Thunder VPN Review

Thunder VPN is owned by the app developer Signal Lab. They are also behind Secure VPN – another popular free app.

Signal Lab actually doesn’t have a company website, but has threadbare sites for its apps. There isn’t much to learn from any of these.

The only reference to itself as a company is a link to an (unprofessional) gmail address.

The corporate structure behind Thunder VPN is shrouded in mystery.

Its corporate address is listed as a US address in Arkansas (but the zip code is actually based in California).

But this address is for payment processes only. Our independent research discovered that Thunder VPN are, in fact, “independent developers from Hong Kong.”

And yet, there are no companies called Signal Lab currently registered in Hong Kong.

Where the VPN company is incorporated, as they are obliged to follow the laws of that country or region.

This lack of transparency is a cause for concern. When you use a VPN, you are trusting them to protect your data and secure your privacy; you are essentially handing your data to it. Not knowing who is behind it should give you pause before you sign up.

Thunder VPN claims a “strict no-logging policy” on its Google Play Store listing, and reiterates this claim on its FAQ. A no logs policy implies not storing online activity details of users, including their IP address.

But Thunder VPN is not a no-logs VPN. Its privacy policy is actually found in its terms of service and it’s only 272 words long.

This is a very short privacy policy, but it shows that Thunder VPN logs far more personal data than any privacy-conscious VPN user should be comfortable with.

It then follows all of this, as if not enough, with “etc.”

This ambiguous and opaque approach to the collection of personal data and private information is unacceptable.

The privacy policy states: “We store this to be able to deliver the best possible network experience to you.” We see this as a justification from VPN services regularly, and it’s a shame many use it as an excuse for illegitimate data logging.

This policy is actually better than it once was. Thunder VPN used to collect your originating IP address and choice of servers, but has since stopped listing this in its privacy policy. That’s a step in the right direction.

But to be clear: there is no excuse for logging this amount of data. There is no detail about deletion policies, metadata, retention period or anything else.

When we tasked ThunderVPN with an explanation, they told us that they “keep it for one month for analysis.” This directly contradicts its marketing claims and prior assurance.

In short, Thunder VPN does log your data and it is not a good choice for privacy-focused users.

Like most VPN providers who collect data, Thunder VPN claims that this is done in the name of a ‘better service,’ but we recommend using a VPN service that doesn’t log your activity.

There is very little information about the security measures and VPN protocols used to protect user data by Thunder VPN.

The FAQ page of Thunder VPN’s website (since removed) reads, “we use SSL to encrypt your internet data.”

That may sound impressive, but SSL (Standard Layer Security) is an outdated and weak level of protection made in 1995.

The industry-standard VPN encryption protocol is now OpenVPN or WireGuard, with the AES-256 cipher. But this is not available within Thunder VPN’s apps.

Surprisingly, the VPN passed our IP and DNS leak tests, which is one positive among many negatives.

It also has an ‘App Filter’ – a version of split tunneling so that you can choose which of your Android apps get encrypted and which don’t.

In short, Thunder VPN is not safe to use. Its encryption is weak, it lacks a VPN kill switch, and it has an invasive logging policy that involves the collection of your connection data.

There are no additional security features on offer either. If you’re looking to secure your connection or protect your privacy, Thunder VPN is not a safe option.

We recorded massive speed losses when using ThunderVPN on all of its available servers.

Here are the results of our most recent speed tests:

This amount of speed loss on local connections is quite terrible.

Average download speeds of 1.93Mbps when connecting to a nearby VPN server is nowhere near fast enough for reliable streaming, torrenting, or even casual browsing.

From our testing lab in the UK, we measured ThunderVPN’s average speeds connecting out to various locations worldwide.

As shown above, ThunderVPN performed consistently bad in our speed tests. We recommend trying out one of these fast VPNs, instead.

Thunder VPN works well with BBC iPlayer, and has done so for a while to its credit.

It’s free UK server presents no issues; there is barely any buffer time required and the content streams at good quality. This is good news for fans of the streaming service.

But Thunder VPN has made no progress in unblocking US Netflix, or any other service.

Both its US East and US West servers fail to bypass the streaming service’s proxy detection. As a result, Thunder VPN will not work to stream Netflix content from other international libraries.

If you need a VPN to watch geo-blocked video content, head over to our list of the top VPNs for streaming.

Thunder VPN make the point in its terms of service that there are certain activities that can lead to a termination of your account, including “Uploading, downloading, posting, reproducing, or distribution of any content protected by copyright.”

This means that you should be careful not to torrent copyrighted material when using the service. If you do, Thunder VPN states:

“You may be held responsible for any and all damages incurred by Thunder VPN , including any amounts charged by any outside entity due to said violation(s).”

It’s unlikely you’ll be tempted when using Thunder VPN, as it’s slow and lacking security features.

The Thunder VPN app claims to work for torrenting, on services like BitTorrent, but that wasn’t the case when we tested it. These free VPNs will work, though.

Thunder VPN comes with no obfuscation tools — the thing required to beat sophisticated censorship regimes.

There’s little chance that Thunder VPN is going to work in China, UAE, Russia, Turkey or anywhere else where censorship is rife.

If you’re living or travelling to a high censorship country, we highly recommend you use a paid VPN that can beat aggressive web filters.

Read our detailed reviews of Astrill or ExpressVPN, two very reliable VPNs that beat aggressive censorship.

Thunder VPN support is lacking. There is an FAQ within the app that offers no real value.

There’s also an email for support, but it can’t be found within the app.

Head to the website and you can contact an (unprofessional) Gmail address by clicking ‘Signal Lab’ in the footer, the same one it uses for an identical VPN service called Secure VPN.

Alternatively, in the app you can head to ‘Feedback’ and then describe ‘Other problems,’ typing in your email to generate a ticket. 

The website itself is very basic: a mere landing page with little to discover. It’s more than a lot of other free VPN services provide (many don’t have websites).

But with such little help or information to be gained, you wonder why Thunder VPN even bothered.