VyprVPN Review

VyrVPN is owned and operated by Golden Frog, itself owned by Powerhouse Management. Powerhouse Management, Golden Frog, VyprVPN, and all related companies belong to Ron and Carolyn Yokubaitis, who have been working in internet access and networking since they started Texas.net in 1994.

Ron and Carolyn Yokubaitis, founders of Golden Frog

In 2009 the couple founded Golden Frog in a direct response to the Room 641a scandal — where it was discovered the NSA had been surveilling AT&T’s networks — and took the Snowden Revelations that occured four years later as validation of the company’s goals.

VyprVPN’s proposition of eliminating as many third parties as possible asks you to put a lot of trust in them. Like all VPN providers VyprVPN has the ability to monitor everything you do online, but this VPN goes a step further by taking control of your DNS requests through parent company Powerhouse Management. You can learn more about VyprVPN’s first-party DNS system later on in this review.

We don’t think you should give that kind of trust to just anybody, so we’ve dug into VyprVPN’s privacy policy and company history.

VyprVPN is now a truly no-logs VPN. In its current privacy policy, it explicitly states:

• We do not log a user’s IP address
• We do not log the IP address assigned to the user when using VyprVPN
• We do not log connection start or stop time
• We do not log a user’s traffic or the content of any communications
• We are network neutral. We do not discriminate against devices, protocols, or applications
• We do not throttle or rate limit your Internet connection

  VyprVPN’s current logging policy

This is an explicit and detailed logging policy that sets out a principled vision for the relationship between user and network provider.

Being network neutral is a key detail: it means VyprVPN won’t run real-time analysis of your traffic or block certain kinds of activity. Importantly it means you can torrent on any server you want.

Similarly, by agreeing not to log your IP address or connection times VyprVPN makes it impossible for a third party to trace an IP back to you, even with a warrant.

This is good news for torrenters – and we’ll go over this in more detail later in the review.

A few years ago VyprVPN’s logging policy far exceeded what we consider reasonable. It has since remedied this, and we now feel comfortable recommending VyprVPN as a private service.

You can still see the old privacy policy using the Wayback Machine. It states that Golden Frog retains “the user’s source IP address, the VyprVPN IP address used by the user, connection start and stop time and total number of bytes used” for 30 days.

VyprVPN’s old privacy policy

This information is enough to totally deanonymize users, and there are many examples of VyprVPN using this data to hand over its users’ information to DMCA trolls.

Unsurprisingly, this upset some of the service’s users.

By 2017, VyprVPN’s outdated approach to user privacy had earned it a negative reputation online.

Thankfully, Golden Frog eventually caught wind of this and updated it’s approach to user data.

The result is that In 2018, VyprVPN led the industry by being one of the first VPN providers to commission an independent audit of its logging policy. The audit was carried out by Leviathan Security Group, a consultancy firm specializing in information security and policy.

The audit found some issues with how personally identifiable information was being handled.

VyprVPN took action to remedy these problems, and afterwards Leviathan confirmed that its VPN servers don’t retain personally identifiable Information about users unless it is necessary for VyprVPN’s business operations.

This was great… in 2018. It’s been years since the audit, though, and we think VyprVPN is overdue for another audit, not just of its logging policy but also of its app and server security.

A commitment to regular, timetabled audits with publicly-available reports is the standard we want to see VPN providers move towards.

Golden Frog also has a specific copyright policy, which we discuss in the Torrenting section of this review.

Jurisdiction

Golden Frog is named after the endangered Panamanian amphibian

While it is owned and operated from Texas, US, Golden Frog is incorporated in Switzerland: a plus for user privacy – although not as big as some will claim.

Switzerland is often called a ‘privacy haven’ because it isn’t in the EU or a major data sharing alliance like the Five Eyes or SIGINT. This means it doesn’t have a formal structure set up for sharing surveillance data.

But Switzerland does sometimes share information with other countries. It also has data retention laws, the BÜPF & VÜPF, but they are comparatively lax compared to those of other countries.

The significant difference is that this cannot be done casually and that there is no law compelling VPN providers to keep logs in Switzerland.

It’s definitely preferable to incorporation in Texas — the US is one of the least privacy friendly nations on earth — but Switzerland isn’t the absolute haven Golden Frog and others portray it as.

Crucially, Golden Frog doesn’t retain any data for governments to share in the first place.

VyprVPN’s huge VPN server network of over 200,000 IP addresses is one of the biggest we’ve seen from any VPN service – it’s a truly massive number, and great news for reliable speed performance.

The choice of 73 cities spread over 64 countries is a much more normal number, but still a good selection for VyprVPN subscribers.

The servers are pretty evenly spread around the world, too, with 14 locations in Asia, seven in Central and South America, five in Oceania, five in the Middle East, and two in Africa. The choice of locations in Africa is fairly limited, with just Algeria and Egypt on offer.

We were shocked at the lack of city-level servers, though – VyprVPN currently offers city-specific choice in only two countries (US and Australia).

VyprVPN’s US servers are located in:

• Austin
• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• Miami
• New York
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Washington D.C.

Server choice in Australia covers Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney.

Unusually, there’s no city-level choice in Canada or the UK. If that’s important to you, head over to our guides covering the best VPNs for Canada and the UK.

VyprVPN states that its servers offer “end-to-end” privacy, and this is really the core of its unique offering. VyprVPN owns and operates all of its own servers under the company name Powerhouse Management.

This is a strong step towards privacy by design, as it eliminates the security risks that have been associated with renting servers or rapidly expanding a server network. Combined with Golden Frog’s in-house DNS service, VyprDNS, this means you only need to trust one party when you connect to the internet – VyprVPN itself.

It also has dynamic server switching, which seamlessly changes your server depending on load and server availability. This helps to maintain a consistently high quality connection without interrupting your service.

At the same time, it helps to keep your connection up and, when combined with the kill switch, practically eliminates the risk of your IP or DNS leaking.

VyprVPN is encrypted with gold standard AES-256 and uses OpenVPN: an open-source VPN protocol which is widely considered the most reliable and rigorously tested option. It performs well in all our security tests, too. We recommend it as a secure option.

It even has a NAT firewall to block any unrequested traffic coming into your device when connected to VyprVPN.

On top of this, it features an all-important kill switch, which stops your traffic from being exposed even if your VPN connection drops out momentarily.

There’s no support for port forwarding in VyprVPN’s apps, though, which some advanced users might miss.

There’s some variation between different platforms when it comes to advanced security features. For instance PC features a “public wifi protection” option not available on Mac, and Mac features split tunneling and a malware blocker absent from the PC app. We’ve broken down all these features by app later in the review.

We’ve already briefly mentioned VyprDNS, Golden Frog’s DNS network, but it’s an important element of what makes VyprVPN so secure. We’re going to investigate it in even more detail here, as well as test it to make sure it’s working.

According to VyprVPN, its in-house DNS service holds these benefits:

• No DNS logs: VyprDNS is “zero-knowledge,” which means it doesn’t retain logs of hotnames, IP addresses, geolocation data or anything else.
• No DNS censorship: DNS servers can be used to censor access to specific websites at the request of governments or ISPs, but VyprDNS tunnels your data to prevent this from happening.
• No DNS location errors: DNS servers located in different countries to your VPN server can cause issues when accessing geo-locked content. VyprDNS avoids this by putting a DNS server in the same country as each VPN server.
• No injected content: it is technically possible for a DNS provider to inject ads or content into your browser’s DNS requests (Hotspot Shield was caught injecting code into users’ browsers in 2017). VyprVPN DNS servers don’t manipulate any of the content on the websites you visit.

The service is turned on by default, but you can toggle it off if you’d stick to public DNS servers provided by companies like Google and Amazon.

VyprVPN Leak Tests

We thoroughly tested VyprVPN to check for data leaks, malware, and assess the strength of its encryption. In short, the results came out completely clean. Our IP address, WebRTC, and DNS all appeared under german IP addresses, and didn’t give up our true location in London, UK.

Partial leak test, showing 3rd party DNS

Here’s what we found when we ran VyprDNS through a leak test:

As you can see, the DNS servers aren’t showing up as VyprVPN, Golden Frog, or even Powerhouse Management, but as the very companies the service is supposed to help you avoid: Google and Amazon.

We were concerned this might mean that VyprDNS wasn’t working properly. We reached out to VyprVPN, which clarified that it uses a DNS relay system.

This means that before your DNS traffic reaches any public DNS servers it is routed through a DNS proxy, fully anonymizing your traffic. This isn’t quite the same as total end-to-end elimination of third parties, but it gets about as close to eliminating third parties as is possible without signalling to websites that a VPN is being used.

Full VyprVPN leak test

But that’s just DNS. Here are the results of another, full leak test:

These top-level checks are good, and show that VyprVPN wasn’t leaking any other data. However, they don’t guarantee your data is fully encrypted and protected from third parties.

We’ve gone a step further than other websites and inspected the packets of data being sent by VyprVPN to make absolutely certain it is properly encrypted.

We use Wireshark to inspect individual packets of data in DNS, TCP, and UDP traffic to make sure absolutely nothing is visible in plain text.

Wireshark scan of WiFi while connected to VyprVPN

Here are our results:

This is an excellent outcome; exactly what we would expect from a top tier provider like VyprVPN.

We always want to be extra vigilant, so we’ve also scanned the VyprVPN desktop app using Malwarebytes looking for any potentially dangerous or malicious content.

Malwarebytes scan of VyprVPN

Thankfully, it came out both virus- and malware-free.

Closed Source Apps

One thing we would like VyprVPN to work on is making its apps open-source, so they can be scrutinised by the wider information security community.

It doesn’t look like this is going to happen; CTO Michael Douglass even wrote a piece passionately opposed to open-sourcing VyprVPN in 2016.

His argument is that obscurity helps to keep VyprVPN secure, and that the specific workings of its software helps to maintain a competitive edge in the market-place.

This is an inadequate explanation which places VyprVPN’s direct commercial interests before transparency for its users.

Aside from the fact that “security by obscurity” has been widely debunked as a concept in the industry, we believe it is important that users be given total transparency, particularly because VPNs hold such responsibility for what happens to user data.

VyprVPN isn’t as fast as our overall best VPN services but it’s certainly no slouch, with speeds more than quick enough to do almost anything you want online. We measured an average speed loss of 16% when connected to a nearby server, which is an above average result.

It’s shown some big improvements on global speeds recently, too.

We measured our connection speeds before and after connecting to VyprVPN’s servers to test its performance. We found that VyprVPN’s upload speeds are really strong – an improvement over the last time we tested them – reaching as high as 87.71Mbps.

Download speed without VyprVPN: 91.58Mbps

Download speed with VyprVPN: 77.2Mbps

Our download speeds loss when VyprVPN is running: 16%

Speedy ping times of just over 10ms between London and European servers mean VyprVPN is an ideal VPN for keen gamers, too. Golden Frog clearly has experience in this area; alongside VyprVPN it runs Outfox, a dedicated gaming provider.

We also found VyprVPN very reliable overall, with very little fluctuation in speed from one server location to the next. As long as you have a stable internet connection, you shouldn’t have any issues with VyprVPN’s performance. That said, if speed is your primary concern, there are better VPNs on the market.

Long-Distance Speed Tests

We saw speeds on same city connections stay about the same as in our previous tests, but international speeds improve significantly. This is important if you’re looking to unblock websites or stream content from distant countries.

To show the improvement, we’ve compared our results from June 2019 with those taken in January 2020.

Download Speed

• US server speed up from 21.13Mbps to 54.82Mbps between tests
• France server speed up from 70.35Mbps to 74.69Mbps between tests
• Japan server speed up from 8.99Mbps to 34.22Mbps between tests
• Singapore server speed up from 16.98Mbps to 19.21Mbps between tests
• Australian server speed up from 23.26Mbps to 33.13Mbps between tests

Upload Speed

• US server speed down from 54.01Mbps to 44.41Mbps between tests
• France server speed up from 49.89Mbps to 87.78Mbps between tests
• Japan server speed up from 0.19Mbps to 14.51Mbps between tests
• Singapore server speed up from 2.87Mbps to 14.29Mbps between tests
• Australia server speed up from 3.89Mbps to 8.86Mbps between tests

On almost all connections we saw notable speed improvements for both uploads and downloads.

While global speeds have been a weakness for VyprVPN in the past, this is clearly no longer the case.

VyprVPN works well in China – in fact, it’s one of the most reliable VPN services for bypassing censorship, although it isn’t our number one choice.

VyprVPN’s proprietary Chameleon protocol is designed to bypass aggressive censorship and VPN blocks in countries like Russia, China and UAE. It’s currently available on every VPN server, too.

In countries with advanced censorship infrastructure like China’s Great Firewall, just encrypting data is not enough. These countries will run something called deep packet inspection (DPI) to determine if certain packets of data belong to a VPN.

If they identify a VPN they will simply block the connection, keeping you from accessing the free and open internet.

VyprVPN’s Chameleon protocol works by scrambling the metadata of each OpenVPN packet, preventing it from being identified through DPI. This allows it to avoid detection from governments, ISPs, and other network administrators like your employer, school or university.

Underneath the obfuscation technology lies the unmodified OpenVPN protocol, with tried and tested AES-256 encryption. This means you can overcome censorship without giving up security – a really strong feature.

The company released Chameleon 2.0, the latest version of their proprietary protocol, in January 2020. The update comes with new cloaking technology, improved reliability, and additional compatibility with Windows, Android, MacOS, and iOS.

Chameleon 2.0 is still called “Chameleon” in current versions of the app, and is not shown as a separate protocol. To use it, simply choose the Chameleon protocol option in the application’s interface and click connect. If you haven’t downloaded VyprVPN yet, you’ll need to select a Premium account under the billing options to get access to the latest version.

Just be sure to download VyprVPN before you travel to China, as it’s currently banned in Chinese app stores.

If you want to connect out of China, keep an eye on the VyprVPN subreddit, too. The company posts regular updates about how its service is performing in China as well as troubleshooting tips for any potential issues.

Currently, you need to be using the beta version of the app to get reliable access in China for PC or iOS.

It’s not just China, either – VyprVPN works in other high-censorship countries like:

• UAE
• Saudi Arabia
• Turkey
• Russia
• Thailand
• Syria

Its global network of bare-metal servers means a VPN server is never that far away. So you should get decent VPN speeds from any of these regions, too.

A good VPN can help you access content on streaming services which have been blocked in your region. We’ve tested VyprVPN to see how it matches up to the competition when trying to unblock content.

VyprVPN works well with Netflix on most of its US servers. Occasionally we found a server that doesn’t work, but in our most recent tests all of the VPN servers we checked had access to Netflix on our first try. Even better, the video quality was excellent.

There aren’t dedicated “streaming” or “torrenting” servers, but enough of VyprVPN’s servers work for streaming that it doesn’t really matter.

We also found that VyprVPN works to unblock the British, Canadian, Japanese, and German Netflix libraries.

If you have any problems streaming Netflix, check out VyprVPN’s support page that has a series of troubleshooting tips. In our experience, the live chat agents are always happy to help, too.

Hulu fans are also in luck – VyprVPN works without any issues.

Streaming local content on VyprVPN’s non-US servers can be frustrating, though, with services like BBC iPlayer not always available, which is a shame.

For reliable access we recommend using one of the best VPN services for BBC iPlayer instead.

We’ve also tested VyprVPN and found it can unlock Disney+, which means you’ll be able to watch great shows like the Mandalorian even if you aren’t based in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Puerto Rico.

Setting up a Disney+ account isn’t as easy as Netflix or iPlayer, though. You can learn more on our dedicated Disney+ page.

VyprVPN lets you access region specific content on YouTube too, although we’ve yet to see a VPN which doesn’t.

VyprVPN allows torrenting and P2P activity on all its VPN servers, and it works great, too.

However, VyprVPN used to engage in controversial practices when it came to torrenting activity.

In fact, on receipt of DMCA notices listing VyprVPN/Golden Frog IP addresses, VyprVPN staff would locate the user account involved and lock it.

That’s all in the past now, and VyprVPN has since gone no-logs (backed by an independent audit) and doesn’t lock accounts anymore.

VyprVPN’s kill switch feature and first-party DNS servers are great pluses, which mean that your personal identity is hidden during file-sharing.

As we spoke about in the logging section of this review, Golden Frog has significantly changed its privacy policy – but the copyright policy remains broadly unchanged.

At first the current policies seem to hold some conflict. The Copyright Policy states that “it is Golden Frog’s policy:

1. to remove or disable access to the content identified in the notice of claimed infringement;
2. to notify the subscriber that it has removed or disabled access to the content; and
3. to terminate in appropriate circumstances subscribers who are repeat infringers.”

There are several concerning things about this policy. It implies that VyprVPN might be running real-time analysis on its users’ traffic to identify torrenting of prohibited content, or it might be keeping a record of users’ IP addresses and connection times, then cross-referencing this information with DMCA requests from copyright holders.

Either of these practices would contradict privacy policies promised by Golden Frog: that it “treats all traffic equally” and that it doesn’t log IP addresses or connection times.

Thankfully, VyprVPN’s actions don’t mirror this conflict. We haven’t seen any examples of customers receiving such notices or having accounts locked since VyprVPN changed its policies.

The copyright policy appears to have remained mainly for the benefit of copyright holders, with VyprVPN having taken a privacy by design approach which allows them maintain a strict no-infringement policy without the capacity to identify any infringement.

Clarity is clearly a priority in all VyprVPN’s apps. The simple and uncluttered desktop apps are incredibly easy to set up and use.

Choosing a server location couldn’t be simpler, either, and VyprVPN keeps all the advanced options you may want to tinker with in one place, clearly explained in plain English.

The features and interface on offer do vary a bit by device though:

Windows

The VyprVPN Windows app

The VyprVPN Windows app feels great to use.

It has a big central “Connect” button, with a country select button just above. At the bottom of the screen there are three tabs: customize, connection, servers. This is simple and easy – everything we want from a VPN app.

The customise tab reveals a set of useful features, from toggles like public wifi protection and a kill switch to more complex controls for DNS, VPN protocol, and TAP Adapter settings.

You can customize what notifications you receive on desktop, too, a great little feature.

By default Windows uses OpenVPN to connect – our protocol of choice – but you also have IKEv2 and VyprVPN’s obfuscation protocol, Chameleon, to choose from.

MacOS

The MacOS app does all the same things as the Windows app, offering easy access to all VyprVPN’s servers as well as toggles for advanced features.

Unlike the Windows app, though, it includes both split tunneling and a malicious site blocker.

The malicious site blocker is a good feature, although it’s made redundant by several free security browser extensions that do a better job.

Split tunneling, on the other hand, is an exceptionally useful feature which allows you to route some traffic inside the VPN while keeping other traffic outside. This allows you, for instance, to have your web browser within the VPN but a gaming connection outside, or your email client within the VPN and a web browser outside.

There are some downsides compared to the Windows app, too.

You won’t be able to set the Mac app to run on start-up, or access the TAP adapter controls.

The default VPN protocol on Mac is IKEv2. We tend to prefer OpenVPN for desktops but this is a secure and well tested alternative.

Both OpenVPN and the Chameleon protocol are available, too, so you can switch to those if necessary.

Android

VyprVPN Android app

The Android app is slick and visually very similar to the design of the desktop apps. Its features are pretty much on par with the MacOS and Windows apps, too.

You get split tunneling, a kill switch, VyprDNS, and plenty more. The only features absent from the Android app are TAP adapter controls and a malicious site blocker.

It can run on either OpenVPN or the Chameleon protocol, both good choices. If you’re in a censored region or you suspect your network provider might block a VPN go for Chameleon, otherwise the default OpenVPN is your best choice.

The Android app is our favorite of the bunch.

iOS

The iOS app functions in much the same way as the Android one. It’s quick and easy to use and navigate, like all of VyprVPN’s apps.

It lacks some of the features of the other apps, though. There is no kill switch, for instance, which is a pretty major omission (although there aren’t many VPNs that have one on iOS). There also isn’t split tunneling, which limits the utility of the app somewhat.

Most significantly, you won’t be able to access VyprDNS, one of VyprVPN’s unique selling points. A real shame.

IKEv2 is the default protocol. This isn’t our favorite for PC or MacOS but is particularly strong on mobile connections, so we think it’s a good call here.

You can still access the Chameleon protocol, too, which is a plus.

Router

VyprVPN router app

The custom router app only works on certain Tomato flashed routers, but offers great utility with explicit router level considerations.

On top of the basic VyprVPN operation, it includes port forwarding controls, access restriction, per device controls, and support for all VyprVPN’s protocols (including Chameleon and OpenVPN at the AES-256 level of encryption). A great suite of features.

It also has USB and NAS controls which allow you to get the most out of your local network while still running the VPN at router level.

The VyprVPN router app gives you the ability to trace your bandwidth usage over time (stored locally). While not totally necessary, this does let you keep a close eye on the levels of activity in your local network.

Most of all, it facilitates quick and easy connection changes for all your home devices to anywhere in the VyprVPN network.

Smart TV

VyprVPN Smart TV app

Available for Android TVs and Amazon Fire TV devices, the VyprVPN smart TV app differs in user interface from the other apps on offer – a good thing considering the radically different capabilities of a TV remote compared to a touchscreen or mouse.

The app has been simplified even more, meaning some features are absent, too. It has WiFi protection for unsafe networks and a kill switch – both great features – but nothing else.

This isn’t a surprise for a smart TV app, as they tend to be fairly limited.

There are some reporting settings – app data, crash reports and (locally stored) connection logs – which are all turned on by default.

This kind of telemetry to improve performance is fine when users consent, but we VyprVPN should be more upfront that it’s happening.

Uniquely among the VyprVPN apps, the smart TV app has an option for both AES-128 and AES-256 encryption (the other apps only offer the more secure AES-256).

VyprVPN claims the AES-128 encryption option can be faster, but we wouldn’t recommend using it as it is less secure than AES-256, which has become the industry standard.

We’ve seen better support than VyprVPN offer, but it’s certainly satisfactory and offers more to international audiences than other providers.

VyprVPN has online support resources in multiple languages, including:

• Chinese
• Dutch
• English
• French
• German
• Portugese
• Spanish
• Turkish

This many options is surprisingly rare among VPN providers. A good start.

Less impressive is the scope of those resources. Compared to other VPN providers, VyprVPN’s online resources are pretty poor. There are no video tutorials and there’s not much in-depth advice on advanced issues.

The setup guides are very useful, though.

Getting in touch via the 24/7 live chat is by far the best way to get help from VyprVPN. Responses can take a few minutes, but the customer support agents are always clear, helpful and friendly.

We spoke to VyprVPN about streaming with the VPN

VyprVPN offers a 30-day refund guarantee, so you have proper time to get to know the service before committing.

We think this is great for users, and are glad the 30-day refund guarantee is becoming standard for high profile VPN providers.

VyprVPN accepts a few different payment methods including most major credit and debit cards, PayPal, and UnionPay.

It doesn’t accept any forms of cryptocurrency, though, and international options are very limited compared to top-tier VPNs. Don’t expect a totally anonymous process.

VyprVPN’s Chameleon protocol leads the market, and its VyprDNS service allows it to offer a unique proposal in security, privacy, and anonymity. Add a kill switch, an audited no logs policy, well designed apps, competitive pricing and successful leak tests, and we can enthusiastically recommend VyprVPN.

That said, it isn’t without fault, and there are several ways in which VyprVPN could improve. It needs more anonymous payment methods, we’d like to see open source applications, and we don’t like the number of third-party trackers built into the Android app. VyprVPN could benefit from more regular audits, and the shadow of VyprVPN’s past torrenting policy is still present, even if the company has resolved the issue.

If any of these things give you pause for thought, you should look into an alternative. If not, then this is a very, very good VPN.