Swiss-based PrivadoVPN is a young provider with a simple and appealing message. It's a 'fast and secure VPN you can trust', says the website. Sounds good, but do the facts back that up?

The network has 'hundreds of servers' with locations across 48 countries. That's smaller than many—the top providers have thousands of servers—but it's big enough that there's likely to be a server near you.

A strong range of apps covers Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Fire TV, and Android TV. Support for up to 10 simultaneous connections means you're less likely to run into device limits, too, although Atlas VPN, IPVanish, Surfshark, and Windscribe don't impose any limits at all.

▶ Try PriavdoVPN risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee

Protocol support is good, with the speedy and secure WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 available across the range.

Getting connected doesn't just shield your internet activities from snoopers. Privado VPN's Control Tower content filtering system also protects you from ads, trackers, and malicious websites, while a simple parental controls-type system can block adult content and even social media sites.

PrivadoVPN gets top marks for its P2P support, with torrent-friendly servers, a SOCKS5 proxy to maximize torrenting speeds, and a kill switch to protect you if the VPN drops.

If you run into trouble, 24/7 support is available to help troubleshoot. However, PrivadoVPN's support site is incredibly basic (ExpressVPN has 120+ troubleshooting articles; PrivadoVPN has five.) Fortunately, there's live chat and email support on hand if you need it, and my test email question got a helpful response in under 70 minutes.

PrivadoVPN pricing plans

Privado's plans start with a capable free option. This gives you a choice of 12 locations, and a maximum of 10 Gb data per month, but covers only one device and drops SOCKS5 (although it still supports P2P). 

It's a decent free plan that outperforms many big names. Avira's Phantom VPN free plan limits you to 500 Mb a month, for instance (ouch), and Avast One's free app has a generous 10 Gb a week data allowance, but it doesn't allow you to choose a location. Proton VPN scores for its unlimited data, but only gives you a choice of three locations.

Paying $10.99 a month (card, PayPal, and even Bitcoin) for Privado's monthly subscription gets you unlimited data, the SOCKS5 proxy, and support for up to 10 simultaneous connections. Most providers ask around $10-$13 for monthly-billed accounts, so this is a pretty fair deal.

Buying an annual plan cuts the cost to a tiny $2.50 a month in the first term, rising to (a still reasonable) $4.99 a month on renewal. 

The best deal, a two-year plan, costs $1.99 a month for the first term and $3.99 on renewal.

In my eyes, this is great value—although there are a handful of providers that are cheaper still. Private Internet Access' three-year plan is priced at only $3.33 a month, for instance, and that's the standard fee; there's no built-in doubling of the price on renewal.

Privacy and logging

PrivadoVPN claims to offer two major layers of privacy. It's based in Switzerland, meaning you benefit from 'the strongest consumer privacy laws in the world', and even if PrivadoVPN is served with a court order asking for information, it's a zero-log service with nothing to hand over.

PrivadoVPN's privacy policy details some of the information the service collects. You must provide your email address to sign up, and its mobile apps grab your device identifier and use crash reporting libraries to receive reports if an app fails.

Unfortunately, PrivadoVPN hasn't put itself through any logging audits, which means we have to take it at its word. Undertaking one of these third-party audits would do wonders for the service—it's a clear indicator of a service's commitment to transparency and privacy, after all.

Privacy tests

My PrivadoVPN privacy tests came back with mixed results. The Blacklight privacy inspector found PrivadoVPN's website used 13 trackers and 19 third-party cookies, which is way above average.

Most providers use trackers, admittedly, and while they're not necessarily harmful, it's also not what we'd expect from a privacy firm—especially when other VPNs including Mullvad, Hide.me, Proton VPN, and PureVPN don't use trackers or third-party cookies at all. There's also an inherent risk of digital fingerprinting with these trackers, given how interconnected they tend to be, so it's something to be wary of if privacy is your main concern.

PrivadoVPN's apps collect anonymous app crash data and send it back to the company. I noticed that the Windows app does this by default, and although you can turn it off, you'll have to find the right setting, first. I prefer ExpressVPN's approach, where the app installer explicitly asks for permission to collect this data during setup. That ensures users are always clear about what's happening and have the option of turning off telemetry with a click.

Once the apps are installed, though, the picture improves. PrivadoVPN only uses the best and most secure protocols (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2), and they're all correctly set up for maximum privacy. DNS leak protection keeps your browsing private, and a capable kill switch prevents data leaks if the connection drops.

Control Tower (PrivadoVPN's content filter) also did a fair job of protecting me online, and its ad-blocker scored 75% in my tests (other VPNs average 50-90%.) Malware protection was below par at 42.7%, but the app shielded me from 90% of my test trackers, at the top end of the usual 70-95% range. I wouldn't rely on PrivadoVPN as my only source of web protection, but it's ideal for use as a second layer of protection alongside a specialist antivirus or internet security app.

Virtual locations

Many VPNs make at least some use of virtual locations. You might see Cambodia on the location list, for instance, and if you choose it you'll get a Cambodian IP address, but the physical servers could actually be hosted in another country.

This has its advantages. If the country has relatively poor connectivity, for instance, then hosting the servers somewhere else might get you better and more reliable speeds. If you're in or close to that country, it's a different story. When you're in Cambodia and connect to the Cambodia location, but your server is actually in New York, then it's going to cause an unexpected drag on performance.

I like to see VPNs being clear and upfront about their use of virtual locations. PrivadoVPN, unfortunately, doesn't really live up to my expectations. The website says PrivadoVPN uses virtual India servers to avoid the country's upcoming logging laws, but I found no information on the rest of the network.

There was some good news, however, as I found that Brazil, Israel, the Philippines, and even Ukraine all have servers in or very close to their named countries. On the other hand, I noticed several countries appeared to use servers based in London. These include India and Russia, which I can accept for security reasons, but I was surprised to see the South Africa location also uses servers in or close to the UK.

This won't be an issue for everyone. If you're in London, and connecting to South Africa, it could be a plus to have a local server, but I'd like to see PrivadoVPN be more transparent about where its locations are really based so that potential customers can understand the issues for themselves.

Windows apps

PrivadoVPN's Windows app looks very similar to every other VPN app you've probably ever used. Big 'Connect' button here; current location displayed there; click the location to choose something else from a list, while that gear icon over there leads you to useful tweaks and settings. You'll feel at home right away.

The location list is more configurable than many, with options to sort PrivadoVPN's servers by name or latency, or to show the nearest servers at the top. 

Connecting to a new country is a little awkward. In other apps, you can often double-click a country and immediately connect to its best server. Here, you'll have to click to expand its list of cities, even if there's only one, and then click again to connect. There's a workaround—add a city to your Favorites and you don't have to expand the list of cities, saving you a click each time—but this is still a small usability hassle I'd like to see fixed.

Connection speeds were slower than most, at 5-10 seconds for WireGuard and sometimes over 20 seconds for OpenVPN (the best apps are ready to go in 1-2 seconds for WireGuard, 6-8 seconds with OpenVPN.) That can become annoying if you're regularly connecting and disconnecting, but if your device connects automatically when it starts, you might not even notice.

I also noticed an odd technical issue: when I left the PrivadoVPN app window open on the desktop, even if I wasn't connected, it constantly used 4-5% of my CPU time. Although that may not sound like much, it was enough to raise Task Manager's 'Power Usage' rating for PrivadoVPN to 'moderate', and I'm certain it'd eat away at your laptop battery.

As with the location list issue, there's an easy fix: minimize the app to the system tray and CPU usage drops to zero (when you're not connected.) But, as with the location list issue, life would be easier if you didn't have to notice the problem and then discover (and remember) these odd workarounds in the first place.

Windows settings

PrivadoVPN's Windows app isn't as configurable as the top competition, but there's still plenty to explore.

You can opt to connect via WireGuard, OpenVPN, or IKEv2, for instance, or select Automatic to allow the app to choose the best option. You're able to use OpenVPN via UDP or TCP, select a port, or even choose a Scramble option to try and conceal your traffic from snoopers. This may not be enough to get you online in China, seeing as the country makes huge efforts to prevent VPN use, but it could bypass other VPN blocks. I'm glad to see it included in PrivadoVPN's package.

The app can automatically connect as soon as it launches. Plenty of VPNs do the same, but PrivadoVPN gives you far more control over its choice of server. You can have it connect to the recommended location,  your last used server, a random server, or a random server from your Favorites list. It's a great idea I wish other providers would adopt.

A SmartRoute system is essentially PrivadoVPN's take on split tunneling. In a few clicks, you can build a list of apps that will always use the VPN, while others can be set to bypass it, perfect for apps that aren't VPN-compatible (and don't need PrivadoVPN's protection.)

I was happy to see the app included a kill switch, and even happier to find it worked precisely as advertised. Whatever I did to make the VPN drop, it blocked my internet connection and reconnected automatically. My traffic was never exposed.

The kill switch is one of the absolute variety, though: once you've turned it on, your internet is blocked, even after you manually close a connection or shut down the app. Other providers have at least the option to take a more lightweight approach, where you're protected if the VPN drops during a session, but it won't block your internet if you manually disconnect. I'd like to see PrivadoVPN add something more configurable, too.

Overall, this is a decent group of settings, but there's scope for adding more. PrivadoVPN has no customizable DNS settings, for instance, and no 'auto-connect when you access insecure networks' option. Still, the app has improved significantly since our last review, and I suspect even more features are coming soon.

MacOS and Mac apps

PrivadoVPN's Mac app has a nearly identical interface to the Windows version with a very similar design and location list. That's always a usability plus, as it means once you've learned one, you'll know exactly how to use the other.

There's another benefit in faster connections. The Mac app sometimes connected in as little as two seconds, a fraction of the times I saw on Windows.

PrivadoVPN doesn't support split tunneling on Mac, but that's not unusual (Apple's security model makes it far more challenging to implement.) The app does still include the most important features in WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 support, and a kill switch to prevent data leaks if the VPN connection drops.

I saw some odd behavior from the app in my previous review, but this time it behaved just as you'd expect: easy to use, with all servers connecting the first time, and no unexpected disconnects.

Put it all together and, although Privado's Mac offering doesn't excel in any area, it's simple to operate and should cater to most user's needs. Even if you're unsure, no problem: the free plan means it's easy to try out the app and see how it works for you.

Mobile apps

PrivadoVPN's mobile apps tick all of the right boxes and allow you to take your protection on the go—and the iOS app adds some mobile-friendly touches, including the ability to swipe up to display the location list. 

However, like the Mac app, it doesn't support Favorites. There's no kill switch, and the app's auto-connect option is relatively limited (you can set it up to connect when the app starts, but you're not able to choose the type of location.)

Still, the iOS app does support WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 connections, and they all proved speedy and reliable for me.

As usual, Android users get the most mobile power (this time, even more than Mac.) Getting protected can be as easy as hitting 'Connect', but there's the full location list when you need to change servers, and a decent set of features underneath, like a kill switch, WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IKEv2 protocol support, split tunneling, and more.

As for our concerns, I saw a lot of reviews complaining about Android battery usage, and my Windows CPU hassles left me wondering if they might have some truth. I didn't test this, but keep it in mind, and perhaps try the free app before you buy.

Netflix and global stream unblocking

PrivadoVPN got off to a good start in my unblocking tests, instantly accessing US and UK Netflix, along with the UK's BBC iPlayer, ITV, and Channel 4.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the same success with other Netflix libraries, and PrivadoVPN failed in Australia, Canada, and Japan.

The service couldn't defeat Australia's 10 Play, either, though it did unblock the relatively straightforward 9Now.

The mixed picture continued right to the end, as PrivadoVPN unblocked US Amazon Prime Video, but missed with Disney Plus.

PrivadoVPN delivered the goods with some very big-name providers, then, and that's better than most. If unblocking results are a priority for you, however, there are other providers you can consider. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Private Internet Access, ProtonVPN, PureVPN, and Surfshark all unblocked every one of our test sites in recent reviews.

PrivadoVPN performance

We measure VPN performance with several benchmarking services—SpeedTest's website and command line app, Measurement Lab, Cloudflare, and more—from both a UK data center and a US residential location with a 1 Gbps connection.

Each benchmark is run five times with our normal connection (that's with the VPN off) to establish a baseline, then five times while connected to the VPN using WireGuard, and five more using OpenVPN (where available). All tests are repeated again later (that's a minimum of 120 speed checks), then we analyze the data to see what's going on.

PrivadoVPN's results kicked off with a relatively ordinary 120-130 Mbps for OpenVPN connections. You'll have no problems browsing or streaming with that, but Hide.me reached 260 Mbps in its last OpenVPN test, and Mullvad, our top performer, managed 500 Mbps and more.

PrivadoVPN also supports WireGuard, though, and switching protocols accelerated my downloads to 830-880 Mbps. This isn't quite the fastest I've seen, and NordVPN, IPVanish, and Windscribe all maxed out our test connection with speeds of 950 Mbps and more in their last tests. But unless you're downloading terabytes of data on a regular basis, you're unlikely to notice any difference, and PrivadoVPN's WireGuard performance is more than fast enough for most devices and internet connections.

PrivadoVPN review: Final verdict

PrivadoVPN stands out for its speed and generous free plan, but the various app usability and other annoyances mean it doesn't match the top providers. Try it, but take the free plan for a spin before you spend any cash. 

TechRadar rating: ⭐⭐⭐½

Subscribe if:

✔️ You're looking for a bargain: whether you opt for one of Privado's annual plans or its free tier, you'll get a VPN that packs a lot of functionality into an inexpensive package.

✔️ You need a speedy service: PrivadoVPN's WireGuard speeds are seriously impressive, and more than enough to handle gaming, streaming, and torrenting.

✔️ You have lots of devices to cover: a subscription bags you up to ten simultaneous connections, meaning you can share the VPN's robust security with the family or simply ensure all of your gadgets are shielded.

Don't subscribe if:

❌ You need access to lots of content libraries: while PrivadoVPN managed to unblock some Netflix catalogs and regional services, it didn't achieve full marks in our streaming tests.

❌ You want comprehensive support: the PrivadoVPN support hub is pretty bare-bones, and other providers (like ExpressVPN) have more articles to pick through, covering everything from the basics to technical topics.

❌ The lack of an audit is a red flag: currently, PrivadoVPN hasn't undergone a third-party audit to verify its logging claims, which means you'll need to put a lot of trust in the provider without any verifiable claims that it's got your privacy in mind.

Tested by

Meet the experts behind our PrivadoVPN review:

Who wants a VPN with an OpenAI-powered chatbot? Yeah, me neither. But, as brands try to jump on the AI bandwagon and stand out in the crowded VPN space, that's what FlowVPN has given us

Needless to say, it's far from being one of the best VPN services on the market, but keep reading as I take a look at whether the AI chatbot offers any benefit to the VPN, how FlowVPN stacks up with the rest of the VPN market, and answer the all-important question—should you try FlowVPN for yourself?

FlowVPN isn't exactly a newcomer to the industry, rather its ultimate owner Portable LTD was formed in the UK in 2011. They're a medium-scale provider that operates "over 100 servers" in 60+ locations, but the exact number isn't publicly stated (which doesn't exactly inspire confidence).

The first real red flag for FlowVPN is the jurisdiction it's based in. The United Kingdom is part of the Five Eyes information-sharing pact, which means that it is one of the least suitable locations for a VPN provider. The relationship between GCHQ and the NSA is well documented, and both organizations are keen to undermine VPN privacy wherever possible. Combined with their lack of no-logs policy, FlowVPN isn’t a suitable choice when it comes to handling sensitive personal information.

FlowVPN pricing

FlowVPN is positioned as a cheap and cheerful budget VPN provider. There are three different plans on offer: monthly, quarterly, and annual. All of the plans offer the same functionality and features, and the only difference between them is the duration of the subscription and the prices.

FlowVPN’s monthly plan is priced at $6.99 per month. This is pretty cheap compared to most VPN providers, especially considering there are 60+ locations on offer. Unfortunately, the discounts don’t drop much lower from here.

Their quarterly plan is priced at $18, or $5.99 per month, which is roughly a 15% discount. Here’s another issue with FlowVPN: Their discount on the monthly plan is advertised at 30%. That’s not true. I'm not sure if this is just an issue in how their marketing is coded or outright deception, but either way, it's an odd claim.

Lastly, their annual plan is priced at $50.04, or $4.17 per month, which comes out to around a 40% discount. Unlike the previous plan, the website states this one correctly.

FlowVPN does not offer a free version and, while it does offer a five-day free trial, there's no money-back guarantee period. This is a real problem, and we've received a few reports of users being unable to cancel their free trial without contacting their payment provider, and being unable to get refunds if their trial expired and they began paying before they were able to cancel. You should therefore exercise caution when signing up for the free trial. At the bare minimum, you should use a virtual credit card that you can easily cancel.

For payments, FlowVPN accepts a wide variety of options, including the classic credit/debit cards such as American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. They also offer PayPal, various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, and even gift cards as an option.

Privacy and encryption

FlowVPN uses AES-128 encryption to protect your data. While this can't be cracked with current supercomputer processing power, it’s surprising that FlowVPN doesn't offer an AES-256 option for added security. This more secure standard is supported by many of the leaders in the VPN space, and its absence speaks to how FlowVPN’s overall approach to security is lagging behind current industry practice.

FlowVPN offers access to the highly secure and widely trusted OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard protocols. The inclusion of WireGuard here is a major plus, however, it can only be used on certain platforms such as iOS and Mac. Unfortunately, FlowVPN also allows you to use several insecure protocols, such as PPTP and VPN over SSH. 

In terms of features, FlowVPN doesn't seem to provide even the bare minimum. There is no mention of a killswitch anywhere, let alone anything more advanced such as split-tunneling or multi-hopping. Not having a killswitch is a major failing, it provides an extra layer of security and should be included with every VPN these days. FlowVPN should add a kill switch ASAP but there are far more pressing issues with this VPN.

A no-logs policy? Ha, forget it. FlowVPN's privacy policy explicitly states that the company actively monitors usage for a broad range of illegal activities, as well as some perfectly legal ones (like sending an email with an attachment over 20MB). Client information is handed over in response to any inquiry or warrant by law enforcement, so FlowVPN essentially tells you that your traffic is being monitored. 

While it seems like this VPN works in China, the lack of technical competency and awful privacy policy means I cannot recommend this VPN for use inside China (in fact, it may be dangerous to do so). Instead, I'd suggest you check out NordVPN or ExpressVPN—especially if you’re looking for a P2P-friendly VPN, as none of FlowVPN’s servers support P2P traffic.

Streaming

The good news is that FlowVPN can unblock most major streaming services, including the likes of Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer. Well, sometimes. FlowVPN just cannot do this consistently and I had to try multiple servers in the hope that one would suddenly work. Even after my testing, there didn't seem to be any real pattern when it came to accessing geo-blocked content, it just randomly worked at some point. In short, FlowVPN can unblock geo-restricted content on these services, but it cannot do so smoothly or consistently. 

If streaming geo-blocked content is one of your top priorities, I recommend you go for ExpressVPN. ExpressVPN will consistently and effortlessly unblock all the geo-blocked content on the major streaming services listed above, and its superb speeds mean you'll get the smoothest streaming experience possible. 

Speed and experience

I tested out three different servers in various locations to get an idea of how fast FlowVPN is. All of my tests were conducted on the same 100 Mbps connection using Ookla Speedtest for consistency. 

First off, I connected to the UK server. As this is the server that's closest to my actual location, you would expect to see the highest numbers here. After a few inconsistent results at the beginning of my connection, I came back an hour later and found that the best results I got were 61.40 Mbps download and 17.93 Mbps upload. Honestly, this is a pretty decent result. There are certainly faster VPNs out there, but this isn’t awful by a long shot.

I tested the server in Germany next. This connection was far more consistent, clocking in at 55.74 Mbps download and 12.84 Mbps upload. All in all, these results were roughly in line with what I expected based on the UK tests.

Finally, I tested FlowVPN's US Northeast server. This performed a little lower than expected, clocking in at 38.62 Mbps download and 7.99 Mbps upload. Like the German server, the results of all my tests were consistent, so I can surmise that their servers are working properly. All in all, these results are pretty middling, but nothing egregious.

Customer support

FlowVPN's customer support provides the bare minimum. There's no live-chat support system, which is a major downside in this category, just a basic support ticket system and an FAQ on their website.

That's not great, and it gets worse. When I tested the support ticket system, I did not receive a reply. As there's no other way of getting help, this essentially means that FlowVPN provides no customer support. The FAQ is also very barebones and does not seem to provide any valuable information whatsoever. I found it particularly disconcerting that there’s a section with no meaningful advice on which VPN protocol to use beyond recommending PPTP and L2TP over OpenVPN.

I’ve also heard reports of customers being unable to cancel their free trials because of this apparently nonexistent customer support. As the terms of service make it clear that no refund will be given once the free trial is over, this means that signing up for a trial locks you into a payment. That's a situation that's shady at best, and frankly malicious at worst.

Compatibility

FlowVPN has Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android apps. Check the fine print here, however, as these apps were not created equal. You can only use the WireGuard protocol on the Mac and iOS apps, making them vastly superior. It’s a rare case where the Apple apps are better than the Windows and Android equivalents, but it took me a few connection attempts to get the Windows app working at all. There is no mention of Linux whatsoever on the FlowVPN website.

FlowVPN allows you to use up to 10 devices at a time according to their website. This is roughly consistent with the industry standard, but this number is going up all the time and many top-tier VPN providers are switching to an unlimited subscription policy.

Alternatives

Verdict

FlowVPN is a medium-scale VPN provider with some major issues. Their privacy policy is barely worthy of the name as it allows far too much leeway for data collection and essentially gives FlowVPN carte blanche to kick you off the platform for practically any infraction. However, it’s far more likely that you won’t be able to get the service working effectively and be left out of pocket with no chance of a refund.

Beyond the frankly abysmal customer service, the VPN is based in a Five-Eyes jurisdiction, does not support P2P, and lacks features that any decent VPN has had for years. Their VPN protocol support is also not up to industry standards, allowing for the use of several outdated and dangerous protocols

In conclusion, I simply can't recommend this VPN. The blatant logging and sharing of personal data is unacceptable, and the combo of terrible customer support and no money-back guarantee is downright predatory and leaves users unable to get their money back. In short, I’d advise you to avoid this VPN and use a top-tier VPN like ExpressVPN instead.

RusVPN is no longer trading under that name and has since rebranded to Planet VPN. This review was accurate at the time of review, but no longer applies to the rebranded service.

RusVPN ('Reliable. Unlimited. Secure') is a small  VPN which might look a little ordinary at first glance, but according to the website, performs better than you'd expect in several areas.

The network has a relatively small 338 servers, for instance, but they're well distributed across 37 countries.

There's much better news on the app front, with custom software for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, Chrome and Firefox browser extensions, direct support for Linux and routers, and OpenVPN compatibility to cover you everywhere else.

• Want to try RusVPN? Check out the website here

Unlike many competitors, RusVPN doesn't just make vague promises about its website unblocking abilities, and instead lists a host of sites where it claims to work: Netflix, Spotify, Facebook, BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, Google, Amazon Instant Video, HBO GO, CBC, NBC, LinkedIn, VKontakte, Instagram, Reddit, and more.

Prices are fair, and range from $9.99 billed monthly to $4.99 over one year, $2.99 over three. You can find cheaper deals around - Surfshark's two-year plan is just $1.99 a month - but generally RusVPN looks like good value to us.

Payments are accepted via card, PayPal, Bitcoin and more. There's no general trial, but you do get the usual 7 days to try out the mobile apps. In theory you're also protected by a 30-day money-back guarantee, the small print reveals this is almost worthless, as you won't qualify if you've transferred more than a tiny 500MB of data.

Privacy and logging

RusVPN's logging policy page states emphatically that 'We DO NOT Keep Any Logs of VPN Usage', going to explain:

'RusVPN is based outside 5-eye, 9-eye and 14-eye country list and have no obligation to store user activity logs, connection timestamps, IP-addresses or any other connection data. When you use RusVPN you can be sure that your privacy is 100% protected.'

Well, okay, although having 'no obligation' to log activity isn't an indicator that you're not doing it.

The privacy policy has a little more information in the following paragraph:

'We run a non-permanent connection log to solve technical problems including random name generation and internal IP address assignment (private IP address) which are reliably removed every few hours. We strictly and purposefully do not write down any information to mitigate our legal liability. We do not monitor the activity of your browser and do not record any records. It is simply impossible with our internal interface. All data about the use of the service is anonymous and is not tied to your real, public IP address.'

While this seems to contain some good news (any logs are regularly detailed, actions can't be tied to your real address), it's lacking in technical detail with some odd elements ('we don't write anything down'?), and doesn't leave us feeling we completely understand how RusVPN really works. That might be a translation issue, but whatever the cause, we're like more clarity in RusVPN's descriptions.

The company could also reassure potential customers by following ExpressVPN, NordVPN and others in putting its systems through an independent security or privacy audit, but there's no sign of that happening just yet. Until then, we just have to trust that RusVPN is living up to its promises.

Setup

Setting up a RusVPN account proved trickier than we expected. We paid via PayPal, an email receipt arrived immediately, but no 'welcome' email with details of our account. There was no 'resend confirmation email' button, so we waited several hours, but nothing happened.

RusVPN doesn't have live chat, but we sent a message via a web form asking what was happening. Hours went by without a response. We sent an email, still no response into the next day. RusVPN doesn't send an automatic 'thanks, we'll reply soon' acknowledgement to messages, either, so we couldn't even be sure that our questions had been received.

We tried again, this time paying using an existing account and were able to get access immediately.

Maybe this wasn't entirely RusVPN's fault; maybe there was some temporary email or other issue which prevented it responding to our queries. There's no way we can know for sure.

It certainly is RusVPN's fault that it has no option to resend a confirmation email, though, and that it doesn't offer live chat support, and that its email and web form support system doesn't send any automated reply to reassure customers that their messages have been received.

Apps

Once we'd finally got a working account, the RusVPN website redirected us to a download page with links for the Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS apps, along with the Chrome and Firefox extensions.

We grabbed the Windows build, but were surprised to find Microsoft Defender SmartScreen stepping in to block RusVPN's installer when we launched it, warning that it was an 'unrecognized app.' That doesn't mean it's harmful, SmartScreen just hasn't seen it very often, although users might be less likely to see these warnings if RusVPN digitally signed its installers, like almost everyone else.

The Windows client interface has a simple interface, and works much the same as other VPN apps. Your current location and IP address are clearly displayed, alternative locations are available on a list and you can connect with a click.

The client recommended Canada as our default server, maybe not the best choice for a user in the UK. This wasn't quite as bad as it seems - the Recommended list also included servers in the UK and Netherlands, but as it was sorted alphabetically, Canada came top - but we're still struggling to see why Canada was in our list at all.

Settings are even more basic than we saw in our last review, little more than an autostart option and the ability to enable or disable a kill switch.

The client appears to support OpenVPN, L2TP and PPTP protocols, but it doesn’t allow you to choose your preferred option — it makes that decision itself.

We don’t know how it figures this out, but there doesn’t seem to be much intelligence involved. During our review, it never selected the best protocol, OpenVPN, mostly going for L2TP (still a fair choice), but occasionally picking PPTP, such an outdated and insecure option that the best VPNs dropped it long ago.

That's not the end of the story. We checked the L2TP and PPTP settings, and found even these weren't as secure as they should be.

The first problem is the connection doesn't attempt to replace our existing DNS servers, ensuring we failed our DNS leak tests later.

Even more seriously, our connections had encryption set as 'Optional' - the client should connect even if there's no encryption. That doesn't mean it'll ever happen (it depends on the server) but it's still a concern.

There are some easy ways around this. You could just set up the open source OpenVPN Connect to connect via OpenVPN, for instance, and never have to use PPTP at all. That's not something the average user is likely to think about, though, and 'we know our software is rubbish, but you can always use something else' isn't much of a RusVPN defense.

Moving away from our protocol problems, we ran a final quick test on how the client handled dropped VPN connections, and discovered more issues.

First, if the kill switch is off and the connection drops, the client updates its window but doesn't raise any desktop notification. If it's minimized or covered by another window, there's no way for you to know that your internet access is now unprotected.

Second, when the kill switch does kick in, it affects the client, too. We found our internet access was blocked, closed and restarted the client, and it prompted us to log in. Why? We don't know, but when we tried, it complained 'connection failed - check network connection.' 

Our problems continued, as turning the kill switch off didn't restore our internet access, and neither did closing the client, or rebooting the system. We had to use system restore before we could get online again.

Although this was very bad news for us, we've no reason to believe it would ever happen to the vast majority of users, as they almost certainly won't be stress-testing the client by presenting it with some extreme situations.

Most VPN apps handle our tests much better, though, and this is yet another example of how the client isn't working as it should. We're left wondering what other problems might RusVPN have missed.

Checking the Android app revealed no great surprises: the interface is much the same and there are no extra settings. There's a small bonus in that Android's system kill switch shouldn't disable your device in the same way the Windows client trashed ours, though, and the app is likely to be safer and more reliable than its desktop cousin.

Performance

RusVPN was slow in connecting from our test Windows system, often taking more than 20 seconds to establish the tunnel. The Android app was faster at around 10 seconds, but top VPNs are usually quicker still (some get online within 2-5 seconds.)

Given RusVPN's poor performance so far, we weren't expecting much from our unblocking tests, despite its claims to unblock just about every platform around. But then we tried the service with a few sites, and although it failed to unblock BBC iPlayer, RusVPN successfully unblocked US Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and even Disney+.

Our performance checks began on a positive note, too, with UK speeds reaching 62-66Mbps on our 75Mbps test connection. The best of the competition might scrape 2-4Mbps more, but we're not about to complain.

US speeds hit a relatively poor 30-60Mps, but the exact results you'll see will vary depending on your location and preferred server. If you're interested, use the free trial with the mobile apps to see how the RusVPN performs for you.

Final verdict

RusVPN has many of the ingredients of a good VPN - loads of apps, easy to use, excellent website unblocking, fair price - but a host of fundamental issues and problems make it difficult to trust, at least right now.

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