| VPN | CyberGhost |
| Based in | Romania |
| Logs | Connection logs |
| Price | $2.75/mo. |
| Support | Chat & Email |
| Refund | 15/45 days |
| Website | CyberGhostVPN.com |
CyberGhost is a larger VPN service that you’ll often see recommended on various “review” websites. But don’t be fooled by fake reviews that only regurgitate marketing slogans.
Most of these “review” websites ignore the fact that CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and ZenMate are all owned by the same company, called Kape. Kape is an Israeli business with a history of producing malware and collecting data for profit.
In this new and updated CyberGhost VPN review, I will reveal everything I found out about the company, while also publishing all of our VPN test results.
+ Pros
- User-friendly applications
- Good leak protection features (kill switch)
- Competitive prices
- Live chat support
– Cons
- Troubling history with the parent company
- Slow to establish connections
- The website uses aggressive tracking
- Broken ad blocker for HTTPS sites
- Connection logs
After covering the pros and cons, we will examine these frequently-asked questions (FAQs) and discuss a few CyberGhost alternatives.
And as with all of my VPN reviews, 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 has all changed since 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 – for reasons that we’ll explain below.
Then in October 2018, Kape purchased Zenmate, a Germany VPN provider, for an undisclosed amount. This lines up with the trend we’ve observed of VPNs getting bought up by outside investors.
Now here’s where things get interesting…
Troubling ties: 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, Crossrider was hiding malware in software bundlers, which would then infect the user’s computer with “adware or other monetizing methods”.
Now let’s look at an example. This article from 2018 illustrates how Crossrider malware 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….
Is this a company you’d trust to run your VPN service and handle all your internet traffic?
With such a troubling history, it appears that the parent company attempted to distance itself from its own past. In 2018, Crossrider decided to change its name to Kape Technologies.
As the CEO admitted 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.
This is concerning since a VPN can be a data collection tool in disguise. I discuss this in my Hotspot Shield review, a VPN that was found to be embedding tracking libraries in its VPN apps.
Crossrider describes itself as an “online distribution and digital product company” and appears to be heavily focused on advertising and data collection (the two go hand-in-hand). There isn’t much discussion about Crossrider on the CyberGhost website, other than the Terms and Conditions page.
Reading through the Terms and Conditions, I did find this excerpt:
You understand that CyberGhost undertakes no responsibility for your actions. In case of statutory violations by the user, Crossrider may cooperate with public or private authorities at its sole discretion as provided by law.
This is “lawyer speak” for saying that the parent company can and will cooperate with third parties when it deems necessary.
To summarize these findings:
- Cyberghost started out as a VPN provider based in Romania
- Cyberghost’s owner sold out to an Israeli company called Crossrider in 2017
- Crossrider is known for hiding malware/adware in software bundles to infect users’ computers for data collection and monetization purposes (according to various security experts)
- Crossrider changed its name to “Kape Technologies” in 2018
- CyberGhost’s privacy policy explicitly states the company will cooperate with third parties “at its sole discretion”
- Crossrider malware is still a threat and infecting computers, according to different security blogs
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen VPNs and malware discussed together. 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 all 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 $2.75 per month, but you’ll have to purchase the three-year plan. Monthly plans will be significantly more money at $12.99 per month, as you can see below.
This is on the lower end of the price spectrum, particularly for the longer-duration 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 (see the ExpressVPN coupon for example).
NordVPN is comparably priced to CyberGhost, and they also offer a NordVPN coupon for more savings. (Check out the Cyberghost vs NordVPN comparison for more info.)
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 review I purchased a one-month subscription via Bitcoin. I’ll update this section if there are any problems with the refund.
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 servers
CyberGhost currently uses an AES 256-bit cipher with a 4096-bit RSA key and SHA256 for authentication. CyberGhost refers to this as “military grade encryption”, which the VPN industry typically associates with the 256-bit cipher.
According to the CyberGhost website, they offer about 7,000 servers in 90 different countries.
When testing out the CyberGhost VPN apps, I noticed that many servers were overloaded with users. This may explain why speeds were not very good.
In the screenshot below, you can see that many CyberGhost UK servers were overloaded, between 75% to 100% + capacity.
If you need a VPN for the UK, or a UK VPN server, CyberGhost probably isn’t the best choice.
CyberGhost servers in Europe seemed to be more congested than servers in the US.
CyberGhost VPN Windows test results
For this CyberGhost review, I tested out Version 7 of the Windows client. The design and layout were good, but when I first tried installing CyberGhost, I got a persistent error.
After doing some troubleshooting with support I was able to get CyberGhost installed correctly on my Windows test machine.
Below is a screenshot of the CyberGhost Windows client that I tested out for this review. This sits in the bottom-right corner of the Windows desktop, stuck above the tray. (It cannot be moved.)
Clicking the server location will allow you to select a different server. If you click the arrows on the left side of the VPN client, a new window will open up that reveals more servers, settings, and configuration options.
Overall I liked the general design and layout of the client. If it wasn’t for the operational problems identified below, this could be a possible contender for the best VPN for PC.
CyberGhost is slow to establish VPN connections
One 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 longer than a minute to establish a connection.
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 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.
I ran some basic VPN tests to check for leaks and everything seemed to be working fine.
Here were the test results with the Windows client (no leaks):
No leaks were identified when running the basic VPN tests.
CyberGhost ad blocking feature
CyberGhost offers an ad-blocking feature, but it does not work well and I would not recommend using it.
Here’s what the CyberGhost ad blocking features look like in the Windows client:
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 like Perfect Privacy with the TrackStop filter. Both NordVPN and Surfshark also offer VPN ad blockers.
CyberGhost VPN speed test results
For this updated CyberGhost review, I ran all new speed tests with servers in the US, Canada, and the UK. All tests were conducted on a 500 Mbps baseline connection using the official CyberGhost VPN client.
First I tested servers in the United States. Here was a CyberGhost server in Seattle at 71 Mbps.
This may not be horribly slow, but it is a lot slower than my baseline speed of 500 Mbps. This isn’t a good start to the speed tests.
Next I tested a CyberGhost server in Los Angeles, and the speeds were even worse: 52 Mbps.
The last CyberGhost VPN server I tested was in New York, with speeds about like before: 70 Mbps.
Ok, so we’re not looking good with US servers. But maybe Canada is better?
Indeed, the friendly neighbor to the north does have faster speeds, but not by much. Here was a server in Toronto, Canada at 90 Mbps.
This isn’t the best VPN for Canada in terms of speeds. We haven’t even hit 100 Mbps yet with any CyberGhost server in the US or Canada. Is Europe any better?
Answer: No. For my final CyberGhost VPN speed test, I connected to a server in the UK. The results were dismal at around 1 Mbps.
I’m not sure you can even stream video at 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.
In our comparison tests, CyberGhost also did not do well. You can see this for example in the CyberGhost vs ExpressVPN comparison.
Invasive tracking measures on the CyberGhost website
Although nearly every VPN service runs Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of their Google ads (which can be very 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 for this review update: a whole mess of trackers and third-party cookies.
This lines up with previous CyberGhost reviews and trackers I found. Previously, I found them to be utilizing Hotjar session recording scripts. These session recording scripts literally record every interaction you have with the website in a video, which 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 is basically impossible, because you have no idea what to improve and fix for your readers. Unfortunately, CyberGhost goes a bit overboard here.
Testing out 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, although the random slow connection problem did not really get fixed.
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.
Does CyberGhost work for torrenting?
Officially, CyberGhost is a torrenting-friendly VPN service. They are based in Romania, which does not fall under any stringent copyright laws (unlike the United States and DMCA, for example). Many VPNs also restrict torrenting, such as TunnelBear.
Regarding their torrenting policy, CyberGhost explains 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.
This is fairly common in the VPN industry, where VPNs can get kicked out of data centers for too many copyright violations (such as in the US).
Overall, CyberGhost isn’t the worst option, but it’s also not one of the best VPNs for torrenting due to the slow server speeds.
CyberGhost logs
On the homepage, CyberGhost claims to be a “no logs” VPN provider with a “strict no logs policy”.
Here you can see their claims:
But this is not really accurate.
The CyberGhost privacy policy explains how 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.
Does CyberGhost work with Netflix?
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 hit or miss with streaming. It’s not the most reliable Netflix VPN, but it does offer some dedicated streaming servers.
Aside from Netflix, CyberGhost does have a few other servers for different streaming channels around the world. For example, they also have a server if you need a VPN for BBC iPlayer.
Does CyberGhost work in China?
Because I am not physically in China, I cannot test VPNs there. Nonetheless, I posed the question to CyberGhost staff.
The answer is clear: CyberGhost does not work in China.
A few years back, Robert Knapp was interviewed by CNN and he voiced frustration with trying to make CyberGhost work in China. It seems they are not even working on that today.
If you are in China or going to China, not to worry. There are still some VPNs that work in China.
CyberGhost Review Conclusion: Not Recommended
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 to my readers:
- Troubling history with parent company (Kape, formerly Crossrider)
- Slow to establish connections
- 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 definitely some red flags. 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 be 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 money-back guarantee.
You can also check out these top-rated VPNs for other recommendations.
If you have used CyberGhost VPN, feel free to share your honest review (good or bad) below.
CyberGhost VPN Review
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Review
(1.2)
Thanks for this review. I was looking for a privacy pro vpn options and this one came recommended around reddit and on other places, glad I kept googling.
Nowadays you can’t be careful enough, can never know what comes back to bite us in the ass 20 years from now, it doesn’t look like the world is heading towards more democracy.
I guess I’ll try read up a bit on stuff like 14 eyes countries and similar reviews and will probably find a decent compromise, for what I do I don’t need super secrecy but obviously I’d try to find the best option considering everything.
No problems here. Been using it now for almost 1 year. Pretty slow in the beginning , but halfway it got noticably better. Really cheap, so I’m happy with it.
Slow connection but also continuous disconnections.
Slow speed that significantly slows down the device.
Damaged or dubious quality servers. The Kill Switch cannot be turned off by default.
Cyberghost is a hotbed of leaks,continuous leaks that violate confidentiality and privacy.
Irrelevant and uneducated support.
Fortunately,when I realized how dangerous it was,I stopped it and took it out of my devices.
No Netflix ? That was the EASIEST premium channel to unblock on mine.
@Sven Taylor: the title of section “Troubling ties: Crossrider, CyberGhost, and malware” needs to be updated: it misses Zenguard GmbH and ZenMate VPN.
As far as I have been informed their developer team sits in Germany as a company named ZenGuard GmbH. So the Cyberghost VPN and Zenmate VPN are from the same company and team. You can see also in the imprint: Carlstraße 50, 52531 Übach Palenberg, Germany
I can also acknowledge about invasive tracking and logging by Cyberghost VPN and ZenMate VPN. As far as I have been informed they use not only google analytics but also mixpanel analytics and the logging takes place on AWS. Cited from Mixpanel website: Why google analytics isn’t enough: Mixpanel lets you track thousands of intricate events and properties, while Google Analytics limits you to only 25.
Therefore I can not recommend their products to anyone, who really wants to have privacy.
On Windows there is a quite hidden service run in the background, which is monitoring started applications (not only browser app) and network packages the whole time, catches and redirects or blocks them to the CG.
Moreover the speed of ZenGuard’s VPN products is really slow comparing to other competitors.
I wrote in the technical support that something is wrong with their application and in fact I sent them relevant screenshots for confirmation.I never got a technical explanation or help to find a solution,maybe they didn’t want to,they couldn’t,they didn’t know. The problem was the speed of Cyberghost,here it is.
Without Cyberghost.
Download: 51.26 – Upload: 5.16
With Cyberghost(Locations:my country and 2-3 neighboring countries).
Download: 9.59 – 11.72 – Upload: 1.19 – 2.07
They couldn’t find a solution but I was able to find the solution myself. How; It’s easy to understand.I bought another VPN although I lost the rest of my subscription.
Their malware is still ongoing. Just got hit by a Fake YouTube link from a contact’s WhatsApp – resulted in auto install of the CyberGhost app on the iPhone. Unable to find “Cancel Subscription“ on AppleID, ended up risking it expiring the seven days trial, and I signed into their Web account and did a Account Delete.
well been using cyberghost for a few months now and its dissapointingly slow when downloading anything.torrents are very slow ,in fact they are down to dial up speed,i would not recommend it .its slow on connecting to a server and does not work with amazon here in the uk.it does hide your true identity but its so slow you will probably want to switch it off.the same problems happen on my iphone
Hi Sven.
On your recommendation here I signed up for ExpressVPN. It took ages to download and install but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is that once I connected, my speed fell from approx 200/250 mbps to between 30 and 80! This is terrible: I get the same performance from the built-in VPN in Opera, which is free! This is, unfortunately, the experience I’ve had with things like TORGuard, and something which kept me from shelling out for a proper VPN, but you seemed to indicate speed was not an issue with Express. Well it is. I’ve emailed them (no live chat due to our friend Mister Covid and his 19 pals) and am awaiting a response. it was only a month’s sub but I expect that will now be recurring, so if this can’t be sorted I’ll need them to cancel that.
I tried servers in UK, Germany, USA, Canada (I live in Ireland) and all of them gave me rotten results, even the “recommended” one in the UK. Canada gave me a ping result in the three figure range!
In that case, is there in fact ANY VPN worth its salt that will not force me to choose between security and a really major loss in speed? I’m so disappointed; I had expected so much more.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
To get the best speeds possible, I’d recommend using WireGuard VPN protocol with NordVPN. To do this,
1. Get a NordVPN subscription (68% discount here)
2. Download the NordVPN app for your device
3. Select the “NordLynx” protocol in the settings
4. Connect to the nearest server
Note: WireGuard offers the fastest VPN speeds available at this time and NordVPN now supports WireGuard on Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, and Linux via NordLynx. Their implementation should provide you with the latest in VPN security upgrades, plus great speeds.
NordVPN has full live chat support right now, despite the COVID stuff.
Cyberghost tried to put stops on my review on Trustpilot on 2 occasions to cover the way they unscrulptously try to get customers to sign up with them. I used the free trial product back in 2015 ( for close to a year) . Then after they kept prompting to sign up and use the paid version. Because finance was tight at the time i did not sign up and in turn uninstalled their product . A week later my social media accounts Twitter and my hotmail account was compromised. After constant contacts with Twitter i was told that my account was compromised by a company that is not associated with them and it was infact Cyberghost. I have appealed to by hotmail and Twitter and i have still not been able to obtain my account back. Cyberghost law customers in with all these good protection meanwhile they are stealing your data and using it as black mail
How come every support guy is RADNEY? LOL
Without a doubt,Sven Taylor’s review is the most circumstantial and substantial of all I’ve read.
I have an annual subscription but it was a big mistake for me.
CG has slow connection,moderate speed,frequent disconnections and unbelievable leaks.
The servers are unreliable and of dubious quality,I never trusted them.
The support is not normal,is rude,doesn’t answer,doesn’t assist,is generally hostile.
I can say with certainty that CG had an adverse effect on my computers.
At first I thought that the internet provider in my house was the cause.
But when I removed CG from my computers and installed a Swiss Vpn,the situation changed completely.
My computers and the Swiss Vpn are combined and they both work amazingly well.
That is the point.
Yea so, guess I’ll chime in here. I, like many others, chose to leave CyberGhost before finding this article, and rather only stumbled upon (planted?) reviews that touted CG as the latest and greatest solution to our privacy needs. Let me describe my experience, lest anyone else repeat it.
Did my research, and CG was lauded as 9/10 pretty much across the board. Nothing but good things to say from “leading” review sites like vpnmentor, etc. AND they were the cheapest (when signing up for 3 years of course). So it seemed like a no brainer. Oops.
On the third day, yes I had to resurrect my connection. It appeared the VPN connect had dropped and G’s client was in a perpetual state of Connecting. No biggy, I’m sure it happens every once in a while. Next day I hopped on some torrents. OK speeds, probably 75% of my usual so I’ll offer that 25% as sacrifice to the security gods.
Few days later, I again woke up to no connectivity. Same stuck Connecting. And toggling it to fix wasn’t even straightforward, often requiring 2 or 3 tries to restore functionality. Oh, and don’t even think of just double clicking to re-connect, nope not happening. Right so, probably a transient glitch with all the folks stuck in their homes deciding to beef up security so, CG must just be getting their network back on track.
But on average, I noticed slowing download/upload speeds over the coming week. Then I noticed inexplicable intermittent high CPU usage by the VPN client. What set me out on a Google expedition to reads more about CG was numerous additional disconnects, sometimes within 48 hours of each other. So I researched and found:
From their TOS: You understand that CyberGhost undertakes no responsibility for your actions. In case of statutory violations by the user, Crossrider may cooperate with public or private authorities at its sole discretion as provided by law.
On Macs, CyberGhost client requests access to the Mac OS keychain, which is strange and alarming.
RE CG’s ad-blocking feature: 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. Modifying my web traffic (aka monitoring it) is a NO NO.
When visiting their website, you’ll get to enjoy Hotjar session recording scripts. These session recording scripts literally record every interaction you have with the website in a video, which is stored on third-party servers.
Oh and finally, after having joined a second device to their network and then pairing back down to 1, the second server is still referenced as having logged and is noted in your “inventory”. Why should CG know or care about previous clients? Answer – it shouldn’t.
So thank YOU for aggregating these Good To Knows so I could efficiently educate myself and cut loose this leech of a company that should NOT be used by those dealing with life or death privacy circumstances. This is the first review I’m writing (and have written for anything in months cause unless a product really appalls or impresses me I am just too lazy). But this right here is crap, so TY again.
PS OH, and to echo another user’s POV, why the F does it take 5-10 days to reverse the charge? Answer – it DOESN’T. So something’s up, maybe they want that extra bit of interest, whatever it is it ain’t right.
My review is about CyberGhost Vpn support. An unconventional and provocatively indifferent and rude support. CyberGhost Vpn is at the top but Support is at the bottom. A terribly offensive contrast that prevented me from renewing my subscription.
CyberGhost Vpn Support is useless.It should be at your side for any necessary assist but it’s permanently absent.
Reading online reviews I bought CyberGhost [CG]. Their tech-support is probably the worst! AFter acknowledging my complains CG emails asking for more info. If there is no more info to provide to them they just close the case. I CANNOT login to amazon, facebook and many of my bank websites. After SEVERAL complaints. nothing! No tech-support – they now ignore my complaints.
And, they won’t refund money paid to them.
Their customer service is not poor, it is simply not there!
I signed up on a Mac platform 2 days ago, now I’m locked out with persistent “enter password forCG keychain” after the 2nd Re-install of software in 2 days.
And I thought Norton360 was bad!
After reading these reviews I am very angry with my choice and fed up with spending hours on chat service which actually now is worse than before
BEWARE of CyberGhost VPN service…..they’re dodgy!
Once connected to any country server, your IP address is leaked [https://torrentfreak.com/huge-security-flaw-can-expose-vpn-users-real-ip-adresses-151126/] and CyberGhost is aware of this! Soon your account email will be targeted with junk mails based on your web history through VPN and disconnect often, eventually block!!
Also, by default, you are subscribed to auto-renewal and when you cancel, you will notice live chat becomes suddenly available to contact, otherwise its just a useless icon.
Absolutely rubbish customer service with their answers never to the point !
I purchased this Cyberghost VPN basically to access Australian Content when oversea’s but it simply doesn’t work, unfortunately I purchased 3 years at big discount but then couldn’t test it overseas within the 45 days, i have since tried to get a refund and CG themselves have tested the sites i want to access being mainly Netflix and Disney AU and some commercial TV channels for news and confirmed they don’t work even though CG was advertised to work for Australia, the only reason CG will give for no refund is out of 45 day period and CG refuse to answer why no refund when they advertised it to work and they have admitted it doesn’t, totally misleading and basically scamming company, avoid at all costs after researching CG further i have discovered most of the positive reviews are in fact fake. Don’t fall for the huge discounted prices, fact is if you need VPN then you have to pay, believe me
When I purchased the product it worked flawlessly no loss of speed streaming and fast connections. Pretty close to the 45 day mark the software did an update and it has been useless ever since. Multiple tries to work with their customer service lead no where. I can not connect to my own web page with it connected. After turning it off, it works at full speed. When describing the problem they offer solutions that are unrelated, almost as of the assistant is a random answer bot.
Buyer beware this one is a scam and a ripoff.
Look elsewhere, they get your money and you get screwed.
I totally agree….its a scam and ripoff!
I just signed up with CyberGhost. I installed it on a Windows PC two days ago and, despite a few good chats with CG, it still does not work properly. When the PC wakes up from sleep, it takes up to 3 minutes to re-connect and the internet is no longer accessible unless CG is turned OFF again. I am still trying to get this corrected but the chat is not available this weekend. I also have an issue with CG on my Fire TV. It doesn’t work with Amazon Video and doesn’t work with Netflix. Also, it seems that it can’t be turned OFF unless you log off. I am still dealing with CG on this, but have had no reply for 2 days to my email. Almost ready to get a refund now.
It was perfect for 5 years but now is a piece of s… Right now too much connection and software problems occur. The advertiser.cyberghostvpn.com cookie stored continuously at \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies
questioning the trust about privacy and no log policy . Fortunately my 3 years subscription expires within a month….
I made the mistake of paying for 3 years service.
After only a month or so, the servers were blocked and I was unable to connected except at very slow speeds.
I could have gotten those slow speeds for free.
Customer support misdirected me to use TunnelBrick. That was not better. Later I discovered that I could only make connections with the original software to certain foreign countries.
The software is not smart enough to brake a connection that is blocked and choose a new server. It is a GARBAGE APPLICATION.
DO NO USE IT. They are not ethical.
I have tested this VPNand I must say this is the best VPN I have used from all VPN in all aspects. What about the history of this company that was the past people can change in better way so I trust this company . Very good speed and torrent too then express VPN and Nord VPN. I have wrote this because you was very critical about this company
I am completely disappointed, it seemed to work correctly on windows but i always get some loss of connections on linux, their openvpn config is a mess too, it always drops the connection without any alert, especially dangerous depending what ur doing on the internet i guess !
there is a lot of DNS leaks on linux that did not appear on windows at first time.
the linux version is non reliable at all, it will disconnect without any alert, and if u have dhcp on, you will continue to browse the internet without any alert, but without any protection.
i cleaned the internet yesterday, but now i am afraid the garbage can come back to my zone.
I would have given no stars but this system forces you to choose at least one star. I erroneously signed up for auto-renew with Cyberghost. Some how I missed any way to turn auto-renew off. Sure enough, right on schedule, my Cyberghost subscription was renewed for another year. I contacted them via their support chat system. The only apparent way to contact them. I was told it would take 1 day to receive an email confirming my request for cancellation and a refund. And that the refund would take 5 – 10 days.
I explained that that was unreasonable as it took minutes for them to charge my credit card. But it would take 5-10 days to refund the charge. The contact named Joey didn’t seem to think this was extraordinary. I’m sure if someone took $66 USD out of his paycheck he would be upset too.
To-date I have seen no email from Cyberghost confirming my request for a refund and cancellation of my account. Instead I got an email welcoming me to their VPN service for another year!
I will contact my bank and they will reverse the charge. Thus, thwarting Cyberghost’s attempt to steal money from me.
This is my first year with Cyberghost. I switched from ExpressVPN which did not work for me while I was abroad (China, 2017). ExpressVPN also kept dropping connections on my laptops and phones when I returned to the US.
Unfortunately, it seems it’s to be expected with VPNs that speed drops significantly and connections fail from time to time. These things have certainly been true with Cyberghost for me but I was willing to overlook them, including my internet speed being less than HALF what I pay for while using the VPN, because I value my privacy most. So when my ISP informed me of my internet activity a month ago, I was horrified. I’ve been noticing since then that, despite having the internet kill switch “on” to protect me in the event the internet connection is cut, when the internet goes down (whether ethernet connected or via wifi), it eventually comes back on BUT WITHOUT CYBERGHOST ACTIVE. This leaves all my internet traffic naked for however long I’m away from my computer before I catch the problem and fix it manually.
I’d been asking the Cyberghost support team for help with the frequently dropping connections. They’d send me instructions which I’d follow exactly. Nothing fixed the problem.
So I’m paying for a VPN that works SOMETIMES. A service that can fail–has failed–at the worst times. I won’t renew my contract with Cyberghost. Instead, next I’ll research routers that come packaged with VPNs or comparable technology that proves more reliable.
A failing VPN is like a failing condom. It only takes a single failure to lead to a possibly catastrophic outcome.
I signed up and started using CG yesterday. I quit using it today. Sadly, I didn’t read this review before signing up, so I did not know CG was now an Israeli company. Israel is totally in bed with the US, so I am quite certain they would give the US anything it asked for. However, I am normally pro Israel on almost everything.
I found CG to be very easy to install, setup and use. Unfortunately, I also found them to be slow beyond belief. That was my reason for leaving them. I had made the decision before finding this article.
I have a 400mbps Internet connection. On WIFI, I normally get 350 to 375mbps, and I was before installing CG. After installing CG my speeds went down into the kbps ranges. My best speed was 95mbps using an Atlanta based server. Ironically, it is also the server I do best on without the VPN which makes me suspicious.
I had absolutely no problem in doing a chat to cancel. While they did ask me why I wanted to cancel, they gave me no hassle whatsoever. The girl I chatted with was actually quite nice, and I believe she sincerely meant it when she said she was said to see me go.
I will have to wait and see how long it takes to actually get the refund, but it has been processed based on the emails I have received.
I will now try NORDvpn. I am very concerned with them being in Panama and Panama’s close ties to the US Military Industrial complex and what effect that will have
Yes I too wish I had read about cyber ghost before I joined. Continual connection issues, Horrible speed and now I read privacy issues. Time to look elsewhere.
I agree speeds are atrocious with Cyberghost. Only one torrent can be downloaded at a time. Like with other VPN providers, the Android client does not prevent your actual location from being revealed even if you’re in Airplane mode. On iPhone, you’re location is cloaked.
Despite of many positive reviews and good pros of CyberGhost there are also numerous cons which make this VPN service not as attractive as wanted to be. Eg. poor customer service, lack of diversity of servers and lack of encryption features, they don’t have additional encryption like direct connection through Tor. Also there is uncertain root certificate which make me feel a bit negative about this vpn. There are of course good features and this service seems to be for a long time on the market, the choice is your of course so I don’t want to tell that this is a complete rubbish this is just my opinion and facts.