VyprVPN 2022 REVIEW

VyprVPN provides a no-logging service to its users.

Editors Note: We don’t insert VPN affiliate links into our reviews and we are not paid to complete reviews on any VPN services. All VPN reviews are based on our own testing and experiences. Always do your own testing before deciding on a VPN service.

VyprVPN is a virtual private network that is offered by telecommunication company, Giganews via its parent company, Golden Frog. It’s been a product offering since 2010. Giganews operates out of Austin, Texas while Golden Frog is incorporated in Switzerland.

“VyprVPN was founded in response to governmental surveillance, and our strong encryption keeps your information safe from hackers, identity theft, and malware. It stops your ISP from tracking your every move and prevents advertisers from collecting and selling your valuable data.”

In addition to providing standard VPN services, VyprVPN also helps users to bypass censorship and restrictive networks.

Features

• Chameleon – a technology that allows VyprVPN to fight back against censorship and keep the internet free and open. Chameleon™ is a great VPN protocol for bypassing restrictive networks in any country trying to control internet access.
• VyprDNS – a VPN feature that keeps your network safe from any potential man-in-the-middle attacks.
• No logging – VyprVPN is a no-log VPN and they don’t store any user traffic logs.
• Public Wi-Fi Protection – Automatically connect to VyprVPN whenever you access an unknown Wi-Fi network.
• Kill Switch – Our Kill Switch automatically blocks all internet and network traffic when VyprVPN disconnects or is disabled. It’s a powerful tool to automatically ensure your personal information and peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic are kept private.
• Audited No-Log VPN
• 24/7 Customer Support
• 30 Simultaneous Connections
• 70+ Worldwide Server Locations
• High-Speed Streaming
• Access to Restricted Content
• IP Address Protection
• High-End Encryption/NAT Firewall

Pricing & Availability

VyprVPN is available for all major operating systems including Windows, macOS, QNAP, Anonabox, Android, iOS, and Blackphone. Apps can be downloaded either from vyprvpn.com or various App Stores. The apps are free to download but in order to use the VPN service, users must sign up for a premium subscription.

VyprVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if users are not satisfied with the service. At the time of publishing this article, the subscription prices are $15/month or $100/year.

The iOS app lists several different in-app purchases that are different than what is offered through Vyprvpn.com. There is no apparent documentation that provides users with information about the differences between the different versions. It is possible that these prices were entered at different promotional times and never removed.

• VyprVPN (1 month)(1 month) $11.99
• VyprVPN (1 year)(1 year) $69.99
• VyprVPN Pro (1 month)(1 month) $14.99
• VyprVPN (1 month) Trial (1 month) $9.99
• VyprVPN (1 month)(1 month) $9.99
• VyprVPN Mobile (1 year) $29.99
• VyprVPN Pro $14.99
• VyprVPN Premium (1 month) $12.99
• VyprVPN Premium (1 month) $12.99
• VyprVPN (3 months) $24.99

Privacy Policy

According to their privacy policy (effective March 10, 2021), VyprVPN:

DOES NOT

• Log a user’s source IP address (typically assigned to the user by their ISP).
• Log the IP address assigned to the user when using VyprVPN.
• Log connection start or stop time.
• Log a user’s traffic or the content of any communications.
• Discriminate against devices, protocols, or applications.
• Throttle or rate limit your Internet connection.
• Log any DNS requests.

DOES

• Collect data such as location, user content, diagnostics, contact info, and usage data.
• Retain user data for as long as necessary
• Use collected Personal Data to provide and maintain Services, provide customer support, and provide news, special offers, and general information to users.
• Transfer user information (including personal data) to computers located outside of the state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction. Golden Frog transfers data to Switzerland and stores it there.

The complete Privacy Policy for VyprVPN can be found here. It is actually hosted on goldenfrog.com rather than Vypervpn.com. VyprVPN also uses a third-party security firm for auditing.

You can view the full report here at VyprVPN Letter of Attestation and No Log Assessment by Leviathan

How does Vypr VPN work in practice?

As far as the process goes, VyprVPN controls your subscription through an account setup that utilizes an email address, first and last name, and password. And when you checkout, you also provide credit card and/or PayPal information. You could also get to a point where you are submitting your address as well. Here’s how.

There are multiple ways to signup for a VyprVPN account – using the iOS app/App Store, VyprVPN.com, or through Giganews.com, VyprVPN’s parent company. Now, on Giganews.com, there is an option for a 14-day free trial. When you go through the signup process through Giganews.com it will check to see if you are eligible for the free trial. In order to get to that point, you have to provide your email, first and last name, address (including city and state), and payment information (credit card or PayPal).

I walked through this process and got to the submit screen when I saw the following dialogue box. The free trial of Giganews only includes the Usenet service and the VyprVPN is NOT part of the trial. I found this to be a little tricky on their part.

That said, if you sign up through VyprVPN, there is no suggestion of a free trial – at all. When you sign up for an account, you enter your email, first and last name, and password, and then move on to select your payment method and checkout. There is no veil there and it’s very straightforward.

The iOS app does have the option of a 3-day free trial, but you have to be EXTREMELY careful if you select to do this because, in order to opt-out of the free trial before you get charged, you have to do so 24 hours before it is set to expire. My suggestion if you decide to do the free trial is to immediately cancel the subscription. You will still have access to the 3-day trial until it expires, but you won’t automatically be charged at that point. Keep in mind this is also only available for brand new accounts.

I really like the interface on both the iPhone and Mac. The homepage of the app is the connection page. This gives users the immediate option to connect (or disconnect) and select their server preference. In one or two clicks, you are connected and can go about your business. There are no complicated required settings to sort through. There is also a stats icon in the right-hand corner that reveals connection details such as data transfer rate, connection status, time connected, etc. This part of the experience gets an A.

The other main parts of the app consist of the Customizations and the Servers. The server page is simply a list of the servers that are available. By default, they are sorted by country. You can have them sorted by speed and region as well. There is also a search option, which is very useful. Sometimes you want to connect to a different country, but the fastest options are usually going to be the servers that are geographically closest to you physically. Therefore, having the option to search for a specific country is another big perk of this app interface.

Under the Customize menu, users can turn on Public WiFi Protection, which means the VPN will automatically be turned on when you are on an untrusted WiFi network. I love this feature. On this same screen, you can add trusted networks. Let’s say your home network is a trusted network, but your work WiFi is not – because it’s public. VyprVPN would automatically connect to a VPN server when it detects that you are on your work WiFi network. This is extremely handy for people who travel or work from remote locations frequently. It means you stay protected even when you forget to turn it on manually.

Automatic reconnect is also included in the Customize menu and so are Protocol options. By default, WireGuard is selected as your VPN protocol. It is listed as the ‘most advanced’ option. The other options are IKEv2, Chameleon, and OpenVPN. OpenVPN is a basic industry standard for VPN connections. It’s reliable and is an open-source technology. The Chameleon protocol is a proprietary protocol designed by VyprVPN. It’s meant to bypass geo-blocks for users to remain invisible to governments, corporations, and ISPs. It’s labeled as ‘Anti-Censorship.’ I used WireGuard for both my Mac and iOS testing processes.

Finally, there is a hamburger menu in the upper left-hand corner that includes your Account information, Support contact, a link to VyprVPN’s blog, and About information. The app experience is very close to the same for both the Mac and iOS versions, but the Mac version does have a few additional customization options including:

• Connection per app
• Kill switch
• VyprDNS
• Startup Options
• Notifications

Overall, I really like the execution of the UI for the apps. I also really like that they are very similar in design. I have seen some apps look completely different between systems and I think that can confuse some users. It’s much more helpful and user-friendly if your experience is the same when you move from device to device.

I found that connecting and disconnecting was very quick. I worked for quite a while on my home network with the VPN engaged and didn’t really notice a difference in my internet experience. For the most part, I was just visiting different websites and checking email, but the point is that I didn’t notice any major lagging issues or interruptions in the way I was working due to the VPN being turned on.

The app is responsive and learning how to use it is seamless. Even if you aren’t familiar with VPNs, you wouldn’t have any issues using VyprVPN’s interface. The only criticism I have is that the Mac app is not available through the Mac App Store, but the iOS version is.

Also, after the first use of the iOS app, the app store rating dialogue box appeared. I know that the ratings help the apps and the developers, but I find the pop-up disruptive to my workflow and would love an option to ignore them all. This is just a personal pet peeve of mine and not something that is likely to affect anyone else’s experience.

How does Vypr VPN measure up against testing?

In order to judge how well a VPN service is working, we complete three different rounds of testing – IP address check, Speed Test, and IP Security Tests. When we complete these tests, we first do a control test that is our connected computer without the VPN engaged. Then we turn on the VPN and run the tests again. In the case of VyprVPN, I completed all these tests using my MacBook Air (2020, M1) and my iPhone 12 Pro.

All of these tests are completed from our office which has high-speed internet service. Our WiFi router is the Netgear ORBI RBRE960 WiFi 6E Mesh System and the cable modem is the Netgear Nighthawk CM1200.

Is the VPN working?

We test this by checking our public IP address on both the iPhone and Mac with the VPN turned on and it turned off. This is really the first step in the testing process. It tells you that the VPN is indeed created a tunnel. If your IP address is different when it’s on and off, then the VPN is working.

You can check this by typing “what’s my IP” into a Google search and you will get a response at the top of the search results. Some VPN services will also include an IP address read out in their app interface, but I prefer to check a neutral location – such as What’sMyIP. The table below shows the results. This test was successful and we were able to confirm that VyprVPN does create a tunnel.

Speed Test

The second test we run is a standard internet speed test. There are different services that can be used for this, but we use speedtest.net (Ookla). On the iPhone, I downloaded the Speedtest app so that I was getting the most information while using the same test as the MacBook Air. You can expect that a VPN connection will be slower than your native connection since a VPN is designed to add extra security steps between you and the Internet.

The table below shows the native download and upload speeds, the VPN download and upload speeds, and the percentage difference between them. These tests were done with the Fastest Server option selected as the connection point in VyprVPN.

IP Security Tests

Security testing is probably the most important part of our testing process with VPNs. Since VPNs are supposed to be creating a secure connection for the user, certain checks should be completed to ensure the VPN is doing its job completely. We use bash.ws to check for IP leaks, DNS leaks, WebRTC leaks, and other IP security issues. The testing process provides an anonymity rating for the IP address being tested. The closer to 100%, the better the score is.

In judging the score against how well the VPN is doing, we look at whether or not it improves on the native connection’s score AND we look at what areas still need improvement. There are a few checks in this test that are not as crucial to an individual’s security as others. For example, DNT (do not track header) is checked. DNT is not a widely adopted security standard and therefore, there is no guarantee that enabling DNT will have an effect. That said, the tables below show the results of these tests on both the MacBook Air and the iPhone.

You’ll notice that the VyprVPN connection did improve one area (IPv4 – no blacklist) but it did not prevent the IP from leaking. This is a big security risk. This is one of the main reasons you use a VPN – to prevent your IP address from being revealed to ISP DNS servers. A DNS leak can result in different types of private information being shared including browsing activity, location, and your IP address. Since this test failed with the VPN engaged, I ran a second test from Bash.ws – their DNS Leak Test. This test identifies the DNS servers being used by the VPN. In this case, there were three identified:

• Anexia (Miami, United States)
• Digital Ocean (North Bergen, United States) goldenfrog.com
• Amazon.com (Ashburn, United States) amazonaws.com

The Digital Ocean server was owned by Golden Frog, which is VyprVPN’s parent company (the company that owns Giganews). Amazon and Anexia both provide cloud servers to companies. Out of curiosity, I changed the server location to Sydney, Australia, and ran it again. This time only two servers were identified – Google Cloud and Amazon. Bash.ws still flagged this as a DNS leak. Now, it’s important to note here that it’s entirely possible that VyprVPN is simply leasing servers from Anexia and Amazon in order to speed up traffic handled by their service.

After getting this result, I disconnected from VyprVPN and ran the DNS Leak test without the VPN. While the test revealed that I was connecting to 15 different DNS servers on my native WiFi connection, all 15 servers are owned by Charger Communications, which is my ISP. This indicates that it’s a more secure connection than previously thought.

Final Thoughts

As much as I enjoy the simplicity and easy use of the apps, I have some doubts when it comes to the security of VyprVPN. After finding the DNS leak, I did some additional research and did several additional DNS Leak tests. They all said the VPN connection that I was using was vulnerable. This gave me cause for concern. The speed difference is also quite a large gap. When I compare it to other VPNs I’ve tested, it is a much large speed difference.

Another piece of information that turned up while I was completing my research on VyprVPN was a report from AppEsteem, which revealed that some VPN providers were installing their own root certificates rather than using those that are issued by established certificate authorities (CA). This is another cause for concern when it comes to privacy as self-signed root certificates can be targeted by hackers more easily than those from CAs. It’s a questionable practice that should be taken into consideration when using VyprVPN’s service.

So, can I recommend VyprVPN? Unfortunately, not at this time, I just don’t feel comfortable doing so due to the speed and security concerns I have with the service. I’m hopeful that the service will improve over time and we can take a second look at it because it looks very promising.

For more information, visit vyprvpn.com, Facebook, and Twitter.