VyprVPN Review

Like a snake in tall grass, VyprVPN can’t be caught. Users in restricted countries will love it, others might find it very situational.

Most companies on the market keep a skeleton or two in the closet. Some probably hide entire graveyards. Not this one, as our VyprVPN review will show.

Golden Frog is a Switzerland-based company with some of the most refreshingly honest marketing in any industry. If their product isn’t that good at something – they’ll tell you. Fortunately, there isn’t much to say, because VyprVPN, launched in 2009, is quite solid.

Is VyprVPN safe to use?

VyprVPN is very safe to use and has a strong reputation as a serious player in the VPN field.

The key security features of VyprVPN:

• Military-grade AES-256 cipher
• OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec protocols
• Chameleon protocol against DPI (Deep Packet Inspection)
• All servers owned by VyprVPN
• Kill switch

An important thing to take into account is the company’s country of registration. In this case, that’s Switzerland which takes privacy seriously. That’s why Golden Frog isn’t the only VPN company to register there.

Switzerland is not part of the Fourteen Eyes intelligence-sharing group and has no data-retention laws. Due to this reason, VyprVPN’s Privacy Policy is a lot more meaningful than if they were registered somewhere like the US or UK.

Unlike many other VPNs, all of VyprVPN’s servers are owned by the company. This serves a few purposes but, in terms of security, owning the servers allows the company to implement its privacy policy. Third-party servers are fine, but you can never really be sure whether they are keeping more logs than your own rules call for. It also makes it much easier to ensure no one can tamper with the hardware, compromising security that way.

Last but not least, VyprVPN comes with a kill switch, a must for every premium service. It kills your connection in case of a VPN failure, leaving your personal data unexposed.

Does VyprVPN keep logs?

Officially, VyprVPN sticks to their no-logs policy. It was proven in 2018 by Leviathan’s security audit.

Golden Frog used to log source IP, assigned IP, timestamps, and other metadata, but this is a thing of a past. Now they have made necessary updates to their server hardware and software that allows them to provide service without the need to log user data.

While they say that your “Personal Data” can only be released if “ordered by a court,” if they do not log any information, then there is nothing damaging that they can release.

Torrenting is the only grey area in its policies. While it’s not prohibited, your account might be shut down if Gold Frog gets a copyright notice about you downloading and sharing something that’s not to be downloaded or shared. On the other hand, the chances of this happening are really slim.

Is VyprVPN leak-proof?

VyprVPN is nearly leak-proof. Historically, the Mac version of any VPN is less prone to leaks, and we were unable to find any during our tests. But Windows users shouldn’t worry too much either – only a few of the very best VPN services manage to avoid this.

The service is reportedly still susceptible to the WebRTC vulnerabilities which lead to IPv6 address leaks. The good part is that these occasions are rare. The best part is that IPv6 leaks are easily solvable by disabling IPv6. If not, you can turn off WebRTC on your browser.

Although VyprVPN has its own DNS network to avoid this type of leaks, Windows can still find ways to show the ISP what sites you’re browsing. Luckily, VyprVPN has a way to prevent that.

For more info, check our article on VyprVPN’s safety features.

Speed and performance

Our tests have shown average speeds when compared to the Top 10 VPNs. VyprVPN also has higher than average latency and takes considerably more time to connect.

We’ve made our test from Europe, with the original download speed of 240 Mbps.

New York, US

• Download: 49 Mbps (drop-off 80%)
• Upload: 24 Mbps
• Drop-off: 81%

Los Angeles, US

• Download: 23 Mbps (drop-off 90%)
• Upload: 6 Mbps
• Drop-off: 90%

London, UK

• Download: 57 Mbps (drop-off 76%)
• Upload: 7 Mbps
• Drop-off: 76%

Tokyo, Japan

• Download: 2 Mbps (drop-off 99%)
• Upload: 4 Mbps
• Drop-off: 99%

Sydney, Australia

• Download: 11 Mbps (drop-off 95%)
• Upload: 1 Mbps
• Drop-off: 95%

VyprVPN should be fast enough for most users in Europe and North America but will probably struggle in other regions. If your base speeds are significantly lower, consider looking for alternatives if security is not your only goal.

Server coverage

At 700+ servers in over 70 locations, VyprVPN’s sheer stats don’t sound amazing at all: NordVPN has 5400+, CyberGhost has 5600+, etc.

But Golden Frog owns all of its servers and can optimize them to achieve a higher level of performance than they would be able to otherwise. Also, many VPNs use much slower Virtual Private Servers instead of hardware ones to cover some locations.

Even though VyprVPN doesn’t have that many servers, their coverage is decent, with only Africa being the underrepresented region.

Ease of use and multi-platform support

VyprVPN has apps for a range of devices:

• Windows
• Mac
• Android
• iOS
• Router (Tomato with MIPS or ARM)
  
• Android TV
• QNAP
• Blackphone
• Anonabox

It also supports Apple TV, OpenELEC/Kodi, DD-WRT, OpenWRT, AsusWRT, Boxee, Synology NAS, and Blackberry.

The Mac app is almost identical to the Windows version, and both desktop versions share the somewhat outdated design.

Android app gives split tunneling, and iOS has only IPSec/IKEv2 by default. A special iPad version offers a big interactive server map.

VyprVPN allows three (Basic) or five (Premium) devices.

Once you download and install the client, the initial screen should look like this (on Windows):

The Map marker icon at the top-right brings a separate Server Location window with the alphabetical server list, which you can sort by region or ping. Pressing the Star icon puts the server in the Favorites tab.

Clicking the cogwheel at the top-right of the main menu gives six tabs with Options.

In the Connection tab, we suggest turning the kill switch on to prevent the exposure of sensitive info in case of VPN failure.

The Protocol tab lets you switch between Chameleon, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, and PPTP (not recommended).

The Advanced tab will let the pro-users tweak Route Delay, TAP Adapter, MTU, and alike.

VyprVPN’s client design feels a bit outdated, but not to the point where it gets frustrating. It manages to give plenty of options for customization but works just fine by default.

Does it work with Netflix?

VyprVPN is not the fastest service, so your Netflix binges might be ruined by interruptions or getting HD instead of UHD (4K).

But when it comes to unblocking, VyprVPN did a good job in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. We were unable to stream the Japanese library, though.

You can read more about streaming in our VyprVPN for Netflix article.

Does it work with Kodi?

VyprVPN is a Kodi-friendly service. It has a decent network of self-owned servers, a strict no-logs policy, and apps for multiple devices. This VPN also supports OpenELEC, which helps to turn your computer into a Kodi media center.

The only concern is the speed – if the tests show you’ll be able to stream in the desired quality, there’s no reason you shouldn’t use VyprVPN with Kodi.

P2P and torrenting

You can use VyprVPN for torrents – the service is network-neutral and will not block P2P. We tried it for our VyprVPN review. Should you? It depends if you’re OK with some risk.

If Golden Frog receives a copyright complaint about your torrenting activities, you can lose your account. It’s quite likely you will never have to deal with such a situation, but why take the risk? There are a few VPNs that are just as good, cheap, and less judgemental.

Customer support

Our experience with support resources for this VyprVPN review has been good. Their website has FAQs, instructions, and troubleshooting guides, all of which are well-written and informative. The website itself is not difficult to navigate, and you’ll get to the Support section very quickly.

Those who would instead get help from VyprVPN staff will also be satisfied. There is a ticket system for the more complicated issues, and a 24/7 live chat function. Golden Frog’s representatives were quick to answer and informative.

Pricing

VyprVPN comes in two different shapes – Basic and Premium, which form the following pricing options:

• Basic plan for $9.95/month
• Premium plan for $12.95/month
• One year of Basic plan for $5/month or $60/year
• One year of Premium plan for $6.67/month or $80/year

The long-term options let you save around 50%.

The main difference between the Basic and the Premium plan is the number of simultaneous connections they allow. With the Basic plan, you can have 3 devices, while the Premium one allows 5, also adding VyprVPN Cloud and the Chameleon protocol. The latter is, of course, a must for anyone who wants to use VyprVPN in China or any other country with restricted internet access.

The saddest part about VyprVPN is the payment methods. While the company behind the service claims to be all for privacy, there are no anonymous payment options, only credit card, PayPal, and UnionPay.

VyprVPN is not the most expensive tool out there (although the Premium option is more expensive than the average), but we don’t appreciate that there’s no 2-year or 3-year plan. Even a 6-month plan would be nice.

To learn more about the pricing, check our dedicated article on VyprVPN pricing.

Bottom line

VyprVPN is nice for certain groups of people – those living under repressive regimes as well as those who aren’t into torrenting copyrighted material. It offers great privacy and security at the cost of speed.

This VPN has user-friendly (if somewhat outdated) apps for most of the popular platforms, as well as some less popular ones. It will help you get past geo-blocking and watch Netflix. If you have some issue, their great support resources, live 24/7 chat included, won’t leave you hanging.