Windscribe VPN Review

Here’s a summary of the data that Windscribe logs:

As you can see, Windscribe does log some data, which it claims are needed for maintenance purposes. This isn’t ideal as other true no-log VPN services, like Private Internet Access, function without retaining anything. We wish Windscribe would do the same.

The important thing is that none of the information can be used to personally identify you from your online activity. This has been verified many times by real-world events.

Windscribe maintains a page documenting the 100+ law enforcement data requests it’s received since 2018. In every case, Windscribe hasn’t shared any user data as it doesn’t have access to it. We’d still like to see a third-party audit as well, though, as an extra safeguard.

For additional privacy, Windscribe allows you to sign up using cryptocurrency if you don’t want to provide a name or address. In addition, its diskless server network means data can’t be extracted from a server.

You can see how Windscribe’s logging policy compares to other VPNs in the table below:

To determine Windscribe’s speed performance, we tested the speed of the connection between our location and Windscribe VPN servers around the world.

Here’s a table showing Windscribe Pro’s speed test results:

We saw download speeds decrease from 100Mbps to 96Mbps connecting to a same-city server. This is a drop of only 4%, which is very fast and among the best results of any VPN we’ve tested. Speeds were very consistent from one test to the next. We didn’t experience any connection drops while connected to Windscribe servers, either.

But, as you can see, Windscribe’s international speeds are slower than its short-distance ones. Despite being ranked as the joint third-fastest VPN for local connections, it falls to the sixteenth position when it comes to international speeds.

We recorded a download speed loss of 20% connecting to South Africa and 16% connecting to Australia.

To put this in context, you can compare Windscribe’s international speeds to other top VPNs in the chart below.

That said, these speeds have improved a lot recently thanks to Windscribe’s addition of the WireGuard protocol. Previously, using OpenVPN, we recorded a 4x slower download speed on the Australia and Japan servers. We hope Windscribe can continue to optimize its app to deliver faster speeds.

Low Ping for Gaming

While connected to a nearby Windscribe server, we recorded an impressive ping time of 6ms. Using it, we played fast-paced competitive games, like Overwatch 2, without any lag. This puts it among the best gaming VPNs, which all register local ping times of 10ms or less.

Windscribe’s ping is low enough for lag-free gaming.

The VPN performed poorly on long-distance servers, though, at 152ms in the US and 450ms in Japan. It’s not a good choice for accessing easier gaming lobbies from abroad.

Windscribe Free Speed Test Results

Here are the results we recorded using Windscribe’s free version:

Though impressive for a free VPN, it falls short when compared to the top-performing free VPNs such as Hotspot Shield and Proton VPN. Both VPNs are over 8% faster on local connections. More notably, Hotspot Shield exceeds Windscribe’s international connection speeds by an average of 12%.

You can see a full list of the VPN protocols, encryption ciphers, and extra technical features that Windscribe has in the table below:

Unencrypted Ukrainian Servers

Although we still rate Windscribe as a highly-secure VPN, we’ve recently downgraded its Security & Features rating due to a security breach.

In June 2021, two of Windscribe’s servers were seized by the Ukrainian government. These servers were unencrypted as Windscribe incorrectly didn’t consider Ukraine a “high sensitivity region.”

However, despite the claims of many other VPN review websites, there is no evidence that Windscribe user traffic was monitored.

For traffic monitoring to be possible, a user had to be connected to Ukraine through a manual configuration file while using OpenVPN and a legacy DNS resolver. It is very unlikely that all of these conditions were met.

We’d like to see Windscribe commission third-party security audits to prevent this from happening again. In our TunnelBear review, you can read how it used audits to identify vulnerabilities and fix them before they could be used to jeopardize the privacy and security of its customers.

Uses Secure Tunneling Protocols & Encryption

Both the free and paid versions of Windscribe use industry-standard VPN protocols and encryption methods.

Thankfully, the app now automatically uses WireGuard, which is a trustworthy open-sourced protocol. Previously, the app defaulted to IKEv2, a closed-source protocol that we only recommend using if security is not a priority.

The VPN software encrypts network traffic using AES-256. This encryption method is virtually unbreakable and can be trusted to protect sensitive web data.

Using Wireshark, a packet-sniffing tool, we verified that Windscribe securely encrypts web traffic. It obfuscated all incoming and outgoing network packets.

Windscribe securely encrypts network traffic.

Both the free and premium version of the software uses a secure SHA512 authentication key for the handshake. We’re pleased to see this as it’s more secure than SHA-256, which many other VPNs use.

Furthermore, the VPN operates Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), which ensures encryption keys aren’t reused between sessions. Even if someone got their hands on your private key, it becomes useless as soon as you disconnect.

In the case of the Ukrainian server seizures we mentioned above, PFS blocked anyone from accessing historic VPN user traffic.

Windscribe’s Unique Firewall Setting

Windscribe’s “Firewall” setting in the Windows and macOS software stood out during our testing process. This feature is very similar to a typical kill switch, but more effective.

The Firewall blocks all connections outside the VPN tunnel. With a normal kill switch, the VPN program has to detect a VPN connection drop, and during that time, small data packets can potentially leak.

We verified that Windscribe’s firewall feature worked as described using our kill switch testing tool. This tool scans for IP address leaks when the internet connection drops.

As you can see in the image below, Windscribe’s kill switch successfully blocked our internet traffic and stopped our real IP address from leaking.

Windscribe’s kill switch didn’t leak our IP address.

Effectively Blocks Many Ads & Trackers

“ROBERT” is Windscribe’s ad and malware blocker. It’s a DNS-level malware and ad blocker integrated into the VPN apps.

ROBERT performed exceptionally well in our tests. According to our data, it blocked 80% of ads and 100% of analytic trackers. Using it, we bypassed ads on many popular websites, including YouTube and Google.

The only other VPNs that blocked more ads were IVPN and TunnelBear, but these are far inferior to Windscribe overall.

Windscribe blocks most ads and all trackers.

Though great, we’d like to see Windscribe include its ad and malware blocker on its free app as well. As it stands, you have to download a separate browser extension, which makes it less user-friendly and incompatible with mobile devices.

Wide Range of Extra Technical Features

Windscribe includes more additional technical features than most other VPN services. Here’s a summary of the most important ones and how well they work with Windscribe:

The only technical features the VPN is missing are an antivirus tool and the ability to issue IPv6 addresses. However, these are minor and their absence hasn’t substantially affected the VPN’s rating in this category.

Here’s a list showing the results of our Windscribe streaming tests:

Unblocks 32 Netflix Regions

Windscribe Pro works with more Netflix libraries than any other VPN. In our most recent tests, Windscribe Pro unblocked 32 international Netflix libraries, including Netflix US, Netflix UK, and Netflix Japan.

This is by far the best result we’ve seen. Using it, we could access three times more Netflix regions than other top VPNs, like ExpressVPN and Proton VPN.

That said, our videos sometimes took over 10 seconds to load and wouldn’t stream in HD. We experienced this because Windscribe has fewer VPN servers in many international locations, including just one in India. Windscribe should fix this by adding more server options in more locations.

We unblocked Netflix’s Turkish library using Windscribe.

Free Version Doesn’t Stream US Netflix

Until recently, Windscribe Free was our top-rated free VPN for Netflix. However, since May 2022, the free VPN no longer works with American Netflix.

It’s still a good choice for other regions, though. In our latest tests, it unblocked 6 Netflix regions, including the UK, France, and Germany. It’s free Canada VPN servers also accessed the Canadian library.

Windscribe Free works with UK Netflix.

Both Versions Work with All US Streaming Platforms

Windscribe is one of the best VPNs for accessing US streaming services from abroad. The Pro and Free versions of Windscribe always work with popular sites, like Hulu and HBO Max, whenever we test them.

Unlike with international Netflix libraries, we didn’t experience any buffering as the VPN offers 45 server locations in the US.

Windscribe bypasses HBO Max’s geo-blocks.

Windscribe’s UK Servers Stream BBC iPlayer

When connected to any of its five UK server locations, we could stream geo-blocked content from BBC iPlayer. We experienced the best quality when connected to the London – Custard server, though, due to its 10Gbps bandwidth.

Windscribe Free is the only free VPN that always works with BBC iPlayer. The other free VPNs we test, like PrivadoVPN and Hotspot Shield, are either unreliable or don’t work at all.

The free version of Windscribe can stream BBC iPlayer.

We also found that Windscribe’s free and premium UK servers work with other UK streaming services. We could access Sky Go, ITVX, and All 4 without any issues. It’s also the best free VPN for getting a French IP address.

Here’s a quick summary of showing how Windscribe performed in our torrenting tests:

You can trust Windscribe to hide your torrenting activity from your ISP. It doesn’t collect any personally identifiable logs and it encrypts network traffic using AES-256. There’s no way for a third party to see the torrent files you’re downloading.

Both versions of Windscribe work well for torrenting.

One slight drawback is that Windscribe blocks P2P traffic on its India, Lithuania, Russia, and South Africa servers. These are marked in the app with a crossed-out ‘P2P’ icon.

After contacting Windscribe, we were told this is because the data centers it rents servers from in these locations won’t allow torrenting. To fix this, we’d like to see Windscribe run its own servers in these countries, like IPVanish. That way, it could enable P2P activity on all 120+ of its servers.

Slower Torrenting Speeds, Even with Port Forwarding

Although Windscribe Pro supports port forwarding, we found that its torrenting speeds are slower than other top VPNs.

It’s also complicated to set up port forwarding using Windscribe. You’ll have to configure it using its website, which took us more than 10 minutes from start to finish. With other VPNs, like Proton VPN, it took just a few seconds by ticking a checkbox in the app.

Here’s how long it took to download a 20GB torrent file with the free and premium versions of Windscribe compared to other VPNs:

Windscribe isn’t as quick as the fastest torrenting VPNs, but your torrent files won’t take much longer to download. If available, we recommend connecting to a 10Gbps server in the same country as you. This produced the fastest speeds in our research.

Many VPNs for China, including Windscribe, counter web censorship by employing obfuscation technologies that make it harder for censors to identify VPN traffic.

Windscribe uses a “Stealth protocol” to avoid detection by the censors. This protocol uses the open-source Stunnel algorithm to route your OpenVPN traffic through an additional TLS tunnel. In short, this conceals the fact you are using a VPN.

We’ve seen it working first-hand in China, using our test server in Shanghai. Windscribe bypassed China’s firewall 85% of the time over the past year. Even many top VPNs, like NordVPN, have only worked 5% of the time over the same period.

Moreover, Windscribe’s free software also worked in China by connecting to the Hong Kong > Victoria server.

You can see us using Windscribe Free to access blocked websites from China in the video below:

You can contact Windscribe’s customer support team in the following ways:

The best way to get help with basic issues is by using Windscribe’s automated chatbot, named Garry. Though Garry can answer simple queries, it couldn’t resolve the majority of questions we asked.

Some of its information is out of date, as well. For instance, it hasn’t been updated to reflect that Windscribe now has servers in 69 countries. You can see an example in the screenshot below.

Windscribe’s automated chatbot isn’t as useful as a human support agent.

Garry also only understands English. When we asked it a question in Spanish, it responded in English that it couldn’t answer the question.

In a future update, we’d like to see Windscribe add live chat functionality for premium subscribers. Otherwise, it’ll continue to be left behind by alternative VPN services.