Shimo VPN Review

When looking for VPN’s, it can become frustrating to see all of the commercial options available that simply don’t meet the cut. Especially if you’re looking for high security standards tailored to a specific platform. To make your life a little easier in this respect, we’ve brought you a review of Shimo VPN.

Overview

Shimo is a powerful VPN solution for Mac users, which offers the highest security standards and plenty of functionality to keep your browsing anonymous and secure.

For our Shimo VPN review, we’re going to go over how well this VPN hides your traffic and protects your browsing, as well as any legal ramifications and technical specs about using their service. Hopefully, by the end of this Shimo VPN review, you’ll have a good idea of how powerful this VPN solution really is.

To start off, Shimo VPN is fast. User reviews report minimal slowdowns, and tests seem to show a loss of between 10 and 20%, which is extremely fast for a VPN with such intense security features.

The software itself uses a wide variety of encryption standards and handshakes, as well as offering a huge variety of protocol support. Although they do lack the important kill switch functionality, the program itself is very solid.

In terms of legal stuff, we’ll go into this in more detail later on in our Shimo VPN review, but there isn’t too much to worry about off-the-hop. The company is based in Germany, which is part of the 14 Eyes alliance, and there seems to be some collection and logging of information, but we’ll go into more detail for that further on down below. If you are really cautious about your privacy, try VPN which has a strict no-logs policy, like NordVPN

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One drawback for our Shimo VPN review is that the service is only available for Mac users. While this is a bit of a bummer, it definitely plays a huge part in allowing the VPN to specialize in being a powerful solution for Mac users.

Aside from the most important stuff, this service also seems to be useful for unblocking content on Netflix with some reliability. Unfortunately, there isn’t much information on whether or not it’s available from China, but again, we’ll talk more about this down below.

One thing the service does seem to be useful for is torrenting. For our Shimo VPN review, we would go even as far as to say that this would be one of the better options to go with for torrenting on a Mac.

Now with all of the important overviews out of the way, let’s get started taking a look at the details. For this Shimo VPN review, we’re going to start with the safety features, and whether or not you can put your mind at ease while using Shimo VPN.

Is Shimo VPN safe to use?

Shimo VPN uses a wide range of encryption standards, including AES-256, AES-192, and AES-128. Obviously, users who desire greater levels of privacy will want to go with the higher standards of encryption.

The company also states on their website that their hash algorithms use SHA-2 cryptographic hash functions, as well as D-H method for cryptographic exchange over public channels. Even without being well versed in cryptography, this sends a huge signal of security.

Overall, the actual tech specs for our Shimo VPN review definitely check out. As we mentioned above, the service lacks a kill switch, meaning your traffic and identity will be revealed in the case of VPN failure. Although this is a bit of a drawback, it isn’t too much to worry about given the high security standards of Shimo VPN.

It’s also good to note that there weren’t any DNS, IP, or IPV6 leaks detected when we tested for our Shimo VPN review. This is another nice touch, since it means there is little risk of your client leaking identifying information about your browsing.

Moving on with our Shimo VPN review, let’s talk a bit about the legal matters. One thing to be aware of is that Germany, where the company is based, is part of the 14 Eyes alliance. This means that data and intelligence gathered by the German government and law enforcement agencies is potentially shared with other members of the alliance, such as the US or UK.

Of course, this is really only a concern if you are going to be breaking international law. If you are doing something with your browsing that you definitely want to be secure for, you may want to keep this in mind as you use Shimo VPN.

Now, in terms of Shimo VPN’s privacy policy, it’s important to note that the privacy policy does indicate some collection of user data. They also note in their privacy policy that they do comply with government and LEA requests for user data.

This is a definite red flag for anybody who is concerned about their data being collected or shared while using Shimo VPN. The data they claim to collect includes email information as well as anonymized data such as the date and time the server was accessed.

The company says that they collect this data in order to provide the best experience possible, but it’s still kind of a cause for concern if you’re really concerned about logs being created of your browsing data.

So, now that we’ve got an idea of how safe the program is to use, let’s move on with our Shimo VPN review and take a look at how this client performs.

Speed and performance

Shimo VPN is a very comprehensive privacy solution for Mac users, but how well does it stack up in terms of performance? We’re happy to report for our Shimo VPN review that the program itself seems to be lightning fast.

Of course, speed is a very subjective stat that will change based on where you’re connecting from, as well as a host of other variables. If you’re in the market for a VPN client that works for Mac, there is a free trial available that lets users test out the performance for themselves.

How to download and install Shimo VPN

When you visit the Shimo VPN website, you will be met with a nice, streamlined website full of claims about the strength of their VPN.

Hitting the button that says “Download free trial” will bring you to the download page for the client, where you will find a step-by-step process for installing and using the VPN. Most users should have no trouble, as we found for our Shimo VPN review that the process was quite straightforward.

Once the client is installed, you may move the shimo.app folder into your applications folder, which is recommended.

You can create an account from right inside Shimo VPN’s configuration panel, which is fairly convenient and straightforward, as well.

Overall, the process is very straightforward and easy to set up. Once you’ve got your account set up, there are only a few simple configurations to set and then you’re ready to privatize your browsing!

Now that we’ve gone over how to use the application, we’ll move on to the next section of our Shimo VPN review, and take a look at some of the other features that the client supports.

Apps and extensions

First up, what kind of device support does Shimo VPN cover? Like we’ve been saying throughout this Shimo VPN review, the client is only supported on Mac. This is a huge bummer, since the wide range of encryption standards and security protocols is very desirable for a VPN that also has a simple interface and a free license available.

That being said, it’s definitely an area where Shimo VPN could improve. Perhaps developing a Windows client would alleviate some of the disappointment here, or even just offering a client for iOS as well, to touch a little bit on the mobile VPN market.

It is good for torrenting, Netflix, and China?

This is the part in our Shimo VPN review where we go over some of the features which affect the versatility of a VPN client. This is stuff like whether or not the VPN is useful for unblocking Netflix and other streaming programs, as well as whether or not the service is useful for anonymizing traffic from China.

First off, we’re happy to report for our Shimo VPN review that the program does indeed seem to work semi-reliably for accessing unblocked Netflix content. Although some users report encountering the dreaded “proxy error,” most seem to be completely satisfied with how the VPN performs while unblocking Netflix.

In terms of torrenting, the company makes no prohibitions against it in their terms of service, which is usually all the go ahead you should need. The security features are powerful enough to protect torrent traffic, and the speed should be fast enough to satisfy even the most demanding content aficionados.

That being said, the lack of kill switch feature is a bit of a concern for torrent downloaders, as your connection could be revealed in case the VPN fails for some reason or another.

Moving on with our Shimo VPN review, the last thing we’ll touch on for versatility is whether or not the client is useful from inside China. Unfortunately, although the security features are fairly high-standard, the lack of server coverage and other drawbacks (especially the lack of a kill switch), make the client too unreliable for use in China.

Support

The next thing we’ll cover for our Shimo VPN review is the customer support. Shimo VPN offers support on their website in the form of a comprehensive knowledge base, FAQ, and set of tutorials for getting users onboard and ready to browse.

They also offer 24/7 support through ticket system, and although their team is reputedly responsive and helpful, the lack of live chat or phone support is a bit of a downer. We hate waiting for ticket replies from customer service, and we’re sure a lot of our readers are, as well.

Pricing

This is the question everybody has been waiting for. Shimo VPN is another one of those companies that does their pricing a little differently from the typical model.

Shimo VPN offers a free 30-day license for their service, which limits your access to a period of 30 days. The trial doesn’t have any limits on the type of protocols and such that you can use, which is a huge plus, allowing users to really test out the service before purchasing.

Another really cool thing is that although the price may seem a little seep, this is a one-time fee. That’s right, when you pay for Shimo VPN, you get a lifetime license, allowing you to connect with the service for as long as it is supported by the company.

This is a pretty huge factor, and it makes Shimo VPN a very attractive option for users who are concerned about regular payments and the implications that that has for privacy (as well as finances).

For payment options, Shimo VPN only supports credit card and PayPal. This is fairly limited, and it would be nice to see them include more anonymous payment options in the future.

Bottom line

Overall, Shimo VPN gives you an industry-standard security solution with a variety of protocols and encryption standards to choose from. It’s a relatively safe client to use, both in terms of functionality and legal ramifications, and it performs well with minimal slowdown.
It’s also a fairly versatile client, allowing users to torrent and access Netflix with reliable privacy and unblocking.

There are a few drawbacks, such as the lack of payment options and support avenues, but the added bonus of a one-time fee is also a huge plus.

Overall, the Shimo VPN service is an okay VPN client for Mac users, and it might work for those who wish to protect traffic on their computer. With that said, there are far better VPNs for Mac out there – and with this level of competition, Shimo VPN has a lot of catching up to do.