| VPN | CyberGhost |
| Based in | Romania |
| Logs | Connection logs |
| Price | $2.19/mo. |
| Support | Email and Chat |
| Refund | 15/45 days |
| Website | CyberGhostVPN.com |
CyberGhost is a larger VPN service that you’ll often see recommended on various websites. But in this new CyberGhost VPN review for 2022, we’re going to take a closer look and put this VPN through some rigorous testing.
First, we should point out that a lot has changed with this VPN over the years. The CyberGhost of today is now owned by Kape Technologies, a security conglomerate that also owns ExpressVPN, Private Internet Access, Zenmate, and a collection of “review” websites.
Interestingly, the parent company of CyberGhost (Kape Technologies, formerly Crossrider) is often associated with malware and adware — but there’s more to this story than you would suspect. We’ll take a closer look at this situation below, but first, let’s examine the pros and cons of CyberGhost.
+ Pros
- Competitive prices
- Good leak protection features (kill switch)
- Live chat support
– Cons
- Clunky VPN apps
- Slow speeds
- Website uses aggressive tracking
- Broken ad blocker for HTTPS sites
- Connection logs
- Overloaded servers
- Now owned by a conglomerate
After covering the pros and cons, we will examine some frequently asked questions (FAQs) and discuss a few CyberGhost alternatives.
As with all VPN reviews on Restore Privacy, I begin by thoroughly researching the parent company and the history of the VPN service. In the case of CyberGhost VPN, this research revealed some very interesting issues, which is where we will start…
Who owns CyberGhost? Kape Technologies (formerly Crossrider)
Officially, CyberGhost operates under the company CyberGhost S.A. in Bucharest, Romania. That being said, there’s an interesting history with the ownership of the company and outside investors.
CyberGhost was previously owned by Robert Knapp – a German tech entrepreneur – and based/operated out of Romania. However, that all changed when Knapp sold CyberGhost VPN to outside investors.
In 2017, CyberGhost was acquired by an Israeli company called Crossrider for €9.2 million.
Crossrider changed its name to “Kape Technologies” in 2018 in a move to signal a shift to the privacy and security industry.
Then in October 2018, Kape purchased Zenmate, a German VPN provider, for an undisclosed amount. Later, in December 2019, Kape acquired Private Internet Access. Most recently, Kape bought ExpressVPN for nearly $1 billion, as well as a collection of VPN review websites. This lines up with the trend we’ve observed where VPNs get bought up by outside investors. This is a trend in consolidation.
Now here’s where things get interesting…
Crossrider, CyberGhost, and malware
When you research the company Crossrider, you find numerous articles about Crossrider malware and adware, such as this article from Malwarebytes:
Crossrider offers a highly configurable method for its clients to monetize their software. The common method to infect end-users is software bundlers. The installers usually resort to browser hijacking. Targeted browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and sometimes Opera. Crossrider not only targets Windows machines but Macs as well.
PUP.Optional.Crossrider installs are typically triggered by bundlers that offer software you might be interested in and combine them with adware or other monetizing methods.
According to Malwarebytes and many other reputable online security websites, the Crossrider platform was being used to infect the user’s computer with “adware or other monetizing methods”.
Now let’s look at an example. This article from 2018 illustrates how the “Crossrider adware” was infecting computers through fake Adobe Flash updates:
A new variant of the Crossrider adware has been spotted that is infecting Macs in a unique way. For the most part, this variant is still quite ordinary, doing some of the same old things that we’ve been seeing for years in Mac adware. However, the use of a configuration profile introduces a unique new method for maintaining persistence.
…This new Crossrider variant doesn’t look like much on the surface. It’s yet another fake Adobe Flash Player installer, looking like the thousands of others we’ve seen over the years….
Then, in 2018, Crossrider decided to change its name to Kape Technologies.
As the CEO said here, the name change was an attempt to distance Kape from shady “past activities”:
The decision to rename the company, explains Erlichman was due to the strong association to the past activities of the company as well as the need to enhance the consumer facing brand for the business.
CyberGhost even hinted at this ironic conflict of interest in their blog post:
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.
Did Crossrider ever produce malware?
After news broke about Kape purchasing ExpressVPN, we decided to investigate the issue in more detail. For an in-depth analysis, see this article on Crossrider, Kape, and malware.
Ultimately, we learned that Crossrider produced a development platform, which was used to create legitimate apps. Unfortunately, the Crossrider platform was also being used by bad actors to spread malware. What is important to point out here is that Crossrider was never the creator or owner of the malware.
After seeing this abuse of its platform by third parties, Crossrider completely shut everything down in 2016, changed the leadership of the company, and pivoted to the privacy and security industry. Today, we can see that Kape is continuing to expand its influence in the privacy and security industry, with the latest acquisition of ExpressVPN.
VPNs, malware, and trust
Ultimately, there is no evidence (that I could find) of Crossrider or Kape ever publishing malware. Similarly, I cannot find any indication that CyberGhost VPN is doing anything shady or malicious. I also noted the same in my Private Internet Access review.
With all that being said, there have been other VPNs that were called out for bad privacy practices. I discuss this in my Hotspot Shield review, a VPN that was found to be embedding tracking libraries in its VPN apps. Similarly, malware is often hidden in free VPN services to collect your data, which is then sold by the parent company.
Ultimately, choosing a good VPN largely comes down to trust, which is a subjective topic that only you can decide. So now let’s examine the VPN itself.
CyberGhost price and refund policy
The cheapest that you can get CyberGhost for right now is $2.19 per month, but you’ll have to purchase the 2 Years + 2 Months plan. Monthly plans will be significantly more money at $12.49 per month, with the 6 Months plan at $6.99 per month, as you can see below.
This is on the lower end of the price spectrum, particularly for the longer plans. This makes CyberGhost one of many cheap VPN providers.
The key question with pricing is always value, or what you get for your money. I’d say there are other VPNs that offer more value with certain coupons. NordVPN is comparably priced to CyberGhost, and they also offer a NordVPN coupon for more savings. Similarly, Surfshark is also another cheap option, as we noted in our Surfshark vs CyberGhost comparison.
Refund policy – CyberGhost offers two different refund windows, depending on the subscription plan you choose:
- 45 day refund window for all plans that are 6 months or longer.
- 14 day refund window for monthly plans.
This is a pretty good refund policy, and it is apparently “no questions asked” – so they don’t require troubleshooting before the refund is issued. For this CyberGhost review, I purchased a one-month subscription via Bitcoin. Getting a refund was not very difficult. There are other VPN coupons here.
CyberGhost VPN apps
CyberGhost offers dedicated VPN apps for:
- Windows
- Mac OS
- Android
- iOS
Additionally, CyberGhost offers support for Linux, routers, NAS, and Chromebooks. However, without a dedicated Linux app, it’s not the best VPN for Linux you will find.
We’ll take a closer look at the Windows app below to see how it performed in real-world testing.
CyberGhost encryption and VPN protocols
CyberGhost currently supports three VPN protocols in the desktop and mobile VPN apps: OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard. For encryption, they use an AES 256-bit cipher with a 4096-bit RSA key and SHA256 for authentication with the OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols. With the WireGuard protocol, CyberGhost uses the ChaCha20 cipher.
CyberGhost now supports WireGuard
CyberGhost also now supports the WireGuard VPN protocol. This protocol usually offers faster speeds and better reliability over legacy VPN protocols. For example, in our OpenVPN vs WireGuard tests, we found WireGuard to significantly outperform OpenVPN with all locations. With CyberGhost, you can use WireGuard with the desktop and mobile apps. You can change VPN protocols in the settings area of the CyberGhost VPN apps:
As you will see below, however, speeds with CyberGhost were not very good, even when using the WireGuard protocol.
CyberGhost VPN servers (overloaded)
According to the CyberGhost website, they offer about 7,900 servers in 90 countries. This is about on par with ExpressVPN, which we noted in the ExpressVPN vs CyberGhost comparison report. When testing out the CyberGhost VPN apps, I noticed that many servers were overloaded with users. This may explain why speeds were so slow.
In the screenshot below, you can see that many CyberGhost UK servers were overloaded, between 75% to 100% + capacity. And when servers are overloaded, performance suffers and things online take longer.
If you need a VPN for the UK or a UK VPN server, CyberGhost probably isn’t the best choice as you can see above.
CyberGhost servers in Europe seemed to be more congested than servers in the US.
Speaking of servers, CyberGhost also does not have any double VPN servers. We find double-VPN servers with NordVPN, as well as Surfshark and Proton VPN.
CyberGhost VPN Windows test results
For this CyberGhost review, I tested out the CyberGhost version 8 app on a Windows machine. The app has a minimized design that sits on the bottom-right cover of the desktop, just above the tray. Unlike with the previous version, the client can now be moved if you don’t want it stuck above the desktop tray. Here’s the CyberGhost Windows VPN app that we tested for this review:
While minimized, it doesn’t take up too much space. To adjust settings or change servers, you need to click the arrow pointing left, which will expand the app. Unfortunately, the expanded VPN client takes up an enormous amount of space on your desktop. I found this design to be clunky and inefficient. Here is the full layout of the CyberGhost VPN app, which takes up most of the desktop space:
When selecting different servers, you can see that CyberGhost categorizes servers for different use cases. This may be useful in certain cases, such as when using the VPN for torrenting, streaming, gaming, or with a dedicated IP. While some people want a VPN with a dedicated IP, there are drawbacks to this as your traffic is not getting mixed with other users (such as with shared IPs).
Overall, I liked the general design when the apps are minimized. However, when changing settings or switching the servers, the apps are quite clunky and take up lots of space. Therefore I would not consider this to be the best VPN for PC.
CyberGhost can be slow to establish VPN connections
Another problem that I had when testing CyberGhost is that it could be really slow to establish connections. This wasn’t always the case, but in many instances, it could take several seconds to connect to a VPN server.
Normally, the WireGuard VPN protocol would solve this problem, since WireGuard has been designed to quickly establish connections (the handshake). And we have even noted this in testing out other VPNs with WireGuard, including NordVPN and Surfshark.
With CyberGhost, however, we found that it was very slow to establish connections, regardless of which VPN protocol we were using. You’d see a “Connecting” notification that would continue for several seconds:
The problems with CyberGhost not connecting seemed to occur randomly. Changing the VPN protocols did not seem to make much difference. I’m not sure exactly what was causing these issues, and support was not able to help much, either.
CyberGhost leak protection settings and kill switch
On a positive note, the new CyberGhost version 8 VPN client offers some good leak protection settings and a functioning kill switch to block VPN traffic if the connection drops. If you are in the CyberGhost Windows client, you can click the arrows on the left side to access the client settings and features.
By default, CyberGhost has the kill switch feature and DNS leak protection options enabled under the “Privacy Settings” tab.
With the kill switch and DNS leak protection settings enabled, I ran some basic VPN tests. These are to check for any data leaks with the VPN apps.
Here were the test results with the Windows VPN client (no leaks):
Similarly, I also tested the CyberGhost Mac OS VPN client and did not find any leaks. The kill switch and leak protection settings seem to be working well.
CyberGhost ad blocking feature
CyberGhost offers an ad-blocking feature, but there are some problems with this VPN ad blocker.
You can find the ad blocker feature under the Privacy Settings in the VPN client. It is an option called “Block content” to block domains for ads, trackers, and malware, as you can see below:
I took a close look at this feature and even tested it out in comparison to other VPN ad blockers. The results were not good. Here’s what I noted about CyberGhost in my guide on different VPN ad blockers:
CyberGhost is an interesting case, but not in a good way. Instead of filtering ads and malicious content via DNS requests, they actually look inside the traffic and modify requests to certain domains so they display content from Cyberghost instead.
This is problematic for a few reasons. First, manipulating traffic is something a trustworthy VPN provider should not do – even with good intentions. Secondly, this only works over http since https connections are encrypted and Cyberghost cannot (easily) access that content.
With the CyberGhost version tested for this article, there is no root certificate being installed. But because they are still using the same methods to filter traffic, that means their “ad blocker” does not effectively work on HTTPS websites. Basically, CyberGhost’s ad blocker is barely working, especially since it will be ineffective on all HTTPS websites.
If you want a good VPN ad blocker, there are some better options to consider. I’d recommend checking out other options, see for example CyberSec in the NordVPN review.
CyberGhost Logging
On their homepage, CyberGhost proclaims a No Logs Policy.
Here you can see their claims:
But this is not really accurate.
The CyberGhost privacy policy explains how some connection logs are being recorded.
Additionally, when you log in to your account, you can see that the devices you use with CyberGhost are being logged. Here’s a screenshot from my test account, showing that two of my devices are being logged:
Based on this information, it is clear that there are some connection logs being maintained. Many VPNs maintain some basic data to enforce the connection policy. CyberGhost, however, goes so far as to log the devices you use and then save this under your account info — all while claiming to be “no logs”.
If you want to see alternatives, there are some good VPNs with no logs that have been verified in real life.
CyberGhost VPN speed test results (slow)
For this updated CyberGhost review, I ran all new speed tests with servers in the United States and also the United Kingdom. All tests were conducted on a 500 Mbps baseline connection using the official CyberGhost VPN client.
Note: To test CyberGhost with the fastest speeds possible, I used the WireGuard VPN protocol.
First, I tested servers in the United States. Here was a CyberGhost server in Seattle at about 12 Mbps.
This is really bad when you consider that my baseline speed is 500 Mbps. Most VPNs can easily get over 100 Mbps, some can even get over 400 Mbps. This isn’t a good start to the speed tests.
Next, I tested a CyberGhost server in Los Angeles, and the speeds were slightly better at 32 Mbps.
This is another slow-speed test result from CyberGhost VPN.
The last CyberGhost VPN server I tested in the United States was the New York location. It gave me download speeds of 46 Mbps.
Ok, so we’re not looking good with US servers. And with 46 Mbps being the fastest speed test result, I’m starting to think CyberGhost is just a slow VPN. Maybe servers in the UK are faster?
For my final CyberGhost VPN speed test, I connected to a server in the UK. The results were dismal at around 6 Mbps.
At 6 Mbps, it’s clear that CyberGhost is not the best VPN for the UK if you value performance.
I’m not sure you can reliably stream video with speeds like this. Even the Tor network is faster (see the VPN vs Tor tests).
To summarize these tests, CyberGhost is not the fastest VPN we have tested. In fact, it’s far below the industry average. One factor affecting speeds is server loads. And as we noted above, many of CyberGhost’s servers are loaded with users, which can slow down performance for all users.
CyberGhost speeds compared to NordVPN
To put the CyberGhost speed tests in comparison, let’s take a quick look at NordVPN. Like CyberGhost, NordVPN also uses the WireGuard VPN protocol. Unlike CyberGhost, however, NordVPN is seriously fast. Above we found the CyberGhost server in Seattle to have download speeds of about 12 Mbps. Here is the NordVPN server in Seattle with download speeds of 445 Mbps:
If you want to see how these VPNs compare in different categories, check out our CyberGhost vs NordVPN comparison guide.
CyberGhost website tracking
Although nearly every VPN service runs Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of their Google ads (which can be important for acquiring customers), some VPNs go overboard with tracking.
Unfortunately, CyberGhost falls into the second category, and I’ve pointed this out before. Here’s what I found when visiting CyberGhost’s website: a whole mess of trackers and third-party cookies.
This lines up with previous CyberGhost reviews and trackers I found. Not long ago, I found CyberGhost to be utilizing Hotjar session recording scripts on their website. These session recording scripts literally record every interaction you have with the website in a video, which can include payment details and credit card info, and this data is stored on third-party servers.
To be fair, nearly all VPNs have some basic tracking and analytics on their websites, which usually includes Google Analytics. Running a website without any analytics doesn’t work well, because you have no idea what to improve and fix for your readers. Unfortunately, CyberGhost goes a bit overboard here.
CyberGhost Netflix and streaming
Viewing content from Netflix regional libraries is one of the most popular uses for a VPN. To view content from multiple regions requires a VPN that can defeat geo-blocking software. Some VPNs can, others can’t. CyberGhost can, to a limited extent. CyberGhost has generally not worked well with unblocking Netflix. While they always claim to work with Netflix, many of their streaming servers are blocked and unable to get through to Netflix and other sites.
Here’s a previous example of CyberGhost’s streaming server getting blocked out by Netflix:
With the latest round of tests, however, I found one CyberGhost server to get through to US Netflix. Overall, it seems that CyberGhost is not the best Netflix VPN, but it does offer some dedicated streaming servers that work.
When it comes to streaming in general, CyberGhost does have a few servers for different streaming channels around the world. For example, they also have a server if you need a VPN for BBC iPlayer.
Firestick streaming – Streaming on a Firestick with a VPN is increasingly popular, especially since a VPN will unlock more streaming channels for you. Fortunately, CyberGhost does offer an app in the Amazon Store for Firestick. This app works well enough, but there is still the problem that the performance of the network is so slow that it may result in buffering and playback issues.
Torrenting and P2P with CyberGhost
Officially, CyberGhost is a torrenting-friendly VPN service with a specific set of servers available for torrenting. They are based in Romania, which does not have the kind of stringent copyright laws we have in the United States with the DMCA. Many VPNs restrict torrenting, as we noted in the TunnelBear review so by definition, CyberGhost is better than them.
Regarding their torrenting policy, CyberGhost explained this on their website:
We also have servers optimized for torrenting ensuring a smooth and seamless torrenting experience.
Torrent through a secure encrypted VPN tunnel and leave any surveillance worries behind. Say goodbye to any throttling from your Internet Service Provider and unblock restricted torrent domains!
Within the CyberGhost VPN client, you can select any of these torrenting servers. That being said, not all servers work with torrenting and P2P traffic:
None of the current P2P technologies are illegal per definition, but we have to block P2P protocols on certain servers, either due to strategic (this is traffic that unnecessary slows down other user’s traffic) or due to legal reasons in countries where we are forced by providers to block torrent traffic, among them USA, Russia, Singapore, Australia and Hongkong (China).
In the list of servers you will find a check mark on P2P/Torrent compatible servers.
However, in my research for this CyberGhost review, I also found some complaints. Some CyberGhost users are complaining in forums about getting DMCA notices while using CyberGhost VPN. This could be caused by data leaks, as we noted earlier.
There are many better VPNs for torrenting that allow torrenting traffic on every server in their network, while also keeping your connection secure. And let’s not forget the slow speeds, which will also be a drag when torrenting.
CyberGhost support
For support, CyberGhost offers chat, email, and various guides on their website.
I tested out the chat support and it seemed alright.
The chat representatives were prompt and helpful in my tests.
CyberGhost offers 24/7 live chat and I was able to connect with a chat representative in under 30 seconds every time I tested it out. I did not test out the email support, but I did find some helpful guides on the website.
CyberGhost VPN FAQ
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about the CyberGhost VPN:
Is CyberGhost good for torrenting?
We would not recommend using CyberGhost for torrenting. During our testing, we didn’t find any leaks that could jeopardize your privacy while torrenting. However, several CyberGhost users have complained of receiving DMCA notices while torrenting, which makes us very nervous. In addition, CyberGhost is extremely slow uploading and downloading data, which could make torrenting tedious.
Is CyberGhost good for Netflix and streaming?
CyberGhost supports Netflix and other streaming services. But most of the time CyberGhost failed to connect to Netflix using their special streaming servers. We had similar results with other streaming services. While we were sometimes able to get through, most of the time we were blocked. We do not rate CyberGhost as good for Netflix or streaming.
Does CyberGhost work for gaming?
When selecting the best VPN for gaming, you’ll want to look for these characteristics:
* Fast speeds
* Low latency (ping)
* Large server network
While CyberGhost does have a large server network, it does not do well with performance. This could really be a problem with gaming, resulting in lag and interruptions. We would not recommend CyberGhost for gaming.
Does CyberGhost work in China?
Because I am not physically in China, I cannot test VPNs there. Nonetheless, I posed the question to the CyberGhost staff.
The answer is no. CyberGhost does not work in China.
If you are in China or going to China, not to worry. There are still some VPNs that work in China.
Does CyberGhost slow down internet?
All VPNs slow down your internet connection to some extent. But CyberGhost had a very large impact in our testing. It slowed our internet connection drastically in all tests. If you need a fast internet connection, CyberGhost is not a good option for you.
CyberGhost Review 2022 Conclusion
Taking everything into consideration, CyberGhost is somewhat of a mixed bag. They offer user-friendly VPN apps with secure encryption, but there are lots of drawbacks to consider before signing up for this VPN.
Here’s what keeps me from recommending CyberGhost VPN:
- Troubling history with parent company (Kape, formerly Crossrider)
- Slow to establish connections and below-average speeds
- The website uses aggressive tracking
- Broken ad blocker for HTTPS sites
- Connection logs
- Does not work well with Netflix, or in China
One recurring theme I stress here at Restore Privacy is that trust is a major factor when it comes to selecting privacy tools. This is because these tools can also be undermining your privacy and security. With the history behind the parent company (Crossrider / Kape) and the issues with root certificates, there are some red flags, in my opinion. Of course, only you can decide which products and services to trust – and this is a subjective decision.
At the end of the day, CyberGhost still has a lot of work to do – and there are some other great alternatives you could instead consider using.
Alternatives to CyberGhost VPN
Click the VPN name below to read our full review – or grab the discount for the best savings. All three of these VPNs have a 30-day refund window.
You can also check out our guide on the top VPN services for other recommendations.
If you have used CyberGhost VPN, feel free to share your honest review (good or bad) below.
This CyberGhost VPN review was last updated on May 30, 2023, with new information.
I have been using CyberGhost for a couple of months, and I have experienced the following:
Sudden Gmail report of suspicious activity while not at pc at all. I have 2-factor protection on Gmail. Changed the password and checked for suspicious activity on my account but nothing. Source was an authorized app.
One week after, at 1 AM, I received an SMS on my mobile from LinkedIn with a verification code! Changed password (was different from original Gmail pwd). My passwords are not pawned (checked on website), and are not simple, so I’m confused of what’s going on.
All these tentatives to access my social or personal accounts started from the day I adopted CyberGhost. This article confirms my suspicion that this VPN vendor doesn’t deserve my trust. I have just uninstalled the client and done a full AV scan.
I have been with them for 4 years, recently my account had been hacked and my password changed, I have emailed them and received no reply!
Then I decided to use the live chat option and that was absolutely useless, I had to keep repeating myself that the hackers changed the email address and password and they kept telling me to try recover the password and that I was still logged in. Extremely disappointed and frustrating experience.
I requested a refund and they said they will, then refused to. Stay away from this company they just want your money. Now I have gone with expressvpn and so far very smooth, fast and best part is no annoying captchas every 5 minutes that I am on google!!!
I have been using Cyberghost for several years and in general I have found it does what it says it does reasonably well. However living in one of those countries that is highly motivated to block sites which undermine their entertainment industries Cyberghost has a very frustrating and arguably insecure feature.
If for any reason a connection drops Cyberghost will attempt to automatically decide based on a preset algorithm to connect you to the ‘best server’ which in my case is always in the same country that I live in (a country I might add that has given its government the power to ‘inspect’ any server within its borders). Worse than that unless you are at the keyboard with the Cyberghost window visible it does not tell you it is doing it. If you do not know what country you are logged into how can the service be considered secure?
I do not wish to give away my geolocation in this manner nor run the risk of the government seeing what entertainment sites I visit. I always log into other countries servers generally avoiding the EU and USA so being automatically logged into my home country (one of those I avoid) pretty much on a more than daily basis on a number of machines without any sort of notification is particularly frustrating.
On numerous occasions I have requested that Cyberghost make this ‘feature’ user configurable either by giving the user the ability to simply block this feature (leaving the VPN disconnected) or indeed specify which countries should be used to reconnect automatically (Cyberghost already has a favourites list so linking that to automatic reconnection should not be difficult) but the responses I have received from Cyberghost range from the wilfully ignorant to the utterly crass to the point where I’m not convinced they have the technical resources available to properly manage and support their software anymore.
Ironically as we speak, its done exactly the same thing again and tried to log me into a server in my home country. Consequently I am considering switching VPN’s when my contract comes up for renewal. What I need to know is do other VPN services have this insecure feature or do they give users full control over what country they are logged into under all circumstances?
I have never once observed this behavior. Are you using the killswitch? If it loses connection the killswitch is activated and it remains activated until manual intervention connects again to same server or a different one. I’ve never witnessed the service independently connecting to different servers on its own volition.
After a series of 2FA , emails were hacked, next was this VPN CyberGhost.
I am struggling, it has been a few hours, I cannot do basic things like login, change password, it keeps saying “unknown” when I change it.
This is my first month, I might be eligible for a refund. I am moving to another VPN.
This is like a virus. Very difficult to uninstall, everything is much slower, totally useless to stream content. Basically you are better off not having anything. Their costumer service is non existent, when you need them, they are not there. I am basically having to reset my computer as I cannot uninstall this garbage.
I agree. The password cannot be changed on this thing.
Its a nightmare!!!
I wish I had read your article about CyberGhost before I signed up with them. Their software program is total junk and I am extremely sorry I signed up for them. Just total garbage!
I lost my dedicated IP address, reported that to their customer support and through a number of email exchanges learned that they were not interested in fixing the problem and had no intention of refunding any portion of the purchase price.
Good morning, Jeremi.
I hope you are doing well as well.
Your response was cordial and friendly, but quite unresponsive to the current issue. Here is my problem: I purchased a product from your company — two products, in fact — the original VPN service and then the dedicated IP add-on. One day, that product failed. My dedicated IP address was no longer listed as one of my options. After spending some time attempting to resolve this issue myself, I reported the problem to your company. Rather than accepting responsibility for the issue and taking corrective action, your company has responded by issuing me tasks, some of which I have completed, but none of which have resolved the issue. I removed the software from my computer as directed, downloaded and reinstalled the software, and attempted to activate my IP address with the original token, none of which brought my IP back to life. Now I am being told to purchase a new account, buy a new dedicated IP address, and basically start the entire process from scratch using my own funds. The pattern here is that at no time does the company actually take any action on their own — the burden of resolution has somehow shifted to the customer. Even in terms of a refund for a product that has clearly failed and is no longer available to me, I am told that I first must invest my own funds in a new account and a new IP before a refund will be considered. From my perspective, I paid for a product that no longer works through no fault of my own. A refund for that failure should have been forthcoming some time ago, regardless of whether or not I decide to purchase a new account, and I shouldn’t have to ask for it. I paid for a product that no longer works, and I should have been offered my money back if you are unable or unwilling to fix it on your end. Period.
I will grant you that I may have been overly generous in my assertion that there must be a person currently working for your company with the skills and permissions to go into the system and correct this problem. One would assume that a company that built such a product would have some competent technical expertise somewhere in the organization, but I confess that this may not be a valid assumption. Still, if you cannot or will not fix the problem on your end, then you should have issued an unconditional refund at the start. I don’t like the idea that you refuse to fix it, but I really don’t like the idea that I have to spend more money before you will consider giving me back the money that I have already spent.
No one at the company seems curious or surprised about the issue itself, and no one appears to be actively engaged in looking into how this happened or what can be done to prevent it from happening again in the future. This tells me that if I were to follow your instructions and sign up for a new account and buy a new dedicated IP, that there is an open possibility that this may happen again. This would not be a concern to me if the company was taking responsibility for resolving the issue on their end; however, your consistent approach up to this point is that when this happens, it is on me to both do the work and provide the funding. The attitude of your customer service department seems to be that your company will not lift a finger to make this right on your end, but if I want to continue to use the product, then you will pleasantly inform me of the tasks that I need to perform and the money that I will need to spend.
The product was working for some time. Then it wasn’t. I still have to believe that someone who works there can make it work again. Maybe that’s just too optimistic on my part, but someone there has to know how to do this. If there is no one left at the company with this level of skill, then it would not appear to me to be a wise move to sign up for another account with the same organization.
Hello Jeff,
We hope you are doing well.
We understand your frustration with this, however, as mentioned before, once you lose your dedicated IP, it is lost forever and due to system limitations, we cannot reactivate it. The reason why we asked you to re-purchase is that you cannot use or purchase another dedicated IP using your account as we have a policy that you can only use one dedicated IP per account only.
On the other hand, regarding the refund, let me inform you that we have a guaranteed refund for the subscription that is under our 14 and 45 days money back guarantee, and for all the subscription that is not under the policy, I regret to inform you that we cannot do anything about it. https://support.cyberghostvpn.com/hc/en-us/articles/213834369-Refund-Policy-45-day-money-back-guarantee
We hope you understand and if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us.
Have a nice day!
Their service is shit, unable to connect to servers, I just cannot use what I bought for…
they also demonize cookies to sell you more apps, lying to you as saying that cookie files can be harmful to a computer, which is 100000% false
I have tried their 24 hours free trial and it was just a total waste of time.
My base speed without VPN was >200 mbps averaging 190. With cyberghost,it dropped to <50 mbps,the server being in the city where i reside. I did not go further to use the 24 hour trial period and immediately un-installed their app.
I settled for Surfshark and satisfied with their service. It is almost time for renewal after 3 years so I'm trying to decide whether to stay with SS or try something else.
John Sir thank you for sharing your experience. I am also a Surfshark VPN user and have been using it from more than two years. I renewed my subscription to Surfshark as I am quite satisfied with Surfshark VPN’s service. Their VPN performance is great, apps are good, privacy practices inspire trust and support is very nice. I am also Subscribed to Nord VPN and have been using it and I can recommend that one. I use both Nord VPN and Surfshark VPN. Nord VPN is spectacular and the slightly higher price than Surfshark is well worth the money as I feel Nord VPN is ever so slightly better than Surfshark VPN thought both are very close. For a VPN on budget I would recommend Atlas VPN as I have used it and it is nice, thought not as sophisticated and feature rich as Nord and Surfshark.
Despite the bad review for CyberGhost,I took the plunge and bought a yearly subscription without really considering the cons.
I could talk about the cons in general,but I’ll talk specifically about slow speeds and overloaded servers.
I’m sorry but this has nothing to do with reality.
My connection to a server even if it is remote is fast,within three seconds and the speeds are really fast.
Here are some examples I have recorded.
*My baseline speed
Athens: 50.91 – 4.95
*CyberGhost vpn speed
Seattle: 45.51 – 4.44
Los Angeles: 45.26 – 4.43
New York: 48.07 – 4.46
UK : 48.64 – 4.45
In summary,CyberGhost has these pros: strong VPN,fast speeds,fast connections,switching to multiple and reliable servers,strong security features,safe and fast browsing,immediate and helpful support.
I am completely satisfied with CyberGhost and have absolutely no problems (reference number: 362…224).
I guess that the comment section on most websites seems to attract a good deal of negativity. That being said, I’ve used Cyberghost for about 10 years and found it works ok for me. Anyway, good research on your part.
NON STOP SPAM!!! Every day, every time I turned on my computer there was there spam pop ups trying to upsell me something. I deleted my account – still got spammed. I uninstalled all their software and they started emailing me spam. I unsubscribed and their customer service started reaching out to me with spam. HORRIBLE company that will NOT stop sending all their crap. They refuse to turn it off. Well, I refuse to pay for spam so I cancelled my account. Such a relief to have control of my computer again.
My vpn connection was running very slow so I deleted the app and downloaded it again however when trying to log back in its saying Max devices reached. I only have 1 mobile phone with the app which I originally deleted to then reinstall. Can anyone help with the email support for Ghost VPN?
Dude all you have to do is login to your account on their website, go to manage devices, and then delete the old sessions. My guess is you had new installations of your OS and so when CG was reinstalled it was counted as a new device. Just delete the old “device” and the total devices count will go back down. Ppl expecting a VPN to solve their lack of common sense is truly awe-inspiring.
In my case, I did not receive the refund even if I cancelled on the day 11th of the subscription (it was slow and my conection fell all the time). I was suposed to have 14-days-refund-guaranteed.
The reason? I did not write to them on the website chat to let them know I was cancelling.
One could think when you cancel, they know, and they know you are on your refund period. That’s how most of the platforms work.
But not CyberGhost.
By the time I contacted them to check why I wasn’t receiving my refund they told me the request was out ot date.
I had to cancel and request the money, both.
They scam people with refund-guaranteed periods.
They never refund the money back, invoking that it is not enough cancelling, you have to contact them via the site chat to let them know you cancelled and want a refund. If you just cancel, as most of us do, you never get your money back.
By the time you decide to contact them to ask about your refund, the free refund period has expirred, no matter when you cancelled the subscription.
These guys are most likely cheating their affiliates on their payouts. I have more than $3000 frozen in my affiliate account, and now the manager has stopped responding to my emails, as well as the whole affiliate team.
Absolute garbage
agree 100% i have the same issues, this use to be a good provider but since the new owners took over it is crap, i just contacted support and the reply is ” what is your name, where do you live and who is your ip provider…..safe , secure and anonymous no way in hell!
just downloaded for newly bought laptop and it does not work on that either, now support is no longer accepting messages there inbox is full, looks like this is just a rip off, offer folk a good deal and once they get the money the app does not work DO NOT PURCHASE
Connections drop constantly. That cheap 3 years deal looks good until you realize this service is useless.
Seriously.
I say this,I am a careful reader of your reviews and I always take them seriously.
I am not using Cyberghost but another vpn you suggest.
Your review of Cyberghost is complete and thorough and your rating (1.6 / 5) clearly underlines the result that would prevent me from buying it.
In diameter,on the contrary,the reviews of “users” on a well-known and “trusted” website rate Cyberghost with 4.8 / 5 (96% in favor and 4% against) and I wonder,what is finally happening?
My question is of course philosophical and I can give some interpretations but maybe yours will reassure me more.
I have seen “user reviews” gamed in the past, but I’m not accusing CyberGhost of this, I’m just saying that it happens on many venues. I’ve even had some VPNs attempt to bomb the comments section on this site with fake positive reviews, or in the case of one unscrupulous VPN a few years ago, tell their users to go write a bunch of positive reviews to get more free time added to the subscription. We can only write reviews based on our own test results, but test results can vary so it’s up to you to make up your own mind. Fortunately, nearly every VPN has some kind of refund window.
Hello,I am satisfied with your reply and I honestly did not expect it to be different.
I would very much like you to continue writing reviews based on your own test results because that way readers learn the truth and do not make the wrong choice.
I believe that a good vpn is good everywhere and objective and true review helps the most.
Greetings from a troubled Europe.
Hello,
and good morning.
I discover your web site as I am searching for answers about Cyberghost recently installed on my system, that’s causing mega trouble..
You may not have the answers as I work on Mac OS. I installed this vpn late December, and it appeared to work fine, with however all the caveats that you outlined in your comments above, but overall looked to work OK. I used before that ExpressVPN, but found renewal of my account a bit too pricy, so I switched to Cyberghost.
Anyway, since a couple of days (is it 45 days ? I need to check) Cyberghost is basically killing the Imac on which I installed it. The reason ? Using 100% of my CPU capacity, which results in basic shut-down of all other functions that have nothing left to operate. (I am sending this mail from my MacBook on which it is not installed…). I trust this CPU overload may be a specific Mac issue that you may not know or have the experience of.
This problem started suddenly a couple of days ago, and, after some checks, I realized the insane CPU usage issue. I trashed the application, and the Mac started to work fine again. This morning, I reinstalled the app. and bingo, same issue, the Mac almost froze, 100% CPU overload again…
Do you have experience from Mac users about this issue ? I am ready to completely uninstall the app. but it is cumbersome and not easy, as I need to have Cyberghost open to do so, and of course, this eats up all of my CPU and the computer is so slow that I can barely make it work to undergo the uninstall process.. Managing the CPU issue would at least give me back the functionalities to get rid of the app. This needs to be thorough as the installation of Cyberghost dispatched a lot of files throughout the system, and only a smooth working system can handle a clean uninstall process.
Thanks for your attention. I’d appreciate any info or advice you may have on this problem. Once again, this might be a specific Mac issue, perhaps some of the users and contributors on this site have an answer and a solution to offer.
Best regards,
Vincent
I would recommend trying a different VPN for your Macbook.