StrongVPN Full Review: Is It Really Strong?

Does StrongVPN have what it takes to be your choice for a VPN provider? Let's find out together:

Many people think using a VPN necessarily means compromising speed and performance. However, the perfect deal is to find yourself a VPN that keeps you safe and bypasses limitations without affecting your device.

1. Speed tests

StrongVPN showed good results on speed tests. We won't say that it's the best speed you can get, though. StrongVPN's speed is more than enough for streaming, watching videos, or playing video games without buffers or lags. However, if you aim for a lightning speed and an unlimited online experience, you can use CyberGhost or Private Internet Access.

Testing speed in different locations is the best way to judge a VPN's performance in different conditions. Expectedly, StrongVPN showed better results in terms of performance and speed when connecting to servers in the US, UK, and Australia.

It is also great that StrongVPN automatically picks the best server for your connection. If that's not what you need, then click "Best Available Location" and choose from the list.

2. Number of servers and geographic distribution

Short explanation: StrongVPN has 950+ servers in 35 countries and 59 cities.

Long explanation: The best VPN services always offer many server locations. The high number of servers (especially when they are quality servers) can relieve internet traffic congestion.

When a server has too many users, the speed will drop. Having multiple servers in certain areas helps relieve that congestion pressure.

3. Fastest available protocol

Short explanation: PPTP is the fastest available protocol overall to use (not recommended to use). WireGuard is the fastest secure protocol by StrongVPN (recommended to use).

Long explanation: StrongVPN uses a next-generation built-in protocol, which means that you don't need a separate WireGuard account to use it. All you need is to log in to your StrongVPN account and choose WireGuard as your protocol. If you face any technical issues, you can ask for customer support assistance.

What is WireGuard Protocol?

A protocol that is meant to be faster, simpler, and more secure. It's also cross-platform (Windows, macOS, BSD, iOS, Android) and widely deployable.

One of the main reasons people might use a VPN is to secure their VPN connection and stay anonymous while privately surfing the internet. The most important features regarding security and privacy include:

1. Encryption and protocols

Being online requires getting your connection shielded against attacks, malware, ads, and prying ISPs. StrongVPN encrypts your data using AES 256-bit, which is the strongest level of encryption you could get.

Are you new to VPNs?

For StrongVPN, use WireGuard protocol for speed, OpenVPN protocol for security, and OpenVPN protocol to bypass geo-censorship (Obfuscation) with scramble mode on.

Pro mode: The protocols available for StrongVPN include:

WireGuard®, L2TP/IPsec, IPsec, SSTP, OpenVPN, and IKEv2.

2. Logs policy

Short explanation: StrongVPN has a true no-log policy (No activity logs policy).

Long explanation: StrongVPN has a no-log policy, which gives zero access to your information and online activity. With this feature, your data can't be reached by a third party, as the VPN application itself is not allowed to save, use, or see any of your data.

You can check what StrongVPN collects by visiting their website to have a glance over their privacy policy. The collected information includes users' full names, credit cards, and billing addresses. However, users' activities and browsing history are not tracked or saved.

The collected information is used to create new accounts, collect payments, communicate with subscribers, and offer customer support.

Users also have the right to ask for personal information deletion. StrongVPN's privacy policy states that they've not collected or sold any personal information.

3. Kill switch

Short explanation: StrongVPN has a fully functioning kill switch feature.

Long explanation: The kill switch feature protects your IP address from being exposed in case your VPN stops working for some reason. It also prevents any possible leak of your information by disconnecting your device from the internet. The two major information leaks it prevents are IP leaks and DNS leaks. StrongVPN kill switch works perfectly, protecting users from both.

4. RAM-based servers

Short explanation: StrongVPN doesn't have RAM-based servers.

Long explanation: A RAM-based server means that the data is saved on RAMs instead of SSD drives. This is advantageous to security because RAM is wiped clean every time the servers reboot.

5. VPN based country

Short explanation: StrongVPN is based in the US.

Long explanation: StrongVPN company is located in California, US, one of the Five-Eyes alliance alongside Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. It means your data can be exposed to a third party. However, StrongVPN ensures that their no-log policy and strong encryption keep it all secure.

6. Warrant canary

Short explanation: StrongVPN doesn't have a warrant canary system.

Long explanation: A warrant canary is an indirect warning method to inform customers of governmental attempts to subpoena the information.

The presence of the warrant on a company's official website means the local government hasn't tried collecting information yet. In the event the warrant canary is removed from the company's page, it means they were asked.

Despite being based in the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance and having some logging degree, StrongVPN doesn't provide a warrant canary which is worrisome.

In terms of the application of VPNs in the real world, we dive further into how StrongVPN fares against the rest in the following categories:

1. Streaming

The question everyone checks before anything, can Netflix be viewed via StrongVPN?

Long story short, yes, StrongVPN can unblock Netflix's geo-restricted content, as well as multiple other streaming servers. The list includes Netflix US, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. One the streaming services not covered by StrongVPN is the BBC iPlayer.

Users seeking to use BBC iPlayer outside the UK are recommended to go for another VPN service. You can check our complete list of VPN reviews.

2. Torrent

Short explanation: StrongVPN allows for torrenting.

Long explanation: When mentioning torrenting, one of the ideas that often pop up is a VPN, and that would be because in many cases, in order to enter a website, you would need to use a VPN, and for individuals who pirate data, protecting themselves with a VPN would leave them without legal repercussions.

Not all VPN companies allow for torrenting, and even fewer companies have specialized torrenting servers, which provide a better experience and speed when torrenting. (Read more on The Best VPNs for Torreentingn).

3. Gaming

Short explanation: StrongVPN doesn't have specialized gaming servers.

Long explanation: when it comes to gaming, the reason why you would want to use a VPN for games is variable, but one thing is clear, which is no one wants to lag at all. (Read more on Gaming and VPN).

Companies with specialized gaming servers make sure your gaming experience will be smoother than with companies that don't have specialized gaming servers.

4. Dedicated IP servers

Short explanation: StrongVPN has dedicated IP servers.

Long explanation: Mostly, when using a VPN, you would want a dynamic IP (an IP that changes whenever you reconnect to a server). In certain situations, this is not the case; a static IP is preferable for the following situations:

• VPN related business security

Using a VPN in a business setting allows for the encryption of sensitive data, resulting in a secure cyber work environment. Other than encryption, the use of IP-based log-in verification ensures that only people with access to a certain IP can log in to an account; this is where a static IP VPN comes to play.

• Frequent secure online payment

Taking a bank's viewpoint, when someone with a specific card number has processed payments from 10 different countries worldwide in the past week, that sounds like an alarming suspicious activity. However, when having a static IP, this issue is avoided as you pay from the same IP/location every time.

• Avoid getting blacklisted

The Blacklist effect, also known as the "bad neighbor effect," revolves around how other people with the same IP address could do things that might end up banning the owner of that specific IP address. You might have done nothing wrong. However, since you share the same IP as the person who got banned, you could get banned/blacklisted as well. Since a dedicated IP means it's yours and yours only, this wouldn't happen.

• Avoid CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) system is a security measure to protect you from getting your password hacked (Brute force attacks), protect you from spam, and many other uses. With a dedicated IP, you are less likely to encounter a CAPTCHA.

5. Geo-censorship bypass (obfuscation)

StrongVPN can bypass geo-censorship in different countries by using the OpenVPN protocol on the TCP setting with the addition of using scramble mode to bypass deep packet inspection (DPI).

6. Split tunneling

Short explanation: StrongVPN has the split tunneling feature only on the mobile app.

Long explanation: To define split-tunneling briefly, split-tunneling is when a VPN selectively tunnels outgoing data and encrypts it applying the VPN characteristics to it without affecting other data.

This can be useful, for example, if you are torrenting and want to encrypt your data, but at the same time, you're playing an online game and don't want to hinder your game's connection speed.

7. Tor over VPN

Short explanation: StrongVPN has Tor over VPN support.

Long explanation: Torrent onion router (Tor) is a P2P program used to enter the dark web. Using a VPN adds an extra layer of anonymity, especially at the entry node, with the addition of data encryption. Despite supporting Tor over VPN, it lacks a .onion website, which is sometimes needed to access the websites in geo-censored regions.

StrongVPN is compatible with:

• Windows 
• macOS
• Linux
• Android
• iOS
• Routers (manual setup)

StrongVPN is available as an extension on:

• Google Chrome
• Firefox

StrongVPN supports the following languages:

• Chinese
• English
• Russian
• Spanish

2. Customer support

If you have any questions or queries, all you need is to choose from multiple support options, including a setup guide for all platforms, a DNS setup guide, billing issues, technical support, and FAQs section. Customer support is also 24/7 available via email and phone calls.

StrongVPN provides customer support in the following forms:

• Live chat
• Phone support
• Knowledge base
• Email and tickets

StrongVPN offers two options when it comes to subscriptions; one-month and twelve-month plans.

• One-month plan: You can get it for $10.99 per month with 250GB of secure storage.
• Twelve-month plan (Save 40%): You can get it for $3.33 per month ($39.99 for the first year and $79.99 for renewal).

In case of cancellation, you can get your money back with their 30-day money-back guarantee.

Available payment methods include:

• Major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• Paypal
• Alipay

Bottom Line

In terms of speed, StrongVPN showed promising results in different locations. However, a VPN provider located in the US might not be the best choice. Especially with a large number of VPN options in the market. Still, we can depend on the fact that StrongVPN uses WireGuard protocol, which is easy, simple, and highly secure.