CyberGhost is one of the best VPNs , one that threads a path between these two extremes, mixing usability with unique tools and powerful features, as well as a privacy policy that protects customers.
It is, however, on the expensive side. When you switch on a VPN, all your web traffic is routed through an encrypted tunnel to a server operated by the VPN company.
This prevents anyone on the same network as you from being able to intercept your data. It also helps hide your identity, by having your network traffic exit from a location other than your computer.
You need a VPN because it's an incredibly powerful privacy and encryption technology, and one that has been used for years by journalists and political dissidents operating in countries with restrictive internet policies.
Using a VPN also prevents your not-so-friendly neighborhood ISP from intercepting your data and selling anonymized versions of it.
That's legal, thanks to a decision from Congress , so be sure to complain to your senators and representatives when you get a chance. That helps hide your identity, but it also hides where you are, since IP addresses are distributed based on geographic location.
This same ability can also be used to spoof your location by connecting to a VPN server that's a long way from where you are.
That's handy for a number of reasons, but especially for accessing region-locked streaming content. There's a good chance that you may have never laid hands on a VPN before.
If that's the case, don't worry: We've got a whole feature on how to set up and use a VPN. You pay more up front for a longer interval, but save more overall for doing so.
Notably, the CyberGhost offers a day money back guarantee for the six-month and one-year plans, which is handy for trying out a service before comitting to a long-term subscription.
I still think it's a better idea to start with a monthly subscription, however. Of course, many VPN services come in well below the average price.
KeepSolid VPN Unlimited is notable for having a wide variety of pricing plans, starting with an ultra low-cost weekly plan and going all the way up to a lifetime plan.
You can easily purchase a plan with traditional payment methods such as credit card or PayPal, but you can also pay anonymously with Bitcoin. Other VPN services also offer the option to use prepaid gift cards, such as those from BestBuy or Starbucks, as anonymous options.
Cost doesn't have to be a hurdle when it comes to security, as there are many serviceable free VPNs available. TunnelBear has a free offering that restricts the amount of data to MB per month, although you can boost this cap.
ProtonVPN also has a free offering, but it limits the speeds available to free customers. A subscription to CyberGhost lets you use seven devices simultaneously, making it a good value for a household with lots of devices.
Golden Frog VyprVPN and ProtonVPN do not provide five connections at their respective base-level offerings; you have to pay a bit more in order to get that many devices.
Some companies require that you limit this activity to certain servers, while others list such activities as a breach of service.
In the case of CyberGhost, the servers that allow torrenting are marked in the app. In addition to BitTorrent-friendly servers, CyberGhost also has servers specially made for streaming.
That's great, and I'd like to see more VPN companies work to ensure that users can access their favorite video streaming services without having to switch off VPN protection.
CyberGhost also offers Double Encryption, in which authentication data is encrypted as well as the VPN data, for added security.
However, it is not clear when or on which servers this service is available. There are many ways to create a VPN connection. My preferred method is OpenVPN, which is known for its speed and reliability.
It's also open-source software, meaning that its code has been picked over for any potential vulnerabilities. I look at the number of servers a VPN service offers as an important differentiator.
VPNs with more servers tend to be more robust. Plus, you're more likely to get a server that's not overburdened with other users when there are simply more to choose from.
CyberGhost has recently nearly doubled its server count to an impressive 3,, a number that varies from time to time. That's a robust offering, putting it on par with some of the best VPN services out there.
Private Internet Access, on the other hand, costs about half as much per month and has 3, servers, and TorGuard recently expanded to also include some 3, servers.
The geographic distribution of servers is also important. The more varied the distribution, the more choices you have when looking to spoof your location.
A strong geographic diversity also means that you're more likely to find a nearby server when traveling, which is important because you tend to get better performance with a nearby server than a distant one.
CyberGhost has 90 server locations available, across approximately 60 countries. It's a good mix, with a better-than-average showing for Africa, a continent almost completely ignored by VPN companies.
Hide My Ass , however, has the largest network of servers, covering locations in countries. CyberGhost does offer servers in Hong Kong, but it does not have servers in Turkey or Russia, all of which are regions with repressive internet policies.
Some readers have written to me with concerns about VPN companies using virtual servers. These are software-defined servers, meaning that a single piece of server hardware can run several virtual servers.
These virtual servers can be individually configured to appear as if they are in different locations from the physical hardware they share.
The issue is that your data might be heading to someplace other than the location you chose, which makes some people nervous. CyberGhost tells me that the company rents servers in every location in which it offers VPN access.
It does have some virtualization on of those servers, but the location of the virtual servers is the same as the location of the actual physical servers.
That seems reasonable to me. NordVPN, however, says that all of its servers are fully dedicated. Using any security or privacy software requires trust in the developer—trust that their product does what it says on the tin, and trust that using the product will not expose you to other dangers.
This is particularly important for VPNs, because when a VPN is in use the company could have as much insight as your ISP into your online activities, and protecting those activities is one of the key reasons to use a VPN in the first place.
That's why when I test VPNs, I read the entire privacy policy and speak directly to the developer about its privacy practices.
The CyberGhost privacy policy is not my favorite such document. While it is very thorough and extremely detailed, it's lengthy and at times difficult to parse.
TunnelBear deserves credit for crafting a statement that's easy to read and self-explanatory, while TorGuard VPN has what is likely the shortest and most direct policy I have yet seen.
I'd like to see CyberGhost work on this, so that its customers can better understand the service. Fortunately, there are no hidden traps in the policy that I can find.
The company has a clear commitment to not gathering information about what you do while the VPN is connected.
In the policy, the company explains, "when using the CyberGhost VPN, the user's traffic data such as browsing history, traffic destination, data content and search preferences are not monitored, recorded, logged or stored by the Company [ That goes beyond other VPN companies that, despite having strong privacy policies, do retain some information about your connection.
CyberGhost, however, does not record origin IP addresses, the IP address of the server you connected with, or the time at which a specific user began a connection or accessed any given online service.
CyberGhost does collect some information for the purposes of billing and maintaining its network.
The policy outlines some situations such as payment processing where that information is transferred to third parties, but stresses that the personal information you provide is not associated with your online activity.
Personal information could, however, be disclosed as part of an investigation into a crime or a breach of the company's terms of service.
Issues involving law enforcement and VPN companies can be tricky, which is why it's important to know what country the VPN company is headquartered in and under what legal jurisdiction it operates.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation , the Romanian government and courts have rejected legislation that would have required companies to keep electronic records on its customers.
That's what you want to hear. Readers have expressed concerns to me in the past about a company's location, sometimes based on legal issues and other times based solely on their opinion of that country.
Personally, I do not think it's possible to judge a company solely on where it is located. In fact, we can only trust that security companies are honest in their privacy policies and other statements.
However, I can say that CyberGhost has a notably strong privacy policy and seems intent on protecting its users. That dedication to security is evident in the fact that the company underwent an audit and verification by certification body QSCert for its information management practices.
That's great, and I'd like to see more companies make the effort to maintain verifiable standards. TunnelBear, for example, also recently released an independent security audit.
These efforts go a long way to reassuring reviewers like me and consumers like you that the companies are operating in good faith.
I had no trouble downloading and installing the CyberGhost windows app on my Lenovo ThinkPad Ts laptop running the latest version of Windows Note, however, that if you lose your login information, you'll be prompted for a special key sent in your activation email.
If you've lost that, too, you'll have to restore your account through CleverBridge, the payment processor used by CyberGhost. The CyberGhost app is slick and responsive.
The main window shows six tiles: PureVPN uses a similar approach, helping users get online with different approaches for specific circumstances.
The problem I have is that a first-time user might not know which, if any, apply. In fairness, there's a Fast Connect option in the System Tray, but I'd like to see a big connection button that simply hooks you up to the closest server right in the app.
Mouse over any of the tiles, and you see a clear explanation of each. Surf Anonymously, for example, has additional options to block ads, online tracking, and malicious websites, as well as enabling data compression.
This is helpful, but it could lead you to believe that these features are not available if you select a different option, which is not the case.
Protect Network, for example, has all the same options, with some different ones toggled on and off. Torrent Anonymously has the added option to automatically launch a torrenting application, if you like.
Unblock Streaming is more useful. Here you see a slate of streaming services like Netflix and Crunchyroll , as well as the preferred servers for accessing those services.
I like this a lot, although I am disappointed it doesn't feature access to services like Netflix from different countries. Unblock Basic Websites works in much the same way.
Choose My Server does exactly what you'd expect. You can use it choose the VPN server you'd like to connect to. It omits the graphical map many VPN services rely on, instead letting you break down the list of servers by Most Crowded or Most Empty.
You can easily see which servers allow BitTorrent, and the current ping time that is, latency for each. Limits in free version: CyberGhost VPN's free version has limited choices compared to premium upgrades.
For example, free users have fewer servers to choose from. Even with broadband, the fastest VPN still adds layers to your network connection.
The advantages of a VPN may outweigh any lag time which you might not notice in any case , but it could be an issue for some users.
It makes the privacy and security of VPNs available to a much wider audience. This profile activates all protection components and starts the browser in incognito mode.
It also allows users to manually change the pre-set features, according to their own preference. This pre-configuration includes the selection of the fastest P2P-compatible server at the time of the release along with appropriate protection measures.
Cost-free profile for everyone to use, providing access to censored or blocked websites worldwide without having to pay a fee.
Similar to 'Surf Anonymously', but with an important twist: CyberGhost's "Network Protection" automatically detects wireless networks, remembers them and, if selected, unfolds its protection without any further effort from users, whenever the networks are detected again.
A profile we dedicated to more advanced users, providing access to any of more than single servers worldwide plus the manual activation of additional features such as ad and malware blocking.
The software works well on windows 10 x I can connect up to five devices, including my android devices. It is reliable for me.
Was this review helpful? None because it won't let try it until I agree to pay for the monthly service. Never got it to work, it's maybe it's a great software but at least give us 30 days free trail period.
NOT compatible with Microsoft's latest. Cyberghost code writers take note please correct this issue. Cyberghost as well as most other VPN's will not work with Microsofts latest.
Not very useful for picking up the BBC! So they are either unreliable or dishonest, eitherway I would not trust them with my connection and certainly not pay for their service.
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