To say that the VPN market is crowded would be an understatement. There are always new providers popping up to challenge the best VPNs, but you know what they say – if you come for the king, you better not miss.
Urban VPN might not be a household name, but it has actually been going since 2018 and, according to its own site, boasts over 20 million users. That sounds promising, but just because something is popular doesn't mean it's worth your money. Keep reading as we give it a closer examination.
What is Urban VPN?
A name we're hearing more and more in the VPN world, Urban VPN claims to be "The only 100% FREE, 100% fast & 100% anonymous VPN in the world".
That's a bold claim and one that we will (later on) prove to be untrue, with the company itself even admitting that isn't the case.
Via its website, UrbanVPN offers a free version for Windows and Mac as well as Android and iOS. On the same website, under "Products" UrbanVPN lists a variety of claims about its free version, such as being one of the best gamking VPNs (e.g. for League of Legends, Warzone, or PUBG) and one of the best streaming VPNs (e.g. for Soccer streams and NBA streams).
Each of these uses is linked separately, and if you're browsing the site, you'd expect to head to a dedicated landing page with some info about that use-case. Whatever game or sport you select, however, they all lead back to the same singular VPN download page. Hmm.
How effective is Urban VPN?
We'll have our hands-on Urban VPN review up soon, but what we can say is that it's a mixed bag when it comes to effectiveness.
The positive is that it uses industry-standard encryption. Urban VPN uses AES-256 encryption, which is the same as market leaders like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, and is considered secure. It also has servers in 77 countries, which while not as much as the likes of ExpressVPN's 105 nations, is still pretty impressive.
Urban VPN uses the IKEv2 encryption protocol. That's ok, but not nearly as fast as the new industry standard WireGuard – and a number of providers like Proton VPN are phasing IKEv2 out because it's becoming dated and far surpassed by more modern alternatives. The VPN is also missing a few key features such as a kill switch – which is a non-negotiable for us – and leak protection. Top providers offer all of this and more, often including antivirus-style protection alongside the VPN.
How private is Urban VPN?
This is our biggest area of contention with Urban VPN. It's just not as private as you'd think, and if you can't trust your VPN, then what's the point of using it?
So why do we have our doubts? Well, despite claiming to have a no-logs policy, there have been reports of Urban VPN collecting data and selling it to third parties. T`he company's own privacy policy doesn't fill us with confidence, either.
There are multiple references to collecting browser data and sharing it with "business partners" and even an admission that it collects "individually identifiable information, namely information that identifies an individual or entity or may with reasonable effort identify an individual."
That sentence alone undermines any claims that Urban VPN is a true privacy tool that should be trusted. A VPN that collects information defeats its own purpose. The collection of data leaves users vulnerable to a so-called "correlation attack" where each separate piece of data collected on someone can deanonymize them.
What are the alternatives?
If you are looking for a free alternative that you can trust then we suggest one of the best free VPNs. Our top picks are PrivadoVPN and Proton VPN.
However, for the best performance, you should consider a premium VPN. Our top choice is NordVPN, it's a strong all-rounder that has been independently audited and offers far greater privacy than Urban VPN.
