VPNbook Full Review: A Freemium Service

It sounds almost impossible to find a free VPN that promises to unblock popular streaming services like Netflix while protecting your privacy. However, besides being super user-friendly, they allow you to connect up to five devices at once, and they're compatible with most major platforms.

VPNBook Speed

This section checked how VPNBook fares against its competitors regarding speed tests, number of servers, geographic distribution, and fastest available protocol.

1. VPNBook in speed tests

VPNBook outperforms other free VPN services. Free VPN services, on average, perform less efficiently than paid VPN services, and VPNBook is no exception. But it is one of the few free providers whose upload speeds improve when using the VPN tunnel.

We noticed that the speed increases when using the UDP 53 port. 

The service performs better than some free versions of paid VPNs. 

2. Number of servers and geographic distribution

 VPNBook has 8 servers located in the US, Germany, France, Canada, and Poland, two proxy servers in the UK and US each, and an Outline VPN server in Canada.

When it comes to everyday online activities such as browsing and streaming, inconsistent speeds can get frustrating. Thus, it must be noted that they offer fairly good speeds. However, like other VPN providers, these speeds aren't always stable.

3. Fastest available protocol

In the VPN world, many protocols exist, with differences between protocols making the difference in how secure a VPN is, how fast, and whether it can bypass geo-censorship.

Typically, the trade-off is between speed and security, with the PPTP protocol typically being the fastest but the least secure. OpenVPN offers both security and speed with its two protocols: UDP and TCP.

VPNBook Security & Privacy

One of the main reasons a person might use a VPN is because they want to secure their VPN connection and stay anonymous while privately surfing the internet.

The most important features regarding security and privacy include:

1. VPNBook encryption and protocols

When it comes to encryption, you can customize encryption protocols. The default encryption setting is AES 128-bit encryption. While it's not as secure as the latest AES 256-bit encryption, it's still extremely secure.

Many argue it is more than enough and is usually used instead for higher speed, as more intricate encryption hinders speed. 

For VPNBook, use the PPTP protocol for speed, and the OpenVPN protocol for security.

2. VPNBook logs policy

VPNBook keeps your IP address and time of connection for a week, and then it is deleted from the system, but no online activity is logged.

3. Kill switch

VPNBook does not have a kill switch feature.

4. VPNBook RAM-based servers

RAM-based means that the data, instead of being saved to SSD drives, is saved on RAMs. This is advantageous to security, especially for a country inside the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance, because RAM is wiped clean every time the servers reboot.

5. VPN based country

VPNBook is based in Switzerland, which is outside the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance. VPN companies based inside the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance are considered a possible security threat as these countries are known to spy on their citizens and share information internally. (Read more on the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliance).

6. Warrant canary

A warrant canary is an indirect method to warn customers of governmental attempts to subpoena where the presence of the warrant on the company’s official website means the local government hasn’t tried anything yet.

In the event the warrant canary is removed from the company’s page, it means they were asked.

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

1. Streaming

Most VPNs on the market don't guarantee access to geo-blocked content. That said, we can assure you that VPNBook technology allows you to watch U.S.-based streaming services like Netflix US, UK, and Hulu.

So, you might face some challenges before you gain access to geo-blocked content. Hence, we don't see VPNBook as the ideal VPN for streaming. However, several other trustworthy VPNs let you access any streaming platform without breaking a sweat.

2. Torrent

VPNBook offers well-established P2P support, and Torrenting is allowed on all servers. A strict no-logs policy is excellent for torrenting as it keeps you and your traffic data anonymous. VPNBook does not restrict speed whether you use 1GB or 100GB of bandwidth in. a day

In the event you decide to torrent with VPNBook, we recommend you pick a server situated in a country outside the 5-9-14 Eyes Alliance

3. Gaming

When it comes to gaming, the reason why you would want to use a VPN for games is variable, but one thing is clear: no one wants to lag at all.

Companies with specialized gaming servers make sure your gaming experience will be smoother than companies that don’t have specialized gaming servers. However, VPNBook states on their website that you can enjoy playing your favorite games without trouble at all.

4. Dedicated IP servers

This subscription provides a VPN server with dedicated CPU time, memory, and 500GB+ monthly bandwidth. The idea is that you'll avoid the low-end competition's bottlenecks and, as a result, enjoy more consistent speeds anytime you're online.

A dedicated IP isn't something that is necessarily better than a shared IP. Whether you need a dedicated IP or not depends on what you use a VPN for.

When would I need a dedicated IP server?

A dedicated IP server is recommended for the following reasons:

• Business Security 

This comes into play when one needs to secure their business server access for the purpose of security. Typically, in a business service setting, you want encryption of data, as well as a select group of people, to be able to log in to your system.

This is done by allowing particular IP addresses to log in. If your IP is shared and is not static, then this won't be possible. On the other hand, a dedicated IP means it's static and can be set as a log-in condition.

• Regular secure online payments

Why shouldn't I pay with a standard shared IP VPN service?" you may ask. Let's consider the bank's perspective. If someone uses the same card number to make payments from 10 different countries around the world within a week, it can trigger suspicion and lead the bank to block the card. However, using a static IP address can prevent this issue, as you will be paying from the same location every time.

• Avoid getting blacklisted

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

• Avoid CAPTCHAs

Do you know these pesky bots with the audacity to question whether you're a bot? This 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, 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)

VPNBook isn't the best when it comes to Obfuscation. However, it does a decent job for a free VPN with a limited number of servers in a small number of countries worldwide.

6. Split tunneling

The split tunneling feature means you can selectively use your VPN on a certain type/source of data outgoing from your device.

Split tunneling in certain situations is favorable. For example, you're torrenting while playing a video game or watching a YouTube video. In such a scenario, you would want only the torrenting to be encrypted; however, VPN encryption will slow down the connection speed relative to not using a VPN since the encrypted data is larger than non-encrypted.

7. Tor over VPN

Torrent onion router (Tor) is a P2P program 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.

VPNBook Compatibility Support

VPNBook is compatible with most of the major platforms, including; Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux. Other features and add-ons are pretty much similar on all the platforms.

VPNBook also provides secure browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. In addition, you can connect up to 5 devices simultaneously with a single account, which is an advantage compared to other competitors. 

VPNBook is compatible with:

• Windows 
• macOS
• Linux
• Android
• iOS

Private Internet Access is available as an extension on:

• Google Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera
• Safari

VPNBook provides its users with high versatility in terms of:

1. Supported languages

Unfortunately, VPNBook only supports English on the website.

2. Customer support

VPNBook has a website ticketing system and email support. You can also check VPNBook's website if you need to look for information. In addition, you'll find easy-to-follow installation guides, troubleshooting walkthroughs, knowledgebase, and a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section. 

Private Internet Access provides customer support in the following forms:

• Knowledge base
• Email and tickets
• FAQ section

VPNBook is a completely free VPN service. 

However, it does offer a paid dedicated server plan, and there's a 30-day money-back guarantee for you to try and decide if it's the VPN for you. 

You can pay for your plan using credit cards or PayPal.

Available payment methods summary:

• Major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• PayPal

Final Words

Even with the few downsides mentioned in the article, VPNBook is a free and user-friendly VPN. With its satisfying security features, ease of use, and smooth and stable servers, we believe that VPNBook is one of the best free VPNs in the market. Only a few competitors can match their features and (nonexisting) price.