| Name | VPN.ac |
| Location | Romania |
| Price | $3.75/mo. |
| Logs | No logs |
| Support | |
| Website | VPN.ac |
VPN.ac may not get tons of attention, but this Romanian VPN provider offers some great features at a reasonable price — and it may be worth your consideration. In this updated VPN ac review, we put this VPN under a microscope to see how well it compares with the best VPN services in all different categories.
Overall, the results were good. This is a VPN that can compete with the big players, and it remains an affordable option for those on a budget. Let’s begin with an overview of the VPN before we get into more detailed test results.
VPN.ac overview
VPN.ac is a Romania-based VPN service that provides users with strong encryption, secure apps, and great performance. Their network consists entirely of dedicated bare-metal servers with self-hosted DNS and gigabit bandwidth channels. VPN.ac also provides you with unique encryption protocols, double-hop server configurations, and secure proxy browser extensions.
While VPN.ac earns high marks in security and usability of its apps, this VPN.ac also comes with some drawbacks that we identified. One problem is that VPN.ac does not work with most streaming sites, so we’ll recommend alternatives further below for streaming different media channels. It is also somewhat limited with advanced privacy features in comparison to other leading VPNs.
+ Pros
- Dedicated bare-metal servers with self-hosted encrypted DNS
- Excellent speeds with plenty of available bandwidth
- Multi-hop (double VPN) server configurations
- Obfuscation features with many different encryption options
- Secure proxy browser extensions
- WireGuard VPN support
– Cons
- Does not work well for streaming
- Fewer features than other leading VPNs
- Limited refund window (7 days)
VPN.ac price
VPN.ac comes in about average on the pricing scale. The two-year plan will give you the best deal, at about $3.75 per month. This puts VPN.ac about on par with NordVPN, which also offers a discounted two-year rate, as we covered in the NordVPN review.
Below are the current prices from the VPN.ac website.
Overall, these prices are not too bad for a premium VPN service with secure applications. However, it’s also not the cheapest VPN you will find on the market.
Want to test drive VPN.ac without committing to a long subscription?
Discounted one-week trial – VPN.ac also offers the option to get a discounted one-week trial subscription, which includes all features and full functionality. Simply go to the website and click on the FAQ tab, where you will see a link at the top to the trial plan. There are also other VPNs with a free trial you can consider as well.
Payment options – VPN.ac offers many payment options, including anonymous payment methods, such as Bitcoin and various gift cards:
- PayPal
- Bitcoin and various altcoins
- Credit cards
- Alipay
- 100+ US gift cards
- Mobile/SMS options and more…
Note: VPN.ac does not have any kind of free VPN plan. They only offer paid VPN subscriptions.
Refund Policy – VPN.ac provides a 7 day money-back guarantee, which they describe on the website as follows:
7 days money back guarantee: We will refund your order if you can’t use our service or if you are not satisfied with it.
The refund policy is clear and does not contain any hidden exceptions or bandwidth clauses. Most other VPN services offer a longer refund window, as we noted in our Surfshark vs NordVPN comparison.
Company background and jurisdiction
VPN.ac was created by a team of network security professionals in 2012.
They are transparent about the background of the company and their professional qualifications. From their website:
Each individual member of our team has over 14 years of experience in IT security, providing security audit and penetration testing services for both public and private customers, banks and military institutions.
Our experience in pentesting and security audit services is mainly what gives us an edge in keeping our infrastructure secure, because it is often the infrastructure implementation which is the weakest link of a VPN service.
Encryption/data security is something we are very familiar with, as a result of being a local supplier of some of most secure commercial encrypted storage devices, which are compliant with requirements for governmental and military use (FIPS 140-2 Level 3, Common Criteria EAL, NATO InfoSec, etc.)
They also provide the contact details and professional certifications of the parent company, Netsec Interactive Solutions, which is based in Sibiu, Romania.
Jurisdiction – VPN.ac falls under the jurisdiction and laws of Romania. Romania appears to be a solid jurisdiction when it comes to privacy. It is not a member of the 14 Eyes surveillance alliance, or a close ally of any major spying regimes.
Being in Romania, VPN.ac is also able to ignore all DMCA complaints, and get around copyright issues on its network. This makes VPN.ac a good option if you need a safe VPN for torrenting.
Private data is also protected in Romania, with data retention being officially declared unconstitutional by the Romania Constitutional Court in 2014.
VPN.ac apps and supported platforms
VPN.ac supports many different devices and platforms. They offer VPN applications (clients) for Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android. For Linux users, VPN.ac has a Linux client in beta for Ubuntu-based distributions, but this has not been available for a while now. (There are other options in our guide on the best VPNs for Linux.)
You can download the latest software directly from the website and also view the installation guides:
We will go into detail on the Windows, Mac OS and Android clients below.
Connections – VPN.ac allows 6 connections per subscription. This is about average for the VPN industry. There are a few VPNs that give you an unlimited number of connections — check out our Surfshark review if you want to go that route.
Knowledge base – You can find many detailed guides in the knowledge base dealing with a variety of topics:
- OpenVPN, IPSec/L2TP, IKEv2, WireGuard, and PPTP encryption protocols
- Router installation guides
- Secure proxy and Socks5 proxy setup
- Online privacy tips
- Troubleshooting guides
- WireGuard integration
If you are interested in using a VPN on a router, VPN.ac is a decent choice. You can download the config files for your router in the member’s area. Currently, VPN.ac is not integrated with the Vilfo router, but you can easily import the OpenVPN configuration files on this and other models.
VPN.ac encryption options
VPN.ac offers numerous encryption options. This allows you to select the best encryption strength depending upon how much privacy and security you are seeking, while also optimizing performance.
The default encryption protocol is OpenVPN ECC (Elliptic Curve Cryptography). This provides a good combination of speed and security. The VPN.ac website further explains their different VPN protocols and encryption options:
- PPTP: 128-bit MPPE (keep in mind that the protocol itself is broken so the encryption is pretty much useless per se)
- L2TP/IPSec: 256-bit AES and RSA-2048 (with Maximum Strength Encryption enabled in manual setup or with our software)
- OpenVPN 128-bit BF: 128-bit BF-CBC for data channel, RSA 2048 for keys and SHA1 HMAC (preferably to be used only on devices that do not currently support AES/custom OpenVPN settings, e.g. Synology NAS)
- OpenVPN 128-bit AES: 128-bit AES-CBC for data channel, RSA 4096 for keys and SHA256 HMAC
- OpenVPN 256-bit: 256-bit AES-CBC for data channel, RSA 4096 for keys and SHA512 HMAC
- OpenVPN ECC: 128-bit AES-CBC for data channel, Elliptic Curve using curve secp256k1 for keys and SHA512 HMAC
- OpenVPN XOR: 128-bit AES-CBC for data channel, RSA 4096 for keys and SHA512 HMAC
VPN.ac also now supports the WireGuard VPN protocol. Unfortunately, WireGuard is not built into the VPN.ac clients. This means that using WireGuard with VPN.ac will take some setup and can be cumbersome. If you want to use WireGuard easily with the VPN apps, we’d recommend going with NordVPN here.
Optimize performance – Having different encryption options helps you to optimize performance with your VPN. Testing out different VPN protocols, encryption, and ports is a good idea if you are in an area where VPN use is restricted.
Reading through one of the privacy guides on the website, they make an interesting argument for using a 128-bit cipher over a 256-bit cipher with their software:
OpenVPN 256-bit AES is kind of overkill, rather use AES 128-bit. We don’t expect anyone to go for AES cracking while there are weaker links in the chain, such as the RSA keys: how are they generated (good or poor entropy, online/offline generation, key storing on servers etc.). Therefore, AES-128 is a very good choice over AES-256 which is mostly used for marketing claims (“bigger is better”).
Now we’ll examine the obfuscation features.
Obfuscation to defeat network restrictions
VPN.ac offers an excellent lineup of obfuscation features, which allow you to break through network restrictions. This can hide VPN traffic, which may be getting blocked, as standard HTTPS encrypted traffic. Obfuscation usually entails a small performance tradeoff, but this can be minimal.
As a brief reminder, obfuscation features are necessary in countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, which implement censorship and strict network restrictions. We also covered this in our best VPN for UAE guide, which currently includes VPN.ac. Another use case for obfuscation is with work or school networks that block VPNs or implement other restrictions. There are also reports of internet service providers interfering with VPN traffic – another area where obfuscation may help.
This is very easy to do because VPN.ac offers different VPN protocols (OpenVPN XOR) and port selection options, as they explain on their site:
OpenVPN XOR is similar to OpenVPN 256-bit in terms of key strength and HMAC as the same are used, it is just the symetric cipher that is different, AES 128-bit being faster and less CPU intensive than AES 256-bit. We recommend to use it only when other OpenVPN types do not work, such as within networks that block other connections than outgoing over ports 80 and 443. Running OpenVPN XOR over port TCP-443 should by-pass most firewalls/web-filtering engines.
Implementing this in the application is very easy, simply select the OpenVPN XOR protocol, then select port TCP-443, and then you can connect to any server you want:
As an extra stealth VPN feature, VPN.ac also provides a lineup of servers that are generally configured for China or other restricted countries. These are labeled in the VPN.ac client as “China Optimized” servers.
Due to these features, VPN.ac is currently one of the best VPNs to use in China – and any other restricted networks.
VPN.ac secure proxy for browsers
VPN.ac provides secure proxy browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera browsers. They describe the benefits of the browser extension as follows:
- Strong encryption for all browsing activity using TLS (pure HTTPS traffic)
- Stealth against Firewall/DPI (deep packet inspection): when inspected using DPI technologies, the connections using the SecureProxy don’t trigger alerts like a classic VPN would usually do
- There is no need to tunnel all your PC traffic through the VPN: you can have the browser tunneling the traffic through our servers and all other traffic sent via your regular ISP connection. You can call it “a VPN inside the browser”
This is a great feature for people who don’t want to encrypt all traffic on their computer via a VPN, but seek a secure solution for browsing with more privacy. We discuss other browser extension options in our best VPNs for Chrome guide.
DNS filtering (ad blocking)
Another great VPN.ac feature worth mentioning is DNS filtering. Like other ad blocking VPNs, this new feature will filter out lots of bad stuff
- Ads
- Trackers
- Malware and phishing domains
This feature can be accessed in the in the VPN app’s settings area and is called SecureDNS. The feature is available with the Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS apps.
Multi-hop VPN configurations
We’ve covered the benefits of multi-hop VPNs before. This feature adds a higher level of security and anonymity by putting two encrypted servers between you and the unencrypted internet.
Double-hop – VPN.ac currently offers 22 double-hop VPN server configurations. This is a great selection when compared to other providers. Here are a few of the double-hop servers available:
Performance – With multi-hop VPN configurations, you can typically expect a performance reduction simply due to increased latency (distance your traffic must travel).
I tested a transatlantic double-hop configuration from Germany to Canada and got nearly 82 Mbps, which is pretty good.
Overall the speeds were excellent throughout the server network. However, in our speed tests for the NordVPN vs ProtonVPN comparison, we also tested out double-VPN speeds and found NordVPN to get around 214 Mbps.
Self-configurable multi-hop – For those seeking a higher level of anonymity, one great option is a self-configurable multi-hop configuration. In other words, the server network and applications allow you to create your own unique multi-hop cascade. Perfect Privacy offers this with their Windows, Linux and Mac OS clients.
VPN.ac for Windows
VPN.ac offers a great Windows client that I tested for this review. The screenshots below are all from testing VPN.ac on a Windows 10 laptop.
The VPN.ac Windows client also gives you access to a variety of different settings you can configure directly in the “Advanced” section, with VPN protocol and port selection at the top.
Overall I really like the new and updated client. It has a great layout, works well, and was very reliable in testing. It also gives you the option for light or dark mode.
If you need a VPN for Windows, this is a solid choice. We even rated it as one of the best VPNs for Windows.
VPN.ac for Mac OS
Just like with the Windows client above, the updated Mac OS client also worked well. Essentially it has the same layout, preferences, and features of the Windows client.
If you are needing a good VPN for Mac, VPN.ac would be on the short list of recommendations.
The VPN.ac Mac OS client provides all features, including:
- Double-hop configurations
- Obfuscation
- Advanced leak protection and firewall settings (kill switch)
Running numerous tests on a MacBook Air did not identify any issues with the VPN.ac Mac client.
VPN.ac on Android
VPN.ac offers a fully-featured Android client that I also tested for this review.
Here is the VPN.ac Android client:
In testing out the Android client for the review everything worked well. I did not notice any bugs, crashes, connection problems or leaks.
Extensive features for the Android app – While most VPN services offer Android clients that are somewhat limited, VPN.ac’s Android client comes fully loaded with lots of great features.
It gives you all encryption options, all double-hop server configurations, and other advanced settings and preferences. It also made our roundup list of the best VPNs for Android, although it does not hold a top position.
VPN.ac on iOS (iPhone and iPad)
VPN.ac also offers a good iOS app that we tested for this review. It utilizes the built-in IKEv2 cipher, which is natively supported on iOS devices. This offers good security, no leaks, and is very stable. Here is the VPN.ac iOS app when tested with an iPhone (the VPN icon at the top confirms an active connection):
You can also confirm the function of the VPN app in the iOS settings. By choosing “Connect on demand” you will get a stable connection where all non-VPN (unencrypted traffic) will be blocked, and all internet will go through the VPN.
Alternative installation – Aside from using the VPN.ac iOS app, you can also manually configure your iOS device to use the IKEv2 config files for various servers. This is an app-free solution.
Does VPN.ac keep connection logs?
Previously, VPN.ac would keep connection logs for 24 hours. However, in 2021, they changed their policy to only keep basic connection logs while the VPN session is active. In other words, VPN.ac keeps no logs of their users, but basic connection logs are generated (and automatically erased) with each VPN session.
Here’s the exact explanation on logs from the VPN.AC website:
Do you log/monitor my activity? What logs do you keep on servers?
No, we do not log/monitor any kind of user activity such as visited web-sites, emails, files transferred, instant messages, DNS queries etc.
We do, however, keep some connection logs (to our VPN service) for security and support purposes. These are kept for the time while a session is active and are removed shortly after disconnection.
Keeping these logs also help us in identifying potential attacks against our service, such as brute-force and even some MiTM attack vectors.
Overall this isn’t too concerning in my opinion. They are clearly being honest and transparent about their policies, explaining their need for logs, and also how the data is erased automatically when the VPN session ends.
If you find these polices concerning, there are other no logs VPN services to consider.
VPN.ac server network
VPN.ac’s server network is both secure and fast, with a clear emphasis on server quality (dedicated bare-metal servers).
One of the biggest issues affecting speed is the number of people using the VPN server at a given time. Many VPNs oversell their services, resulting in congestion, slow speeds, and dropped connections.
You can see this is not the case with VPN.ac by looking at their server network bandwidth stats in real time (see Nodes Status at the top of the website). Using and testing VPN.ac over the years, I’ve always found the bandwidth and performance to be good.
No virtual private servers (VPS) – Another important aspect when examining VPN servers is whether they’re using virtual private servers (VPS), or dedicated (bare metal) servers for their VPN nodes. Here is VPN.ac’s server explanation:
We use dedicated servers on our VPN nodes, mostly consisting of powerful E3 and E5 Xeons with hardware AES crypto acceleration. Running VPN gateways on VPS/cloud instances is a security risk. Moreover, running VPN nodes on dedicated hardware can be as 10x or even 20x times more expensive than running on virtual servers, hence the reason why we don’t advertise ‘hundreds’ of locations but focus on fewer, where security is done properly and the bandwidth capacity is enough to ensure a fast and reliable service.
No fictitious server locations – I also tested a number of VPN.ac servers to verify their true locations. Every server I tested checked out.
Does VPN.ac work well with Netflix and streaming?
Although they don’t advertise it, VPN.ac does work with American Netflix on some servers – but you may need to ask support which servers to use. With that being said, there are other VPNs to use with Netflix that support numerous Netflix regional libraries around the world.
Other streaming services
Overall, VPN.ac is not the best choice for streaming as their focus is mostly on security and privacy. It is not a VPN for Disney Plus, BBC iPlayer, Hulu, or other services, simply because it often gets blocked by these websites.
Another issue is that VPN.ac does not offer much support for other streaming devices. For example, we noted in the ExpressVPN vs NordVPN comparison that these two VPNs support gaming consoles, TV systems, and a variety of other devices through a Smart DNS system. Meanwhile VPN.ac does not offer this kind of support. It is also not a VPN for Firestick because VPN.ac does not have a dedicated app available in the Amazon Store.
VPN.ac speed test results
I ran all speed tests with VPN.ac using a 160 Mbps ethernet connection with the VPN.ac Mac OS client using the OpenVPN protocol. Overall speed tests were pretty good.
First up was a nearby server in Frankfurt, Germany: 131 Mbps
Definitely not bad, but also not amazing. I ran a few other tests with nearby VPN.ac servers, and the results were consistent.
Here was a VPN server in Finland giving me about 122 Mbps:
With nearby servers in Europe, VPN.ac gave me pretty consistent speeds around 120 to 130 Mbps. Not great, but also not horrible.
Long-distance server speed tests
Next, I tested different VPN.ac servers in the US and Canada. Again, speeds were alright, but not amazing.
First up was a server in New York at about 107 Mbps:
Certainly not bad given the long distance, but I’ve gotten faster speeds with other VPNs. Next up was a server in Chicago, at about 54 Mbps:
Again, this is not great. We are seeing VPN.ac lagging behind other leading VPNs in the speed category. Other servers I tested in the US and Canada offered similar performance, between 70 and 100 Mbps.
Conclusion on speeds and performance
VPN.ac offers consistent speeds, but it’s certainly not the fastest VPN we have tested.
If getting the maximum speeds is important for you, I’d recommend going using NordVPN with the WireGuard protocol.
For comparison, below I’m using NordVPN with the WireGuard protocol on a US server and getting about 445 Mbps:
These tests were conducted from our US lab, which has a higher connection speed. Still, you can see a large performance difference.
Learn more about WireGuard with NordVPN here >
Privacy and security with VPN.ac
In terms of leak-testing results, VPN.ac passed without any leaks or issues to report.
I tested the Windows, Mac OS and Android clients using the basic VPN test procedures to identify problems or leaks.
Below are tests with a Norway server. Notice, my DNS requests are being picked up by three different secure servers in VPN.ac’s network. The IPv4 address matches the server, IPv6 is blocked, and there are no leaks to be found:
The test results for the Windows, Mac OS, and mobile clients (Android and iOS) were the same: no leaks were found.
As you can see from these test results, VPN.ac offers high-quality applications that are secure and will protect your privacy.
DNS leak protection – VPN.ac also does a great job of ensuring there are no DNS leaks by using their own secure DNS resolvers. From their website:
We protect DNS queries against MitM hijacking and snooping, wiretapping. We have our own, private DNS resolvers outside of US and UK. All DNS queries sent by VPN users are forwarded by our VPN servers to the private resolvers, through encrypted tunnels.
We are using an unique and clever way to overcome this risk [of 3rd party DNS resolver monitoring], by running a query generator service on each DNS resolver. Specifically, We are generating over 10 million DNS queries to existing domains each day. Those queries are generated randomly, at a high rate, and are mixed with the DNS queries of our customers. Basically, we are generating “noise” and it’s virtually impossible to match a user’s DNS queries within the “flood” of queries sent by us to DNS root servers directly. Therefore, if a 3rd party is ever going to wiretap our DNS resolvers, it will be totally ineffective.
While most VPN users may not pay much attention to issues such as server quality and securing DNS queries, these details have a major impact on your privacy and security.
Website and support (no live chat support)
The VPN.ac websiteis informative and straight-forward. It includes:
- Useful VPN information
- Privacy and security tips
- Server status page
- Detailed setup tutorials for different devices and platforms
Email support
The support team is also top-notch based on all my interactions with them. They do not outsource support and handle all requests internally with their own professional staff. However, there is one drawback: there is no live chat support available.
Support is handled through tickets (email) and reply times were fast with all my inquiries (under 24 hours). If you want access to 24/7 live chat support consider some alternatives like NordVPN, as well as ExpressVPN or Surfshark.
VPN.ac Review Conclusion
VPN.ac may just be one of the best-kept secrets in the VPN market. As a smaller provider that puts minimal emphasis on marketing, it does not get the attention it deserves. Nonetheless, VPN.ac is an advanced VPN service that is built on a premium network of dedicated servers, giving you both security and high performance.
Despite being a less-known provider, VPN.ac offers an excellent service and will remain among the top VPNs recommended on Restore Privacy. You can also pick up a discounted subscription by selecting the two-year plan to save 62% off the monthly rate. They also offer a one-week trial for only $2. All subscription plans come with a 7 day money-back guarantee.
Alternatives to VPN.ac
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 our best VPN list for other recommendations. And if you want to see how well other VPNs stacked up, see our VPN reviews page. Some of our other popular reviews include:
If you have used VPN.ac, feel free to share your honest review (good or bad) below.
This VPN.ac review was last updated on January 7, 2023 with new information.
I use on android (CalyxOS), Win7, and Win10. Android works flawlessly. WIn7 and 10 apps however are seriously flawed. If all you do is log in to Win and connect to the default server it works fine. If you want to change the server initially, or make more than one change to the server after initial login, it does not work. It will either tell you that you are logged in, which a quick check of their own IP verification tool shows that you are not, or you are logged in to a server but blocked entirely. Another trick it does is when the computer has a power loss and auto restarts it will allow you to log in, but then provide no access to the internet (similar to above). Changing to another server, or even shutting the application down and then restarting have no effect. I have used other more mainstream VPNs who have working Win apps, so i know it is not Win7 or 10 (despite the fact MS is no gem). The frustration is not worth it. Will be finding a new VPN service next month when my 1 year subscription is expired.
Hello Sven, do you think the financial situation of Netsec Interactive Solutions SRL👉https://www.firme.info/netsec-interactive-solutions-srl-cui25170841/👈 and 👉https://www.topfirme.com/afacere/ netsec-interactive-solutions-srl/3g2yqt128t/👈 may compromise the security of vpn.ac and its users?
The Linux GUI is currently available in beta 2.0 version, and to the best of my knowledge has been constantly since it was introduced at the beginning of 2020.
Excellent service, I’ve been a customer for over 7 years. Though app updates are slow but they work absolutely flawlessly. Stability is more important than high frequency updates in my opinion. I’ve had yet too many problems with apps updated every single week introducing new bugs, eventually forcing me to roll-back until they get fixed, so I prefer to use something that is rock solid and proven to work. Just as the good old saying goes: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”
1. Anonymous online payment methods are avialable on VPN.ac.
2. Self-hosted and NO 3rd parties.
3. “No activity logging or monitoring of Internet activity. No logs, not even common Linux daemons, are kept on VPN servers.”
4. “No 3rd party tracking services on web-site (Google Analytics, tracking beacons, “Like” buttons etc”
I have checked it .. and they do not use cross-site trackers & ads, not a single one!
The websites of some of VPN providers use 5, 8 and sometimes 20 cross-site trackers & ads and at the same time they swear that they will protect your privacy )))
Awesome!
Until a week ago, I had been a customer of VPN.ac for 7 years. Here are my observations of their cons.
1. Lack of updates
I’m not sure about Windows or iOS, but their Android and Mac apps are quite infrequently updated (we’re talking years, particularly for Mac). Their Mac app has some pixelated graphics and, when recently questioned, they said they had no immediate plans to optimise it for M1 silicon (which had already been out for a year at that point).
Their aesthetically outdated website hasn’t seen an update since the day I signed on in 2015, which, when coupled with the lack of app updates, indicates an overall lethargic or disinterested mindset.
They can’t even be bothered to update the images of their app on the Play store, which show the older aesthetic that dates back years (the same aesthetic shown in this review, for whatever reason).
Who knows whether this mindset carries over to what’s really important — the effort they put into maintaining and improving the privacy and security offered through their service.
They also haven’t added any new servers to their relatively small network in years.
2. Wireguard not built-in
At least not on their Android or Mac apps, and seemingly no plans to include it. Yes, it’s easy to set it up manually via the official Wireguard client, but many other VPN providers already support it natively. VPN.ac have had plenty of time to do the same (which reiterates my first point). Also, no mention of if or how they tackle Wireguard’s inherent privacy weakness (at least not that I’ve seen).
Even IKEv2 isn’t built-in. The only protocol offered in their Android and Mac apps is OpenVPN.
3. Frequent connection drops
This only started happening in the last few months and only while using OpenVPN (UDP or TCP).
4. Lack-luster speed
For the most part, I never had a problem with their service’s speeds. However, in recent times, both DL and UL speeds had begun to downtrend significantly while connected to my city’s server (which hardly ever went above 5% load), regardless of the protocol used.
Across the past week, I tested two other mainstream paid VPNs — both of which offer 90-100% the speed of my base connection on my city’s server.
4. Lack-luster customer support
The premise of not relying on scripted live chat support, but rather tickets that are replied to promptly by the techies that maintain the service is great — however, the execution is flawed. Admittedly, in the 7 years I had been a customer, I only needed to contact them a few times. For the majority of this run, they (always the same one person) would reply in a manner so helpful and informative that I wouldn’t need to pose any further questions after the initial one. However, more recently, they’d begun to reply with short (one line) responses that either only partially answered my question/resolved my issue or not at all (which, again, I took as lethargy/disinterest).
My last communication with them was to politely follow-up on a refund request I had made shortly after renewing for another term. I receieved no response other than a subsequent refund confirmation from Paypal, and immediate invalidation of my login details for the VPN.ac customer portal. Since technical and billing enquires have to be lodged via their ticketing system (which can only be accessed in the customer portal), how would I have further followed-up if there was an issue in receiving the refund? Yes, I got what I wanted, but found this practice to be somewhat rude and inconsistent with ‘good’ customer service. I imagine most other VPN providers would’ve sent an email confirming they’ve processed the refund, an indication of how long it would take to be receieved, and a nice but meaningless ‘Sorry to see you go’ or ‘Feel free to contact us anytime’ line.
It is my opinion that VPN.ac has everything one would want in a security service.
Excellent customer support, decent geographical server coverage, transparent about who runs it, obfuscation that actually works, good speeds, plenty of encryption/port options, good prices, and so far I haven’t had any issues with streaming sites.
Overall I think this service is an excellent value. Underrated for sure!
VPN.ac’s wireguard is very easy to set up. Only takes a few steps. If you can set up a decent client such as VPN.ac’s, their wireguard’s simple. What you end up with is Windows’ Wireguard tunnel with VPN.ac’s servers. Doesn’t look like much but connections are practically instant, fastest I’ve ever seen and speeds are usually higher than the other two wireguard vpn’s I use.
Let me put it this way, if 7 Zip bothers you because it’s not all colorful and fluffy looking even though it’s extremely fast, VPN.ac’s wireguard will be annoying. If a fast tunnel with a boring white window that sits in the background anyway is OK, then go for it!
This review should be corrected. The connection logs aren’t erased daily, they are kept only during connection to the VPN server and removed shortly after disconnect.
Yep, we’ll have it updated soon with a full review update and new test results.
I am a long time user of Air VPN, PIA, and Mullvad. PIA is one I won’t touch any more, Mullvad is good but a bit too basic and pricey, Air is superb for a tech person, but I find it a bit too complex and designed that way. I have no doubt Air is definitely in the top 3 VPNs on earth for genuine security and privacy rather than just the mirage of it which so many companies push out in their marketing. However Air hasn’t got a great app (for me anyway) and so I looked around.
Then I found VPN.ac. I could’nt be more impartial, and I coudn’t be more impressed. In a word – WOW.
Sven says above “However, there is one drawback: there is no live chat support available.” – Sorry my friend, but that is NO drawback whatsoever in my experience. EVERY live chat I have had online, be it Amazon, GoDaddy, ExpressVPN or anyone else, has been a complete and utter moron with a short list of copy/paste answers at their disposal.
For example when I questioned ExpressVPN about logs, after 20 minutes of rephrasing my question about 10 different ways, I got the same answer every tinme, which was complete avoidance of the question and showed me they do (in my opinion) keep logs “in order to verify device connections and number of devices per account”.
I can’t begin to describe how annoyed and fed up I am with the amount of lies told by VPN companies, the only exceptions in my experience being AirVPN, and now VPN.ac too.
Given the VERY high bar set by AirVPN I didn’t think I would ever find one to compete but I have to say VPN.ac has now hit my top spot by just a smidgen, for two reasons: better apps and better support. I could easily add better speeds but they really don’t matter to me as long as I get 10mbps minimum which I do with both. FWIW – I ran a speed test just now on Air VPN, and got 20mbps down, 40mbps up. Pretty good. I then ran VPN.ac and got FOUR TIMES THAT for download! Yes 80mbps connecting from the UK to continental Europe (for both tests).
Here are the two reasons I can not recommend VPN.ac enough…..
1. Support – AirVPN does have great support, it really does, but it’s very slow, as it’s forum-based. You will get an answer but you may have to wait several days, and as much as they try to help, I always feel they are talking to me as if I am a coder and network technician all rolled into one! I am not, I am just a fairly computer savvy normal user. Over the past few days I must have fired about 100 questions at VPN.ac, honestly waiting for them to get ‘pi55y’ as ALL others have in my experience, I ask a lot of questions because I want to know a lot of things about how my data will be handled, and the first company to get fed up of answering is the first to get unsubscribed from by me. VPN.ac were nothing short of amazing, and I mean AMAZING. I have tickets going back and forth, plus emails going back and forth, for hours on end. I didn’t get short answers either, I got long, detailed, and brilliantly explained (in EXCELLENT English, hooray, ExpressVPN take note!) answers referring me to sources and information to learn more where needed. I knew I was talking to ACTUAL experts, not front men for experts leaving the experts to drink coffee and play on their Xbox! These guys are absolutely superb in every way and if I couldn’t exhaust their enthusiasm for giving excellent support, NOBODY can!
2. App – I want an app to just work, and sometimes Air’s app doesn’t. VPN.ac on the other hand – WOW! They have managed to balance FUNCTION with EASE OF USE, two critical things which both need respecting, and VPN.ac have hit the nail on the head in their balance of the two. The app is as simple to use as Mullvad’s or PIA’s (which is a great app I must say, not that I would use them again), but it has the options tucked away to adjust protocols, locations etc all very easily. I installed it on all platforms except WIndows and it was equally brilliant on all of them. Beautifully designed as well.
VPN.ac have some interesting points of view. For example I have read how double hop VPN is a bit of BS marketing, and it IS, USUALLY! I tested VPN.ac to see if they would peddle that same rubbish (i.e. “double anonymity”, hahahah, as i have seen other companies claim!) and whilst VPN.ac DO offer double hop, they don’t mis-sell it as something it isn’t. They merely told me one interesting advantage which I hadn’t thought about previously… faster networks by sending your traffic INSIDE Their network as close to home as possible, and keeping it INSIDE that network as long as possible before hitting the target site. There are obvious possible privacy/security benefits to that too, but minor ones in my view. But the speed issue is a good one, as their networks are blazing fast and their connections between nodes are therefore often faster than the rest of the interwebs. 🙂
Another interesting point of view is on ipv6. They don’t support it, and boldly state why they never will, as they deem it a risk. I have actually heard about the same thing before and their explanation was very interesting to read. In short, you pay PENNIES for this VPN (I mean come on, for 2 years its cheaper than the PIA filth!) but you get REAL experts firing back replies to any questions or problems. It’s so damn good I only hope it’s sustainable long term because I won’t be changing any time soon!
To sum up, I research VPN providers every year, and have done for about 8-10 years now. I go to great lengths, I test, I speak to security professionals I know personally, I check company ownership and background etc etc. I really want to find someone I can trust. Until now I only trusted AirVPN, and I still DO trust them 100%. But I now trust VPN.ac just as much, and their service is frankly better in my opinion, especially for anyone who needs simplicity and ease of use.
You can stop reading any more reviews, just give VPN.ac a try, ask as many “uncomfortable” questions as you can of their support people, and SEE if you can find better! I know I can’t, and nobody has tried harder to do so than me!!
Please click here to sign up today. Ha ha ha, just joking, I have NOTHING to gain by writing this except to know that I might save some other people the significant time and pain I have endured in my journey before finding VPN.ac. Now I can just stop thinking about damn connection issues and privacy, and get on with my real work, safe in the knowledge VPN.ac are looking after my traffic as well as anyone can.
Oh, dammit! I forgot one more reason why I chose them (before realising how good they actually were), and this is a big deal to me and to many others I am sure….. PAYMENTS.
Unlike just about all the others (except AirVPN anyway) you can actually top of your account manually for any amount you like. This is HUGE for me, due to how I pay, and I am not explaining more but it’s important as it’s my way of remaining anonymous from a billing point of view. I can’t do recurring payments, and all the others I tried seemed to insist on recurring billing, saying “you can turn it off afterwards”. Well firstly, I can’t, because my card won’t work with recurring turned on (not authorised for repeat billing). Secondly, I don’t like that approach, hey let’s hook you in and then hope you forget to cancel. It just doesn’t sit right with me. VPN.ac to the rescue! I contacted them to complain, expecting the usual cr*p I got from all others (SurfShark for instance) saying basically ‘take it or leave it’ (so I left it, their loss). VPN.ac on the other hand explained in detail how to do what I needed to do, which is a very odd setup and I am sure not many customers need it. Long story short, I can top up my account in small payments until it reached the amount needed for a 2 year subscription, then order it with the prepaid balance. This coud also be useful to those hard up folks who sometimes get a few bucks spare and you can just bank it in your VPN balance to ease the pain of resubscribing in the future. Very nice feature.
These guys are pros, contact them and find out for yourself.
Here endeth my unbiassed and honest review of VPN.ac, and I am quite happy to spend a few minutes singing their praises, because they earned it.
Astute observations, Jeff, and I actually agree with you that live chat support can be responsive, yet totally useless with most VPN providers. But for the average users, they want to talk to someone right away. Therefore many VPNs simply outsource live chat support to (often incompetent) third parties. This is not the case with VPN.ac and some others, including NordVPN and Surfshark.
Decided to give these guys a try and I have been rather impressed! Zero connection issues, speeds are good, customer service is superb! Xor/TCP 443 works flawlessly for me at my work. Being able to lower the encryption to 128AES saves me battery power, boosts performance quite a bit on mobile.
They recently released their “Secure DNS” ad/tracker blocker feature. So far it works well. I enquired about the connection logs and a customer service rep said that they’ve changed the policy and that they are deleted shortly after you disconnect. Whether it’s shortly after I disconnect or at the end of the day doesn’t really matter to me.
Hi, really I agree with the comment of the C.A user about the Open VPN Xor/TCP 443, it works. I jumped the blocking some webs using this protocolo.
I’m VPN.AC user from some years and I’m very happy with the service. The connection logs? No problem, if it’s for security, ok. Besides, I think most VPN services also do it but they don’t say it.
I have been with many VPN services. I still have a windscribe lifetime account (speeds are terrible).
I was looking for a VPN that supports the new Wireguard (well, new to me). I had looked at these guys before, but never tried them. I contacted them asking if they supported the wireguard native app. They replied quickly that yes, they do. So I signed up.
Within a day or so I was having a problem with a couple of servers. I started a ticket and told them the situation. They replied within 4 minutes and said ‘try to connect now, we are monitoring in realtime’. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never received support like that from a VPN company. We worked the issues out and now everything works great, just like I envisioned it. Their speeds are the fastest I’ve experienced on the VPN’s I’ve tried (SlickVPN, Windscribe, PureVPN, Surfshark). I have not in any way been paid or received any
have been using vpn.ac for almost 2 years. Since a few months back, pc app has connection issue, wont connect to any servers.
secondly, WG integration into their app is not finished yet, its has been almost 1.5 years, way to long. i have windscribe lifetime account they already has WG in mobile app, both android and ios.
i think i am saying this vpn a good bye.
i am now thinking of hopping again into either nord or ivpn, quite expensive though
I’m using VPN.AC for a year and a half. The service is good and normally the operation is correct. I really like the kill switch, it works perfect. I also want the servers to be dedicated and this VPN has dedicated servers. Speeds are good even with double hop servers.
Daily connection logs are not a problem, as it says they are only “of connection”, an aspect that most VPNs have in one way or another, since, for example, if a VPN service says that the number of computers that can connect simultaneously is limited , VPNs have some kind of connection log, simply to know the number of computers connected to the same user.
I have used several VPNs (ExpressVPN, Perfect Privacy, VyprVPN, and VPN.AC). At the moment I continue with VPN.AC because I am satisfied with the service.
Sven, it might be worth noting that the latest (Windows) iteration, 4.4, has added an (experimental) OpenVPN wintun adapter to the options. You have to add it separately (instructions here: https://vpn.ac/knowledgebase/132/Wintun-driver-support-Windows.html: 1) did not work for me, but 2) did), and then set the option in the vpn.ac GUI.
On my nominally 600 Mbps connection, speed increased instantly from 103 Mbps to 248 Mbps.
I’m pretty pleased with that. Not sure whether there are any downsides, and can’t see the wintun adapter in the normal place, in the (W10) adapter list. But it works well, and hasn’t crashed yet.
Hi Sven,
You didn’t test Netflix (streaming) compatibility ?
BTW, love the incognito avatars (white torso with sunglasses), except yours.
Ah, silly me. I now see that you did.
Yes. VPN.ac supports Netflix US, but you may need to ask their support exactly which servers to use.
You’re right it’s better to ask for server details. I also have to ask for Disney Plus and Amazon now.