General Overview
VPN Unlimited is based in New York and owned by a company called KeepSolid. It is your run of the mill VPN service at first glance and appears to be part of a larger suite of security-centric software. That said it still is a standalone service. So, how does VPN Unlimited measure up against other competing services? Should Australians use it? We answer these and other questions in this review.
Special Features
VPN Unlimited has a few excellent features which are worth considering when in the market for VPN software. We will take a look at a few of these features which we think will be of interest to everyone.
Netflix and Hulu Streaming: Now even though VPN Unlimited does not guarantee Hulu and Netflix streaming across all its servers we found that all servers support it. In addition to streaming Netflix and Hulu successfully, we were able to stream other services like BBC iPlayer.
A large selection of Client Apps: VPN Unlimited has apps for Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android. There are also extensions for FireFox and Chrome. What’s great is the fact that these apps offer a relatively consistent experience across all platforms.
Great Customer Service: You would think that customer service should be a given, but it is unfortunate that many services don’t provide a great experience especially to customers in Australia. VPN Unlimited is different with their excellent customer service which in our experience responds within minutes. While there is no live chat feature, the quality of their ticket and email support is the best in the business. A test ticket we submitted was answered within 10 minutes which is pretty impressive. Though it still does not beat having live chat.
Privacy & Anonymity
VPN Unlimited makes sure that all traffic to and from you, the VPN server and the internet is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard or AES. Now for those who don’t know this is the same type of encryption used by various federal agencies when transmitting sensitive information making it the most secure type of encryption in existence today.
Sure many VPN providers already use AES-256 to encrypt data, but there is a reason why we have mentioned this as a possible pro of the service.
The extension we eluded to above was the KeepSolid Wise extension used for the OpenVPN tunneling protocol. The extension makes it near impossible to detect a user. Think of it as a cloak of invisibility.
If you happen to live in a country with an oppressive regime, where your every chat, email and online transaction is monitored this extension will help you bypass it. In Australia, your data is collected by the government and shared with other governments. Being part of the Five Eyes means that Australians can benefit from KeepSolid Wise and slip through the net making their connection to the VPN look like millions of others.
Last but certainly not least is their Kill Switch feature which will cut off data transmission in the event your internet connection is unstable with prevents data leaks.
VPN Unlimited’s Speed and Performance
In terms of connection speed, our tests show that VPN Unlimited is slow compared to the competition. It throttled our internet connection by as much as 23% at least when connecting to servers within Australia. The connection was even slower when we connected to servers in the US (30%) and Asia (40%). That said with 400+ locations in 52 countries you are bound to find a server which works for you but be prepared because it could be slower than you expect.
Ease of use (Desktop and Mobile)
All version of the VPN Unlimited’s client software work the same and are consequently easy to use. When you first launch the software, it is possible to start browsing the internet anonymously with the click of a button. The sidebar allows you to find what you want within minutes.
Despite what many advanced users may think about their simplistic interface for many people it will be welcome. The dashboard makes finding and connecting to a server in any part of the world requiring only a few clicks.
VPN Unlimited’s Servers and Locations in Australia
VPN Unlimited has servers in 400+ locations in 52 countries. While there are a couple of servers in Australia, there is no official figure for the numbers.
Customer Support
VPN Unlimited has excellent customer support. However, their support is limited to just the email/ticket system. Not having live chat like the competition means you can’t chat with a support agent in real time. That said most if not all of our questions were answered within an average span of 10 minutes.
Value for money
Perhaps there is a lot of value for money with the company’s Infinity plan for $149.99. The plan signs you up for an entire lifetime of VPN use without having to pay anything else. So, if you plan on using a VPN for the next couple of years, are on a budget and don’t care if the service logs your internet use then it is very good value for money.
Further value is added with the 7-day money back guarantee. So, you can try out the service and if it’s not something you like ask for your money back.
Our Verdict
Don’t get us wrong VPN Unlimited is a pretty decent service, but we wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. In particular, if you want a VPN that has a zero-logging policy, then this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for something cheap, yet good enough to bypass some government level snooping then it would be a good choice. The only drawback would still be its slow speeds.
