X-VPN Review

X-VPN is best suited to beginners who want a connect-and-forget solution for securing public WiFi.

It’s also ideal for streaming, thanks to a range of dedicated servers for Netflix and a host of other popular sites.

X-VPN is neither cheap nor expensive, but there are saving to be had for choosing a longer plan.

The most expensive option is the monthly subscription at $11.99, but you can cut this cost by 50% to just $5.99 per month if you choose the annual plan.

X-VPN accepts most common payment methods, including major credit/debit cards and PayPal.

For those seeking higher levels of privacy, X-VPN also accepts cryptocurrencies, including as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum.

X-VPN is not a super speedy VPN, but performance will definitely allow you to stream in buffer-free HD locally and on most international connections too.

We usually test using the OpenVPN protocol, as this offers the best balance between performance and privacy, however as this wasn’t an option we were forced to use X-VPN’s proprietary ‘X’ protocol.

We experienced fairly consistent speeds across the server network, which peaked at 38Mbps down and 41Mbps up locally.

While that can’t compete with top-tier VPNs, we were impressed that connections to the US (from the UK) only dropped a little to 30Mbps down.

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

X-VPN has a pretty limited server network covering just 33 countries, but they are fairly evenly distributed around the world and cover the most popular locations.

We are impressed that X-VPN maintains 5000+ individual servers and around 8,000 IP addresses, which will help to alleviate congestion at peak times.

X-VPN offers city-level servers in a few countries, which helps users to experience the best possible speeds. These servers are available in Australia, India, and the US.

Should you need a wider choice of locations, providers such as HideMyAss! boast up to 190 countries.

X-VPN offers a Google Chrome browser extension, which is will encrypt your browser traffic but not as securely as a true VPN connection will.

This is a great bonus for heavy browser users, but we suggest using it alongside the desktop client as it won’t encrypt traffic outside of the browser.

X-VPN has a custom app for the Amazon Fire TV, and you can protect other games consoles and streaming devices by connecting them to a configured router – just follow the simple setup instructions on X-VPN’s website.

If you want to protect your PlayStation 4, X-VPN offers an alternative solution to routers. You’ll need to piggyback off a mobile device’s VPN connection by following the steps outlined in the ‘use on other devices’ section of the Android/iOS app.

Streaming your favorite shows is made incredibly easy through X-VPN’s dedicated streaming servers, labeled for Netflix, Hulu, and more.

While we’ve found X-VPN to work consistently with Netflix, BBC iPlayer is accessible some days but not others.

Torrenting isn’t mentioned at all on the website and live chat support agents claim it isn’t supported, but the X-VPN team did confirm by email that P2P activity is permitted on all servers. We were told that the apps block “about 5% [of torrents] due to copyright issues”.

There are far better options out there for torrenting, including IPVanish, which offers completely unrestricted access.

X-VPN offers a good level of security, but we probably wouldn’t recommend it to those seeking the highest levels of privacy since standard VPN protocols aren’t available.

X-VPN uses its own baked-in proprietary protocol, ‘X’, but due to the fact no technical information about it is available, we’re unable to tell how it measures up to OpenVPN in terms of security. Thankfully, encryption is via AES-256, a cipher considered to be unbreakable.

X-VPN has first-party DNS servers and offers DNS leak protection to prevent your ISP or any third parties seeing your online activities. There is also a built-in VPN kill switch which prevents your true IP address from being exposed in the case of a VPN connection drop.

Split tunneling is an added extra which allows you to choose which traffic is and isn’t routed through the VPN tunnel. This means that you can encrypt privacy-sensitive data, without losing access to local network devices.

X-VPN’s customer support confirmed that it doesn’t support the service in China due to government policy. So, if you are looking to bypass the Great Firewall, there are other providers out there offering far more reliable solutions.

X-VPN’s proprietary protocol, X, does offer a couple of configurations geared towards bypassing censorship, so it could be a viable option for use in other high-censorship countries, such as Turkey and Russia. However, this isn’t guaranteed, so we recommend you to take advantage of the 7-day money-back guarantee to see if it works for you.

X-VPN’s logging policy is clear, concise and best of all, totally transparent. It doesn’t log any personally-identifiable data, including browsing history, original IP address, server IP address and DNS requests.

X-VPN does collect some connection metadata for troubleshooting and server optimization purposes, including:

• Server location
• Connection timestamp (date and time)
• Choice of protocol
• Network type
• Server CPU load and bandwidth

These logs are permanently erased after 96 hours, therefore aren’t a cause for too much concern.

The fact it collects an exact timestamp means that the authorities could potentially cross-reference this data to prove that you have visited certain sites if they really want to, however this is an extreme example and fairly unlikely to happen – especially within a 96-hour time period.

X-VPN is incorporated in Hong Kong where no mandatory data retention laws exist.

The privacy policy states that it will hand over customer data if ‘ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction’, but this shouldn’t be an issue due to the fact that nothing it collects can be used to personally identify you.

X-VPN offers a range of polished, user-friendly apps for most popular devices, which are great for VPN newbies.

The main screen is clutter-free and it automatically suggests the fastest server for you – handy for those who want a one-click solution.

The VPN protocols are labeled from ‘A’ to ‘H’, and while the letters don’t give much away, the accompanying star rating system that indicates the level of speed and security you will receive from each.

X-VPN does offer a live chat feature, which is available Monday to Saturday, however the support we received left much to be desired. Some of the support agents have limited knowledge and come across quite unprofessional. On more than one occasion we have been left waiting for hours, sometimes days, for a response.

Unfortunately, you won’t find many resources on X-VPNs website, either, as the support section is very sparse.