TorGuard Review

TorGuard doesn’t log anything about your VPN usage, including: your IP address, browsing activity, or websites you visit.

It does store the email address and payment method you sign up with, but both can easily be sidestepped by using an alias email and anonymous payment option. For example, you can use Bitcoin or even mail cash to the VPN provider.

While TorGuard’s logging policy has never undergone an independent audit, it’s already submitted the ultimate proof of keeping no logs: in a court case.

In March 2022 TorGuard was involved in a copyright infringement lawsuit, during which TorGuard was unable to hand over any user logs. As such, this validates the VPN service’s no-logs claims and negates any risk from its US jurisdiction.

Part of TorGuard’s success here hinges on its use of a 100% diskless server network. These servers run on volatile memory that prevent your data from being written to a physical hard drive and wipe themselves periodically.

In a disappointing first, TorGuard offers streaming servers as a separate paid add-on. Activating the streaming bundle effectively doubles your subscription fee, or you can purchase IPs in specific locations for varying amounts ($9.00-20.00).

While streaming-optimized servers aren’t unheard of, NordVPN and Hide.me also provide them, they’re usually included within the standard pricing plan.

We only tested TorGuard’s entry-level subscription and, unsurprisingly, found it terrible for streaming. It didn’t unblock any Netflix libraries and it failed to access any US-based platforms (aside from HBO Max).

TorGuard now works with HBO Max, but this can easily change.

Previously, the VPN had some success with UK services but this is no longer the case. It still unblocks Channel 4, but ITVX and BBC iPlayer blocked us immediately.

We tried swapping between its London and Manchester locations, as this has worked in the past, but BBC iPlayer didn’t even let us log in.

TorGuard is no longer a reliable choice for UK streaming.

TorGuard’s speed performance stands out for its consistency across every global location. As shown in the data above, our download speed never dropped by more than 15%, aside from when we connected to Australia.

It makes the VPN’s inability to unblock streaming services all the more frustrating, given these speeds are fast enough for 4K streaming from any location.

For us, TorGuard rubs shoulders with the biggest names in the industry when it comes to long-distance connection speeds. Here’s how it compares to these rivals:

Once connected, TorGuard uses AES-256-CBC encryption (or ChaCha20) to secure your internet traffic. Alongside OpenVPN, TorGuard supports WireGuard, and was one of the earliest VPNs to do so.

We used Wireshark, a data packet analysis tool, to verify the VPN encryption. We were very pleased to see our browsing activity fully encrypted and hidden from our ISP.

TorGuard used WireGuard to encrypt our browsing activity.

Alongside this, the VPN uses a kill switch to stop your internet connection in the unlikely event your VPN connection drops. In doing so, your real IP address is never exposed.

Due to its many levels of customization, TorGuard’s kill switch is equal parts impressive and complicated. You can customize it using a script, implement it on an app-by-app basis, or make it block all connectivity until the VPN reconnects.

Most VPNs only offer one or two of these options, so it can feel quite overwhelming. Here’s our advice: just use the default kill switch, unless you’re particularly privacy-conscious. Though, remember any changes require an app restart before they come into effect.

For us, a strong selling point is that it owns private no-logs DNS servers. This means that it encrypts all your DNS requests (the websites you visit) while using the VPN. Only a few VPN services offer this level of protection, including VyprVPN and StrongVPN.

To help improve its security, TorGuard runs a bug bounty program that rewards anyone who flags a security vulnerability. We’d like the VPN to build on this by making its codebase open-source, since it would make it easier to identify flaws.

In light of future threats, we’d also like to see the VPN service embrace post-quantum cryptography. While it’s not an immediate problem, VPNs like ExpressVPN and Mullvad are already future-proofing their software.

Historic Server Breach

In May 2018, TorGuard suffered a security breach.

TorGuard immediately disclosed in a blog post that the attackers had gained root access to the VPN’s servers. However, the attacker was not able to decrypt user traffic or launch DDoS attacks because the key is kept strictly off the server.

Despite the minimal impact of the server breach, the handling of the situation was questionable. Following the attack, TorGuard and NordVPN were entangled in a bizarre scandal, where TorGuard filed a lawsuit against NordVPN citing hacking and blackmail.

We’d feel a lot better about all this, if TorGuard moved away from renting its VPN servers to first-party ownership. Alternatively, independent security audits of both TorGuard and its server vendor would reassure us.

TorGuard has a good amount of servers. It operates 3,000+ servers in 50 countries, and 60 cities, covering most popular locations.

In comparison, CyberGhost has an extensive server network, located in 100 countries and 110 cities.

TorGuard hasn’t released the exact number of IP addresses it offers, but it’s going to be over 3,000 – at least one for every server.

There’s plenty of options in the US, including 11 city-level servers, which are all spread out evenly across the country.

We’ve recently seen some downsizing of TorGuard’s server network. There’s now only four countries with SOCKS proxy support: Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

TorGuard used to have multiple servers in Africa, but there’s now just one in South Africa. There’s also two servers in the Middle East, in Dubai and Israel.

If you’re in South America or Africa, or need to connect to those regions, we recommend looking for a better alternative such as PIA. It has servers in 5 countries in Africa and 9 countries in South America.

TorGuard’s app design has gone through several iterations over the years. Its current version offers a unified interface across all platforms, making it straightforward to swap between apps.

To see how each app looks and feels across each platform, expand the sections that follow:

While TorGuard is poor for streaming, it’s a strong contender for torrenting. The VPN service allows P2P traffic on all its servers (apart from those in the US), and it doesn’t log your web activity.

In our P2P benchmark tests TorGuard reduced our download bitrate by 30%. While this isn’t terrible, it’s not a great look when compared to speed losses of 3% with Proton VPN and 2% with Mullvad.

It took longer than expected to torrent our 1GB test file.

From an anonymity perspective, we have no concerns: the VPN service operates a proven no-logs policy and robust encryption.

Seeders can also use port forwarding with the VPN, although this is limited to ports above 2048.

US Servers Banned from BitTorrent

On 13 March 2022, TorGuard settled a case in court with 27 film studio companies which accused it of saving no user logs and promoting torrenting of copyrighted material.

TorGuard settled to “use commercially reasonable efforts to block BitTorrent traffic on its servers in the United States using firewall technology.”

Despite the final outcome of the settlement, it’s important to note: TorGuard did not expose any customer data during the course of the legal battle, which means it stuck to its no-logs policy.

While it’s disappointing that you can’t torrent on its US servers, there are nearby servers in Canada or Mexico.

There’s also a precedent for this arrangement: in January of the same year, VPN Unlimited similarly agreed to block BitTorrent and even more torrenting websites, including PirateBay and Popcorn Time.

Without a Smart DNS proxy, using TorGuard on games consoles or Smart TVs requires installing it onto your WiFi router. Android TV and Apple TV fall into this category too, given the VPN lacks a dedicated app for either.

If you take this route, we suggest you buy a router from TorGuard’s website with the VPN pre-installed to avoid the headache of manual setup.

Alternatively, ExpressVPN has apps for all the devices TorGuard is missing (including routers). You can easily install it onto your router, and then every device in your household is covered.

A TorGuard subscription also includes browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Unlike many other VPNs that offer simple web proxies, these VPN extensions fully encrypt your traffic using SSL.

Nevertheless, we still recommend using TorGuard’s full VPN as it encrypts your entire connection, not just the browser traffic.

Stunnel Obfuscation

TorGuard uses the open-source obfuscation tool Stunnel to help it get around heavy censorship in authoritarian countries like China and Turkey. TorGuard can sometimes work in China and bypass the country’s crackdown on VPNs. This is thanks to its proprietary Stealth VPN protocol, Stunnel.

Stunnel wraps traffic in a layer of TLS encryption to make it harder to identify as VPN traffic. You can enable Stunnel by ticking a box in the TorGuard app’s settings.

You can connect to its Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, or US servers for better internet speeds out of China.

Just beware that TorGuard’s website is currently blocked in China, so you’ll need to download the VPN before you travel.

The Stunnel protocol also works in other highly-censored countries like Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Dedicated Streaming IP Address

You can pay an extra $7.99 per month for a dedicated streaming IP address, which is more likely to get around streaming geo-restrictions.

However, this is poor value as other VPNs, including CyberGhost, offer multiple streaming servers included in their standard pricing.

Additionally, if you sign up to the Pro plan, you get a dedicated IP address for free with your subscription.

Streaming Residential IP Address

If you want almost guaranteed access to geo-blocked streaming content, you can pay an extra $13.99 per month for a residential IP address in the US.

A residential IP address is rented from an ISP based in the country. It makes the connection look much more authentic and difficult for streaming platforms to detect.

It can also improve your browsing experience as you can often bypass annoying captchas.

However, it’s not the cheapest option if you want an annual subscription. Windscribe offers residential IP addresses to its premium subscribers for a one-time annual fee of $96.00, which translates to $8.00 per month. You can also choose from more countries, such as Canada, Germany, Spain and the UK.