CyberGhost VPN Review

Here’s all of the popular streaming services we routinely test, and whether or not CyberGhost works to unblock them:

CyberGhost is a good VPN for streaming. It works to unblock Disney Hotstar, US Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video.

The apps clearly list the dedicated servers for specific content platforms. There are even optimized streaming servers for websites in Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, and Poland.

All these streaming servers regularly change IP address to bypass the blocks imposed by websites like Netflix.

CyberGhost only streams 2 Netflix regions

In our testing, CyberGhost was able to consistently unblock US Netflix and Italian Netflix on all software versions. However, this is significantly less effective than the VPN has been in our previous tests.

Put simply, CyberGhost is getting worse at unblocking streaming websites. It no longer competes with more effective Netflix VPNs like Windscribe (32 Netflix libraries) and PrivateVPN (14 Netflix libraries).

If you’re looking to unblock more Netflix libraries, we recommend using ExpressVPN. It unblocks 10 Netflix libraries in various regions including the UK, US, Canada, and Germany.

CyberGhost Has Issues with BBC iPlayer

CyberGhost’s UK servers used to work reliably with BBC iPlayer in the past, but they’re currently very inconsistent with BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer’s VPN ban is notoriously hard to beat, and not many VPNs can bypass BBC iPlayer’s geo-blocks.

Works with Disney+ and Hulu, but not HBO Max

CyberGhost can stream Disney+ through its dedicated US and Italy servers.

If you select an Italian server, you can access Disney+ Star content even with a US Disney+ account. This is the international equivalent of movies and shows included in a Hulu subscription.

Here’s the most important data from our CyberGhost torrenting tests:

Torrenting Attribute	Result
Average Download Bitrate	3.9MiB/s
No. of P2P Servers	9,559
Logging Policy	No Identifying Data
Kill Switch	Yes
Port Forwarding	No

In our VPN torrenting tests we measured an average download bitrate of 3.9MiB/s when using CyberGhost, much slower than Astrill VPN’s 10.0MiB/s and IPVanish’s 9.9MiB/s.

On the plus side, the VPN’s built-in IP and DNS leak protection worked well in our leak tests.

Finding the right server for torrenting is easy. Click on the “for downloading” tab and you’ll see a list of servers optimized for P2P traffic.

CyberGhost shows you every server’s load percentage. Choose the least congested one to maximize upload and download speeds.

The kill switch is automatically enabled and cannot be deactivated on all platforms, so your true IP address will always be protected in the event of a sudden connection issue.

No P2P in 15 Different Countries

CyberGhost allows torrenting, and even encourages it, on the majority of its server network – but not all of it.

Torrenting with CyberGhost is not allowed while connected to the following countries:

• Albania
• Armenia
• Chile
• Colombia
• Macau
• New Zealand
• Nigeria
• North Macedonia
• Pakistan
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Slovenia

The good news here is that after years of not allowing torrenting in Australia, CyberGhost has recently changed its mind – given that it’s still blocked in New Zealand, this is a big win for torrenters in Oceania.

The bad news is that it’s still heavily restricted in Africa and the Middle East. If you are in West, Central, or Southern Africa then Kenya is your closest option, potentially over a thousand miles away. If you are in the Middle East then Georgia is your best choice, which suffers from the same issue.

It’s not a huge issue – you can connect to any server you like while torrenting – it’s just that the farther the VPN server is from your real location the slower your torrents will transfer.

No Port Forwarding

For privacy reasons, there is no port forwarding setting on CyberGhost.

VPN port forwarding isn’t essential for torrenting, but it allows for faster seeding (file uploads), and bypasses blocks from your router’s NAT Firewall.

Here’s how quickly we could download a 20GB torrent file while using CyberGhost compared to other top VPNs:

VPN Service	Download Bitrate	Time To Download 20GB Torrent File
No VPN	10MiB/s	32 minutes
ExpressVPN	9.4MiB/s	34 minutes
Private Internet Access	9.6MiB/s	33 minutes
CyberGhost	3.9MiB/s	81 minutes

To test CyberGhost’s speeds, we connected to CyberGhost servers in six different continents and measured our upload and download speeds before and after. We use a 100Mbps internet connection, similar to what might be your baseline speed at home.

Here’s a table showing CyberGhost’s speed test results when connected to a variety of servers around the world:

The above local download speed loss of just 6% is very good, and similar to other speedy rival VPNs like ExpressVPN and IPVanish.

While some of these results may not be the most impressive, rest assured: CyberGhost’s speeds are fast enough to browse, stream, and torrent without any issues. It also exceeds the speeds of its sister VPN, which you can see in our Zenmate speed tests.

As you can see in the chart above, CyberGhost VPN is fast on both local and long-distance connections, but it sometimes lacks stability, with speeds fluctuating noticeably from one test to the next. It can’t match the strongest rivals, but is still faster than the vast majority of VPNs we test.

Decent Ping Times Shouldn’t Affect Online Gaming

CyberGhost’s ping times, at least when connected to a nearby server, are fine for lag-free online gaming.

You’ll always have a certain amount of delay when communicating with an online game’s servers, and using a VPN will almost always add to it.

CyberGhost averaged a ping of just 12ms when connected to a server in the same city as us – anything under 50ms or so will be unnoticeable, even if you’re playing fast-paced games like CS:GO or Fortnite.

Here’s a table outlining the information that CyberGhost does and does not log:

According to CyberGhost’s privacy policy, the VPN only logs anonymous connection data for statistical purposes.

This anonymous connection data is aggregated, anonymized, and cannot be traced back to you.

Many popular VPNs collect aggregated connection logs, and CyberGhost is no different. While the service is very private, if you insist upon a 100% no-logs VPN then read our Private Internet Access review.

Nevertheless, CyberGhost VPN does not keep logs of user web activity. It won’t log your real IP address, the servers you used, or your web browsing history.

CyberGhost’s Transparency Reports

CyberGhost publishes a quarterly transparency report listing the number of legal requests and DMCA complaints it receives. This used to be annual, which is already a rarity in the VPN industry, but in 2019 it increased the frequency.

The company also commissioned an independent audit on its security practices in 2012. The security audit came back clean.

We’ve been wanting to see an independent audit of CyberGhost’s logging practices since we began reviewing and monitoring the service, so we were pleased when, in 2022, CyberGhost commissioned an audit of its logging practices by Deloitte. If you’re a CyberGhost subscriber you can even read the whole thing in full. It confirmed:

Server configurations align with internal privacy policies and are not designed to identify users or pinpoint their activities

We applaud this level of transparency. However, CyberGhost also states:

Excerpts from the report cannot be shared with the audience, in order to ensure none of the audit results are taken out of context and misunderstood.

In the effort for 100% transparency, redactions like these worry us. But we remain convinced that CyberGhost is very private.
CyberGhost Is Based in Romania
Cyberghost is incorporated as CyberGhost S.A. in Bucharest, Romania.

Romania is in the EU, but it’s the only member state to have successfully said “no” to the EU’s aggressive Data Retention Directive that commits to the widespread collection of personal data.

While Romanian authorities may still collect citizens’ online data, this is under specific and legitimate circumstances, as opposed to the indiscriminate collection of data we see in other member states.

For added peace of mind, CyberGhost doesn’t collect personal web logs therefore there is no internet data to be handed over anyway.

Crossrider Controversy

CyberGhost was released in 2011 as a free VPN by German tech entrepreneur Robert Knapp. In 2017, Crossrider Group acquired the VPN company.

Crossrider operated mobile ad platforms and a browser extension development platform. The latter allowed developers to create cross-browser add-ons and monetize them through ad injection techniques.

One of these techniques bundles a ‘Crossrider’ adware PUP (potentially unwanted program) with other software. Once installed, the PUP would serve unwanted advertisements via an internet user’s web browser(s).

Ad injection is not only intrusive but, if misused, potentially unsafe. Some developers may have in fact abused Crossriders’ capabilities for malicious purposes.

Below is a screenshot from a Malwarebytes report into Crossrider PUPs:

Kape’s Commitment to Privacy

Crossider shut its ad platforms in 2016, prior to acquiring CyberGhost. The company then re-branded to Kape Technologies in 2018.

Since 2017, the company has focused on global privacy and security activities. After CyberGhost, Kape also acquired popular VPN services Private Internet Access, ZenMate, and ExpressVPN.

We feel that Kape has made a dedicated effort to user privacy and have seen no real reason for you to not trust CyberGhost.

In the table below, you can see which encryption ciphers, connection protocols, and additional security features CyberGhost uses:

CyberGhost masks your IP address effectively using popular and reliable VPN protocols, and protects your internet traffic with 256-bit encryption.

Your IP address is never exposed thanks to a working kill switch, as well as IP and DNS leak protection. However, our kill switch testing revealed that CyberGhost’s kill switch does not protect your true IP address when you change servers.

Make sure that you aren’t in the middle of transferring any sensitive data when switching between servers.

CyberGhost Uses Secure VPN Protocols

CyberGhost’s apps use WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols. For OpenVPN, you also have a choice between TCP and UDP connections.

A Wide Range of Security Tools

In addition to built-in IP leak protection, CyberGhost provides an impressive range of advanced security features: a malicious URL filter to block malware, automated HTTPS redirection, an ad and tracker blocker, and split tunneling.

All these privacy and security features are included in the standard CyberGhost subscription.

The “force HTTPS” function redirects insecure URLs to HTTPS versions. CyberGhost is one of the very few VPNs to offer this feature.

Split tunneling is available on the Windows and Android apps. This lets you pick the applications to put through the VPN connection. It’s currently not available on CyberGhost’s macOS client.

CyberGhost’s mobile and Mac apps are secure, but they have less security features than the Windows client. We’ll cover these in detail later on in this review.

This is a nice mixture of common and vital features alongside some that are less popular and more of a bonus. If you’re intimidated as a new user then you can just ignore the majority of them, but if you really like to go hands-on with your VPN and customize the experience then CyberGhost’s array of tools is impressive.

CyberGhost Private Browser

CyberGhost has also developed its own free Private Browser that runs off DuckDuckGo.

The browser has a built-in proxy extension, an ad and malware blocker, and a one-click deletion of browsing data.

CyberGhost Doesn’t Leak IP or DNS Data

We also tested CyberGhost’s apps for IP and DNS data leaks. We used our VPN leak test tool to confirm CyberGhost does not leak IP, WebRTC, or DNS credentials.

CyberGhost Struggles with IPv6

If the router you plan to use CyberGhost with assigns you an IPv6 address, you may want to consider another VPN.

It’s not uncommon for VPNs to provide unorthodox workarounds for IPv6, such as blocking IPv6 connections altogether, but CyberGhost often simply doesn’t work with it.

We found that the CyberGhost app often won’t even start up properly if you’re on an IPv6 connection. It also doesn’t provide any Smart DNS configurations for IPv6.

This isn’t a deal breaker if you can simply disable your IPv6 connection, but if you can’t it actually makes CyberGhost unusable. CyberGhost has no help addressing this issue, leaving less tech-savvy users with a broken app and no idea why. To find out what type of IP address your device uses, try our IP checker tool.

CyberGhost Android App Permission Analysis

Running CyberGhost’s Android app through the εxodus tool, we verified it mostly contains standard usability trackers. This allows the company to quickly address serious bugs and crashes. It recently reduced the number of trackers present from seven to three, which is a great improvement.

These apps are standard analytics tools used by developers, and we have no issue with them being present – some of the worst VPNs contain upwards of 28.

On the flip side, ExpressVPN and Astrill contain only two and zero trackers, respectively.

Some of the Android permissions we found in CyberGhost’s Android app initially concerned us a little more, though.

It has the ability to access your location via your GPS and network information. This permission is considered ‘dangerous’ or ‘special’ according to Google’s protection levels.

But this isn’t uncommon in VPN apps, and CyberGhost clarified to us that users are asked to grant access to this information only when using the WiFi protection feature. You can refuse and the app will still work.

CyberGhost Browser Extension Securely Encrypts Traffic

We tested both the main CyberGhost app as well as its Chrome browser extension to see if it effectively encrypted our traffic.

The results were all positive: using the Wireshark packet sniffing tool we can see that CyberGhost and its browser extension both work to obfuscate all the sensitive data traveling to and from your device:

Virus & Malware Checks

Finally, we ran the CyberGhost installer through a malware test to ensure it doesn’t contain viruses.

The software came back completely clean, as you can see from the screenshot below:

CyberGhost doesn’t work in heavily-censored countries like China. This is partly because it doesn’t come with VPN obfuscation technology.

Obfuscation disguises VPN traffic to make it appear like ‘normal’ browsing to web censors. This helps bypass internet blocks in countries where VPN usage is restricted or illegal.

However, users report that CyberGhost has been working, inconsistently, in Turkey for the past year.

Furthermore, CyberGhost has also added a number of servers in Russia to help beat blocks there, although there are far better VPNs for Russia to choose from.

Here’s the availability of CyberGhost’s customer support:

CyberGhost offers excellent customer service. With 24/7 live chat and email support, and detailed online resources, you’ll find solutions to most issues.

You can access live chat in the bottom-right corner of the CyberGhost website. Type in your problem and related support posts will pop up. If you still can’t resolve your issue, you can always chat with a live agent.

The live agents respond promptly and usually answer question in seconds:

The agents are well-informed and the online resources are available in English, French, German, and Romanian.