Turbo VPN Review

Turbo VPN logs enough data to identify you. Although Turbo claims that it doesn’t store VPN connection timestamps, it must log some if it knows when a connection is successful.

The date of your connection combined with your VPN server location and ISP, would allow a third-party to isolate your individual connection.

We’re not comfortable with the amount of data Turbo VPN logs.

We’d like to see Turbo VPN significantly reduce the amount of data it logs, preferably to nothing at all. For instance, PIA VPN logs no user data whatsoever and still maintains an excellent service.

Troubling Ties to China

Turbo VPN is developed by a firm called Innovative Connecting. It has released a number of other basic, free VPNs, including VPN Proxy Master, Snap Master VPN, Solo VPN Pro, and VPN Proxy Master Lite.

It’s incorporated at 38 Beach Road #29-11 South Beach Tower, Singapore. Singapore is a nation of intrusive surveillance, government snooping, and has links with the Five Eyes — a US-led intelligence sharing network.

Additionally, our independent research shows Turbo VPN’s strong links with Mainland China.

The director of Innovative Connecting is a Chinese national and entrepreneur by the name of Danian Chen, who was once described by Forbes as “one of the most influential young leaders in China”. Danian Chen is listed only in corporate filings and has no public association with the company.

The fact that Turbo VPN is owned by a Chinese national, and the service’s privacy policy states it will hand over your personal information to legal authorities ‘if ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction’ is highly problematic.

As shown above, Turbo VPN is unable to unblock most geo-restricted streaming services. We found that the VPN either lacked the required server location or was immediately detected as a VPN service by the streaming platform.

Unblocks Max on Windows & Android

You can use Turbo VPN to stream Max from outside the US, but only on its Windows and Android app. This is due to the absence of a US server location on Turbo VPN’s macOS and iOS apps.

We were able to access Max on Turbo VPN’s US server.

While we could unblock HBO Max consistently on Windows, its quality was always grainy. The Android app took several attempts to work and its video quality was equally poor.

To calculate Turbo VPN’s speed rating, we tested the speed of the connection between our location and Turbo VPN servers around the world.

Here’s a table showing Turbo VPN’s speed test results, in full:

Throughout the testing process, Turbo VPN repeatedly throttled our connection speeds. While connected to Turbo VPN’s Germany server, our speeds reduced by 92%.

This is an unacceptable result and only fast enough for general web browsing.

Turbo VPN claims to not put any caps on bandwidth or data usage, but it does operate a ‘fair usage’ policy.

Based on our experience with the service, running a few speed tests seems to surpass what it considers to be fair. Expect frequent and server throttling when using Turbo VPN.

Leaks DNS Requests & Contains Malware

As part of our investigation into free VPNs we detected unsafe functions, DNS leaks, and malware within Turbo VPN’s apps.

With your DNS requests visible, anyone monitoring your connection would be able to see the websites and services you access.

Turbo VPN leaks DNS requests on all of its apps.

Moreover, the presence of malware is unacceptable and can severely affect the performance of your device and provide third-parties access to your personal files.

We’d need Turbo VPN to release new apps audited by multiple independent Cybersecurity firms before we could even suggest installing them.

Unusual Protocol Selection

Turbo VPN lists multiple protocols within its apps, although they vary depending on what device you’re using.

There are some protocols we’ve never heard of like Trojan and others that are rarely offered by other VPNs like V2ray and ISSR.

OpenVPN, an open-source and trusted protocol, is available across all platforms but the ability to choose a protocol is paywalled. As such, you may be assigned one of the less secure protocols without ever knowing.

You can’t be certain which protocol you’re using on the free version of Turbo VPN.

We’d like Turbo VPN to address this by making OpenVPN the default for its apps and permitting protocol customization on its free version.

No Kill Switch On Free Tier

Turbo VPN doesn’t have a kill switch on its free plan, leaving your real IP exposed in the event of a sudden VPN disconnection.

Turbo VPN’s kill switch is exclusive to paid users.

A kill switch is essential for maintaining your anonymity and we expect every VPN to provide one as the bare minimum. Its absence from Turbo VPN’s apps indicates a total lack of regard for your online privacy.

Technical Features We’d Like to See

Turbo VPN lacks standard VPN features as well as more advanced features like multi-hop or an ad blocker. We’ve listed the most important features that we’d like to see Turbo VPN add in the box below:

Turbo VPN’s server network varies depending on the platform or device you’re using. We provide an overview of its server coverage by platform in the table below:

As shown above, iOS and macOS only assign you a pre-selected nearby server. In our experience, this was always a Canadian IP address but it may differ for you depending on your real life location.

Turbo VPN’s macOS app places its entire server network behind a paywall.

The options are much better on Windows and Android but still poor compared to top-rated free VPNs like Windscribe which covers 10 countries.

We’d like to see servers added to Asia beyond just Singapore, and a server location in South America or Africa is needed.

That said, we appreciate the number of city-level options on Turbo VPN’s Android app with both US coasts covered. You can also connect to multiple locations in Germany, Canada, and the UK on its Android app.

Turbo VPN is quick to install and start using. Since it doesn’t require account registration or payment details, you only need to download the app onto your device.

The exception is the Windows app which failed to launch when downloaded directly from Turbo VPN’s website. Instead, we had to download its app from the Microsoft Store which took slightly longer than we’d like as it required creating a Microsoft account.

Here’s a more detailed assessment of our hands-on experience with Turbo VPN on different devices:

Desktop & Laptop (Windows & macOS)

Turbo VPN looks awful on computer screens, especially on Windows. Its desktop clients resemble mobile apps that have been expanded to fit a larger resolution which results in blurry text and a ‘stretched’ feel to the user interface.

To connect to the VPN is easy, you just need to click the orange and white carrot button once. Once you’re finished, click the ‘X’ button to disconnect.

The rest of the app is threadbare with most of the features locked behind a paywall, although this wasn’t always clear. For example, the macOS app displays multiple server locations but clicking on one launches a full-screen pop-up asking you to subscribe to the premium service.

We were also puzzled by the inclusion of a 500MB data cap on the macOS app, which isn’t the case on Windows or mobile. Even more confusing, is that the in-app data counter ticks up from 0 instead of decreasing from 500MB which often led us to believe we had more data available than we actually did.

Mobile (iPhone & Android)

Turbo VPN’s apps suit mobile dimensions and look much better than on desktop.

That said, we had a much more frustrating experience with Turbo VPN on our mobile devices due to the constant and unskippable ads.

On both Android and iOS, you are made to watch a 30-second video ad every time you connect and disconnect from the VPN. This was infuriating, especially following hours of usage over multiple days of testing.

We also found it annoying that the Android app continually asks you to rate it on the Google Play Store. The only way to remove this message is to click on it and follow the redirect to your Play Store app.

Previously, Turbo VPN blocked P2P traffic on its servers and its privacy policy warned that your account could be suspended if you torrented to often.

In our latest tests, we were able to successfully torrent on Turbo’s US server and any reference to account suspension has been removed from the privacy policy.

However, we contacted the Turbo VPN support team and they confirmed that both torrenting and P2P connections are still banned on the VPN’s servers.

Turbo VPN does not allow torrenting on any of its servers.

Even if Turbo VPN did work with torrenting, we would still not advise to use it. Its intrusive logging policy means all of your downloads could be linked back to you and the absence of a kill switch could leave your real IP address visible.

Instead of installing Turbo VPN, we suggest you install one of our recommended free VPNs for torrenting. All of our shortlisted VPNs allow you to torrent across their server network and use a functional kill switch.

Turbo VPN works similarly across every platform and device, but its server network and features vary. For instance, the Android app offers the most servers and is the only platform with a split tunneling feature.

The browser extension is basic but simple to use. It won’t encrypt your browser traffic but you can spoof your online location to Singapore, Germany, or the US.

5 Simultaneous Connections

With a single Turbo VPN account, you can install the VPN on up to five different devices at once. This is fairly standard but there are some exceptions, like Surfshark and IPVanish, that don’t impose any limits.

Surprisingly Robust Customer Service

Turbo VPN has recently performed a complete overhaul of its customer support. Where it was once almost non-existent, it’s now actually on a level equal to some of the most popular VPNs.

The biggest contributor to this is its 24/7 live chat. This is accessed from a chat window on the support page. It first runs your query by a chatbot that attempts to find an answer from its minimal FAQs section. However, if you don’t get what you need there you can be instantly forwarded to a live support agent.

The agent responded extremely quickly, and was actually helpful in addressing the issue we had, too.

Email support has been improved, too. You now fill out a simple online form and will be emailed a response in the coming hours.

User-Friendly & Customizable Split Tunneling

Turbo VPN’s split tunneling feature can only be used with its Android app. It lets you both include and exclude apps from the VPN tunnel with two separate modes.

We found this easy to start using thanks to the in-app explainer text and user-friendly widgets.