VyprVPN Review 2019

In our currently ever-growing list of VPN services we decided to test, it is time to focus our undivided attention on another service that has been publicly audited and who claims that they embrace a no-logging policy, VyprVPN

What caught our attention besides those two traits enunciated above you will get to read in this review. As usual, we will do a little background snooping, tell you what’s what, test its services and bring the results to you on a silver platter. Sounds good? Let’s begin.

We know that the content of this review might be a long read, so we’ve included a table of content for your convenience.

• • Company information
  • A little bit of history
  • Facts about the location
  • IP addresses – personal info
  • Terms of service rundown
  • Privacy Policy analysis
  • Independent audit received
  • What did they find
  • Why having an audit is important to VPN providers
  • A quick introduction to VyprVPN
  • Protocols they support
  • Bringing you the extra
  • A wide range of supported devices
  • Creating a VyprVPN account
  • Downloading the app to your computer
  • Checking the installer for malware
  • Installing the VyprVPN app on Windows
  • Running VyprVPN for the first time
  • Getting to the Settings menu
  • Customizing the parameters
  • Advanced settings for advanced users
  • The much-expected list of servers
  • Granting access to geo-restricted content
  • Torrenting and TOR support
  • Security test results
  • Speed test results
  • Customer support
  • Subscription plans
  • VyprVPN for Business
  • Conclusion

Company information

We couldn’t skip this part since we’re always trying to provide you with information that covers a wide range of details and thus doing a little detective work is crucial to our objectives.

The name of the company behind VyprVPN is Golden Frog, they claim themselves to be “Internet veterans who actively advocate for a free and open Internet,” according to their website. Their headquarters is situated in Meggen, Switzerland.

A little bit of history

The chain of events that led to the founding of VyprVPN begun as a response to the infamous Room 641a, the very room in San Francisco where the NSA was conducting surveillance on AT&T’s networks. Papers were filed to the FCC in order to bring this surveillance to their attention but were supposedly ignored.

As a response to the lack of reply from the government, Golden Frog was born, as a solution to protect Internet users, and various tools were developed to preserve the Internet experience as open and as secure as possible, while also providing users with privacy protection.

“Golden Frog’s founders, Ron and Carolyn Yokubaitis, are Internet veterans who have owned and operated Internet businesses since the dawn of the public Internet in 1994 (before the Web!). Their businesses include Texas.net (one of the first 50 ISPs in the United States), Giganews (the world’s leading Usenet provider), Data Foundry (data center colocation and managed services) and Golden Frog.”

Facts about the location

As specified before, Golden Frog GmbH is located in Switzerland, and for a good reason too. Switzerland has some favorable privacy laws which match the Golden Frog’s objectives and also protect Internet users’ rights extensively. More so, Switzerland is not a member of the 5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliances.

As a matter of fact, Switzerland goes way back with privacy protection laws and even established a legal framework in order to keep privacy as secure as possible. More so, Article 13 of the Swiss Federal Constitution guarantees the right to privacy.

The Swiss Federal Data Protection Act (DPA) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Ordinance (DPO) also guarantee privacy protection for activities that are performed online. Unlike many other countries’ legislation regarding data protection, the DPA guarantees personal data privacy protection for both “legal entities” and “natural persons”.

IP addresses – personal info

You’d think things stop here, but they don’t: in 2010, the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled that IP addresses are to be considered personal information and they may not be used to track online activities without the individuals involved knowing about it beforehand.

Global frameworks were established by Switzerland, as well as safe harbors with the United States, European Union, and other countries as well. This makes sure that privacy protection is guaranteed beyond its borders, as well.

Terms of service rundown

Although the Terms of Service document on Golden Frog’s (VyprVPN) website is a long and tedious read, we’re going to get it a makeover by extracting its quintessence and bring it back to you, as we usually do.

• Signing up and/or using any service that’s provided to you by Golden Frog will be considered as your acceptance to be bound by the terms in all of the policies included on the Golden Frog website;
• Although there’s no bandwidth limitation, customers who put a strain on the service in such a way that it affects other customers and/or makes them unable to use the service properly might be “curtailed”;
• If you’re unable to have a lawful conduct while using their service or maintain a reasonable usage of the service, your account might get canceled, suspended or its renewal declined without notice;
• If the above happens, you might have to pay a termination fee;
• Unreasonable use is to be determined by Golden Frog at their own discretion;
• VyprVPN accounts should not be treated as dedicated connections, as they are subjected to timing out the connection;
• Your VyprVPN account should not be shared with other people and you should not attempt to use more simultaneous connections than you’re allowed, according to the type of subscription you paid for;
• You are not allowed to engage in spamming or other forms of unsolicited communications, regardless of the channel you plan on using;
• You are not allowed to infringe copyrights, trademarks, patents or other forms of intellectual (and not only) rights;
• You are not allowed to distribute defamatory or abusive content or ones that advocate bigotry, racial, ethnic or religious hatred;
• You are not allowed to distribute unlawful pornographic or indecent material (e.g. child pornography);
• You are not allowed to perform IP spoofing while connected to the VyprVPN service;
• You are not allowed to attempt to obtain illegal or unauthorized access to networks or computers;
• You are not allowed to distribute Internet viruses or any other type of malware;
• You are not allowed to breach export control regulations;
• You are not allowed to use VyprVPN in an unlawful manner;
• Golden Frog reserves their right to change the content of their policies at any time and without any prior notice;
• It is your responsibility to check their policies every now and then, in case any modifications appear;
• If you log in to any of the services provided to you by Golden Frog, it will be seen as your acceptance to the terms in their policies;

Privacy Policy analysis

The Terms of Service documentation was not unreasonable, and it was well-organized so that even novices could easily follow and understand the clauses included in it and approve or disprove of them accordingly.

However, we still have to give Golden Frog’s Privacy Policy the same kind of treatment, extracting the highlights of this document and bringing them back to you. Here goes.

As opposed to the Terms of Service document described earlier, the Privacy Policy one holds the date it was last modified on at the top of the page. Currently, that date is November 26, 2018. You should keep an eye out for that date and, if it changes, review the modifications made to the document.

As mentioned in the previous document, you don’t need to explicitly sign an agreement between you and Golden Frog. Instead, using their service will be seen as your acceptance to all the clauses in their policies;

Data they keep

• Your name;
• Your email address;
• Your phone number;
• Your payment information;
• Your physical address;
• Cookies;

How they use it

• Provide and maintain their service up and running;
• Provide their customers with support for their services;
• Provide you with news, general information about their products and special offers (unless you opted out);

What they don’t keep

• Your source IP address (the one your ISP assigned to you);
• The IP address that’s been assigned to you by the service;
• Your connection start and stop time (timestamps);
• Your traffic;
• The content of your communications;
• Your DNS requests;

More so, they claim to be network-neutral, which means that they don’t discriminate against any protocol, device or application and that they don’t rate-limit or throttle your Internet connection.

Independent audit received

VyprVPN have hired an independent security team, to perform a security audit on their system. The results of the audit were made public. But how does that affect VyprVPN’s customers?

Well, first thing first, hiring a team of security experts to audit your service shows that you have nothing to hide regarding the quality of the services you provide and that if anything wrong is found, you are more than willing to fix it.

The company that made VyprVPN’s audit is Leviathan Security Group Incorporated. They focused on various security traits to prove or disprove the claims of VyprVPN’s zero-log policy.

What did they find

As one would expect, the service wasn’t entirely airtight and some issues were identified, some of them being more severe than the others. However, ultimately, the company made efforts to fix them, so that they don’t jeopardize their users’ privacy and online security.

Long story short: the VPN provider had some issues but they were solved in the meantime. Other findings and trends were also included in the report but were deemed to be not dangerous to the service’s users, as critical information was kept private, and the bits that weren’t entirely secure can’t be used to uncover the online identity of users.

If you’d like to analyze the audit’s results yourself, you can access the link that was included in the Privacy Policy excerpt above or you could take this shortcut.

Why having an audit is important to VPN providers

Nowadays, the media’s focus has shifted dramatically to online privacy scandals, leaks, you name it. Every news publication has at least one such article regarding leaked emails, disclosed identities, activity logs or other types of compromising content.

Although no VPN service provider promotes illegal activities such as piracy or accessing forbidden online contents, there’s still a huge variety of things you could do online that are far from being illegal, but you still want to keep hidden from prying eyes.

Therefore, many companies seek to achieve a resource that’s of the utmost importance, more precious than money, more significant than a huge client database: trust. By performing actions such as turning their whole operation transparent through security audits or publicly denying various law enforcement agencies the access to users’ VPN-related activity they gain significant amounts of trust. And that’s what keeps them going.

A quick introduction to VyprVPN

As its name strongly suggests, VyprVPN is a VPN provider, which involves that its services are meant to keep your online identity hidden from intrusive eyes while also increasing the security of your current connection as well as the variety of contents you can access on the Internet.

A few words about this provider is that it has been independently audited by a third-party security company, the company owns and manages their own VPN servers (as opposed to renting ones from other providers) and offer apps for a wide range of devices.

Furthermore, they cover six continents with their server network, don’t impose download caps, provide you with multiple encryption protocols, pack the VyprDNS service, include a NAT firewall for extra security and have a 24x7x365 support team at your disposal.

Protocols they support

VyprVPN can enhance the security and privacy of your connection by providing you with support for multiple protocols. Those include PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN as well as Chameleon.

PPTP is easy to set up, fast and simple to use, being a good alternative in case your device doesn’t have OpenVPN support. The L2TP/IPsec protocol is supported by various desktop, tablet, and phone devices and is also a good security-focused alternative in case OpenVPN is not supported in the first place.

OpenVPN is the highest performance protocol that’s recommended for various operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Last, but not least, Chameleon is a proprietary protocol that uses the unmodified OpenVPN 256-bit protocol, scrambles and spoofs metadata, thus preventing VPN blocking, throttling and DPI.

Bringing you the extra

Nowadays it’s not enough to just offer your customers the vanilla experience, although some of them prefer just that. This is the main reason several VPN providers choose to invest in developing unique features that users can benefit from.

VyprVPN has some aces up its sleeve, as well. Some of them include the Chameleon protocol described above, a zero-knowledge DNS service (VyprDNS) and a way of defeating throttling and bypassing network congestion.

The principle behind the last feature is that all the traffic from your devices that your ISP sees is entirely encrypted, so throttling based on the contents you access is no longer an issue. The network you’re connected to when using VyprVPN is also helping you bypass ISP congested networks when trying to stream contents on various sites such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and others.

A wide range of supported devices

VyprVPN lets you access its services from a rich selection of devices. The list includes Windows devices, Android devices, routers, Mac OS devices, iOS devices, QNAP devices, Blackphone, TVs, and Anonabox. The supported platforms include DD-WRT, OpenWRT, ASUSWRT, Boxee, Synology NAS, and Blackberry.

However, the maximum number of devices you can use on the same VPN connection/subscription plan is limited to either three or five, depending on the subscription plan you decided to use.

Creating a VyprVPN account

Since this VPN service is a premium one, it goes without saying that you must create an account before you can benefit from the entire array of features this service has to offer. But don’t worry, we’ll guide you through it.

• Navigate to the product’s landing page;
• Click either one of the “Get Started” or “GET THIS DEAL NOW” buttons;
• Choose between monthly or yearly subscription plans;
• Pick one of the subscription plans;
• Type your name, email address and password in the designated fields;
• Choose a payment method;
• Input your payment details according to the payment method you chose;
• Check the details of your order;
• Click the “Continue to Payment” button;
• Confirm your order;

That’s about it, you now have an account and own a subscription plan for VyprVPN.

Downloading the app to your computer

Assuming that you’ve already created an account, we’ll teach you how you can retrieve the installer of VyprVPN on your computer. This goes for any other device, as well, but we’re going to focus on Windows PCs for now.

• Navigate to the product’s landing page;
• Log into your account by using the “Log In” button;
• Type your credentials in the designated fields, on the “Secure Login” page;
• Locate the “Download VyprVPN” section on the left side of the dashboard;
• Click the “VyprVPN for Windows” hyperlink/button;
• Wait for the installer to be downloaded or press the hyperlink if it doesn’t start automatically;

You’re done! VyprVPN should be on your computer, waiting for you to install it.

Checking the installer for malware

If scanning for malware is not one of your top priorities, then maybe it should. Files that get on your computer could be very harmful to your device’s well-being and sometimes, even the most trustworthy sources can get you infected if you’re not careful enough, via various attacks.

Although it’s not 100% accurate, we rely on VirusTotal to scan our contents, since it has a wide database of antivirus engines and it scans the uploaded contents against each and every single one of them.

You can see our results here.

Installing the VyprVPN app on Windows

As we’ve told you before, we’re going to guide you step-by-step through the whole process, but we’ll try to keep it short and not overburden you with unnecessary details.

• Double-click the installer’s executable on your computer;
• Accept the terms of the License Agreement by hitting the “I Agree” button when prompted to do so;
• Decide if VyprVPN should deploy shortcuts in your Start Menu and on your Desktop or not;
• Define the destination path the installer should use to deploy the program to;
• Wait for the installation process to be finished;
• Select if you want VyprVPN to run after the installation is completed;
• Press the “Finish” button;

That’s it, you’re set and VyprVPN is installed on your computer! The version we’ve installed is 2.16.4.9212.

Running VyprVPN for the first time

Okay, so we installed the VPN on our computer, what’s next? We also have to use it and decide whether or not it’s friendly enough that even novices could get it up and running without breaking a sweat.

Once you launch the app, you’ll be prompted to type your credentials in the dedicated fields in order to be able to access the application’s main window.

You’ll quickly notice that the main window consists of several bits of information that let you know your connection status, public IP address, the time you’ve been connected to the service, protocol and encryption type you’re using and the status of the NAT firewall.

Also, there’s a graph beneath the large “Connect” button that lets you know about your current download and upload speed values, as well as plotting this data in a live chart.

Getting to the Settings menu

As specified above, clicking the gear-shaped button lets you access the configuration section of the application. You just have to click on “Options” from the context menu and the “Options” window will be spawned.

You’ll notice, for sure, that this window has several categories you can easily switch between. These include “Connection,” “Protocol,” “DNS,” “General,” “Advanced” and “Account.” Navigating through them can be easily done by simply clicking the one you’re interested in.

Customizing the parameters

Although it might not feel like much, it is possible to modify some of the applications’ settings and the way you can do this is usually very simple for VyprVPN, except for some more advanced sections.

The “Connection” tab lets you enable automatic reconnecting the VPN upon disconnection, toggling the “Connect on Start” feature that can be set to connect to a VPN server when Windows starts or when the app is launched, enabling the Kill Switch and connecting to VPN when using untrusted Wi-Fi connections.

The Kill Switch is there to stop all the Internet traffic whenever VyprVPN is disconnected. This feature can be extremely useful especially when torrenting since most torrent clients immediately look for the next available route instead of severing the connection when VPN service is lost.

As mentioned above, you can choose from four different protocols, one of which is proprietary to VyprVPN. But some of them, namely Chameleon and OpenVPN can be further customized in terms of choosing the ports they use and choosing the encryption level. If you’re unsure about these settings, it’s best to leave them unaltered.

The “DNS” section enables you to choose between using VyprVPN’s proprietary DNS service, which is conveniently called VyprDNS, or turn to third-party DNS providers, as well as enable or disable the DNS leak prevention feature. In this same section, you’ll be able to read a brief description of what DNS generally does and how VyprDNS can help you boost your protection.

General settings cover things such as desktop notifications, sound, language, startup options and options related to sending usage data, crash reports and connection issues or failure reports. The last three settings can be disabled altogether if you’re not comfortable with Golden Frog receiving this type of data.

Advanced settings for advanced users

Although some of the sections above might’ve had a bunch of technical options, they weren’t part of the really advanced parameters you can toy with. That’s why the first thing you’re able to see after navigating to VyprVPN’s “Advanced” tab is a big, in-your-face warning.

This notification advises you against modifying the settings if you’re not sure about what you’re doing and lets you know that for most users the default settings are perfectly fine. It also says that settings should not be changed unless directed by the support team.

However, if you’re sure about tampering with them, here’s a brief description of what’s going on in that forbidden menu. It is possible to modify the router delay period (in seconds), change the default TAP adapter, choose another verbosity level, alter the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) value, change the TLS Timeout period and also, if you feel like you messed things up, restore the settings to their default value.

Last, but not least, you could access the “Account” section in the same “Options” window if you want to see some account-related data such as your account type and username, and also check for updates, enable beta updates, see the version of the VyprVPN app and log out of your account. And that concludes the extensive description of the “Options” window.

The much-expected list of servers

As usual, we’re going to provide you with a complete list of the servers (73) that you can connect to from this VPN provider.

The thing about VyprVPN’s servers that makes them different is that they are organized in clusters and provide you (as we speak) with more than seven hundred (700) servers and over two hundred thousand (200,000) IP addresses, dynamic server switching and no third parties involved.

More so, if you’re interested in digging deeper, they also provide you with a list of addresses for their servers.

The purpose of the above list is to help users who are located in China or other countries that have VPN restrictions.

Granting access to geo-restricted content

Sometimes, some country might limit access to various services, from political, religious or social reasons. This can include social media services, multimedia content providers, news websites and entertainment platforms.

If you’re in the situation depicted above, VyprVPN can help you bypass this geographical limitation and unlock the contents you want to access without significant efforts. Usually, all you have to do is connect to a country that doesn’t restrict the service you’re trying to use and you’re all set!

Even more, you can use VyprVPN to save money on travel, make business operations in a secure environment and play games with your friends in other countries without the geographical-specific lag.

Some examples of contents that can be unlocked by this service are Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Deezer, various Google services that are otherwise not available, Telegram, Kik, Snapchat, Amazon Prime, Twitch, eBay, AliExpress and GearBest.

Torrenting and TOR support

We realized that numerous computer users are also huge P2P/torrenting fans and are, therefore, looking for a VPN service that could help them anonymize and protect their connection during the time they’re engaging in this type of activity, so we’ve decided to see if VyprVPN is one of those services.

Naturally, we’ve connected to a server, fired up our torrenting client and attempted to download a file (legally, of course) via torrent. While we’ve noticed no slowdown, no throttling and no issue whatsoever, it’s worth mentioning that Golden Frog are very secretive about their torrenting policy, even when you explicitly ask if you’re allowed to engage in this kind of activity, so we’ve decided it’s not worth the risk. So yeah, torrenting is discouraged, if not frowned-upon with VyprVPN.

You can also use VyprVPN in conjunction with TOR for the sake of adding another layer of security on your connection, but know this: sometimes, it’s better if you just pick one of these two security tools and stick with it, since you might be misfortunate enough to land on a malicious TOR exit node, which passes unencrypted traffic and is perfect for being monitored. More so, if you do want to use TOR with a VPN, no matter which one, your connection speed will be slowed down to a pulp.

Security test results

After testing the app’s capabilities, it’s time to see whether or not VyprVPN can handle a little heat and put it against a series of security tests. To be more specific, we’re looking for IP, DNS, WebRTC, Flash IP leaks and other inconsistencies, which we hope we never find.

The server we’ve chosen is located in New York, U.S.A. and the testing procedures will unfold just as we’ve described it in this article.

Conclusion: After running our suite of security tests, we’ve reached the conclusion that VyprVPN doesn’t leak any IP, DNS, WebRTC or Flash IP data. What we’re saying is that VyprVPN can provide you with an airtight connection and keep you secure.

Speed test results

Speed-wise, we tried to connect to several servers so that we can form a fair, unbiased picture on the speed values advocated by VyprVPN.

The results are as follows:

• Europe – Germany – 32 Mbps;
• Oceania – Australia – Perth – 27 Mbps;
• Africa – Algeria – 18 Mbps;
• South America – Brazil – 30 Mbps;
• Asia – Hong Kong – 27 Mbps;
• U.S.A. – New York – Couldn’t perform the test;

While the speeds are not spectacular, many of the regions we’ve previously experienced as being “slow” have proved to be faster than the average, while others that we’ve found to be generally “fast” have ranked pretty low.

However, the real issue we’ve had with this VPN speed-wise is that it often took a lot of time (compared to other providers) whenever connecting to a server, regardless of its location. For the U.S.A. server, we couldn’t even reach the fast.com service to perform the test.

Customer support

In case you encounter some difficulties in operating the application or downloading the program on your device, or you simply can’t seem to install it successfully, you can head to the “Help Center” and either browse the topics that are already posted there or perform a search with the terms you’re interested in.

If the Help Center isn’t enough for you, you can contact the support team by either submitting a ticket (you need to fill the fields of a form) or use their live chat. The live chat requires you to specify your name, email address, the product you’re seeking support for and type a question in the designated field. Customer-support-wise, VyprVPN really has you covered, no matter how you want to contact them.

Subscription plans

Last, but not least, we get to talk about VyprVPN’s subscription plans. First thing first, they offer a three-day trial that you can test and see if their services fit your needs and if you’re satisfied with them altogether.

But here’s the trick: in order to receive that three-day trial, you need to create an account and give them a bunch of details about yourself, including payment details. If you’re satisfied after the three-day trial, you’ll get billed for the whole subscription plan you chose. If you cancel, no fee is required.

The main plans they offer are:

Unfortunately, unlike other similar services, VyprVPN doesn’t include a money-back guarantee, so you’ll have to decide whether its services are good enough for you in the three-day trial they offer.

VyprVPN for Business

Aside from its standard VPN capabilities, VyprVPN also provides you with a solution in case you’re running a business (or are part of one) and need a safe, secure environment to perform various operations in.

The two additional components that are available for you to use in the situation depicted above are VyprVPN for Business and VyprVPN for Business Cloud. But what exactly are they and how can they help you?

According to their website, VyprVPN for Business is a tool that can help you secure business-related communications so that everything you do inside the VPN bubble is kept a secret from prying eyes. It offers multiple user management, global business servers, and a dedicated account manager. You can get a free trial by submitting a request form and if you decide to use it further, it’ll cost you 299$ per year.

The second solution for protecting your business is VyprVPN for Business Cloud, which can enable you to “take control of your network” by providing you with a dedicated IP address, a personal, dedicated server that you can use as well as “fast and easy deployment.” As before, you can request a trial and if you want to keep on using it, you need to pay 349$ per year.

Conclusion

To wrap things up, VyprVPN is a VPN service provided to you by Golden Frog, a company that’s located in Switzerland, which has a loose jurisdiction regarding Internet freedom and monitoring and is also not a member of the 5, 9, 14 Eyes Alliances.

The service has received an independent security audit from Leviathan Security Group Incorporated, who found a bunch of issues, some of them presenting a high-risk, while others were mildly dangerous. The result of the audit has been made public for everyone to see and analyze and the issues have been dealt with accordingly.

Security-wise, VyprVPN proved to be a trustworthy service, as our security tests weren’t able to pick up any IP, DNS, WebRTC and/or Flash IP leaks while we were connected to its servers. The speed tests yielded modest values, compared to other similar (VPN) services, but the connections were overall stable at least.

During our tests, we’ve been able to unblock various entertainment services, including, but not limited to Netflix and its U.S. version, hulu, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Telegram and various Google services.

Regarding torrenting and TOR, while we’ve been able to do both, we’ve realized that torrenting is sort of taboo, since Golden Frog are being silent or downright evasive about their torrenting policy and TOR might be more trouble than you think if used in conjunction with a VPN.

VyprVPN provides you with extensive customer support, ranging from topics on a web page to live chat with a specialized crew and boasts a no-logging policy.

Regarding money, VyprVPN offers you four plans, sorted by duration (monthly/yearly), two of them that are a bit cheaper (standard VyprVPN) but haven’t got as many benefits (3 devices, no Chameleon, no VyprVPN Cloud) and the other two (VyprVPN Premium) that are slightly more expensive, but cover more ‘ground’ (5 devices, Chameleon, VyprVPN Cloud).

PROs:
+ No security leaks; (5)
+ Zero-logging policy; (5)
+ Three-day trial; (4)
+ Publicly audited; (5)
+ Helpful customer support; (4)

CONs:
– No money-back guarantee;(1)
– Trial requires payment details and bills you automatically if you don’t cancel before the three days; (2)
– Torrenting not explicitly forbidden, but not exactly praised, either; (1)
– Not the greatest speed results; (2)

VyprVPN receives a 3.22/5 rating.