VPN Proxy Master Review

VPN Proxy Master is an unreliable free VPN that you shouldn’t trust to protect your personal information. Not only is performance ridiculously inconsistent and practically unusable on more distant servers, torrenting isn’t permitted in any locations and access to Netflix and BBC iPlayer is blocked. Apps are available for iOS, MacOS and Android, but these lack any configurable options and you’re constantly pestered with annoying popup ads and rating prompts.

It’s not made clear exactly how VPN Proxy Master encrypts your data or what VPN protocol is used, which is very concerning. There are also no privacy features to speak of, such as a kill switch or protection against DNS leaks, and your IP address is collected and stored for an indefinite amount of time. The company has strong links with China, so by using the software you consent to your data being sent to one of the least privacy-friendly jurisdiction in the world. Customer support is non-existent, so don’t bother contacting them if you have a problem. VPN Proxy Master is not worth the time taken to download it.

We were really disappointed by VPN Proxy Master’s performance in our speed tests. Even connecting locally, speeds weren’t at all reliable, and over international connections they were virtually unusable. Latency was unacceptably high and torrenting isn’t permitted in any locations, so there are much better options out there for gamers and P2P users.

Downloads on local connections peaked at a very unimpressive 28Mbps in the UK and 26Mbps in the Netherlands, which is ridiculously slow compared to what we’ve seen from most other free providers, although still quick enough for general browsing and streaming. Don’t expect to do much if you’re planning on connecting internationally though, with speeds out to the US from London struggling to reach a paltry 2Mbps. The servers in Canada and Singapore are unfit for purpose and failed to surpass 0.5Mbps.

High latency, even on same-country connections, means VPN Proxy Master is a bad choice for keen gamers, as it’ll lead to slow response times. If this is the main reason you want to use a VPN, consider a provider such as IPVanish, which offers ping times as low as 1ms.

Connection times were pretty quick but what really lets VPN Proxy Master down is its inconsistency. We experienced huge amounts of variation from one test to the next, even on the same server location, and after testing for a while we found most download speeds to be capped at around 2Mbps. This VPN is advertised as having no bandwidth or usage restrictions, but this doesn’t appear to be the case at all, which is disappointing.

Thankfully uploads weren’t affected by this, and came in at around 30Mbps across the entire server network, both on local and international connections. Despite this, VPN Proxy Master is a terrible choice for torrenters, as not only is P2P activity not permitted on any servers, it’s also one of the least privacy-friendly providers we’ve come across.

For the most part, VPN Proxy Master’s servers aren’t fit for purpose, with only European servers producing half-decent results in our tests. Connecting internationally is useless if you want to do anything more than browse on a single device, and high latency is bad news for gaming fans. It’s definitely not worth sacrificing your online privacy for.

To read about our speed testing methodologies, please read How We Review VPNs.

The free version of VPN Proxy Master allows you to access just seven different countries – the UK, US, Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Singapore and India. If you live in or around these locations you shouldn’t have too much of a problem, however users elsewhere in the world may want to look into providers boasting a more diverse range of options, such as HideMyAss!.

We were very surprised to see a choice of two different city-level servers in the US – one in New York and the other in San Francisco. While this is great for users in that country wishing to pinpoint the East or West Coast, we would have traded this in for a server in South America or perhaps Africa, as these continents are currently lacking.

VPN Proxy Master doesn’t specify exactly how many servers and IP addresses it maintains in total, but it’s likely to be an incredibly small number, which will lead to reduced performance at peak times. It feels like the free version of the app has been designed purely to try and get you to upgrade to the premium service, which would explain the strict limitations that have been put in place for free users.

VPN Proxy Master is currently available for MacOS, iOS and Android devices. Unfortunately there are no manual workarounds for those platforms lacking custom apps, including Microsoft Windows, so anyone looking for a VPN to use on their PC should steer clear of this provider. It’s also not possible to install the software at router level, meaning you can’t protect any games consoles or streaming devices either.

After looking at VPN Proxy Master’s Facebook page and user reviews on both the Google Play and App Stores, we felt fairly confident that we wouldn’t have any issues accessing popular streaming sites such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer. However, this was absolutely not the case, and we weren’t able to stream content from either site using the US or UK servers. It seems that being able to watch Netflix and BBC iPlayer is a feature reserved for ‘VIP’ users – in other words, those that are willing to pay to use the service.

The story is much the same for torrenting, which isn’t permitted on any of VPN Proxy Master’s free servers. There’s no explanation as to why this is, but users that attempt any sort of P2P activity while connected to the VPN risk having their account deactivated. If you need a VPN for torrenting, consider our top pick IPVanish, offering fantastic uploads and a solid privacy policy.

We have huge doubts about how effective VPN Proxy Master is at protecting your personal information. On the Google Play Store, it claims to ‘secure your Internet traffic with cutting-edge encryption technologies’, but nowhere does it actually disclose the exact encryption it uses, which is concerning. There’s also no information regarding its chosen VPN protocol – we’ve seen several claims that it uses OpenVPN, but there’s no evidence to prove this is the case.

Worryingly, the apps don’t even offer a kill switch feature, meaning if the VPN connection were to drop without you realizing, your true IP address would be exposed to your ISP and other potential snoopers. There’s also no protection against DNS, IPv6 or WebRTC leaks, and a recent report discovered that the apps had previously been infected with malware, putting all of your confidential data at risk. You can read more about this here.

VPN Proxy Master’s vague approach to user privacy is really unnerving, and something we’ve unfortunately seen from a lot of free VPN providers. We also don’t like that the company downright lies on its Google Play Store page, claiming to offer a double VPN feature – we can confirm this is absolutely not the case on the free version of the app. There are far more secure options out there – give this one a miss.

Do not use VPN Proxy Master if you’re planning to connect out from China. In the ‘End User Terms’ on the Google Play Store, the company states that the service cannot be used in China for ‘policy reasons’, and it apologizes for any inconvenience caused. We’re not entirely sure what’s meant by ‘policy reasons’, but we can confidently assume it’s to do with the recent crackdown on VPN providers by the Chinese government.

For this reason, we also wouldn’t recommend VPN Proxy Master to users in other countries with high levels of internet censorship, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Turkey. Not only are there no advanced privacy features to speak of, the incredibly limited server network means that performance would be terrible, as you’d be forced to connect over very long distances to the nearest free-speech country. Not worth the risk.

VPN Proxy Master claims to maintain a ‘no-log’ network, but this is absolutely not the case. It’s true that it doesn’t monitor any of the websites you visit while connected to the VPN, making it better than some of our other free providers, however it does still collect a lot of your personal information, including:

• Your IP address and Internet Service Provider
• Connection timestamp
• Platform, browser and application version
• Information about your mobile device, such as IMEI code

VPN Proxy Master states that this information is necessary for the company to ‘properly conduct its business’, however we see a lot of VPN providers (such as NordVPN) that maintain incredibly large, well-performing server networks and only collect aggregate bandwidth usage. The privacy policy itself is also pretty suspicious – it’s hosted on a very obscure URL and contains lots of typos. Our chosen browser (Google Chrome) also informed us that our connection to the site was ‘not secure’, which is very concerning.

On its website, VPN Proxy Master claims to be based out of Singapore, and while this may be true, after reading through the privacy policy it’s clear that the company also has very strong links to China. It states that ‘Our business may require us to transfer your Personal Data to countries outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”), including to countries such as the People’s Republic of China’, which is a massive red flag.

China has gained a reputation as one of the least privacy-friendly jurisdictions in the world, so why VPN Proxy Master would want to send user data there is absolutely beyond us. There’s also no information in the privacy policy explaining how the company deals with requests from law enforcement agencies or DMCA notices, or clarification as to how long your personal information is stored for. Just reading it made us feel uncomfortable, so there’s no way we’d trust them with our confidential data.

VPN Proxy Master has next to no configurable settings, so it’s no surprise that the apps are incredibly easy to use. The main screen keeps it very simple with an on/off button, your current server location and an animation of the world, which puts on a helmet when you’re connected to the VPN. Clicking on your current country choice will take you to the full server list, but annoyingly you’re presented with the list of ‘VIP’ locations (available to paid users only) and have to click on a separate tab to see the free list.

Clicking through to the settings menu left us incredibly disappointed – there’s only an on/off toggle for notifications and an ‘About Us’ page, nothing more. You’re also presented with annoying popup ads every time you disconnect from the VPN, along with reminders to rate VPN Proxy Master in the Google Play Store. These are designed in such a way that it’s really hard for you to click out of them and get back to the software, so we often ended up force-quitting the app to get rid of them, which is ridiculous.

Getting started with VPN Proxy Master is a pretty simple process – all you have to do is download the relevant app from either the App Store or Google Play Store. The only downside is that there are at least 10 other VPNs and proxies with very similar names, such as ‘VPN Master Proxy’, so it can be a pain knowing which one is the right one.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, you’ll be faced with a screen telling you you need to agree to the privacy policy before using the VPN. Once you’ve clicked this, you’ll then be given two options – a seven day free trial or signing up to the premium plan. Simply click out of this. On the next screen you’ll have the option to select the free plan, and then you can connect to your chosen server. This is another way VPN Proxy Master tries to trick people into signing up to the ‘VIP’ service, which feels very unethical.

VPN Proxy Master’s customer support is basically non-existent. Because there’s no real website, only a page that sends you to the relevant App Store, there are no online resources to speak of. This means no troubleshooting tips, setup guides or even basic FAQs, which is incredibly disappointing, even from a free VPN provider. The closest thing you get to any information about the product is on the Google Play Store, but this is loaded with marketing speak and doesn’t include anywhere near enough technical detail.

You have two options when it comes to contacting a member of the support team. You can either email them (we found the address in the Google Play Store info) or contact them on Facebook messenger. We sent queries via email and messenger and are yet to receive a response from either. VPN Proxy Master does appear to be extremely active on its Facebook page but, again, this is mostly to try and sell the premium version of the service, rather than solve the problems of free users.

VPN Proxy Master is a free VPN for iOS, MacOS and Android that has known links with China and doesn’t seem to place any value on user privacy. Performance is below average on local connections and internationally it’s almost unusable, with high latency and no P2P activity making it a bad choice for gamers and torrenters. Access to Netflix and BBC iPlayer is also currently blocked.

When it comes to privacy features, VPN Proxy Master is one of the worst providers we’ve seen, with absolutely none at all – not even the essential VPN kill switch. The company is based in Singapore but outlines in its privacy policy that it can and will send user data across to mainland China if required, and collects detailed connection logs including your originating IP address, which are stored for an undisclosed period of time. It’s not even clear what encryption and VPN protocol are used in the app, which is worrying.

The custom apps are pretty user-friendly if you can ignore the incessant pop-up ads and constant reminders to rate the company in the Google Play Store. They are, however, only available on iOS, Android and MacOS with no manual workarounds for other devices, including routers. There is no customer support on the website, if you can even call it that, and we didn’t get a response either via email or Facebook messenger. VPN Proxy Master has a lot of work to do before we’d advise anyone to go anywhere near it.