VPN Unlimited Review

VPN Unlimited is an attractively-priced, solid VPN that’s available on a wide range of platforms. Speeds on local connections are very good but performance across the network is a little less consistent, with sluggish latency and P2P limited to a very small number of servers. Access to Netflix and iPlayer is quick and hassle-free through servers optimized for video. User-friendly custom apps are available for loads of devices, including Amazon Fire TV, as well as routers.

VPN Unlimited offers some solid privacy features but lacks a VPN killswitch, which is disappointing. Its logging policy is vague and misleading, which isn’t ideal for a company based in the privacy-unfriendly US. The proprietary KeepSolid Wise protocol means the apps work in China, and customer support is informative and helpful but lacks live chat.

VPN Unlimited offers a range of pricing plans to help you decide which is best for you. These all have the same features but the longer subscription you choose, the less you pay each month.

The most expensive option is the single month package at $9.99, but this is reduced by 50% to a very affordable $5.00 if you sign up to the 12-month plan. VPN Unlimited is also one of the only providers we’ve seen that offers an Infinity subscription, and at just $149.99 it’s fantastic value for money if you’re planning on using a VPN for the foreseeable future.

VPN Unlimited offers both a free trial and a money-back guarantee. The free trial gives you full access to the service for 7 days, so you can check that you’re making the right choice before you hand over any of your payment details. All you have to do is create a KeepSolid account, click on the link in your verification email and you’re able to download and use the apps free of charge. Unlike many other providers, you’re not automatically upgraded to a paid subscription when the trial ends, which we love.

If you aren’t completely satisfied with VPN Unlimited, you’re entitled to a full refund within the first 7 days. This is a genuine ‘no questions asked’ money-back guarantee with no hidden restrictions or data caps, making signing up to the service relatively risk-free.

VPN Unlimited offers decent speeds on local connections, peaking at 102Mbps in the UK and consistently reaching 50Mbps+ across Europe. US results have drastically improved on recent tests, so you can now expect speeds of around 53Mbps connecting out to the east coast from the UK. Considering we test from London, it was also great to see speedy performance of up to 43Mbps on more distant servers such as Australia, which is more than quick enough for buffer-free HD streaming.

We found latency overall to be a little sluggish, coming in at an average of 8ms on popular servers. Gamers may wish to look for snappier alternatives, with some top-tier providers offering ping times as low as 2ms.

VPN Unlimited connects in around 12 seconds, which is a little slower than we’d like as during this time your true IP address can be exposed. However once we were up and running, performance was very reliable with very few connection drop-outs, so as long as you have a stable internet connection you shouldn’t have any problems.

Uploads were good enough on Euro servers, however all locations outside of Europe (barring the US and Canada) struggled to reach speeds of 10Mbps, which is pretty disappointing. Australia was incredibly slow, just about reaching a paltry 2Mbps. P2P is only permitted on a handful of servers so torrenters may wish to look elsewhere.

If you only need to connect to nearby servers, VPN Unlimited could be a great choice, however if you need quick international uploads and downloads then it’s perhaps not the best option due to lack of consistency across its global network.

To read about our speed testing methodologies, please read How we test for VPN speed performance.

VPN Unlimited offers an average-sized server network, covering the most popular locations across 50 countries. This will probably be more than enough choice for most, however should you need access to servers in any unusually exotic places there are other providers that do offer these.

We were slightly disappointed by the number of individual IP addresses maintained by VPN Unlimited at just over 1,200, as this simply doesn’t measure up to the 100,000+ IPs offered by some of its rival providers. This also means that popular servers reach full capacity very quickly, resulting in a reduced level of performance, which isn’t ideal.

We love seeing a choice of 13 different US cities at this price point, with a good east/west coast spread as well as options in southern states. There’s also city-level choice in the UK, France, Germany and Canada.

As usual, Europe offers the most choice with over 30 server locations, but it was good to see two servers in India plus one in Turkey. Coverage in Asia is decent, including Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. South America offers Brazil and Chile only, and the sole option in Africa is South Africa.

You can find the complete list of VPN Unlimited server locations by country and purpose on their website below.

VPN Unlimited offers a good range of custom apps for the usual popular platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android. They have also partnered with FlashRouters so you can buy pre-configured routers with the software already installed, saving you having to setup multiple apps on individual devices.

VPN Unlimited additionally provides a range of manual set-up guides for devices lacking dedicated apps such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire Stick and Chromecast. There are also step-by-step instructions on how to manually configure your existing router to support the software, which are very user-friendly and include lots of helpful screenshots.

VPN Unlimited also offers proxy extensions for Chrome and Firefox browsers. They are incredibly easy to download and use, and can be added to your browser in a matter of seconds if you already have the main app installed. As an added bonus they feature a WebRTC Leak Blocker, an extremely useful tool that helps to prevent a browser issue that could potentially expose your true IP address.

Whilst these are great additions to the main apps, it’s good to note that these are proxies rather than true VPN extensions, meaning they don’t encrypt your web traffic. A good choice for heavy browser users seeking a more lightweight experience.

You can use VPN Unlimited on a range of games consoles and streaming devices either by connecting them to a configured router or sharing the VPN connection with another device already running the software, such as a laptop or smartphone. This includes devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick and TV and many more, which is where VPN Unlimited’s generous limit of 5 simultaneous connections really comes in handy.

There are extensive set-up guides for loads of these devices on the support section of the website which are incredibly easy to follow. It’s rare for a provider to offer so many manual workarounds for such a large range of streaming devices, and we love that VPN Unlimited has gone to so much effort to make the process as simple as possible.

VPN Unlimited is a fantastic choice if you’re looking for fast, hassle-free access to all the major streaming services due to its servers optimized for video. Watching US Netflix is made simple with the ‘Streaming Netflix’ server, which is helpfully located at the top of the server list. We’ve had absolutely no problems accessing this service in any of our tests, and have actually found it to be one of the more reliable options out there.

The story is the same with BBC iPlayer, which is easily accessible through its dedicated streaming server. Great speeds on the UK server mean you can take advantage of the HD option and watch your favorite shows in excellent quality.

Easy access and decent speeds means VPN Unlimited is also popular with fans of other streaming sites such as Hulu, as it can be used across many different services. Heavy P2P restrictions mean torrenters might want to look elsewhere though, as currently P2P is only permitted on five servers in total.

VPN Unlimited offers some strong security features that should satisfy even the more privacy-conscious VPN user. The app is OpenVPN-only and while it might have been nice to have some more choice, it’s the fastest and most secure protocol. Other protocols can be used with some manual set-up outside the app for those that need them. Encryption is via AES-256, a top cipher used by the US federal government.

We were really disappointed by the lack of VPN killswitch, as this means that if the VPN connection were to drop without you noticing, your browsing activity would no longer be protected and your true IP address would be exposed. However we do love the DNS leak blocker that routes all traffic through its first-party DNS servers, preventing your DNS requests from being accidentally sent to your ISP.

VPN Unlimited also offers its own proprietary KeepSolid Wise protocol that makes use of the TCP 443 port used by secure web traffic (HTTPS). This means it’s far more difficult for ISPs and government censors to detect that you’re using a VPN, as you will simply appear as normal browser traffic.

Even despite China’s recent VPN crackdowns, it would appear that VPN Unlimited is still a fairly reliable option for people wishing to connect out from that country.

VPN Unlimited’s KeepSolid Wise protocol enables users from China to overcome the Great Firewall by making their VPN traffic appear as standard HTTPS web traffic. This makes it extremely difficult to detect and block, therefore allowing the majority of people to beat the government censors. It should be noted that Chinese users only currently have access to 6 VPN regions, but this does include Singapore which is the best option if you’re looking for good speeds.

Due to this proprietary protocol, VPN Unlimited is also a fantastic choice for people in other high-censorship countries such as the UAE, Turkey and Iran. A good-sized global network is helpful here, as it means you’ll never be too far from a server in a free speech country.

We found VPN Unlimited’s logging policy rather confusing and a little too vague for our liking. It claims it doesn’t monitor or log any of your online activity, which is reassuring, however it does keep a temporary record of your basic connection details, such as data usage volume and the IP address used to access the service.

After delving a little deeper, we found out that VPN Unlimited does in fact keep traffic data logs so that it can suspend users it suspects are violating the terms of service. This isn’t too much of an issue, however we don’t like that this isn’t made clear in the privacy policy, and we had to directly email the support team in order to find this out.

VPN Unlimited is incorporated in the United States, which many potential users might see as a red flag. This means that law enforcement agencies could force it to log and hand over customer data, and in its privacy policy it does state that it will hand over personal private data in order to comply with laws that require such disclosure.

This shouldn’t raise too many concerns as VPN Unlimited only stores your data for a maximum of 7 days, however it is slightly worrying that this data can be handed over without your consent. Those seeking complete anonymity should steer clear.

VPN Unlimited’s custom apps are above-average looking and incredibly user-friendly. The main screen of the desktop client displays your connection status, chosen server location and new IP address on a nice-looking (if somewhat redundant) world map. We would prefer it to be a little more streamlined so it would fit in a smaller window, but overall you could do a lot worse.

Advanced settings are actually quite difficult to find, as they’re buried in a sub-menu on the Account screen. Once you know where they are, they’re actually very well laid out with lots of helpful integrated support regarding the different VPN protocols. We love that you can search for a server rather than having to scroll through a long list, and those which allow torrents are clearly marked to make them easy to find.

There are a fair few redundant elements that could be removed to make the app a little more polished, such as the Information section which is mainly social media buttons and general facts about the company. The mobile apps are pretty similar, with a fresh and modern feel that makes them very accessible to new users.

VPN Unlimited is incredibly easy to download and install, and the whole process only takes a few minutes from start to finish. Whatever device you’re using, there are loads of detailed set-up guides on the support section of the site. It’s as simple as downloading the relevant software from the website and following the prompts given to you by the installation wizard, then all that’s left to do is enter your login credentials and you’re ready to go.

The prompts themselves are very straightforward to follow but should you get stuck, the set-up guides should get you back on the right track.

VPN Unlimited offers a high standard of customer support but needs to introduce a live chat feature to bring it up to speed with its rivals. We were however very impressed with their quick email response times, often getting a reply within 10 minutes, however occasionally we did have to wait a little longer. The quality of response was mixed and felt like a combination of individual response and copy/paste from the website, but stayed on topic and didn’t add masses of irrelevant FAQ fluff.

The online resources are comprehensive and well-organized, and we love the FAQ search feature that means you can look up key words rather than scrolling through a long list of answers. As well as a fantastic selection of set-up manuals, there was good material on more general subjects such as online security, bypassing censorship and data privacy, which is always useful.

VPN Unlimited is an affordable VPN offering a decent level of security and performance, however it does have some flaws. It’s the only provider with a lifetime subscription option, meaning there are huge savings to be had if you’re willing to use the service for the foreseeable future. Speeds are good enough on local connections, but international performance is inconsistent. High latency and P2P restrictions mean heavy torrenters and gamers should look elsewhere.

In terms of privacy, VPN Unlimited has upsides and downsides. We love the proprietary KeepSolid Wise protocol that offers an extra layer of encryption to help overcome government blocks in high-censorship countries, however we really missed the VPN killswitch. Its logging policy is also pretty questionable, so steer clear if absolute privacy is your priority.

We love the user-friendly software for desktop and mobile, with optimized servers for Netflix and BBC iPlayer to make streaming a breeze. Additional obfuscation tools mean it can be made to work in China, although you’ll only have access to six server locations. Inexperienced users will love this solid, well-rounded VPN that comes with a helpful support team and easy-to-use, attractive software.