We test VPN speeds through two different methods. This page covers our automated speed test, which is what the tool above uses.
<h3>Automated VPN Speed Tests</h3>
We have servers set up in 11 cities around the world, with 18 of the most popular VPNs installed on them. These servers send data to one another around the clock, seven days a week, to create an accurate, long-term picture of how fast each VPN really is. We also test the servers with no VPN running at all.
We’ve capped the speed at 100Mbps so that the numbers look similar to what you’d see with a home fibre optic broadband connection, and the data transfer has been designed to function as consistently as possible. The data we send is regulated, there’s no compression, and it’s free of any additional protocols or ports slowing it down. We run 121 tests every six hours per VPN and create an average, making sure to get rid of any glaring errors.
The data you see on the graph above is a daily average of all those tests. It’s not perfect, but we think it’s the best tool on the internet for seeing how VPNs actually perform.
<blockquote>Our speed test collects data every six hours</blockquote>
We use average speed loss as our go-to statistic as it’s the most informative piece of data for VPN users at home. You might have different internet speeds at home compared to our 100Mbps servers. In that case, all you have to do is take the speed loss percentage for the VPN you’re interested in and apply it to your own speeds.
For example, if a VPN takes 10% off our server’s speeds, you can presume that your home internet speeds of 50Mbps without VPN will reduce to 40Mbps while using it.
It’s important to have the fastest VPN possible because everything you do while connected to your VPN is affected by it. Obvious speed-dependent tasks like gaming and torrenting will be affected most, but even everyday tasks like checking your social media or sending an email are affected by it, too. Take a look at the results of our testing and make your choice carefully.
<h4>Which VPN Providers Do We Test?</h4>
<div class="block-highlighted block-highlighted--dot">
We use our tool to test 18 VPN providers. They are:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Astrill</li>
<li>CyberGhost</li>
<li>ExpressVPN</li>
<li>hide.me</li>
<li>HideMyAss!</li>
<li>Hotspot Shield</li>
<li>IPVanish</li>
<li>Mullvad</li>
<li>NordVPN</li>
<li>Private Internet Access</li>
<li>PrivateVPN</li>
<li>ProtonVPN</li>
<li>PureVPN</li>
<li>SaferVPN</li>
<li>Surfshark</li>
<li>TunnelBear</li>
<li>VyprVPN</li>
<li>Windscribe</li>
</ul>
</div>
We’ve picked these providers as they’re some of the biggest and most popular names on the market. It’s by no means a comprehensive list, and we’re looking to add to it every chance we get. We’re restricted to VPNs that run the OpenVPN protocol &#8211; it’s the most widely-available VPN protocol out there, and we believe it’s the best. However, some popular VPNs don’t use it, which means that we can’t include them.
<h4>Where Are Our Speed Test Servers Located?</h4>
<div class="block-highlighted block-highlighted--dot">
We have speed test servers located in 11 cities around the world:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Amsterdam, Netherlands</li>
<li>Frankfurt, Germany</li>
<li>London, UK</li>
<li>New York, US</li>
<li>Paris, France</li>
<li>San Francisco, US</li>
<li>Singapore</li>
<li>Sydney, Australia</li>
<li>Tokyo, Japan</li>
<li>Toronto, Canada</li>
<li>Vancouver, Canada</li>
</ul>
</div>
While your city may not be on this list, we hope that the global spread is wide enough that you can find one near enough to you to estimate what your own speeds might be like.
<h3>Manual VPN Speed Tests</h3>
When reviewing the VPNs on our website we also carry out a manual speed test. This test is completely different to our automated tool. We use the results of this test to decide how we’ll score a VPN for speed and consistency, and it’s been designed to be identical to how you’d test your VPN’s speed at home.
There’s nothing too complicated to it: we simply connect to the VPN we’re testing and then browse to <a href="https://www.speedtest.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">speedtest.net</a>. We run the test three times, then take an average of the numbers it shows us. If any of them seem like massive outliers, we try it again until it gains some consistency.
We test four major server locations: a local one (which for us is London, UK), one in Western Europe (somewhere like Germany that’s a little further away from us, but not too far), one on the East Coast of the US (usually New York, a popular location for anyone using a VPN for streaming), and Australia (which is the farthest possible location from us that’s usually catered to by VPN providers).
You can look at the distance each of those countries is from our location and apply it to your own situation.
We ensure consistency by using the same computers for testing. These computers are connected via ethernet cable to a dedicated 100Mbps router in our office which isn’t used by any other devices.
Each VPN we test is installed on a clean virtual machine. This means that they essentially have a completely clean, unused operating system to themselves &#8211; no chance of clashing or interfering with each other. You can see these results in every single VPN review on our site &#8211; <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/">click here to see the full list</a>.

<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-121186" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/ExpressVPN-Speed-Test.jpg" alt="ExpressVPN speed testing with speedtest.net" width="699" height="515" />
There are two ways you can test your VPN speed yourself: with a tool built in to your VPN, or with a speed testing website.
Some VPNs come with their own speed testing tool within its apps. They may not be available on all platforms, but they can be a quick and useful way of finding out how your VPN is performing. Some, like the one on ExpressVPN, show you how fast the connection is on servers you aren’t even connected to.
If your VPN doesn’t have a speed tester of its own, then you can use an internet speed testing website or app instead. Just because you’re connected to a VPN doesn’t mean that you need to do anything different &#8211; if you’ve ever tested your internet speed before it’s the exact same process. In fact, it’s exactly what we do when testing a VPN in our office. Here’s how to test your VPN’s speed:
<h3>1Connect to a VPN server of your choice</h3>
It makes sense to connect to the server that you’re likely to use the most frequently if you’re just doing this out of curiosity. Alternatively, if you’re troubleshooting a slow server, make sure you’re connected to exactly the one that’s giving you difficulties (lots of VPNs let you select a general location, like New York, but connect you to one of dozens of servers in that city at random).
<h3>2Browse to a speed testing website</h3>
We use <a href="https://www.speedtest.net/">speedtest.net</a> when performing our VPN speed tests in the Top10VPN.com offices. It’s independently owned, meaning that it won’t favor any particular ISP or VPN.
<h3>3Make sure it’s got the right server selected</h3>
It’s important to connect to your VPN first and then open up the speed test in a fresh window or tab, as otherwise it might try to connect to a server near your real-world location. Double check that’s not the case.
<h3>4Make sure the speed test connection is set to ‘multi’</h3>
Some sites (like speedtest.net) allow you to choose between a ‘single’ or ‘multi’ connection test. We always make sure to choose ‘multi’ &#8211; not just for consistency, but because it gives you the most accurate results over fast connections.
<h3>5Click ‘GO’</h3>
You’re all set. Get the test underway and make a note of the numbers it shows you. Now you can compare those to the speeds you get when not running a VPN.

It may not be something that VPN providers want you to know, but the truth is that every single VPN will slow down your internet.
This is due to the nature of how VPNs work. Ordinarily your internet traffic travels from your device to the website or service you’re using and then back again &#8211; a straight line for maximum speeds.
When you connect with a VPN, though, the traffic is diverted. It goes from your device to a VPN server, then on to the site or service you want, before being sent back to you. That extra distance travelled means slower speeds than normal &#8211; it also explains why your speeds get slower the further the VPN server is from your real location.
The goal when choosing a VPN isn’t to find one that doesn’t slow down your internet &#8211; there’s no such thing. What you should be looking out for is the VPN which slows it the least. That’s why we talk about speed loss percentages, both on this page and in our reviews: it’s the best way to measure the performance of a VPN, plus you can take the number and apply it to your own home internet to get an idea of how the VPN might affect you.

<div id="attachment_121312" style="width: 711px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" data-lazy-srcset="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Speed-Test-Tool-Image-_mobile-1.jpg"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-121312" loading="lazy" class=" wp-image-121312" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Speed-Test-Tool-Image-desktop-recompress.png" alt="A diagram explaining how to increase your VPN's speeds" width="701" height="249" data-mobileimg="true/" /></picture>A diagram explaining how to increase your VPN&#8217;s speeds</div>
If you’ve found a VPN you like but aren’t entirely happy with it’s speeds, it’s not too late &#8211; there are a handful of things you can still try to boost your VPN’s speed:
<h3>Use a VPN Router</h3>
As the name suggests, VPN routers are designed specifically to work with VPNs. You can even buy them pre-configured so you’re guaranteed to get the best speeds possible.
Every device that connects to its network will be automatically protected &#8211; be sure to check that your VPN is compatible with routers before you buy, though, as they’re quite expensive.
<h3>Choose the correct VPN protocol</h3>
Different VPN protocols deliver different speeds, even if you’re connected to the same server location.
We always recommend OpenVPN as we believe it to be the most secure, but within OpenVPN you have the choice of UDP or TCP. UDP is the faster of the two, while TCP is more reliable &#8211; they’re both just as secure.
If you’re still struggling you can try changing your VPN’s protocol to IKEv2. It’s still secure (we would never recommend anything that isn’t) but it’s often faster than OpenVPN.
<h3>Connect to a nearby server</h3>
It’s simple: the closer the VPN server is to you, the quicker your connection will be.
Of course this isn’t always possible &#8211; if you need to connect to a certain country then you’ll often have no choice in changing the server, but even then you can still check you’re connecting to the closest one possible.
For example if you’re in Western Europe and you need a US server, make sure it’s on the East Coast (like New York or Boston). Similarly, if you’re in East Asia and you need a US server, make sure it’s one on the West Coast (like Seattle or San Francisco).
If you’re just using your VPN for security reasons and not to geo-spoof or unblock content, then there’s no reason not to connect to the nearest server to you possible. Your VPN’s automatic choice will usually be the best.
<h3>Try split-tunnelling</h3>
Split-tunneling is a feature offered by lots of VPNs that lets you choose certain apps to be ignored by the VPN.
Rather than travelling through the secure VPN connection, they simply operate as if you weren’t connected to your VPN at all.
This can be very useful when you need to boost the speeds for a certain task &#8211; streaming a movie, playing an online game, things of that nature.
Of course the downside to that is that when an app is split-tunneled it is not encrypted. If security doesn’t matter that much for what you’re using it for, though, then it’s a very useful solution to poor speeds.

<div id="attachment_121315" style="width: 460px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-121315" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-121315" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Fast-Netflix-Speed-Test-recompress.png" alt="A sample result from fast.com, an internet speed testing site owned by Netflix" width="450" height="341" />A sample result from fast.com, an internet speed testing site owned by Netflix.</div>
It’s always important to have a fast VPN, but when streaming with services like Netflix it’s absolutely vital.
Netflix can stream in 4K UHD, Full-HD, HD, or standard definition. The lower the picture quality, the slower your VPN can be while still giving you a smooth, buffer-free streaming experience.
Here are the minimum internet speeds Netflix says you need for streaming:
3Mbps &#8211; Recommended for SD quality
5Mbps &#8211; Recommended for Full-HD quality
25Mbps &#8211; Recommended for Ultra HD quality
In our experience these numbers are roughly accurate, although Netflix is definitely being a little generous &#8211; we strongly recommend you aim for slightly higher speeds, unless you like waiting an age for content to load and buffer.
Those numbers will be roughly accurate for other popular streaming services like BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+, too.
Reliability is more important than speed when streaming with a VPN, though. If your VPN swings between fast and not-so-fast, the quality of the picture will keep changing. Our speed testing tool will show you how some of the most popular VPNs available perform over the long term, so that you can see which will deliver you the best streaming experience.
You can <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/netflix/">see our best VPN picks for Netflix here</a>.

With 25 years of software engineering and networking experience, JP oversees all technical aspects of our VPN testing process to ensure we review VPN software to the highest standard. JP developed our global, automated VPN speed testing framework and designing our advanced IP and DNS leak testing methodology. 

Callum leads the Top10VPN.com editorial team, overseeing all VPN reviews, advice and news. He’s an experienced VPN expert, technology journalist and former product testing professional at Which?. Callum is a passionate digital privacy advocate, and is a member of the IAPP and the EC Council’s Knowledge Review Committee. 

Even the fastest VPNs can struggle to maintain consistent speeds over time. Some review sites only update their figures a few times a year so by the time you read their review, the figures recorded could be long out of date.
Our automated VPN speed test tool provides up-to-date speed results for the most popular VPNs. Our tool displays a timeline of recorded speed data, updated every six hours, so you can see how reliably a VPN performs over time. You can therefore feel confident that you’re getting the fastest VPN for your location, with no surprises.
Overall, we found that Private Internet Access, NordVPN, Hotspot Shield, and ExpressVPN are currently the fastest and most consistent VPN services. To see what makes them so great, read our guide to the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/fastest-vpn/">fastest VPNs of {year}</a>.
Using the VPN speed test tool below, you can compare the speed and reliability of 18 popular VPN services when connected to 11 servers around the world. Further down the page you can read more about how our tool works, and how you can improve your VPN speeds at home.

Our automated and independent VPN speed test tool runs 365 days a year, testing the speed of 18 very popular VPNs in {year}.

VPN Speed Test Tool: Compare the Speed of 18 Popular VPNs

NordVPN

Private Internet Access

A premium high-performance VPN whose consistency outshines the competition.

full

ExpressVPN logo

ExpressVPN’s helpful 24/7 live chat is the best in class. It means that if you ever have a problem, you’ll be back up and running as quickly as possible. There’s also a huge range of support guides, FAQs, video tutorials, and troubleshooting options <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">available on the support website</a>.
ExpressVPN really is one of the most customer-focused VPN services we’ve reviewed, and the support team makes sure to keep you happy both before and after you’ve become a customer.
You can also reach out to customer support via email, with equally responsive, helpful and enthusiastic responses. The online help center is available in over 16 languages, too, which is an impressive commitment to support compared to other VPN services.
When experiencing a specific technical issue, it makes a big difference to receive a response that’s actually tailored to your message – so many VPN companies outsource their support to massive support centers packed full of agents who don’t actually know the product. That’s not the case with ExpressVPN.

As we mentioned above, ExpressVPN&#8217;s browser extensions are available for Chrome and Firefox web browsers.
They give you full protection that fully masks your web activity without you having to leave your browser window.
Installing the VPN extensions is really easy. Read our step-by-step setup guides for either <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-chrome/">Chrome</a> or <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-firefox/">Firefox</a>.
ExpressVPN has <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/expressvpn-adds-dark-mode-to-chrome-and-firefox-browser-extensions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently added dark mode</a> to its browser extensions, which is a nice plus for customization.

ExpressVPN is so easy to use that it’s hard to go wrong – not just with the main desktop client, but also with its mobile apps and browser extensions. Its VPN apps are among the best on the market – they’re easy to use, visually appealing, and they make protecting your privacy simple.
It took us less than five minutes to install the VPN application for our tests. Once you’ve chosen your subscription plan, simply create an account and enter your payment details. You’ll receive a confirmation email with a link and an activation code, which takes you straight to the installation guide for your device.
Once you’ve installed the application, the ExpressVPN home screen is simply a big on/off button and a list of VPN servers. If you want to customize your experience you can also find advanced settings behind a separate menu.
Even the advanced security options are explained in plain and easily-understood language, so you’ll never make changes without knowing exactly what you’re doing.
There are some small differences between the ExpressVPN apps on different platforms, though, so we have reviewed each one in the section below.
If you want a quick summary of the differences between ExpressVPN clients on different devices, just see the table below:
<div style="display: none;" data-table="1Oo8pai7Gj_8IEJ-kHVbLDFj_xJ7OtDeSw5lKpK7b-go|26892187"></div>
Here’s what ExpressVPN looks like on the each of the major desktop and mobile operating systems, and what the differences are between them:
<h3>Microsoft Windows</h3>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126901" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Windows.png" alt="ExpressVPN homescreen on Windows" width="400" height="654" />
As is often the case with VPNs, the Windows app is the most complete ExpressVPN experience. It has all the tools and features an advanced VPN user could need while still being a very straightforward and easy-to-use app.
When you click on the server you currently have selected, a second window with a server list will pop up alongside it. Be sure not to miss the two tabs at the top: ‘Recommended’ is selected by default, but it doesn’t reveal the whole list to you. Be sure to click ‘All Locations’ to see the full list (or use the search bar to find a specific choice).
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126907" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Windows-2.png" alt="ExpressVPN settings screen on Windows" width="400" height="520" />
Other features not to be missed are the kill switch (look for ‘Network Lock’ under the General settings tab) and the protocol selection tab, which lets you experiment with different options – just make sure you don’t use L2TP (it even says within the app that it has weak security).
<h3>Apple MacOS</h3>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126898" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/MacOS-700x1043.png" alt="ExpressVPN homescreen on MacOS" width="400" height="596" />
If you’re a Mac user then you’re in luck – ExpressVPN’s MacOS app is practically identical to the Windows version. We’ve found that lots of VPN providers tend to put out a sub-par Mac app when compared to the flagship Windows app, but that’s not the case here.
The browser extensions (see below) work exactly as they would do if you were using the browser on Windows &#8211; the only issue for Mac users is that there’s no extension for Safari yet, which is something we want to see ExpressVPN remedy in the future.
<h3>Apple iOS</h3>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126892" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/iOS-700x1381.png" alt="ExpressVPN homescreen on iOS" width="400" height="789" />
ExpressVPN for iPhone and iPad is even more simplified than the desktop version.
It looks largely the same, however once you dive into the settings menu you’ll notice that there’s not really anything there.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126895" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/iOS-2-700x1383.png" alt="ExpressVPN settings screen on iOS" width="400" height="791" />
You have the option to choose between OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols, a toggle for whether or not the VPN automatically reconnects if it loses connection, and a button to reinstall the VPN configuration if the app should stop working for any reason.
It’s obvious that ExpressVPN has decided to make its app a more streamlined and lightweight experience on mobile, but it would be nice for some of the extra features present on desktop to have made the leap across to iPhone.
The kill switch is the most notable absence of all, and it’s something we strongly believe is vital no matter what platform you’re on.
<h3>Google Android</h3>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126880" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Android-700x1199.png" alt="ExpressVPN homescreen on Android" width="400" height="685" />
The ExpressVPN Android app has the exact same home screen as you’ll see on all its other apps, but when compared to its iOS cousin there’s a couple of differences that lie beyond it.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-126889" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Android-2-700x1200.png" alt="ExpressVPN settings screen on Android" width="400" height="686" />
As we alluded to above, the main difference is the inclusion of a kill switch. With this feature enabled, you can use your smartphone safely with the confidence that your IP address will remain protected if your VPN connection drops.
You’ll find the kill switch at Settings &gt; Network Protection &gt; Block internet when unable to connect or reconnect to VPN.
The other useful feature on Android that’s missing on iOS is split-tunneling. Thanks to Android’s more customizable and open nature, you can choose which of your apps (if any) are routed outside of the VPN tunnel.
<h3>Ubuntu Linux</h3>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-127135" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Linux-Connection-700x481.png" alt="ExpressVPN running on Linux" width="700" height="481" />
Its strong performance on just about every other platform makes ExpressVPN’s Linux app especially disappointing.
In fact, ExpressVPN doesn’t even have a true app for Linux – there’s no GUI (graphical user interface) meaning that it runs straight from the console.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-127138" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Linux-Server-Select-700x477.png" alt="How it looks choosing a server with ExpressVPN on Linux" width="700" height="477" />
If you’re a Linux user you’re likely used to this, and a bit more tech-savvy than most ExpressVPN users will be, but it’s still a big oversight. For the money you’re paying, you really should be receiving a fully-featured app.
Once you’ve installed ExpressVPN using standard Linux console commands, you can then choose to connect to the recommended server or see a full list of servers along with the console commands required to connect to them. You can also toggle Network Lock (the kill switch), change protocol, and instruct it to auto-connect at Linux startup.

How to Connect to a Server with ExpressVPN

How to Change Settings in ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN is one of the only VPN services that still works in China regardless of the country’s blocks on VPN traffic. The VPN works to bypass Chinese censorship with ease thanks to the company’s investment of significant resources into outsmarting the censors.
We&#8217;ve found the app is most likely to work against censorship when you tun the newest version, so make sure to update ExpressVPN before leaving for China.
Getting around the Great Firewall of China is incredibly difficult, and very few VPNs can do it reliably (or at all). ExpressVPN has been able to do it consistently over the years that we’ve been testing it. That’s why it’s <a href="/best-vpn/china/">our highest-rated VPN for China</a>.
The service’s Hong Kong servers allow you to access Chinese TV and websites while outside of China, while servers in the rest of the world help users in China access digitally censored websites using <a href="/guides/vpn-glossary/#obfuscation">obfuscation</a>.
Obfuscation disguises your VPN traffic so that it looks like normal browsing data. This means the Great Firewall won’t identify your VPN traffic and block it, so you can browse without restriction and unblock websites like Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Netflix, and more.
If you have protocol selection switched to Automatic, ExpressVPN’s proprietary obfuscation technology is activated by default. This means it’s able to beat aggressive state censors not just in China but also in countries like UAE, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, too.
<div id="attachment_126850" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126850" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-126850" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/ExpressVPN-Greatfire-700x609.png" alt="A screenshot of ExpressVPN's performance in China according to Greatfire.org" width="700" height="609" />ExpressVPN performs at a level far above average when it comes to both average speeds and stability</div>
Greatfire.org’s ‘Circumvention Central’ keeps track of which online tools work on the internet in China. <a href="https://cc.greatfire.org/en/provider/ExpressVPN" target="_blank" rel="noopener">As you can see here</a>, ExpressVPN is super consistent. These numbers are based on dozens of tests a day over a number of different platforms. For this reason, we’re confident ExpressVPN will work for you in China.
However, as the main website is currently blocked by Chinese censors, you&#8217;ll need to find a working mirror site in order to sign up to the service if you’re already overseas.
If you’re already inside China and find that the company’s standard URL is blocked, ExpressVPN is one of the few services to also host its website on the Deep Web. Just <a href="https://www.torproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">download Tor Browser</a> and you can access ExpressVPN at http://expressobutiolem.onion/
ExpressVPN also recommends specific servers for users in China – just get in touch with <a href="/reviews/expressvpn/#review-support">customer support</a> (available 24/7) for updated information.

ExpressVPN is an extremely safe and secure VPN service that uses the highest standard of encryption to secure your internet connections. By default its apps use AES-256 bit encryption in combination with the OpenVPN protocol, a 4096-bit RSA key and SHA-512 HMAC authentication, which is the level of encryption recommended by governments and banks.
Advanced features include a reliable VPN kill switch, split tunneling, and TrustedServer – a proprietary technology that ensures your data is never written to the VPN server’s hard drive. During the course of our testing, we didn&#8217;t detect any data leaks.
What’s more, ExpressVPN runs its own private, zero-knowledge DNS servers. This means that your <a href="/guides/vpn-glossary/#dns-domain-name-system">DNS requests</a> (the websites you visit) are all handled and encrypted by ExpressVPN, not by your ISP or a third party. It’s an important step for a VPN provider to take, and one that only the very best services have on offer.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-30305" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2018/12/ExpressVPN-advanced-settings-OPT.png" alt="" width="499" height="389" />
It includes a VPN kill switch, called Network Lock. This feature stops your internet connection altogether in the unlikely event your VPN connection drops. In doing so, your true IP address is never exposed.
Unfortunately, Network Lock isn’t included in the iOS app – it’s only available on Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Android (on which it’s called Network Protection). This is one area where we’d like to see ExpressVPN improve.
By default, ExpressVPN also uses Perfect Forward Secrecy, which adds another layer of protection by automatically creating a new encryption key for every session and then replacing it every 60 minutes. In very simple terms, this means that even if someone was able to intercept and decrypt your VPN connection, the most they would be able to get is 60 minutes of data.
If you want to learn more about the technical side of VPN security, you can read <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/what-is-vpn/vpn-encryption">ExpressVPN&#8217;s very own straightforward guide to VPN encryption</a>.
ExpressVPN doesn’t have the widest selection of protocols we’ve seen. Instead, it trims the selection down to just the protocols you need.
We’ve already mentioned how the app automatically chooses the best protocol for you, but you can choose manually between the following connection protocols, too:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 192px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<th style="width: 25%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Protocol</th>
<th style="width: 75%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 25%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">UDP &#8211; OpenVPN</td>
<td style="width: 75%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">UDP is the fastest OpenVPN protocol. It has all of the security benefits of TCP, but is more reliable if you’re connecting to a server a long way away.</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 25%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">TCP &#8211; OpenVPN</td>
<td style="width: 75%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">TCP is the other OpenVPN protocol. It prioritizes consistency over speed. It’s still fast, but it’s less likely to experience errors or lose data.</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 25%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">IKEv2</td>
<td style="width: 75%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">IKEv2 is secure and sometimes faster than OpenVPN, so it&#8217;s worth trying if you&#8217;re looking for the best performance possible.</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 25%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">L2TP &#8211; IPSec</td>
<td style="width: 75%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">L2TP/IPSec is an outdated and insecure protocol, and the only one ExpressVPN offers that we recommend you avoid.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h3>Advanced Security Features</h3>
ExpressVPN doesn’t have the highest number of advanced security features on the market, but those it does have are extremely effective.
Split tunneling is a powerful feature that you won’t find on all of its rivals. It lets you decide which apps are protected via the VPN connection and which travel outside of it.
While we of course always recommend you keep as many programs and devices as secure as possible, split tunneling can have practical uses – like with your wireless printer, for example. It can keep its connection to your network separate from the VPN, preventing connection issues.
In 2019 <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/features/trustedserver" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ExpressVPN also launched TrustedServer</a>, a proprietary technology that removes the need for local storage such as hard disks or solid state drives. According to ExpressVPN, TrustedServer has the following security benefits:
<ul>
<li>Wipes all data with every reboot, as VPN servers run on RAM only</li>
<li>Servers never write to the hard drive, further minimizing data risk</li>
<li>The entire software stack is reinstalled on every server at startup</li>
<li>Allows ExpressVPN to know what’s running on every server, with no inconsistencies</li>
</ul>
If you’re a Tor user, ExpressVPN also supports Tor over VPN. This means you can use the VPN in combination with the Tor Network, but only your connection to the first node in the network is encrypted. If you’re interested in learning more you can find all you need to know in <a href="/guides/tor-vs-vpn/#how-to-use-tor-and-a-vpn-together" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our guide to Tor vs VPN</a>.
Finally, the fact that ExpressVPN has passed several security audits in 2018 and in 2019 is further evidence of how secure it really is. These audits are conducted by <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/pwc-audits-expressvpn-servers-to-confirm-essential-privacy-protections/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trusted third parties like PW</a>C and <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/browser-extension-audit-and-open-sourcing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cure53</a> and provide independent verification of the company’s commitment to its privacy policy. All of the company’s security practices are detailed publicly in its <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/trust" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trust center</a>, and many of its applications are open-source.
Overall, ExpressVPN is one of the most technically secure personal VPN services available, offering strong encryption and a wide suite of market-leading features perfect for both beginners and advanced users. If you’re looking for a VPN to hide your IP address and encrypt your data on public WiFi networks, ExpressVPN is a fantastic choice.
<h3>Does ExpressVPN Leak Your Data?</h3>
A leaking VPN will leave your online activity and identity visible to your ISP and other third-parties.
<div id="attachment_126829" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126829" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-126829" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Leak-Test-700x572.png" alt="A screenshot of ExpressVPN passing a leak test" width="700" height="572" />Browserleaks.com found ExpressVPN to be 100% secure</div>
We ran ExpressVPN through an IP, DNS, and WebRTC leak test. It passed all three tests with no leaks whatsoever. As you can see above, all of our personal information was concealed by ExpressVPN and our real UK IP address was protected and replaced by a Swedish one.
<div id="attachment_126838" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126838" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-126838" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Antivirus-700x337.png" alt="A screenshot of VirusTotal.com proving that ExpressVPN.exe is not a virus" width="700" height="337" />ExpressVPN passed the scan and is not a virus &#8211; not that it was ever in doubt</div>
For this review, we also uploaded ExpressVPN.exe to <a href="https://www.virustotal.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VirusTotal.com</a>, a website designed to analyze suspicious applications for known malware. ExpressVPN’s results were totally clean – no viruses here.
As one final precaution, we also checked ExpressVPN with the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.expressvpn.vpn/latest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">εxodus tool</a>. It’s a specialist privacy auditing platform that checks for dangerous device permissions in Android apps.
We found that ExpressVPN’s trackers and permissions are all totally normal – there’s nothing intrusive or excessive here that you need to worry about. The Android app has two trackers: Google CrashLytics and Google Firebase Analytics. Both of these are event-based data collection trackers which help ExpressVPN understand how users interact with the app in order to respond to crashes.
The following table shows all of ExpressVPN’s device permissions and what they mean:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; height: 192px;">
<tbody>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<th style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Permission</th>
<th style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Definition</th>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Allows ExpressVPN to view your device’s network connections</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">ACCESS_WIFI_STATE</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Allows ExpressVPN to view your device’s WiFi connections</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">FOREGROUND_SERVICE</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Allows ExpressVPN to run as a foreground service</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">INTERNET</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Grants ExpressVPN full network access (necessary for any VPN)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Allows ExpressVPN to run at startup (if you decide to enable that option)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">VIBRATE</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Allows ExpressVPN to control vibration (the app will sometimes vibrate for notifications)</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">WAKE_LOCK</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Prevents the device from sleeping</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">BILLING</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Permits in-app purchases</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">RECEIVE</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Allows ExpressVPN to receive messages from the Cloud</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 24px;">
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">BIND_GET_INSTALL_REFERRER_SERVICE</td>
<td style="width: 50%; height: 24px; text-align: left;">Tells ExpressVPN where and when the app was downloaded from if you discovered it via an advertising link</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

ExpressVPN is available on all major operating systems and devices including Microsoft Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and Linux. Custom firmware is also available for routers as well as manual setup guides for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Stick, PlayStation, and more.
On ExpressVPN’s website you will find <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/vpn-setup/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detailed setup instructions</a> for all of these platforms as well as workarounds for devices where a custom VPN app isn’t available. The instructions are simple and clear, which means you’re unlikely to have any issues even if you’re a complete beginner.
You can use ExpressVPN on five different devices simultaneously with one subscription. It’s commonplace among VPN providers to set a limit, and five is a good number.
If you need more to use it on more devices at the same time then you’ll need to install the VPN on your home router. Once you’ve done this, the number of devices you can use with one VPN subscription is unlimited.
The ExpressVPN app is compatible with <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-software/vpn-router" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the following routers</a>:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Asus RT-AC56(U/R/S)</li>
<li>Asus RT-AC68U</li>
<li>Asus RT-AC87U</li>
<li>Linksys EA6200</li>
<li>Linksys WRT1200AC</li>
<li>Linksys WRT1900AC(S)</li>
<li>Linksys WRT3200ACM</li>
<li>Netgear R6300v2</li>
<li>Netgear R6700v3</li>
<li>Netgear Nighthawk R7000</li>
<li>Netgear Nighthawk R7000P</li>
</ul>
You can also manually set up the VPN on these router manufacturers:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Other Asus models</li>
<li>D-Link</li>
<li>DD-WRT</li>
<li>Netduma</li>
<li>Sabai</li>
<li>Tomato</li>
<li>TP-Link</li>
<li>Xiaomi</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-router/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Read our latest VPN router setup guide</a> for easy step-by-step instructions. If you want to learn more about VPN routers in general, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/what-is-a-vpn-router/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">head over to our VPN routers guide instead</a>.
There aren’t many VPNs out there that offer apps for so many different platforms, and to have ExpressVPN spell out its router compatibility so clearly is a really welcome help.

ExpressVPN provides full VPN browser extensions for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge. Currently, there is no browser add-on available for neither Safari nor Opera.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-30314" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2018/12/ExpressVPN-browser-extensions-OPT.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="305" />
Most of the VPN browser add-ons we review are proxies and not full VPNs, but ExpressVPN’s extensions are the real deal. The only drawback is that the desktop application needs to be running at the same time – they act more like a remote control for the full app than a substitute for it.
This means you can easily switch between server locations and fully mask your web activity without having to leave your browser window, but you need to have the full program installed in order to use it.
Additionally, ExpressVPN’s extensions all use HTTPS Everywhere – a collaborative technology made by <a href="https://www.torproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Tor Project</a> and the <a href="https://www.eff.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> – which encrypts your browser’s communication with websites that still use unencrypted HTTP connections.
Installing the browser extension is simple, but if you want to be extra sure then you can follow our step-by-step setup guides for either <a href="/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-chrome/">Chrome</a> or <a href="/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-firefox/">Firefox</a>.
ExpressVPN has recently added <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/expressvpn-adds-dark-mode-to-chrome-and-firefox-browser-extensions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dark mode</a> to its browser extensions, which is a nice touch if you want it to match the rest of your OS, and you can also set it to automatically activate when you open your browser.

There’s not a single VPN available that can be installed directly onto Apple TV or games consoles, but ExpressVPN does the next best thing and provides detailed instructions and workarounds for setup on devices like your Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Chromecast.
ExpressVPN&#8217;s excellent router app and support means that it&#8217;s also the best choice for console gamers and streaming device fanatics looking to protect their devices as best they can.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-126853" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Fire-TV-Stick-App-700x394.png" alt="A screenshot of ExpressVPN running on an Amazon Fire TV Stick" width="700" height="394" />
ExpressVPN is also one of the increasing number of VPNs to offer a VPN app for Amazon Fire TV Stick. It’s good, but it’s not our number one choice.
It was one of the first VPN apps available for Amazon Fire TV Stick, but it’s now looking dated and lacks some of the features that we enjoy in more recent Fire TV Stick VPN apps.
There’s clearly not been too much thought put into the design, as it looks just like an enlarged version of the Android app – not ideal considering it’s viewed on a television. The UI also hasn’t been adapted for the use of a remote, rather than touch, meaning it can be difficult to predict exactly what your next button press will do.
If you own a Fire TV Stick and want to use a VPN app with it, take a look at <a href="/best-vpn/firestick/">our latest recommendations</a>.
While it may not be our top pick for Fire TV Stick, ExpressVPN is our favorite VPN for other streaming devices, as well as gaming consoles like Xbox and PlayStation.
<h3>ExpressVPN MediaStreamer</h3>
For devices which don’t support dedicated VPN apps you can use ExpressVPN MediaStreamer, a SmartDNS service included in every subscription plan.
MediaStreamer makes unblocking streaming services like Hulu and HBO as easy as possible, but it doesn’t encrypt traffic on that device. That’s because it works by changing your device’s default DNS servers to ones run by ExpressVPN. This tricks streaming sites and apps into thinking that they’re communicating with a server in the country whose content you wish to unblock.
You can find <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/vpn-setup/#streaming-media-consoles-setup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MediaStreamer setup guides for dozens of devices here</a>.
If you want to secure all (or most) connections in your home, you should instead install ExpressVPN on your router. Otherwise, you can always tether the device in question to one which has the VPN is already running (for example, your computer or smartphone).

ExpressVPN operates more than 3,000 VPN servers spread across 160 cities in 94 countries around the world. This is one of the largest VPN server networks available, which means that no matter where you’re located you should have no trouble finding a VPN server near you.
You can access 51 specific city-level servers in the following locations:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Australia (4 different locations)</li>
<li>Brazil (2)</li>
<li>Canada (3)</li>
<li>France (2)</li>
<li>Germany (2)</li>
<li>Hong Kong (3)</li>
<li>India (2)</li>
<li>Italy (2)</li>
<li>Japan (3)</li>
<li>Netherlands (3)</li>
<li>Singapore (3)</li>
<li>Spain (2)</li>
<li>Switzerland (2)</li>
<li>UK (4)</li>
<li>US (14)</li>
</ul>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-30296" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2018/12/ExpressVPN-server-list-OPT.png" alt="" width="350" height="522" />
ExpressVPN’s 14 different city-level locations in the US and four in Australia are some of the highest we’ve seen. There are plenty of servers available in Asia as well as several countries that aren’t typically available elsewhere. You can find the full list of servers along with the protocols they support <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-server" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the ExpressVPN website</a>.
Even if you only intend to connect to one specific server, this quantity and variety is still important. The more servers there are, the less likely they are to suffer from congestion. The fewer users there are on each server, the faster the speeds.
Servers on opposing ends of massive countries like the US, Canada, and Australia means that no citizen is left behind, either.
Every single ExpressVPN server supports OpenVPN, IPSec, and IKEv2 protocols. A handful support L2TP, although we would recommend you don’t use it even if you have the option. The same goes for PPTP, which is available on about 30% of ExpressVPN servers – it’s potentially unsafe.
Overall, ExpressVPN has a diverse global server network that gives users access to a wide variety of locations and IP addresses. While there are no servers specifically optimized for streaming or torrenting, we’ve found the vast majority of server locations work perfectly well and without congestion.
<h3>Does ExpressVPN Use Virtual Servers?</h3>
40 of ExpressVPN’s 160 server locations are virtual server locations.
A physical or ‘bare metal’ VPN server is a real, physical piece of equipment located in the country or city you wish to connect to. ExpressVPN’s server in Denver, Colorado for example, is really located somewhere within that city.
The vast majority of ExpressVPN’s servers are physical servers – that is, the server and the IP address it assigns are located in the same country.
Virtual server locations work differently, though. They still exist physically in one country, but they provide you with with an IP address from another country. They help to ensure that you can connect to countries where it is difficult to install physical equipment. You can <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/troubleshooting/virtual-server-locations/#virtual-locations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">see the full list of them here</a>.
The example ExpressVPN gives on its website is Indonesia. When you connect to the server labelled Indonesia, you’re actually connecting to a server based in neighboring Singapore, which assigns you an Indonesian IP address.
Virtual server locations have no effect on unblocking content or bypassing geo-restrictions, as your IP address is still registered in the country you’ve chosen to connect to. However, if the physical location of the server is further from you than expected, it can have an impact on your connection speeds.
ExpressVPN is one of the few VPN services that is open and transparent about its use of virtual server locations to improve the diversity and accessibility of its network.

ExpressVPN is currently the <a href="/best-vpn/netflix/">best VPN for Netflix</a>, as well as other streaming services. It reliably bypasses geo-restrictions on websites and apps like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video with fast speeds and minimal buffering.
Our tests found that ExpressVPN easily unlocks US Netflix through almost all of its US-based VPN servers – New York was the only server that didn’t work.
While ExpressVPN doesn’t have servers dedicated to streaming like competing VPN services such as <a href="/reviews/cyberghost/">CyberGhost</a>, this isn’t an issue. The vast majority of its servers work with streaming platforms. ExpressVPN lists many of the <a href="/goto/?type=prc&amp;name=expressvpn&amp;ref=5f11be8647b2b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">streaming services it can unblock</a> on its website.
The Isle of Man and Jersey servers still work well with UK Netflix in {year}, and most UK servers unlock BBC iPlayer (although this will only work if you’re located outside the UK). Our current preferred method to unblocking BBC iPlayer is to use ExpressVPN&#8217;s Chrome and Firefox browser extensions and connect to the Wembley server.
The list doesn’t stop there though – ExpressVPN unlocks a huge selection of popular Netflix libraries from around the world in a variety of different languages. Some of the most popular choices are:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Argentina</li>
<li>Australia</li>
<li>Brazil</li>
<li>Canada</li>
<li>Chile</li>
<li>Colombia</li>
<li>Egypt</li>
<li>France</li>
<li>Germany</li>
<li>Italy</li>
<li>Japan</li>
<li>Malaysia</li>
<li>Netherlands</li>
<li>Pakistan</li>
<li>Panama</li>
<li>Romania</li>
<li>Sweden</li>
<li>UK</li>
<li>US</li>
</ul>
Just connect to a server located in the same country as the Netflix library you want to watch and you’re good to go.
<div class="block-highlighted">
You can also use ExpressVPN to unblock other popular streaming services, including:
<ul class="styled columns-2">
<li>Amazon Prime Video</li>
<li>Disney+</li>
<li>Hulu</li>
<li>HBO</li>
<li>Kodi</li>
<li>Now TV</li>
<li>PlayStation Vue</li>
<li>Sling TV</li>
<li>Sky</li>
</ul>
</div>
In addition to unblocking most popular streaming services, ExpressVPN’s fast download speeds mean that watching HBO Max, Netflix, and BBC iPlayer will be buffer-free.
<h3>How Do I Stream BBC iPlayer with ExpressVPN?</h3>
We&#8217;ve seen an influx of users having difficulty getting BBC iPlayer to work with ExpressVPN recently. Here are the options you have to get it working:
<ol class="coloured">Try connecting ot a different UK server &#8211; sometimes getting a new IP will be enough to access the service.</li>
<li>Try the browser add-on &#8211; we&#8217;ve seen users connect to BBC iPlayer more often using this method.</li>
<li>Change protocol &#8211; unfortunately less secure protocols are often better for BBC iPlayer. If you are comfortable with weaker security, try PPTP (you should never use PPTP unless you have to).</li>
<li>Use MediaStreamer DNS &#8211; ExpressVPN&#8217;s smart DNS service isn&#8217;t a full VPN, but it works better for streaming iPlayer.</li>
</ol>

Torrenting and P2P traffic is unrestricted across ExpressVPN’s entire server network. There is no bandwidth limit or restriction on P2P activity, either. Combined with strong security and a zero-logs policy, this makes ExpressVPN <a href="/best-vpn/torrenting/">an excellent choice for torrenting</a> and downloading files securely with absolutely no leaks.
There are no specific servers optimized for torrenting – instead, you can connect to any server in the network and use it to protect your P2P activity. This results in less server congestion, which means faster download speeds.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-127213" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/ExpressVPN-Torrenting.png" alt="A screenshot of ExpressVPN running at the same time as qBittorrent" width="700" height="515" />
We tested ExpressVPN with popular torrenting clients including qBittorrent, uTorrent, and Deluge. The VPN worked perfectly to hide our IP address without any additional setup and is <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-service/utorrent-vpn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">actively encouraged</a> to be used alongside your torrent client of choice on its website.
ExpressVPN isn’t just fast, it’s secure, too. Leak protection and a reliable kill switch called ‘Network Lock’ keep you anonymous even if your internet connection drops. These features are absolutely vital for torrenting and don’t require any manual setup whatsoever.
Strong encryption guarantees your torrented files will remain private, while advanced features like leak protection and split tunneling allow you to choose the apps and services you want to route through the VPN tunnel.
The only issue with using ExpressVPN for torrenting is that it doesn’t allow port forwarding. That means that while you can still technically upload or ‘seed’ torrent files, your speeds will be incredibly slow. Torrenting is all about sharing and helping other users – while you can still download files just fine, you won’t be much of a team player.
To learn more, read our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/expressvpn-torrenting/">complete guide to torrenting with ExpressVPN</a>.

Simon conducts our research and investigations into VPN safety and digital privacy. His work examining free VPNs, identity theft, ISP overblocking, plus his VPN Risk Index series have been featured in over 700 publications worldwide including the BBC, CNet, Wired, and The Financial Times. 

ExpressVPN is a popular VPN used by millions, but it&#8217;s also one of the pricier VPN services on the market. For this {{month}} ExpressVPN review, we thoroughly tested all its VPN apps to determine if it’s still as fast and secure as it’s been over the years, and ultimately if it&#8217;s still worth the extra money.
We found that ExpressVPN isn’t perfect, but it certainly comes close. It does almost everything right and meets all of our criteria, including fast global speeds, strong security, great usability, and the ability to unblock US Netflix on almost any United States server.
In fact, ExpressVPN&#8217;s ability to bypass aggressive geo-blocks is exceptional. Aside from unblocking popular streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video, it&#8217;s one of a handful of VPNs to consistently work in China.
ExpressVPN allows P2P traffic on all its 3,000+ global servers, meaning you can torrent files and stream Kodi without any restrictions whatsoever.
The VPN protects your internet traffic with AES 256-bit encryption and secure connection protocols like OpenVPN, IKEv2, and IPsec. ExpressVPN also comes with DNS, IPv6 and WebRTC leak protection, and a VPN kill switch to keep your real IP address hidden at all times.
Undoubtedly, ExpressVPN&#8217;s VPN software is one of the safest available. Moreover, its applications are <a href="/reviews/expressvpn/#review-platform">well-designed and beginner-friendly</a>, with native versions for popular platforms like Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and Fire OS.
One improvement we’d like to see is <a href="/reviews/expressvpn/#review-jurisdiction">more transparency</a> from the company behind the VPN service. It’s also one of the most expensive VPNs out there – even on a 15-month plan it costs more than $6.50 per month. If you can afford it, we believe ExpressVPN is worth the premium price, though. You can always try it risk-free thanks to its 30-day money-back guarantee.
Overall, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/goto/?type=pr&amp;name=expressvpn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ExpressVPN</a> is a market-leading VPN that is a valuable tool for both entertainment, security and privacy. It certainly stands out from the crowd, and truly earns the title of the best VPN of {{year}}.
<a class="button green-cta" href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-comparison-tool/?providers=direct,expressvpn,nordvpn,cyberghost"> Compare ExpressVPN to its top rivals side-by-side</a>

ExpressVPN offers <a href="/goto/?type=prc&amp;name=expressvpn&amp;ref=5f11be863f4e8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three main subscription plans</a>, all of which include the same features. As usual, the longer you subscribe for, the cheaper the monthly cost – although you will have to pay the full subscription fee up front.
The monthly plan costs $12.95 per month, which is quite expensive compared to most competitors. An annual subscription costs $8.48 per month, while a six-month plan is priced at $10.18 per month. These prices are above average, but very reasonable considering the quality of the service.
ExpressVPN provides the same features on all of its price plans, so the only decision to make is how much you want to pay upfront and how much your subscription costs you per month.
We recommend you opt for a longer-term contract if you can afford to. A 15-month subscription plan gives you a 49% price reduction to the equivalent of $6.67 per month, which is the best subscription plan available.
While ExpressVPN is more expensive than rivals like NordVPN and CyberGhost, you get what you pay for – it’s fantastic value for the best all-round VPN service on the market.

ExpressVPN doesn’t have a free trial, but all subscriptions come with a 30-day money-back guarantee. This means you can <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/get-expressvpn-for-free/">try ExpressVPN for a month risk-free</a>, if you decide it isn’t for you – perfect for beginners.
To claim your refund simply contact the ExpressVPN support team. We found this process to be quick and easy with no questions asked. You can learn more about the 30-day money-back guarantee here.
There’s also a ‘Refer a Friend’ program which earns you a 30-day free ExpressVPN subscription for both you and the friend you convince to sign up – and there’s no limit to the number of friends you can refer.
When it comes to payment methods, ExpressVPN accepts just about everything. You can pay using conventional bank cards, such as:
<ul>
<li>Visa</li>
<li>Visa Electron</li>
<li>Mastercard</li>
<li>American Express</li>
<li>Discover</li>
<li>JCB</li>
<li>Diners Club</li>
</ul>
More modern payment methods, such as:
<ul>
<li>PayPal</li>
<li>Bitcoin</li>
</ul>
And international payment methods (via Paymentwall) which include:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li>Alipay</li>
<li>UnionPay</li>
<li>iDeal</li>
<li>Klarna</li>
<li>WebMoney</li>
<li>Giropay</li>
<li>Yandex.money</li>
<li>Interac</li>
<li>Mint</li>
<li>OneCard</li>
<li>SOFORT</li>
</ul>
The only thing we feel is missing is a few more cryptocurrency options –it would be nice to see coins like Ethereum or Bitcoin Cash accepted in the future. There are also a few VPN providers that accept postal cash payments, for ultra-private transactions – that would be a fantastic addition.

<div id="attachment_126814" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-126814" loading="lazy" class="size-large wp-image-126814" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/05/Logging-Policy-700x350.png" alt="An excerpt from ExpressVPN's logging policy" width="700" height="350" />ExpressVPN makes it perfectly clear what information it does and does not log</div>
ExpressVPN doesn’t collect any personally-identifiable activity logs. Some connection data is kept including the date of the connection and your choice of server, but there is no record of your full IP address or online activity. <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/privacy-policy#aggregate-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Here’s all the information collected by ExpressVPN’s servers</a>:
<ul>
<li>Dates when connected to the VPN service</li>
<li>Choice of VPN server location</li>
<li>Total amount of data transferred per day</li>
</ul>
That’s it. ExpressVPN maintains that this is the minimum amount of information required in order to keep the performance of its servers as strong as possible.
We spoke to Harold Li VP of ExpressVPN about the VPN’s data retention policy and this is what he told us:
“. . . we do not have a publicly stated data retention period for these types of data . . . duration of retention varies based on the type of data . . . we never collect nor retain any data that could link an individual customer with specific activity on the VPN network. Customers can also request for their data to be deleted at any time, in line with their rights under the GDPR.”
While it’s disappointing not to know exactly how long this data is retained, the most important thing is that it cannot be used to identify you or what you do online.
All that’s possible to reveal is that you have used ExpressVPN’s service at some point. This is totally anonymous, and about as close to zero-logs as you will find.
A <a href="https://cdt.org/insight/unedited-answers-signals-of-trustworthy-vpns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2018 report by the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)</a> questioned ExpressVPN in greater detail, and concluded that its servers were both “extremely difficult to compromise” and “limited in the amount of data that could be revealed” in the event that they were.
ExpressVPN’s logging policy was also put to the test in December 2017 when one of the service’s VPN servers was seized and inspected by Turkish authorities investigating the assassination of the Russian ambassador, Andrei Karlov. The investigators <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/blog/expressvpn-statement-andrey-karlov-investigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">couldn’t find any customer connection logs</a>.
It’s clear that ExpressVPN is a company with respect for user privacy, which means we can fully recommend it to anyone looking to use a VPN to protect their anonymity online. In short, your privacy is safe with ExpressVPN.
<h3>Who Owns ExpressVPN?</h3>
Very little is known about who owns ExpressVPN. The company behind the VPN service has made the decision to stay discreet and private in order to help keep itself and its users safe.
What is known publicly is that ExpressVPN was founded in 2009 and is <a href="https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.express_vpn_international_ltd.50c0b41823c011ff5fe695d3e21cc1a8.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operated by Express VPN International Ltd.</a>, which is based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) – far outside the intrusive <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/">14 Eyes surveillance alliance</a>.
The BVI is an excellent choice of location for a privacy-minded VPN company because the country has full sovereignty over its own data regulations. This means that outside governments or agencies cannot force ExpressVPN to surrender information.
ExpressVPN International Ltd. is only incorporated in the BVI to benefit from the safeguards the legal jurisdiction brings. In reality, ExpressVPN is a big company with offices around the world.
We regularly reach out to the company’s staff to find out more about how it works, and we’ve also spoken with its Vice President, Harold Li, on a number of occasions.
We believe VPN providers should be transparent about their management and interests, and would like to see greater transparency from ExpressVPN in the future. Howver, we also understand that its private nature helps it maintain such a strong and safe VPN service in censored regions like <a href="/reviews/expressvpn/#review-censorship">China</a>. ExpressVPN has also never complied with any data requests from national governments or authorities.

Pros & Cons

About & Logging

Speed & Reliability

Streaming & Torrenting

Encryption & Security

Censorship

Server Locations

Platforms & Devices

Pricing

Ease of Use

Customer Support

Do We Recommend ExpressVPN?

ExpressVPN

IPVanish

We compared our download speeds before and after connecting to an ExpressVPN server near our physical location. This allows us to test how much ExpressVPN slows down our internet connection when connected to a local server. Here are our full results:
Download speed without ExpressVPN: 95.71Mbps
Download speed with ExpressVPN: 85.00Mbps
Our download speed loss when ExpressVPN is running: 11%
Our average download speed dropped from 95Mbps to 85Mbps when connected to a server in London, which works out as a percentage speed loss of just 11%. If you’re new to VPNs and are still unsure: that is a very impressive result. ExpressVPN had barely any impact on our download and upload speeds, and the ping stayed exactly the same.
You can expect similar percentage losses wherever you are in the world if you connect to a server near you.
This level of performance is even more impressive considering they were recorded during the UK COVID-19 lockdown, when more people than ever are using the internet and putting strain on the network.
An 8ms ping time is also excellent, especially if you’re gaming online. Lag can absolutely ruin a tense game of Fortnight or a crucial raid in World of Warcraft: the lower your ping time the less lag you’ll suffer from.
We run all of our ExpressVPN speed tests using OpenVPN. We find that it’s the best protocol for striking the balance between speed and security. You could potentially record even better speeds with ExpressVPN if you change protocols to IKEv2 – it’s still super-safe, so you don’t need to worry about sacrificing your security while prioritizing speed.
<h3>International Speed Test Results</h3>
We also measured ExpressVPN’s average speeds when connecting to servers in countries around the world. Our objective here is to demonstrate how well ExpressVPN performs over long-distance connections (even if these places aren’t that far from you).
Here are our long-distance speed test results:
<ul>
<li>USA: 77Mbps (download) &amp; 40Mbps (upload)</li>
<li>Germany: 79Mbps (download) &amp; 66Mbps (upload)</li>
<li>Singapore: 73Mbps (download) &amp; 22Mbps (upload)</li>
<li>Australia: 59Mbps (download) &amp; 1Mbps (upload)</li>
</ul>
ExpressVPN is by far the fastest VPN on long-distance connections, something a lot of competing VPN services struggle with. Its performance in East Asia and Australia is particularly remarkable: even the best VPNs would usually only achieve around 20Mbps download speeds connecting there.
If you’re not connecting to a country for any specific reason and just want to use ExpressVPN for security, then you’re best off using the Smart Location feature. It’s a clever tool that picks a nearby server optimized for high speed and low latency – it’s the default option within the app, so it doesn’t require any configuration.
<h3>How Fast Is ExpressVPN Compared to Other VPNs?</h3>
The results that follow are taken from our custom VPN speed test tool.
It runs on a VPN server that we rent in New York, automatically, four times per day, with speeds capped at 100Mbps (a number similar to what you might get on your home internet connection).
It shows the VPN’s average speed loss compared to the connection with no VPN running. Results go back eight weeks, and you can see how it fared versus other popular VPNs.
<div style="display: none;" data-joyceparams="9863dfce-9f44"></div>
<a class="button green-cta" href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-speed-test/?to=nyc&amp;from=nyc&amp;period=8w&amp;providers=direct,private-internet-access,expressvpn,nordvpn&amp;int=7&amp;chart=dl_speed_avg"> Use our Speed Test Tool to compare ExpressVPN&#8217;s speeds across different cities.</a>
ExpressVPN has historically performed exceptionally well, and we generally see it as the benchmark to judge other VPNs against. Still, it’s been outperformed by NordVPN and <a href="/reviews/private-internet-access/">Private Internet Access</a> over the last few months.
When it comes to upload speeds and ping, however, the picture is less clear: ExpressVPN has been similar to – sometimes better and sometimes worse than – its rivals.
ExpressVPN’s speed test results are very good. They’re just as strong on international connections, where ExpressVPN rarely drops below rivals like NordVPN, Private Internet Access, or IPVanish.

ProtonVPN

User-friendly VPN with a strong privacy focus. Good choice for streaming fans.

Windscribe logo

Customer support is an area where Windscribe sometimes falls behind the competition.
Windscribe’s customer support is missing live chat – it’s something we always look for in a top VPN (ideally it will be 24-hour, too). Instead, Windscribe has a seriously extensive <a href="https://windscribe.com/guides">online library of guides</a>, <a href="https://windscribe.com/faq">FAQs</a>, and even its own <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/windscribe/">subreddit and <a href="https://discord.com/invite/vpn" rel="noopener">discord</a> server.
Windscribe also provides an online support ticket submission and an automated chat agent, Garry, although we’d recommend you don’t waste your time with the latter as it generally isn’t that helpful.
It also only understands English, which is pretty underwhelming. At least a basic understanding of languages like Spanish or Mandarin Chinese would go a long way to helping Windscribe’s international audience.
<div id="attachment_115414" style="width: 478px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115414" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115414 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-gary-chatbot-issues.png" alt="Windscribe's chat-bot gets confused by Spanish" width="468" height="392" />Garry tiene dificultad para entender español</div>
When you get stuck with the chatbot it will offer you the chance to “Talk to a Human.” This just puts you through to a ticket system, though.
Response time could be better, we found Windscribe generally got back to us within a day, though.

Windscribe’s custom apps are incredibly easy to use and do not compromise on the need for specific features that cater to serious VPN users.
The Windscribe home screen keeps it simple on both desktop and mobile, with a big on/off button and a list of VPN server locations. The advanced options are tucked away in their own menu, with users warned not to touch them “unless you know what you’re doing,” which we quite like.
<div style="display: none;" data-table="14B2sRonQ3gksKWEI12KD26aYtg-sD8stq4kxX1KBqSg|133827099"></div>
<h3>Windows</h3>
The Windows app is exceptionally well presented and easy to use. A central power button connects or disconnects the VPN, and you’re clearly shown which server you’ve connected to, alongside its IP address.
<div id="attachment_115441" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115441" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115441 size-medium" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-windows-app-250x331.png" alt="Screenshot of the Windscribe Windows client" width="250" height="331" />Windscribe on Windows</div>
There’s a country search bar, which is a must have feature for usability with a VPN that has as many options available as Windscribe does.
Advanced options are easy to find, too, in a drop-down menu at the top-left of the app.
Windscribe offers lots of space for customisation. You can toggle the latency display between the ping in ms or a meter from 0 to 3 bars. There’s also 25 language options available, which is a welcome option for accessibility.
You can toggle the app between window and tray, too, which we like (although we really prefer the window mode). You can also customise notifications and the order in which countries are listed within the app.
We’ve been told split tunneling is soon to be added to Windows, Mac and Linux; it will be a welcome addition.
<h3>MacOS</h3>
The Mac app differs slightly from the Windows app. It’s a menu bar app, rather than a standalone window.
<div id="attachment_115549" style="width: 415px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115549" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115549 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-macos.png" alt="" width="405" height="277" />Windscribe on Mac</div>
Don’t mistake that for simplicity or poor design, though. The MacOS looks pretty similar to the Windows app, and has several of the same features &#8211; with the only notable absence being the “always on” option on PC.
Again, there’s a broad range of customization options available within the app. You can change the location order, toggle notifications on and off, and alter the appearance of server latency.
Unique to the MacOS app, you can hide the Windscribe icon from the dock &#8211; allowing the app to feel like it’s running passively in the background. This is a nice platform-specific touch.
<h3>Android</h3>
The Android app is the most complete of all of Windscribe’s apps. The only major feature it’s lacking is the “Firewall” kill switch. Although this is a significant omission, which we would like to see added.
<div id="attachment_115552" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115552" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115552 size-medium" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-android-250x497.png" alt="Windscribe on Android" width="250" height="497" />Windscribe on Android</div>
The app includes a network whitelisting option, which allows you to select certain networks for Windscribe not to activate over &#8211; such as your home network or other trusted network. We really like this addition for mobile, where you don’t always notice your phone moving between networks.
There are also Windscribe’s standard customization options: location order (which is particularly welcome on mobile), latency display, language choice and notification.
Unique to mobile, Windscribe has also included a dark/light mode toggle, although the impact of this is really minimal.
<h3>iOS</h3>
Like all of Windscribe’s apps, the iPhone and iPad app is easy to use and nicely laid out.
<div id="attachment_115555" style="width: 260px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115555" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-115555" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-ios-app-250x432.png" alt="Windscribe app on iOS" width="250" height="432" />Windscribe on iPhone</div>
You’ll get all the same customization options on iOS as on Android: location order, latency display, notifications, language and light/dark mode.
What you won’t get, however, is many of the advanced features available on the other apps. There isn’t a split tunneling feature, or the ability to set the app to “always on”, for instance.
There’s no stealth protocol, either, so you won’t be able to use the iOS app from censored regions.
Unlike the Android app, though, there is an all important kill switch, which means you don’t need to worry about being exposed if your VPN connection drops out.
<h3>Browser Extensions</h3>
We really like Windscribe’s browser add-ons. They come with an unusually large suite of features including ad and malware blocking, advanced leak protection and city level server selection (for Pro accounts).
As we’ve already mentioned, the Windscribe browser add-ons for Firefox and Chrome aren’t strictly speaking VPNs, they’re proxies.
Being proxies, these extensions won’t fully protect your data like a desktop VPN would, and they will only redirect the traffic from your browser window.
What it can do, however, is successfully spoof your location. There’s a long list of city or country level servers on offer, too.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-88972 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2019/10/windscribe-app.png" alt="Screenshots of the Windscribe browser extension" width="779" height="539" />
The add-on comes with plenty of browser features, like the R.O.B.E.R.T. ad blocker, a firewall, and tools to prevent you from being tracked by advertisers online, such as “<a href="https://windscribe.com/features/cookie-monster" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cookie Monster</a>” which keeps tabs on and even deletes first and third party cookies based on your preferences.
There are some advanced tools to help you spoof GPS location (Location Warp) and browser time (Time Warp), too.
You can even randomly allocate your user agent to prevent your browser from determining what OS and browser you are using.
This is a great suite of privacy- and security-focused tools which are easy to use thanks to a lightweight and intuitive user interface.
In theory, R.O.B.E.R.T. is what really distinguishes Windscribe’s browser plug-ins from those offered by competing VPNs. Very few can say they offer malware and phishing and ad protection, alongside the ability to add custom filters to control your internet experience.
The reality is, though, that you can get more utility from an open source add-on like <a href="https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uBlock Origin</a>. Windscribe may beat out some other providers’ add-ons with its security features, but it doesn’t come close to dedicated free software.
There is also some limited integration with the desktop app – allowing you to view the status of, but not change, your device-wide VPN. We’re hoping Windscribe will move towards more complete integration in the future.
For now, though, if you’re looking for the best in privacy and security we still recommend using the desktop app alongside a <a href="/guides/best-private-browsers/">privacy-first browser setup</a>.
<h3>Smart TV</h3>
Windscribe also maintains a smart TV app for Android TV or Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Let’s start with the obvious: it’s ugly.
Compared to all of Windscribe’s other apps, the TV app looks bad and can be fiddly to use. You can filter locations down to just the Windflix servers, though &#8211; a good call for a TV VPN.
The app includes a split tunneling feature &#8211; called “split routing” &#8211; which we like. It allows you to apply the VPN to only certain apps on your smart TV.
In general, it comes with more features than we expected. You can toggle on/off LAN connections to other local devices or set it to connect when you boot your TV.
The app keeps local logs, which you can choose to send to Windscribe &#8211; presumably with troubleshooting in mind. We understand the value of this, but don’t love it from a privacy perspective.
By default it runs on OpenVPN UDP over port 443, and you can also connect via OpenVPN TCP, Stealth, and IKEv2.
This app clearly hasn’t been prioritized, though.
We don’t recommend picking Windscribe for this app specifically &#8211; see our list of the <a href="/best-vpn/firestick/">best VPNs for Fire TV Stick</a> &#8211; but it’s a bonus if you already have your heart set on Windscribe.

How to Connect to a Server with Windscribe

How to Change Settings in Windscribe

China and other countries with privacy-hostile censorship regimes are increasingly using technologies like <a href="/guides/vpn-glossary/#deep-packet-inspection-dpi">deep packet inspection (DPI)</a> to identify and block VPN traffic &#8211; preventing people from accessing the global internet.
Many VPNs &#8211; including Windscribe &#8211; have pushed back at this censorship but employing <a href="/guides/vpn-glossary/#obfuscation">obfuscation technologies</a>, which make it harder for censors to identify VPN traffic.
Windscribe uses a “Stealth protocol” to avoid detection by the censors. This protocol uses the <a href="https://www.stunnel.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">open-source algorithm Stunnel</a>, to route your OpenVPN traffic through an additional TLS tunnel.
We&#8217;ve seen this protocol working first-hand in China, using our Schenzhen server. Windscribe allowed us to break out of China&#8217;s firewall without much issue. We can&#8217;t measure performance, though, so it&#8217;s hard to say how smoothly the VPN will run in China.
If this doesn’t work, there’s also a Wstunnel mode which wraps OpenVPN in WebSocket instead of TLS. It’s nice that Windscribe gives you the ability to play around with which form of obfuscation you use &#8211; particularly as what works in China is known to change so frequently.
The <a href="https://windscribe.com/support/article/29/stealth-protocol-on-ios" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stealth protocol isn’t available at all on iOS</a>, which we would like to see change in the near future. This means you won&#8217;t be able to use your iPhone in China with Windscribe.
If you do try Windscribe in China, you’ll need to make sure you have it pre-installed on all your devices before you travel, though, as it’s blocked for download inside the country.
In other high-censorship countries with less effective censorship apparatus &#8211; like Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Turkey &#8211; Windscribe also looks to be a an effective solution.
<h3>Using Windscribe with Tor</h3>
If you are worried about your communication being surveilled by a government, employer or corporation, or you are looking to overcome censorship at any level (from your network administrator, ISP, or government), Tor can be a very useful tool.
<div id="attachment_95758" style="width: 1190px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-95758" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-95758 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2019/11/Asset-2-min.png" alt="Diagram of data passing through the Tor network" width="1180" height="582" />How your data passes through the Tor network.</div>
It works by routing your traffic through three random servers, giving you total anonymity &#8211; even from the Tor network itself.
Windscribe doesn’t have explicit Tor compatibility, but a basic Tor over VPN setup &#8211; where you open the Tor browser on a computer &#8211; is possible.
This comes with two benefits:
<ul>
<li>Your ISP or network manager won’t be able to see you’re accessing the Tor network, potentially helping you get around any government, workplace or campus bans</li>
<li>Were anything to go wrong with the Tor network, it would be Windscribe’s IP that would be exposed, not your own</li>
</ul>
But it also has some downsides &#8211; namely that using Tor with a VPN is not as totally anonymous as using it alone. You can read <a href="/guides/tor-vs-vpn/">our full Tor vs VPN guide to learn more</a>.

Windscribe is a solid choice for VPN security with no evidence of any faults occuring in the company&#8217;s past. It comes with lots of extra features and customization options too, great for novices and experienced users alike.
It is <a href="/guides/vpn-encryption-protocols/">encrypted with top cipher AES-256</a> and includes our preferred VPN protocol, OpenVPN, so your IP address remains hidden at all times.
There’s also a secure <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SHA512</a> authentication key and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_(cryptosystem)">4096-bit RSA</a> encryption for the handshake, all considered the very best in security and privacy.
In the five years it&#8217;s been running, there is no evidence that Windscribe’s security has ever been compromised, server or client-side.
It also operates <a href="/guides/vpn-glossary/#perfect-forward-secrecy">Perfect Forward Secrecy</a>, a standard we want more VPN providers to adopt.
This means that 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.
Windscribe lets you choose between UDP and TCP OpenVPN connections. Each of these protocols comes with its own advantages. UDP is faster but less reliable, but TCP offers the most consistent connection.
If you’re gaming or making video calls, we recommend UDP. If you’re aren’t doing these things and you experience stability issues we recommend changing to TCP.
By default, Windscribe uses the IKEv2 protocol on all platforms. We like IKEv2 as a choice for mobile connections, but it is a proprietary protocol without the same tested security as OpenVPN.
Generally we prefer OpenVPN for desktop platforms, but IKEv2 isn’t a terrible default either. It’s pretty easy to change protocols in all the apps’ settings menus, too, which is good.
<div id="attachment_115384" style="width: 603px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115384" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115384 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-settings-openVPN-IKEv2.png" alt="Screenshot of the Windscibe settings menu" width="593" height="655" />The Windscribe options menu on PC</div>
<a href="https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1928.txt" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SOCKS5 is also on offer</a>, an old favourite of torrenters but not a protocol we would recommend using.
We like Windscribe’s ‘Firewall’ feature, which serves the same purpose as a <a href="/guides/vpn-glossary/">VPN kill switch</a>, so you’re also protected against <a href="/guides/vpn-leak-test/">DNS and IP leaks</a> in case your internet connection drops. It operates in three modes: automatic, manual, and always on.
The applications boast lots of advanced security features including WebRTC protection (dubbed the “WebRTC slayer”), port forwarding, and double hop – which makes your Windscribe connection even more secure by bouncing it between two different VPN servers (at the cost of speed).
In addition to this, Windscribe also includes a split tunneling feature &#8211; dubbed “Split Personality” &#8211; which lets users route certain apps inside/outside of the VPN. This convenient feature is thankfully becoming more and more standard, as it helps keep users in direct control of their data flow.
Ultimately, Windscribe is an extremely safe VPN. We’d even go as far as to say it’s one of the most private and secure VPN services on the market.
<h3>Windscribe Leak Test</h3>
Why should you just trust that it’s safe? You shouldn’t.
We’ve put Windscribe through a leak test so you can see for yourself that it doesn’t leak.
<div id="attachment_69883" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-69883" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-69883 size-large" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2019/06/Screen-Shot-2019-06-14-at-12.18.03-700x510.png" alt="A screenshot of Windscribe passing all IP and DNS leak tests" width="700" height="510" />Browserleaks.com found Windscribe to be totally leak-free</div>
This was the result when we connected to a US server from our office in London, UK. The DNS, WebRTC, and IP address all show up as being in Boston, US.
There is no way that this information could be used to detect we are based in the UK, let alone our actual IP address.
<h3>R.O.B.E.R.T: Windscribe’s Security Suite</h3>
Windscribe provides its own ad-tracker and malware blocker called “<a href="https://windscribe.com/features/robert" target="_blank" rel="noopener">R.O.B.E.R.T.</a>,” which is integrated into its custom VPN apps. R.O.B.E.R.T. includes eight different blocklists, making it easy to customize your VPN profile to your needs.
R.O.B.E.R.T. is basically a DNS-level malware and ad blocker &#8211; an increasingly common offering from VPN providers. If you’re a fan of these things, Windscribe was one of the first to integrate such a service with its VPN.
It lets users choose from a list of content they’d like to block, including advertisements, trackers, and cryptominers. You can also block social networks, sexually explicit content, gambling websites, and more.
<div id="attachment_115387" style="width: 1010px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115387" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115387 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-fake-news.png" alt="Screenshot of Windscribe ROBERT fake news claim" width="1000" height="281" />Windscribe&#8217;s &#8220;fake news&#8221; filter</div>
The system isn’t without problems, though: the “fake news” blocklist includes <a href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/extensions/fakenews/hosts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a few well known parody sites</a> like The Daily Mash, despite explicitly claiming not to block satire.
There’s more than a little irony in having a VPN service mistakenly block content.
You don’t have to turn-on the fake news block, of course. Generally we have found the other R.O.B.E.R.T. filters to function as expected.
At the risk of sounding flippant, though, all this isn’t really what VPN services are about. The functionality doesn’t hurt, but it also really isn’t necessary, and becomes little more than bloatware once turned off.
We generally recommend using established open-source add-ons to protect your browser from third party trackers and malware &#8211; you can <a href="/guides/best-private-browsers/">read our secure browser guide to learn more</a>.
Similar in this regard is <a href="https://windscribe.com/securelink" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secure.link</a>, a free URL shortening service offered by Windscribe. It’s a handy tool, but it doesn’t really have anything to do with the VPN service.
<h3>Malware &amp; Tracking</h3>
VPNs process huge amounts of data coming in and out of your device, so it’s really important they aren’t loaded up with any dangerous malware or viruses. To make sure Windscribe is clean, we ran the desktop application through a full virus and malware test.
Here are the results we got from Malwarebytes:
<div id="attachment_115390" style="width: 900px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115390" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115390 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/malwarebytes-scan.png" alt="Screenshot of our Windscribe Malwarebytes scan" width="890" height="659" />Malwarebytes scan of the Windscribe desktop app</div>
Windscribe came out 100% virus and malware free. This is a great result, and another piece of evidence that Windscribe is a trustworthy provider.
To double check the security and privacy of Windscribe across all platforms, we also ran it through the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">εxodus tool</a>, which produces reports on the  trackers and permissions present in Android apps.
<div id="attachment_115363" style="width: 1161px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115363" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115363 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/exodus-windscribe-app-scan.png" alt="Screenshot of the Exodus report on the Windscribe Android app trackers and permissions" width="1151" height="600" />The Exodus report on the Windscribe Android app trackers and permissions</div>
We found that the Android app has two trackers: Google CrashLytics and Google Firebase Analytics. Neither of these are necessarily too concerning, they are both event-based data collection tools which will help Windscribe know how users interact with the app, and respond to issues like crashes. They also aren’t completely private, though.
To put both this in context, Windscribe has fewer trackers than the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.nordvpn.android/latest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NordVPN app</a>, the same number as in the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.expressvpn.vpn/latest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ExpressVPN app</a>, but more than the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.astrill.astrillvpn/latest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Astrill app</a>, which has none.
Windscribe comes out well here &#8211; <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/org.freevpn/latest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Free VPN by FreeVPN.org contains a truly horrifying 28 trackers</a> &#8211; but we think all VPN providers should aspire to minimise or completely remove the trackers in their apps.
The εxodus report also reveals that the app asks for 14 permissions, two of which &#8211; GPS and network-based location &#8211; are considered ‘dangerous’ or ‘special’ in Google’s protection levels.
These could be explained as part of the fastest server function, but many other VPN apps with similar functions do not ask for such information. This is one area where Windscribe could earn trust by making their app open-source.

Windscribe has a custom VPN app for almost every platform and OS you could think of, and they’re all very user-friendly. The mobile apps have also recently undergone an update, and a good one too.
Apps for Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS are all available, plus apps for more niche platforms like Linux and Android TV, too. There are<a href="https://windscribe.com/guides" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> helpful setup guides</a> for all of these devices on Windscribe’s website.
As is often the case, the iOS app is more limited than the others. We’ll go over every app in detail in our <a href="/reviews/windscribe/#review-ease">Ease of Use</a> section.
Importantly, Windscribe allows unlimited simultaneous connections, meaning you and your family can all have the VPN running at the same time &#8211; a fairly unique offering among VPNs who generally impose device limits.
However, Windscribe doesn’t allow sharing your account with friends (or even strangers), and the company will ban users that violate its terms of use.
Connecting on a variety of platforms is easy, and Windscribe even has its own <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/config-generators" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Config Generators tool</a> &#8211; which automatically gives you the exact information you need for manual setups.
This is ideal if you want to connect a platform that isn’t officially supported by an app, including:
<ul>
<li>Amazon Fire TV</li>
<li>Kodi</li>
<li>Nvidia Shield</li>
</ul>

Windscribe has revamped its hugely popular (almost <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/windscribe-free-proxy-and/hnmpcagpplmpfojmgmnngilcnanddlhb/related" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,000,000</a> installs) browser extension, and we’re impressed by the results.
This more comprehensive extension supports city-level server selection and malware and phishing blocks among other security extra like WebRTC blocking, location API spoofing, and website notification blocking.
Like most VPN browser extensions, this is strictly speaking <a href="/guides/proxy-vs-vpn/">a proxy not a VPN</a> – but Windscribe is <a href="https://windscribe.com/support/article/27/difference-between-desktop-app-and-browser-extension" target="_blank" rel="noopener">upfront about that fact</a>, which we like. These extensions provide a quick and simple way to connect to Windscribe from your browser window.

You can also <a href="/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-router/">install Windscribe VPN on your router</a> &#8211; or buy a <a href="https://www.flashrouters.com/vpn-types/windscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">preconfigured router</a> &#8211; to protect all the internet-connected devices in your home at the same time. This includes devices such as <a href="/best-vpn/apple-tv/">Apple TV</a>, Microsoft Xbox One, Sony PlayStation 4, and many more.
There are dedicated Windscribe VPN apps for the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Kodi, too, which is still fairly rare to see.
The <a href="https://windscribe.com/guides/firetv" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fire TV Stick app</a> has a good array of features, including Windscribe&#8217;s full range of VPN servers and the ability to favorite your most used locations, plus some extra technical settings.

Windscribe has a diverse VPN server network of <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/large-network" target="_blank" rel="noopener">110 cities in 64 countries</a>. This is a big number which includes almost every region in the world.
East Asia is especially well represented, which is uncommon – there are Windscribe VPN servers in Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and more.
<div id="attachment_60959" style="width: 387px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60959" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-60959 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2019/04/Windscribe-server-list-1.png" alt="Windscribe server list" width="377" height="567" />Windscribe&#8217;s server select screen</div>
Altogether Windscribe offers over 110 individual VPN locations, meaning you get city-level choice in a number of different countries. There are multiple servers in a number of locations, but you can choose your city within:
<ul>
<li>Australia (Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney)</li>
<li>Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver)</li>
<li>France (Marseilles, Paris)</li>
<li>India (Chennai, Indore, New Delhi)</li>
<li>Israel (Ashdod, Jerusalem)</li>
<li>Italy (Milan, Rome)</li>
<li>Russia (Moscow, Saint Petersburg)</li>
<li>Spain (Barcelona, Madrid)</li>
<li>UK (London, Manchester)</li>
<li>US Central (Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Louisville, New Orleans, Salt Lake City)</li>
<li>US East (Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Miami, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC)</li>
<li>US West (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oregon, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Seattle)</li>
<li>Turkey (Bursa, Istanbul)</li>
</ul>
We’re a little disappointed that Windscribe refuses to reveal the total number of individual VPN servers or IP addresses it maintains, though, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Windscribe/comments/a09txj/windscribe_doesnt_own_its_own_server_or_ip_address/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a number of its servers are rented</a> rather than owned outright &#8211; which could mean Windscribe play less of a role in their security than we would like.
We can presume that there are at least 110 of each, though.
Windscribe does claim that all of its servers are actually located where they say. Surprisingly, this often isn’t the case when VPNs have large server networks. HideMyAss!, for instance, has the largest server network we’ve seen, with “servers” in all but five of the world’s countries, but a huge number of them are actually located in the US and UK.
In Windscribe’s case, at least one of its servers lies about its locations: pinging the Troll Station, Antarctica server reveals it is actually physically located in Canada. We think this is probably a one-off, though &#8211; the server is called “Fake Antarctica,” after all.
The Windscribe website includes a <a href="https://windscribe.com/status" target="_blank" rel="noopener">neat page with real-time updates of server status and capacity</a>. This is great when you’re trying to find a quick server or want to troubleshoot a slow connection.
There’s also <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/static-ips" target="_blank" rel="noopener">static IP addresses</a> available in 13 different locations, which can make it easier for you to get consistent access to streaming services. With Windscribe this IP will be shared with about 10 other users.
A static IP connects you to the same IP every time you connect. This comes with a few benefits like reducing the chance of websites blacklisting your IP.
You can also choose between <a href="https://windscribe.com/staticips" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a datacenter or residential IP</a>. The residential IP is more expensive, but really improves the chance of streaming services working properly.
Since a residential IP makes you look more authentic, it also stops you seeing unnecessary captchas around the web.
An example where this comes in handy is Amazon Prime Video, which will log you out on desktop every time your IP address changes. With a residential IP your streaming experience becomes more seamless.

One of the biggest benefits of a VPN like Windscribe is that it can get you around geographical restrictions on content. It does this by masking your true IP address with one from the country you want to access.
This is great news for expats and fans of foreign TV or cinema alike.
Platforms like Netflix have caught on to this loop-hole, though, and made it more difficult for VPNs to connect to their services. In {{year}}, only the very best VPNs can consistently pull it off.
Windscribe does offer dedicated VPN ‘Windflix’ servers for streaming in various countries around the world. These servers are labelled as <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/windflix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windflix</a> in the server selection menu, and can be found in the US, the UK, and Canada.
These specific servers are now mostly redundent, though. After a <a href="https://twitter.com/windscribecom/status/1237816806863015936" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recent update</a>, all Windscribe servers can be used for streaming &#8211; including the free servers. Which makes Windscribe <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/free-vpn-for-netflix/">the only truly free VPN that works well with Netflix</a>.
It works in all 10 free server locations, too. Which is super impressive.
We’ve tested streaming services, including Netflix, iPlayer, and YouTube, across all four of Windscribe&#8217;s streaming server locations.
We found that Windscribe reliably unblocks Netflix in all four Windflix countries: both the US and UK, as well as Canada and Japan (two locations we’re not used to seeing VPN providers commit to).
We’ve never had any issues testing Windscribe with Netflix UK or US, meaning you can watch these Netflix libraries in buffer-free Full HD. Moreover, we recently found that Windscribe can unblock over 40 international Netflix libraries, making Windscribe one of the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/netflix/">very best VPNs for Netflix</a> right now.
To give you a good idea of what you can expect we’ve carried out special speed tests on all the Windflix servers from the UK.
The absolute value we are getting is not as important as the drop in speed we experience when using the server. This is because our 100Mbps connection has greater bandwidth than many home internet connections. Here are our results:
<div style="display: none;" data-table="14B2sRonQ3gksKWEI12KD26aYtg-sD8stq4kxX1KBqSg|770789119"></div>
For reference, <a href="https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Netflix’s official internet speed recommendations</a> are 3Mbps for SD quality, 5Mbps for HD quality and 25Mbps for Ultra HD quality.
We don’t think these are 100% accurate  &#8211; they’re a bit low &#8211; but they do offer an indication of the quality you can expect.
Using Windscribe from our location in London we can expect to stream in HD or Ultra HD from the US, UK, and Canada libraries, and at least in SD from the Japanese Netflix library.
Windscribe’s US servers also work well for hassle-free access to Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, though.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get Disney+ running on the US servers, so fans of the Mandalorian should look at an alternative VPN <a href="/reviews/surfshark/">like Surfshark</a>.
<div id="attachment_60962" style="width: 383px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-60962" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-60962 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2019/04/Windscribe-streaming-servers-1.png" alt="Windscribe streaming servers" width="373" height="563" />The Windflix servers in app</div>
We also tested Windscribe to see if it offers access to BBC iPlayer. We found that the browser proxy will get you access to BBC iPlayer, but the full VPN won’t always.
Even Windscribe’s dedicated server can’t always achieve this; it’s been on and off for a while now, but looks to be improving. Read our guide to the <a href="/best-vpn/bbc-iplayer/">best VPNs for BBC iPlayer</a> for a more reliable solution to streaming BBC videos.
The VPN unblocks geo-locked content on YouTube, though, which is a plus.
All in all, Windscribe Pro is a solid streaming VPN, if not <a href="/best-vpn/streaming/">the best</a>.
Uniquely, this doesn&#8217;t only apply to the Pro version. Since its recent update, Windscribe’s free VPN has also been successful at unlocking content.
We’ve also been successful in getting the free app to unblock geo-blocked YouTube videos, and we’ve found the free browser add-on pretty consistently unlocks BBC iPlayer, too.
<h3>Torrenting works well (but beware of Canada)</h3>
Windscribe is a good VPN for torrenting, too, as P2P activity is allowed on the majority of Windscribe’s servers worldwide, although not all servers are P2P-optimized. Servers which won’t work are marked with a “P2P” icon.
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115375 size-full aligncenter" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-p2p.png" alt="Windscirbe P2P strikethrough symbol" width="532" height="56" />
The speeds are consistently good enough for torrenting, too, which is really important. What’s key here is that Windscribe distributes its P2P servers around the world, which maximizes your chances of getting good upload and download speeds.
This means you can seed as well as leech &#8211; just make sure you keep Windscribe active if your torrent client continues seeding in the background.
With a <a href="/reviews/windscribe/#review-jurisdiction">trustworthy logging policy</a> and <a href="/reviews/windscribe/#review-encryption">high-end security</a> (like the all-important kill switch) Windscribe won’t only ensure your downloads complete quickly, but securely, and anonymously, too.
If you’re new to torrenting, Windscribe has guides to setting up a SOCKS5 proxy with <a href="https://windscribe.com/guides/utorrent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">uTorrent</a>, <a href="https://windscribe.com/guides/deluge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deluge</a>, <a href="https://windscribe.com/guides/qbittorrent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">qBittorrent</a>, and <a href="https://windscribe.com/guides/vuze" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VUZE</a>. These are useful, but both we and Windscribe recommend using the full desktop VPN client in conjunction with your torrent client for maximum privacy.
Another thing to stay aware of is Canada’s aggressive copyright laws. <a href="https://www.ncf.ca/ncf/support/wiki/Copyright_Infringement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fines for copyright infringement in Canada can be up to $5000</a> &#8211; so it’s a good idea to make sure you never fall foul of them.
When thinking about jurisdiction it’s always a good idea to keep in mind:
<ul>
<li>The location of the server you’re connected to</li>
<li>The jurisdiction under which your VPN provider operates</li>
</ul>
We haven’t seen any examples of <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/copyright-trolls" target="_blank" rel="noopener">copyright trolls</a> getting their hands on Windscribe user data, but you should be aware that Canada is a country in which they have the upper hand, legally speaking.
When you do torrent using Windscribe, we definitely recommend against connecting to servers in Canada, the US, or the UK.

Windscribe is available as both a free and premium VPN. While the paid subscription (Windscribe Pro) is definitely superior, the free plan offers a generous 10GB data allowance that we consider to be one of the best available on the market.
Both versions of Windscribe VPN provide <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/windscribe/#review-speed">reliable same-country speeds</a>, a diverse network of server locations, and a good selection of applications for Windows, Android, iOS, and Linux. On the premium version you’ll even get unlimited data.
<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/goto/?type=pr&#038;name=windscribe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windscribe Pro</a> is a great choice if you’re looking to torrent, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/windscribe-netflix/">stream US Netflix</a>, and maintain good internet speeds for a reasonable price. The company behind Windscribe is also very transparent about <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/no-logs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">its logging practices</a>, although we would like to see an independent audit to verify its privacy and security offering.
Advanced features include an <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/robert" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ad-tracker and malware blocker called R.O.B.E.R.T.</a>, which is integrated into the custom VPN apps. We’ll cover it in more detail <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/windscribe/#review-encryption">later on in this review</a>.
Windscribe has a few weaknesses that prevent it from competing with the best VPNs on the market. We found issues with long-distance speeds and customer support, and the free version doesn&#8217;t run as fast as the premium VPN.
We’ve run both versions of Windscribe through our comprehensive review process to discover if this VPN is a serious contender amongst more established VPN services.
<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-comparison-tool/?providers=direct,windscribe,protonvpn,privatevpn" class="button green-cta"> Compare Windscribe to its top rivals side-by-side</a>

If you’d rather not pay at all you can actually get Windscribe for free &#8211; sort of. <a href="/reviews/windscribe/">Windscribe Free</a> is as good as free VPNs come, although it’s definitely not as good as premium Windscribe.
You can contact Garry the chatbot and ask for a free trial of Windscribe Pro, which lasts for two days and doesn&#8217;t require any payment details.
Otherwise, it&#8217;s a three-day, 10GB data-capped money-back period, which isn&#8217;t very long at all. Our roundup of the <a href="https://cms.top10vpn.com/editorial_round_up/free-trials/">best free trial VPNs</a> should be your first port of call if you&#8217;re looking to try before you buy.

Windscribe is a pretty good value VPN, particularly on the one year deal. It comes in cheaper than most the top-tier providers without having to sacrifice quality.
You have two options with Windscribe: pay for a month or pay for a year. The $9.00 cost of a single month is rather steep, but it comes all the way down to $4.08 per month on a 12-month deal.
There’s also a ‘Build-a-Plan’ option, which allows users to purchase Windscribe server locations for $1 each per month. This means that if you only need to access one or two VPN servers, you can keep the monthly cost down to just a couple of dollars &#8211; an extra dollar gives you access to unlimited data and the full R.O.B.E.R.T. feature, too.
You get the same extensive set of features and servers regardless of how you choose to pay, as there’s only one tier of paid subscription: Windscribe Pro.
On top of this there’s <a href="https://windscribe.com/scribeforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a customizable package called ScribeForce available</a>. This is essentially a corporate plan that allows you to build a subscription of a “per seat” basis for 5 or more team members, at a rate of $3.00 per seat, per month.
We really like that Windscribe has so many bespoke options available.
Of course, if you opt for the free plan you won’t need to pay anything at all &#8211; and you don’t need to enter payment details, either. Great for anonymity.

Windscribe accepts the usual range of payment methods including most popular credit and debit cards, PayPal and Bitcoin, as well as several international options through its partnership with Paymentwall.
Once you’ve signed up for a paid subscription, the refund period is just three days, and you’re only eligible if you’ve used more than 10GB of bandwidth, which isn’t all that much.
Windscribe can also take up to 30 days to refund your money into your account. This is a really restrictive returns policy. Our advice is to test out a free account before you subscribe to the service, instead.
<h3>Windscribe Free</h3>
As we mentioned right at the top of this review, Windscribe also has a free plan available.
Its free plan is one of the best we’ve seen, and a great way to try out Windscribe before commiting to a subscription.
The plan comes with <a href="https://windscribe.com/features/large-network" target="_blank" rel="noopener">servers in 10 of Windscribe’s 63 countries</a> and a 10GB monthly data cap.
Using a free Windscribe account you can connect to:
<ul>
<li>Canada</li>
<li>France</li>
<li>Germany</li>
<li>Hong Kong</li>
<li>Netherlands</li>
<li>Norway</li>
<li>Romania</li>
<li>Switzerland</li>
<li>UK</li>
<li>US</li>
</ul>
The data cap is actually pretty generous for an ad-free, free VPN. This is one of the reasons Windscribe’s free plan is our favorite free VPN.
You might find the performance isn’t quite as good on the free version, either. When we tested, the free app consistently performed slightly slower than the Pro alternative, even when connected to the same server.
The free version of R.O.B.E.R.T. only gives you access to the Malware block list, but this is the most useful feature in the blocking suite anyway.
Beside these absent advanced features, though, you get access to the same service as the paid version. The biggest drawback is that you won’t be able to access Windscribe’s streaming Windflix servers.
Depending on your needs you might even be able to use Windscribe Free long term, but we expect most users will want to upgrade to the premium subscription for faster servers, streaming, unlimited data and all Windscribe’s advanced features.

Windscribe keeps minimal logs for maintenance purposes. This isn’t ideal, particularly considering its Canada jurisdiction &#8211; we know other providers are able to work with less, and we’d like to see Windscribe do the same.
That said, the data kept by Windscribe cannot be used to identify you, or retroactively match your activity back to you.
Windscribe logs the following information:
<ul>
<li>The amount of data transferred in the past 30 days</li>
<li>A timestamp of your last activity on the Windscribe VPN network</li>
<li>The number of simultaneous connections on your account</li>
<li>Your OpenVPN or IKEv2 username (until the end of your session)</li>
<li>The time you connected (until the end of your session)</li>
</ul>
Windscribe collects this information to ensure that its VPN service runs smoothly. However, there is nothing in the above data that could be used to personally identify you once you have disconnected from the server.
According to Windscibe, your username and connection time are also stored in the server’s RAM, which means they will be deleted by design as soon as you end your session.
Windscribe does not log:
<ul>
<li>Your originating IP address</li>
<li>Browsing activity data</li>
</ul>
Yegor Sak, the company’s co-founder, has published a <a href="https://blog.windscribe.com/windscribe-logging-explained-in-detail-387ad63f646" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detailed explanation that covers</a> exactly what data is collected when you use the Windscribe VPN apps &#8211; a nice gesture to transparency.
You can also find more information in <a href="https://windscribe.com/privacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windscribe’s privacy policy.</a>
With an independent external audit, we would find this explanation wholly satisfactory.
<h3>Windscribe is based in Canada</h3>
Windscribe is located in Canada, which is part of the <a href="/guides/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/">Five Eyes data-sharing alliance</a>. It has a public PO address, but has kept the exact location of it&#8217;s Toronto office private.
The CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service)<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-in-spite-of-past-warnings-csis-continues-to-harvest-troves-of-data-on/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> collects frightening amounts of personal user data</a> to track and identify people of interest. Under the <a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/41-1/bill/C-11/royal-assent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Copyright Modernization Act</a>, Canadian ISPs must log user data for six months, although it is not clear if VPN providers have been compelled to adopt similar practices.
Usually, this would be very concerning, but because of Windscribe’s minimal VPN logging policy it’s much less worrying.
<a href="https://blog.windscribe.com/i-doesnt-matter-how-many-eyes-you-have-66f59fc1e777" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windscribe greatly downplays</a> the importance of a VPN’s jurisdiction. While we agree with several points raised by Windscribe, it’s still much safer for a VPN company to be based in a jurisdiction that isn’t legally obliged to hand over company information to authorities, particularly foreign ones like the US.
Nevertheless, <a href="https://windscribe.com/transparency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windscribe maintains a page</a> documenting the DMCA requests and law enforcement data requests it has received since 2018.
<div id="attachment_115369" style="width: 1190px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-115369" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-115369 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/windscribe-transparency-report.png" alt="Tables of DMCA requrests and Law Enforcement requests received by Windscribe" width="1180" height="458" />Data from the Windscribe transparency report</div>
This is a positive step towards transparency, but means nothing without an independent external audit of the process.
Windscribe claims that it only stores connection information in the server’s RAM, and that that information is lost by design whenever a session ends.
Beyond this, it claims, since no browsing history, timestamps, or IP addresses are stored, it would be impossible for Windscribe to hand over information to companies or governments.
We only have Windscribe’s word that it doesn’t log more (inadvertently or on purpose), and if it were to, it would be conceivable that the Canadian authorities might get access to that data.
If the server setup is as Windscribe describes, and the data published on its transparency is accurate, we will be much more positive about Windscribe’s logging policies.
But for now &#8211; without an audit or any evidence beyond some graphs on its website &#8211; Windscribe’s claim that “exactly zero requests were complied with due to lack of relevant data” is meaningless.

Logging & Jurisdiction

Bypassing Censorship

Live Chat & Support

Do We Recommend this Windscribe?

Downloads are quick enough for HD streaming and speedy multiple file downloads, peaking at just under 70Mbps in the UK and averaging at around 40-50Mbps throughout the rest of Europe (we test from London).
We found latency to be fairly average, coming in at 18ms on same-country connections, while uploads are similar to downloads in that they’re very quick on local connections, with speeds of up to 61Mbps on local connections. This makes Windscribe a great option for torrenters.
If you&#8217;d like to find out more about how we conduct our speed tests, take a look at our guide to <a href="/guides/how-we-review-vpns/" rel="noopener">How We Review VPNs</a>.

Windscribe VPN

We tested Windscribe’s connection speeds to see how it compares to other VPN providers.
The results were positive, some of the best we&#8217;ve seen.
It’s a very reliable VPN service – we didn’t experience any connection drops while connected to Windscribe’s servers, and speeds were very consistent from one test to the next.
This means that Windscribe should comfortably handle anything you’re planning on doing online, even with multiple devices connected to the VPN at once.
It isn&#8217;t quite the fastest VPN we&#8217;ve tested, though. If you want the absolute fastest VPN out there, though, then you should consider choosing an option from <a href="/best-vpn/fastest-vpn/">our list of the fastest VPNs</a>.
We currently test speeds using the OpenVPN protocol, as this is widely available among VPN services and therefore helps us maintain a high level of consistency in our results.
Windscribe’s apps default on startup to IKEv2, which it claims is the best protocol, so you could see slightly faster speeds if you connect this way.
If you’d like to know more about how we test VPN performance, take a look at our <a href="/about/how-we-review-vpns/#speed-anchor">VPN speed testing methodology</a>.
<h3>Local Speed Tests</h3>
By comparing our connection speeds before and after connecting to a VPN server, we’re able to see exactly how much Windscribe slows our connection when connected to local server.
<ul>
<li>Download speed without Windscribe: 100.45Mbps</li>
<li>Download speed with Windscribe: 94.72Mbps</li>
<li>Our download speed loss when Windscribe is running: 5%</li>
</ul>
Ping times on short-distance connections of 12ms isn’t the best we’ve seen, and might not be up to scratch for all gamers, particularly in online games where low ping is really important.
On the other hand, Windscribe’s maximum upload speeds of 93Mbps should keep torrenters satisfied, allowing them to seed easily.
<h3>Global Speed Tests</h3>
On top of local speeds, we tested the strength of the connection between our office in London and VPN servers world-wide.
The results were less consistent than our local tests: Windscribe performed fine, but simply didn’t match up to the very best long distance providers.
These are the average speeds you can expect when connecting out from the UK to these locations with Windscribe:
<ul>
<li>USA: 68Mbps (download) &amp; 73Mbps (upload)</li>
<li>Germany: 85Mbps (download) &amp; 86Mbps (upload)</li>
<li>Singapore: 4Mbps (download) &amp; 14Mbps (upload)</li>
<li>Australia: 9Mbps (download) &amp; 24Mbps (upload)</li>
</ul>
These speeds will be enough for most users, but don’t expect to be streaming video from Asia in Europe without issues.
<h3>How Fast Is Windscribe Compared to Other VPNs?</h3>
The results that follow are taken from our custom VPN speed test tool.
We run speed tests automatically four times per day on a standard 100Mbps connection (a standard speed for home internet).
Here are our results from the last eight weeks on our New York server.
<div style="display: none" data-joyceparams="550cd205-e4d0"></div>
<a class="button green-cta" href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-speed-test/?to=nyc&amp;from=nyc&amp;period=8w&amp;providers=direct,windscribe,expressvpn,nordvpn&amp;int=7&amp;chart=dl_speed_avg"> Use our Speed Test Tool to compare Windscribe&#8217;s speeds across different cities.</a>
Windscribe hasn&#8217;t performed as fast as top competitors recently. On our New York to New York connection it caused a 30% download speed drop, compared to under 10% from NordVPN.

Streamlined VPN for beginners looking to browse and stream securely.

surfshark-logo-vertical

Surfshark offers fast, friendly, and helpful customer support with 24/7 live chat and a ticketing system available. There’s also an <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">online help section</a> featuring installation guides, troubleshooting, an FAQ, and knowledgebase, which has everything from setup tutorials to billing information. There’s also the option to send an email, if you’d prefer.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119185 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Customer-Support.png" alt="" width="2552" height="1120" />
Customer service is an incredibly important part of any premium VPN service. Many VPNs still don’t have a live chat feature, and even fewer have it available 24/7. For this reason, Surfshark’s efficient customer support is a huge advantage.
To access Surfshark’s live chat simply head to the website and click the Chat icon in the bottom right corner of the page. We found their customer support team to be fast and informative, and we got an answer to our query in under a minute. 
However, technical questions might take a little longer. When we asked about ChaCha encryption, our support agent took a while to respond and their answer was lacking in detail. If you have a particularly technical question, it might be worth using Surfshark&#8217;s email ticketing system instead.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119236 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Customer-Support-1.png" alt="" width="750" height="1107" />

Surfshark’s native applications are well-designed, functional, and reasonably easy to use. The interface is clear both for casual VPN users and experienced users looking for more advanced settings. Even if you&#8217;re new to VPNs, you should have no trouble taking advantage of Surfshark’s advanced features. 
There are also plenty of customization tools to personalise your VPN experience, including language change, auto-connect, status notifications, ‘Dark Mode’, and ‘Mini Mode’. 
All of the native apps have an automatic kill switch, NoBorders mode, MultiHop, and CleanWeb. However, there are some differences between platforms, with some features present on certain devices and not others.  
Each platform presents Surfshark’s server types in a different way, which can be confusing. We’d like to see more consistency between native applications as well as the option to view server load and streaming-optimized servers on all platforms.
<h3>Windows Client</h3>
Surfshark offers a standard looking Windows app with simple navigation options on the left-hand-side. The main dashboard features a large connection button and a list of your most recent country connections.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119233 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-1.png" alt="" width="725" height="800" />The menu is a sidebar condensed to just a few options: main screen, locations, settings, and features. A Quick Connect button is also available to automatically connect you to the most optimal server based on your location.
Surfshark provides a clear list of server locations and a search bar to help you quickly find the server you want. Windows users will see options for static IP servers, virtual servers, and MultiHop, and there’s also a favorites system to manage the locations you most commonly connect to. Unlike the Mac client, there is no easily accessible list of P2P servers on the Windows app. You have to use the Smart Search and click the P2P option.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119179 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-locations-search.png" alt="" width="710" height="790" />Windows users do benefit from added customization options, including the ability to go into Dark Mode and Mini Mode.
You can change the basic menu to a smaller app window by right-clicking the system tray icon. From this smaller window, you can quickly connect to the fastest server or choose your most recent location without having to open the full interface.
The choice to switch between protocols (including OpenVPN) is also made simple on the Windows app, with a drop-down menu in the app Settings. 
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119104 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Windows-Protocols.png" alt="" width="1040" height="800" />
Overall, Surfshark’s Windows application is nicely designed and easy to navigate. In the location section, we’d like to see an indication of server load or ping times for city-level servers so users can easily find the best-performing server for their location.
Surfshark&#8217;s Windows client isn&#8217;t perfect, but it&#8217;s generally easy to use and there&#8217;s a lot of functionality to explore.
<h3>MacOS Client</h3>
Surfshark’s Mac application is similar, but the locations are listed as an even simpler side menu for navigation. You’ll also see options between Physical, Virtual, P2P and MultiHop servers made much more prominent compared to Windows.
The Settings menu just above the servers is also nicely presented on Mac. The Features menu gives you one-button access to tools such as HackLock and BlindSearch, which means they’re never too far away. This type of access is exclusive to the MacOS client ‒ if you’re a Windows user you’ll have to navigate to the Surfshark website to find these tools.
<h3>Android &amp; iOS</h3>
Surfshark’s mobile apps are also attractive and easy to use. The user interface is deceptively simple, with most of the important features lined up at the bottom of the screen. All of the features and functions work well on mobile devices for both Android and iOS.
Surfshark&#8217;s mobile VPN offerings are similar to its desktop counterparts, which is rare. The interface is the same and it includes many of the same advanced features, including CleanWeb, split tunneling via the Whitelister feature, and multihop connections. It runs OpenVPN/IKEv2 and Shadowsocks protocols and comes with a kill switch to protect you if the VPN connection drops.
The Android gives a choice of encryption methods too, bet alongside a &#8216;use small packets&#8217; option to improve network performance.

It’s clear that Surfshark has put some work into the anti-censorship function of its VPN service. It’s now one of the best VPNs available for unblocking censored content and bypassing VPN blocks.
Additional features such as Camouflage Mode, Shadowsocks, and NoBorders Mode mean that this VPN is much more likely to work in highly-censored countries than most competing services.
Countries like China have some of the most pervasive internet censorship regimes in the world, enforced by a highly sophisticated apparatus known as <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#the-great-firewall-of-china">The Great Firewall of China</a>. These systems can recognize and block VPN traffic within the country’s borders.
At one time you had to download a specifically configured file to get around these blocks, but recent updates have improved Surfshark’s app so it automatically recognizes if you’re trying to connect from a censored country. This means that Surfshark is also likely to work in other countries where VPNs are restricted including Iran, Oman, Russia, Turkey, and the UAE.
The NoBorders Mode is an asset designed specifically to fight against internet restrictions and censorship. This feature detects when you’re connected to a restricted network or in a censored country and automatically redirects your traffic elsewhere. You can find <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010423359-What-is-NoBorders-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detailed advice on enabling NoBorders mode here</a>.
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119173 aligncenter" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-No-Borders.png" alt="" width="758" height="948" /><a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008344799-What-is-Camouflage-mode-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Camouflage Mode</a> is partly responsible, too. This is an obfuscation tool designed to make your VPN traffic appear as normal traffic, disguising your VPN usage from ISPs and thereby eluding the censors. This feature is automatically activated whenever you connect with the OpenVPN (TCP or UDP) protocol. 
Surfshark is also compatible with <a href="https://shadowsocks.org/en/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ShadowSocks</a> protocol, an open-source encrypted proxy <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/08/speech-enables-speech-china-takes-aim-its-coders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed by a Chinese programmer</a> known as “Clowwindy”.  ShadowSocks, also called SOCKS5, is a favorite of torrenters and is easily selected as a protocol on Surfshark’s custom apps. ShadowSocks does require manual configuration on some devices, but there are helpful online guides on how to do this for <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026023133-How-to-set-up-Surfshark-Shadowsocks-protocol-on-Android" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Android</a>, <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026019633-How-to-set-up-Surfshark-Shadowsocks-protocol-on-MacOS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MacOS</a>, and <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025878774-How-to-set-up-Surfshark-Shadowsocks-protocol-on-Windows" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Windows</a>.
You can also use Surfshark and the Tor Browser at the same time for extra anonymity, which is useful against censorship. To do this, connect to a server first and then launch your Tor browser. However, it’s worth remembering that combining both tools will reduce your internet speeds significantly. You can find out more about using Tor with a VPN in our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/tor-vs-vpn/">Tor vs. VPN guide</a>.

Surfshark includes all of the essential security features you would expect from a top-tier service. This includes robust encryption, a selection of secure protocols, leak protection, and an automatic kill switch on all native applications. We also found no evidence of IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks.
Surfshark’s security is provided by AES-256 encryption on all platforms, with ChaCha encryption also available for Android users. IKEv2 is the default protocol used on all apps, though you can choose OpenVPN in the settings menu. The Windows, Android, iOS and Mac apps also allow you to choose between TCP and UDP OpenVPN connections.
We recommend you use OpenVPN where possible, as this generally provides the best combination of speed and security. Surfshark’s MacOS app used to require manual configuration in order to use OpenVPN, which was disappointing, but it has since listened to criticism and developed it for its MacOS app. This is great as it shows a VPN willing to heed criticism and adapt to its users needs.
Without this improvement you would have been stuck manually installing via Tunnelblick or using IKEv2 protocol. While IKEv2 is still a secure and fast protocol, it’s not the gold standard like OpenVPN. You can find a security comparison of all available VPN protocols in our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-encryption-protocols/">guide to VPN encryption</a>.
Surfshark has also rolled out WireGuard protocol across all of its apps, but not without <a href="https://surfshark.com/blog/wireguard-protocol-is-now-live-on-surfshark?email=callum%40top10vpn.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adding its own security patches</a> to resolve any security concerns people still have with it.
Windows users also have access to the Shadowsocks protocol, which is an open-source encrypted proxy. This is another helpful tool to help users bypass internet censorship in countries like China and Russia. 
Surfshark also goes beyond the basics of VPN security. It comes packed with <a href="https://surfshark.com/features" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advanced security features</a> that are built to enhance your experience and safeguard your data while browsing. 
Surfshark’s advanced security features include:
<ul>
<li>Camouflage Mode, also known as <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#obfuscation">obfuscation</a>. This is a technology that disguises your VPN traffic to make it look like ‘normal’ browsing. This means even your ISP can’t tell you’re using a VPN.</li>
<li>CleanWeb is Surfshark’s proprietary ad, tracker, and malware blocker. It is not turned on by default.</li>
</ul>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119071 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-CleanWeb.png" alt="" width="1316" height="394" />
<ul>
<li>MultiHop, sometimes known as <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#multi-hop-vpn-aka-double-vpn">double-VPN</a>, is a useful feature for privacy-conscious users. This will route your traffic via two different VPN servers instead of one. This additional layer of encryption makes you significantly harder to track, though it may reduce connection speeds.</li>
<li>BlindSearch is a private search engine designed to allow users to search the web with no ads, logs, or trackers. This, along with HackLock, can be added to an existing Surfshark subscription for an extra $0.99 per month.</li>
</ul>
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119113 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-BlindSearch.png" alt="" width="1593" height="899" />
<ul>
<li>Whitelister is a <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#split-tunneling">split-tunneling feature</a> that allows certain predefined applications and websites to bypass the VPN tunnel. It’s easily accessible via the Features option in the sidebar menu of the Surfshark app.</li>
<li>HackLock is a breach detection mechanism. The tool scans the web in real-time to make sure your email and personal information hasn’t been leaked to online databases. This allows you to change passwords, remove details, and prevent unnecessary damage if your details are leaked. This comes in an <a href="https://surfshark.com/privacy-beyond-vpn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added bundle</a> with BlindSearch, and can be found directly in Surfshark’s apps.</li>
</ul>
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-119119 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-HackLock.png" alt="" width="2482" height="1188" />
<ul>
<li>A VPN kill switch is an essential feature for any premium VPN. This prevents any information or sensitive data from leaking if your internet connection drops. To enable it on Windows, toggle the setting in the app’s security menu. On Android devices, you’ll need to enable it manually in the device settings.</li>
</ul>
It’s encouraging to see Surfshark display a commitment to privacy even beyond the use of a VPN, and it’s impressive that these features all come bundled for such a low price. It’s worth noting that Hacklock and Blindsearch must be downloaded separately, and cost an extra $0.99 per month on top of an existing Surfshark subscription.
Surfshark was also the first VPN to develop <a href="https://surfshark.com/blog/gps-spoofing-android" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a GPS spoofing feature</a> that doesn’t require third-party software or technical know-how. This feature allows you to shield your true location from unwanted tracking, and can be found in the app settings under the Virtual Location option.  It’s available on Android devices only, so we’d like to see it expanded to other devices.
Surfshark have also gone the extra mile to include a two-factor authentication (2FA) option for its users too. It has a guide on <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011448319-How-to-enable-2FA-on-your-Surfshark-account-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how to enable this useful feature here</a>.
For the more technically minded, Surfshark’s encryption uses an RSA-2048 handshake and HMAC SHA256 data authentication. <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#perfect-forward-secrecy">Perfect Forward Secrecy</a> is implemented through the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange (DHE)</a>, which means that encryption keys are not reused between sessions for an added layer of security.
In simple terms, Surfshark is a very safe VPN service. With the recent addition of OpenVPN across all apps, Surfshark&#8217;s encryption and protocol offering is as secure as it gets. All of its advanced features come in one easily managed package, which is more than can be said for some VPN services.
<h3>Leak, Virus &amp; Tracking Tests</h3>
Surfshark uses private DNS on every server to protect your DNS requests. We tested this by connecting to a US server from our office in London, and recorded zero DNS, IPv6 or WebRTC leaks when using its apps. You can see the results of our leak test here:
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119077 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-IP-Leak-Test.png" alt="" width="1100" height="730" />
Surfshark is virus-free too. We scanned the VPN software for any malicious files and it came back completely clean:
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119086 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Virus-Scan.png" alt="" width="2799" height="2569" />
We also tested for any trackers in the app that could potentially compromise your privacy, so we ran it through the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">εtxodus tool</a>. This helps expose any trackers or permissions present in Android apps. Here’s what we found:
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119089 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Trackers.png" alt="" width="1784" height="1400" />
Surfshark on Android has four trackers for Google Analytics, GoogleCrashLytics, Google Firebase Analytics, and AppsFlyer. Analytics aren’t too concerning as it allows Surfshark to maintain the performance of its app and see how users interact with its service. Some of the top VPN services have similar tracking in place, while some – like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/astrill/">Astrill VPN</a> – have none at all. 
The Israeli-based <a href="https://www.appsflyer.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AppsFlyer</a> is more concerning. This is a marketing tracker that “uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for big data analytics.” <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/25/appsflyer-helps-mobile-advertisers-beat-back-ad-fraud-via-machine-learning/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to VentureBeat</a>, AppsFlyer leverages metadata from 98% of the world&#8217;s mobile devices. While this doesn’t sound good for privacy at all, its privacy policy states that it doesn&#8217;t share data with any third parties.
The Android app also has 16 permissions, which dictate the level of access the software has to your device. Three of these permissions are considered ‘special’ or ‘dangerous’ according to <a href="https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/overview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google’s protections levels</a>, including: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Access to your camera</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Access to the contents of your SD card</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Permission to modify and delete the contents of your SD card</li>
</ul>
These permissions are unnecessary for a VPN application designed for privacy. We’d like to see these removed or explained in future updates.

Surfshark is compatible with every major platform including Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and Fire OS. There are browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox and custom apps for less popular systems including Linux and Amazon FireTV. You can find <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/categories/360001458953-Tutorials" target="_blank" rel="noopener">helpful setup guides for all of its devices on the Surfshark website</a>. 
There is no simultaneous device limit, which means you can protect all of your devices with just one Surfshark subscription. This is a great feature that very few VPN providers can match ‒ most competitors set a limit at around five devices and charge more to exceed the limit.
If you own a device that Surfshark hasn’t covered, you can also <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-router/">install the app on your router</a>, with client software available for <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003086114" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DD-WRT</a>, <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003780834" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tomato</a> and <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003106093" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AsusWRT</a> routers. This will then protect the traffic of any device connected to the VPN router.
While Surfshark has a large selection of apps, there is a lot of variability between their offering on each platform. It’s often much harder to access certain services on particular operating systems, and some apps offer features that others simply don’t. We would like to see Surfshark offer a little more consistency between its applications. We’ll cover the differences in detail in the next section of this review.

Surfshark provides safe, independently audited browser extensions for both Google Chrome and Firefox. It’s not free to everyone like CyberGhost&#8217;s extension is, but it’s certainly worth adding it to your browser and logging in with your account if you want to surf the web casually and privately.
It operates similarly to the full Surfshark app but there are no settings options to speak of and you should remember that browser extensions lack the same level of protection as a VPN. 
They’re proxies, which means they do the job of spoofing your IP but lack security encryption. Only ExpressVPN has a browser extension comparable to its full on VPN. It’s worth reading about the differences between proxies and VPNs in <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/proxy-vs-vpn/">our guide</a>.
&nbsp;

Surfshark has more to offer for streaming devices through its Amazon Fire TV Stick and Apple TV apps.
You can also access geo-restricted content with your SmartTV, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Apple TV by changing the DNS address provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This can be done using <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018689853-How-to-activate-Surfshark-smart-DNS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surfshark’s Smart DNS technology</a>.
You can activate the SmartDNS feature via “My Account” on the Surfshark website. Once you’ve done this, you will be sent an email with further instructions. While Smart DNS will allow you to access restricted content, it does not provide the same security level as normal VPN browsing because your traffic is not encrypted.
Surfshark didn’t make the cut for our top five recommended VPNs for gaming as its speeds were not fast enough. However, if you’re interested in Surfshark for other reasons and want to try it out for gaming, you can install it on your router to protect all the devices in the house including your Xbox and Playstation.
There are plenty of reasons to game with a VPN, including accessing region-restricted content and protection from DDoS attacks and ISP throttling. You can read more about this in <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/gaming/">our list of the best VPNs for gaming</a>.

Surfshark has a large network of over <a href="https://surfshark.com/servers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1,800 servers in 66 countries</a>. It’s not the largest server network in the VPN market (<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/">CyberGhost</a> and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/hidemyass/">HideMyAss! (HMA)</a> are leading for sheer spread), but there’s enough diversity to keep most users happy. The majority of servers are in Europe, but this is the case with most VPNs.
The further the server is from your actual location, the slower your internet speeds will be. That’s why it’s important to have as many servers as possible. If Surfshark wants to expand as a service, it’d be worth investing in coverage for places like the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119092 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Server-Locations.png" alt="" width="2337" height="1824" />
There are 12 countries that can be connected to at the city-level. These include:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Australia</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Canada</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">France</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">India</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Italy</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Poland</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Portugal</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Russia</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Spain</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">UK</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">US 
</li>
</ul>
The US has the most cities available with 26 city-level locations to connect to, which is a good level of coverage. 
Three locations in Canada – Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver – may seem too few for such a large region, but it covers both coasts and helps to spread coverage more evenly. 100 servers across five city locations in Australia is also one of the better selections that we’ve seen. 
You’ll see in Surfshark’s apps that it lists different types of server, too. Windows users will see options for static IP, virtual servers, and MultiHop, while Mac users will see labels for physical, virtual, P2P, and MultiHop.
Static IP servers are worth clarifying. This means the IP address you connect to remains the same whenever you use that server. This allows for faster speeds and easier access to geo-restricted content, but it also poses a greater security risk because it&#8217;s a single IP address linked to you.
One very positive inclusion is MultiHop servers, sometimes called ‘Double VPN’. These add an extra layer of security by sending your traffic across two different encrypted servers. This may slow down speed, but it’s beneficial for security. 
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119101 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-MultiHop.png" alt="" width="2634" height="1386" />
As it stands, Surfshark’s server listings are difficult to understand for casual users. We’d like to see consistency in the types of servers offered across different platforms, and labels for which servers work best with services like Netflix.
It would also be useful if ping times and server load were listed so regular users can form a better idea of which server location they’d like to use.
<h3>What Type of Servers Does Surfshark Use?</h3>
Surfshark allows users to choose between <a href="https://support.surfshark.com/hc/en-us/articles/360023512493-What-are-Virtual-servers-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">virtual locations</a> and physical locations. Virtual locations are marked with a small ‘v’ on the Window app, and listed separately on the Mac app.     
Virtual locations will assign you an IP address in the country of your choice even if the actual server is located elsewhere. Physical locations refer to servers actually located in the country you’re connected to.   
Virtual locations allow Surfshark to cover even more locations around the world, and can often lead to better speeds. However, if the actual server is much further from your physical location than advertised, you may see a drop in performance. 
These virtual server locations include:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Albania</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Chile</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Costa Rica</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Slovenia</li>
</ul>
While there is nothing wrong with using virtual locations, it is unclear to what extent Surfshark owns its server network. Both types of location – physical and virtual – could be hosted on rented machines, which can pose a risk to your privacy. 
Surfshark’s choice to display which locations are virtual should be commended. However, we’d like to see more transparency when it comes to the ownership of its server network.
<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/vyprvpn/">Competitors like VyprVPN</a> have demonstrated a clear commitment to owning and operating their entire network, which is ideal for privacy.
In July 2020, Surfshark moved away from hard drive technology and now operates a completely diskless, RAM-only server network. This vastly improves the security, as information cannot be physically extracted from the servers, and enables central management of the whole network. Very few VPNs have this feature.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-138678 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/07/unnamed-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1253" />

Surfshark is an excellent VPN for <a href="https://surfshark.com/use-cases/unblock-netflix" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accessing blocked content</a> on Netflix and other streaming websites. It consistently unblocks region restrictions on Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Disney+, and also works with Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Sky, HBO Max, and Kodi.
Surfshark doesn’t just unblock Netflix in the US, either. It works with at least 15 different international libraries, including:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Australia</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Brazil</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Canada</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">France</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">India</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Italy</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Japan</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Netherlands</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Norway</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">South Korea</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Singapore</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Turkey</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">United Kingdom</li>
</ul>
We experienced fast loading, no lag, and high video quality. We found that all Surfshark UK servers work with BBC iPlayer, too, which is notoriously hard to access. This was also the first VPN to unblock Disney+ on its release, and has been <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/disney-plus/">our top recommendation ever since</a>.
Surfshark doesn’t offer dedicated servers for the purpose of streaming, but the vast majority of servers work anyway. In our most recent tests, we found that only the Charlotte and St. Louis servers didn’t work to access US Netflix. 
Surfshark is so reliable for streaming because of its <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#smart-dns">Smart DNS</a> and <a href="https://surfshark.com/trust-dns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trust DNS </a>features, which act as a proxy to help to unblock content reliably. It’s worth remembering that these features will not encrypt your traffic, so they do not come with the associated privacy benefits.
<img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-119167 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-SmartDNS.png" alt="" width="2524" height="968" />Surfshark VPN also has a dedicated native app for Amazon Firestick and Fire TV. Through this you can watch other streaming services including HBO Go, Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube.
One subscription gives you unlimited bandwidth and unlimited simultaneous devices, which means you can use the VPN on your Fire TV device at the same time as all of your other devices.
To install Surfshark on Amazon Firestick, simply subscribe to the VPN and then download the app from the Amazon App Store. Be sure to read our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-amazon-fire-stick/">guide to installing a VPN on Fire TV Stick</a> if you need help.
Overall, Surfshark is one of the best VPNs available for streaming. The service provides quick, reliable access to multiple international libraries, Smart DNS, and custom apps for Amazon Fire TV Stick and Apple TV.
To learn more, check out our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/surfshark-netflix/">complete guide to using Surfshark for Netflix</a>.
<h3>Is Surfshark Good for Torrenting?</h3>
Surfshark is an <a href="https://surfshark.com/use-cases/torrent" target="_blank" rel="noopener">excellent VPN for torrenting</a>. Its sensible privacy policy and strong encryption help to hide your P2P activity from your ISP, and the VPN comes with an automatic <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#kill-switch">kill switch</a> that disconnects your internet should your VPN connection falter. This keeps your seeding activity and sensitive information safe from any accidental exposures.
All servers allow for P2P filesharing, though some of them are specifically optimized for P2P. These servers include:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Canada</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Denmark</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Hong Kong</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Italy</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Luxembourg</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Netherlands</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Norway</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Poland</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Singapore</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Spain</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">UK</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">US</li>
</ul>
If you’re torrenting on a server location that isn’t optimized for torrenting, your traffic will be automatically routed to servers that are. If you’re in Europe or Asia or outside of the UK, your traffic will be routed through Surfshark’s Netherlands server. If you’re in the Americas but outside of the US or Canada, it will route through Canadian servers.
These P2P connections are compatible with Ace Player, VLC, and PopcornTime. The VPN is also compatible with all popular torrent clients including BitTorrent, Deluge, Transmission, uTorrent, and Vuze.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119068 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-P2P-Compatibility.png" alt="" width="1926" height="918" />Surfshark’s CleanWeb feature will also help to protect your device from any malware that you might encounter when torrenting. Camouflage Mode and MultiHop servers provide extra security, while speeds are consistently fast enough to torrent without any issues. We’ll cover all of these features in detail in the next section.

Surfshark is a feature-rich VPN service that provides strong security and native applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Fire OS. In this Surfshark review, we put its applications through in-depth testing to see how it compares with its main rivals in the VPN industry.
We found that this VPN is excellent for <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/surfshark/#review-streaming">streaming and torrenting</a>. It works reliably with Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Hulu and Disney+. It also provides a good spread of fast server locations, with 26 city-level servers in the US alone.
Additionally, Surfshark is a P2P-friendly VPN with a robust logging policy. It&#8217;s also based in the British Virgin Islands, which makes it a perfect service for anonymity. It has many security essentials too, including AES-256 encryption, the WireGuard and OpenVPN protocol, and a kill switch to protect you if your connection drops.
Surfshark&#8217;s VPN apps come with <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/surfshark/#review-encryption">advanced security features</a> including Camouflage Mode, tracking protection, MultiHop servers, and more. The service doesn&#8217;t suffer from IP location leaks, and it even works in heavily-censored countries like China.
Overall, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/goto/?type=pr&amp;name=surfshark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surfshark</a> is a budget VPN that doesn’t compromise on quality. There&#8217;s room for improvement, though. An independent audit, faster server connection times, and greater consistency across applications could see Surfshark become one of the absolute best VPNs in the near future.

Even with all of Surfshark’s exclusive features and 24/7 live chat support, it’s still one of the cheapest VPNs on the market at just $2.49 per month for a two-year subscription (paid as $59.76 up-front and annually after the first 24 months). There are also short-term plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee for users that are concerned about a long-term commitment. 
If you download the app from the Google Play or Apple App store, there is also a 7-day free trial that requires your billing information upfront. If you choose to continue using the app after 7 days, you will be charged.
Surfshark is available to subscribe to on three plans: monthly, 6 months, and two-years. As usual, the shorter plans come at a higher price, but even the most basic subscription will give you access to some of the provider’s best features.
The monthly plan is priced at $12.95 per month, while the six-month subscription works out at $6.49 per month, billed as $38.94 every six months. This is a 50% saving on the monthly plan, which is reasonable.
Surfshark’s real value comes with the tw0-year subscription plan, which costs $2.49 per month (billed $59.76 upfront and every year after the first two-years). That&#8217;s an 81% saving over the month-by-month plan, making it one of the cheapest one-year plans on the market.
Overall, $59.76 for a year of internet protection, a bundle of advanced security features, and reliable streaming is great value for money. If you’d like to compare how Surfshark’s pricing compares to some other cheap VPNs on the market, you can check <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/cheap-vpns/">our list of the best cheap VPNs</a>. 
<h3>Does Surfshark Have a Free Trial?</h3>
Surfshark does have a seven-day free trial available to download through the Google Play and Apple App Store. This is a great option for VPN users looking to test out the software to make sure it meets their needs.
To access the free trial, download the client from the app store and sign-up by selecting ‘Start Free Trial’. Input your details and you’re good to go. With these details you can then sign in to any of the Surfshark apps, including Windows and Mac. Simply download the software on each device from the website and enter your trial details to try out Surfshark on desktop too.
After the seven-day period, the service comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119107 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Free-Trial.png" alt="" width="2389" height="1261" />
With this, you can sign-up to the service and use Surfshark completely free and unrestricted for up to 30-days. Just ask them for your refund within the timeframe and they’ll return your money, but be prepared to answer some questions as to why you’d like to cancel. 
The money-back guarantee is no-questions-asked and risk-free. Just state that you’d like a refund by contacting support and it’ll give it to you without any issues.

Surfshark provides a range of payment and refund options including PayPal, all major debit cards, and even cryptocurrency. The full list of payment options includes:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Debit Card (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Credit Card</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Bitcoin</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Ethereum</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Ripple</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">PayPal</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">GooglePay</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">AliPay</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Amazon Pay</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Apple Pay 
</li>
</ul>
Privacy-conscious users will be pleased to see so many cryptocurrencies, as this makes your payment much harder to trace. Cash payments are not available, which leave digital trace at all. However, only <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/mullvad/">MullvadVPN</a> currently offers this option.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-119110 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Payment-Methods.png" alt="" width="1814" height="1112" />

There is no reason to doubt Surfshark’s commitment to user privacy. It does not keep logs of user activity or connection data, and its jurisdiction is a privacy haven.
We’ve read <a href="https://surfshark.com/privacy-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the logging policy</a> closely and can say that it’s sensible and trustworthy — but not completely zero-logs.
<div class="block-highlighted">
Surfshark collects:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Aggregated performance data</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Unsuccessful connection attempts</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Frequency of use</li>
</ul>
</div>
This isn’t a no-logs approach, but it’s pretty close. Crucially, it does not contain personally identifiable information, meaning there’s no collected info on your browsing activity, IP address, or location.
<div id="attachment_119056" style="width: 1938px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-119056" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119056 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Privacy-Policy-Screenshot.png" alt="Surfshark Privacy Policy Screenshot" width="1928" height="530" />Excerpt from Surfshark&#8217;s privacy policy</div>
Surfshark does store your account details and billing information in order to process your payments. This isn’t unusual behavior at all, but if you’re uncomfortable with it you can use cryptocurrencies or third-party payment services to avoid Surfshark storing this information. 
The privacy policy is worded as follows:
&nbsp;
“To maintain a perfect quality of our Services and provide you with efficient support we collect diagnostics information and monitor crash reports on our apps. The information we collect contains aggregated performance data, the frequency of use of our services, unsuccessful connection attempts and other similar information.”
&nbsp;
There are some very minor causes for concern here. Firstly, we were alarmed by the phrase “other similar information.” A good privacy policy is as specific as possible – it is unclear exactly what “similar information” entails. 
Secondly, Surfshark allows itself to collect advertising identifiers – unique, resettable IDs for advertising provided by third parties like Google Play. You can opt out of personalized ads by adjusting the settings in your app.
While Surfshark’s browser extensions <a href="https://cure53.de/pentest-report_surfshark.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have been audited</a> by German security company Cure53, there has still been no independent audit for its VPN applications or logging policy. We’d like to see this in the future as so many top VPNs have done this to earn trust, including ExpressVPN, Mullvad, and VyprVPN.
<div id="attachment_119062" style="width: 1552px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-119062" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119062 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Conclusion-of-Cure53-Surfshark-Audit-.png" alt="Conclusion of Cure53 Surfshark Audit" width="1542" height="540" />Conclusion of Cure53 Surfshark Audit</div>
To compete with other top-tier providers, Surfshark needs to follow suit. Without a confirmed audit, there’s always room for doubt about exactly how private users can expect to be.
It’s worth noting that there&#8217;s a <a href="https://surfshark.com/privacy-beyond-vpn-notice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">separate privacy policy</a> for its <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/surfshark/#review-encryption" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlindSearch and HackLock features</a>, which are downloaded separately to the main application. BlindSearch collects an aggregated number of performed searches and HackLock stores your email address — that’s it. 
<h3>Where is Surfshark Based?</h3>
Surfshark is based in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), registered as Surfshark Ltd. This is a very sensible place to incorporate a VPN company. It’s a politically stable region and a British Overseas Territory (BOT) aligned with British Common Law.
Although this means the BVI is deeply tied to the UK and direct rule from London is technically possible, that’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a highly unlikely and extreme measure</a>. As it stands, there are no intrusive data retention laws or practices in the BVI. 
The British Virgin Islands are also outside the reach of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes surveillance agreements. This means the company cannot be compelled by foreign governments to collect or share user logs. It’s worth reading more about this in <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/">our guide to VPN jurisdictions</a>, but here’s a quick look at which countries are implicated:
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-108040 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/01/Five-Eyes-Countries-Map.png" alt="Map of Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and Fourteen Eyes Countries." width="1180" height="1040" />
Even if Surfshark were to receive any gag orders, warrants, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security_letter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national security letters</a>, there is a <a href="https://surfshark.com/warrant-canary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warrant canary</a> on the Surfshark website. This updates daily to inform users of any similar requests ‒ currently it has received zero requests for information.
<div id="attachment_119065" style="width: 2054px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-119065" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-119065 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/Surfshark-Warrant-Canary-Feature-on-the-Surfshark-Website.png" alt="Surfshark Warrant Canary Feature on the Surfshark Website" width="2044" height="796" />Surfshark&#8217;s warrant canary feature on the website</div>
You shouldn’t necessarily choose a VPN based on whether it has a warrant canary as there’s some debate about its usefulness, but it&#8217;s a feature many appreciate.
Although Surfshark is highly secretive as a company, it’s based in a privacy haven and we’ve discovered nothing that implies it can’t be trusted to protect your private data.
<h3>Who Owns Surfshark VPN?</h3>
Surfshark was founded in 2018. It’s quite secretive about its company structure, history, and management team. There is no “about” page on its website, it’s not listed publicly on any stock exchange, and there’s no Board of Directors. This VPN is owned and run by private shareholders with no public information available. 
VPN users need to trust their service provider, so it’s easy to be put off by this lack of transparency. That said, we discovered nothing compromising from our investigation into Surfshark’s corporate structure and history. 
Our research found that the CEO is known as “Par Kaz.” As you’d guess about someone who chooses a pseudonym, there’s plenty of mystery surrounding Par Kaz and there’s not a lot we can say about him or her.
Surfshark’s CTO is a bit more transparent. He’s called Magnus Steinberg; he’s quoted frequently on the <a href="https://surfshark.com/blog">Surfshark blog</a> and you can find his name scattered around Google. He appears to be the prominent voice of the company.
While this level of secrecy can be off-putting, there is evidence of a proactive and research-driven privacy company with good intentions. Surfshark is a member of the <a href="https://www.i2coalition.com/vpn-trust-initiative/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VPN Trust Initiative</a> and it picked up global coverage for its <a href="https://surfshark.com/dql" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digital Quality of Life Index for 2019</a>.

Pros and Cons

Do We Recommend this VPN?

HideMyAss

SaferVPN

Surfshark

<h3>Long-Distance Speed Tests</h3>
Surfshark’s speeds over long-distance connections met our expectations and are very fast. We connected to Surfshark servers in the US, Australia, Canada, and Germany from our London office and measured our connection speeds before and after.
As expected, the servers located furthest from our office in the UK recorded the largest speed losses.
We recorded an average speed loss of 41% when connected to the US, and 40% when connected to Australia. This is not unusual for long-distance connections, though competitors like Hotspot Shield <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/hotspot-shield/#review-speed">recorded losses of just 17%</a> on US servers. Long-distance speed results in full are:
<ul>
<li>USA: 56Mbps (download) &amp; 77Mbps (upload) ‒ 41% speed loss</li>
<li>Canada: 71Mbps (download) &amp; 73Mbps (upload) ‒ 28% speed loss</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany: 71Mbps (download) &amp; 93Mbps (upload) ‒ 27% speed loss</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Australia: 59Mbps (download) &amp; 58Mbps (upload) ‒ 39% speed loss</li>
</ul>
Surfshark’s international speeds are really good across the board, with minimal speed loss consistently under 50% when connecting furthest away, or even less in the case of Canada, which clocked only 28% speed loss. 
It isn&#8217;t quite the fastest, though, and isn&#8217;t beating the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/fastest-vpn/">fastest competitors</a>. However, these speeds are still more than good enough for normal browsing, streaming, and even torrenting from whichever location across the globe.
We did notice that Surfshark’s speeds are consistent. It’s unlikely that you’ll get a sudden, unexpected drop in performance, so it&#8217;s reliable too. 
All of our VPN reviews go through the same scientific speed-testing process and we always use OpenVPN protocol to keep it fair and consistent. Surfshark uses the IKEv2/IPsec protocol by default, so you may experience faster speeds using this. If you’re curious, you can <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/about/how-we-review-vpns/#speed-anchor">read more about our speed-testing methodology here</a>. 
Surfshark isn&#8217;t the fastest VPN around, but its in that arena and you shouldn&#8217;t have any problems with its performance. If you want to know which VPNs are the fastest, take a look at <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/expressvpn/">ExpressVPN</a> and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/">PrivateVPN</a>.
<h3>How Fast is Surfshark Compared to Other VPNs?</h3>
You’ve already seen the results of our manual testing &#8211; now you can see the latest results from our custom VPN speed testing tool.
The graph below compares Surfshark VPN’s average loss of internet speed to other popular VPNs while running on our New York server.
Speed tests <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/about/how-we-review-vpns/">run automatically</a> four times per day. Test connection speeds are capped at 100Mbps to recreate a typical home internet connection.
This chart shows the average speed loss experienced by the VPN each week when compared to using a normal 100Mbps internet connection with no VPN at all &#8211; the lower the percentage the better.
You can check results as far back as the past eight weeks &#8211; that way you can get a good impression of how reliable Surfshark is, not just how fast it can be.
<div style="display: none;" data-joyceparams="79b93677-fd88"></div>
<a class="button green-cta" href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-speed-test/?to=nyc&amp;from=nyc&amp;period=8w&amp;providers=direct,private-internet-access,expressvpn,nordvpn&amp;int=7&amp;chart=dl_speed_avg">Use our Speed Test Tool to compare Surfshark&#8217;s speeds across different cities.</a>
This test is performed by our automated testing tool that runs constantly, seven days a week, to deliver up-to-date and consistent results from all over the world. There’s no human bias, and no relying on third-party websites. We own all the servers and infrastructure that we test with, and report the results exactly as we find them.
For its low price you might be surprised to see Surfshark performing so well in our speed charts. In recent days it&#8217;s even become the fastest. It&#8217;s unlikely to stay that way, particularly as the table shows Surfshark to be more inconsistent than ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Private Internet Access. Still, it never dips as low as CyberGhost and maintains a solid amount of speed throughout the eight-week period.

privatevpn-logo

PrivateVPN has good customer support but it is inconsistent in both availability and quality of service. The support team can be contacted either through live chat or via email.
Despite being operational 24/7, its live chat is not always available. After reaching out to the company for an explanation, we were told that there are only four customer support agents in total, so the live chat system is shut down temporarily if there is a large queue or if the agents are on break.
The chat box will display either red or green depending on whether it’s available. It can be initiated from the bottom-right corner of the PrivateVPN website and it will prompt you to enter your name, email address, and question before proceeding.
<div id="attachment_144999" style="width: 370px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144999" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144999 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-customer-service.png" alt="Image showing PrivateVPN's live chat customer support as unavailable" width="360" height="127" />PrivateVPN’s live chat is not available 24/7.</div>
This is extremely poor for a top VPN service. 24/7 customer support is now an expectation for good VPNs and, if not, then live chat is always available during set times of the day. 
With PrivateVPN, though, the availability of a customer support agent is unpredictable and random — which can be extremely frustrating if you want a quick answer to a query.
In addition, PrivateVPN’s support agents differ substantially in helpfulness. Some agents are very knowledgeable, prompt to respond, and courteous. However, some others are very ill-informed, misunderstand queries, and are slow to reply.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-145002 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/customer-support-live-chat.png" alt="Image showing a conversation with PrivateVPN's live chat customer support" width="405" height="597" />
If live chat is unavailable, your question will be forwarded to PrivateVPN’s email support. This email support runs 24/7 and, in our testing, we frequently received a reply within an hour. The email support team is generally more knowledgeable than the live chat staff, so make sure to contact them if you have a more advanced query.
For any general issues, PrivateVPN’s online resources and <a href="https://privatevpn.com/support/faq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FAQs page</a> should suffice, but these are limited and only cover the basics. We would like to see more video walkthroughs and an update of the tutorials. Many still use screenshots from the old PrivateVPN app, for example.

One of the best features of PrivateVPN is its easy-to-use and simple apps. The apps have been recently updated, too, further enhancing their intuitiveness and attractiveness.
From the app’s home screen, you can only connect or disconnect from the VPN using the large on/off button, or change your server location. However, the app is more configurable than it first seems as it allows you to choose between this ‘simple view’ or an ‘advanced view’.
<div id="attachment_145005" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-145005" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-145005 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-user-experience.png" alt="Image showing the PrivateVPN app's simple and advanced modes" width="700" height="412" />PrivateVPN’s desktop apps feature both a simple and advanced view.</div>
From the app’s advanced view you can manually configure a range of settings. You can adjust the VPN protocol, the level of encryption used, as well as turn on advanced features like the kill switch and Stealth VPN. This makes the advanced view great if you want to tailor the service to suit your preferences. 
The simple view, on the other hand, is perfect if you’re a VPN novice who wants a quick and easy way to connect the VPN and change server location.
Overall, the user experience of PrivateVPN’s apps is one of the very best we’ve seen — they’re easy to use and navigate, they don’t include any bloatware, connecting is quick, and they’re very stable.
&nbsp;

Due to the strict nature of the Chinese government, it’s very difficult to test VPNs in China from outside of the country. Because of this, most claims about a VPN’s capability in China are not based on real tests and are instead based on internet forums and discussions.
To ensure our information is 100% accurate, we have servers physically located in Shanghai that run Windows 10 on a virtual machine. This allows us to make a real connection within China remotely, just as if we were in the country itself. 
Our latest round of testing found that PrivateVPN works in China. Using the VPN’s Stealth VPN protocol, we were able to beat the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Firewall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Great Firewall of China</a> and unblock apps like Netflix, YouTube, and WhatsApp. 
<div id="attachment_144978" style="width: 660px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144978" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144978 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-china-youtube.jpg" alt="Image of PrivateVPN working in China" width="650" height="410" />PrivateVPN works reliably in China.</div>
However, it is worth noting that despite being branded as a bespoke PrivateVPN protocol, Stealth VPN routes traffic through the open-source <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowsocks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shadowsocks proxy</a>. Shadowsocks is not unique to PrivateVPN and is available from many other VPN services. It’s simply not as safe or effective as custom VPN obfuscation tools.
In contrast to PrivateVPN, some VPNs, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/astrill/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">like Astrill</a>, have developed proprietary technology for bypassing censorship. These don’t rely on proxies and are a safer option if you regularly connect out from China.

Despite not offering many configurable security features, PrivateVPN is a trusted safe VPN and does the basics very well. You can rely on the service to encrypt your data and keep your online activities private and anonymous.
The <a href="https://privatevpn.com/support/faq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VPN’s website</a> claims that the very strongest encryption methods are in use — including the AES-256 cipher and 2048-bit RSA handshake. To verify this claim, we analyzed the VPN connection logs, and we were pleased with what we found. 
After our research, we discovered that PrivateVPN’s encryption and security are tough. The VPN implements its encryption as follows:
<ul>
<li>OpenVPN connections are established via an RSA-2048 handshake.</li>
<li>Perfect Forward Secrecy via an ECDH key exchange.</li>
<li>Authentication is provided using an SHA-384 hash.</li>
<li>Traffic is securely encrypted using the AES-256 cipher.</li>
</ul>
<div id="attachment_144987" style="width: 511px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144987" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144987 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/vpn-connection-log.png" alt="Image showing PrivateVPN's encryption protocols" width="501" height="295" />PrivateVPN uses the best encryption protocols and ciphers.</div>
Although the technical details of this may sound complicated, these protocols work in tandem to ensure your data is kept safe, secure, and private.
If you want to read about VPN encryption, protocols, and ciphers in more detail, check out our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-encryption-protocols/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dedicated guide to VPN encryption</a>.
<h4>Kill Switch</h4>
A kill switch is an essential feature for any VPN user as it stops your internet connection altogether if your VPN connection drops at any point. By doing this, the kill switch protects your IP address and your true identity is never exposed.
PrivateVPN has a kill switch for Windows and MacOS to keep you safe if your connection drops. It’s not enabled by default, though, so make sure to have it turned on within the ‘Connection Guard’ tab of the settings menu.
To test the effectiveness of PrivateVPN’s kill switch, we performed a number of IP leak tests while manually disconnecting the VPN. The kill switch worked flawlessly and our true IP address did not leak.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-144990 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/kill-switch.png" alt="Image of PrivateVPN's kill switch" width="482" height="418" />
A kill switch is essential for many online activities, like unblocking streaming sites and torrenting, so we’re glad to see it included. However, a major drawback is that there is no kill switch on PrivateVPN’s iOS or Amazon Fire TV app — leaving connections from these devices vulnerable. 
<h4>Split Tunneling</h4>
Unlike so many other big-name VPNs, PrivateVPN does not offer a split tunneling feature. This means that you are unable to exclude any apps from using the VPN connection, which may result in PrivateVPN stopping them from working properly. 
Although it may seem unusual to leave some of your traffic unprotected, there are some situations where this feature is necessary. A VPN will interfere with your wireless printer and smart home devices, for example.
As a result, we were unable to use any of these local services while running PrivateVPN. Without this feature, PrivateVPN lags behind some of its competitors and may become useless to you, depending on your use-case.
<h3 id="dns-leak-test">Leak Test Results</h3>
Although PrivateVPN encrypts all VPN traffic with gold-standard protocols, data leaks can still occur. This happens when traffic is transmitted outside of the encrypted VPN tunnel, making your identity visible to third-parties.
Thankfully, PrivateVPN comes with IPv6 and DNS leak protection. To verify that these features are fully functional, we put PrivateVPN’s Windows and iOS apps through a series of real-world leak tests.
To test for any IP address leaks, we used <a href="https://ipleak.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ipleak.net</a>. We used PrivateVPN servers in the US, UK, Australia, and Sweden. PrivateVPN did not leak our real IP address at any point — keeping our identity private and anonymous.
<div id="attachment_144993" style="width: 544px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144993" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144993" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/ip-leak-test.png" alt="Image showing PrivateVPN passing our IP leak test" width="534" height="289" />PrivateVPN concealed our real IP address.</div>
PrivateVPN also passed our DNS leak test without any issues. This is helped by the fact that PrivateVPN operates its own DNS servers that resolve all your DNS requests, thereby removing any risk of leaks from third-party servers and data-handlers.
<div id="attachment_144996" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144996" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144996 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/dns-leak-test.png" alt="Image showing PrivateVPN passing our DNS leak test" width="700" height="303" />PrivateVPN easily passed our DNS leak test.</div>
In sum, these results show that PrivateVPN is safe and can be trusted to protect your identity as you browse the web.

PrivateVPN has native apps for all major platforms and devices, including Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android. Its apps are some of our favorites, prioritizing simplicity and intuitiveness over an abundance of customization options.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-144981 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/ios-app.png" alt="" width="238" height="424" />
The apps function and look almost identical across all platforms, enabling a familiarity and a continuity that we appreciate.
The only notable difference is that the iOS app does not include a kill switch — so your true IP address is at risk of exposure if your VPN connection drops. However, many top VPNs, including ExpressVPN, struggle to provide a kill switch on iOS, so it’s not necessarily a deal-breaker.
For alternative platforms like Linux, PrivateVPN’s website provides plenty of <a href="https://privatevpn.com/support/getting-started/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">manual setup tutorials</a> to guide you through installation.
You can connect up to six devices at the same time, too, which makes PrivateVPN a good choice if you want to protect your family’s devices as well as your own.

Unlike all other top VPNs, there are no browser extensions available for PrivateVPN.
VPN browser extensions provide a fast and convenient way to unblock streaming sites, like Netflix and Hulu, so PrivateVPN’s lack of options is disappointing. 
It is worth noting, though, that most VPN browser extensions merely work as an internet proxy — failing to encrypt any of your non-browser internet traffic. This leaves activities, like photo syncing and torrenting clients, outside of the encrypted VPN tunnel. 
As a result, if privacy is your priority, the absence of browser extensions will not be an issue. However, if you’re a streamer that wants a quick way to change server locations, the lack of browser extensions might be a regular frustration.
If VPN browser extensions are essential to you, you can find our picks for the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/chrome/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best extensions for Chrome</a> and the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/firefox/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best for Firefox</a> in our dedicated guides.

As PrivateVPN is a VPN designed for streaming, we were very disappointed to discover that it does not offer a Smart DNS feature. This means the VPN cannot unblock streaming sites on devices like PS4 and Apple TV.
As these devices do not allow for the installation of VPN apps, most top VPNs include <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#smart-dns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Smart DNS</a>. This tricks websites and apps into thinking you’re connecting from a country different to your own without the need for a full  VPN.
Due to its absence, you will have to install PrivateVPN at router-level if you want to unblock streaming sites on a games console or streaming device. Unlike many other VPNs, PrivateVPN does not offer any pre-installed routers for sale, either, so you will have to do it manually. 
To do this, check out our step-by-step guide on<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-router/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> how to install a VPN on your router</a> or read<a href="https://privatevpn.com/blog/guides/357/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-a-router-(+the-pros-and-cons)" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> PrivateVPN’s own tutorial</a>. This process is complicated if you’re inexperienced, so double-check each step before starting. 
Alternatively, you could use PrivateVPN’s Fire TV app if you want to stream movies and TV shows from around the world on your TV. Amazon Fire TV Sticks are very affordable, too, so it’s a good option. You can read more about this in the section below.
<h3>Amazon Firestick &amp; Fire TV</h3>
PrivateVPN features a great app for Amazon Fire TV Stick, with the ability to unblock over 30 Netflix libraries directly onto your TV.
The app comes with the same dedicated streaming servers as the desktop and mobile apps, so you can also stream sites like Netflix, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and HBO Max.
Some other VPNs, like Private Internet Access, struggle to unblock streaming services on Firestick due to the device’s stricter VPN-detection techniques. However, we connected to PrivateVPN’s US, UK, Australia, Japan, and Canada servers and they all worked with Netflix. 
One drawback to the app is that it hasn’t been optimized for Fire TV — so it’s left looking like a blown-up version of the Android app. As it was originally designed for touch input, it makes it difficult to decipher what setting you’re controlling at any given time. The only indication being that the element in focus gains a faint green-colored border.
<div id="attachment_144984" style="width: 610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144984" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144984 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-firestick-app.png" alt="Image of PrivateVPN's app for Amazon Firestick" width="600" height="338" />PrivateVPN unblocks Netflix on Fire TV.</div>
The main negative to PrivateVPN’s Firestick app is that it doesn’t feature a kill switch. This is particularly problematic for Kodi streamers, as if your connection drops for any reason, you may accidentally reveal your IP address.
Despite these issues, PrivateVPN remains our second-best choice for the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/firestick/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best VPN for Firestick</a>. It’s earned its place simply because it works flawlessly for unblocking geo-restricted sites and features the largest number of dedicated streaming servers of any VPN.

PrivateVPN covers a wide range of locations, with servers in 60 countries around the world. Sadly, the app does not allow you to connect automatically to the fastest server, and it doesn’t include any information about server load and latency, either.
Servers are available in popular locations like the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, Germany, and Canada. All of these include city-level servers, too, so you can connect to the nearest server to you in a specific country.
<div id="attachment_144969" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144969" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144969 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/server-locations.png" alt="PrivateVPN server locations" width="690" height="385" />PrivateVPN has just 150 servers located around 60 countries.</div>
Disappointingly, though, South Africa is the only African server available. As a result, you’re likely to experience lackluster speeds if connecting from the continent. There are plenty of VPN servers located near China, however, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam — making connections from behind the Great Firewall fast and reliable.
However, despite the decent number of countries covered, PrivateVPN has a tiny global network of just 150 servers. Its best city-level coverage is in the US, with a total of 11 servers across 10 cities. By comparison, NordVPN has a massive 5,552 servers — with 1,700 servers across 15 cities in the US alone.
The benefit of an extensive VPN server network is that it increases the likelihood of you connecting to a nearby server, giving you better speeds and reliability. It also helps balance server load and prevents crowded servers — an issue that <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-speed">PrivateVPN suffers from</a>.
<h3>Virtual Server Locations</h3>
13% of PrivateVPN’s server locations are virtual — meaning they are physically located in a different country to the IP address. For example, we discovered that PrivateVPN’s South Korea server is actually located in a server park in the US.
<div id="attachment_144972" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144972" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144972 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/virtual-server-locations.png" alt="PrivateVPN virtual server locations" width="700" height="290" />PrivateVPN uses virtual server locations.</div>
PrivateVPN uses a relatively small number of virtual server locations, which is an approach we typically prefer. This increases transparency and ensures that your data is not being diverted towards any country other than where you think it’s going. 
Virtual server locations can also drastically hinder your internet speed if you think you’re connecting to a nearby server, when in fact it’s located on the other side of the world.
For this reason, we do wish that the PrivateVPN app would indicate which server locations are virtual and which are physically located. Other providers, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-server_locations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">like Cyberghost</a>, are very upfront about their use.
Although PrivateVPN does list all of its virtual server locations <a href="https://privatevpn.com/serverlist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on its website</a>, they are concealed and not easily discoverable. 
It also does not reveal the real physical location of these servers. This feature would allow users to weigh up a specific virtual server’s impact on privacy and speed performance before connecting. ExpressVPN, for example, <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/troubleshooting/virtual-server-locations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">clearly labels</a> both the announced IP address and the server’s true physical location.
<h3 id="dedicated-ip">Dedicated IP Servers</h3>
All of PrivateVPN’s apps come with a separate tab allowing you to connect to ‘Dedicated IP’ servers. These servers have several unique features which make them very useful for certain activities.
<div id="attachment_144975" style="width: 529px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144975" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144975 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/dedicated-ip-servers.png" alt="PrivateVPN dedicated IP servers" width="519" height="508" />PrivateVPN’s dedicated IP servers are perfect for torrenting.</div>
Firstly, PrivateVPN owns all of these servers, with none rented from third-parties. This makes these servers excellent for privacy and security, as it removes any additional intermediaries that are responsible for your data.
We spoke to a PrivateVPN representative and found that a subset of these servers are 100% owned by PrivateVPN — meaning it has full control of the hardware, servers, network equipment, and everything else. 
These servers are:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Denmark &#8211; Copenhagen</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">France &#8211; Paris</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany &#8211; Frankfurt</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Italy &#8211; Milan</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Spain &#8211; Madrid</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Sweden &#8211; Stockholm</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Switzerland &#8211; Zürich</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">The Netherlands &#8211; Amsterdam</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">UK &#8211; London</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">US &#8211; NYC 1 
</li>
</ul>
All of these servers have a 10GB dedicated internet connection, and as PrivateVPN wholly owns them, the bandwidth is not shared with any additional renters. This makes these servers particularly fast — great for demanding tasks like streaming.
Secondly, all ports are automatically enabled on PrivateVPN’s dedicated IP servers — making these servers perfect for torrenting and P2P file-sharing. With other servers, you are forced to manually configure your torrent client, which is often a lengthy and complicated process.
By having all ports open, this allows all incoming P2P connections to transmit directly to your device. Without this, you will get low priority from other seeds and your download rate would suffer. 
Finally, these servers issue dedicated IP addresses — meaning that when you connect to one of them, your IP address will not be shared with any other user. These IPs are still dynamic, too, so you will get a different IP when you reconnect.
This makes these servers great for streaming sites like Netflix, as these services typically geo-block content by<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/netflix/#how-does-netflix-identify-and-block-vpn-traffic" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> blacklisting crowded IP addresses</a>. As you’re the only person using the IP address at any time, it appears as a residential IP and bypasses the location-based restrictions.
We like that these dedicated IPs are dynamic, too. Most other dedicated IP features allocate a static IP address to your account that persists for each connection. But as every PrivateVPN user can connect to these dedicated IPs, it’s almost impossible to trace any activity back to a specific user.
In all, PrivateVPN’s dedicated IP servers are one of the VPN’s main strong points — allowing tighter security, faster torrenting, and reliable streaming. However, the VPN does not promote these servers anywhere, nor does it provide guides to educate users about their use, so we’d like to see it focus on these more in the future.

PrivateVPN is a fantastic VPN for streaming, with a huge amount of servers dedicated to streaming sites from around the world. Our repeated tests found the VPN always worked with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime Video.
The PrivateVPN app includes servers to stream a total of 27 different Netflix libraries in a variety of different languages. This is the largest number of dedicated servers we’ve seen from any VPN provider.
<div id="attachment_144960" style="width: 494px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144960" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144960 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-us-netflix.png" alt="PrivateVPN Netflix servers" width="484" height="473" />The app includes dedicated Netflix servers for many countries.</div>
Our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/netflix/#unblock-most-libraries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigation into Netflix VPNs</a> found that PrivateVPN is the second-best VPN service for unblocking the highest number of Netflix libraries. All 32 of its Netflix servers worked over months of our testing. Unlocking a larger amount of Netflix catalogs increases the likelihood that the content you want to stream will be available.
You can see the results of our study in the graph below:

<picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/06/netflix-vpn-research-chart-stacked.png"><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-131305 size-large" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/06/netflix-vpn-research-chart-700x343.png" alt="Chart displaying the findings from our Netflix VPN research" width="700" height="343" data-mobileimg="true" /></picture>
PrivateVPN doesn’t only work with the usual streaming services, either. The app comes with dedicated servers for 23 different streaming services, including less represented sites from around the world. These include support for Hotstar, IPTV, and sports services like Sky Go and DAZN.
PrivateVPN’s dedicated streaming servers change their IP address regularly, which prevents detection from geo-blocks. We tested all of these servers on iPhone, Windows PC, and on Amazon Fire TV Stick, and they worked flawlessly. This means you’ll always be able to access your favorite service on all of your devices without any issues.
<div id="attachment_144957" style="width: 547px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144957" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144957" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-sky-go.png" alt="PrivateVPN unblocking Sky Go" width="537" height="272" />We were able to stream Sky Go content while using PrivateVPN.</div>
However, despite their effectiveness, we discovered that most of PrivateVPN’s streaming servers suffer from poor speeds. As the VPN has a <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-server_locations">relatively small server network</a>, the most popular servers are often congested, which results in extreme slowdowns. Depending on your internet speed, you may experience frustrating buffering and interruptions. You can read more about this issue <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-speed">later on in this review</a>.
Another negative of using PrivateVPN for streaming is that the VPN does not offer a Smart DNS feature. Smart DNS allows you to spoof your location and bypass location restrictions on devices that are not VPN-compatible.
This omission means that PrivateVPN will not work on devices like Apple TV, PS4, and Xbox. If you use any of these devices for streaming, then you should avoid PrivateVPN. Instead, check out <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/expressvpn/#review-streaming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ExpressVPN</a>, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-streaming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CyberGhost</a>, <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/surfshark/#review-streaming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surfshark</a>, or <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/nordvpn/#review-streaming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NordVPN</a> — all four of these VPNs offer a reliable and easy-to-use Smart DNS feature.
Overall, PrivateVPN is simply one of the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/streaming/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best VPNs for streaming</a>, and is available at a much lower price than competitors. Its dedicated streaming servers are the most reliable we’ve tested, and the Amazon Fire TV stick app means you can watch geo-restricted content on your TV.  
<h3>PrivateVPN Is Excellent for Torrenting</h3>
PrivateVPN is one of the best VPNs for torrenting — with dedicated servers for P2P file-sharing, a kill switch that prohibits any IP leaks, and no-logs privacy policy to prevent your activity from being traced back to you.
We tested PrivateVPN with various torrent clients, and each time we were able to download a torrent file without any interruptions quickly. Our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-speed">most recent speed test results</a> measured a bitrate of 5.1 MiB/s from our 100Mbps internet connection, which means you won’t have any trouble sharing large files like movies, music, and software with others.
<div id="attachment_120415" style="width: 624px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-120415" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-120415" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/03/PIA-Torrenting-Test.png" alt="A screenshot showing that the VPN allowed us to torrenting and P2P share successfully." width="614" height="427" />Our torrent file downloaded quickly while using PrivateVPN.</div>
The VPN also operates its own <a href="#dns-leak-test">no-logs DNS servers</a>, which means there is no third-party involved in resolving your DNS requests. This is a must-have feature for private P2P file-sharing, so we’re glad to see PrivateVPN cover it.
Although torrenting is allowed on all of its servers, PrivateVPN recommends you only connect to a location from the ‘Dedicated IP’ server list. These servers are easy to find, and we’ve found them to be faster than PrivateVPN’s other servers. 
These servers are owned and controlled by PrivateVPN, unlike all other servers which are rented from third-parties. A PrivateVPN representative confirmed to us that only PrivateVPN have direct physical access to these servers and no one else. 
This allows for an additional layer of control and security, which is essential when it comes to keeping torrenting activity private. 
Additionally, these servers allow most ports to be forwarded automatically, so there’s no need to configure any port settings on your torrent client. In fact, it&#8217;s our number one recommended VPN if you want to seed torrents. For the fastest speeds, we also recommend you connect to the dedicated IP server location that is closest to you. You can read all about PrivateVPN’s <a href="#dedicated-ip">dedicated IP servers here</a>.
In turn, PrivateVPN’s superb torrenting performance makes it an excellent choice for using Kodi, Popcorn Time, and all other torrent-based streaming platforms.
Overall, PrivateVPN is simply one of the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/torrenting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">best torrenting VPNs</a> on the market. There’s no notable downside to using it for P2P activity. It has dedicated servers for torrenting, supports port-forwarding, operates under a no-logs privacy policy, and it has no data cap — so you can torrent as many movies and TV shows as you like.

PrivateVPN is a basic VPN service that provides best-in-class AES-256 encryption and native apps for Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire TV. For this PrivateVPN review, our team of experts put it through <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/about/how-we-review-vpns/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our rigorous testing process</a> to find out how it compares to other VPNs on the market. 
We discovered that PrivateVPN is one of the very best VPNs for streaming, with <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-streaming">dedicated streaming servers</a> for sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer. However, we found that these servers were often overly congested — meaning you can’t always rely on the VPN to stream titles in HD. 
PrivateVPN is also an excellent choice for P2P file-sharing and includes dedicated torrenting servers, port forwarding features, and a functional kill switch on all desktop apps. It’s also one of the cheapest VPNs around, with <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-pricing">prices as low as $1.89 per month on a two-year plan</a>.
It’s also one of a small number of VPNs that consistently works in China and other highly-censored regions, easily passing the Great Firewall in our tests.
The VPN is based in Sweden, a Fourteen Eyes jurisdiction, but its zero-logs privacy policy will keep your data safe and private. Its logging policy has not been audited by a third-party cybersecurity firm, though, so you’ll have to trust the information that PrivateVPN provides.
Although the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-server_locations">server network of just 150 total servers</a> is tiny compared to competitors, the VPN does a good job of providing worldwide coverage. One of the main downsides is that live chat customer support is not run during scheduled hours, so it’s only accessible at random times of the day.
In summary, PrivateVPN is a superb budget VPN that unblocks a huge amount of streaming services and is a simple choice for quickly securing your internet connection. It’s not perfect, though. PrivateVPN needs to resolve its frustrating speed issues, provide a Smart DNS feature, and complete an independent audit. If it does, it could become one of the best VPNs available.

PrivateVPN is a bargain on all of its pricing plans. As is typical, the larger discounts are only available on the longer-term plans, but all PrivateVPN subscriptions come with the same advanced features and 30-day money-back guarantee.
Three billing options allow you to pay monthly, every three months, or every two years. The PrivateVPN monthly package costs $7.12, or you lower the cost by 83% to $1.89 if you pay for two years up front. The three-month subscription costs $4.20 per month.
These impressive prices make PrivateVPN the best VPN choice if value is your main priority. By contrast, other cheap VPNs, like NordVPN, Surfshark, and CyberGhost, all cost at least $11.95 a month, making PrivateVPN a clear price winner.
<h3>PrivateVPN Free Trial</h3>
PrivateVPN recently removed its free trial option. This trial period didn’t require any payment details to sign up and was our <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/free-trials/">favorite free trial</a> from any VPN service. It made it unique among the many VPNs on the market, so its removal leaves PrivateVPN less impressive than before.
After contacting it, the VPN provider assured us that the free trial would return in the future, but refused to give an estimated timescale. We hope that PrivateVPN restores this option soon, as it was a great entry point for many VPN users.
More pleasingly, though, the VPN does come with a 30-day money-back guarantee for all users, and the only condition is that you use less than 100 GB of data in the period.
You will need to provide a reason for asking for your money back, but all refunds are processed within five business days of them being requested.

PrivateVPN protects your privacy as it doesn’t log any user data. Anything you do while connected to the VPN will remain private to you and hidden from any third parties, like snooping governments and PrivateVPN itself.
The only information that PrivateVPN does retain is your email address — used for logging in, resetting your password, and for renewing your account. This is nothing to worry about, though, as this is standard practice. PrivateVPN also confirmed to us that this is not linked to your activity in any way.
By not even logging anonymous usage data, PrivateVPN is one of the very few <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-logging-policies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">no-logs VPNs</a>. This level of privacy is typically reserved for more expensive services.  
After analyzing PrivateVPN’s privacy policy in-depth, we found that the VPN provider categorically states that:
<blockquote>“PrivateVPN does not collect or log any traffic or use of its service.”</blockquote>
<div id="attachment_144966" style="width: 643px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144966" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-144966 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/privatevpn-logging-policy.png" alt="PrivateVPN no-logs privacy policy" width="633" height="403" />Excerpt from PrivateVPN’s no-logs privacy policy.</div>
Although this statement is promising, it’s also the full extent of the logging policy. This isn&#8217;t very reassuring, and we’d like the policy to explicitly state that it doesn’t log DNS requests, connection timestamps, or IP addresses. Mullvad VPN, for example, does a much better job of <a href="https://mullvad.net/en/help/no-logging-data-policy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">breaking down its no-logs privacy policy</a> and doesn’t rest on a single statement.
We found that PrivateVPN has not always fully disclosed its logging practices, too. Although it has now been removed, the VPN previously logged user’s IP addresses when signing up for the seven-day free trial. After contacting it, PrivateVPN told us that these IP addresses were securely stored in a “dummy database” and linked to “no other data.”
Although the logging of IP addresses, in this case, was done privately and only to prevent abuse of its free trial, the problem is that PrivateVPN did not disclose its logging anywhere. It was not listed in its privacy policy, in its terms of use, or anywhere on its website. We discovered this only by signing up to the free trial multiple times ourselves. 
The problem with this lack of disclosure is that it damages trust between you and the VPN provider. This is no small issue, either, given the level of sensitive data and information about you that’s handled by the VPN.
The problem is made worse by the fact that PrivateVPN has not conducted any third-party audits — so you are forced to trust the information that it provides. You can read more about this in the <a href="#audits">section below</a>.
As you are relying on the VPN to process your most sensitive information and data, a trustworthy relationship is essential. However, we are confident that PrivateVPN is now a true no-logs VPN and that this wrongdoing was a result of careless behavior rather than anything malicious.
<h4 id="audits">No Independent Security Audits or Real-World Tests</h4>
The drawback to PrivateVPN’s logging policy is that it has not been audited by a third-party and it has also not been verified by any real-world court cases. As a result, you are left having to trust everything the provider claims. 
Many popular VPNs conduct annual audits from reputable third-parties to verify their claims of no-logging — giving users hard evidence to survey, rather than having to rely on the words of the provider itself.
There are also notable examples of some VPN logging policies being verified by real-world cases. We prefer these, as it removes the risk of any window-dressing and puts the VPN&#8217;s security and privacy systems through the strictest of tests.
For example, Private Internet Access has been <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/private-internet-access/#review-jurisdiction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unable to provide user data to the FBI on several occasions</a> due to its true no-logs policy. This is in contrast to <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/purevpn/#review-jurisdiction" target="_blank" rel="noopener">providers like PureVPN</a>, a VPN that claimed to not log any user activity, but was found to be lying after it handed over a user’s IP address to the FBI.
We want this VPN to complete an audit from a third-party cybersecurity firm and to disclose previous real-word tests, if any do exist. While we do trust PrivateVPN to keep you private and safe, we are hopeful that it will provide evidence of its no-logs policy in any future update, just for peace of mind.
<h3>PrivateVPN is based in Sweden</h3>
<picture><source media="(max-width: 768px)" srcset="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/14-Eyes-Countries-Mobile.png"><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-114193 size-large" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/02/14-Eyes-Countries-700x249.png" alt="Infographic showing the 14 eyes countries." width="700" height="249" data-mobileimg="true" /></picture>
PrivateVPN operates under the jurisdiction of Sweden. Sweden is a relatively safe VPN jurisdiction, but it is certainly not the best.
Sweden is part of <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/#the-five-nine-and-fourteen-eyes-alliances" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the 14 Eyes</a>, a group of 14 nations that share surveillance information. Originally formed to exchange military intelligence, the program has since evolved to include information on regular citizens.
Although we don’t typically recommend VPNs based in a 14-Eyes country, Sweden conducts less invasive VPN data collection and surveillance than its partners.
In Sweden, VPN providers are not considered an ‘electronic communications network’ nor an ‘electronic communications service’. This makes PrivateVPN exempt from Sweden’s intrusive laws, like <a href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/online-privacy-law/2012/sweden.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Electronic Communications Act</a>, allowing the PrivateVPN to sidestep any mandatory data collection. 
On top of this, PrivateVPN’s no-logs policy means that it is unable to provide any information about its users, even if it was asked to comply with an investigation.
However, we do wish PrivateVPN took steps to educate and reassure users about its base in a 14-Eyes country. Mullvad, for example, provides a <a href="https://mullvad.net/en/help/swedish-legislation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">detailed breakdown of all relevant Swedish laws</a> and an explanation of its efforts to protect user privacy. OVPN, another Swedish-based VPN provider, has <a href="https://www.ovpn.com/en/blog/swedish-covert-surveillance-of-data-act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published blog posts</a> explaining Swedish data laws and detailing its response and systems.
Overall, despite its base in an imperfect jurisdiction, PrivateVPN is a safe and private choice. The VPN’s no-logs policy offsets most of the negatives of an invasive government, and there has never been evidence to suggest that Sweden has forced a VPN provider to log user information secretly. In short, you can trust PrivateVPN with your data.

Speed Test

Servers & Locations

Encryption, Privacy & Security

Customer Service

User Experience

CyberGhost

PrivateVPN

To maintain fair and unbiased speed testing, we measured our internet speeds before and after connecting to a nearby London VPN server while using a UDP OpenVPN connection. We performed a series of tests over several days and then took the average number for each.
We recorded a speed loss of just 6% — from 100Mbps to 94Mbps — which is a really impressive result. You’ll experience similar results when connecting to a server near you, making PrivateVPN a great option for demanding tasks like torrenting and video calling
<h3 id="long-distance">Long-Distance Speed Test Results</h3>
PrivateVPN’s speed on long-distance connections was equally impressive. We recorded good speeds across a range of locations.
Despite experiencing mediocre speeds when connecting to a US server, it performed more admirably in other far-away locations like Australia and Canada. We were able to play online games and stream HD video from these countries without any buffering or interruptions.
Here are the full results we recorded when connecting to far-away servers from London, UK with a 100Mbps internet connection: 
USA (New York): 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Download: 62Mbps (38% slower) </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Upload: 67Mbps (32% slower)</li>
</ul>
Canada (Toronto): 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Download: 84Mbps (16% slower) </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Upload: 65Mbps (34% slower)  </li>
</ul>
Germany (Munich): 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Download: 80Mbps (20% slower)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Upload: 95Mbps (4% slower)</li>
</ul>
Singapore:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Download: 32Mbps (68% slower)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Upload: 26Mbps (74% slower)</li>
</ul>
Australia (Melbourne): 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Download: 49Mbps (51% slower)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Upload: 31Mbps (69% slower)</li>
</ul>
Although PrivateVPN is not close to being the fastest VPN available, these speeds will still allow you to reliably stream, torrent, and browse the web without any issue. You do need to be wary of its <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/privatevpn/#review-speed">slow congested servers</a>, though, but through some trial and error, you will be able to find a fast VPN server.
<h3>How Fast is PrivateVPN Compared to Other VPNs?</h3>
To keep our speed test results as scientific as possible, we also record results using our in-house VPN speed testing tool. 
These tests run automatically four times per day and the results are displayed exactly as we find them — so there’s no possibility for any bias or human error. 
The graph below compares PrivateVPN’s average loss of internet speed to other popular VPNs while running on our New York server.
<div style="display: none;" data-joyceparams="8528c5af-24ff"></div>
These results show that PrivateVPN’s speeds are poor compared to other top VPN providers. Over the previous eight weeks, PrivateVPN’s speed performance has been very inconsistent — fluctuating between speeds of 81Mbps to 60Mbps on a same-city connection.
PrivateVPN’s poor speed test results are in contrast to other providers like Surfshark and NordVPN. As you can see, speeds from these services remained both fast and consistent, which is essential for reliability.
PrivateVPN performed slightly better on international connections. When connecting to London from New York, PrivateVPN often outperformed other top VPNs, like Private Internet Access and ExpressVPN. However, PrivateVPN’s speeds remained inconsistent and unpredictable. 
Inconsistent speeds are frustrating for streaming geo-blocked content from sites like Netflix and Hulu, as it makes HD streams less likely. For a more predictable streaming experience, our speed test results show that NordVPN and Surfshark are both better options.
PrivateVPN is a cheaper VPN service than some of its competitors, so congested VPN servers and slower speeds can be somewhat expected. However, services like Surfshark and NordVPN are only slightly more expensive, so we hope PrivateVPN can increase their server capacity and improve their speed performance in the future.

Fast no-logs VPN with great privacy features. Good choice for streaming fans.

CyberGhost Logo

CyberGhost’s <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us">support website</a> contains a huge selection of articles, guides, and setup instructions to help troubleshoot connection issues and installation problems. The resources are comprehensive and easy to navigate.
There’s a feedback and reporting service in the application interface, a 24/7 email ticketing system, and 24/7 live chat support.
 <img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122941 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-CyberGhost-Help-Page-on-the-CyberGhost-Website.png" alt="" width="2504" height="708" />
Live chat can be accessed in the bottom-right corner of the main CyberGhost website. Type in a search term related to your problem and you will be presented with a series of support posts to try and resolve your issue before chatting with an agent.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122944 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screemshot-of-CyberGhost-Support.png" alt="" width="439" height="652" />
Live chat is available 24/7 and we found that agents responded almost immediately. Our support agent answered our question in a matter of seconds:<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122947 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-CyberGhost-Live-Chat-Support-Exchange.png" alt="" width="414" height="612" />
CyberGhost’s variety of support options and quick response time is very impressive. The agents are knowledgeable and the online resources are available in English, French, German, and Romanian.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122968 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-2020-03-06-at-16.04.07.png" alt="" width="532" height="412" />Overall, CyberGhost offers excellent customer service. With 24/7 live chat, email ticketing and a huge online knowledgebase, you’ll find solutions to any connection or installation issues in no time at all. This makes CyberGhost an excellent option for beginners that are new to using a VPN.

CyberGhost is a light and simple service with a well designed, intuitive interface across all platforms. It’s easy to use and set up and it’s got almost all of the advanced features that an expert user might need. This makes it a great VPN for beginners and experienced users alike.
Advanced users might be disappointed with the limited number of custom settings available on mobile and MacOS, and there is some variability in the user experience on each platform.
In this section, we’ll go through the differences between each of CyberGhost’s native applications in detail.
<h3>Desktop Clients</h3>
In terms of design, there’s very little difference between CyberGhost&#8217;s Windows and MacOS clients. They both open with a simple interface that shows your connection status, a list of locations, and a large connect button.
There’s even a ‘best location’ button to connect you to your closest server.
<div id="attachment_122932" style="width: 1610px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122932" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122932 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-2020-03-06-at-11.02.35.png" alt="" width="1600" height="1384" />CyberGhost Mac app</div>
The right-hand panel houses a ton of functionality: you can find a list of servers with their distance and server load, a favorites system and a filtering system so you can easily find servers optimised for streaming or torrenting. However, the search bar tool does not apply to cities, which means you have to scroll through the many servers alphabetically until you reach your desired destination. In a country like the US, which has so many servers, this can take some time.
The connection features menu allows you to enable privacy features including ad and tracker blocking, HTTP redirection, and a bonus ‘data compression’ feature that reduces the size of images and files to improve performance.
<div id="attachment_122935" style="width: 780px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122935" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122935 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Smart-Rules-Customization-Options.png" alt="" width="770" height="670" />CyberGhost’s connection features menu.</div>
There are even more options in the ‘smart rules’ menu on Windows: you can choose to launch the app automatically on startup, change your network preferences, or enable split-tunnelling. 
However, while both apps are nice to look at, the MacOS client offers significantly fewer customisation options than its Windows counterpart.  
Crucially, you cannot change your CyberGhost VPN protocol on MacOS. If you want to use OpenVPN instead of IKEv2 you have to use external software like Tunnelblick. This is a disappointing fault with an otherwise well-designed and functional application. You can find full instructions on configuring OpenVPN for Mac <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/214239925-Mac-OS-That-s-how-you-configure-OpenVPN-to-use-with-CyberGhost-Tunnelblick">on the CyberGhost support website</a>. 
There are and important features absent on CyberGhost’s Mac client, including options for:
<ul>
<li>Disabling VPN kill switch (enabled by default)</li>
<li>Using OpenVPN TCP instead of UDP</li>
<li>Using a random port to connect</li>
<li>Disabling DNS leak protection</li>
<li>Blocking IPv6 traffic</li>
</ul>
Overall, CyberGhost’s desktop clients are pleasantly designed, well-organized and easy to use. However, the Windows Client is much better equipped for advanced users looking to customise their settings. We’d like to see improvements to the MacOS Client in future updates to bring it up to the same level. 
<h3>Android &amp; iOS</h3>
CyberGhost&#8217;s iOS app is far simpler than the desktop clients, with a relatively basic interface and barely any customisation options. The Android app is similarly designed but has a much longer list of features on offer. 
The iOS app connects to your nearest server by default and you can also choose from a list of server locations. Tapping a location will display the server load and the number of connected users, and you can save specific locations to a Favorites list.
Both apps have the option to save connection settings for networks you use regularly, so the VPN will know exactly which actions to take at home, school or work, or on public WiFi. 
<div id="attachment_122938" style="width: 370px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122938" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122938 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_1.png" alt="" width="360" height="575" />CyberGhost&#8217;s iOS app</div>
The Android app includes many of the additional features available on desktop, including an ad blocker, data compression, and URL filtering. Split Tunnelling is also available on Android, which allows you to choose which applications use the VPN and which don’t. 
Crucially, neither of CyberGhost’s mobile applications allow you to change VPN protocol. If you want to use anything other than OpenVPN, you’ll have to switch to desktop. While OpenVPN remains our encryption protocol of choice, it is frustrating and restrictive to lack the ability to choose.
Overall, CyberGhost&#8217;s mobile apps are quite basic – especially for iOS. They&#8217;re lacking some of the core functions found with competing providers, including the ability to toggle the kill switch and choose between VPN protocols. In short, there&#8217;s plenty of room for improvement.

CyberGhost’s no-logs policy and excellent AES 256-bit encryption are ideal for bypassing restrictions in heavily-censored countries. There are also 23 server locations in Asia including China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore.
However, CyberGhost does not provide <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#obfuscation">obfuscation technology</a>. Obfuscation disguises your VPN traffic so it appears as ‘normal’ browsing. This helps bypass blocks and evade authorities  in countries where VPN usage is restricted or illegal.
For this reason, we do not recommend using CyberGhost in a heavily-censored country like China, Iran, Turkey, or UAE. CyberGhost itself <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000646989-Connection-problems-in-certain-countries-e-g-SA-UAE-">warns against using its service</a> in this fashion, especially <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/are-vpns-legal/">where VPNs are illegal</a>.
There was a time when CyberGhost could bypass China’s Great Firewall, but that&#8217;s no longer the case. As of this review, it does not work in China.
Using a VPN in China has become increasingly difficult since the country imposed a nationwide ban on the technology. Now, Most VPNs do not work well in China – if at all – and even premium VPN providers can be vulnerable to issues.
If you need to find a VPN to bypass censorship and unblock websites in China, we recommend services like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/vyprvpn/">VyprVPN</a> and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/strongvpn/">StrongVPN</a>. These providers offer obfuscation technology and are widely reported to work effectively in heavily-censored regions.

CyberGhost is a safe and secure VPN. It effectively hides your IP address and uses industry-standard security features including strong 256-bit encryption, an automatic kill switch and protection from IP and DNS leaks. 
The OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols are used to establish a connection with the VPN server, and there is also a choice between TCP and UDP connections. OpenVPN is the industry-leading encryption protocol that provides the best balance between performance and privacy. 
<div id="attachment_122851" style="width: 810px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122851" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122851 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-CyberGhost-App-Connection-Settings-Options.png" alt="" width="800" height="800" />Settings menu for the CyberGhost app</div>
CyberGhost also comes with an impressive range of advanced security features including leak protection, a malware blocker, automated HTTPS redirection, an online tracking blocker and split tunneling. All of these additional features are included in just one CyberGhost subscription, which is great value for money. The service recently <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/privacyhub/l2tp_pptp_discontinued/">stopped supporting the outdated PPTP and L2TP</a> protocols. Cyberghost’s decision to remove these potential vulnerabilities is an encouraging demonstration of the company’s commitment to security.
Authentication is established through the SHA256 hashing algorithm and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#perfect-forward-secrecy">perfect forward secrecy</a> is achieved via an ECDH-4096 key exchange. In short, CyberGhost offers the strongest level of encryption available. 
A <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#killswitch">VPN kill switch</a> is provided that will protect your data in case your internet connection drops. While Windows users get the option to turn this feature on or off, the Mac version is enabled by default and is referred to as Secure Connect.
The “force HTTPS” function helps you avoid insecure websites that aren’t protected by HTTPS. This is a useful addition to CyberGhost’s security suite that isn’t available with many similar VPN services. You can find out more about the risks of HTTP websites in <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/public-wifi-security-tips/">our guide to WiFi security</a>. 
<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#split-tunneling">Split tunneling</a> is offered on CyberGhost’s Windows and Android apps under the label “use exceptions.” This feature lets you decide which websites and services you want to route through the encrypted VPN tunnel and which you don’t. Disappointingly, it’s not available on CyberGhost’s MacOS client.
While secure, CyberGhost’s mobile and MacOS apps have significantly less advanced security features than its Windows client. Changing protocols on Mac requires additional software, and it’s not possible on mobile at all. 
The number of customization options is also severely limited on the MacOS client –  there are no toggles for using TCP instead of UDP, enabling DNS leak protection, disabling IPv6 connections or turning on the VPN kill switch. We’ll cover the user experience of CyberGhost’s mac apps in detail <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-ease">later on in this review</a>. 
Overall, CyberGhost is a very secure VPN with industry-leading encryption, leak protection, and a good selection of advanced features. However, we’d like to see improvements to the custom security settings available on MacOS and mobile clients. 
<h3>Data Leaks, Trackers &amp; Permissions</h3>
VPN security isn’t just about the strength of encryption available. We also tested CyberGhost’s apps for data leaks, tracking scripts, and intrusive permissions.
We found that all of CyberGhost’s apps are free from <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-leak-test/#what-is-a-vpn-leak">IP, WebRTC and DNS leaks</a>, which means you can trust them to keep your true IP address hidden and your downloads private.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122854 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-DNS-Leak-Test.png" alt="" width="1050" height="450" />We also tested the privacy and security of CyberGhost by running it through the <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/">εxodus tool</a>, which creates reports on the trackers and permissions present in Android apps.
CyberGhost’s Android app contains mostly standard trackers that are used to monitor how users interact with the app and respond to issues like crashes. These trackers include:
<ul>
<li>AppsFlyer</li>
<li>Google Analytics</li>
<li>Google CrashLytics</li>
<li>Google Firebase Analytics</li>
<li>Google Tag Manager</li>
<li>Instabug</li>
<li>MixPanel</li>
</ul>
To put this result into context, CyberGhost contains seven trackers while leading competitors like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/expressvpn/">ExpressVPN</a> have just two. Some of the worst VPNs on the market <a href="https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/org.freevpn/latest/">have up to 28</a>, while services like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/astrill/">AstrillVPN have none</a>. 
CyberGhost’s permissions are more concerning. The app has the ability to access your location via your GPS and network information, a permission that is considered ‘dangerous’ or ‘special’ according to <a href="https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/overview">Google’s protection levels</a>. While this isn’t uncommon, it would be reassuring for the company to report how it accesses this information without storing it.
<div id="attachment_122857" style="width: 2748px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122857" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122857 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-CyberGhost-Virus-Test.png" alt="" width="2738" height="2462" />CyberGhost contains no malware</div>
Finally, we ran the CyberGhost installation software through a malware test to make sure it didn’t contain any viruses. The software came back completely clean, as you can see from the screenshot below. 
<h3>CyberGhost’s Security Breach</h3>
There are one or two security issues with CyberGhost, past and present, that are worth highlighting .
In March 2019, <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/privacyhub/typeform-breach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CyberGhost suffered a security breach at the hands of cybercriminals</a>. The impact was minimal, with just 20 email addresses and 14 CyberGhost usernames exposed. While this is concerning, CyberGhost was very transparent about the incident, which is reassuring. 
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122926 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-2020-04-15-at-19.11.06.png" alt="" width="1000" height="280" />
In 2016, CyberGhost was criticised for installing root certificates on desktop and mobile apps <a href="https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/cyberghost-vpn-start-logging-hardware-id.388009/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">as part of its ad blocker software</a>. This was a huge security risk that allowed for the decryption of HTTPS traffic.
CyberGhost’s ad-blocking feature is also a controversial feature. Instead of filtering adverts and malicious content through DNS requests like the majority of VPN ad-blocking software, CyberGhost’s ad-blocker actually inspects and manipulates your traffic to modify your requests and avoid certain domains. 
This is the equivalent of what’s called a <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/public-wifi-security-tips/">“Man in the Middle Attack”</a> (MitM). Modifying user traffic is not something a trustworthy VPN provider should do, and it also means that the ad-blocker only works with HTTP websites as it cannot access the content of encrypted HTTPS connections.
CyberGhost no longer installs a root certificate, but it still uses the same intrusive method to filter traffic.
While there has been a significant amount of controversy surrounding CyberGhost’s root certificate and the possibility that its “zero-logging” policy <a href="https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/exposed-cyberghost-vpn-keep-logs.385903/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is not actually upheld</a>, CyberGhost is overall a secure VPN service. We’d like to see the custom security settings on mobile and MacOS clients improved and the ad-blocking feature amended or disabled.

CyberGhost comes with custom clients for Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS. It has browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox and is also compatible with Android TV, Linux, Routers, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and FireTV.
Installation on almost every platform is incredibly easy, making CyberGhost one of the most widely compatible VPN services available. 
The only device CyberGhost doesn’t work with is Chromebook, and there is some variability between the features available on each platform. We’ll cover these differences in detail in the next section of this review. 
The service has a simultaneous device limit of seven devices, which is slightly above the industry standard of five. If you run out of device slots you can simply log out of a device on the CyberGhost website in order to use a new one. 
CyberGhost is also compatible with Raspberry Pi, Synology NAS, and VU+ Solo 2. These require manual workarounds to install, but there are helpful setup guides available on the <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/sections/203000605-CyberGhost-VPN-for-Routers-and-other-Devices" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CyberGhost website</a>.
<div id="attachment_122929" style="width: 1712px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122929" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122929 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Router-Guide-.png" alt="" width="1702" height="660" />You can use your CyberGhost subscription with a number of different devices</div>
You’ll also find setup guides for routers on the support website. CyberGhost is a great choice if you’re interested in<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/what-is-a-vpn-router/"> setting up a VPN router</a>; it’s available on DD-WRT, TomatoUSB and Merlin-Built routers. This will allow you to bypass the service’s simultaneous device limit and protect your entire network.

CyberGhost’s browser extensions are available to install on Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. They are entirely free and work to effectively hide your IP address and unblock geo-restricted content.
However, these VPN browser extensions are much more limited compared to CyberGhost’s full VPN service. There is no kill switch and you can only access eight servers in four countries including Germany, The Netherlands, Romania, and the United States. This is substantially less diverse than the paid app, but it’s not bad for a complimentary service.
<div id="attachment_122869" style="width: 536px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122869" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122869 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-Google-Chrome-CyberGhost-Extension.png" alt="" width="526" height="529" />CyberGhost&#8217;s Google Chrome browser extension</div>
It’s also important to remember that VPN browser extensions do not provide the same level of protection as VPN apps. Extensions will only protect your browser traffic, while VPN applications will encrypt all of the data travelling to and from your device. 
Here’s a table that details all of the differences between CyberGhost’s browser extensions and full VPN applications:
<div style="display: none;" data-table="1aMimQdoi8BrYZ5ohdBsxhCe3yrN6doW664wM6z27m8Y|0"></div>
CyberGhost’s full VPN subscription comes with a lot more benefits, but as browser extensions go these are worth considering.

Most VPN providers do not offer native applications for Xbox, Playstation, or other games consoles. Instead, you can install the VPN software on your router to encrypt and re-route the traffic of every device connected to your network. 
We recommend CyberGhost as one of <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/gaming/">the best VPNs for gaming</a> because you can easily install it on your router. It has a large server list and good speeds – ideal circumstances for gamers. You’ll unlock access to geo-restricted content, prevent ISP throttling and bypass any unwarranted IP bans. 
CyberGhost&#8217;s Smart DNS feature can be configured on gaming consoles and its website gives you configuration guides on how to do this for:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012104059-Configure-My-Smart-DNS-for-PlayStation-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Playstation 4</a></li>
<li><a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012106179-Configure-My-Smart-DNS-for-PlayStation-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Playstation 3</a></li>
<li><a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012010840-Configure-My-Smart-DNS-for-Xbox-One" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Xbox One</a></li>
<li><a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012119999-Configure-My-Smart-DNS-for-Xbox-360" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Xbox 360</a></li>
<li><a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012127199-Configure-My-Smart-DNS-for-Nintendo-Wii" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wii</a></li>
<li><a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012029120-Configure-My-Smart-DNS-for-Nintendo-Wii-U" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wii U</a></li>
</ul>
CyberGhost also comes with a <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008388454-How-to-install-CyberGhost-on-Amazon-Fire-TV-Fire-Stick" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dedicated Amazon Fire TV Stick app</a>, which is an impressive additional feature that not many other VPN services can offer. To use it with Apple TV, you’ll have to <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/how-to-install-a-vpn-on-router/">install the client software on your router</a>. Put simply, if you’re looking to unblock content on your TV, CyberGhost is a good option.

Cyberghost offers an impressively large network of over 6,100 VPN servers located in 90 countries, which is more than most of its competitors.
There are 111 city-level locations within these countries – one of the highest server counts on the market. This means users have a great variety of locations to choose from for high speeds and great performance across the globe. 
We’d like to see more servers available in Asia and Africa where so many users turn to VPNs to bypass internet restrictions imposed by the government. There are currently 23 CyberGhost servers in Asia and six in Africa.<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122830 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-CyberGhost-Server-Locations-Taken-from-the-CyberGhost-Website.png" alt="" width="1806" height="1718" />
City-level connections are available in the following countries:
<ul class="columns-2">
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Australia</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Canada</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">France </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Italy          </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Spain</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">UK</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">US</li>
</ul>
CyberGhost recently doubled its total number of servers in Australia to 78, which is a very strong number. It also added new servers in New Zealand, with 13 in Auckland alone. This is great news for CyberGhost users in that part of the world.
You can find the full server list on <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/vpn-server">CyberGhost&#8217;s website</a>, where it helpfully highlights which servers support torrenting and which locations are virtual or physical.
You can choose a server from the drop-down list at the bottom of the app, or allow CyberGhost to automatically connect you to the nearest server location. This allows you to surf anonymously in just a few seconds. 
The CyberGhost VPN client also shows you server load, which is helpful if you want to optimize performance. A higher server load percentage means the server is congested and you’re unlikely to get optimal speeds.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122920 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Server-Load.png" alt="" width="462" height="694" />
CyberGhost did have a problem with overpopulated servers in the past, but the service has expanded its capacity considerably. It’s now rare for a server to reach over 50% in load, so it’s unlikely you’ll experience any performance issues due to congestion. 
<h3>What types of servers does CyberGhost offer?</h3>
CyberGhost offers different types of server that are optimized for certain activities. 
<div class="block-highlighted block-highlighted--blue">
These server types include:
<ul>
<li>P2P Optimized</li>
<li>Streaming Optimized</li>
<li>Static IP Address</li>
<li>Token-based dedicated IP</li>
<li>NoSpy Servers</li>
</ul>
</div>
Ordinarily, the IP address you’re given by a VPN is dynamic, which means it’s randomly assigned every time you connect. By contrast, a static IP address server will assign you the same IP address every time you connect. This can help unblock geo-restricted content as your traffic patterns will look more like ‘normal’ web traffic, but there are privacy risks as an IP address is linked to you. 
To get around this privacy threat, CyberGhost has been innovative in the development of a &#8216;token-based dedicated IP&#8217; system, in which <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/dedicated-ip-vpn?vgo_ee=Ysi%2BRcoopeMrkQNTBQoWjIvy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">you can redeem a unique token that only you know</a>. CyberGhost has no idea what your token is and can&#8217;t link your account to any specific IP. This way you get all the benefits of a dedicated IP (reliable streaming access) and none of its privacy downsides.
However, this feature costs an additional sum on top of your subscription cost and token-based dedicated IPs are only available in these locations:
<ul>
<li>Canada (Montreal)</li>
<li>France (Paris)</li>
<li>Germany (Berlin, Frankfurt)</li>
<li>UK (London, Manchester)</li>
<li>US (Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York)</li>
</ul>
<div id="attachment_143877" style="width: 704px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-143877" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-143877 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/09/CyberGhost-token-based-dedicated-IP-locations-2.png" alt="" width="694" height="602" />Available locations for CyberGhost&#8217;s token-based dedicated IPs</div>
You also cannot purchase the token-based dedicated IP add-on if you already have an existing CyberGhost account; it has to be added in the checkout process. We&#8217;d like to see CyberGhost make it available to those who have been loyal customers, too.
<a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/advantages/nospy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NoSpy servers are also available</a> as an optional extra. Described as “the ultimate privacy guarantee” by CyberGhost, these servers are built and maintained by a dedicated team of CyberGhost staff in a private data center at the company’s Romanian headquarters. They use premium hardware, dedicated uplinks and come with bigger bandwidth for better speeds. 
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122842 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-NoSpy-Server-Advertisement-Taken-from-the-CyberGhost-Website.png" alt="" width="2840" height="828" />
Unfortunately, there are no servers designed specifically for use with the Tor Browser. We’d also like to see CyberGhost offer a <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#multi-hop-vpn-aka-double-vpn">multi-hop server</a> option, sometimes called Double VPN. This feature adds another layer of encryption to your connection and is offered by competing services like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/nordvpn/">NordVPN</a> and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/vpn-ac/">VPN.ac</a>.
Overall, CyberGhost offers a good selection of server types and locations that are easy to find and use within the app’s interface.
<h3>Does CyberGhost Use Virtual Server Locations?</h3>
CyberGhost marks 58 out of its 89 server locations as “physically located.” These servers are guaranteed to exist as a physical machine within the country you’re connecting to.
The remaining 31 servers are virtual server locations. This means the IP address of the server matches the country you have chosen to connect to, even though the server is physically located in another country.
<div id="attachment_123136" style="width: 1310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-123136" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-123136 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Listed-Servers.png" alt="" width="1300" height="520" />CyberGhost labels its physical servers</div>
Virtual server locations can help ensure your connection is fast, secure, and reliable, and can often provide access to countries in which it is difficult to locate a physical server. However, they can impact performance if the physical machine is further from your real location than you expect. 
Fortunately, CyberGhost is somewhat transparent about which of its server locations are virtual. This allows users to avoid using servers with virtual locations if they have concerns over privacy and performance. 
However, we would also like to see CyberGhost disclose the actual physical location of these servers – where are the Algerian servers actually located? <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/troubleshooting/virtual-server-locations/">ExpressVPN</a>, for example, makes explicit which country’s IP address you will receive and the server’s true physical location. This additional transparency enables users to make informed decisions over how a specific virtual server location might impact their privacy and performance.    
There is also the question of ownership. Many VPN companies choose to rent servers from data centers instead of owning them outright. While this helps reduce operational costs, it adds another party that’s responsible for the privacy and security of your data.
We contacted a CyberGhost representative and asked if the company owns all of its servers. We were told that the company has “total control over all [its] servers.” While it’s unclear to what extent CyberGhost actually owns its infrastructure, it’s reassuring to know that the company has full control over how its servers are managed and operated. 
It’s fairly common for a VPN provider to rent its server infrastructure. That said, a well-maintained and first-party-owned server list can be a great benefit to privacy. If you’re interested in a VPN that owns its entire server network, you can read our reviews of <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/vyprvpn/">VyprVPN</a> and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/ipvanish/">IPVanish</a>.

CyberGhost is an excellent VPN for streaming. It works with US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime and <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/unblock-streaming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plenty of other streaming services</a>. There are dedicated servers for streaming on all platforms and specialist servers for locations including Canada, Germany, France, Poland, Brazil, and more.
CyberGhost is so successful at unblocking region-restricted content because it comes with the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#smart-dns">Smart DNS</a> tool. This feature doesn’t just change your IP address, it also changes the DNS server that your traffic is routed through. You can find out how to configure Smart DNS on <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012002360-How-to-configure-My-Smart-DNS" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CyberGhost’s support website</a>. 
CyberGhost’s apps make watching Netflix, YouTube, or BBC iPlayer easy by highlighting the server locations that support the streaming services you need. There are plenty of locations on offer and its speeds are fast enough for HD-quality content.
The VPN’s dedicated streaming servers also change their IP address regularly to avoid the blocks put in place by websites like Netflix. You can search for the streaming service you’d like in CyberGhost’s search bar and then simply choose the location you want from the drop-down list. 
<div id="attachment_122824" style="width: 1157px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122824" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122824 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Screenshot-of-Streaming-Servers.png" alt="Screenshot of CyberGhost dedicated streaming servers" width="1147" height="1104" />CyberGhost dedicated streaming servers</div>
We tested CyberGhost to see if it works with Netflix on all of its apps. We connected to the United States server from our physical location in London and were able to access US Netflix without an issue. 
We found that CyberGhost was slow to load when first connected, but once loaded it streamed without interruption for the movie’s duration. 
We also tested CyberGhost on a UK server to see if it unblocks BBC iPlayer. We were disappointed to find that the VPN failed to unblock BBC iPlayer on our first try, though we were successful on our second attempt.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-123142 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/BBC-iPlayer-Not-Working-1-1.png" alt="" width="1650" height="288" />
Streaming services like BBC iPlayer are notoriously difficult to unblock and almost all VPN services will struggle from time to time. Fortunately, CyberGhost successfully unblocks BBC iPlayer in the majority of cases. If you come across a server that doesn’t work, simply connect to a different UK server and try again. 
Support is also available if you’re having difficulties streaming. We asked a representative why BBC iPlayer might be blocked and got a helpful response via live chat almost immediately:<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-122914 " data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Streaming-Support.png" alt="" width="530" height="628" />
CyberGhost also has a custom app for Fire TV Stick and works to unblock Disney+.
Overall, CyberGhost consistently and reliably unblocks regional restrictions on a wide selection of streaming services. For this reason, we recommend CyberGhost as one of the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/streaming/">best VPNs for streaming</a>. If you’re looking for a simple VPN to unblock Netflix, Disney+ or BBC iPlayer, CyberGhost is a good choice.
<h3>Is CyberGhost a Good Choice for Torrenting?</h3>
CyberGhost is also a great VPN if you’re looking to stay safe while torrenting. It offers fast speeds, a sensible logging policy and <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003545194-How-to-use-Torrent-optimized-servers-with-CyberGhost-VPN-7-for-macOS">P2P-optimized servers</a> on all platforms, which means you can retain performance while hiding your IP address and activity from your ISP. 
The app shows you how many users are connected to each server which allows you to choose the least congested location to maximise your upload and download speeds. There’s also an effective VPN kill switch that will protect your data from leaking if your connection drops.
CyberGhost makes finding the right server for torrenting easy. Simply choose the “for torrenting”  tab and you’ll be shown a list of servers that have been optimized for P2P activity.
<img loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122827 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Dedicated-Servers-for-Torrenting.png" alt="CyberGhost offers dedicated servers for torrenting." width="829" height="795" />
While many VPNs shy away from actively promoting the ability to torrent on their servers, CyberGhost is <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/vpn-torrent">much more upfront about it</a>. It’s clear that the service has invested a great deal into making torrenting an easy and seamless experience.
The app comes with a malicious URL filter by default which keeps you safe while P2P seeding. Cyberghost has also <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/advantages/nospy">developed NoSpy servers</a> which are independently operated and held to the highest standards of security. 
It’s not all positive, though – P2P traffic is not allowed on Australian servers which could significantly reduce the speeds of users in that area. Cyberghost also occasionally <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/213982089-Why-does-my-torrent-not-work-">blocks P2P protocols</a> on certain servers to help reduce congestion or comply with laws in countries like Russia, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. 
The VPN doesn&#8217;t permit <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-glossary/#port-forwarding">port forwarding</a> for privacy reasons, which would allow you to manually configure your NAT firewall to improve P2P connections. CyberGhost is a torrent-friendly VPN so port forwarding isn’t a necessity, but advanced users may be disappointed.
If you stick to the recommended list of servers then CyberGhost works well for torrenting. Overall, it&#8217;s a simple and straightforward way to anonymize your torrenting activities and download files safely.

Cyberghost is a popular Romania-based VPN provider with over 10 million users. In this review, we put the service through our in-depth testing process to find out how safe it really is.
We found that CyberGhost VPN is fast, secure, and easy to use. It provides access to more than 6,100 servers across 90 countries, support for P2P file-sharing and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-ease">simple custom clients</a> for Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and Fire OS.
The VPN comes with dedicated servers for streaming that <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-streaming">consistently unblock Netflix</a>, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. It provides strong encryption using OpenVPN with the AES-256 cipher and comes with a reliable VPN kill switch called Secure Connect.
<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/goto/?type=pr&amp;name=cyberghost" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CyberGhost</a> also offers a range of <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-encryption">additional security features</a> including DNS leak protection, a malware blocker, and split tunneling. All of this comes for the cheap price of $2.75 per month on a three-year plan. You can also take advantage of a one-day free trial, and a very generous 45-day money-back guarantee – one of the longest we’ve ever seen.
Our testing for this CyberGhost VPN review did identify some issues that could affect performance and privacy. Its mobile apps have limited features, international speeds are inconsistent, and the VPN does not work in highly-censored countries like China.
Though it does collect <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/cyberghost/#review-jurisdiction">some aggregated logs</a>, CyberGhost is a solid, user-friendly VPN that works to hide your IP address, unblock region-restricted content and torrent safely. In other words, it’s a great VPN for casual users in {{year}}.
<a class="button green-cta" href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-comparison-tool/?providers=direct,cyberghost, expressvpn,nordvpn"> Compare CyberGhost to its top rivals side-by-side with our tool.</a>

CyberGhost is a cheap VPN. There are monthly, annual, two-year and three-year subscription plans available – as usual, the longer plans come at a heavily-discounted price. There’s a short free trial period as well as a 45-day money-back guarantee. 
The monthly plan costs $12.99, which is slightly higher than competing premium providers like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/nordvpn/">NordVPN</a> or <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/ipvanish/">IPVanish</a>. It’s also above the industry average of around $10-12. 
The annual plan costs the equivalent of $5.99 per month, which drops to $3.69 on the two-year plan. At its very cheapest, CyberGhost costs just $2.75 per month. This is available with the 3-year subscription plan, billed as $99 upfront. This saves you 79% off the standard monthly price.
This is excellent value for money, especially on the three-year subscription plan. CyberGhost is consistently rated as one of the best VPNs on the market and these prices make it <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/cheap-vpns/">one of the cheapest</a>, too. 
CyberGhost offers a very generous <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/money-back-guarantee">45-day money-back guarantee</a> if you choose a subscription plan longer than a year. If you opt for the monthly plan, the guarantee shortens to 14 days. It’s “no questions asked,” though, with no hidden catches or restrictions.
To get your money back simply contact CyberGhost support via live chat or email and request a refund before the 45-days are up. You’ll be refunded within 5-10 working days. 
&nbsp;

CyberGhost accepts payment via Bitcoin, Cash, Credit Card, and PayPal. This is a decent variety of payment options that is on par with the majority of leading VPN services. You can find an article <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/213657389-What-payment-methods-does-CyberGhost-accept-">explaining payment options in detail</a> on the company’s website.  
The ability to pay with cash and cryptocurrency will appeal to the most privacy-conscious users. Cash payments are limited to countries such as Germany, Switzerland, or Austria where resellers like Amazon, MediaMarkt, and Saturn can process the transaction. 
You can’t pay for CyberGhost with Paysafe cards, AliPay, or UnionPay. 
CyberGhost does not have a free version. If you’re looking to test out the software before you commit to a subscription, CyberGhost also offers <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/vpn-free-trial">a one-day free trial</a> on desktop or seven days for mobile devices. This is a relatively short free trial, but we’re glad to see the option included. 
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-123133 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-Free-Trial.png" alt="" width="1200" height="420" />
The free trial grants you the full VPN experience with no personal or payment details required. A pop-up window will remind you of your remaining trial period every time you use the VPN. 
Though the monthly plan is relatively expensive, CyberGhost’s annual, two-year, and three-year subscription plans are excellent value for money and incredibly cheap considering the quality of the service. The 45-day money-back guarantee and free trial period are also excellent features for beginners looking to test out the VPN software. Overall, we can’t find any fault with CyberGhost’s pricing system.

We examined <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/privacypolicy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CyberGhost’s privacy policy</a> in detail and found that it only logs anonymous connection data for statistical purposes. This data is aggregated, anonymized, and cannot be traced back to you.
<div class="block-highlighted block-highlighted--blue">CyberGhost logs the following data:
<ul>
<li>Account information</li>
<li>Logins of anonymous accounts per day</li>
<li>Connections attempts</li>
<li>Successful connections</li>
<li>Country of origin</li>
</ul>
</div>
Some of the most popular VPNs on the market collect <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/vpn-logging-policies/#what-types-of-data-do-vpns-log">aggregated connection logs</a> and CyberGhost is no different. This means it collects a limited amount of information about your connection and ensures that this data is anonymized and impossible to trace back to specific users.
This information is deleted after 24 hours and the monthly sum is deleted at the end of every month.
Most importantly, CyberGhost does not keep any logs of user activity or personal data, including your real IP address, assigned server, or browsing history.
<div id="attachment_122806" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122806" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122806 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-from-the-CyberGhost-Privacy-Policy.png" alt="Screenshot from the CyberGhost Privacy Policy" width="2560" height="1504" />Screenshot from the CyberGhost Privacy Policy</div>
CyberGhost also collects some hardware information from the devices you use to make sure you’re within your subscription’s simultaneous device limit. This information includes:
<ul>
<li>Bios lD</li>
<li>Bios date</li>
<li>Video ID</li>
<li>CPU ID</li>
<li>Base ID</li>
<li>Computer username</li>
</ul>
It’s clear that there are some connection and hardware logs collected to keep track of how many devices are being used under one subscription. This is not mentioned in the privacy policy and conflicts with the <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/no-logs-vpn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“strict no-logs” claim</a> made on the CyberGhost website.
<div id="attachment_122908" style="width: 1640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122908" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122908 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/CyberGhost-No-Logs-Claims.png" alt="CyberGhost No Logs Claims" width="1630" height="856" />Cyberghost claims to have a “strict no-logs policy” on its website.</div>
While its privacy policy can be confusing, CyberGhost has still proven that it is a VPN provider that takes user privacy seriously. The company publishes an <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/transparency-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual transparency report</a> that lists the number of legal requests or DMCA complaints it receives.
CyberGhost <a href="https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/213903049-Can-a-data-center-compromise-my-anonymity-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commissioned an independent audit</a> to verify its security practices in 2012, but we’d like to see a new, updated audit for its logging policy. The company has changed ownership since this initial inspection and a third-party assessment goes a long way in establishing trust. 
Overall, CyberGhost’s privacy policy is sometimes difficult to understand and doesn’t exactly match the “no-logs” claims it makes elsewhere on its website. That said, even the best VPN services log some operational data to maintain their network and there is nothing stored on CyberGhost’s servers that could be used to compromise your privacy. 
This means that CyberGhost is a safe and private VPN service, but not as private as truly zero-logs VPN providers like <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/private-internet-access/">Private Internet Access</a> or <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/nordvpn/">NordVPN</a>.
<h3>Where is CyberGhost Based?</h3>
It’s important to know where a VPN is based in order to understand which legal jurisdiction it operates under. This will affect the data sharing and retention laws the company is subject to.
Cyberghost is incorporated as CyberGhost S.A. in Bucharest, Romania and operates under Romanian law. This means it is outside of the <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/guides/5-eyes-9-eyes-14-eyes/#theeuropeanunioneu">Five, Nine, and 14 Eyes alliances</a>.
Romania is part of the EU, which has aggressive data-retention and sharing agreements in place between member states. However, Romania is the only member state to have successfully said “no” to these invasive requirements. 
In 2009, the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected EU legislation</a> that would force companies to keep digital records of their customers, declaring it “an unconstitutional violation of Romanian citizens’ rights to privacy.” 
<div id="attachment_122818" style="width: 1610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122818" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122818 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Excerpt-from-Romania-Constitutional-Court-Decision-on-EU-Data-Retention-Laws.png" alt="Screenshot of the Constitutional Court of Romania’s (CCR) decision" width="1600" height="900" />Screenshot of the Constitutional Court of Romania’s (CCR) decision</div>
The court referred to a <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) ruling</a> in 1978 which declared that “taking surveillance measures without adequate and sufficient safeguards can lead to destroying democracy on the grounds of defending it.”
This makes Romania a safe VPN jurisdiction and a rare bastion of privacy among European nations. Even if it did succumb to EU demands, CyberGhost doesn’t collect any personally identifiable information from its users and therefore has no way to comply with legal requests for data. 
In other words, when it comes to logging and jurisdiction you can trust CyberGhost with your online privacy. 
<h3>Who Owns CyberGhost?</h3>
CyberGhost was first launched in 2011 by German tech entrepreneur <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Robert Knapp</a> as a free VPN. In 2017 it <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was acquired by an Israeli company</a> called Crossrider Group for €9.2 million. 
Crossrider was founded in 2010 and operated mobile ad platforms and a <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">browser extension development platform</a>. The latter allowed developers to create cross-browser add-ons and <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">monetize them through ad injection techniques</a>. 
One of these methods was to bundle a ‘Crossrider’ adware PUP (potentially unwanted program) with other software. Once installed, the PUP would serve unwanted advertisements via an internet user’s web browser(s). This form of ad injection is not only intrusive but, if misused, is potentially unsafe. In fact, some developers may have used <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Crossriders’ capabilities for malicious purposes</a>.
Here is a <a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">list of Crossrider adware</a>, and below is a screenshot from a Malwarebytes report:
<div id="attachment_122821" style="width: 1436px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-122821" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-122821 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Screenshot-of-Report-into-Crossrider-Malware-by-Malwarebytes.png" alt="Screenshot taken from Malwarebytes’ investigation into Crossrider" width="1426" height="828" />Screenshot taken from Malwarebytes’ investigation into Crossrider</div>
The resulting controversies led Crossider to shut its ad and development platforms in 2016, and in 2018 the company changed its name to<a href="https://www.kape.com/"> Kape Technologies</a>. Its CEO, Ido Erlichmann, was <a href="https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-crossrider-renamed-kape-after-switching-to-cybersecurity-1001227178">open about the fact</a> that this name change was to distance itself from the “strong association to the past activities of the company.”
<div id="attachment_123148" style="width: 1402px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-123148" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-123148 size-full" data-lazy-src="https://top10.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/prod/2020/04/Kape-Technologies-CEO-Ido-Erlichmann.jpg" alt="" width="1392" height="1120" />Kape Technologies CEO Ido Erlichmann</div>
Even Knapp admitted to a potential conflict of interest between CyberGhost and Kape when <a href="https://archive.is/znwJr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he wrote</a>:  
&nbsp;
“While CyberGhost focused on privacy and security from day one, Crossrider started out as a company that distributed browser extensions and developed ad tech products. Quite the opposite of what we did.”
&nbsp;
Since the CyberGhost acquisition, Kape Technologies has aimed to become “<a href="https://www.eff.org/issues/mandatory-data-retention/romania" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the first global privacy and security company</a>.” It has also gone on to acquire popular VPN services<a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/private-internet-access/"> Private Internet Access</a> and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/zenmate/">ZenMate</a>.
While Crossrider didn’t always put user privacy first, both Kape and CyberGhost have made a dedicated effort to protect user privacy, and there is nothing to suggest that CyberGhost cannot be trusted.

We tested CyberGhost’s local connection speeds by connecting to a UK server from our location in London. It delivered very acceptable speeds on a nearby server, averaging around 87Mbps on our 100Mbps fiber broadband network. This is a percentage speed loss of just 13%. This is the type of performance you can expect if you’re connecting to a US server from within the US, too.
This is an impressive result that compares well to some of the fastest VPNs on the market. It’s more than fast enough to browse, stream, or torrent without seeing any significant drop in performance. However, services like Private Internet Access and <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/reviews/hidemyass/">HideMyAss</a> recorded speed losses of just 3%.
You can expect to see similar results when connecting to a CyberGhost server near your physical location.
<h3>Long-Distance Speed Tests</h3>
We tested CyberGhost’s speeds when connected to international servers including Germany, US, Singapore, and Australia. We found that CyberGhost’s speeds were much more inconsistent when connected to servers farther from our physical location. 
It’s natural for your speeds to drop when connecting to a distant server because your data has further to travel. By these standards, CyberGhost still delivered reasonable results: we measured an average download speed of 26Mbps when connecting to the US and 14Mbps when connecting to a server in Singapore. 
You can find the full results of our long-distance speed tests below:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">US: 26Mpbs (download) &amp; 59Mbps (upload) – 74% speed loss</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Germany: 66Mbps (download) &amp; 92Mbps (upload) – 7% speed loss</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Singapore: 14Mpbs (download) &amp; 45Mbps (upload) – 70% speed loss</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Australia: 8Mbps (download) &amp; 35Mbps (upload) – 88% speed loss</li>
</ul>
We recorded a percentage speed loss of 74% when connected to a US server, which is much slower than some competing providers. Australia managed just 8Mbps while Singapore delivered a mediocre 14Mbps.
Overall, CyberGhost’s local speeds are fast but it lacks consistency on long-distance connections. If finding the fastest VPN is your main priority, we’d recommend <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/best-vpn/fastest-vpn/">choosing an alternative provider</a>. 
<h3>How Fast is CyberGhost Compared to Other VPNs?</h3>
You’ve already seen the results of our manual testing &#8211; now you can see the latest results for CyberGhost VPN from our custom VPN speed testing tool.
The graph below compares CyberGhost’s average loss of internet speed to other popular VPNs while running on our New York server.
Speed tests <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/about/how-we-review-vpns/">run automatically</a> four times per day. Test connection speeds are capped at 100Mbps to recreate a typical home internet connection.
This chart shows the average speed loss experienced by the VPN each week when compared to using a normal 100Mbps internet connection with no VPN at all &#8211; the lower the percentage the better.
You can check results as far back as the past four weeks &#8211; that way you can get a good impression of how reliable CyberGhost is, not just how fast it can be.
<div style="display: none;" data-joyceparams="3f6372ff-90c3"></div>
<a class="button green-cta" href="https://www.top10vpn.com/vpn-speed-test/?to=nyc&amp;from=nyc&amp;period=8w&amp;providers=direct,private-internet-access,expressvpn,nordvpn&amp;int=7&amp;chart=dl_speed_avg">Use our Speed Test Tool to compare CyberGhost&#8217;s speeds across different cities.</a>
This test is performed by our automated testing tool that runs constantly, seven days a week, to deliver up-to-date and consistent results from all over the world. There’s no human bias, and no relying on third-party websites. We own all the servers and infrastructure that we test with, and report the results exactly as we find them.
As you can see, CyberGhost is slower and less consistent than some of the other major competitors. In the observable time frame, the peak record was over 80Mbps but it&#8217;s had a very noticeable drop as low as 65Mbps in recent days. CyberGhost is a cheaper service than many of these competitor VPNs, so a lesser performance isn&#8217;t unexpected, but Surfshark is a similarly priced service performing very well.

	Cheapest Price	Speed	Logging Policy	Data Leaks
Read Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review
$6.67/mo over 15 Months	$4.08/mo over 12 Months	$2.49/mo over two-years	$1.89/mo over 24 months	$2.75/mo over 3 years
85Mbps	95Mbps	85Mbps	94Mbps	87Mbps
Anonymous Server Usage Data	Anonymous Server Usage Data	Anonymous Server Usage Data	No Logs	Anonymous Server Usage Data
No	No	No	No	No
British Virgin Islands (Privacy Haven)	Canada (Five-Eyes Member)	British Virgin Islands (Privacy Haven)	Sweden (14-Eyes Member)	Romania (EU Member)
3,000+	Not disclosed	Not disclosed	150+	6,400+
3,000+	Not disclosed	1800+	7,000+	Not disclosed
94	63	66	60	90
Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Unlimited	Permitted	Permitted	Unlimited	Restricted
Yes	Unreliable	Yes	Yes	No
24/7 Live Chat	Email & Online Resources Only	24/7 Live Chat	Live Chat	24/7 Live Chat
ExpressVPN.com	Windscribe.com	Surfshark.com	PrivateVPN.com	Cyberghost.com

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