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Callum Tennent
Callum Tennent oversees how we test and review VPN services. He's a member of the IAPP, and his VPN advice has featured in Forbes and the Internet Society. Read full bio
Thanks to its lifetime deal, FastestVPN is one of the best value VPNs around. It works well for streaming and is user-friendly enough for beginners. However, it needs to improve in certain areas: it leaks DNS requests and IPv6 data on Windows, the user experience can be frustrating due to bugs. FastestVPN is a flawed but cheap option for reliable streaming.
6.7/10
Overall Rating Summary
Best Rating
9.6/10
Average Rating
5.6/10
Worst Rating
1.1/10
This rating is calculated by combining the ratings from our 9 testing categories, each weighted according to its relative importance.
FastestVPN has two main strengths: streaming and privacy. It has an audited privacy policy and excels at unblocking streaming sites across the globe, including geo-blocked sports on DAZN, British TV on Channel 4 and BBC iPlayer, and content from 5 Netflix libraries, including the US one.
It is one of the best value VPNs on the market due to a special $40.00 lifetime subscription offer. FastestVPN comes with good live chat support and there are zero restrictions on torrenting.
But FastestVPN is limited by a small server network, some functionality issues, a short refund period, and the absence of the best-in-class WireGuard protocol. It has some way to go before it can challenge the very best VPNs.
We calculated this rating by examining the VPN's logging policy, jurisdiction, ownership, and privacy features. We also evaluated its history of handling user data and responding to legal requests.
FastestVPN logs almost no data at all: just your email address, connection duration, and payment information. This is deleted once you deactivate your account. It’s based in the Cayman Islands, which is a privacy haven, and there’s no scandals or controversy surrounding the company. We love that it recently underwent a third-party audit of its logging policy, which has really improved our trust in it as a service.
FastestVPN does a very good job of clarifying exactly what user information it collects and stores. The fact it recently commissioned and passed a logging audit from independent firm Altius IT goes a long way to improve trust.
Cayman Islands Jurisdiction
FastestVPN is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which is a safe-haven for privacy.
There are no mandatory data retention laws like in the EU’s Data Retention Directive, and it has no association with anti-privacy intelligence-sharing alliances like the Five Eyes. It has also enacted its own Data Protection Law.
FastestVPN Ownership Is Not Very Transparent
FastestVPN could build trust with us, and other users, by publishing regular transparency reports, detailing any law enforcement requests it has received. This is quite common in the industry.
We’d also like more transparency about the company behind FastestVPN. There is almost no information provided. The website only informs readers that it was founded by “a team of dedicated IT specialists.”
This isn’t surprising from a privacy company, but we also like to know the corporate structure behind VPN services to make sure they’re trustworthy.
When we asked FastestVPN, we were told:
“We would like to tell you that we are located at the Grand Pavilion Commercial Center, West Bay Road, Cayman Islands. Our Marketing and Support teams are located in Dallas, Texas. The brand is owned by Fast Technologies Ltd.”
There is hardly any public information available about Fast Technologies Ltd. All we could find out is that it was founded by Pakistani businessman Azneem Bilwani in 2017. Bilwani was the chairman of the Intermarket Group, a manufacturing firm, until 2021.
Streaming
7.1/10
Streaming
Best Rating
9.9/10
Average Rating
4.6/10
Worst Rating
0.8/10
We calculated this rating by identifying which streaming services the VPN could unblock and measuring how consistently it could access them.
FastestVPN comes with a number of streaming-optimized servers that work to unblock 5 Netflix libraries, including US Netflix, and other streaming sites across the globe. This includes HBO Max, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and DAZN Canada. It’s a highlight for US, Canada, UK, and India streaming. Only its Italy streaming server doesn’t work.
Streaming Service
Works with FastestVPN
BBC iPlayer (UK)
Yes
DAZN (Canada)
Yes
Disney+ (UK)
No
Hulu (US)
Yes
ITVX (UK)
Yes
Max (US)
Yes
Netflix (US)
Yes
Netflix (UK)
Yes
Prime Video (US)
Yes
Sky Go (UK)
No
FastestVPN comes with a selection of streaming-optimized servers for a number of countries, including the US, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, and the UK. These are all easily accessed by clicking on the streaming server tab.
FastestVPN has streaming servers in the US, UK, Canada, Japan, and more.
It doesn’t specify which streaming services these servers unblock, but we tested them and found that, except for Italy, all work with the listed country’s Netflix library, including reliable access to Netflix Japan – and much more.
Overall, FastestVPN is an excellent VPN for streaming. Italy’s streaming server isn’t working, and a Germany streaming server would go far, but all other servers work to unblock the most popular streaming sites across the globe.
Unblocks UK Streaming Services
UK streaming sites are easily accessed. FastestVPN unblocks Channel 4, as well as BBC iPlayer and ITV Player. You can also stream from the Disney+ Star hub from anywhere, which isn’t available in the US.
FastestVPN unblocks all major UK streaming services.
Speed
8.9/10
Speed
Best Rating
10/10
Average Rating
7.0/10
Worst Rating
0.4/10
We calculated this rating using our proprietary tests of download, upload, and ping speeds across servers in 10 countries.
FastestVPN is nowhere near as fast as its name suggests, but it does deliver strong speeds across its server network. It’s more reliable for local connections, but international speeds are good, too. FastestVPN is only let down by long-distance US connections, which have high download speed loss, low upload speeds, and high ping.
FastestVPN is more than fast enough for all your internet needs but it’s some way off challenging the fastest VPNs on the market.
We found that our speeds consistently dropped the farther and farther away from our real location the FastestVPN server we connected to was. For example, an average download speed on a Canada server of 96Mbps is very impressive, but 80Mbps when connecting to the UK is considerably worse.
All of FastestVPN’s download speeds more than meet our threshold for what we consider a fast VPN, though – it’s FastestVPN’s upload speeds that really disappoint. It consistently produced very poor upload speeds around the world on any server other than the one closest to us.
This might not have a huge impact on your daily usage, but if you game online, make a lot of video calls, or regularly torrent, you may find it affects you.
Security
5.5/10
Security
Best Rating
9.0/10
Average Rating
6.4/10
Worst Rating
1.0/10
We calculated this rating by testing the VPN's security protocols, encryption, leak protection, and kill switch reliability. We also assessed the provider's track record and any past security incidents.
FastestVPN gets the necessities of VPN security right and it is safe from leaks – but only on macOS. On Windows, FastestVPN leaks sensitive data, including your DNS requests. Thankfully, there's WireGuard and OpenVPN with ChaCha20 and AES-256. The kill switch feature needs to be improved.
Independent Audit
No
VPN Kill Switch
Yes
Leak Protection
Yes
OpenVPN (TCP/UDP)
Yes
WireGuard
Yes
ChaCha20
Yes
AES-256
Yes
FastestVPN is secure and comes with the essentials for internet security, as well as a few extra features like an ad blocker and double VPN servers, but it’s not as advanced as VPNs like NordVPN or Windscribe. There is nothing as sophisticated as RAM-only servers or a GPS spoofer.
Split tunneling is available on all devices except macOS. At the moment, you can select WireGuard, OpenVPN (TCP & UDP), and IKEv2 protocols across FastestVPN apps. We recommend using OpenVPN or WireGuard – which are the safest and fastest.
FastestVPN has WireGuard enabled by default, which is fast and secure.
Does FastestVPN Encrypt Your Traffic?
The first thing we wanted to test was whether FastestVPN actually encrypts your traffic effectively. We ran it through Wireshark, a packet-sniffing tool.
As you can see in the screenshot below, when connected to FastestVPN our internet traffic became indecipherable, meaning it has been successfully encrypted.
FastestVPN encrypts your internet traffic.
FastestVPN uses AES-256 and ChaCha20 encryption, which are considered to be the very best. We expect nothing less from a quality VPN.
FastestVPN’s Kill Switch Failed Our Tests
We tested FastestVPN’s kill switch using our unique kill switch test tool. We recorded our test so that you can see how FastestVPN fails to block your real IP being exposed. See it below:
FastestVPN failed our kill switch tests on macOS.
Using FastestVPN on macOS or Windows, your IP address will be exposed whenever you change your VPN server or when reconnecting to the internet after a random disconnection. This is a problem that needs to be addressed.
The kill switch works slightly better on Windows if you also select ‘Automatically Reconnect’ alongside the kill switch option, but it’s still not watertight.
EXPERT ADVICE: The kill switch is only automatic on macOS. You need to switch it on when it comes to other devices. Furthermore, the kill switch is not supported on the IKEv2 protocol on Android.
Leaks, Virus & Malware Checks
We put FastestVPN through a series of tests to ensure there are no leaks, malware, or intrusive trackers. We were disappointed with the results.
After testing it with our leak test tool, we can report that FastestVPN does not leak IP, DNS, WebRTC, or Geolocation data on macOS, but it does on Windows.
Specifically, DNS requests leak when using FastestVPN on Windows. DNS leaks are a big deal because it means that your ISP can still see what websites you’re visiting, making the VPN a lot less private. For this reason, we suggest that you don’t use FastestVPN on Windows.
IPv6 leaks on Windows
FastestVPN still does not support IPv6 connections. On macOS, FastestVPN outright blocks connections to ensure there are no data leaks.
FastestVPN blocks IPv6 connections on macOS but not on Windows.
This is a safe approach, but the best approach is to develop support for new IPv6 connections.
However, it’s a completely different story on the Windows app. It doesn’t have the same automatic blocking of IPv6 connections and our leak test tool revealed that FastestVPN does leak IPv6 on Windows. This is a huge security flaw.
Server Locations
5.0/10
Server Locations
Best Rating
9.9/10
Average Rating
6.7/10
Worst Rating
1.0/10
We calculated this rating by assessing the number of countries and cities available, their geographic spread, and availability in popular regions.
FastestVPN’s website claims to have over 40 countries on its server list, but we only counted 48 in the app. This isn’t a large number of countries, and there’s only 550 individual servers. It’s also heavily Western-centric – there are no locations in Africa and only one each in South America and the Middle East. We’d like to see city-level choices expanded, too. However, the major countries are covered, and the server infrastructure is sound.
Continent
FastestVPN Countries with Servers
Europe
29
Asia
10
North America
3
South America
3
Africa
2
Oceania
1
FastestVPN has just 48 countries to connect to. This is quite a low number compared to many other VPN services. ExpressVPN, for example, has 106 countries.
There are also only 550 individual servers – much smaller than competitors, whose servers often number in the thousands.
The problem with having so few servers is that server overload (when too many people are using the same server) becomes more likely, meaning greater chance of speed loss as well as annoying CAPTCHAS as you browse the web. The more popular FastestVPN gets the worse this will become.
Most server locations are situated in the West, too, meaning if you’re in other parts of the world you will struggle to find optimal connection speeds.
The best served nation is the US, which has 13 city-level choices across 13 US states.
The servers available also depend on your protocol choice, as you can see in the video below:
The FastestVPN protocol you choose affects which servers are available.
Physical Server Network
All of FastestVPN’s servers are physical, bare-metal servers, meaning the servers are actually located in the geographical region listed.
In contrast, virtual servers only provide IP addresses from the country without actually being located in that country.
This helps to explain why FastestVPN has so few individual servers, as physical servers are more expensive to establish and operate. The benefit is that these servers are considered to be more secure and more stable.
The exception is FastestVPN’s India servers, which are all virtual in order to avoid India’s new VPN data law that requires VPN services to store user data. We approve of this move.
However, FastestVPN was unwilling to tell us whether it owns all of its servers or rents them, as this is considered “confidential.” Based on this, we’ll assume they’re rented, as many VPNs are loud and proud about owning their infrastructure.
User Experience
6.0/10
User Experience
Best Rating
9.9/10
Average Rating
7.0/10
Worst Rating
2.0/10
We calculated this rating by assessing the VPN’s ease of use, interface design, and setup process across multiple platforms.
FastestVPN is still very easy to use but it needs to update its apps and fix bugs that make the user experience frustrating. We experienced failed connection attempts and extremely slow connection times. Language options would go a long way to help with accessibility, too.
FastestVPN’s apps could do with both updates and fixes. At this point, the interface and design is lagging behind other more user-friendly offerings now available on the VPN market.
During our tests, we also experienced technical issues and bugs that made the user experience much worse than it had to be. For example, some servers simply didn’t connect and loading times were sometimes unacceptably slow.
At the same time, FastestVPN is so absent of additional features that it remains a foolproof VPN, incredibly simple to use. There’s not a lot to it: a home screen with a connect button, a server list, and a cog symbol to take you to settings.
FastestVPN on Desktop: macOS & Windows
FastestVPN on macOS only offers the option to change your server and your protocol. There are no other features to speak of. The kill switch is enabled automatically.
This makes it super simple to use, but not necessarily for the better. You can have an advanced VPN that is still easy to use. For example, Surfshark strikes a good balance between usability and technical depth.
The Windows app is slightly more advanced as it includes split tunneling and some ease of use features, like Auto-Connect After Launch and Launch at Startup.
However, setting up FastestVPN on Windows is confusing and you have to manually install the TAP adapter. We found that it crashes a lot, too.
FastestVPN on Mobile: iOS & Android
FastestVPN on iOS is minimal and uncomplicated. It consists of the main home screen with the central connect button, the server list, and a slight settings page that allows you to change your protocol or use Smart Tunneling.
Smart Tunneling is the name for split tunneling on FastestVPN iOS, a handy tool if you want to route certain internet traffic outside the VPN tunnel.
FastestVPN on Android is equally simple and has split tunneling, too, but the kill switch needs to be manually set up. You do this via the Android device settings.
Both of the FastestVPN mobile apps are incredibly simple.
Fire TV App Only Works with UDP & TCP Protocol
FastestVPN claims to have a custom, user-friendly Firestick VPN app, but it doesn’t appear anywhere in the Fire TV app store.
FastestVPN is not available on the Fire TV store and has to be manually installed.
Instead, it only has a guide for installing FastestVPN manually. We followed these instructions and managed to set it up, but this takes some time and, when we tested it, discovered that the VPN connect button does not work when using IKEv2.
For the Fire TV Stick app to work, you need to select UDP or TCP. To do this, go to Settings > Select Protocol.
You can see us using the app in the video below:
You can use FastestVPN's Fire TV app to unblock Netflix.
Browser Extensions
These extensions have streaming-servers for Netflix, Hotstar, PureFlix, and Prime Video US. There’s also some settings, like Block WebRTC and an ad blocker.
However, the browser extension streaming servers do not actually work to unblock the listed sites.
FastestVPN’s browser extensions come with additional features – but they don’t work.
Furthermore, the extension ad blockers performed worse than the desktop ones, blocking only 22% of ads and trackers in our tests.
The FastestVPN browser extensions are quite limited and are not free like the ones offered by Windscribe, CyberGhost, and TunnelBear.
However, if you’re a FastestVPN subscriber they do offer a solution to quick and private web browsing. Just remember: extensions are not VPNs and do not encrypt your traffic.
FastestVPN’s browser add-ons are HTTPS proxies, which mean that they encrypt browser traffic but leave all traffic outside the web browser unprotected. It shouldn’t be a replacement for the full VPN desktop app, which protects all other apps like torrenting clients and email as well.
Torrenting
5.5/10
Torrenting
Best Rating
9.7/10
Average Rating
6.2/10
Worst Rating
0.0/10
We calculated this rating by assessing the VPN's torrenting features, including P2P servers and port forwarding support. We also evaluated its average bitrate and stance on file-sharing.
FastestVPN does allow P2P torrenting activity across its server network and its logging policy is safe, but we experienced some of the slowest torrenting speeds we’ve ever seen when testing FastestVPN, getting just 0.7MiB/s. Slow speeds, an imperfect kill switch, and DNS leaks means you should avoid FastestVPN for file sharing. There’s also no port forwarding or SOCKS5 option.
Torrenting Attribute
FastestVPN
Permits P2P Traffic
Yes
Average Download Bitrate
0.3MiB/s (97% loss)
Countries with P2P Servers
48
Port Forwarding
No
Kill Switch
Yes
Logging Policy
No Logs
We expect a good torrenting VPN to be closer to 10.0MiB/s, making P2P file sharing quick and easy.
A torrenting VPN should also offer port forwarding and SOCKS5, which are favorite tools of seasoned torrenters. FastestVPN doesn’t have any of these.
Furthermore, we recorded DNS request leaks and IPv6 leaks using FastestVPN on Windows – which is very serious. Definitely do not use FastestVPN to torrent on Windows devices.
We calculated this rating by evaluating the VPN's support for various devices. We considered dedicated apps, browser extensions, Smart DNS functionality, and router compatibility.
FastestVPN is available to install as a custom app on popular desktop and mobile devices, including Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It claims to have apps for Fire TV and Android TV, but they have to be installed manually. We also struggled to install FastestVPN on router, despite following the provided instructions. This means we couldn’t use FastestVPN on Smart TVs, games consoles, Apple TV, Roku, and more.
Windows
Yes
Mac
Yes
iOS
Yes
Android
Yes
Linux
Yes
Amazon Fire TV
No
Android TV
No
Apple TV
No
Router
No
Chrome
No
Smart DNS
No
Simultaneous Connections: 10
While it is possible to use FastestVPN on Linux devices, this is only after some manual configuration, which can be a little tricky for beginners. The best Linux VPNs come with a dedicated GUI Linux app.
FastestVPN lists a wide variety of devices and platforms it’s compatible with.
Router Installation Does Not Work
When we attempted to install FastestVPN on our LINKSYS WRT 32100 ACN test router, we found the installation process very difficult and, in the end, it failed to establish a VPN connection.
As we were unable to install FastestVPN on our router, we couldn’t use it on games consoles and other devices without a dedicated app, including Smart TVs, Apple TV, and Roku. This reduces FastestVPN’s compatibility drastically.
10 Simultaneous VPN Connections
FastestVPN allows you to run 10 simultaneous VPN connections across as many devices as you want.
It’s an unlimited allowance as FastestVPN does not log the number of devices associated with your account.
This is a very generous allowance that enables you to protect every device you own.
Additional Features
3.2/10
Additional Features
Best Rating
9.9/10
Average Rating
3.3/10
Worst Rating
0.2/10
We calculated this rating by evaluating the VPN's extra capabilities beyond the basic VPN service. This includes bypassing censorship, additional tools like malware blockers, and customization options like split tunneling.
Fastest VPN has a few useful features like multi-hop servers, an ad blocker, and split tunneling. However, it’s missing important extras like live chat support and obfuscation technology to tackle censorship, making it a lot less useful compared to leading VPNs.
Additional Feature
FastestVPN
Split Tunneling
Yes
VPN Obfuscation
No
Multi-Hop Servers
No
Dedicated IP
No
Ad Blocker
Yes
Poor Ad & Tracker Blocker
FastestVPN claims to have an ad and tracker blocker automatically enabled on all of its apps.
We put FastestVPN’s ad blocker to the test by using an ad block test. The result was disappointing: only 56% of ads and trackers were blocked, making it one of the worst we’ve tested.
We also tested FastestVPN’s tracker blocker ability using a tool provided by the EFF. The result was disappointing. It said that FastestVPN does not effectively block trackers.
FastestVPN was disappointing at blocking both ads and trackers.
Overall, FastestVPN needs to focus on boosting its security offering: fixing DNS leaks, building IPv6 and WireGuard support, as well as a system-wide kill switch that doesn’t leak. That’s before advanced features like multi-hop servers, diskless servers, rotating IP addresses, and much more. FastestVPN has a long way to go.