VyprVPN is a popular VPN service created by the Swiss company Golden Frog. This VPN has gone to great lengths to establish itself as a reliable provider and Internet privacy protector.
VyprVPN has a decent size with 700+ servers in 70+ locations in 60+ countries. It’s not just Europe and North America, as we often see – VyprVPN has 14 locations in Asia, 5 in the Middle East, 7 in Central and South America, 2 in Africa, and 5 in Oceania.
It should be noted that these servers are owned and operated by the company itself. This shows the lack of dependence on third-party web hosts, unlike most competitors.
The provider is also taking steps to improve reliability, security and quality of service based on customer feedback. However, is VyprVPN really among the best?
Pros & Cons
- Secure applications with extensive features
- The Chameleon protocol allows you to bypass VPN blocking
- Full WireGuard support directly in VPN applications
- Full native server network
- Convenient apps for many devices/platforms
- Based in Switzerland, with a proven no-logging policy
- High price
- It does not unlock Netflix US, UK
- Speed is below average
- Problems with Kill Switch for Windows
- No cryptocurrency payment options
- Fewer features than some of the other leading VPNs
Security
VyprVPN protects your privacy with well-chosen protocols and industrial encryption. It supports AES-256-GCM and SHA384 HMAC by default for OpenVPN, as well as TLS-ECDHE-RSA-2048 to provide Perfect Forward Secrecy. (The latter technology ensures that different keys are used for each connection so that even if an attacker somehow obtains the private key, he can only access data in that particular session).
WireGuard is now supported on all platforms, along with OpenVPN and IKEv2. VyprVPN’s custom Chameleon 2.0 protocol has been improved even better to circumvent aggressive VPN blocking (this is a new option in the iOS app, which is nice to see).
Individual apps also have their privacy technologies, including DNS leak protection options and built-in kill switches to reduce the likelihood of data leakage in the event of a VPN connection failure.
This service successfully passed the DNS leak test because our country was not revealed during the test, but as you can see in the screenshots, the server location in all three cases did not match the test data, which is quite strange.
Speed
To achieve the most objective results of the test we conduct, we choose the same server on the Speedtest service site, thus leveling out the speed loss due to ping, to be able to also calculate the potential loss/gain in the case of using VyprVPN.
The data download speed from the network in the case of the UK location in PrivadoVPN dropped by 148%, and data downloads, in turn dropped by 377%.
Considering the figures from this test, we can say that Vypr VPN could not fit into the average rates of loss of Internet speed among other VPNs, where the percentage of loss of speed received and sent should be between 10 to 20%.
Features
Since VPN as a technology has been around for a long time; there are plenty of data encryption methods.
Many users prefer OpenVPN. It is an open-source technology, which means that it has been tested for potential security issues. The successor to OpenVPN is WireGuard. It is a new open-source protocol that has just begun to be adopted by the masses, which includes VyprVPN.
In addition to WireGuard, VyprVPN supports L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, and Chameleon’s own protocol. All four protocols are available on iOS, macOS, and Windows. Android doesn’t support IPSec, and Linux only supports OpenVPN – though the company notes WireGuard Linux support will be coming soon.
Only some VPN services choose to create their own protocol, but that’s not as crazy as it might seem. In the world of encryption, creating a new or proprietary protocol is a dangerous game. A minor, unnoticed flaw can render it completely useless. But the company claims to use “an unmodified 256-bit OpenVPN protocol for basic data encryption.”
Vypr’s 256-bit Chameleon protocol is designed to bypass VPN-blocking sites and services. The company says it’s beneficial in countries such as China and Russia, where the government has imposed strict controls on Internet access.
Although VyprVPN has all available encryption protocols and even its own Chameleon protocol for countries with a high level of censorship, most other VPN providers offer more in-depth and flexible functionality, given the price/performance ratio.
Pricing
Both VyprVPN plans allow you to take advantage of Chameleon™ technology, one of the best features of VyprVPN. You also get a total of 10 simultaneous connections.
The premium tier offers unlimited bandwidth and access to all servers worldwide. You can choose between monthly and annual options.
VyprVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on its plans so that you can try them without risk. You can pay with: credit cards, Alipay, Amazon Pay, SEPA, and PayPal.
There is currently no payment option for cryptocurrencies, so if you’re particularly privacy-conscious, this may be an issue for you.
Streaming
If you’re buying a VPN to bypass restrictions on popular streaming services like Netflix, VyprVPN isn’t a great choice.
The provider has been working on a big update to its streaming service, trying to improve VPN access to popular streaming sites around the world. In fact, it offers support for 45+ streaming libraries, giving you access to countless movies and TV shows.
VyprVPN’s proprietary Chameleon™ technology prevents Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), which helps avoid geo-restrictions and VPN bans on popular streaming sites.
Despite this, the service was unable to unblock BBC Iplayer.
Similarly, it was not possible to get access to the UK catalog Netflix or even watch the available catalog. The same fate awaited the American catalog Netflix.
Despite the outright failure with the British services, Hulu and Disney+ still managed to unblock.
Conclusion
VyprVPN isn’t the fastest, most powerful, or best VPN at all, and that’s a problem when the prices are so high. Nevertheless, the apps are easy to use, have more features than most others, and if you can take advantage of the Chameleon protocol to bypass firewalls, VyprVPN might be worth considering.