CyberGhost VPN Review – Pros & Cons

CyberGhost VPN is one of the best VPN services, especially since adding the next-gen WireGuard protocol and its very own private browser. This VPN is cheap, reliable, and user friendly. With CyberGhost, you get some of the fastest speeds, torrenting, military-grade encryption, and a no-logs policy.

What’s more, this VPN has specialized streaming servers that unblock Netflix and other popular platforms. Last but not least, CyberGhost VPN has excellent 24/7 live chat customer support.

Is CyberGhost safe to use? Does it offer an automatic kill switch? Can it reliably unblock Netflix? Is it great for torrenting? And, most importantly, is it still one of the easiest-to-use VPNs on the market?

I’ll answer these and more questions in my in-depth CyberGhost VPN review to help you find out if this service fits all your needs.

Overview

Cyberghost video review

Is CyberGhost VPN safe?

Let’s start with an essential aspect of every VPN – how good is it at securing your privacy online? Overall, CyberGhost is a very secure solution, primarily if you’re not relying on it to hide you from the world’s top intelligence agencies.

In the following sections, I’ll go through the main features related to CyberGhost VPN’s security.

Encryption and tunneling protocols of CyberGhost VPN

CyberGhost VPN uses the military-grade 256-bit AES encryption, which is the gold standard for encryption among VPNs. This cipher is practically unbreakable. Unless the attacker who’s trying to brute-force it has several hundred years to spare.

Currently, CyberGhost supports the following protocols:

• WireGuard
• OpenVPN
• IKEv2/IPSec

Pretty much every top-rated VPN is now implementing the next-gen WireGuard tunneling protocol, and CyberGhost VPN is among those who already did that. The OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPSec protocol pair are currently the best alternatives available.

I love the fact that this provider lets its users pick the tunneling protocol. You can set your Chosen One in the app’s Settings.

All in all, CyberGhost’s encryption and protocols are beyond the industry’s standards.

Does CyberGhost VPN have a kill switch?

CyberGhost has an automatic kill switch, an essential security feature that cuts off your internet connection if your VPN coverage drops.

One interesting thing about this virtual private network is that unlike many providers on the market, CyberGhost VPN has its kill switch on all the time. However, only desktop users are the lucky ones to enjoy this feature as mobile apps don’t have a kill switch.

I completed some tests to see how powerful this feature was and found that CyberGhost’s kill switch worked just fine whenever I dropped my VPN connection. The automatic kill switch shut my network connection down immediately.

IP and DNS leak protection

CyberGhost has no DNS or IP leaks. It won’t expose your identity by leaking your IP address or DNS requests, which means your online activities will remain anonymous.

To make sure CyberGhost is leak-proof, I ran some DNS and IP leak tests by connecting to a German server – I was assigned the IP address 84.17.49.131.

After getting the CyberGhost IP address, I checked whether my IP address or any of my DNS queries were leaking. Let’s look at the results:

Above, you can see the IPs that were assigned to me by CyberGhost VPN.

My tests only prove that CyberGhost VPN’s effort to be a leak-free provider pays off. This VPN has DNS and IP leak protection feature in its app always-on. Then again, this feature is only available for desktop users.

Privacy-friendly location of CyberGhost VPN: Romania

CyberGhost has many offices in Europe, but it is based in Romania’s capital – Bucharest.

Romania has very privacy-friendly legislation and doesn’t belong to any intelligence-sharing alliances. Unfortunately, this VPN has been bought by the UK (Five Eyes) cybersecurity and digital protection investment company named Kape Technologies in 2019.

You may not know, but Private Internet Access and ZenMate also belong to the same Kape Technologies group.

If the company’s jurisdiction wasn’t enough, Kape has been known for creating malware-like software in the past. Hence, even though CyberGhost is based in one of the best locations in terms of your privacy, you should still judge it with a grain of salt due to its ownership.

CyberGhost VPN has a no-logging policy

It seems that being owned by Kape doesn’t stop CyberGhost VPN from having a decent no-logs policy. According to it, they do not log:

• Real IP addresses
• Assigned servers (that you log onto via their network)
• The times you log in or log out
• Traffic data
• Conversations carried out over the CyberGhost network

Moreover, CyberGhost doesn’t merge any personally identifiable data like payment details. At the same time, the Privacy Policy states that “it’s not possible to record which account logged into which server at what time or to connect a real person to a certain CyberGhost VPN account.”

This means that your data is safe whenever you turn on this VPN unless its owner decides otherwise.

However, there’s one action that the CyberGhost VPN team could take to prove how serious they are about the claimed zero-logs policy. And that’s an independent third-party audit. So far, the provider hasn’t had one, and I hope there’s one coming in the near future.

Other technical features of CyberGhost VPN

Here are some more security and privacy features that come with CyberGhost VPN:

• Tor over VPN
• Split tunneling
• Free SOCKS5 proxy

With CyberGhost, you can route your online traffic through the Tor network on top of your VPN tunnel to gain an additional layer of protection. Tor compatibility is a feature offered by a few VPNs, adding to CyberGhost’s already robust security arsenal.

Moreover, those who opt for CyberGhost VPN also get a Split Tunneling and a free SOCKS5 proxy.

The former lets you choose which apps will use the VPN connection and which ones will connect directly. The latter has a similar function and is used primarily to auto-protect your P2P traffic when you forget to turn on your VPN.

Pay anonymously with CyberGhost VPN

If a VPN has at least one anonymous payment option, it’s a good signal that it’s serious about its users’ privacy.

Thankfully, CyberGhost VPN offers an easy and privacy-friendly payment option via the BitPay platform. With it, you can pay for your CyberGhost VPN subscription in Bitcoin.

To pay anonymously, simply go to the Pricing page on the CyberGhost VPN website, and scroll down. Near the bottom of the page, you’ll see the option to Choose your payment option. Click on Bitcoin, and you’ll be able to complete your purchase anonymously.

Cyberghost VPN speed overview

CyberGhost 14-Day Speed Average

02.15 – 03.01

To see how CyberGhost VPN speeds change in time, we decided to run some tests using our VPN speed tool. It works like this: we set up a VPN in the US, the UK, and Germany and connect to a server in the same country. This way, we eliminate as many variables as we can to get the most accurate VPN speed.

Looking at the results, it’s clear that CyberGhost VPN is rarely among the Top 5. However, it still provides fast download, especially in the US. The situation should change when we switch the OpenVPN protocol with WireGuard, though.

Overall, I can conclude that CyberGhost offers decent speeds across the globe, but I’m aware that results may vary using a different connection. On the other hand, when a service has one of the largest server lists with 6400+ servers in over 90 countries, you shouldn’t have connectivity issues no matter where you are.

When it comes to streaming, CyberGhost VPN does its job well. Not only will it help you bypass the geo-block, but it’ll also ensure the speeds are great and the connection is reliable.

CyberGhost VPN servers

CyberGhost VPN has 6400+ servers in 90+ countries.

One thing to bear in mind is that not all the servers are physical. However, CyberGhost VPN doesn’t hide this fact – you can find the list on their website, along with the P2P-optimized servers.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that CyberGhost VPN also offers NoSpy servers. They are located in Romania and are owned by CyberGhost themselves. These servers give you betters speeds, security, and anonymity. Their price is $0.84/month, billed annually.

Does CyberGhost support my device?

It probably does. CyberGhost VPN offers apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Android TV, and Amazon Fire TV & Fire Stick. You might want to check out our guide on how to install CyberGhost on Fire Stick.

It has free browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox while also providing full support for routers and NAS. There’s also a Smart DNS feature that’ll let you unblock multiple streaming platforms on smart TVs, game consoles, and other devices.

You can use CyberGhost on seven devices simultaneously for the cost of a single subscription as well.

CyberGhost VPN desktop apps: Windows and macOS

The CyberGhost Mac app looks similar to the Windows version but has fewer features. For example, it lacks the Make Exceptions (Split Tunneling), Use random port to connect, and NoSpy servers features.

Other than that, they are almost identical, including AES-256 encryption, automatic kill switch, and malware blocking. However, the macOS client has a cleaner look, and everything is exactly where you’d expect it.

The home screen features four main interactive elements: Power button, Settings cog-wheel, Favorite server drop-down menu, and the Arrow button, which switches between the Compact and the Expanded views.

Servers can be sorted by their distance, load percentage, name, and tagged as Favorites.

You’ll find servers for torrenting and watching geo-blocked content in the For torrenting and For streaming sections. CyberGhost is one of the few to offer so many specialized servers to unblock Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and other platforms.

Connection Features, among other options, offer to block malicious websites, ads, and online tracking. For maximum security, I recommend you to turn these on as they’re off by default.

The CyberGhost VPN tab under Settings gives you the choice of the protocol, DNS servers, and protection against IPv6 leaks.

The kill switch is on by default, and you cannot deactivate it.

I like the CyberGhost VPN Mac app because it is compatible with all Mac desktops and laptops. Moreover, you can take advantage of the 7 simultaneous connections that you get by purchasing one subscription.

Overall, I can safely say that CyberGhost offers some of the most user-friendly apps on the market. Their design is incredibly streamlined and intuitive, making daily VPN usage a breeze.

CyberGhost VPN mobile apps: Android and iOS (iPhone/iPad)

CyberGhost apps for Android and iOS look outstanding – the GUI seems a perfect fit both for computers and mobile devices.

However, what’s different is that the iOS version is even less functional than its desktop counterpart. All that you can do is choose the protocol and enable wifi protection. In the meantime, the Android version of CyberGhost has grown stronger, offering almost the same set of features. Even more, you can toggle Domain Fronting, MTU size, and use a random port.

Sadly, a kill switch feature is also not available for mobile users. While Android users can benefit from the native Always-on VPN feature, iPhone and iPad users are once again left without this essential tool. On the other hand, stripped-down Apple apps are still the norm among most VPN providers.

The Android app has quite a few web protection options not present in the iOS version. Some of them are Split Tunneling, Port Randomization, Data Compression, as well as Blockers against ads, malicious websites, and online tracking.

You can find the CyberGhost Android app either on Google Play or download it directly as an APK file from cyberghost.com.

The iOS app has a very limited feature package, but there’s also one that’s unavailable on Android and, in a way, compensates for some of this version’s shortcomings. I’m talking about CyberGhost’s new Private Browser, advertised in the main menu. Also available on desktop, this browser offers one-tap history removal, ad blocker, tracking protection, and other features.

Other than that, you can secure your wifi and change the security protocol. The CyberGhost iOS app is available on the App Store.

CyberGhost VPN for web browsers: Chrome and Firefox

CyberGhost has free browser extensions for both Chrome and Firefox. These extensions offer fundamental functionality and are best used to change your IP without compromising your connection speed quickly.

With both browser extensions, you can access eight servers in four countries. The US, Germany, Romania, and the Netherlands offer 2 servers each.

I like both Chrome and Firefox extensions because they work even in the countries they restrict VPN usage. Moreover, both of them provide you with unlimited bandwidth.

As for the Chrome browser extension, it will instantly connect you to the fastest server nearby your actual location. If you don’t want that – no problem. You can also choose any available server yourself.

Other platforms for CyberGhost VPN

CyberGhost has apps for Android TV, Amazon Fire TV & Fire Stick devices as well.

What’s more, you can use Smart DNS to seamlessly enjoy geo-blocked video content on your smart TV, game console, Roku TV, or DD-WRT router.

You can also use CyberGhost to protect your entire connection by manually setting it up on your router. This provider works with all the routers that support OpenVPN protocol.

You can find setup instructions for your particular router model on the official website. I must mention that their guides are both informative and clear. Screenshots will help you out in taking another step.

And, as always, when faced with an issue, be sure to chat with their helpful Support team.

Those who seek a foolproof way to use CyberGhost on a router can invest in a FlashRouter. Basically, that is a router that has CyberGhost VPN already installed.

CyberGhost for Netflix

If you’re looking for an excellent provider to bypass the geo-blocks placed on your favorite films or TV series on Netflix, look no further.

CyberGhost’s Netflix capabilities are great – the speeds are excellent, and geo-unblocking is mostly reliable across streaming platforms.

You can access the US Netflix library via specialized For streaming servers. Using these servers, you’ll have no problems accessing your chosen content in no time.

Netflix libraries in other regions are accessible as well, albeit less reliably so, as shown in our in-depth CyberGhost for Netflix tests.

In any case, Cyber Ghost VPN is one of the best VPNs when it comes to unblocking Netflix. Hence I highly recommend you give it a try.

CyberGhost for Kodi and other streaming platforms

CyberGhost VPN works great with Kodi. With it, you’ll be able to access your chosen content and enjoy a reliable connection while streaming.

With CyberGhost VPN, you’ll also be able to access:

• • Hulu
  • Amazon Prime Video
  • HBO Now
  • Disney+
  • Sling TV
  • BBC iPlayer
  • YouTube
  • YouTube Red
  • Sky
  • Eurosport
  • ESPN
  • CBS
  • MTV
  • Spotify

And that’s just some of the media platforms that you can access with CyberGhost VPN.

European and North American audiences are likely to enjoy their chosen TV series or films with no interruptions because that’s where most of CyberGhost’s servers are situated.

As for Hulu, it is available only to US and Japanese users. Hence I would highly recommend using the US or Japanese servers to unblock this streaming platform.

Amazon Prime Video is available in over 200 countries. However, the US library is the largest. Therefore we recommend connecting to one of the US servers.

Does CyberGhost support torrenting?

Yes, CyberGhost VPN supports torrenting.

CyberGhost’s torrenting capabilities are excellent: the service offers enough security and privacy features, has a proper distribution of P2P-optimized servers, and doesn’t block or throttle P2P traffic.

What’s more, the speeds are excellent, and CyberGhost’s no-logging policy ensures the company can’t hand over any information about you to the authorities. This means you can safely leech away while staying off the radar.

Is CyberGhost a secure option for torrenters?

We know that CyberGhost allows torrenting on many of their servers, but that doesn’t make them a safe option for P2P downloading. With widespread fears about prosecution for copyright infringement, this isn’t an academic concern. P2P downloaders should always pick a VPN that enforces a rigorous no logging and minimal disclosure policy.

How does CyberGhost perform here? Well, the picture is mixed. Their privacy policy openly states that “We also reserve the right to disclose your Personal Data as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights.”

Earlier in the privacy policy, the company discloses that it collects “Website usage information, such as IP address[es]” and payment details. However, this is countered by the assurance that “Personal Data is not, at any point, associated with any kind of activity done by the user inside the CyberGhost VPN tunnel which is NOT recorded, logged or stored at all.”

On the basis of their privacy policy, it seems like customers can trust CyberGhost to keep torrenting details secret. But they may still disclose valuable information to investigators, which could assist with copyright lawsuits or criminal prosecutions.

Is CyberGhost the best option for torrenting?

The actual CyberGhost client is geared for torrenting. In an unusual move among VPNs, their home screen features a special profile for “torrenting anonymously.” This should automatically select the best server for torrenting, making it unnecessary to search for the best option yourself. However, there are certain Pros and Cons you should keep in mind in case torrenting with CyberGhost.

Pros

• General pro-torrenting stance
• Excellent features for torrenters, such as 256-bit AES encryption, WireGuard, no logging, a kill switch, and automatic server selection
• Unlimited bandwidth comes as the standard
• 6400+ servers located across 90+ countries
• Romania isn’t in the Fourteen Eyes alliance
• Really easy to use, attractive client with special options for CyberGhost torrenting
• Many CyberGhost packages deliver excellent value for money, and the company offers a 45-day money-back guarantee
• Payments can be made in cryptocurrencies, ensuring anonymous transactions

And the cons:

• Some concerns regarding how watertight the CyberGhost privacy policy is
• Speeds can vary dramatically, and users have complained of low speeds on social media forums

What’s the verdict? As far as we can tell, CyberGhost remains a good option for torrenters. But as with all VPNs, you should shop around and try every option. So take advantage of CyberGhost’s guarantee and give it a try. It may be a case of love at first byte.

Support: CyberGhost VPN live chat, guides, and FAQ

CyberGhost is pretty good in customer support, especially if you compare it to the lower tier of VPN services on the market. Compared to highest-tier VPNs, CyberGhost support is almost as good but somewhat lacking in the self-help section.

CyberGhost offers How-To Guides, a Troubleshooter, FAQ, and 24/7 live chat. There’s no phone support, but you can submit a request form on the website.

How-to guides provide instructions on dealing with the most common issues on the most popular platforms and game consoles, Kodi, or Linux.

Troubleshooter addresses general questions, such as connection and speed problems or issues with the user’s account and subscription.

The FAQ answers some of the initial inquiries about the VPNs and CyberGhost in general, privacy, servers, P2P, and such.

We tried asking Customer Support some questions and found that the 24/7 live chat agents are helpful, knowledgeable, and quick to reply.

We’ve encountered reports of support reps telling customers to wait for an email, but this is normal with problems that require complex solutions.

Pricing: is CyberGhost a good deal?

If you opt for a long-term subscription, CyberGhost is actually a great deal.

Here are the pricing plans you can choose from:

• 1 month ($12.99/month)
• 1 year ($3.99/month)
• 2 years ($3.49/month)
• 3 years + 3 months ($2.25/month)

You can also get a dedicated IP address in the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, or France for $5/month.

Windows users can also choose a full Security Suite that includes Antivirus, Privacy Guard, and Security Updater. The price is $1.39/month.

All options offer the same features, including seven simultaneous connections and a generous 45-day money-back guarantee (14-days for a 1-month subscription). This refund policy works very well – I had no problems with it.

There’s also a 24-hour CyberGhost free trial for Windows and Mac users. It has all the features available to paying customers and will give you a good sense of what you’re getting into without the need to enter your credit card details or other personal info. This is a substantial advantage over many premium VPN services that sport only money-back guarantees.

CyberGhost has a list of payment methods covering all the main bases – credit card, PayPal, AmazonPay, and Bitcoin. Choosing the latter option, you enhance your anonymity and stay as private as possible.

Is CyberGhost a good VPN?

Yes, it is! CyberGhost is one of the most popular and one of the better VPNs on the market.

This service has a great set of features for novices – the sleek and user-friendly interface makes everything straightforward, eliminating the need to spend more time than necessary when trying to find the right server for your needs. It’s suitable for streaming and torrents and is currently one of the cheapest tools at the market’s top end.

In short, CyberGhost’s popularity is undoubtedly well-deserved – while it’s not the ideal tool for grizzled VPN enthusiasts, the vast majority of everyday users will find CyberGhost VPN an excellent service.

CyberGhost FAQ

Is CyberGhost VPN free?

No, CyberGhost doesn’t offer a free plan. You can test the product out by taking advantage of their 24-hour free trial.

Other than that you’ll have four paid plans to choose from.

Does CyberGhost work in China?

CyberGhost VPN is an excellent virtual private network to use in China.

With this provider, you get a handy Tor over VPN feature which is essential in providing you with an extra layer of privacy. However, you should expect your connection to get slower.

Why is CyberGhost not connecting?

One thing to bear in mind when opting for CyberGhost is that sometimes it takes longer to connect to a certain location. Sometimes you’ll have to wait for 2-3 minutes.

If you’re patient enough, once connected you’ll be able to enjoy great speeds and a reliable connection. But I do understand that waiting for a VPN to connect can be frustrating.

4 common Cyberghost VPN connection problems:

1. Issues related to your Antivirus or Firewall
2. CyberGhost account problems
3. Server problems
4. Other System Compatibility issues