Windscribe VPN is a Canada-based service that offers both paid and “free” VPN tiers. For basic users it may not be a bad choice, but there are also some drawback to consider.
For one, most of the servers tested for this review were found to have sub-standard speeds. Both ExpressVPN and VPN.ac outperformed Windscribe in all speed tests.
Windscribe also makes questionable “no logs” claims on its website, which directly contradict its own policies (screenshots below). Windscribe is also selling cheap “lifetime” subscriptions through third-party sales websites, which raises questions about the long-term sustainability of this service. As we have learned before: a lifetime VPN is not based on the lifetime of the customer, but rather, the lifetime of the VPN service – however long it stays in business.
Jurisdiction
Canada
Logs
Connection logs
Price
$4.08
+ Pros
- User-friendly applications
- Ad blocker via the browser extension (but not built into VPN client)
- Free plan gives you 10 GB of data per month
- Unlimited connections
– Cons
- Slow speeds
- Based in Canada (Five Eyes)
- Contradictory “no logs” claims
- Slow support
Alternatives to Windscribe VPN:
Windscribe VPN
Windscribe VPN is a service offered by Windscribe Limited and is based in Ontario, Canada.
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. 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. As discussed in the VPN for torrenting guide, Canada has some strict laws against copyright violations, along with data retention that is used to prosecute piracy (copyright infringement) cases. This may be something to consider if you are using a VPN for Kodi or torrenting.
Windscribe offers custom applications and support for the following devices and platforms:
- Computers – Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
- Browsers – Firefox, Chrome, and Opera
- Phones/Tablets – iOS, Android, Blackberry
- TV – Amazon Fire TV/Fire Stick, Nvidia Shield, Kodi
- Routers – DDWRT and Tomato (see also the Restore Privacy VPN routers guide)
You can get more information, as well as detailed setup guides, on the website here.
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.
Windscribe VPN price
The current pricing plans and discounts can be found on the Windscribe VPN site.
You can see in the bottom of the photo above that account sharing is prohibited.
This is typical with most VPN services. However, one option that gives you six connections and allows you to share your account with others is VPNArea (see review here).
Windscribe VPN refund
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.
Here is the exact wording from their website:
A shorter refund window is not too surprising since they encourage people to test out the free service before going with a paid subscription. There’s no sense paying when you can test for free.
Windscribe free VPN
While free VPN services are often riddled with problems and risks, Windscribe appears to offer a decent option.
Windscribe’s free VPN tier is limited to 11 server locations and 10 GB of data per month. On a positive note, however, P2P downloads (torrents) are allowed.
Here is a screenshot of the Windscribe Windows VPN client.
Overall the client has a nice layout. You can see your remaining monthly bandwidth at the top right, along with your server options, connection status, and IP address. When testing the client and switching between the free VPN servers everything worked well.
In testing out the Windscribe VPN client for Windows, I did not notice any bugs or crashes or other problems.
Here is a test for IP address leaks using the website ipleak.net and the Windscribe Windows client:
I also ran a few speed tests with nearby servers. My baseline speed was about 100 Mbps. Physical testing location: Germany.
Here I am testing nearby server in France with the Mac OS client. Download speeds were about 5 Mbps – not very good.
One factor that frequently affects VPN speed and performance is server congestion. While Windscribe does have a server status page you can see on their website, it does not show available bandwidth. As a comparison, you can see two providers that show you real-time 24/7 bandwidth available on every server:
- Perfect Privacy server status (usually around 10% to 20% bandwidth in use)
- VPN.ac server status (click on VPN Server Nodes at the top of the page)
Comparison speed test – Immediately after running the test above for Windscribe, I also tested ExpressVPN using a server in the same country (France).
With ExpressVPN, I found the download speeds to be over 12 times faster at 60.8 Mbps:
After testing and personally using dozens of different VPN providers, ExpressVPN remains the best option for speed that I have used.
Windscribe VPN (paid service)
The three distinctions between the free VPN and the paid VPN I noticed were:
- Bandwidth – You are limited to 10 GB of bandwidth with the free VPN; with unlimited bandwidth on the paid plan
- Server locations – The free plan gives you 11 locations; the paid plan gives you 50 locations.
- Speed – I found the paid VPN servers to be somewhat faster than the free VPN servers.
Other than these three differences, everything is essentially the same with the free vs paid plans. The software is identical. The only differences you will see after upgrading is that all servers become available for use and the bandwidth limit is removed from the application window.
Windscribe speed test (additional results)
To test additional servers in the network I upgraded to a paid plan. This was also necessary as I was quickly running out of bandwidth (10 GB).
In testing various Windscribe servers throughout the network, I did notice that the paid servers were slightly faster. Here is one example with a server in Denmark, with 30 Mbps download speeds:
However, the speeds in general still weren’t blazing fast, especially considering my baseline connection is 100 Mbps.
Here is another test using Windscribe’s US East server, which is one of the free VPN servers. Download speed was only about 2.7 Mbps:
And as another comparison, I ran the same test while using VPN.ac (review).
Download speed with the VPN.ac US East server was significantly higher at 71.7 Mbps:
Overall Windscribe did not do great in speed testing.
The slower speeds may have been due to server congestion or other factors – there’s no way to be certain. If you want faster speeds, it would probably be best to avoid the free servers or consider other VPN alternatives.
More free VPN bandwidth
Windscribe offers a few different ways to increase your bandwidth allocation above the 10 GB monthly limit.
Immediately after downloading the free version of Windscribe I was hit with an email showing me how to get more data. Aside from buying a premium subscription, I could also:
Inviting friends and tweeting for data are self-explanatory ways to get more data for your free Windscribe VPN account.
The third option, however, is to let Windscribe use your CPU to mine for Monero cryptocurrency. This is the “mine for data” option and it works when you access a specific page on the Windscribe website.
It seems some people like the idea to mine cryptocurrency and others don’t. It is similar to when news broke that the Pirate Bay had added a CPU-hijacking Bitcoin miner to some of their pages.
Here’s the explanation from Windscribe:
When you have this page open, your computer will use its spare CPU cycles to solve math puzzles (hashes) in order to mine Monero. As a result, you may see that your CPU usage is higher than normal, but you can control this with a slider below.
Rather than the handing over your CPU for mining Monero, it may just be worth it to upgrade to a paid account.
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. I’ve also recently noticed this with ExpressVPN and VPN.ac, for example.
So why use the VPN together with the browser extension?
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 protections 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”.
I sent the support department emails asking for clarification on the browser extension. Unfortunately at the time that this review was published, I have not heard anything back from support (and this is as a paid customer with a premium account).
Update – I received an answer from support seven days after I submitted the help ticket.
Overall, the Windscribe browser extension is still a decent feature, although I would not recommend using only the proxy browser extension alone. We’ll test this further below.
Windscribe double-hop VPN
One good feature for obtaining more security and online anonymity is through using a multi-hop VPN.
While not necessarily a true double-hop VPN, Windscribe states that you can use both the VPN client on your computer in combination with the browser extension, with each using a different server location.
I tried to do this with Windscribe and initially had some troubles with different error messages. Eventually it started working properly, allowing me to test out the functionality.
Here I am connected to a server in Sweden with the VPN client, while connected to US East via the browser proxy extension. The speeds were alright at about 26 Mbps – not too bad, but also not great.
Note: the main factor for performance is the OpenVPN desktop client, which is connected to a server in Sweden above. The browser extension likely does not have a major impact on performance since it uses only TLS encryption as a proxy.
For another comparison, I tested the exact same configuration using VPN.ac.
Here I am connected to a VPN server in Sweden using the VPN.ac desktop client, while also being connected to US East via the browser extension.
The speeds with VPN.ac were much better at around 68.5 Mbps.
The double-hop VPN is a good setup for more privacy, even though Windscribe is not truly a double-hop VPN. For more information on this topic, see the multi-hop VPN guide.
Windscribe ad blocker
The Windscribe browser extension also works as an ad blocker.
The different ad blocking functions with the Firefox extension include:
- Anti-Social – This blocks social media domains (buttons).
- Untraceable – This blocks ad beacons and trackers.
- Ad Blocker – The standard ad blocker.
There are some other interesting browser extension features which include:
- Proxy Time – This sets the browser time to whatever proxy server you are connected to.
- Split Personality – This rotates your user agent, which should theoretically protect you against browser fingerprinting (but see test results below).
- Cookie Monster – This deletes cookies after closing a tab.
Here is the full Windscribe browser extension below, which I tested out with the latest version of Firefox.
I tested out the ad-blocking capabilities with the Firefox extension and it seemed to work fine with various websites.
Whitelist – One benefit with the Windscribe browser extension is that it gives you the ability to whitelist certain sites. Usually with VPN-based ad blockers, this is not an option.
How does Windscribe’s ad blocker stack up to other VPN-based ad blockers?
Just like with any other browser extension, Windscribe’s ad blocker is browser-based. This has both pros and cons.
As a comparison, there are two other ways that I’ve seen VPNs implement ad blocking:
- Built directly into the VPN client. This works well because it protects everything on your computer against tracking and advertisements, without having to hassle with additional browser extensions. It is an all-in-one solution – for examples see NordVPN (review) or Private Internet Access (review).
- Activated server-side, which means that ad-blocking will be active whenever you connect to the VPN network. This will block all ads at the VPN server level (rather than at your computer) and works with any encryption protocol, application, or device that uses the network. I have only seen this with Perfect Privacy (review).
Windscribe browser fingerprint protection
Windscribe offers a “split personality” feature with the browser extension. They state that this feature will “will rotate your user agent between the most common ones out there, to reduce the chance of fingerprinting” – as they explain on their website.
I was somewhat skeptical when reading this, especially since adding browser extensions actually makes you more unique and easier to track – which is explained further here.
I decided to test the “split personality” feature using a standard browser fingerprint test at PANOPTICLICK, which is a research project from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
As you can see in the results, the browser extension did not protect me as my fingerprint was uniquely identifiable. (Note: I was running a standard, unmodified version of the latest Firefox browser with the Windscribe extension as the only add-on, and “split personality” enabled.)
Despite the “split personality” feature being on, the browser was “unique among the 998,303” other tests.
Unfortunately, browser fingerprinting is a very tricky issue to protect yourself against, simply because there are so many different factors at play.
In the browser fingerprint guide I recommend using the Tor browser (with the Tor network disabled) together with a good VPN for maximum protection.
I also tested the latest version of the Tor browser (which is simply a hardened and protected version of Firefox). The results were much better as the browser did not have a unique fingerprint:
Given these test results, you would be better protected using the Tor browser than the Windscribe extension in your regular browser.
The one downside is that the Tor browser may be overkill for regular internet use. But if you want a high level of protection, using the Tor browser with a good VPN (Tor disabled) is probably your best bet. (Setup instructions here.)
Windscribe’s (false) “no logs” claims
Windscribe is yet another VPN that uses various “no logs” marketing claims on their website, but then discloses data that is “collected” when you read the privacy policy.
Let’s first take a look at the marketing claims on their main website:
Of course, given that Windscribe implements bandwidth restrictions, we already know that they are logging your bandwidth use. Therefore, they are certainly not a “no logs” VPN service.
Here is another bold claim from Windscribe’s website on their logging policies:
UPDATE: Windscribe has since revised their website since this review exposed the contradictory/misleading statements. However, they still claim to be “no logs” – which is false.
Now let’s take a look at the fine print…
At the very bottom of the Windscribe End User License Agreement (EULA) you find the following:
This statement is somewhat concerning, especially since collected data may be used to hit users with promotions and other things which “may be of use or interest to you”. Furthermore, there is no mention that “everything” is getting deleted after three minutes.
Now let’s examine the Windscribe Privacy Policy, which you can find on their website:
We store total amount of bandwidth your account has consumed in 1 month period, which is reset every month on the day of your registration. This is used to enforce free tier limitations as well as prevent abuse. We do not store historical usage. We also store a timestamp of your last activity on the Windscribe network, this is done to weed out inactive accounts. We do not store connection logs, IP timestamps, or sites you visit (we are firm believer that one’s browsing history should be taken to one’s grave).
Aside from this being an obvious contradiction with the “no logs” claim earlier, there is also another problem. As we saw above, Windscribe claims to “erase everything three minutes after your session closes”. However, their official policy is to log bandwidth consumption taking place over a “1 month period”.
Windscribe’s marketing claims do not align with their own policies.
Unfortunately, contradictory logging statements are somewhat common with VPNs – see for example with PureVPN, ProtonVPN, CyberGhost, and Betternet. As another example, ExpressVPN also had contradictory statements on logs, but they have since revised their entire website to align all marketing claims with their policies.
Overall, the connection logs are not too concerning. The contradictory statements, however, are not so good.
Windscribe Netflix
Does Windscribe work with Netflix?
Yes – but I have seen complaints from some users about Netflix not working with certain devices.
Windscribe has recently launched two dedicated servers that are exclusively for streaming Netflix. Windsribe refers to their Netflix feature as Windflix on their website:
The two Netflix (Windflix) servers are in the United States and United Kingdom. I tested the UK Windflix server and found the bandwidth and speeds to be pretty decent.
Note: there are two other VPNs that I’ve tested that also currently work with Netflix:
- VPNArea – Like Windscribe, VPNArea also offers dedicated server hubs for Netflix and other streaming services (see VPNArea review).
- ExpressVPN – ExpressVPN has a variety of different servers for using with Netflix. They also have 24/7 live chat support and a 30 day money-back guarantee (see ExpressVPN review).
- NordVPN – NordVPN has many different servers that support Netflix connectivity (see NordVPN review).
Using Netflix with a VPN continues to be a cat-and-mouse game. Many VPNs that previously worked with Netflix are now blocked.
Because I have seen various user complaints with Windscribe working with Netflix, it did not earn a spot in the Best VPN for Netflix guide.
Windscribe support
Windscribe offers four different options for support on their website.
Windscribe offers some basic guides, articles, and FAQs, which I found to be pretty useful.
They also have a reddit page that appears to be fairly active.
I tried emailing their support team with two different issues and was pretty disappointed in the reply time. Hopefully they can improve this going forward.
Windscribe VPN review conclusion
Considering everything, particularly the back-to-back speed tests, Windscribe does not earn a recommendation for this review.
While it is a is a basic, user-friendly VPN service, there are certainly better options available that will provide you with better speeds and support.
The jurisdiction in Canada (Five Eyes) is also not ideal.
If you are open to other alternatives, these VPNs offer better performance and they are located in good privacy jurisdictions:
Alternatives to Windscribe VPN:
If you have used Windscribe VPN, feel free to share your honest review (good or bad) below.
- Rating
Every time someone leaves a negative review, at least three positive reviews pop up
It’s not rocket science to figure out that the most of the highly positive reviews are rubbish. Before anyone commits to buying this service, please visit to their official support site within Reddit and peruse the posts especially previous ones. You can see for yourself the service is less than perfect with slow or down servers and other complaints.
Yes and I have been told that Windscribe incentivizes their users to spam positive reviews on various sites and in social media, by offering to give them more bandwidth if they promote the service.
Orly?
First of all, I don’t see how comments about comments have anything to do with Windscribe’s service, but okay.
Please tell me where you’ve “been told” that we do this? Because we do not. This is a baseless conjecture. We give extra 5GB for Tweeting about us, that’s it. This process is entirely automated as we have better things to do (like release new features).
From what I gather, every positive review MUST be fake, because we’re a piece of shit service (which is rated 4 or 5 stars literally everywhere else), and every bad review (most of which are comments on comments) is a-okay.
I have a conjecture of my own: All negative reviews are done by one person, as all they do is say the same thing, and comment on my comments and the fact that all 5 star reviews must be fake. This does not happen on ANY other review site that allows comments. Only here.
I receive comments and emails from VPN users. I was mainly referencing how Windscribe incentivizes users to promote the service in social media by offering more bandwidth for the “free VPN”.
Sven
@Sven
We do incentivizes people to post about us on Twitter for extra data. So does Tunnelbear (we got this idea from them). What we don’t do is incentivizes people to post reviews about us. If your only source is “emails from VPN users”, who very well could be shills, uninformed, or just straight up lying, then this is a baseless accusation that’s not grounded in reality.
Given the toxic nature of this industry, is it really surprising?
Agreed. It’s difficult to differentiate shills from legit feedback.
Orly
So that’s your reason why you think the reviews are fake? Our Subreddit is an unofficial support channel. What do you think it will mostly contain? “Everything is amazing, thanks!” kind of posts (we have a ton of those too, read on)? It will obviously have people with issues. That’s why that subreddit is there . Go on any other VPN’s subreddit, it will look a lot worse.
If you sort by “top”, you can see the TRUE picture: https://i.imgur.com/tDM4DQ8.png
Notice anything different between our top posts and of our biggest competitors? Theirs are full of negative comments, claims of hacking, hiring scammers and other problems. Ours is full of praises and new features.
Had we been what you claim, we wouldn’t have so much community support. We didn’t even make our subreddit, our community did. Go on our Discord server, there are hundreds of people online there every day, just hanging out, helping other users.
Is it so hard to believe that our users will leave positive reviews on a website that has the lowest rating of Windscribe?
Feature rain!
Windscribe has been raining new features in the last 2 months like no tomorrow. ROBERT (server side ad blocker) is amazing, browsing on my iPhone feels a LOT faster and Im using almost half the data now.
Just yesterday they released static IPs and port forwarding, which I was waiting for for a while. Sucks that they charge extra for this, but nothing is free and considering the lifetime accounts are a steal, its good to see them make money. The feature works as advertised, and setup was a breeze (1 minute). Go try getting a dedicated Ip from Nord…. and enjoy the 2 day wait.
This next thing I dont much care about since I have a lifetime account, but you can buy 1 country at a time in their “plan builder”. My friend only needs the US and he has a 50GB free plan. He paid $1 and now can access all premium US locations. brilliant.
Works perfectly for every day use.
Despite reading various complaints on this thread, I still find Windscribe as one of the better VPNs’, especially when compared to various others that are asking for more or the same amount to become a pro member. There are a good amount of security features, and ad blockers are a plus. The speeds are pretty reliable with a great selection of locations (note you have to sign up to the pro plan if you want access to all their locations), and most of all the overall running of the VPN is as smooth as can be. No complaints so far and i’ve been using it for 5monthd now.
Good value
Windscribe is really good value for what you pay and get. It has a really coll selection of features which cover everything you need from blocking ads and trackers, plus the geo restriced feature is a blessing from above for those travelling or needing to do research via sites that aren’t available for other countries. It’s the perfect combination of good customer service, great speeds, and handful of features. Worth investing in if you’re one that wants to safely surf the net. Would highly recommend.
Honest comment: Not recommended
I’ve been using Windscribe for over a year now. My subscription recently expired. The free version was fine for occasional downloading p2p. It was quite slow though. I used Windscribe on my computer only because I found it to be ridiculously slow on my Android tablet. I often compare speed tests with other free vpn providers and in my experience other free providers such as Tunnel Bear and HSS were at least twice as fast.
Windscribe’s Android app hasn’t been updated in a very long time. Only their browser extension has many functions. In contrast, even their desktop client is limited.
Windscribe support is often very slow and sometimes they don’t respond if you post on Reddit which is their official site for support. Just today many users are having speed and other issues with Windscribe’s USA servers. Support has been mum about that.
In conclusion, based on my experiences, i would be very skeptical about any positive review or comment surrounding Windscribe.
Perfect for me
Despite the arguments in the below feeds, Windscribe is still by far better than many other VPN’s around, especially when you put it to the speed test. It’s awesome in many ways but may just not be what everyone is looking for. Depends on your wants and needs! In my case, it’s superb!
Suspiciously awesome
Im a “veteran” VPN user. I’ve tried over 30 different providers over the last 10 years and I’ve seen it all. False claims, fake server locations, terrible speeds, non-existent support, crashing clients, etc. Some providers are better, but every single one always had a flaw, at least one.
I tried free version of Windscribe 4 months ago while using Perfect Privacy, which is one of the better VPNs out there. The onboarding process was the simplest I’ve ever seen. I downloaded the app made an account and connected in under a minute thanks to their handy username + password generator. You don’t even have to use your keyboard. The app just logged me in automatically when I signed up, seriously, I don’t even know how they do this.
I connected to their servers in Washington, since that’s the closest one to me. The app connected in under 2s, which is WAYYY faster than any other VPN I ever saw.
I have a 100mbit connection, and after doing the speed test I was impressed: 96mbit. NICE.
After using it for a day, I paid for their subscription and haven’t looked since. I’ve been using it 24/7 ever since, and saw literally zero issues. No drops no slow downs no crashes. I honestly forget it’s even running. Granted their support MAY be crap at least according to this review, but since I never had a need to contact them I honestly don’t care.
Don't believe the FUD
I’ve been a Windscribe user for 2 years after 3 years of ExpressVPN and I could not be happier. Windscribe doesn’t have as much flashy promotional material and guides as Express, but that’s all irrelevant if the app just works as it should. I had to contact support zero times in 2 years, while with Express this was a monthly thing.
[Non-relevant attacks removed. Kind regards -editor]
It's no longer acceptable to disagree, if you do, others hate you or say you're trolling
It’s very disconcerting reading the comments here from the CEO of Windscribe . While it’s understandable subscribers are passionate about their experiences, I find the conduct and tone in Yegor’s tone disturbing.
Regardless of the criticism of the product or service, it appears to me the CEO is behaving like a spoiled child or rebellious teen, much like the President of the United States. The latter is normalizing inappropriate behavior and it’s sad to see many people, not just Yegor who are being disrespectful. It’s a becoming disturbing trend. We can no longer disagree with one another and then go for lunch to move on. It’s no wonder why the world is so divided now more than ever.
I get where you’re coming from, but I feel like the response from the CEO seemed pretty fair. He asked those who see problems to provide ‘proof’, maybe something so he and his team can look into? I felt like he was the one being attacked more than the others. I myself have had some minor issues since using windscribe but nothing major, and it was sorted quite quickly. Windscribe might not be perfect, but neither are many others. It does a good job and keeps me happy, I’m just interested to see what all the commotion is about lol. It seems more people are annoyed with the whole “extra bandwidth by tweeting” issue than the other issues mentioned.
Friendly debate?
It’s weird seeing such controversy regarding Windcribe on this post. So many people seem to love it, yet there are a few that tend to disagree. Personally, I’ve found it to be great, and haven’t come across any major hiccups. I get the point of others when it comes to offering extra bandwidth by tweeting, BUT, how I see it is this, if Windscribe is ‘that bad’ or doesn’t provide the services people are saying they don’t , then why would they bother tweeing about it to get extra bandwidth on a service that supposedly doesn’t work? Just my opinion, open to discuss 🙂
Reply to Yego
Why should we believe anything you write or say? On Reddit your people dispute Sven’s review on Windscribe’s NO LOG policy. By offering extra bandwidth by tweeting of course you’re incentive posting reviews. Who’s going to tweet that Windscribe is poor and expect additional data?
Had mixed feelings about Windscribe, but have been impressed.
I was a little bit unsure with Windscribe when I first read about it. There were a ton of good reviews and a few negative ones, but with most apps and VPN’s that’s always the case. The only way to determine hold good it really is, or whether it would fit my needs was to give it a go and see for myself. Downloaded windscribe a month ago, and despite a few hiccups it’s been relatively good. I’ve had no IP leaks, good connections speeds, and a lot of the features they advertise always seem to work. I guess it may not be for everyone, but Windscribe works well for me and I’ve had no significant problem in the last month.
Works well for me
I’ve been using Windscribe for nearly two months and so far it has been working very well. I’ve had very few speed issues. I don’t notice much difference in speed compared to using no VPN.
One of my devices is permanently connected to a Windflix server, to let me access US based streaming content and it’s been working very well, when streaming content from the US.
Based on my experience, I’ve found that some VPNs slow down over time. I had a fast connection when I first used them, but after a few months, the I have major speed issues. I guess this is due to increased server congestion. So while Windscribe it working extremely well for me right now, maybe in the future I’ll have issues. But, like I said, it works very well for me at this point in time.
No DNS protection
I echo the issues with support. Windscribe’s twitter presence is effectively useless. They refer you to contact a “human” but the response time is very slow and I think it’s only one or two people at most who are doing providing customer support.
Speeds are slow but acceptable tolerable. Only the Windows and iPhone client allows you too choose server by city location. For Android, you can you only enter the area eg. USA East. Windscribe refuses to provide individual IP addresses of their city locations, they’ll only provide the host name should you need to use the default Windows client.
As Windscribe doesn’t mask your DNS address, you will need to manually use Google DNS or other servers into your router, but this can be an issue if you need to access geo-restricted content.
My take-away is the service is poor, but not mediocre. That may become a bigger issue should they become more aggressive in promoting their service.
Android 2.0 app is being released in 2-3 weeks which has all the missing features you mentioned. There is a beta in our Discord server.
Windscribe apps do NOT leak DNS. Please provide proof. If you’re using a router, then that’s possible but it’s entirely outside of our control. Most consumer routers have VPN connectivity thrown in as an afterthought. A lot of the time the router ignores pushed DNS server to use, and keeps using the locally configured one, which effectively leaks DNS. This is a limitation of
the device, not Windscribe.
Dismayed
I came here being curious about Windscribe.
It’s really disconcerting reading a comment by someone working or who has an invested interest in a business without coming forth and acknowledging so. This is the case with Yegor Sak. He disagrees with people’s negative comments and challenges them to provide “proof” knowing very well it’s obviously not possible on a site such as this. He goes on and refers to a beta application in some cyberlocation between here and the International Space Station. My message to Yegor is to stop trying to intimidate people from leaving reviews and comments based on their experiences. For that reason, I have eliminated Windscribe from my list of VPN choices.
My goodness, if I didn’t know better. I’d think Donald Trump was speaking on behalf of Windscribe.
Reply to Yego
Dude, you’re so confrontational. Is it any wonder why people complain about Windscribe’s customer service. Do you know where you’re posting? We’re not on Reddit where we can post links and such. Regardless , if you disagree and there are other causes eg. DNS leakage, the end result is what matters. This is what user’s experience while your service.
In my case, I have used other VPN providers and I use the same sources for IP/DNS leak information. Why are the results different with your service?
Nonetheless, I really don’t appreciate you jumping into the comment section and bullying others and demanding providing PROOF.
Reply to Yego2
I forgot to add. Please provide proof that most consumer VPNs have connectivity thrown in. Most consumers use an ISP provided modem/router as a free rental. Their software is customized and while once it was fairly common to have VPN connectivity, it’s now not the norm. Should one purchase a “third party” router not supplied by their ISP, then I agree. However, once again, you’re cherry picking the facts to belligerently argue your point.
Response
You can verify my router related claims by connecting to the same location in the desktop app, on the same network, and you will see that in 9/10 cases the speeds will be significantly better in the app than on the router.
As for DNS leaks, proof is as simple as posting a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/JLEHl1e.png
Just because DNS IP does not match your external IP doesn’t mean there is a DNS leak. DNS server operates on the server’s primary IP address, while you get assigned one of dozens “exit” IPs . Most servers we operate have 32-64 exit IPs.
Excellent!
Windscribe does exactly what it advertises. One thing I hate the most are things that say they’ll do this and that yet don’t carry through. Windscribe is the complete opposite. The website is very informative and helps those that aren’t 100% sure what the VPN is all about. The functions and speeds work well and I really enjoy getting the full package with their features. Worth the download and the price.
Poor....suspect bogus positive reviews
For starters they randomly leak my ip address as shown via ipleak.net. Their VPN shuts down after some inactivity so if your phone sleeps, your VPN connection will drop. Definitely a concern if you’re using the Wifi Calling on your phone which may be blocked outside your country.
Speeds aren’t very good and many providers are blocking Windscribe’s servers. I’m very skeptical of the glowing positive reviews posted.
Yes, I’ve been told that Windscribe incentivizes their users to tweet and post reviews to get more bandwidth on their “free” accounts. I suspect that’s what’s going on here.
Hi,
Windscribe here. I’d be curious to see a screenshot of this alleged leak. If you’re using the desktop app with the firewall ON, there is no chance of leaks (unless you have some 3rd party firewall software doing god knows what). If you’re seeing an IPv6 address in the WebRTC section, go into Preference -> Debug -> Disable IPv6.
Phone issue: iOS or Android? If it’s iOS, that’s completely normal and NOT an issue at all since we create an on-demand profile. OS manages the connection and shuts it off when the antenna is disabled to save power. If this happens on an Android, it could be an issue. That being said 2.0 version of the Android app is coming in 2-3 weeks and will work with always-on VPN mode.
We don’t incentivize posting reviews. We give 5GB of data for Tweeting about us, but that’s it.
VPNs are very low level software, it’s not possible to make something that works in 100% of cases, since everyone’s computer setup is unique, running unique set of software on 1 of hundreds of millions of networks. Just because you’re having issues, doesn’t mean people who post a positive review are shills. They’re just part of the majority that don’t have problems.
Perfect for travelling!
Love how easy it is to unblock certain sites when traveling. Perfect for those on the go. Customer service has also improved by leaps and bounds. Very impressed with how much this company has grown over the years.
Great for Netflix
Windscribe comes across the ideal VPN. Perfect for Netflix and unblocking geo-restricted sites, very handy to have especially seeing as you can use it on multiple devices and browsers despite just having one account. A few features I’ve noticed other VPN’s don’t provide, and a nice selection of locations to connect to. It’s not that bad price wise either if you sign up for the yearly plan, and in my opinion, you’re definitely getting your money’s worth.
Not a good player for online video streaming
I am a paid subscriber of Windscribe VPN, I am using this VPN and satisfied with windscribe’s performance, but one thing in which I am not happy is video streaming, It works on NETFLIX very well, but it didn’t working on Amazon Prime for sure, prime videos detect it’s server easily and popup when try to play, you are using proxy with http or VPN, please turn it off. Truly, it disappointed me, because I have most of things nothing to hide but I want to stream online content and browsing blocked content with security, I am not a deep reviewer so I can’t comment on security or no log service of them, but it’s online video streaming is terrible if you want to watch anything on Prime videos, For NETFLIX it’s server working great without almost zero loss of speed. Torrenting is also really good and fast. I am using EXPRESS vpn for video streaming and it work’s great with Prime Videos. It’s Cruise Control feature in browser extension is also not good, it eats lot of speed. I want to use Windscribe but I also want to streaming videos while using VPN, so please improve your servers for video streaming and also there is lot place in improvement of Cruise Control
Windscribe is tops with me
I switched from Perfect Privacy to Windscribe to save money. When I upgraded to pro, so many new servers that weren’t listed in the free edition popped up, including one 80 miles away from me, another one within 300 miles. I got amazing speeds, even toppling my connections with Perfect Privacy. I am in the southern United States, and of course my experience can greatly difference from other people’s. Windscribe.com has a comparison area where you can see how it fairs (above) many other popular VPNs. I was just amazed by what it saw. However, it didn’t have a comparison to Perfect Privacy which is obviously beats in the price range. But, I encourage people to go take a look it at their website. One more thing, it has a very quick kill/restore switch right on the front of the GUI. Very quick to use. Overall, I rate this 5 stars based off my experience.
Better than most VPN's i've tried
I’ve read a ton of mixed reviews about Windscribe, though most are positive, and I’d agree it’s a lot better than many of the other VPN’s available today. Great speeds, good selection of locations to connect to, and a great selection of extra features that work perfectly! Not sure why others are having problems, but definitely worth getting it checked out via customer service, cuz it works great.
Windflix stopped work a few months ago
I purchased the Pro version when they had a special price at the end of 2017. I purchased the Pro specifically for the Windflix feature that is only available with the Pro. It worked for a while. (I only use it periodically, when I travel), but has stopped working on my iPad, and the support people admit that they are having difficulties with it. They claim it works on the Windows version, but it is my iPad that I take when I travel, so that does not help me. I think a decent company would refund the prorated amount given that advertised features no longer work, no matter what their terms state. We can’t test the Windflix on the free version, and it did work for a while. If it stops working, they are at fault.
Not impressed
I decided to give Windscribe a try since they have the 10GB plan, and I wasn’t impressed. I had so much problems creating a new account, which I had to email Support for help (it took them 2 days to get back to me)!! Locations are very limited, I wanted to watch shows from Taiwan TV Network BUT it’s only available for PRO!!! My MacBook was in sleep mode and internet was off, the 10GB plan dropped to 4GB in the morning, I emailed them for support, waited for 1 week they never replied back.
This is extremely Poor Customer Service especially I reside in Canada. Why not offered a 1 week trial for $3? (VPN.AC has a 1 wk trial for $2 USD and there are no restrictions for “Location Connection” ****, they have awesome) In the end, Windscribe expects you to Upgrade.
Works well
Thanks for what I’d call a very honest review. I’ve used Windscribe for a while now and have been more than happy with results. I get how many people are dubvious with the life time subscription, but really, the one time payment fee is nothing when you compare it to others. Worth it in my opinion based on the quality connection speeds and selection of services that come with it. Cheers, Sven!
Satisfactory performance
Windscribe is pretty cool, and I enjoy reading reviews and getting other peoples opinions as it definitely helps you choose what works well for you. I originally came across Windscribe via a blog site/review and decided it sounded good enough to give it a go. 2 months down the line I’ve been really happy with the overall services they’ve provided and I have been able to get in touch with customer support regarding a few questions I had which many people had complained about (meaning, people had complained there was no customer support). Overall I think Windscribe is really good and has got a satisfactory level of performance.