| VPN | Windscribe |
| Based in | Canada |
| Logs | Timestamps & Bandwidth |
| Price | $4.08/mo. |
| Support | |
| Refund | 3 days |
| Website | Windscribe.com |
Windscribe is an interesting VPN service based in Canada. While it is not really a market leader, this VPN has some decent features to offer. But it also has some notable drawbacks, which we will closely examine in this Windscribe review.
Perhaps most concerning is the recent Windscribe security breach in Ukraine, where they left servers unencrypted. Because the servers were left unencrypted, Ukrainian authorities were able to obtain Windscribe’s private key when they seized the VPN servers.
While this incident demonstrates that Windscribe does not follow “industry best practices” (by their own admission), they have pledged to beef up their security. But before we dive into all the details of this Windscribe VPN review, let’s first cover an overview of the Pros and Cons.
+ Pros
- User-friendly applications
- Good leak protection features
- Ad blocker (ROBERT)
- Free plan with 10 GB of data per month
- Browser extensions
– Cons
- Slow speeds
- Server security issues
- Uses IKEv2 as default protocol
- Based in Canada (Five Eyes)
- AI-based support system
- Issues with professionalism
Additional research findings:
- Windscribe logging policies
- Does Windscribe work with Netflix?
- Is Windscribe good for torrenting?
- Windscribe prices and refund policy
Now let’s get into the results of this Windscribe review.
Windscribe Pros
1. User-friendly applications
For this Windscribe review, I tested out both the Windows and Mac OS VPN clients. The VPN apps were user-friendly and simple, while also having some nice features.
Here was the Windscribe Windows VPN client I tested:
Clicking the three lines in the top-left corner of the VPN client will open up additional options and features for you to select. You can select startup options, auto-connection, customize notifications, and also modify the layout of the VPN client.
Overall I liked the look and feel of the Windscribe VPN clients. They are simple, clean, and intuitive. Although I did not test the Windscribe mobile apps for this review, they look similar and also have a decent rating (4.3) in the Google Play Store.
2. Good leak protection features
Another “pro” with Windscribe is the leak protection features.
In both the Windows and Mac OS clients, Windscribe offers a “Firewall” setting to block traffic if the connection is not active. The Firewall feature gives you three options: Manual, Automatic, and Always On.
Windscribe also allows you to configure DNS settings within the client. Below you can see both the Firewall options and DNS settings in the Windows VPN client. The “Firewall Mode” basically functions as the VPN kill switch.
Ok, now on to the tests.
I ran Windscribe through a round of basic VPN tests and checks to identify any issues. The test results were good. I did not identify any leaks with Windscribe.
Here I’m testing the Windows client for IP address leaks and DNS leaks:
Above you can see that everything checks out (no leaks). I also ran the Windscribe Mac OS client through the same basic tests and the results were the same: no leaks.
Encryption – The Windscribe VPN desktop client uses an AES-256 cipher with SHA512 auth and a 4096-bit RSA key. The browser extension uses TLS 1.2, ECDHE_RSA with P-256 key exchange and an AES_128_GCM cipher.
WireGuard – Windscribe announced in July, 2020 that they now support the WireGuard VPN protocol. WireGuard is a protocol that aims to be much faster and more reliable than legacy protocols, while also upgrading the security. We’ve found that VPNs with WireGuard can really outperform those using legacy protocols, as you can see in the NordVPN vs ExpressVPN speed comparison.
In terms of basic security settings, Windscribe does well.
3. Windscribe’s ad blocker (ROBERT)
Another cool feature that Windscribe offers is an ad blocker. The Windscribe ad blocker is called ROBERT. I’m not sure if “ROBERT” is an acronym for something, but either way, it does quite a bit of blocking.
Windscribe offers basic filter lists, which will block the following categories of URLs:
- Malware
- Ads + Trackers
- Social media
- Porn
- Gambling
- Fake News + Clickbait
- Other VPNs
- Cryptominers
This is a pretty robust filter feature. It is similar to the TrackStop filter, which we covered in the Perfect Privacy review. However, one cool aspect with Windscribe’s ROBERT is that it is customizable. In other words, you can create custom white-lists for domains or IP addresses as well as custom block-lists.
This is a server-side ad blocker, which means it works independently of the VPN client with any device you are using. If you want a good VPN ad blocking solution, this may be an option to consider.
4. Free plan with 10 GB data/month
The last “pro” we will examine in this review is Windscribe’s free plan. Windscribe offers a free plan with the following restrictions:
- Only 10 GB of data allowed per month
- The ROBERT feature only includes the “Malware” filter list (no blocking of ads or trackers)
- Limited number of servers
On a positive note, Windscribe does give you a few different ways to increase your bandwidth allowance, including through promotional tweets and inviting friends.
While I generally do not recommend free VPN services, this may not be a bad option if you don’t need very much data. This is arguably the best free VPN with a free plan at 10 GB, while most others have a smaller data limit.
5. Windscribe browser extension
When you go to download Windscribe, you notice that they recommend downloading both a VPN application and a browser extension.
More and more VPNs are offering browser extensions that can be used with VPNs. We covered this trend in our guide on the best VPN for Chrome browsers. Some VPNs use the browser extension as a proxy. Others use it just to control the desktop VPN client.
So why use the VPN together with the browser extension? Windscribe shows some of the benefits of combining the desktop client with their browser extension below:
Using a browser extension may be good in certain situations. However, it’s also important to note that a browser extension is not a VPN. Instead, it is an HTTPS proxy, which does not offer the full protection of the VPN, such as firewall protection against IP leaks. This is noted in the table above, even though they refer to the proxy extension as a “browser-only VPN client”.
Windscribe Cons
Now let’s examine the cons of Windscribe.
1. Windscribe slow speeds
One big drawback with Windscribe is the performance with the OpenVPN protocol. To check for speeds with Windscribe, I used a 160 Mbps baseline (non-VPN) connection and tested many VPN servers throughout the world. My physical testing location was in Western Europe.
Note: I configured the VPN client to only use OpenVPN UDP, which offers better performance over OpenVPN TCP.
The Windscribe VPN client gives you the option to connect to the “Best Location”, which should offer the best speeds. Here were the results:
“Best Location” speed test with a nearby Windscribe server in Germany: 28 Mbps
This is definitely not a good test result for a nearby server, which should be offering near full capacity bandwidth.
Next up was a Windscribe server in Switzerland, which gave me even slower speeds around 18 Mbps.
I also tested a few Windscribe servers in the UK, which gave me about 30 Mbps.
If you want a fast VPN for the UK, Windscribe would probably not fit the bill. There are certainly better options to consider.
Next, I tested Windscribe servers in the United States. The test results were equally disappointing.
Here is a Windscribe server in New York giving me about 10 Mbps.
Even with the longer distances, this is still very slow.
Fortunately, there are a few different options for you. You can skip on OpenVPN and select the IKEv2 or WireGuard VPN protocols, which may be faster than OpenVPN.
Comparison – The fastest VPN we have tested so far is NordVPN. We were able to hit speeds up to 445 Mbps on a 500 Mbps internet connection.
2. Windscribe server security issues
We wrote a detailed article on the Windscribe security breach right after learning how it unfolded. You can read the original article, but here are the main highlights:
- Windscribe left its VPN servers in Ukraine unencrypted and unsecured.
- When Ukrainian authorities seized the servers, they also obtained Windscribe’s private key.
- With the private key, Ukrainian officials could decrypt traffic and spy on Windscribe users.
- Windscribe admitted that it does not follow “industry best practices” with its server network, but promised to change.
- Windscribe is in the process of upgrading server security and hopefully undergoing a security audit.
This incident highlights a major flaw in how the VPN itself is operated. We have seen other VPN services, include ExpressVPN and Perfect Privacy, also undergo server seizures. However, these other VPNs actually secured and encrypted their servers properly, which resulted in no customer data being affected.
Fortunately, Windscribe promises to upgrade security. However, the damage to its reputation is done, similar to IPVanish after the IPVanish logging incident.
3. IKEv2 is default protocol (rather than OpenVPN)
Another interesting thing with Windscribe is that it uses the IKEv2 protocol as the default option in the VPN clients.
While IPSec/IKEv2 is generally considered to be secure, it does have some noteworthy drawbacks. For one, IKEv2 is not open source and has not undergone extensive auditing like OpenVPN. Within the privacy and VPN community, OpenVPN is generally considered to be the gold standard.
If you examine the Windscribe VPN client, you’ll see that the default option is set to IKEv2, rather than OpenVPN.
Windscribe probably decided to make IKEv2 the default because it offers better speeds than OpenVPN. Once again, however, there is a security tradeoff here and OpenVPN should probably be used as default.
Switching to a more secure protocol is easy. Simply open the settings, then select “Manual” and choose the protocol you want to use.
4. Based in Canada (Five Eyes)
Another drawback with Windscribe is that it is based in Canada, which is not a good privacy jurisdiction.
As we have discussed before, Canada is a member of the Five Eyes surveillance alliance, along with the United States, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.
Canada also has mandatory data retention laws and abusive surveillance practices. We discuss these issues more in my guide of the best VPNs for Canada. Jurisdiction is an important consideration when choosing a VPN because this determines what laws and governance the VPN must operate under.
Copyright violation laws are another aspect to consider with jurisdiction. Canada has some strict laws against copyright violations, along with data retention that is used to prosecute piracy (copyright infringement) cases.
5. AI-based support system
One thing that I found rather annoying with Windscribe is that they are using a robotic AI-based support system, which they call “Garry”. When attempting to get help with some connection problems, I fired up a chat window. Garry did provide some suggestions and tips, but ultimately I wanted to speak with a human, rather than an AI bot.
After growing frustrated with the AI bot, Garry eventually offered me the option to “talk to a human”. This opened a screen where I could submit a support ticket and get help via email. There was no option to chat with a human.
Most of the top VPN providers, such as NordVPN and Surfshark, offer 24/7 live chat support with real humans. On a positive note, however, someone did email me some suggestions within 24 hours. Nonetheless, live chat support with a human being would be a lot better.
6. Issues with professionalism
One strange thing I noticed with Windscribe is that it really seems to be lacking in the professionalism department.
The first red flag I noticed was during the Windows client installation process. If you choose “Custom Install” you will see the following options under the “customize the experience” tab:
- Slow down the connection
- Disconnect randomly
- Show random errors all the time
Below this, you see in light grey letters, “Just kidding. These checkboxes actually don’t do anything.”
I guess this is Windscribe’s idea of a funny joke. Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but given the importance of security and privacy, I don’t see this as the best venue for jokes about VPN errors and problems.
But that’s not all…
When you uninstall Windscribe, you are redirected to a page with a monkey picture, profanity, and a YouTube video of the 90’s boy band N’ Sync. At the bottom of the uninstall page, you’re greeted with this message:
Strange.
Additional research findings
Below are some additional findings for this Windscribe review.
Windscribe logging policies
In my previous Windscribe review, I called them out for falsely claiming to “delete everything” – a claim that does not align with their own policies.
Previous false claims:
On the Windscribe features page, you can see they are now claiming to have “no identifying logs”.
Current logging claims:
So let’s examine the fine print.
At the very bottom of the Windscribe End User License Agreement (EULA) you find the following:
Now let’s examine the Windscribe Privacy Policy:
“When you use Windscribe, we keep the following data associated with your account:
- Total amount of bytes transferred in a 30 day period. Bandwidth reset date is in your “My Account” section.
- Timestamp of your last activity on the Windscribe network.
This data is used to enforce free tier limitations, prevent abuse and weed out inactive accounts.”
Verdict: In terms of logging policies, this isn’t too concerning.
Many VPNs record timestamps (see our ProtonVPN review) and/or data transfer, which alone cannot be used to identify users.
If privacy is a concern, there are also a handful of no logs VPNs that have been verified.
Does Windscribe work with Netflix?
Although Windscribe does indeed work with Netflix to a limited extent, it’s not the best VPN for Netflix I have tested.
First, I found that Windscribe does indeed unblock Netflix. I tested this with the Windflix US and Windflix Canada servers. Both worked without getting blocked.
I did run into some problems, however, with playback speed and buffering. The connection did not seem very stable and consistently fast. To verify these issues, I ran some speed tests with the Windflix US server, which gave me around 5 Mbps.
Overall, Windscribe might be an OK option for streaming, but it’s not the best VPN for Netflix due to the speed issues.
Firestick – Maybe you want a good VPN for Firestick, since this will help unlock stream channels. Windscribe VPN might be a good option because they have a dedicated app for Firestick in the Amazon Store. With that being said, the slow speeds may affect HD streams.
Is Windscribe good for torrenting?
Windscribe may not be the worst VPN for torrenting, but it’s also not the best. The main issue is the speeds. After all, torrenting with a slow VPN can be a real drag.
Windscribe’s official policy is that they allow torrenting on most servers. From their website:
You can use the Bit Torrent protocol in any Windscribe server location except India, Japan and WINDFLIX. Simply connect to any other Windscribe location in our desktop applications and use any torrent client as you normally would. That being said, we don’t condone using Windscribe for any illegal activity.
There are other good VPNs for torrenting, although Windscribe certainly is not the worst choice.
Windscribe VPN prices and refund policy
The prices for the paid plans with Windscribe are about average for the VPN industry.
The “Build A Plan” option allows you to select which server locations you want and pay accordingly.
Although Windscribe is not one of the cheapest VPNs, it still offers a pretty good value when you consider all the features.
Windscribe refunds
Windscribe’s refund policy contains some fine print. Here are three important points to keep in mind before you purchase a subscription:
- The refund window is for 3 days.
- The refund policy only applies if you purchase directly from Windscribe (no third-party sites like StackSocial)
- If you use more than 10 GB of data your refund will be void.
This is certainly not a good refund window – but at least they don’t have a “no refunds” policy, which we discovered in our TunnelBear review.
A shorter refund window is not too surprising since they encourage people to test out the free service before going with a paid subscription. You see these trend with other free trial VPNs.
Windscribe review conclusion
Windscribe has both pros and cons, as we have detailed above in the review.
I’d say the biggest “pros” with Windscribe are the features, particularly the robust ad-blocking feature (ROBERT). The apps are also user-friendly and offer some great preferences and leak-protection settings.
With that being said, there are two remaining issues:
- Windscribe is based in Canada, a bad privacy jurisdiction.
- Windscribe is slow (at least based on my tests with the OpenVPN protocol)
- Windscribe suffered a major security incident
The Windscribe security breach, as we noted above, seriously undermines the reputation of this VPN service. Can it be trusted if it does not even bother securing its own VPN servers (and user traffic)? You can decide that for yourself.
The performance issues are another big drawback, as this affects browsing, torrenting, downloads, and even streaming Netflix. For a seriously fast VPN with consistent performance, consider one of the alternatives below.
While Windscribe has made some improvements, there are better options to consider.
Best alternatives to Windscribe
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 guide on the Best VPNs for the latest recommendations.
If you have used Windscribe VPN, feel free to share your honest review (good or bad) below.
This Windscribe VPN review was last updated on April 20, 2022 with new information and test results.
I think Windscribe is a great VPN, and why:
-A bit expensive, but you can put together your own price, lowest: 2$ with 2 locations.
-Awesome payment options;
-Very nice configuration settings;
-They work hard and develop product better and better;
-Linux GUI avialable;
-One of the best Free VPN options: without registration – 2GB, and 10GB after sign up.
– Nice website. No Cross-Site-Trackgin, ads etc
Just awesome!
I see and read so much gaslighting these days it’s disturbing, like what’s going on in the world today.
I disagree with the shill-like positive comments about Windscribe’s support. Recently, a day before April 1, they posted an announcement that they were acquired by another VPN provider with a similar sounding name as Gape Technologies. They were extremely harsh in their response to criticism towards those who believed this to be fact. Support belittled, insulted, and condescended them publicly.
Personally, their support is ridiculously slow and even go so far to claim you never need a secure browser and that it’s pointless to use TorBrowser with a VPN. They remain ignorant (and gaslight) how the Firefox version of TorBrowser is very advanced and not the same as the standard modified Firfox browser.
In my case, I started receiving random emails from Windscribe that they detected unusual activity with (successful) logins. I know my account is very secure, and I have a fantastic password proven to be very effective and virtually uncrackable.
Windscribe suddenly blocked my account access just like that. I was not sharing or using my account simultaneously, except on one device alone. Their system has been bonkers for the last few weeks and they remain silent that it’s even happening. I reset my password successfully, the message confirmed. Then I went to sign-in again and I had the same message repeat itself. I was then prompted with another message that I am blocked from sending a support ticket via their online system. I had to look through my old emails to find their support email address.
It’s been a few weeks now. I’m still waiting for support to fix this problem. My premium membership with Windsribe ends at the end of this year. Rest assured, I will NEVER invest a penny into this company and support their unprofessionalism.
Anyway, I thought I would share my experience about Windscribe here. No doubt, the Windscribe shills and fanboys will be firing up the gaslights and moving the goalposts in support of Windscribe.
I have been using Windscribe for like 2 and a half years now and I actually disagree with most comments. The support from my experience was very good and very fast. The speeds are pretty much all as good as I would expect and in many cases even higher than other with other VPN providers I use or have used. They still have issues, that’s a fact but imo and from what I have seen until now still one of the best VPN companies out there. Here people said they got scammed what I don’t believe since I cancelled my subscription before with no problems and no payment after cancellation. And with the recent open sourcing of their clients its one of the few VPN companies you can actually trust. Also the support never asked me for any information they wouldn’t need. I don’t know if some of this claims are true but since I started using Windscribe nothing like that ever happened to me.
So, is it safe to use winscribe now in 2022. In terms of logging and all? Just trying for free “no logs” ones. Pls review on orchid vpn and hide.me pls. Thanks
Chrome extensions opens some fishy pop-ups. Is it this what I payed for?!
Hard to trust this service.
I agree with everything here, having used Windscribe for two years or so. I found that if you repeately connect and disconnect, speeds improve somewhat. They also recommend using IKEv2 (sarcastically, what do you expect) to speed connections further. That does help.
The best way to speed up Windscribe is to turn it off.
DO NOT BUY from them. first of all the website support does not work properly. so I had to join discord to ask a few questions and the discord admins started insulting me on a public chat. I saved all of the screenshots and will issue a refund. I messaged all staff members on discord. no one responded to me. I talked to website manager named “Winder” he refused to even apologize for the issue. he did not help me at all.
A staff member named “winder” banned me from the server after I raised my complaints to him. he did not even take responsibility or apologize to me. he banned me from the server instead and never explained why he did that.
This is outrageous, as he did not even let me talk to his supervisor when he banned me.
You basically pay to get insulted. I highly recommend the website owner to reconsider the staff team. the staff member “winder” called me “petty”.
As Steven wrote (May 22 2021) – Windscribe are unprofessional thieves. I was a customer for several years, and they made changes to OpenVPN connections, which stopped my devices from being protected. It started with a couple not working, and then gradually they all stopped. I raised a ticket, and they basically told me tough, read the terms and conditions, they can make changes when they want, and if my devices can no longer connect, it’s not their problem.
It sounds like they did me a favor in the end, but their communications seem to be written by a twelve year old, certainly someone with very limited social skills anyway.
Windscribe had a HUGE security incident. According to their vaguely named blog post,they had unencrypted servers which included private keys seized by the Ukrainian government. Their reputation, as well as previous incidents in the past like this WebRTC issue and the chrome extension leaking user IPs, means Windscribe has lost a lot of trust as a secure VPN provider.
If you don’t care about amazing customer support, or care about these security issues, Windscribe can still be a decent pick.
Wow, thanks for the heads up! I see their admission of this now:
https://blog.windscribe.com/openvpn-security-improvements-and-changes-7b04ea49222
UPDATE:
We covered the security incident here.
Hi Sven,
Restore Privacy has become my go to site for privacy reviews.
I check hear for the privacy deep dive.
Your above review criticizes Windscribe for being based in Canada (A Five Eyes Country).
Given VPN usage for privacy; where the threat model is: to obscure corporate, first and third parties, from tracking and profiling users; and opsec from state-based-actors is not part of the threat model;
Do you consider Windscribe a good privacy solution?
Do you have a mind or view on the considerations that may be relevant for persons who simply don’t like their data being gathered and analyzed but are not concerned about data being obtained by court authority.
(Heart to all who do have the concerns I do not. e.g. journalists)
I, myself am looking for privacy tools/solutions to prevent entities gathering my data without my permission and informing me: how it will be stored, who it will be shared with and how it will used.
What advise do you have?
I still think there are better options than Windscribe and the Canada jurisdiction was just one factor. But if you think it meets your needs, give it a try.
Windscribe are thieves. Cancelled my pro account after realizing it was not suitable for me, but they have continued charging me for the last 9 months. They have claimed I never cancelled, multiple times and are only offering me a refund of one month. Even though their records show I have not used the service in 9 month, they will not admit they are wrong.
New info on Windscribe. I thought Ygor or whatever his name is said they don’t pay anyone to give them a review? Anyway. They claim to be discontinuing their affiliate program.
Used Windscribe for several months on *free* account, then paid for pro during this holiday season when it went on sale. I see great speeds here in the US on 100Mbps cable, and the big sale point to me was Linux support via the terminal. No issues so far, glad I made the upgrade from free.
I used Windscribe for maybe two years when I was new to VPN’s (so were they) and they were offering lifetime licenses. Thought of Windscribe as a backup to my primary VPN. I can agree with everything in the review; Windscribe comes across as a group of smart teens, not a great way to gain trust, the primary characteristic of any good VPN. There are plenty of fanboys posting elsewhere about how cool Windscribe’s snark is; I’d bet they use VPN’s out of peer pressure more than anything.
Windscribe was OK for browsing, terrible for streaming. Almost all VPN’s, on a decent connection, are fast enough for even 4k streaming but some are much better than others, IDK why. Windscribe is not one of the good ones.
I lost my login/password at some point and tried to get an account reset from Windscribe. Their chatbot claimed they never offered lifetime licenses (they were everywhere for a period of time) but could reset my account if I gave them my email, credit card number, home address, phone number, a pound of flesh and other info a privacy oriented service never would request.
My response was “You win. I lose. No way, have a great day!” If Windscribe had said “Sorry we don’t have that info,” it would have been far better.
BTW, their browser extension, something no one remotely sane would ever use, barely works. Sometimes. Maybe.
BTW2, Garry is the owner’s name.
BTW3, ROBERT does stand for something, I remember it being introduced, but I really don’t care what at this point.
I have a 200 megabit connection. The best download I get while on windscribe is 25 to 30 down. I had an issue and use the email support and got a very demeaning reply. I do regret buying the pro service for a year without checking out other vpns beforehand.
I tried the free version of Windscribe. So many GB’s per month and then it renews on the date you registered every month after with those same GB’s, and you can get more GB’s if you Tweet about Windscribe. You have to have at least 3 followers for this to activate. And also more if you register with your email address you get more GB’s. This explains the free, free, free, free. LOL They sell your info to email mailing lists.
What I wonder about with free vs. paid Windscribe. The free version has an AI assistant if you open the chat window for customer/technical support.
I wonder if paid subscriptions garner a live person.
(P.S. The reply button under the mod’s answer to my other observation about Windscribe doesn’t open a reply window. Sorry this appears as a new entry rather than a follow up.)
Just as a FYI for this list. The second drawback listed for Windscribe , Uses IKEv2 as default protocol (rather than OpenVPN), is a protocol used in ExpressVPN, which is highly rated as a paid proxy.
If this is a drawback for Windscribe, why isn’t it one for ExpressVPN?
The key word here is default.
By default, Windscribe uses the less-secure IKEv2 rather than the more-secure OpenVPN. That is not the case with ExpressVPN.
Oh yes it is. ExpressVpn uses Ikev2 if set to “automatic” which is default. A lot of VPN providers uses Ikev2 as default – at least on iOS but also on Windows.
I have been a subscriber of ExpressVpn for a year now. They haven’t changed their default.
The exact protocol selection for “automatic” may or may not be IKEv2. But I will double check this with the next ExpressVPN review update to test what protocol “automatic” usually uses.
Don’t believe the marketing of other VPNs. You will not see an ad for Windscribe or a “sponsored video” . They don’t need to do this because the service itself is solid as hell. Everything just works, never had to fiddle with any settings or options, it always connects, and is very fast. Wireguard support on Android is really nice, battery usage dropped and it connects instantly. I could not be happier with Windscribe.
Good VPN no complaints at all. BBC iplayer works like magic, amazon prime US as well. I cant think of a single issue that I had with windscribe, and ive been using it for almost a year now. Will be renewing for sure.
Windscribe’s speeds are so, so declining. While with NordVPN and IP Vanish (the one’s you see often advertised cheaply), I can max out about 180-200 Mbps out of 350 Mbs via IKEv2 in rare situations, Windscribe Premium offers the most bang for your buck though when on sale for about $1 a month.
Windscribe has a common feature within their client, unlike NordVPN. Windscribe has the option of IKEv2 natively within their Windscribe Windows Client. Foolishly, Nord only has this available on your smartphone. Configuring Nord to work with your native Windows VPN client is a real pain. Once you go through all the steps, it works well, but still crazy slow. Windscribe you don’t need to. It defaults automatically to the faster IKEv2 protocol.
Although Nord has a heckuva lot more servers, no question. But for the most part, as mentioned above Nord really slow, even slower than Windscribe!
With Windscribe, I can achieve about 120-130 Mbps/350 Mbps only at the best of times. Their client is simple to use. Windscribe works with your native Windows VPN client. No additional tinkering or configuration.
Where Windscribe fails to the point like Trump being a competent president. Their tech support is worse than horrible in my opinion. Rather than acknowledging a technical issue, they will either blame the customer or say the problem is ‘out of their hands’ despite the issue residing with them. I am not going to get into specifics, but in my circumstances, the issues I have been having went away immediately when I used other VPN providers (5 different ones to be exact) and various internet providers. The issues I had with Windscribe returned right away once I enabled Windscribe VPN. It seems to me acknowledging a problem is a major issue for them and they will go over and beyond to blame the customer.
To summarise, I don’t see Windscribe as a professional company. To me, they’re operating like some rebellious right-wing fraternity boys who lack both work, business and moral ethics. Windscribe’s service works, but barely. Fortunately for me, I have had the privilege of using many other VPNs alongside Windscribe so I can give an honest review of them. Should you use Windscribe, don’t bother with technical support if you encounter any problems or sites which are blocked while using Windscribe.
Sven, I’ve been reading your website for many years and you never lead me wrong. Except when I read this review. How can you in the right mind recommend Nordvpn over Windscribe? Nordvpn is one of the shadiest vpn companies out there, with no public owners, constant security/pr issues (server hack, api endpoint returning customer emails, Advertising Standards Authority banning their ads for being misleading) All facts.
Windscribe is really the anti-Nordvpn. For starters, their software actually works, connects in literally 1s to servers in my city. I don’t think I ever saw a vpn connect that fast, it almost feels like it’s not working, but it is. Speeds are on par with expressvpn which I used previously.
What sold me on WindScribe is the extra features, especially ROBERT. I don’t need to run my own pihole anymore, it does everything with a click of a button.
I never saw an ad for Windscribe, their vpn sells itself. Owners of the company actively participate on Reddit and Discord and LISTEN to their customers. Suggestions sometimes get implemented THE SAME DAY. I never saw any vpn company do this, and I used vpns for over 10 years.
This review really needs to be re-written as it does not do Windscribe justice.
Ok, so there’s a lot to unpack with your comment, and I don’t have time to address every issue. NordVPN is the largest VPN of the pack, so it gets a lot of heat and attacks that originate from other VPN services and their affiliates. Heck, there is even evidence of Windscribe attacking NordVPN, see here. Many VPNs do not have public-facing leadership and this is a benefit, not a liability, because then the owners cannot be coerced and pressured to compromise their VPN and hand over user data. This is why many VPNs are incorporated in safe offshore jurisdictions with no public-facing leadership.
As for Windscribe, I’ll get a review update later this year. Thanks for your feedback.
I really dont see how this applies. All the things in the news regarding Nordvpn in the last year were simple facts, reported by tech news websites. Having an exposed API endpoint where you can get all customer emails is not an “attack by other vpns”, it’s a critical bug in nordvpn discovered by hackerone community. Sames goes for open kvm access, and misleading ads.
As for the no public leadership as a “benefit” is just silly to suggest. Corporations like people can be served with subpoenas and criminally changed. Having the “owner in the shadows” does nothing to protect against this. The only thing it does is remove accountability from people in charge. Its for their benefit, not the users. You can make an offshore panama company online for less than $1000 right now. If it made any difference im sure Windscribe would do the same, but they don’t. and I trust Windscribe a lot more than I do Nordvpn.
Ok, you don’t understand how liability protection works when you run a VPN, but that’s OK. So you really like Windscribe, and if Windscribe doesn’t do something, then it must not make any difference, according to your logic. Good luck!
Hi Sven, I use Proton VPN. I use it to watch anime only. Now, I am on the free trial and I think I will take free plan of Proton VPN because I watch anime in the weekend and in free time. Should I take a free plan yes or not?
Nothing bad to say about Windscribe not sure what all the hate is about. If you are self entitled person, WIndscribe is probably not for you. Their PR is definitely “way out there”, and people with the “customer is always right” mindset will not like it. For the rest of us easy going individuals, its a breath of fresh air. I love their Twitter and their batsh!t crazy promo emails. I open every single one.
Ohh, the service is great too. Better than any other I tried, and I tried MANY.
Just last year we increase locations to 62 countries and 110 cities. We released brand new browser extensions, and mobile apps. Desktop 2.0 beta app will be publicly available in a few weeks (or you can get it now in our Discord). We’ve upgraded ROBERT, and made all major streaming services work. There was more, and more things to come in 2020.
As for speeds, did you ever send a debug log + contact support? 80% of “I have slow speeds” support inquires are resolved immediately after looking at the app log. Many of these edge case scenarios are handled automatically in our new app.
Yegor from Windscribe here.
This particular person never actually contacted our help desk nor does this email exist in our user database.
Secondly, these claims are false. Our refund policy is simple: Use the free account for as long as you’d like, if you pay for Pro, you can request a refund within the first 3 days. Regardless of how long the reply will take (usually 12-36 hrs), the refund will be granted if the REQUEST was sent within the 3 days window. We’re also cheaper per month and per year than most of the competitors mentioned.
Our Windows/Mac and Android apps all have Stealth protocols, which are available to all users, free or paid. There is included port forwarding with all Pro accounts (as mentioned on the website). Static Ips are indeed extra, much like everywhere else.
As for the “warnings coming from Canada”, this is utter nonsense.
Yegor, you lie like the devil! Donald Trump could take lessons from you.
I have to be careful about my language here, lest this post be deleted. So what I’ll say is that you’re a money-grubbing, excrement portal of the body, who has no conscience and makes people bend over and take it. If they won’t bend over for you, as well as hand you lots of ca$h, you ban them.
I paid for your monthly service for over a year. I kept getting disconnected, thus being exposed to the ‘net. There were other problems as well. When I tried to discuss the problems, your AI (which is probably smarter than you are) was of no help at all. Then, I couldn’t get to a human, even when I tracked down a telephone number. I’m guessing it’s because you don’t want to admit to anything, much less anything wrong.
So I quit making payments and your ego couldn’t handle that. Too bad. I use another, infinitely better service.
Now it will be interesting to see what lies you come up with in response.
Made a comment on the main article I came from but I’ll echo the sentiment here. I don’t think this assessment is particularly fair or accurate. Fact-checking needs to be done. I use Windscribe and Mullvad without any issues for a long time now. They are not the fastest but then no VPN to me is “fast”. Use shadowsocks if speed is that important.
Reading the comments here it’s funny seeing the disconnect between boomers who want it all and people who obviously don’t need their hands held.
https://archive.ph/dRC4c this is pretty childish. Funny but still childish.