Price When Reviewed

$11.99

Best Prices Today: StrongVPN

Simplicity is one thing we recognize enormously in an excellent VPN, and StrongVPN has made it the defining function. A couple of years in the past it overhauled its service with a view to cut back selection and make it as simple as attainable to get linked and browse securely. The firm has lately tried to construct upon its service whereas sustaining this simplicity by upgrading to incorporate 12 simultaneous gadget connections—two or 3 times as many as a few of its opponents. So how this shift labored out? We put StrongVPN via the ringer to see whether or not it lives as much as its identify.

Further studying: See our roundup of the best VPNs in 2023 to find out about competing merchandise.

What are StrongVPN’s options & providers?

Sam Singleton

StrongVPN comes with most of your fundamental VPN options. It provides apps for Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, ChromeOS, and Amazon Fire TV. For the needs of this evaluation, I solely examined the Windows model. It additionally permits 12 simultaneous gadget connections, which is roughly twice as many as another VPN suppliers. It’s fascinating to notice, nonetheless, that I’m beginning to see increasingly providers swap to providing limitless simultaneous gadget connections, a development I hope will proceed.

When you first open up StrongVPN you’re greeted with a map, a button titled Best Available Location, and a button to attach. By default, StrongVPN will select the closest server for the absolute best speeds. In order to see an inventory of obtainable areas you’ll really have to click on on Best Available Location. I perceive that this was seemingly a approach to assist simplify the connection course of for novices, nevertheless it didn’t really feel very intuitive. Plus, many individuals these days use a VPN to hook up with one other nation’s servers slightly than simply the closest geolocated server in any case. 

Sam Singleton

StrongVPN’s areas are restricted, nevertheless it has sufficient servers in varied nations all through the world to fulfill most customers. It has simply over 40 nation areas and a reported 950 accessible servers. That is kind of a modest server inhabitants in comparison with different providers similar to Surfshark VPN, which has 100 nation areas, or Private Internet Access VPN, which has nicely over 30,000 plus servers. Note: Having extra servers doesn’t essentially imply a greater VPN, nevertheless it’s often indicative of a extra strong service.

StrongVPN claims that it has no digital server areas and that every one of its server areas are primarily based within the nation acknowledged. It’s a pleasant factor to know as some VPN suppliers use digital areas to supply entry to a rustic the place they might not have bodily servers. This isn’t tremendous essential, however it may possibly have some minor results on server efficiency—optimistic or destructive.

Beyond the map and server location listing, there isn’t rather more to StrongVPN, to be sincere. By clicking the gear within the higher right-hand nook of the app you possibly can open the Settings menu. Even right here it’s simplistic and your choices are restricted. It all left me feeling considerably wanting. 

The Windows app offers no choices for split-tunneling, which lets you decide and select which applications you want to run via the VPN. Nor does it provide multi-hop connections with a view to route your visitors via multiple server to additional obfuscate your true location. These are each invaluable instruments they usually’re provided by many different big-name VPN suppliers similar to NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

The Settings menu does provide you with just a few options similar to a kill swap, which is able to mechanically disconnect your web within the occasion that the VPN connection is severed. You’ll additionally discover choices to alter your VPN protocol right here and details about your account.

How is StrongVPN’s efficiency?

StrongVPN

While utilizing any VPN, each your obtain and add speeds are more likely to lower resulting from latency between servers. It’s additionally price noting that VPN server speeds are extremely dependent upon space, time of use, and a mess of different components. Therefore your expertise might differ from the ends in my, or anybody else’s testing. 

That being mentioned, throughout my testing I rated speeds throughout StrongVPN’s servers in 5 totally different nations all all over the world after which in contrast them to my baseline web velocity. StrongVPN server speeds had been satisfactory, however not nice. Across all areas examined, the common obtain velocity was 31 p.c in comparison with the bottom velocity and the common add velocity was a slightly sluggish 13 p.c in comparison with the bottom. That places StrongVPN in the course of the pack of all the assorted providers we’ve examined. However, it fell wanting the speediest providers in our top five fastest VPNs.

I observed that, oddly, speeds in Brazil and different South American nations had been a lot decrease than these in different continents. Take this with a grain of salt, although, as your outcomes might fluctuate. The backside line is that StrongVPN ought to be quick sufficient for most individuals’s wants, although it doesn’t high the velocity charts in comparison with different VPNs we’ve examined.

For these involved about streaming, you needn’t fear. Every server I examined with StrongVPN was in a position to entry the key streaming providers similar to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney Plus with out situation. Furthermore, customers can entry P2P on all StrongVPN servers in the event that they so need.

How is StrongVPN’s safety and privateness?

StrongVPN is owned by father or mother firm J2 Global, an American digital media and web providers conglomerate. It additionally owns quite a few different standard VPNs together with IPVanish and Encrypt.me.

It’s primarily based within the United States, which is a member of the Five Eyes, the Nine Eyes, and the 14 Eyes worldwide surveillance and intelligence alliances. This implies that U.S. authorities can acquire person info from StrongVPN with the right warrant. Depending upon how privateness acutely aware you’re, that is one thing it’s best to take into accounts earlier than selecting this service. 

StrongVPN makes all of the privateness guarantees you’d anticipate from a VPN. The firm has a “strict no-logging policy” and it states that it doesn’t accumulate or log any net visitors or another web use of its VPN service—no IP addresses, no bandwidth utilization, and no timestamps. Its privateness coverage claims that the one information that it does accumulate is billing info and e mail addresses for account creation functions. Furthermore, it states that it doesn’t promote any private details about customers to 3rd events.

You’ll simply must take its phrase for all of this nonetheless, as StrongVPN has but to finish an unbiased safety audit. In right this moment’s day and age I anticipate a longtime VPN similar to this to have undergone and handed an audit and the truth that it hasn’t is disappointing.

Sam Singleton

In regards to StrongVPN’s safety, it has your trade normal AES-256 encryption. It additionally helps IKEv2, WireGuard, OpenVPN, SSTP, and L2TP protocols in its Windows app.

As for funds, it provides all the usual bank card choices, in addition to PayPal, Bitcoin by way of BitPay, and Alipay. This permits for various ranges of relative anonymity, with Bitcoin being the strongest.

Is StrongVPN price it?

StrongVPN is definitely very simple to make use of, and the speeds are dependable and adequate for many customers. If you’re new to VPNs then StrongVPN is perhaps a good selection. However, this concentrate on simplicity comes again to chew it. The lack of superior options is unlucky — no split-tunneling and no multi-hop capabilities are notably egregious.

StrongVPN makes an attempt to strike a center floor by offering solely the necessities for VPN fundamentals with out going overboard in function decisions, however finally comes up quick. I can see why previously it determined to forego options that had been then deemed area of interest. But these days these identical options are extra commonplace and their continued exclusion make it seem to be a little bit of a relic.

Editor’s notice: Because on-line providers are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this evaluation is topic to alter with a view to precisely mirror the present state of the service. Any modifications to textual content or our ultimate evaluation verdict might be famous on the high of this text.