StrongVPN Review

StrongVPN was launched in 2005 by Strong Technology, LLC. It has changed hands a number of times over the years. In 2019 it was acquired by J2 Global, an American technology company.

In October 2021 J2 Global split in two as a company, becoming Consensus Cloud Solutions, Inc. and Ziff Davis. Its VPN properties now fall under ownership of Ziff Davis, a conglomerate digital media, affiliate marketing and technology company.

Despite this confusing latest change of ownership, we’ve seen no reason to believe that StrongVPN has changed as a service.

Based in Privacy-Unfriendly US

StrongVPN operates under US jurisdiction, which is one of the least privacy-friendly locations in the world. The US is a member of the Five Eyes international intelligence-sharing alliance. This means the government can demand surveillance data from companies and share it with an intelligence agency without your knowledge.

The VPN service states that it will comply with valid subpoena requests. But because StrongVPN doesn’t collect any customer activity logs, there’s no way of tying down any web activity to an individual user. It cannot submit information that’s already been deleted.

We analyzed StrongVPN’s privacy policy in detail and found it to be zero-logs. It clearly states:

StrongVPN’s Privacy Policy confirms it does not log your web browsing activity.

To summarize, it doesn’t collect any data about its customers’ use of its VPN service. This includes even basic connection metadata such as timestamps, chosen server or bandwidth consumed.

StrongVPN Hasn’t Been Independently Audited

Our main concern about StrongVPN’s logging policy is its lack of external audit, which would verify the no-logs claim.

We would also like to see a warrant canary or official statement on the website. A warrant canary is published on a website to warn users that a company has been served a subpoena, and that the company may have to share your data.

Without this, the company might have no way of communicating to users if it has been asked to share data with the government.

Here’s a table showing StrongVPN’s international speed test results on a 100Mbps internet connection:

As you can see, StrongVPN is extremely fast on long-distance connections. A one of the fastest VPNs we’ve tested, it maintains impressive speeds across continents to Europe and Asia.

Most notably, we recorded only 1% speed loss connecting to Canada and 4% speed loss connecting to the UK.

StrongVPN’s local connection speeds are also impressive. It manages to reach 95Mbps on a 100Mbps connection, which is more than enough for full HD streaming and uninterrupted torrenting.

Here’s a chart comparing StrongVPN’s local and international download speeds to other high-quality VPNs:

These results show that StrongVPN’s download speeds almost catch up to the fastest VPN available, Hotspot Shield, and even outperforms IPVanish and NordVPN on international speed stability. Though, it doesn’t perform as well when comparing upload speeds with other top-tier VPNs.

Lowest Latency Recorded

In our 2023 speed tests, we found that StrongVPN has the lowest local ping times out of all the 55 VPNs we’ve reviewed.

At just 4ms, it beats other top-tier VPNs like NordVPN and Hide.me. Using StrongVPN, we’re able to play fast-paced online games, like CS:GO and PUBG, without lagging and connection drops.

Here’s a table comparing ping times between top VPNs:

Ping times refer to the time it takes for data to be transmitted from your device to a server and back again. A lower ping time (or latency) is one of the most important features to a good gaming VPN because it reduces the amount of lag you experience gaming online.

StrongVPN recently started working again with US Netflix on several of its US servers, after weeks of being completely blocked.

There are no dedicated streaming servers, though, which makes the task trickier. While it’s not too hard to find a working server, CyberGhost’s dedicated streaming servers deliver a far better user experience.

StrongVPN’s Chicago server unblocked US Netflix.

While we could stream US Netflix content in HD quality, we couldn’t unblock any other Netflix region. We tested over 10 libraries, with no success.

In comparison, NordVPN unblocks 12 Netflix regions, including Germany, South Korea and the UK.

StrongVPN’s inconsistent access to BBC iPlayer

Streaming BBC iPlayer is a different story. StrongVPN unblocks iPlayer inconsistently, working on some days but not others.

StrongVPN’s London server unblocked BBC iPlayer.

Here’s a list of StrongVPN’s UK servers, and whether they currently work with BBC iPlayer:

If you want greater reliability, there are more reliable VPNs for BBC iPlayer.

StrongVPN is one of the best VPNs for unblocking Channel 4 (All 4), either through its VPN servers or StrongDNS.

StrongVPN works with most streaming platforms

StrongVPN unblocked most other US content platforms we tested. It worked with Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video USA.

Similarly to its issues with BBC iPlayer, StrongVPN doesn’t always work with other platforms, though. If a US server stops streaming, you’ll have to try different ones until you find one that works.

Here’s how StrongVPN performed in our torrenting tests:

StrongVPN allows torrenting and P2P activity on all servers. This is unlike other VPNs which usually feature specialized servers just for torrenting.

Torrenting with StrongVPN, connected to a UK server.

In our latest P2P speed tests, StrongVPN registered an impressive average bitrate of 9.7MiB/s. This is just a small drop from the 10.0MiB/s without a VPN.

A strict no-logs policy means all your online activity remains private – which is great for anonymous file-sharing. This and AES-256 encryption has you covered for torrenting.

Dependable Kill Switch

StrongVPN’s kill switch is easy to find in settings.

What’s more, StrongVPN also has a VPN kill switch and we didn’t detect any IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks in our latest round of testing (more on this below).

No Port Forwarding

Port forwarding speed ups file seeding, and is a feature keen torrenters often look out for in a VPN.

StrongVPN no longer sells dedicated IP addresses, which made port forwarding available. This is because all of StrongVPN’s servers now use shared IP addresses.

StrongVPN’s Kodi Add-on

StrongVPN also has a Kodi add-on that supports LibreELEC, OpenELEC, and XBMC. There’s a helpful setup guide on StrongVPN’s official website.

StrongVPN is an excellent option for bypassing aggressive web blocks in highly censored countries like China, Iran, Turkey and the UAE. It’s even the second best VPN for China.

In our tests, StrongVPN’s Mexico and South Korea servers are the most reliable when connecting from China. If you are able to access the website, StrongVPN gives useful advice about connecting in China:

StrongVPN recommends using its San Francisco server to bypass China’s firewall.

The additional obfuscation tools you get with StrongVPN are very useful to evade online censorship.

Useful Scramble Feature

The scramble feature “disguises [your] traffic to look like regular unencrypted traffic,” making it very hard to detect.

Select Scramble on the macOS client to obfuscate your traffic.

It’s available on Windows, macOS, Android, and routers running on StrongVPN auto installers (e.g. DD-WRT and Sabai routers). The feature is also only compatible with OpenVPN.

StrongVPN has a kill switch that prevents your true IP address from being exposed. It uses AES-256 encryption and it operates its own DNS servers, meaning none of your web traffic will be routed through third-party servers.

StrongVPN offers multiple secure protocols on desktop and mobile.

StrongVPN also supports WireGuard on all its apps – an alternative to OpenVPN which is looking more and more likely to become the fastest option.

Despite StrongVPN’s website saying that many servers are only compatible with insecure PPTP connections, this is incorrect.

We got in touch with a customer service agent to find out more. They clarified that you can choose between 6 protocols on all servers, including trusted OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols.

StrongVPN passed our leak tests.

We were also pleased to detect no DNS or IP leaks in our latest tests.

Live chat is available 24/7, but most of the time we just ended up talking to a sales agent who copied and pasted answers from the FAQs section.

This was a little disappointing, but whenever they couldn’t solve our problems they did forward our details on to the tech team, who were always quick to respond.

The official StrongVPN website provides a great range of setup manuals for many different devices, including video tutorials and screenshots.

For basic instructions, the FAQ section should do the job, but for anything beyond simple help you’ll have to contact their customer support team.

Extensive & Useful Knowledge Base

The official StrongVPN website offers an extensive searchable knowledge base.

It’s full of setup guides for different devices, including video tutorials and screenshots. There’s even a couple articles written in Mandarin for Chinese users.

An article written in Mandarin, showing you how to change your password if you can’t login.

Articles in the knowledge base are sorted into the following categories:

• • Android
  • iOS
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Routers
  • Amazon devices
  • App and operating system general troubleshooting
  • Network issues
  • Connectivity
  • Legacy app troubleshooting
  • China

Overall, the resources on the official website are more than enough to help you set up any device. You have access to 24/7 live sales, billing, and technical support. But you may encounter some issues with live agents who aren’t as knowledgeable.