan and you're unhappy, there's a 31-day money-back guarantee, with no dubious clauses in the small print to catch you out. If you're unhappy, just send an email and ask for a refund.
There is also a 7 day free trial to test the service for only $0.99. Sounds good in theory, but beware, as we write it has some different prices to the main purchase page. Add a dedicated IP from the Trial page, for instance, and it's $2.99 a month. Add it from the regular Order pageand it's $1.99. Check the figures carefully before you part with any cash.
You can test PureVPN out for 7 days for just $1 (Image credit: PureVPN)
If you're intrigued, there's a sort-of 7-day trial. You have to pay upfront, but only $1, and if you cancel the account before the week is up, you get that dollar back.
There's support for paying via cryptocurrency if you're looking for maximum anonymity (although cards and PayPal are accepted, too).
If you sign up for a full plan and you're unhappy, there's a 31-day money-back guarantee, with no dubious clauses in the small print to catch you out. If you're unhappy, just send an email and ask for a refund.
PureVPN looks good on the privacy front on the whole, but there are caveats (Image credit: PureVPN)
Privacy and logging
PureVPN's privacy policy gets off to a good start, with a lengthy list of all the data the service doesn't log: 'We DO NOT keep any record of your browsing activities, connection logs, records of the VPN IPs assigned to you, your original IPs, your connection time, the history of your browsing, the sites you visited, your outgoing traffic, the content or data you accessed, or the DNS queries generated by you.'
The policy also explains that there is some session logging: the day you connected to a specific location, your ISP, the connection length, how many connections you made, and the overall total bandwidth used. But this can't tie your account to a specific internet action, and it's unlikely to compromise your privacy.
The policy goes on to explain that PureVPN employs 'a few tools' in its apps to 'conduct VPN diagnostics and monitor crash reports.'
This kind of crash reporting isn't uncommon, but we expect it to be optional, and that's not the case here. There's no 'Send crash data?' option in Settings – PureVPN sends it regardless (and if you don't read the privacy policy, you'd never even know this was happening).
PureVPN has passed a no logging audit conducted by KPMG (Image credit: PureVPN)
No logging audit
In 2020 PureVPN announced it had passed a no logging audit by KPMG, which concluded that the service doesn't log a user's origin IP address, a user's assigned VPN IP, the specific time when a user connects to a VPN server, or log a user's activities through its VPN connection.
PureVPN also says it opted for an 'always-on' audit policy, which means KPMG can 'initiate a non-scheduled privacy audit at any time of the year, without any prior notice.' Sure enough, in August 2021, the company reported it had passed a second no logging audit.
These checks appear to be thorough, with PureVPN saying they involve 'the inspection of our complex infrastructure, server configurations, codebase, technical data logs, and global servers', along with 'interviews of our personnel who are involved in server maintenance and database handling.'
The reports haven't been made public, so you can't check out the details for yourself. And they're only attempting to verify the main no logging policy – they don't look for privacy issues in general.
Still, we're not complaining: even with these limitations, there's vastly more reassurance here than you'll get with most VPNs. Hopefully PureVPN will continue with regular audits, and make the full reports available, not just a sentence or two.
The Windows client features a plain and simple interface (Image credit: PureVPN)
Privacy tests
While PureVPN is mostly saying right things about privacy, it’s unwise to take anyone completely on trust, and we were keen to run some relevant tests of our own.
Some VPNs make big claims about protecting your privacy, but then cram their websites with Google, Facebook, Bing, and other trackers. We pointed the Blacklight Privacy Inspector at PureVPN.com, and it reported two trackers, both for Google, and no third-party cookies. While that's not quite leading the way, it's better than most, and there's no sign here that PureVPN is doing anything dubious with your data.
We also used Exodus Privacy to check PureVPN's Android app for trackers. The site found seven, mostly from Google’s Google Analytics and Firebase and a scattering of others from Insider and MixPanel. That’s above average but there's nothing to indicate PureVPN is doing anything beyond the basic app analytics and crash reporting discussed in its privacy policy. It’s not such a big deal, but we’d still rather find less. Some providers, including Astrill, Hide.me, Mullvad, Private Internet Access, Proton VPN, TunnelBear, and Windscribe had no trackers at all. So we know it’s possible.
The company claims its apps use DNS leak protection to prevent others snooping on your browsing activity, but is this really true? Not necessarily. DNSLeakTest.com showed that the Windows app correctly shielded our DNS queries when using WireGuard and IKEv2, but not with OpenVPN UDP or TCP. If you connect to public Wi-Fi then that could allow the network to see the domains you're visiting. That is bad news but it seems to be limited to Windows. We couldn’t reproduce the problem on iOS, Android or Mac.
Windows app
PureVPN's Windows app interface is stripped back and simple. The main screen displays the current location, a Connect button and some tiny sidebar icons for other functions (Settings, Help, Account). One welcome new addition is a button for connecting to the app's recommended location (probably your nearest server), making it easier to switch.
In another smart move, PureVPN has placed a kill switch setting on the main app screen, directly under the connect button. That not only makes it easier to access, but if you (or another device user) turn the switch off for some reason, it'll make it very obvious that you're unprotected.
Tapping the globe icon to the left displays a feature-packed location picker, with a Recent Locations list, a Favorites system, and a searchable list of countries with ping times to help you spot the fastest.
PureVPN has a new Shortcuts feature which is essentially a smarter favorites. It not only can connect you to a specific server, but open a particular website as well. PureVPN includes some built-in shortcuts to get you started, including an Amazon Prime US shortcut that connects you to a US server and opens Amazon.com, and one for the BBC that connects you to the UK and launches iPlayer. It's a cool feature and easy to add more of your shortcuts.
Connection times were a little slower than usual at four to five seconds for WireGuard, and more than ten seconds for OpenVPN. That’s not long to wait, but if you’re used to a snappier service (and the best connect in half the time or less), it could become annoying.
The Windows app has few settings (Image credit: PureVPN)
Looking at the app's OpenVPN setup, we noticed it enabled compression on the client side. OpenVPN compression can leave traffic vulnerable to the VORACLE attack, and the official recommendation is to avoid it wherever possible. This setting alone doesn't pose a risk as compression needs to be enabled on the server side too before it can become an issue. While it’s not severe enough to put a black mark against the service, it’s still an unnecessary risk.
While testing, we noticed a small technical issue. If PureVPN's Windows app is left open on the desktop (not minimized), it constantly uses 2-3% of the CPU, even when you're not connected. That may not sound like a lot, but it will both slow you down a little and fractionally reduce battery life. You can avoid either outcome by remembering to minimize the app, but that really shouldn't be necessary.
The app has a decent number of settings. It can launch at Windows start up, then automatically connect to your preferred server; a kill switch blocks your internet connection if the VPN drops; there's a choice of WireGuard, IKEv2, and OpenVPN TCP/UDP protocols, and split tunneling allows you to choose which apps use the VPN, and which don't.
The app's split tunneling feature worked for us, too, but with one catch: it doesn't support WireGuard, which could be an issue if performance matters. We've had problems with PureVPN's kill switch before but this time it worked just fine. It immediately blocked our internet access whenever we forcibly closed the VPN.
A Support page includes links to FAQs and simple troubleshooting advice. If they don't work, there's a button to open live chat on the website, or you can submit a ticket from within the app.
PureVPN's Mac app has light and dark themes (Image credit: PureVPN)
Mac app
PureVPN's Mac app is a close visual match to the Windows version, with a clean, simple dashboard. One click, you're connected. Then, if the nearest server isn't what you want, the location picker gives you speedy access to the others, with the same 'Recent', 'Shortcut' and 'Favorites' lists to help you find the most commonly-used servers.
The app settings are what you expect, and include a kill switch along with WireGuard, IKEv2, IPSec and OpenVPN UDP support (there's no OpenVPN TCP option, oddly.) There's no split tunneling, but that's not unusual as it's much more difficult to implement on Macs.
There are some differences between the Mac and Windows apps, and these could be annoying if you use both. The Mac app doesn't have a kill switch on the dashboard, for instance. Plus, if you look in the General settings menu (where it's located on Windows), you won't find anything relevant, because it's actually in a Mac-only Advanced Settings menu. Life would be easier for everyone if app interfaces are more consistent across platforms.
Still, overall this is a decent Mac app, generally easy to use and can handle all the VPN basics and quite a bit more.
PureVPN's Android app looks very much the same as the Windows client (Image credit: PureVPN)
Mobile apps
PureVPN’s Android app opens with little more than a Connect button, the current location, and a menu icon. If that’s all you need, then simply tap to launch the VPN and get protected, tap again when you’re done, and there’s little else to master.
If you’re more demanding, the app location list gives you access to PureVPN’s other servers, and Recent, Favorites and Shortcuts lists make it easy to find and reconnect to your most common choices.
Worthwhile settings include protocol support for WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2, split tunneling, and integration with Android’s ‘always on’ kill switch.
The iOS app looks a bit different to Android, and borrows some inspiration from the Mac software (Image credit: PureVPN)
The iOS app has some design differences, most obviously an always-visible left-hand sidebar rather than Android’s single menu icon. The location list and basic app operations are much the same, though, and protocol support is similar with WireGuard, OpenVPN both UDP and TCP, IKEv2, and IPSec.
In the previous review both Android and iOS apps had options to display help information, raise tickets or directly open live chat, but these seem to have been dropped. Seems a shame, although it's not difficult to find the same areas on PureVPN's site.
The apps also have some advantages over their counterparts. For example, Android users get a 'Proxy' protocol option. This doesn't use any encryption, which makes it poor for privacy, but it also connects instantly and offers the best speeds. Could be worth a try if you're only looking for unblocking. Also, on iOS, ‘VPN on Demand’ can automatically connect when you enter specific domains in your browser, a convenient time saver.
There's nothing market-leading here but these are very useable apps, easy to operate, and more than cover the VPN basics. They have decent ratings on their respective app stores (4.0 for Android, 4.3 for iOS). Well worth a try, especially if you'll make use of Shortcuts and the other handy location-picking extras.
We used several speed testing sites to determine PureVPN's performance (Image credit: Speedtest.net)
Performance
We measured PureVPN speeds from US and UK locations, using several performance testing sites and services including SpeedTest's website and command line app, Measurement Lab, and Cloudflare. We checked the download speeds at least five times from each site, then checked again using another protocol before repeating this all over again in an evening session.
OpenVPN speeds were below-par at 140Mbps. Windscribe and Hide.me OpenVPN connections reached more than 250Mbps, and Mullvad broke all our OpenVPN records by peaking at over 500Mbps. PureVPN still had more to give, and when we switched to WireGuard, the service delivered a capable 620-650 Mbps.
That isn't enough to get PureVPN into our top 10 fastest VPNs but it’s speedy enough for most uses, and outperformed the likes of CyberGhost, Hotspot Shield, and Proton VPN. NordVPN, Surfshark, and Hide.me all made it into the top 10 and beat 950Mbps in their most recent tests.
Keep in mind that although we take more than 100 speed measurements of each VPN, you may see very different results depending on your location and setup. So, it's worth taking the 7-day trial and running a few speed tests of your own.
PureVPN unblocked Netflix in our tests, and everything else for that matter (Image credit: Netflix)
Virtual locations
Although PureVPN offers locations in 69 countries, the company explains that some of these are 'virtual.' When you connect to India or Afghanistan, for instance, you're allocated an Indian or Afghan IP address but the servers are hosted in other countries.
This isn't necessarily a problem. Many providers moved their servers out of India to avoid its data logging laws, for instance. However, if you're in Vietnam and think you're connecting to a Vietnamese VPN server but it's actually in New York, that's going to give you a very big performance hit.
We don't object to providers offering virtual locations, as long as they make it clear what you're actually getting. PureVPN is more transparent than most, highlighting its virtual locations in the app and on the website. Yet, the company doesn't say where the servers are really based so that’s not entirely helpful.
We ran some tests, and it looks like some of the virtual locations are a long way from the named location. Connect to PureVPN's Bolivia location, for instance, and although you'll get a Bolivian IP, your traffic seems to be routed through New Jersey. Similarly, connecting to the British Virgin Islands, Nigeria, or Vietnam locations gets you the correct IP each time, but you're actually using a server hosted in Amsterdam.
This won't be an issue for everyone. For example, if you're near Amsterdam, you might appreciate having local servers for many locations. But, we don’t all live close to Amsterdam and sometimes we need a location close to the IP address. We recommend going to PureVPN's support site for a current list of virtual locations and checking IPs you might want to use after signing up.
Netflix and streaming
Most VPNs claim they let you access geoblocked content from anywhere in the world, and PureVPN is no exception. 'Movies, TV shows or sporting events; PureVPN allows you instant and unrestricted access to your favorite content', the website claims.
The apps don't have specialist streaming locations, so you're left to choose a server in the country you need, connect, and see if your streaming service is accessible.
This worked just fine with Netflix, where PureVPN didn’t just allow us to stream US Netflix content – it worked in Australia, Canada, Japan and the UK, too.
Accessing other US platforms was easy, and PureVPN unblocked both Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus.
The success continued in Australia, as we freely browsed 9Now and 10 play. And the perfect run continued with our final UK tests, with PureVPN unblocking BBC iPlayer, ITV and Channel 4.
That’s a great result, and puts PureVPN right up there with ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, and Surfshark as one of the best VPNs for unblocking.
PureVPN has setup guides for lots of different platforms (Image credit: PureVPN)
Support
If PureVPN isn't quite working as you expect, point your browser at its support site and you'll find all kinds of tutorials and troubleshooting guides. The Setup Guide has subsections for 16 platforms! Some of those even have individual sections that have more content than the entire support site of other VPNs.
There's a lot of information here and some unusual and welcome touches. Like, you don't have to bookmark a particular tutorial to view it later in your browser. In many cases, you can download a PDF for more convenient offline reading later.
There's a Search box to help you find the articles you need. We had initial hassles, as the site displayed 'Page Not Found’ errors for our first few searches. Then, we realized typing a keyword and pressing Enter didn't work; we had to type, wait a few seconds, and choose from a drop-down list of matches. Easy when you know, but still a clumsy issue we don’t recall seeing anywhere else.
If the website can't help, you can raise a support ticket from the desktop apps or the website. Our test question got a basic but accurate reply in around 30 minutes.
Alternatively, you can use live chat on the website. PureVPN never kept us waiting for long, and although the agents didn't appear to have the expertise we see with top competitors like ExpressVPN, they were genuinely helpful, and most replies were enough to solve our immediate issues.
The search function was sometimes less than useful (Image credit: PureVPN)
PureVPN review: Final verdict
PureVPN excels at unblocking, has lots of features, and has some great value starter deals. The Windows OpenVPN DNS leak and other issues mean PureVPN can't quite compete with the best VPNs, but it's still a decent service, and could make a great budget choice for unblocking Netflix and other streaming sites. PureVPN is also working on adding new features, so now could be a good time to lock in those great value prices on the two year plan.
Atlas VPN may only have been around since 2020 but its high speeds, lengthy feature list, low starter prices, and capable free plan have already earned it six million users. That’s a spectacular start, and Nord Security, the company behind NordVPN, was so impressed that it acquired Atlas VPN in 2021.
The service is strong on the VPN fundamentals. There are apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and now Linux in a command line form. Strong encryption keeps your data safe, while the speedy WireGuard protocol maximizes performance and a kill switch protects you if the VPN drops.
So, the service has a great foundation but also goes well beyond the basics in many areas too. There are no annoying connection limits, for example, allowing you to use the service on as many of your own devices as you need. There are also smart technical touches that include a SafeSwap feature which regularly changes your IP address, even when you’re connected to the same server. Great if you want to focus on anonymity.
The welcome bonus features also include ad, tracker, and malware blocking, and data breach monitoring alerts you if any of your personal details are found on the dark web.
Atlas VPN’s network looks smaller than some, with ‘only’ 1000+ servers, but the server coverage is decent with Atlas VPN now offering 49 locations in 42 countries, including several that we don’t often see elsewhere including UAE, Mexico, and Chile.
Some providers claim to have servers all around the world, but many of them are virtual. Atlas doesn't seem to do this. We ran tests on its Chile, Hong Kong, Israel, Latvia, Mexico, South Africa, and UAE servers, and they all appeared to be in or very close to their named countries. This means you won’t be getting any unexpected slow speeds because the IP address and actual location are not on different continents.
Atlas VPN has recently begun upgrading its network with speedy new 10Gbps servers, the company told us. Right now these are only available in London and the Netherlands, but other locations will be upgraded 'in the near future.'
Atlas VPN's apps are now more consistent across platforms, with key features available everywhere. For example, the Quick Connect feature, which is a handy tool to allow you to choose the precise location when you hit Connect, is now supported on Mac along with Android, iOS, and Windows.
It's good to see Atlas extend its app range with a new Linux offering, but this is a relatively basic command-line tool, and currently Ubuntu-only. There's mixed news on the features front, too. The app supports Atlas VPN's SafeSwap and MultiHop+ servers, for instance, but it doesn't have a kill switch yet. Still, we're glad to see the app arrive, and hopefully it'll gain more features soon.
Elsewhere, free Atlas VPN users now get access to two US streaming locations: Los Angeles and New York. The 5GB a month data allowance places a strict limit on your viewing but if nothing else it allows you to test the VPN's unblocking abilities before you buy.
The company has been working hard on translations, too, with all apps now supporting Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Spanish and more.
Atlas VPN pricing
Atlas VPN's free no-registration-required plan supports three locations: Amsterdam, New York, and Los Angeles. There's a 5GB data allowance, and the free plan doesn’t include email or live chat support, or some of the more advanced features and extras such as tracker blocking and data breach monitor.
If you're thinking that sounds restrictive, well, maybe, but it still outperforms some of the freebie competition. Avira's Phantom VPN Free limits you to a tiny 500MB a month, for instance, and while Avast One's VPN has a more generous 5GB a week data allowance, it doesn't support changing locations.
Opting for a paid plan gets you unlimited data and access to all locations. Prices start at an average $10.99 for monthly billing, and you can pay by card, PayPal, Google Pay, and Bitcoin plus other cryptocurrencies via CoinPayments. Upgrade to an annual account and the price drops to $4.08 a month, while the three-year plan is just $1.83 a month. Okay, it switches to the annual plan and $4.08 a month on renewal, but that still looks like a good deal to us.
You’re protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee. That’s similar to most providers, but there is one small potential catch: you can only claim a refund twice. We understand why – every VPN needs to protect itself from users who keep signing up and demanding a refund on day 29 – but some providers are a little more generous. Private Internet Access won’t issue a refund if you’ve had one in the last 90 days, for instance, but otherwise has no fixed limits.
We also noticed that plans are set to automatically renew when you sign up, and there's no way to change this or cancel your account from the control panel. You must contact support via live chat or email and ask for help.
Atlas VPN underwent an independent security audit, but a very limited one (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
Privacy
Atlas VPN has the privacy basics covered with its WireGuard support, AES-256 encryption, kill switch, and private DNS system. Plus, ad, tracker, and malware blocking comes built into every app. Sounds great, but how effective are these tools? We ran some checks to find out.
Atlas VPN's SafeBrowse blocked a reasonable 107 of our test 156 common trackers, not the best, but broadly in the range we'd expect. Surfshark’s CleanWeb blocked 101, for instance, and Mullvad blocked 115, while Private Internet Access topped the list with 149.
SafeBrowse didn't score as well with malicious URLs, blocking only 21% of our test sites. Still, as long as you run Atlas VPN alongside a specialist antivirus or similar security app, that's enough to provide a useful second layer of protection. On a positive note, SafeBrowse's ad blocking proved a highlight, with one test showing it even outperformed the excellent uBlock Origin as an effective web shield.
Logging
Atlas VPN claims to have a solid no-logs policy, saying “We do not log your browsing activity, browsing history, records of IPs assigned, original IP, sites visited, outgoing traffic, content, or data accessed.”
The privacy policy says Atlas VPN's apps collect some device and other data, though. The policy says this might include your device ID, model, OS version, network type, and public internet service provider’s information, and other things. Checking our Windows app, we found it sent our country, timezone, and screen size. That's a little intrusive but many VPN apps do something similar and you can turn off this telemetry in Settings if you're uncomfortable.
There's plenty of data collection taking place on the Atlas website, too. Blacklight reported an above average 7 trackers on the AtlasVPN website and 15 third-party cookies. Most VPNs have no more than two or three third-party cookies, and Mullvad, IVPN, Hide.me and a few others have none at all.
On the plus side, Atlas VPN has put itself through a couple of independent security audits but these are just about the least thorough we've seen. The first audit only covered the iOS app, for instance. It was a black box review, which means the auditors tested the functionality of the app, but didn't see the source code. Although Atlas VPN quoted some of the results in a blog post, it hasn't published the full report, so there's no way to judge it for ourselves.
The second audit only covered the Windows app. This time, Atlas published even less detail about the results, saying only that “thorough research did not detect any high or critical category issues within the app,” and “it had 'since implemented all the recommendations provided by the auditor, as confirmed in a retest by MDSec.” What recommendations were they, exactly? Atlas isn't saying.
Okay, this is better than nothing, but only just, and it can't match the best of the competition. TunnelBear has annual audits of its apps, servers, and backend infrastructure and they publish the results for everyone to see. Now that's what we call transparency.
Atlas VPN's Windows app is pretty basic (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
Password-free logins
Atlas VPN’s apps have an unusual password-free login process. There’s no need to create and remember some cryptic passphrase – just enter your email address, the service sends you a link, click it, and you’re in.
That should make for an easier life in many situations but there are potential issues. What if your device isn't set up for email, or your email is down? On several occasions we collected the email on another device, then clicked the link but weren't able to log in.
More generally, as we mentioned above, Atlas includes third-party trackers on its website (Google, Bing and others), and these could be generating records every time you log into the app. That may have little or no practical impact on your privacy, but it's still a third-party record of activity that wouldn't exist if the app logged into Atlas VPN's servers directly.
Windows app
Atlas VPN's Windows app is simple, and covers the VPN basics. Getting started is as easy as choosing a city or country, and hitting the Connect button. There are a handful of settings including a 'Start on launch' option, an On/Off toggle for the kill switch, and a choice of WireGuard and IKEv2 protocols.
The location list is basic, with no ping times to help choose the best servers, and no way to mark your most common selections as Favorites. There is a Recents list that makes it easier to access whatever you were using last time, and there's an unusually clever touch in its Quick Connect feature that somewhat makes up for that.
Hit the big Connect button on most VPN apps and you'll connect to the nearest server. Normally that's a good idea, but what if you want something else? With Atlas VPN, you can have the app connect to the fastest server, a specific location, a particular Streaming server, or maybe a MultiHop or SafeSwap server for extra security. Perfect if you mostly use the same location, as all you have to do is hit Connect.
Connection times were good at two to three seconds for WireGuard. There’s none of the ‘stare at the Connect animation for 20 seconds’ business that we've seen with some OpenVPN apps.
You can run either WireGuard or IKEv2 protocols (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
We spotted one potentially serious Windows connection issue. On several occasions when we activated the VPN, the app appeared to work as usual, then displayed a green tick and its 'Connected' status, but this wasn't true. Checking our IP address showed it hadn't changed, and we weren't protected at all. After 30 to 40 seconds, the app realized this, warned us, and changed its status to Disconnected. So, this didn't last long, but it's still long enough to log in somewhere via an unsecured public Wi-Fi and perhaps have your communications intercepted by snoopers.
The kill switch works, but it has some issues nonetheless (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
The kill switch proved more reliable, instantly blocking our internet and displaying a warning notification whenever the VPN connection dropped. There’s no ‘auto-reconnect’ option, unfortunately, so you’re left to do that yourself. That’s a very minor issue, but it just seems a little odd that having completed the really difficult part of this task (creating a kill switch that works), Atlas VPN seems to have forgotten the relatively easy bit at the end.
A bonus Data Breach Monitor raises an alert if your email address appears in a data breach. This works as advertised, but you can do much the same for free by entering your email addresses at haveibeenpwned.com. If you're looking for real dark web monitoring, you're still better off with a security suite such as Norton 360.
(Image credit: Future)
SafeSwap and MultiHop VPN
When you connect to one of Atlas VPN’s three SafeSwap locations, the app regularly changes your IP address while also keeping the connection active. Atlas VPN says SafeSwap automatically rotates your IP as you move between online sessions. We're not exactly clear what that means but our tests found SafeSwap IP addresses changed every minute or two, even if you're doing nothing at all.
Offering this feature on only three locations (Singapore, Netherlands, and the United States) is a little restrictive but the system worked as advertised for us, and it does give you a little extra protection against tracking. If IP address changing is a feature you’re counting on, Surfshark’s ‘Rotating IP’ works on all its regular servers.
Atlas VPN also supports a very basic form of MultiHop VPN. This routes your traffic through more than one server before passing traffic on to its destination. This makes it even more difficult for anyone to connect you to your internet actions.
The app gives you very little control over how this works. Other providers supporting this feature (NordVPN, Surfshark, Hide.me, Windscribe, ProtonVPN) allow you to choose both the entrance and exit servers, but Atlas VPN only gives you a choice of two locations (Europe and North America), and decides everything else itself.
This is more limited than we'd like, but still, it could be handy if anonymity is top of your priority list.
The Mac App is pretty decent and proved nicely reliable (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
Mac app
Mac VPN apps are sometimes short on the features front, but Atlas VPN's Mac offering looks and feels much like the Windows edition.
There's the same WireGuard and IKEv2 support, the kill switch, Safebrowse Plus ad and malware blocker, MultiHop+, and the IP address-rotating SafeSwap. We noticed one or two odd variations - the Windows app has a Feedback option to tell the company what you think, while the Mac doesn't - but nothing that matters very much. In general, once you've mastered one app, you'll know exactly how to use the other.
While this level of consistency is a usability plus, it also means both the Mac and Windows apps are missing features we commonly see elsewhere including sortable location lists, Favorites, ‘auto-connect when accessing untrusted networks’, and split tunneling. Still, although this isn't the best Mac offering we've seen, it's above-average and proved speedy and reliable in our tests. Plus, there’s a free version so you can check it out if you’re interested with nothing to lose.
Atlas VPN's Android app is actually better than the Windows software in some respects (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
Mobile apps
Desktop VPN apps normally beat their Android VPN cousins for features, but not here. Atlas VPN's Android offering doesn’t just have WireGuard, SafeSwap, MultiHop+, the tracker blocker and, data breach monitor, it also outperforms the Windows product in one or two areas.
The most significant of these is probably support for split tunneling. If you have apps that don’t work properly with the VPN, you can have Atlas VPN route their traffic through your regular connection instead, making your life very much easier.
There's a mobile-focused bonus in optional haptic feedback, where your device vibrates when the VPN connects and disconnects. It’s really important to know when you’re protected and when you’re not, and the more ways a VPN can alert you to this, the better.
VPN apps for iOS are often underpowered, but it looks like no-one remembered to tell Atlas VPN. Its iOS offering doesn’t support split tunneling, but otherwise has the same feature set as the Android app.
It’s not all good news, as with the Mac. The apps are more powerful than we expected but they're also missing the Favorites system and auto-connect on Wi-Fi access features we often see elsewhere.
Still, these are likable mobile apps with a lot of functionality, and the generous free data allowance gives you a risk-free way to try them out.
Atlas VPN isn't the best for customer support, but does well enough with the basics (Image credit: Atlas VPN)
Support
Atlas VPN's support website has simple tutorials covering various setup, usage, and troubleshooting topics.
These do a good job of covering the core details you need to know. There’s also a text description and a screenshot for every step, followed by more guidance on launching the app, connecting, changing location, and browsing settings.
Articles don't have a lot of technical detail. That makes them easy to follow for beginners, but also means there’s little expert-level help for solving really tricky problems. Searching for DNS at Atlas VPN’s knowledgebase returned just one article, for instance. Searching the same thing at ExpressVPN got us 60.
If you can't find what you need, though, Atlas has email and 24/7 live chat support. We found our requests for help received a speedy and generic response; uninstall the app, download and install the latest version, and see if the problem goes away. Usually, that’s enough to solve most issues, but we questioned further and found speedy response times via email, too.
Atlas VPN managed to unblock Netflix US, and almost everything else for that matter (Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix and streaming
Atlas VPN claims its streaming-optimized servers allow you to bypass geo-blocks and ‘access anything you want regardless of your location.’ We ran tests on top streaming platforms around the world to see just how effective it really was.
Netflix results were mixed, with Atlas allowing us to stream exclusive content in the US and UK, but failing in Australia, Canada, and Japan.
The inconsistencies continued with other US platforms, as we accessed Disney Plus with ease, but failed entirely with Amazon Prime Video.
UK results were a highlight, as Atlas VPN allowed us to stream BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Channel 4 without difficulty, but then we switched to Australia and the mixed picture returned. The service succeeded with 9Now but couldn't unblock 10 Play.
Although Atlas VPN still failed on some important platforms, keep in mind that this can change at any time as the company updates its service to beat the blocks. To get a feel for how Atlas VPN works with your preferred US streaming sites, install the free version and try it for yourself.
If Atlas can't handle your unblocking needs, there are plenty of capable alternatives. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark all unblocked everything we threw at them in recent tests.
Atlas VPN did pretty well in our speed testing (Image credit: Speedtest.net)
Performance
We measure VPN performance by running several benchmarking services – SpeedTest's website and command line app, Measurement Lab, Cloudflare – from both a UK data center and a US residential location. We run each benchmark five times using WireGuard and OpenVPN (where available), run them a second time several hours later (that's a minimum of 120 tests), then analyze the data to see what's going on.
Atlas VPN doesn't support OpenVPN, but its IKEv2 speeds were reasonable at a mid-range 250Mbps in the UK and 220-230 Mbps in the US.
When we switched to WireGuard, though, the service shifted into a whole new gear. US speeds jumped to 350-360 Mbps, and UK downloads reached a blistering 860Mbps, more than enough for just about any web task.
Atlas VPN review: Final verdict
Atlas VPN may not have the largest network, the best apps, or the most helpful support site, but high speeds, low prices, and decent unblocking results mean it's already better than many VPNs, and we suspect there's a lot more to come.
VPNs can seem like a complicated technology, packed with geeky features that not everyone understands, but TunnelBear is a provider that does does their best to keep things simple.
The Canadian-based, McAfee-owned company doesn't drown you in jargon. The website has little talk of protocols, no mention of encryption types, and barely any technical terms at all. Instead, the company focuses on the fundamentals, such as clearly explaining why you might want to use a VPN in the first place.
This approach won't work for everyone. If you're an experienced user and want to get down to the technical details of the service, for instance, you're likely to be disappointed. Search for DNS on the ExpressVPN support site, for instance, and right now you'll get 56 hits. Search at TunnelBear and you'll get three.
The service specs are fairly average. The network has a mid-sized 47 countries. There are apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, as well as extensions for Chrome and Firefox. But there’s little support for getting the service working on Linux, routers, game consoles, or other not-so-common devices.
TunnelBear does have a free plan, though, and it’s great to see the company finally lift its monthly allowance from a miserly 500MB to a more usable 2GB. Although, if that’s still not enough, PrivadoVPN and Windscribe offer 10GB, while Proton VPN has no data limit at all.
There’s more good news for paying customers. TunnelBear has dropped its ‘five simultaneous connections’ limit, and you can now install and use the service on as many devices as you like.
We noticed a surprising technical improvement in support for ECH (Encrypted Client Hello), a valuable feature that protects the initial key exchange between the app and VPN server to keep it safe from snoopers. That earns a big thumbs up from us. Many otherwise more technically advanced VPNs don't support ECH yet.
TunnelBear has been busily enhancing its apps, too. Recent welcome additions include a kill switch for iOS (something you won't often see elsewhere), more reliable split tunneling, and handy usability pluses such as a Search box for the location list.
TunnelBear pricing
TunnelBear's free account offers only 2GB of traffic a month. It’s better than it was, but only enough for very occasional use. This doesn't restrict the number of locations you can use, though, unlike most of the free competition. It's ideal if you're looking for a simple way to check out the apps before you buy.
Its monthly plan gives you unlimited data for a reasonable $9.99 a month. The price drops to an effective $4.99 a month on the annual plan, or $3.33 if you sign up for three years.
These are competitive prices that beat many providers, although there are some with cheaper deals. Private Internet Access asks $2.03 a month on the first term of its three-year plan, and opting for Ivacy's five-year plan cuts the cost to a supercheap $1. To put that in perspective, handing $59.88 to TunnelBear gets you one year of coverage. Hand $60 to Ivacy and you're protected for five.
If you do sign up for TunnelBear, keep in mind that there's no money-back guarantee. The small print says: "While all amounts paid are non-refundable, certain refund requests for subscriptions may be considered by TunnelBear on a case-by-case basis." Presumably, you might get a refund if you've had really bad service, but it's entirely up to the company to decide. Not quite as friendly as the cuddly cartoon bears suggest, then.
TunnelBear used to support Bitcoin payments for its annual plan, but no more. With no PayPal, either, it’s now strictly card-only.
TunnelBear has hired independent specialists to run security audits on its site and services (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Privacy and logging
TunnelBear's privacy policy is one of the most thorough we've seen from any VPN provider, with in-depth information on everything the service collects, and everything it doesn't. We do mean thorough, too – the details go right down to the names, purposes, and expiry dates of the cookies used by TunnelBear.com.
The logging policy is clearly described, with TunnelBear explaining that it does not collect IP addresses visiting their website, IP addresses upon service connection, DNS Queries while connected, or any information about the applications, services, or websites users use while connected to the Service. As a result, the company says, it can't link any of its users to an action carried out by a specific IP address. Sounds good to us.
The service does record 'operational data', updating this when you connect. That includes the OS version of your device, TunnelBear app version, whether you've been active this month, and the bandwidth you've used. Not quite zero logging, then, but it's far less than we've seen elsewhere, and there's nothing here that could link you to any online action.
These aren’t just words either, TunnelBear backs up its claims with ultra-comprehensive annual audits of its apps, browser extensions, service infrastructure, backend and frontend systems, and the public website. Auditors Cure53 spent 42 days drilling down into the detail, one of the largest projects we've seen.
Unfortunately, the results weren't great. Cure53 found 32 issues in total, including two critical and eight high-severity security vulnerabilities. Cure53 described this as worrisome, but it's better to discover these from an expert auditor than after you've been hacked. And unlike some VPNs, TunnelBear hasn't hidden its audit report from potential customers. Anyone interested can access it directly from the company's blog post.
Overall, we must applaud TunnelBear for its level of transparency. Most VPNs have never had any form of security audit, and the providers who have actually made some movement in this direction typically have one-off audits with a far narrower scope. That's just not good enough, and it's great to see TunnelBear leading the way on this front.
But we'd still like to see less unpleasant discoveries in next year's report, please.
TunnelBear fully supports torrenting even though its site may not advertise this (Image credit: BitTorrent)
Torrents
TunnelBear doesn’t say much about torrenting on its website – in fact, it barely mentions the topic at all – but the support team explained that it’s available in all locations.
Some may be more reliable than others, apparently. The company recommended we try Canada, US, UK, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, or Sweden if we had problems elsewhere.
How likely is it that you might have problems elsewhere, then? To get an idea, we tried downloading torrents from three of the other locations: Greece, Portugal, and Brazil. Despite not being on TunnelBear's 'recommended' list, they all completed without any issues, suggesting that you really should be able to use torrents right across the network.
TunnelBear's Windows Client is clean, simple and to the point (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Windows app
TunnelBear's Windows app opens with all its locations highlighted on a gray world map. This has one or two nice visual touches, with cartoon palm trees in tropical areas, and snow-covered Christmas trees if you head further north. But it’s also very basic, with little map detail, and not even a zoom option to help find the locations you need.
If you're not a fan of map view, you can also peruse TunnelBear's server locations in a list (Image credit: TunnelBear)
You can also select your server from a more conventional location list. That’s probably easier, but if anything, it’s even more basic, with no ping times, server load figures, or Favorites system to save your most commonly-used servers.
Once you've chosen a location, clicking 'On' gets you connected, and the app displays a 'connection' animation, panning the screen and plotting a line across the map to your destination. It’s a cute visual effect the first time of viewing, but it began to annoy us by the 100th (unfortunately, there’s no way to turn it off).
WireGuard connection times were a little disappointing at 3-4 seconds, even for our nearest server (the best VPNs take around a second). But this didn’t change much over distance – even connecting from the UK to New Zealand took only 5-6 seconds – and times were reasonable overall.
The app displays notifications when it connects or disconnects, too, ensuring you always know when you're protected, and when you're not.
TunnelBear only has a few server locations in North America (Image credit: TunnelBear)
The app doesn't have many settings, but the few you get are very useful. You can have it load when Windows starts, for instance, then automatically activate the VPN whenever you access an untrusted Wi-Fi network (everywhere but home and work, say).
The Obfsproxy-based GhostBear attempts to make your activities look more like regular internet traffic, perhaps helping you connect in countries like China which try to detect and block the use of VPNs.
A VigilantBear setting is essentially a kill switch, blocking all internet traffic if the VPN drops to prevent any identity leaks. We found this had some issues in extreme situations – the kill switch could fail if the app crashed and it was restarted, for instance, but it performed well in simpler tests.
WireGuard is now supported in the Windows client, and it makes a big difference to speeds (Image credit: TunnelBear)
It’s great to see WireGuard supported in the Windows app, as well as OpenVPN and IKEv2. By default the app selects the most appropriate protocol for your network, but you can now also choose your preferred option.
Overall, TunnelBear's Windows app is easy to use, and the arrival of WireGuard is a major plus. There’s clearly scope for improvement in every part of the app, though, and the basic feature list could disappoint experienced users.
This is the interface of TunnelBear's iOS app (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Mac and mobile apps
TunnelBear's Mac and mobile offerings all feature essentially the same colorful map and location list as Windows, along with WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 support. That's good news, but what's less welcome is they also have odd variations, which could be confusing if you use more than one platform.
The Mac app is relatively basic, for instance, with no VigilantBear kill switch, automatic connection when you access untrusted Wi-Fi, or GhostBear to bypass VPN blocking.
The Android app has a landscape view for a more usable map (Image credit: TunnelBear)
The Android app includes a kill switch, and SplitBear, which is TunnelBear's take on split tunneling. If an app can’t connect when the VPN is running or it's too slow and doesn't require extra security, SplitBear allows it to bypass the tunnel and use your regular unencrypted connection, instead.
The Android app did have an odd technical issue at review time. The ability to switch protocols wasn't available on our Android 12 test system. TunnelBear told us this had been removed from 'newer operating systems' temporarily, while it diagnosed some reported problems, but the feature will return soon.
TunnelBear's iOS app shares a similar look to its Android counterpart (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Unlike the Mac app, the iOS app does support the VigilantBear kill switch. However, you don't get GhostBear, and although there's the SplitBear feature, it's for websites rather than apps. So, if LocalTV.com refuses to stream when you're using the VPN, for instance, you can use SplitBear to have it connect via your normal connection.
Overall, these are all decent apps and the mobile offerings in particular outperform many competitors. But we'd like them to be more consistent across platforms, where possible, with features like SplitBear available across all platforms.
TunnelBear offers extensions for most popular web browsers (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Browser extensions
Installing TunnelBear's browser extensions can make the service easier to operate, by allowing you to choose a location, connect and disconnect from inside your browser. The extensions work as proxies and so only protect your browser traffic, but if that's all you need, the extra convenience could make them worth a try.
The Chrome extension added an icon to our address bar, and tapping this enabled choosing new locations from a drop-down list.
Hit the 'Connect' button and, as usual with proxies, you're connected instantly. A tiny map updates to show your location, similar to the regular apps.
There are no extra features, no WebRTC or tracker blocking or anything else. But the extension does have a small usability plus in its keyboard shortcut support. If you want to keep your hands off the mouse, pressing Ctrl+Shift+U connects you to the VPN, and pressing it again will toggle the connection off when you're done. (A separate Alt+Shift+N shortcut toggles the connection on and off in Incognito mode.)
We checked the Firefox extension to see if it had any more options, but no, it looked and worked much the same as the Chrome version.
The browser extensions follow a very similar pattern to the apps, then – they are short on features, but relatively simple, and fine for the target audience of casual users.
We use multiple speed test services to benchmark every VPN that we review (Image credit: nPerf)
Performance
To check out TunnelBear's performance, we first connected to our nearest server from a UK data center and a US location, each with 1Gbps test connections.
We then measured our download speeds multiple times using several benchmarking services including SpeedTest's site and command line app, Cloudflare, and others. Then we repeated each test in an evening session.
TunnelBear’s US OpenVPN speeds were excellent at 270-310Mbps. That's two to three times as fast as some providers, although a handful have done better. Mullvad even beat 500Mbps in recent tests.
Switching to WireGuard accelerated our downloads to 500Mbps. That's far behind the likes of NordVPN, Surfshark, and Hide.me, all of which beat 950Mbps in our last checks. Still, TunnelBear delivers all the speed that most people need and are able to use.
Speed can sometimes be affected if a VPN uses virtual locations. For example, you want to connect to Malta and get a Maltese IP address, but the servers are physically located in another country.
We tested some of TunnelBear's locations to get a feel for how the service works. The Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, and Slovenia servers all turned out to be in or very close to their advertised countries. There seemed to be a few virtual locations, but the host countries were never too far away (the Indonesia servers may be based in Singapore, for instance, while the Kenya location may be closer to South Africa.) If it's important that your VPN locations are close to their advertised countries, TunnelBear is a reasonable choice.
TunnelBear had a mixed performance with unblocking, but got access to US Netflix (Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix and streaming
One of the major selling points of a VPN is that it can make you appear to be visiting a website from another country, perhaps giving you access to content you wouldn't be able to view otherwise. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work, so we test all VPNs with Netflix and more to see if they can give us access to various streaming sites.
TunnelBear has a poor history in our unblocking tests, and this time was no different, as it failed with Netflix in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
There was some success elsewhere. TunnelBear failed with BBC iPlayer, but it got us into the UK's ITV and Channel 4. In Australia, the service was defeated by 10 play, but successfully unblocked 9Now.
TunnelBear couldn’t really redeem itself with our last two tests. It failed with Amazon Prime, but we were able to view US content on Disney Plus.
There's a faint chance TunnelBear might unblock one or two smaller streaming platforms, but if accessing geo-blocked content is a priority, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark all unblocked every one of our test streaming services in our latest round of reviews.
TunnelBear's knowledgebase provides customers with a good deal of quality information on its services (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Support
TunnelBear support starts with its web-based help site. This is presented in a clear and simple way, with large icons pointing you to key areas (Getting Started, Troubleshooting, Accounts), and basic articles on the most common questions ('Why should I trust TunnelBear?', 'Why can't I access the content I want?', 'Does TunnelBear keep logs?').
Go searching for answers and you'll find TunnelBear's knowledgebase doesn't have a lot of content, but what you get is well presented and gives you a decent range of information. The Connection Issues page doesn't just offer generic 'reinstall'-type ideas, for instance. It links you to TunnelBear's Twitter page to look for service information, suggests trying out the service on another network, and points you to settings which might help.
Despite its beginner-oriented approach, there's also room for just a few more advanced tweaking ideas, with recommendations for ports which should be opened in some circumstances.
There's no live chat, but if you need more help, a Contact page allows you to send a message to the support team. We'd already noticed the Android app no longer had an option to change protocols, so fired off a question asking whether this was still supported. A reply arrived in less than an hour, and we quickly got into a conversation about the problem.
“Tap this, then this, and the option is there.” The support agent recommended. “It's not,” we replied.
“Uninstall and reinstall,” said reply two. We tried and installed it on two more devices. It made no difference
“What device and version of Android are you using?” Asked the agent.
We sent the details back immediately but had to wait a couple of hours before a reply finally explained that this was a known issue. It turned out that TunnelBear had removed the feature on later versions of Linux, and it wasn't available to anybody. All our troubleshooting efforts had been a complete waste of time.
There were some plus points to this exchange. The replies were quick, the agent was friendly, and he gave what would have been sensible advice (if the problem was on our system.) That's not unusual, TunnelBear's support has always generally delivered decent service.
This time, though, we're struggling to see how an issue as major as this, where a significant feature has been removed from an app in some situations, and support doesn't know about it.
Hopefully, we were just unlucky, but this doesn’t look good.
TunnelBear review: Final verdict
It's not the largest, fastest, or most powerful of VPNs but TunnelBear's ease of use and strong focus on opening up its systems to scrutiny deserve a lot of credit. If you're looking for a gentle start to VPNs, or are tired of apps that are crammed with features you never, ever use, then TunnelBear could be a smart choice.
VPNs can seem like a complicated technology, packed with geeky features that not everyone understands, but TunnelBear is a provider that does does their best to keep things simple.
The Canadian-based, McAfee-owned company doesn't drown you in jargon. The website has little talk of protocols, no mention of encryption types, and barely any technical terms at all. Instead, the company focuses on the fundamentals, such as clearly explaining why you might want to use a VPN in the first place.
This approach won't work for everyone. If you're an experienced user and want to get down to the technical details of the service, for instance, you're likely to be disappointed. Search for DNS on the ExpressVPN support site, for instance, and right now you'll get 56 hits. Search at TunnelBear and you'll get three.
The service specs are fairly average. The network has a mid-sized 47 countries. There are apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, as well as extensions for Chrome and Firefox. But there’s little support for getting the service working on Linux, routers, game consoles, or other not-so-common devices.
TunnelBear does have a free plan, though, and it’s great to see the company finally lift its monthly allowance from a miserly 500MB to a more usable 2GB. Although, if that’s still not enough, PrivadoVPN and Windscribe offer 10GB, while Proton VPN has no data limit at all.
There’s more good news for paying customers. TunnelBear has dropped its ‘five simultaneous connections’ limit, and you can now install and use the service on as many devices as you like.
We noticed a surprising technical improvement in support for ECH (Encrypted Client Hello), a valuable feature that protects the initial key exchange between the app and VPN server to keep it safe from snoopers. That earns a big thumbs up from us. Many otherwise more technically advanced VPNs don't support ECH yet.
TunnelBear has been busily enhancing its apps, too. Recent welcome additions include a kill switch for iOS (something you won't often see elsewhere), more reliable split tunneling, and handy usability pluses such as a Search box for the location list.
TunnelBear pricing
TunnelBear's free account offers only 2GB of traffic a month. It’s better than it was, but only enough for very occasional use. This doesn't restrict the number of locations you can use, though, unlike most of the free competition. It's ideal if you're looking for a simple way to check out the apps before you buy.
Its monthly plan gives you unlimited data for a reasonable $9.99 a month. The price drops to an effective $4.99 a month on the annual plan, or $3.33 if you sign up for three years.
These are competitive prices that beat many providers, although there are some with cheaper deals. Private Internet Access asks $2.03 a month on the first term of its three-year plan, and opting for Ivacy's five-year plan cuts the cost to a supercheap $1. To put that in perspective, handing $59.88 to TunnelBear gets you one year of coverage. Hand $60 to Ivacy and you're protected for five.
If you do sign up for TunnelBear, keep in mind that there's no money-back guarantee. The small print says: "While all amounts paid are non-refundable, certain refund requests for subscriptions may be considered by TunnelBear on a case-by-case basis." Presumably, you might get a refund if you've had really bad service, but it's entirely up to the company to decide. Not quite as friendly as the cuddly cartoon bears suggest, then.
TunnelBear used to support Bitcoin payments for its annual plan, but no more. With no PayPal, either, it’s now strictly card-only.
TunnelBear has hired independent specialists to run security audits on its site and services (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Privacy and logging
TunnelBear's privacy policy is one of the most thorough we've seen from any VPN provider, with in-depth information on everything the service collects, and everything it doesn't. We do mean thorough, too – the details go right down to the names, purposes, and expiry dates of the cookies used by TunnelBear.com.
The logging policy is clearly described, with TunnelBear explaining that it does not collect IP addresses visiting their website, IP addresses upon service connection, DNS Queries while connected, or any information about the applications, services, or websites users use while connected to the Service. As a result, the company says, it can't link any of its users to an action carried out by a specific IP address. Sounds good to us.
The service does record 'operational data', updating this when you connect. That includes the OS version of your device, TunnelBear app version, whether you've been active this month, and the bandwidth you've used. Not quite zero logging, then, but it's far less than we've seen elsewhere, and there's nothing here that could link you to any online action.
These aren’t just words either, TunnelBear backs up its claims with ultra-comprehensive annual audits of its apps, browser extensions, service infrastructure, backend and frontend systems, and the public website. Auditors Cure53 spent 42 days drilling down into the detail, one of the largest projects we've seen.
Unfortunately, the results weren't great. Cure53 found 32 issues in total, including two critical and eight high-severity security vulnerabilities. Cure53 described this as worrisome, but it's better to discover these from an expert auditor than after you've been hacked. And unlike some VPNs, TunnelBear hasn't hidden its audit report from potential customers. Anyone interested can access it directly from the company's blog post.
Overall, we must applaud TunnelBear for its level of transparency. Most VPNs have never had any form of security audit, and the providers who have actually made some movement in this direction typically have one-off audits with a far narrower scope. That's just not good enough, and it's great to see TunnelBear leading the way on this front.
But we'd still like to see less unpleasant discoveries in next year's report, please.
TunnelBear fully supports torrenting even though its site may not advertise this (Image credit: BitTorrent)
Torrents
TunnelBear doesn’t say much about torrenting on its website – in fact, it barely mentions the topic at all – but the support team explained that it’s available in all locations.
Some may be more reliable than others, apparently. The company recommended we try Canada, US, UK, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, or Sweden if we had problems elsewhere.
How likely is it that you might have problems elsewhere, then? To get an idea, we tried downloading torrents from three of the other locations: Greece, Portugal, and Brazil. Despite not being on TunnelBear's 'recommended' list, they all completed without any issues, suggesting that you really should be able to use torrents right across the network.
TunnelBear's Windows Client is clean, simple and to the point (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Windows app
TunnelBear's Windows app opens with all its locations highlighted on a gray world map. This has one or two nice visual touches, with cartoon palm trees in tropical areas, and snow-covered Christmas trees if you head further north. But it’s also very basic, with little map detail, and not even a zoom option to help find the locations you need.
If you're not a fan of map view, you can also peruse TunnelBear's server locations in a list (Image credit: TunnelBear)
You can also select your server from a more conventional location list. That’s probably easier, but if anything, it’s even more basic, with no ping times, server load figures, or Favorites system to save your most commonly-used servers.
Once you've chosen a location, clicking 'On' gets you connected, and the app displays a 'connection' animation, panning the screen and plotting a line across the map to your destination. It’s a cute visual effect the first time of viewing, but it began to annoy us by the 100th (unfortunately, there’s no way to turn it off).
WireGuard connection times were a little disappointing at 3-4 seconds, even for our nearest server (the best VPNs take around a second). But this didn’t change much over distance – even connecting from the UK to New Zealand took only 5-6 seconds – and times were reasonable overall.
The app displays notifications when it connects or disconnects, too, ensuring you always know when you're protected, and when you're not.
TunnelBear only has a few server locations in North America (Image credit: TunnelBear)
The app doesn't have many settings, but the few you get are very useful. You can have it load when Windows starts, for instance, then automatically activate the VPN whenever you access an untrusted Wi-Fi network (everywhere but home and work, say).
The Obfsproxy-based GhostBear attempts to make your activities look more like regular internet traffic, perhaps helping you connect in countries like China which try to detect and block the use of VPNs.
A VigilantBear setting is essentially a kill switch, blocking all internet traffic if the VPN drops to prevent any identity leaks. We found this had some issues in extreme situations – the kill switch could fail if the app crashed and it was restarted, for instance, but it performed well in simpler tests.
WireGuard is now supported in the Windows client, and it makes a big difference to speeds (Image credit: TunnelBear)
It’s great to see WireGuard supported in the Windows app, as well as OpenVPN and IKEv2. By default the app selects the most appropriate protocol for your network, but you can now also choose your preferred option.
Overall, TunnelBear's Windows app is easy to use, and the arrival of WireGuard is a major plus. There’s clearly scope for improvement in every part of the app, though, and the basic feature list could disappoint experienced users.
This is the interface of TunnelBear's iOS app (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Mac and mobile apps
TunnelBear's Mac and mobile offerings all feature essentially the same colorful map and location list as Windows, along with WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 support. That's good news, but what's less welcome is they also have odd variations, which could be confusing if you use more than one platform.
The Mac app is relatively basic, for instance, with no VigilantBear kill switch, automatic connection when you access untrusted Wi-Fi, or GhostBear to bypass VPN blocking.
The Android app has a landscape view for a more usable map (Image credit: TunnelBear)
The Android app includes a kill switch, and SplitBear, which is TunnelBear's take on split tunneling. If an app can’t connect when the VPN is running or it's too slow and doesn't require extra security, SplitBear allows it to bypass the tunnel and use your regular unencrypted connection, instead.
The Android app did have an odd technical issue at review time. The ability to switch protocols wasn't available on our Android 12 test system. TunnelBear told us this had been removed from 'newer operating systems' temporarily, while it diagnosed some reported problems, but the feature will return soon.
TunnelBear's iOS app shares a similar look to its Android counterpart (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Unlike the Mac app, the iOS app does support the VigilantBear kill switch. However, you don't get GhostBear, and although there's the SplitBear feature, it's for websites rather than apps. So, if LocalTV.com refuses to stream when you're using the VPN, for instance, you can use SplitBear to have it connect via your normal connection.
Overall, these are all decent apps and the mobile offerings in particular outperform many competitors. But we'd like them to be more consistent across platforms, where possible, with features like SplitBear available across all platforms.
TunnelBear offers extensions for most popular web browsers (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Browser extensions
Installing TunnelBear's browser extensions can make the service easier to operate, by allowing you to choose a location, connect and disconnect from inside your browser. The extensions work as proxies and so only protect your browser traffic, but if that's all you need, the extra convenience could make them worth a try.
The Chrome extension added an icon to our address bar, and tapping this enabled choosing new locations from a drop-down list.
Hit the 'Connect' button and, as usual with proxies, you're connected instantly. A tiny map updates to show your location, similar to the regular apps.
There are no extra features, no WebRTC or tracker blocking or anything else. But the extension does have a small usability plus in its keyboard shortcut support. If you want to keep your hands off the mouse, pressing Ctrl+Shift+U connects you to the VPN, and pressing it again will toggle the connection off when you're done. (A separate Alt+Shift+N shortcut toggles the connection on and off in Incognito mode.)
We checked the Firefox extension to see if it had any more options, but no, it looked and worked much the same as the Chrome version.
The browser extensions follow a very similar pattern to the apps, then – they are short on features, but relatively simple, and fine for the target audience of casual users.
We use multiple speed test services to benchmark every VPN that we review (Image credit: nPerf)
Performance
To check out TunnelBear's performance, we first connected to our nearest server from a UK data center and a US location, each with 1Gbps test connections.
We then measured our download speeds multiple times using several benchmarking services including SpeedTest's site and command line app, Cloudflare, and others. Then we repeated each test in an evening session.
TunnelBear’s US OpenVPN speeds were excellent at 270-310Mbps. That's two to three times as fast as some providers, although a handful have done better. Mullvad even beat 500Mbps in recent tests.
Switching to WireGuard accelerated our downloads to 500Mbps. That's far behind the likes of NordVPN, Surfshark, and Hide.me, all of which beat 950Mbps in our last checks. Still, TunnelBear delivers all the speed that most people need and are able to use.
Speed can sometimes be affected if a VPN uses virtual locations. For example, you want to connect to Malta and get a Maltese IP address, but the servers are physically located in another country.
We tested some of TunnelBear's locations to get a feel for how the service works. The Brazil, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, and Slovenia servers all turned out to be in or very close to their advertised countries. There seemed to be a few virtual locations, but the host countries were never too far away (the Indonesia servers may be based in Singapore, for instance, while the Kenya location may be closer to South Africa.) If it's important that your VPN locations are close to their advertised countries, TunnelBear is a reasonable choice.
TunnelBear had a mixed performance with unblocking, but got access to US Netflix (Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix and streaming
One of the major selling points of a VPN is that it can make you appear to be visiting a website from another country, perhaps giving you access to content you wouldn't be able to view otherwise. Unfortunately, this doesn't always work, so we test all VPNs with Netflix and more to see if they can give us access to various streaming sites.
TunnelBear has a poor history in our unblocking tests, and this time was no different, as it failed with Netflix in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
There was some success elsewhere. TunnelBear failed with BBC iPlayer, but it got us into the UK's ITV and Channel 4. In Australia, the service was defeated by 10 play, but successfully unblocked 9Now.
TunnelBear couldn’t really redeem itself with our last two tests. It failed with Amazon Prime, but we were able to view US content on Disney Plus.
There's a faint chance TunnelBear might unblock one or two smaller streaming platforms, but if accessing geo-blocked content is a priority, ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark all unblocked every one of our test streaming services in our latest round of reviews.
TunnelBear's knowledgebase provides customers with a good deal of quality information on its services (Image credit: TunnelBear)
Support
TunnelBear support starts with its web-based help site. This is presented in a clear and simple way, with large icons pointing you to key areas (Getting Started, Troubleshooting, Accounts), and basic articles on the most common questions ('Why should I trust TunnelBear?', 'Why can't I access the content I want?', 'Does TunnelBear keep logs?').
Go searching for answers and you'll find TunnelBear's knowledgebase doesn't have a lot of content, but what you get is well presented and gives you a decent range of information. The Connection Issues page doesn't just offer generic 'reinstall'-type ideas, for instance. It links you to TunnelBear's Twitter page to look for service information, suggests trying out the service on another network, and points you to settings which might help.
Despite its beginner-oriented approach, there's also room for just a few more advanced tweaking ideas, with recommendations for ports which should be opened in some circumstances.
There's no live chat, but if you need more help, a Contact page allows you to send a message to the support team. We'd already noticed the Android app no longer had an option to change protocols, so fired off a question asking whether this was still supported. A reply arrived in less than an hour, and we quickly got into a conversation about the problem.
“Tap this, then this, and the option is there.” The support agent recommended. “It's not,” we replied.
“Uninstall and reinstall,” said reply two. We tried and installed it on two more devices. It made no difference
“What device and version of Android are you using?” Asked the agent.
We sent the details back immediately but had to wait a couple of hours before a reply finally explained that this was a known issue. It turned out that TunnelBear had removed the feature on later versions of Linux, and it wasn't available to anybody. All our troubleshooting efforts had been a complete waste of time.
There were some plus points to this exchange. The replies were quick, the agent was friendly, and he gave what would have been sensible advice (if the problem was on our system.) That's not unusual, TunnelBear's support has always generally delivered decent service.
This time, though, we're struggling to see how an issue as major as this, where a significant feature has been removed from an app in some situations, and support doesn't know about it.
Hopefully, we were just unlucky, but this doesn’t look good.
TunnelBear review: Final verdict
It's not the largest, fastest, or most powerful of VPNs but TunnelBear's ease of use and strong focus on opening up its systems to scrutiny deserve a lot of credit. If you're looking for a gentle start to VPNs, or are tired of apps that are crammed with features you never, ever use, then TunnelBear could be a smart choice.
EVenture Limited subsidiary Hide.me is a Malaysia-based company that has been making waves in the VPN business since 2011.
Hide.me's network includes 2,100 servers spread across 78 locations. That's not bad at all and enough for most people but if you need more, the likes of ExpressVPN (3,000+ servers across 94 countries) and CyberGhost (9,200 in 91) give you even more options.
The company piles on the features elsewhere, though. Wide protocol support includes WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SoftEther, and SSTP. Plus, there's protection against DNS, IP, and even IPv6 leaks and port forwarding is available if you need it.
The service can be used on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, routers, consoles, and smart TVs. You can connect up to 10 devices simultaneously, and there's 24/7 live chat support if you run into problems.
MultiHop lets you connect from one location and exit from another to prevent tracking (Image credit: Hide.me)
Advanced features include MultiHop VPN, allowing you to connect to one location and exit from another. This makes it even more difficult for anyone to trace back and identify you.
Hide.me claims to support P2P on most servers. We verified this by connecting to five different locations and had hassle-free torrenting in each case.
Furthermore, unlike some of the competition, Hide.me doesn't just make vague promises about its unblocking abilities. Its Unblock page lists the many sites it supports, including Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, ShowTime, and more.
Recent improvements have been more about enhancing the service than delivering huge changes. But they're worthwhile enhancements, in particular the ongoing upgrade of servers from 1Gbps to 10Gbps. Plenty of providers claim to be doing the same but are shy about telling you how many locations they've upgraded. Hide.me is much more transparent and highlight 10Gbps servers in the apps.
Hide.me pricing
Hide.me's monthly plan is fairly priced at $9.95. Most providers charge somewhere in the $10-$13 range, although a few are significantly cheaper (Mullvad asks around $6).
The annual plan is available for an above-average $5.82 a month. Hide.me used to throw in 2TB of Internxt cloud storage, but no more. Now, it's the VPN only. Most providers are a little cheaper at around $4-5 for annual subscriptions, and a few cost even less (you'll pay a monthly $3.33 for Private Internet Access, $2.08 for FastestVPN).
The two-year plan offers the best value at $3.45, but even here, there's money to be saved elsewhere. Atlas VPN's three-year plan costs $2.08 a month, for instance. Looking at the totals, paying $89.95 to Hide.me gets you coverage for two years with two months free – but three years of protection (with three months free) at Atlas VPN costs $71.52.
You can pay for your plan by credit card, PayPal or even with cryptocurrency (Image credit: Hide.me)
Whichever duration you choose, there is a wide range of payment options to purchase it. This includes cards, Bitcoin, PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, and perhaps other providers (the precise list depends on your location.)
If you hand over your cash and regret it later, no problem! You're protected by a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee. As long as you’ve never had a refund from Hide.me previously.
If you decide that you don’t want to pay anything, the free plan now supports eight countries (Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, United States). The restrictions include no streaming support, port forwarding, or multihop VPN.
The good news is there's P2P support everywhere, and absolutely no annoying data limits. You can use the service as much as you like.
Hide.me keeps no logs on its users (Image credit: Hide.me)
Privacy
Hide.me has a strict no logging policy. The company claims, "We do NOT keep logs of your VPN sessions, browsing behavior, websites you visit, or any activity related to your VPN connection. In addition, we NEVER store VPN connection logs and timestamps that match your incoming and outgoing IP address or session duration."
Hide.me does briefly record your randomly generated username and internally assigned (non-public) IP address when you connect, but this is only for troubleshooting purposes, and the company says even this troubleshooting log is securely wiped every few hours.
Hide.me says it will comply with court orders received by recognized legal authorities with jurisdiction over them. But again, that's to be expected, and if the logs don't show anything significant, that won't matter at all.
The company claims this is supported by a comprehensive audit, and that 'Hide.me has been certified as the most anonymous VPN service in the industry.'
It turns out that the audit dates from 2015, though. There's little information on the scope of the audit and no report you can read. Hide.me deserves real credit for realizing the importance of audits so long ago – some providers still don't get it, even today – but we think it's probably time to take another, something more thorough and transparent, where everyone can read the full results.
In the meantime, there's a simple metric we use to get a feel for how any provider is handling your privacy, and that’s how many trackers and third-party cookies are used on its website. The Blacklight privacy inspector gave us the answer; none at all. That's not unique - Mullvad, Proton VPN, Windscribe, and a handful of others are also tracker-free - but it's unusual, and suggests Hide.me is making a real effort to maintain your privacy.
This is the user interface of Hide.me's Windows app (Image credit: Hide.me)
Apps
Hide.me's Windows app has a clear and straightforward interface. A large Enable button plugs you into the nearest server, the full location list (countries, expandable to cities in some cases) is just a click away, and a navigation bar has buttons for the streaming service, app settings, and more.
Hide.me displays its available servers in a list instead of on a map (Image credit: Hide.me)
The flexible location list can sort your options by name, or use ping time to show the fastest servers at the top. Begin typing a city or country name in the Search box and the list updates to display any matches (typing MIA cuts the list to just Miami, for instance.) A Favorites system enables grouping your most-used servers together for speedier access later.
A Streaming tab connects you to the best locations to unblock streaming platforms in a lengthy list of countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States. That's nine countries added since our last review. Impressive!
Connection times were good in most cases, with WireGuard getting us online in 1-2 seconds. The app doesn't appear to have a connection timeout, though, and a couple of times we found it hung on its 'Initializing service connection...' animation for minutes.
Digging into the details, it looked like Hide.me's Windows service had failed, and the app wasn't able to restart it. That can happen, but the top providers do a better job of handling it. ExpressVPN's Windows app recognizes a service failure immediately, for instance, without leaving you waiting for minutes. Then, it either fixes the problem all on its own or tells you what to do next.
Typically, though, connections ran smoothly, with the app making good use of notifications to keep you informed about what it's doing. Switch back to your other apps, and Hide.me will let you know when you’re protected, and when you’re not.
Hide.me's MultiHop feature gives you another option, good news when you need the best possible privacy. Choose an entry server of New York, say, and that's where you'll connect, but you'll be redirected through Hide.me's network to your pick of exit servers. Websites will think you're in the UK, and even if an attacker manages to compromise the London server, they won't be able to link the activity to your account as you've accessed it using the New York server, not your own IP.
You can tweak many aspects of Hide.me's VPN service in its settings menu (Image credit: Hide.me)
Settings
There's real depth here. The app supports no less than five protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, SoftEther, SSTP), for instance, with a stack of configuration options including IKEv2 stealth mode, custom and random ports, tunnel via IPv4 or IPv6, and the option to enable Bolt (Hide.me's custom speedup technology). More on that, later.
That's just the start. While most VPN apps ignore IPv6 entirely, or at best give you an option to disable it, Hide.me offers complete support and control. You can have the app connect via IPv4 only, IPv6 only, prefer IPv4 but use IPv6 as a fallback, or prefer IPv6 but use IPv4 as a fallback. That'll probably get you better speeds if you can use IPv6 and Hide.me's ability to handle both protocols reduces the chance of data leaks.
The advanced features continue everywhere you look. For example, split tunneling support enables defining which apps use the VPN, and which will use your regular connection. Plus, the client doesn't just have a single on/off kill switch setting to define what happens if the connection drops. It can run customs scripts, too. You get it to close apps, run others, whatever you like. You can also define whether scripts are run as the current user or an administrator.
Hide.me allows you to search for specific features in Settings, and will highlight them to point them out clearly (Image credit: Hide.me)
There's a lot to explore, and sometimes we couldn't remember where to find a particular setting. Fortunately, the app has a settings Search box. If you know you want to customize the Best Location feature, just type 'best' in the Search box, click the link, and the app will take you to the right page, and even highlight the option for you. A neat touch we've not seen with anyone else.
The Mac app looks pretty much identical to the Windows version, but doesn't have all its advanced features (Image credit: Hide.me)
Mac app
Hide.me's Mac app is a near clone of the Windows edition, with only the odd tiny visual detail and occasional caption changes to tell them apart.
Connection times were much faster than we saw on Windows, and we didn't have any connection failures. Real-world use was otherwise much the same. The app was easy to use, there were no unexpected drops, and everything worked more or less as we'd expect.
There's a decent set of advanced options, too. WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 protocol support, a kill switch, auto-connect when you access untrusted networks, and split tunneling. If any of this technology doesn't quite deliver, you can even raise a ticket from within the app.
There are a lot of advanced Windows features which haven't made it to the Mac. There's no VPN-wide custom DNS option, no custom MTU, no way to tweak how Best Location is chosen, no IPv6 tunnel option, no IKEv2 configuration tweaks, and no real kill switch configurability beyond on or off.
If you're not interested in VPN technicalities then none of that is likely to matter very much, and this is still a quality Mac app. It's not difficult to use, performance is good, and it has far more features than most.
Hide.me provides some impressive mobile apps (Image credit: Hide.me)
iOS app
Most VPNs focus their development time on desktop apps, and iOS users in particular are expected to be grateful with whatever scraps are left. Fortunately, no one told Hide.me that this is the way things are supposed to be. Its own iOS offering is surprisingly powerful.
This isn't visible initially, because the app has the same simple and appealing interface as the rest of the range. It has the blue and white color scheme, big connect button, and not a whole lot else. Don’t let that fool you, we tapped a few buttons and quickly got a feel for just what the app can do.
The Location picker has all the features we saw on the desktop including the Favorites, the Streaming and Multihop lists, the search box, sorting, and more. You probably won't need all of that, but just the ability to bring favorite servers to the top of the list can make your VPN life so much easier.
IOS apps typically have almost no settings, but this one outperforms some of the Windows competition. There's support for IKEv2, OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP and WireGuard, for instance. The app can automatically connect when you use Wi-Fi or mobile networks. There's a kill switch. You can choose a custom DNS server. You even get to control whether the tunnel uses IPv4 or IPv6, assuming you've a reason to care and if you don't, no problem, the app has sensibly chosen defaults.
The feature list is still a little shorter than the desktop apps (no split tunneling, for instance), but that's inevitable, iOS just doesn't allow anything like the same level of system control. Despite that, this is a top-notch iOS app. It's easy to use and way more configurable than most of the competition.
Hide.me's Android app is very similar to the iOS version, but also includes split tunneling (Image credit: Hide.me)
Android app
Hide.me's Android app didn’t spoil the excellent record for cross-platform consistency. Hide.me has paid real attention to detail with app design, and essentially the Android edition has the same appealing interface and capable location list as the rest of the family.
A better-than-most feature list includes WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 support, auto-connect for unsecured networks, and a custom DNS option.
The Android app beats iOS with split tunneling, where you're able to define which apps use the VPN tunnel, and which don't. But it does lack some functionality. For example, it doesn't allow you to decide whether to use IPv4 or IPv6.
Overall, this is an impressive mix of power and ease of use. You don't have to register to use Hide.me's free plan, or hand over any personal details – just install it from your app store, explore the various screens, and see how it works.
And if you don't understand something, or there's some other problem? You can even raise a ticket from within the app. Now that's what we call convenient.
Hide.me provides a kill switch, and it's highly configurable, but not without issues (Image credit: Hide.me)
Kill switch
We checked out the Windows app kill switch by manually closing WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 connections and everything worked as it should – our internet access was blocked right away, a notification warned us about the problem, and the app reconnected within seconds.
The kill switch didn’t always work when we switched locations, though. The app appears to close the first connection, then try to connect to the new server, and our device was sometimes able to use its regular internet connection until the tunnel was re-established.
This is unlikely to be a big issue for most users. If you’ve decided to switch locations, that’s a very strong indication that you’ve finished your torrenting, your online banking or whatever else you’re trying to protect, and a few seconds of unprotected internet access may not matter at all.
It is still a weakness, though, and one that could be a concern in the most privacy-critical situations.
Hide.me promises a lot on the unblocking front, but it delivers, too (Image credit: Hide.me)
Privacy tests
Hide.me's Windows apps boast plenty of protocols, but are they set up for maximum security? We can't see every detail of what's going on, but checking app configuration files and logs provides some useful information.
The results were broadly positive, with OpenVPN using AES-256-CBC encryption and SHA256 authentication. IKEv2 connections provided the same reliable AES-256 shield, while SoftEther appeared to use its standard (and very acceptable) default settings.
The app's WireGuard and OpenVPN files were more than a year old, which means they're missing plenty of patches and bug fixes. This is unlikely to have any real practical impact on your privacy, but we'd like to see Hide.me update these more often, just to keep any risks to a minimum.
We spotted a slightly dubious design decision with the app's OpenVPN connections, as it saved our username and password to disk in plain text. This also isn't that big a deal (if you've got malware reading files, Hide.me's logins are the least of your worries), but it's unnecessary, and most apps do a better job of concealing your credentials.
Once we got connected, Hide.me excelled on the privacy front, with IPleak.net, DNSleak.com, and DNSleaktest.com confirming that it correctly shielded our IP, allocated us a new address from our chosen country, and blocked DNS leaks at all times.
Virtual locations
Most VPNs have very long location lists, but their servers aren't always where you expect. If they're in a country that maybe has poor internet connectivity, then a provider will often host them elsewhere.
This can often be a good idea. If a VPN offers a Monaco location, and allocates you a Monaco IP address when you connect, but the servers are really in a super-fast French data center just a few miles away, should you care very much? We'd say no.
But what if you're in Cambodia, and you connect to a Cambodia location, but the server is really located in New York? That's likely to deliver a big and very unexpected performance hit.
We tested ten Hide.me locations to get a feel for what the company is doing.
In most cases, Hide.me's servers turned out to be in the advertised locations and some appeared to be virtual locations but weren't far away. Still, we found a couple of notable exceptions. Hide.me's Mexico location appears to be hosted on the US east coast, and its Morocco servers are closer to Quebec or Ontario.
This may not be an issue for everyone. The servers correctly give you Mexican and Moroccan IP addresses, so they’ll work just as you expect, and if you're in North America, having servers closer by might improve performance.
Providers should be transparent about their use of virtual locations, though, in order that potential customers can make up their own minds. Hide.me doesn’t highlight which locations are virtual, or tell users where they really are (which ExpressVPN does), and we'd like to see that change.
Netflix and streaming
Most VPNs claim they can help you access geoblocked websites, and Hide.me is no exception, with the company promising that you'll 'avoid annoying censorship.'
And this turned out to be correct, as Hide.me got us access to Netflix in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan.
It scored with our other test US platforms, too, working with both Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus.
The good news kept coming, too. Not only did Hide.me unblock BBC iPlayer, ITV and Channel 4 in the UK, but it delivered with Australia’s 9Now and 10 play, too.
That’s a perfect 100% unblocking score, a great result. Hide.me did just as well in our last review, too, which suggests the company didn’t just get lucky – it’s working hard to unblock everything possible, and then make sure those services stay available long-term.
(If you plan on testing Hide.me for yourself, keep in mind that you only get this level of success from the paid product – the free plan doesn't support unblocking streaming sites.)
We used several different speed testing services to help determine Hide.me's performance (Image credit: Speedtest.net)
Performance
We assess VPN speeds by running multiple automated speed tests using several platforms including SpeedTest's website and command line app, Measurement Lab, and Cloudflare.
Hide.me’s data center results were pleasantly unexpected. WireGuard speeds reached a decent mid-range of 580Mbps and switching to regular OpenVPN got us an above average 260Mbps. Using OpenVPN with Hide.me's Bolt got us an amazing 950Mbps.
That's a huge achievement, but there's an important point to keep in mind. Bolt is only available in the Windows app. If you're using Bolt on any other platform, performance is going to be more ordinary, though still very acceptable for most purposes. Would you really be upset if your VPN 'only' managed 580Mbps? Didn't think so.
Hide.me review: Final verdict
Hide.me is a speedy and highly configurable service, which unblocks almost everything and has an array of unusual and advanced features – in short, one of the best VPNs around for more experienced and demanding users. If you're looking for power then go check out the free version right now, see what it can do for you.
Mullvad is a Swedish-based VPN that doesn't just talk about protecting your privacy – the provider actually does something about it.
The company doesn't ask for your email address, name, or any personal details to sign up. Just click a button to generate a unique account number, and you’re done.
You can pay via cash, Bitcoin, or Bitcoin cash, ensuring the company knows almost nothing about you. If you don’t need that level of anonymity, you can also pay via conventional methods including card, PayPal, bank transfer, Monero, Swish, Giropay, Eps transfer, Bancontact, iDEAL, and Przelewy24.
Mullvad's core service is absolutely stuffed with privacy-friendly technology. It only uses OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, for instance, and high levels of encryption are available through AES-256 GCM or 4096-bit RSA certificates with SHA512. In addition, there are also multiple layers of DNS and IPv6 leak protection, you get a variety of stealth options to bypass VPN blocking, port forwarding support is built in, and the list goes on.
The network is a reasonable size. Mullvad may 'only' have 650+ servers (NordVPN has a massive 5,000+), but they're P2P-friendly and well spread across 70 locations and 52 countries.
The company has its own apps for Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux, as well as a Firefox extension, and you can connect up to five devices simultaneously.
It's generally smart to be skeptical about what apps are doing in the background but you can relax a little with Mullvad as they’re more transparent than most. Not only are its apps open source, so anyone can check the code, but they've also been externally audited in 2020 and late 2022.
What's new?
Mullvad's quantum-resistant tunnels have left the experimental stage and are now ready for full use on its desktop apps. These aim to shield your traffic from decryption, even by ultra-powerful quantum computers. Sure, these super-powerful computers don't exist yet, but the concern is governments may record traffic now in the hope of deciphering it in ten or twenty years.
There are also plenty of smaller app tweaks and optimizations which you can see right now. The mobile apps have new content blockers for gambling and adult content. The iOS app remembers the last account from which you log out and there's now a Search box on the desktop location list. There’s more too, including app notifications that have extra troubleshooting advice.
The company has dropped support for port forwarding. A blog post explained that the feature had been frequently abused to host undesirable content and malicious services, resulting in IP blacklists and other issues.
Mullvad reports that the Swedish police served it with a search warrant in April 2023. They intended to seize computers, but Mullvad argued this would be illegal under Swedish law, which says there must be a reasonable expectation that relevant information will be found.
The company explained, ''After demonstrating that this is indeed how our service works and the police consulting the prosecutor they left without taking anything and without any customer information.''
Even police armed with a search warrant don't think it's reasonable to think that Mullvad's VPN servers have any helpful user information. That's an impressive endorsement of Mullvad's no-logging credentials.
Pricing
Mullvad offers a whole host of different ways to pay (Image credit: Mullvad)
Pricing is extremely simple at €5 ($5) a month, and, well, that’s it. No discounts for long-term contracts, no doubling of the price at the end of the first term; it’s just €5 a month. That's half the price you'll pay for monthly billing with some providers, and cheaper than many annual plans. Even better, Mullvad offers a 10% discount if you pay by cryptocurrency.
If you're happy to sign up for longer, though, there's a lot of money to be saved elsewhere. Private Internet Access is only $2.03 a month for the first term of its three-year plan, for instance, a fraction of the price.
Mullvad scores a plus for its refund procedure, though. Not only is there a 30-day money-back guarantee, but it can also refund Bitcoin payment in some situations. There are potential complications (the refund help page has more), but it's still better than the blanket 'no Bitcoin refunds' we see with most providers.
Mullvad does very well on the privacy front compared to rival VPNs (Image credit: Mullvad)
Privacy
Figuring out a VPN's logging policy is often a real challenge, but again, Mullvad is different, spelling out the fine detail in an excellent policy page.
There's no logging of connection times, IP addresses, DNS requests, traffic, or anything else that can be used to link an action back to a specific account, the company explains.
The company provides its own authoritative DNS servers for an extra privacy guarantee, and – you’ve guessed it – that recently passed an independent audit, too.
We could mention the comprehensive 2020 Cure53 audit of its (already open source) desktop and mobile apps, but, well, you get the picture. Mullvad isn’t asking you to take what it says entirely on trust; there’s detailed and independently gathered evidence freely available for anyone to check out.
Installation is a breeze, which is always good to see (Image credit: Mullvad)
Setup
Getting started with Mullvad is as easy as generating an account number and buying some time (cards, PayPal, Bitcoin and other payment methods are supported, as mentioned).
A comprehensive Download page pointed us to the Windows client, but also included links to the Mac, Linux, iOS and Android apps, the latest beta release, the Firefox extension and Mullvad's WireGuard and OpenVPN configuration files.
We grabbed and installed the Windows client in a few seconds. We activated it by entering our account number (Mullvad doesn't require usernames or passwords) and it was ready to go.
Mullvad's interface looks smart, but makes some odd design choices (Image credit: Mullvad)
Interface
While some VPN apps look and feel very different across all platforms, Mullvad takes a more unified approach. Whether you're using Windows, Android, Apple devices, or Linux, each app is almost identical, with little more than a few settings varying between versions.
The apps look clean, with a colorful panel, a map highlighting your current location, and a Secure My Connection button.
Tapping the location name lets you choose a location from a list of countries and cities. Although Mullvad has recently added a search box on some platforms, this is surprisingly basic, with no ping times, server load indicators, sort options, or Favorites to simplify accessing commonly-used locations.
The apps don’t have a 'Fastest' option to automatically select your nearest server, either. You must select it yourself.
What you do get is an unusual option to filter the list to show only Mullvad-owned servers. This reduces your choice to Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Although there are only nine countries available, it may improve your security as only Mullvad has full access to those servers.
Whatever location you choose, Mullvad doesn't waste time getting you connected. WireGuard took maybe a couple of seconds to connect. Even OpenVPN was ready to go in around six to eight seconds. That’s less than half the time we see with some apps.
Mullvad offers a good range of settings and configuration choices (Image credit: Mullvad)
Features and settings
Mullvad’s apps may look small and simple, but there’s a surprising amount of functionality lurking underneath.
Mullvad doesn't just have a single ad-blocking feature, for instance. The desktop and iOS apps allow you to separately block ads, trackers or malware, and (new to the desktop since our last review) can filter out adult or gambling-related content, too.
Other VPNs claim similar technology, but rarely tell you anything about what it is, or how it works. As usual, Mullvad is way more transparent. The company’s Github site lists all the blocklists it uses, and you can even view them, see which sites it blocks, and which it doesn’t.
Desktop and Android support for Split Tunneling enables specifying apps which won't use the VPN. That’s good news for not-so-sensitive apps which don't work properly when the VPN is active (streaming services for your own country, for instance).
Multi-hop VPN is another desktop and Android feature which sees your connections routed to one Mullvad server first, exiting the VPN from another server. This function works well, but it's difficult to find. You won't even know it exists unless you browse the OpenVPN Settings and enable Bridge Mode (and, no, we wouldn't think to do that, either).
Most app settings are more straightforward, though. You can opt to launch the app and/or connect when your device starts; enable or disable notifications; turn on a kill switch to block internet traffic if the VPN drops; and use a custom DNS server.
It's a more configurable setup than many apps, although there are a few features missing. In particular, we'd like the ability to automatically connect when accessing particular networks or network types. But even here, Mullvad has a decent argument why you're better off without this – the company suggests the feature is a security risk because hackers could set up a network with the same name and your device might connect automatically.
Experts can use the Command Line Interface to great effect, no doubt (Image credit: Mullvad)
The desktop apps have one other unusual expert-level extra in a very flexible command line interface, which enables building scripts to tweak settings, connect to your chosen locations, view status or disconnect automatically. That'll be way too much hassle for most people, but if you want to do something advanced – perhaps create a script which automatically connects to Mullvad before launching a specific app – it could be very helpful.
Mullvad does an okay job on the support front, but top providers do better (Image credit: Mullvad)
Support
If you're finding gremlins in the Mullvad apps or can’t figure something out, you can check out Mullvad's Help Center. There's a decent amount of content, most of it providing genuinely useful information, but it doesn't begin to match the likes of ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
Unfortunately, the articles aren't well organized. The Help Center doesn't display the articles you're most likely to need first. Common articles that you might need to read are not on the opening screen and can't be found when you run a search. You might have to hunt for the information you need, and even if you find it, articles often assume a high level of technical knowledge.
There's no live chat support, either, but Mullvad does allow users to contact support from within its apps or via email. We asked a question and got a friendly and helpful reply (far better than the website) within 90 minutes. That can't compete with the two or three-minute wait we typically see with live chat from the top providers, but it's also far better than the 12+ hours we'll often be left waiting elsewhere. So, in our opinion, Mullvad offers an acceptable level of support.
Mullvad did poorly when it came to unblocking content, failing most of our streaming tests (Image credit: Netflix)
Testing
Our performance testing began with a close look at Mullvad's kill switch. We forcibly closed both OpenVPN and WireGuard connections in various ways, but the app handled each situation perfectly. It immediately displayed a 'Reconnecting' message alerting us to the problem, blocked our internet connection to prevent any IP leaks, and followed up with a 'Secured' notification when the connection was re-established seconds later.
In most cases, the kill switch only protects you if the connection drops during a session, but there's an even more secure option available. Turn on 'Lockdown mode' and you can't access the internet at all until you've connected to Mullvad VPN. That's not always convenient, but it does ensure you're always protected. It could be worth enabling when you're on holiday, say, and only ever connecting via unknown and untrusted Wi-Fi.
Mullvad only supports two protocols, but when they're the versatile OpenVPN and super-speedy WireGuard, that's probably enough. We took a look at Mullvad's OpenVPN implementation to confirm its security capabilities, and the news was good. It uses the latest TLS 1.3 on the control channel (many providers still use 1.2), and rock-solid AES-256-GCM for the data channel.
Mullvad gets bonus points for using a recent version of OpenVPN that’s just four months old at review time. We've seen many apps using versions that are more than a year old, which means they're missing out on a lot of patches and updates.
Mullvad’s website doesn't make any big claims about unblocking streaming services, and our tests showed why. Not only did Mullvad fail to get us into, UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan Netflix, it couldn't unblock BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, or Disney Plus, either.
We had better luck with some regional services. Mullvad unblocked the UK's ITV and Channel 4, along with Australia's 9Now, though it did fail with 10 play. So, there’s a chance it’ll have some value for you but most providers deliver far better unblocking results. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark each scored full unblocking marks in their last reviews.
It’s a very different story with privacy. We checked Mullvad's desktop and mobile apps for DNS leaks using DNSLeakTest.com, DNSLeak.com, and other testing sites. They proved leak-free in every situation.
There was more good news in our server location tests. Some providers make heavy use of virtual locations. These servers return IPs for one country but could be hosted in a different place much further away. This can give you speeds much slower than you would expect. We checked a sample of eight Mullvad locations and they were all in or very close to their claimed countries.
Mullvad claims built-in ad, tracker, and malware blocking but how effective is it? We found the service blocked a reasonable 74% of 156 common trackers (most VPNs manage 70-90%.) It also kept us away from 99% of 379 malicious URLs in our tests, an excellent result. It managed to score 90% for ad blocking while others average 40-90%. You should still run a decent antivirus for real safety, but Mullvad's threat-blocking is a handy second layer of protection.
We used the Blacklight privacy inspector to scan websites for integrated trackers from Google, social media, and other sites. Most VPN provider sites have one to five of these but Mullvad has none, zero, nothing at all.
Android app scanning site εxodus delivered an even more impressive verdict. It also found that Mullvad had no trackers and only required four permissions. Competitors often require one to five tracking libraries and require ten to twenty permissions.
The news only got better in our speed tests, with Mullvad UK connections hitting an amazing 300-530Mbps for OpenVPN. That’s two to three times faster than what we see with some competitors.
Switching to WireGuard saw Mullvad accelerate further to 660-900Mbps. That can't quite match IPVanish, NordVPN, or Windscribe, who all beat 950Mbps in recent testing, but it's blisteringly fast and should be enough for even the most demanding of users.
Mullvad review: Final verdict
Even though Mullvad's app does not have many features, unblocked barely anything for us, and has only basic support, there's a lot to like here. You can open an account without handing over any personal data, speeds are excellent, monthly plans are half the price of some competitors, and a top-quality VPN engine protects your privacy at all times. If you're more interested in anonymity than unblocking, Mullvad could be a very smart choice.
CyberGhost is a Romanian and German-based privacy giant that provides comprehensive VPN services for 38 million users.
Currently, the service boasts 9,200+ servers in 116 locations across 91 countries. That's far more servers than most, although ExpressVPN claims 160+ locations, and HideMyAss has over 290.
CyberGhost is getting faster, too, with the company rolling out 10 Gbps servers in more than 30 countries (and more on the way). Most servers are torrent-friendly, and you can get connected immediately with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and more.
You'll also be able to connect up to seven devices simultaneously. That sounds like a great deal (even the ExpressVPN only supports five), but there's a catch: these must be specific devices. Connect from a phone, a games console, or a smart TV, just once, and that's one of your slots used up. Run out of slots, and the next time you connect, you'll be asked to log out of one of the other devices (even if it's not currently connected). This can get annoying quickly, especially if you have a lot of devices to protect.
Elsewhere, a web knowledgebase is available if needed, while chat and email support is on hand to help you through any particularly tricky situations.
Optional extras include dedicated IPs. Sign up for this for an extra $5 billed monthly ($4 on the annual plan) and you'll get the same IP address, unique to you, every time you log on to the service.
Dedicated IPs allow you to access IP-restricted networks, which is handy if you need to join a business system while connected to the VPN. They also reduce the chance that you'll be blocked by streaming platforms, as they haven't had their reputation trashed by other people's bad behavior.
The catch? Dedicated IPs let other sites recognize you, because you'll have the same IP address every time you visit. Fortunately, CyberGhost enables switching between dedicated and dynamic IPs as required, so you can easily use a dedicated IP where necessary and dynamic for everything else (more on that later).
Signing up for CyberGhost VPN's monthly account costs $12.99 a month, which is at the high end of the industry-standard $10-$13.
As usual, extending your subscription saves money. A lot of money. Sign up for two years and you'll pay just $2.11 for the first term. It renews as a not-so-impressive $4.75 annual plan, but we're not complaining: $2.11 a month is one of the best introductory deals you'll see anywhere.
Upgrading to CyberGhost Security Suite adds antivirus and a Security Updater to check for missing software patches. It's priced from an extra $4.50 a month billed monthly, to $1 on the two-year plan. That's not a lot, but then it's a relatively basic suite. If your security is a top priority, keep in mind that Avira, Avast, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Norton and more all now have full-featured security suites with simple VPNs included.
Whatever deal you choose, you're able to pay by Bitcoin, as well as PayPal, credit card, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay (beware, though, as your options might vary depending on location).
You can pay for your CyberGhost plan using PayPal, Bitcoin or credit card, and more (Image credit: CyberGhost)
There's even a free trial. It's short, though, at just 24 hours for the desktop build (7 days on mobile devices) so only start it when you're very sure that you'll have the free time to run whatever tests you need.
If you sign up and then find the service doesn't work for you, there's more good news: the company has a lengthy 45-day money-back guarantee (14 days for monthly-billed plans), one of the most generous deals around.
Privacy and security
CyberGhost's website proudly boasts of a 'strict no logs policy' on its front page, and the service privacy policy backs this up with some very clear statements:
"When using the CyberGhost VPN, we have no idea about your traffic data such as browsing history, traffic destination, data content, and search preferences. These are NOT monitored, recorded, logged or stored by us.
"More than this, when using the CyberGhost VPN, we are NOT storing connection logs, meaning that we DON'T have any logs tied to your IP address, connection timestamp or session duration."
Sounds good, but you don't have to take the company's word for it. In September 2022 CyberGhost announced that Deloitte had carried out an independent audit of its "No Logs policy and its implementation, plus our change management, configuration management, incident management, and dedicated IP token-based systems."
The results were very positive, with Deloitte saying CyberGhost's server setup and management are entirely consistent with its no-logging claims. Deloitte doesn't allow excerpts to be shared generally, so we can't give you any quotes, but if you're interested, you can ask Deloitte to send you a copy. CyberGhost's blog post on the audit has the details.
CyberGhost keeps no logs on the online activity of its users, as verified by an audit (Image credit: CyberGhost)
CyberGhost took another major step towards transparency in November 2022, when it announced a new bug bounty program. This pays up to $1,250 for experts who find and report any vulnerabilities in the service.
Within months, one researcher uncovered a significant local vulnerability in the Windows app which could have been explored by malware—a great catch.
Although that's bad news in one way, it also shows the value of bug bounty programs: the vulnerability was found by an ethical researcher, reported to CyberGhost, and fixed right away. We've no doubt many VPN apps have similarly severe issues that have never been spotted because no one takes the time to explore exactly how they work.
Privacy policies and audit reports are useful, but we also like to run practical tests of our own.
To kick off, I used DNSLeakTest.com and related sites to check desktop and mobile apps for DNS and privacy leaks. The good news is that my identity and web traffic were always shielded.
CyberGhost says its apps have the ability to block domains used for ads, trackers, and malware—but is this really useful? To find out, I turned on the feature and tried to access 156 common trackers. The app blocked an excellent 149, right up at the top of the charts with Windscribe (147) and Private Internet Access (149.)
Other results were more mid-range, with CyberGhost protecting me from 55% of a set of 412 brand-new malicious URLs, and 79% of unwanted ads. That's certainly enough to be useful, and I'd always recommend you run any VPN alongside a specialist antivirus or security suite to maximize your protection.
CyberGhost's apps allow users to opt out of data collection (Image credit: CyberGhost)
CyberGhost VPN performance
I measured CyberGhost speeds from US and UK locations with 1 Gbps connections, using several performance testing services (SpeedTest's website and command line app, Cloudflare, Measurement Lab, and more). I checked the download speeds at least five times from each site, then checked again using another protocol, before repeating this all over again in an evening session.
WireGuard speeds were acceptable at 630 Mbps. Some VPNs are faster still—IPVanish, NordVPN, and Surfshark all beat 950 Mbps in recent testing—but CyberGhost delivers all the speed you need for almost any real-world situation.
If you're setting up CyberGhost on a router, you might want to use the OpenVPN protocol, so we test its performance, too. The results were excellent, with speeds peaking at 360 Mbps, two to three times what I’ve seen from some premium providers.
We used several different speed testing sites to measure CyberGhost's performance (Image credit: Speedtest.net)
Virtual locations
CyberGhost uses a number of virtual locations: servers that appear to be in (and return IP addresses for) one country, but are physically located in another. That can affect performance, if, say, you connect to a server that you think is in a country only 100 miles away, but it's actually on the other side of the world. That's why we check each provider to get a feel for how many virtual locations it uses, and where they're really located.
CyberGhost doesn't try to hide its use of virtual locations. Browse the official server list and check the final 'Located' column: a green tick means the servers are hosted in the named country, no tick means they're not.
The company doesn't tell you where its virtual locations are really located, however, so I ran some tests to find out. The results suggested that the Pakistan and India servers are in Singapore, the Mongolian servers are in Japan, and when you connect to Nigeria, you're actually being routed to Madrid. (Don't worry: connect to India, say, and you still get an Indian IP address, even if the server is in Singapore, so websites should still work as you expect).
Although there are some lengthy hops here, they show CyberGhost is making a real effort to use virtual locations that are in the general area of the named countries, and that earns them a thumbs up from me.
Netflix and global stream unblocking
Some VPNs really make you work to unblock streaming sites. If you're looking to access US Netflix, for instance, you might have to try each of the US locations in turn before you find one that gets you in.
CyberGhost doesn't waste your time with any of these shenanigans. Its app location lists have a Streaming tab with specialist servers for Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, HBO Max, and more.
North American and European customers get the best coverage, but my app also listed servers in Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, Korea, and Singapore. These cover both the top platforms and smaller regional services: RTL, MTV Finland, France TV, AI Play, amongst others.
I began my tests by connecting to the BBC iPlayer location and, I'm happy to report, I could stream content without any hiccups. CyberGhost continued its successful run by unblocking ITV and Channel 4, too.
I switched to the US Netflix server and, again, this allowed me to browse and stream whatever content I liked. CyberGhost was just as effective with Netflix Australia, Canada, Japan, and the UK.
CyberGhost couldn't unblock US Disney Plus, which left me a little disappointed, but normal service quickly resumed, and I got into US Amazon Prime Video, along with Australia's 9Now, and 10 play, without a hitch.
CyberGhost proved to be a mixed bag for accessing streaming content, but did well enough with Netflix (Image credit: Netflix)
Torrenting capability
CyberGhost doesn't support P2P on all locations, but there’s still plenty of choice. Choosing the ‘For torrenting’ filter on my Windows app listed 70 P2P-friendly countries, which is more than you'll find with other providers.
I checked this by connecting to three P2P-friendly locations and successfully downloading a torrent from each, with no connection issues.
Handy bonus features in the Windows app Settings box include the ability to automatically connect to your preferred CyberGhost server whenever you launch your torrent client (more on that later).
Sourcing torrents from more dubious sites can sometimes leave you exposed to attack, but CyberGhost's malicious URL filter could help block the most dangerous threats.
CyberGhost hides your IP to protect you while torrenting (Image credit: CyberGhost)
Windows apps
CyberGhost's Windows client opens with a clean, lightweight console that includes a connection status, a list of locations, and a Connect button. Don't be fooled, though—there's a lot of functionality tucked into a right-hand panel which you can open whenever you need it.
A location picker lists all countries and their distance from you. This can be filtered by continent or display servers optimized for gaming, streaming, or torrents, and a Favorites system makes it easy to build your own custom list.
The app supports a good range of protocols: IKEv2, OpenVPN, and WireGuard. Connection times are reasonable at around two seconds for WireGuard and IKEv2, and six seconds for OpenVPN.
We try to check how a VPN sets up and manages its protocols, because some do a terrible job (I've seen a few apps create connections that don't require encryption, for instance.) CyberGhost doesn't log connections like most apps, which makes it more difficult to find out what it's doing, but the signs I did spot were all positive. The app sets up IKEv2 to use maximum encryption, for example, then deletes the network connection when it's done, reducing the chance that malware can steal your credentials.
Whatever protocol you use, I noticed there are no notifications to tell you when it connects or disconnects. That means you can't be completely sure of whether you're protected unless you're looking at the CyberGhost app.
The Windows client is clean and lightweight, but powerful (Image credit: CyberGhost)
The app's Smart Rules panel gives you an unusual level of control over when the client launches. Most VPNs have an option to launch when Windows starts, for instance, but CyberGhost also allows you to choose a preferred server, and then launch a particular app, such as your default browser in incognito mode.
There's even more flexibility in the Wi-Fi Protection panel, where CyberGhost allows you to decide exactly what happens when connecting to new networks. You can have the client automatically connect to the VPN if the network is insecure, for instance, or never connect if it's encrypted, or indeed perform custom actions for specific networks (always protect at home, never protect at work)—or simply ask you what to do.
CyberGhost's Smart Rules panel gives you a great deal of control over how its Windows client functions (Image credit: CyberGhost)
Built-in App Rules allow you to automatically connect to a specific VPN location when you open an app. You could connect to the specialist US Netflix location when you open the Netflix app, for instance, or choose a torrent-friendly location when you launch your P2P application.
There's another handy touch in the Exceptions feature, where you can build a list of websites that won't be passed through the tunnel. If a streaming site is only accessible to users in your country, add it to CyberGhost's Exceptions and it'll never be blocked, no matter which VPN location you're using.
If this sounds too complex, and maybe you're only after the VPN basics, no problem; it can all be safely ignored. You'll never even see it unless you go looking. But if you'd like to fine-tune the service and generally optimize it to suit your needs, CyberGhost gives you a mix of options and opportunities you simply won't see elsewhere.
CyberGhost supports OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard protocols (Image credit: CyberGhost)
Windows settings
The Settings box lets you choose your preferred protocol (OpenVPN, IKEv2, or WireGuard), use random ports to connect (which might bypass some VPN blocking), and enable or disable a kill switch, IPv6 connections, and DNS leak protection.
My tests showed the kill switch generally worked very well. I tried forcibly closing VPN connections, and even killing CyberGhost's OpenVPN and WireGuard helper processes, but the kill switch blocked my internet access immediately. However, there were some issues.
As I mentioned earlier, the app doesn't raise notifications if the connection drops. Unless you're looking at its console, you'll have no idea why your internet has just died.
This won't matter much with OpenVPN or IKEv2 connections, as I found the app updated its connection status and automatically reconnected within a few seconds.
When I closed the WireGuard process, though, the app didn't appear to notice. My internet was correctly blocked, but the app told me that I was still connected. Hitting the Disconnect button got my internet access back, but this could still leave users confused for a while. And if the app thinks it's connected when it's not, that leaves me wondering whether there are other issues here that CyberGhost missed.
CyberGhost's Mac app is a very streamlined affair (Image credit: CyberGhost)
MacOS and Mac apps
CyberGhost's Mac app opens with a stripped-back mobile VPN-like panel, little more than the currently selected location and a Connect button. Good news if you're not interested in the low-level technicalities: just point, click, and you're connected in a very few seconds.
Tap an 'Expand' icon, though, and a panel appears to the left, with a list of locations and links to various settings. It looks a lot like the Windows app, but with some unexpected differences.
The Windows app displays the distance to each server, for instance, highlighting the nearest. The Mac app ignores that, instead displaying a 'server load' figure to show which locations are busiest. That's going to be confusing for anyone who uses both. Wouldn't it make more sense for CyberGhost to choose one measurement for all platforms? Or maybe use both?
The app sidebars have different location lists, too. Mac has server lists for downloading and streaming, but it doesn't have the Dedicated IP or NoSpy Servers (special servers owned and operated by CyberGhost) lists available on Windows.
As usual with Mac VPN apps, it doesn't have all the low-level features available on Windows. Click Privacy Settings, for instance, and you only get the ad, tracker, and malware blocking options. There's no configurable DNS leak option or automatic kill switch.
The start-up rules are much simpler than Isaw with Windows, too. You can set up the app to automatically connect when it launches, or whenever you access untrusted Wi-Fi networks. However, you can't have the VPN connect when you run particular apps, and there's no 'Exceptions' option to define which websites won't pass through the VPN tunnel.
Still, it's important to put this in perspective. CyberGhost's Windows app is one of the most configurable I've seen, and even though this version can't quite match that, it's still a capable Mac VPN app that is user-friendly and equipped with plenty of useful tools and features.
Android apps
Mobile VPN apps are often underpowered when compared to their desktop cousins, but CyberGhost's offerings are surprisingly capable.
The app opens with the usual very simple portrait interface, for instance, little more than a Connect button and the name of your selected location. But switch to the tablet-friendly landscape mode and you get the location list and Connect button on the same screen, making it easier to find the server you need and get online.
You can have the app automatically connect when you access insecure Wi-Fi, and protocol support includes OpenVPN and WireGuard (but no IKEv2).
The app includes the desktop client's ability to use a random port when connecting to the VPN, a simple trick that might help bypass VPN blocking.
CyberGhost's content blocker (as discussed above) does a decent job of blocking domains associated with malware, ads, or trackers.
Split tunneling is probably the highlight here, allowing you to decide which apps use the VPN and which don't, in just a few clicks.
There's also support for domain fronting, a clever technique that bypasses some VPN blocking by directing key CyberGhost traffic through a content delivery network (CDN).
You don't get a kill switch, unfortunately. That's not a critical issue—you'll just have to set up the Android system-level kill switch instead—but many VPN apps have at least some instructions on how to do that, and I'd like to see the same here.
CyberGhost's Android app offers split tunneling, allowing the user to specify which apps use the VPN, and which do not (Image credit: CyberGhost)
iOS and iPhone apps
The iOS app shares the same look and feel as the Windows and Android versions, and getting started is as easy as logging in, and then tapping Connect to access your nearest location.
VPN apps for iOS never match Android VPN apps for features, because Apple's security model doesn't allow them the same control, but there is a sprinkling of useful features here. For example, you can set up the app to automatically connect when you access insecure or specific networks. Or you can set your protocol to IKEv2 or WireGuard (no OpenVPN), or run a connection checker to analyze your internet connectivity, see if CyberGhost's VPN servers are accessible, and generally troubleshoot any problems.
Overall, these aren't the best mobile VPN apps I've ever seen, but for the most part they're a likable and well-judged mix of power and ease of use. They come with a 7-day trial, too, so it's easy to check them out if you're intrigued.
CyberGhost has apps for iPad, iPhone and even Apple Watch (Image credit: CyberGhost)
Dedicated IP system
CyberGhost offers dedicated IPs for an extra $5 a month, dropping to $4 a month on the two-year plan. Hand over the cash and you'll get a unique IP address for your use only, reducing the chance that you'll be blocked by sites for the bad behavior of other people, and allowing you to access IP-restricted business networks while using the VPN.
Sign up for the scheme and you're able to choose your preferred location from eight countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Singapore, plus two cities in the UK and five in the US. CyberGhost has dropped Japan and Switzerland from the list since our last review, unfortunately, but this is still a wider choice than some of the competition (Private Internet Access only offers dedicated IPs in five countries).
Having an IP address of your own brings some privacy disadvantages, of course, because it means websites can now recognize you even if you don't log in. Fortunately, CyberGhost doesn't force you to use your dedicated IP all the time: it's just another choice in the app's location picker. When you need to access a streaming site, or maybe the office network, you can use your dedicated IP. But for regular browsing or when privacy is a priority, you're free to connect to a regular CyberGhost server, getting you a regular dynamic IP.
Once your new address is activated, it immediately appears in the Dedicated IP section of CyberGhost's location picker. You can select it whenever necessary, or browse the usual location lists when you need a dynamic IP.
It's a simple and straightforward system, but other VPNs also offer dedicated IPs, sometimes with additional countries and significantly lower prices. Check out Ivacy (from $1.99 a month) and PureVPN (from a tiny $0.99 a month) for more options.
Choose the location of your dedicated IP from CyberGhost's web dashboard (Image credit: CyberGhost)
CyberGhost customer support
CyberGhost support begins with its web guides, where you'll find advice on setting up the service on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Android, Linux, and more.
These do a fair job of explaining key tasks, such as installing the Windows app, with screenshots and helpful extra tips (how to choose a secure password, for instance). But there isn't the depth or the detail to match the likes of ExpressVPN or NordVPN.
The knowledgebase search engine isn't particularly intelligent or helpful. It relies on you carefully choosing the best possible keyword (you'll get very different results for searching on 'speed' and 'performance', for instance), and even if you get that right, the results don't appear to be sorted by usefulness.
A 'Recent activity' panel looked like a good idea, as it lists recently added or changed support documents, but as I browsed through the page, I realized CyberGhost had only added two articles in the past year. So, don't expect the knowledgebase to significantly improve any time soon.
Still, there is just about enough useful content here to help you with the basics. If that fails, you can also talk to a real, live, human being via email or live chat support.
I opened a live chat session and, only a couple of minutes later, a support agent responded to my question. Despite choosing a slightly technical topic on the generation of OpenVPN configuration files, the agent immediately understood what I needed, and explained everything concisely.
CyberGhost's support site may be a little dubious, then, but that's not the end of the story. If you're running into problems, there's a good chance that the live chat support will quickly point you in the right direction.
You'll need to choose the right keywords to find what you're looking for in CyberGhost's knowledgebase (Image credit: CyberGhost)
CyberGhost VPN review: Final verdict
CyberGhost has a number of issues—especially the ‘seven specific devices’ usage limit—but it delivers on the top VPN priorities for most people, with speedy connections, decent unblocking, loads of features, and helpful live chat support. Give it a try.
TechRadar rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Subscribe if:
✔️ You want a variety of features: you'll get your money's worth from CyberGhost with dedicated IPs, top-notch VPN protocols, a kill switch, split tunneling, DNS leak protection, and much more.
✔️ Streaming is your thing: CyberGhost unblocks all the big names in the streaming world—Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime included—and even has its own specialist servers.
✔️ You want speedy support: shoot an inquiry over to the CyberGhost VPN team, via email or live chat, and you'll have a thorough response (from an actual human) in just a few minutes.
Don't subscribe if:
❌ You want the quickest service available: CyberGhost isn't slow, by any means, but it doesn't top our speed tests, even when you're using WireGuard. Average speeds put it right in the middle of the pack.
❌ You want a straightforward support site: navigating through the knowledgebase can be a royal pain—pages are hard to find, rarely updated, and aren't sorted according to any kind of logic.
❌ You need 100% visibility about what your VPN is doing: during testing, I noticed that CyberGhost doesn't tell you if your connection drops, for whatever reason, which could leave you unprotected.
Tested by
Meet the experts behind our CyberGhost VPN review:
