General Overview
CyberGhost is one of the few VPN services that we have watched morph from being geek-centric to user-friendly. Perhaps the company realizes that VPNs are no longer the realm of just computer engineers or those fringe privacy advocacy groups. With over 1700 servers located in 60 countries across the world, the Romania based CyberGhost has a strict no-logging policy putting it beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies. Not to mention the fact that it is arguably one of the best services for people who want to surf the internet in Australia without Big Brother watching their every move.
In this review, we’ll dissect CyberGhost VPN to reveal if it worth considering for Australians who want an extra layer of privacy when connected to public networks, and their home internet alike.
Special Features
Unblocking Streaming Services
We’ll admit that many other VPN services tested over the months claim to be able to unblock Netflix and Hulu. However, in reality, CyberGhost VPN is one of the few that makes it possible. We tested CyberGhost’s ‘Unblock Streaming’ feature and were easily able to unblock American Netflix and UK’s Netflix. That’s in addition to specific servers for streaming services like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Crunchyroll, etc. All of these worked flawlessly during our testing.
Choose WiFi Specific Security
Another nifty little feature is CyberGhost VPN’s ability to identify individual Wi-Fi networks and apply a predefined set of privacy features. For instance, CyberGhost VPN installed on your mobile device will automatically encrypt all traffic when connected to an airport’s VPN but will not encrypt traffic when connected to the home network. Advanced settings allow users also to add exceptions for specific programs so the traffic to and from which will not be encrypted or pass through a VPN server.
AD Blocking
AD Blocking is another excellent feature that works flawlessly. Not only that but it will block websites with trackers and malware. There is also the option of enforcing HTTPS rules. While CyberGhost isn’t the only VPN service to provide Ad Blocking, it does have the lowest instances of false positives.
Privacy & Anonymity
To start with CyberGhost VPN uses what it calls military-grade encryption. However, the ‘settings’ menu on the app allows users to choose either OpenVPN, L2TP, IKEv2 or leave it on Auto. By default, we found that the software uses OpenVPN in most cases.
Plus, they proudly boast of having a “strict no logs policy.” We read through CyberGhost VPN’s Privacy Policy page, and it does appear that the claim is more than just marketing speak. Not having logs tied to your IP address means that security agencies and law enforcement have no way to knowing for sure what you were doing online. The same goes for hackers and corporate spies.
Speed and Performance
Now before we go into discussing the speed and performance of CyberGhost VPN, it is essential to mention that measuring performance reliably is difficult. Many factors influence the speed and performance of a VPN that said we ran speed tests by connecting to multiple servers. We also used multiple speed measuring services, i.e. OpenSpeedTest, Fast and SpeedTest.
We connected to servers within Australia and New Zealand which delivered the best speeds averaging out at around 8Mbps on an otherwise 10Mbps connection.
When connecting to servers in America, the speed took a bigger hit. Our connection to a server in Washington clocked in at 6Mbps on average with the lowest being around 5Mbps. The same was the case with servers in Europe clocking in an average of 6Mbps. The slowest speeds were from servers in Eastern Europe which measured an average of 4Mbps.
Connecting to servers in Asia slowed things down even further with the average speed in Japan being 2Mbps. However, it is to be expected as distance increases latency which in turn affects speed. So, Australians who want the best speed may want to stick with servers on the continent.
We firmly believe that your mileage may vary but not be too much from what we experienced. However, the majority of Australians are not on a 10Mbps connection which is why apart from browsing the web the slow down associated with trying to stream US Netflix will be noticeable. That said if all you want is to browse the web, send emails and chat with business partners securely the drop-in speed will not matter a lot. Perhaps you may want to try out the service before buying.
Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)
Desktop Experience
CyberGhost VPN is optimized for Desktop operating systems like Mac and Windows. It is straightforward to use, and all the advanced features are just a single click away. If anything it is a frustration-free experience compared to the competition with often complex interfaces.
Mobile Apps
iOS: CyberGhost VPN’s iOS app is quick and simple to use thanks to the big and bold ‘Connect’ and ‘Disconnect’ button. It connects to the fastest and nearest server by default. Though you can also choose a location by tapping on the location tab. You can see the number of people connected to each server and save a location to the ‘Favorites’ list.
Android App: on Android devices, the CyberGhost VPN app works differently but not necessarily in a good way. You are not prompted with your current WiFi network like it is on the iOS app. You also don’t have a Favorites list and can’t see the number of connected users to each server. However what you do get are a couple of web filtering options not available on the iOS version of the app. You can also block trackers, malicious websites and compress data.
Cyberghost VPN Servers and Locations
1700 servers located in 60 countries across the world. Out of which 53 servers are located in Australia, namely Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.
Customer Support
Apart from a massive library of information subscribers can chat live with a support professional or send them an email. Unfortunately, the Live Chat feature is buried deep within the website and requires you click the ‘Help’ button located on the bottom right, then enter a phrase to search the knowledge base, and only after that do you see the ‘Chat’ button. Once you do connect with a support person the response is quick and, in our experience, they were knowledgeable.
Value for money
It indeed isn’t the cheapest VPN service out there, but it isn’t the most expensive out there either. That said when it comes to value for money, we’ll rate it 6 out of 10!
Our Verdict
CyberGhost VPN is a very easy to use, robust and secure VPN service that’s worth considering by regular people and businesses alike. Most people will find the Netflix unblocking, Bitcoin support and live chat to be major draws to the service. Perhaps the only drawback is consistency across iOS
