VyprVPN review

VyprVPN is a Swiss-based provider vying to be the best VPN, with a solid network of 700+ servers in 70+ locations all over the world. There are 60+ countries to choose from, including 14 locations in Asia, 5 in Oceania, 5 in the Middle East, 4 in South America, 3 in Central America, and 2 in Africa.

VyprVPN has a good combo of great security and features with plenty of apps. One of the main things worth mentioning is that VyprVPN owns all the servers it uses, so you don’t have to worry about any third-party interference or any breaches related to third-parties.

Still, VyprVPN does have its flaws, especially in streaming and unblocking restricted content, as well as some issues with the kill switch. In any case, read on for our full review.

• Click to head straight through to the VyprVPN website

VyprVPN 1-minute review

Signing up for a month is very expensive at $15 per month, making this one of the priciest services. Luckily, the price goes down when you choose annual billing, which is priced at $8.33 per month. That’s better, but still very pricy when compared to rivals. 

VyprVPN's strong suit is its commitment to privacy, and you'll be covered by seriously powerful encryption. VyprVPN also runs its own zero-knowledge DNS service, which avoids any third-party intervention at any stage.

With OpenVPN, performance was very poor at just 50Mbps. Things are rosier with WireGuard, and our tests showed 340-360Mbps in the UK, and 270-420Mbps in the US. It would be nice if OpenVPN speeds improved but at least there’s a decent alternative with WireGuard.

VyprVPN's streaming abilities are pretty good. In our tests, the service managed to access BBC iPlayer, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, and we tried multiple locations too. The bad news is that it couldn’t unlock US Netflix. Worth mentioning is that torrenting is fully supported.

The desktop apps are strong, with plenty of options and useful server sorting tools like favorites and ping time. However, we noticed the kill switch didn't always act as expected, which is probably VyprVPN's biggest software issue. The mobile apps are more powerful that most, and are fairly similar to the desktop versions. There are also tons of supported platforms not seen elsewhere, like a number of niche routers and privacy-focused mobile and streaming devices.

In terms of support, you'll get live chat, effective email support, and tons of written articles. The range isn't quite class-leading, but it's close.

Overall, VyprVPN is a decent option if you're looking for security and not much else, but it's hard to recommend when the competition is cheaper, has better-made apps, and delivers faster connections and more comprehensive streaming performance.

Latest updates

The biggest new addition since our last review is the support for WireGuard. This effectively corrected one of our biggest complaints - the poor OpenVPN performance. The OpenVPN speed still didn’t improve but with speedy WireGuard that’s not much of an issue anymore.

Amazon Prime Video can be accessed now when you’re outside your home country, and BBC Player and Disney+ are unblockable too. However, US Netflix is not.

The proprietary Chameleon protocol has been given an overhaul, and is even better at evading VPN blocks. Plus, iOS now supports both OpenVPN and Chameleon.

VyprVPN specs

Number of servers: 700+
Number of countries: 70
Platforms supported: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, QNAP, Blackphone, Anonabox, routers, smart TVs, Blackberry, Boxee, DD-WRT, AsusWRT, Synology NAS, OpenWRT
Simultaneous connections: 30
Split tunneling: Yes
Kill switch: Yes
Supported protocols: WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, OpenVPN TCP, IKEv2, Chameleon
Country of registration: Switzerland
Support: 24/7 live chat, email, knowledgebase

VyprVPN price: how much is it, and is there a VyprVPN free trial?

The pricing plans are simple and straightforward, with only a monthly and an annual plan. However, VyprVPN certainly isn't a cheap VPN, especially when compared to the competition. The monthly plan is at mind-blowingly expensive at 15$ per month, which is one of the most expensive products you can find.

The situation improves with the annual plan, but it’s still high at $8.33 per month, and you can find some quality providers going a good deal cheaper than that.

Payments can be made through credit card, PayPal, or UnionPay. You’re asked for payment details upon signing up, though you won’t be charged for three days, so you can treat it like a short free trial. Even after your three days have expired, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

How private is VyprVPN?

VyprVPN uses the strong AES-256-GCM, SHA384 HMAC encryption with TLS-ECDHE-RSA-2048 by default, on OpenVPN connections. If by any chance someone, somehow managed to get the private key to your connection, they still wouldn’t be able to have access to any future sessions, just the current one. 

Even better, WireGuard and IKEv2 are now supported across all platforms. Older, less secure PPTP and L2TP protocols have been dropped. VyprVPN even offers its own Chameleon 2.0 protocol, which helps get around aggressive VPN blocking. That said, we haven’t been able to test this feature from a country like China or Iran that actively blocks the use of most VPNs.

To avoid potential man-in-the-middle attacks, VyprVPN uses its own encrypted no-knowledge DNS service. It’s a good way to sidestep the few security holes in VPN connections. The apps include kill switches too, to minimize the chance that your real IP address will be leaked if your VPN connection dies.

VyprVPN is clear and transparent about its no-logging policy. User traffic, connection logs, IP addresses, and DNS requests are not logged at all. While many VPN providers say the same thing, VyprVPN has gone further and had the platform audited by third-party Leviathan Security Group.

An in-depth report shows that VyprVPN is not logging clients’ VPN activity. It’s been a few years since this audit, though, and we’d like to see VyprVPN catch up with providers like TunnelBear that have annual independent security audits of its service.

How fast is VyprVPN?

We tested all of VyprVPN’s servers for connection time, speed, latency, and connection failures on lines in the UK and US, both of which were capable of 1Gbps. Connection times have improved by about five seconds since our last VyprVPN review, which is a significant enhancement.

OpenVPN performance was quite the letdown, however, with speeds peaking at a pathetic 45Mbps. Even bottom-of-the-pile providers usually average around 100-200Mbps, so this is a very poor performance from Vypr.

The good news is that VyprVPN doesn’t just support OpenVPN, and performance improves drastically when using WireGuard. In the UK we got 340-360Mbps, and 270-420Mbps in the US. While it’s a vast improvement over OpenVPN, it’s still on the lower side, as most quality VPNs average at least 400-600Mbps. Still, for most, VyprVPN WireGuard speeds will be more than adequate.

How good is VyprVPN for streaming and torrenting?

One of the most sought-after features of a VPN is its ability to unblock geo-locked sites and content, which would allow you to watch something you normally couldn’t. For example, Netflix VPNs have become increasingly popular.

Unfortunately, in our tests, VyprVPN failed to unblock US Netflix and we tried with three different locations. However, it did manage to give us access to Disney+.

When it came to getting access to BBC iPlayer using a UK server, the service performed well. This worked on all three test locations without any issues at all. Amazon Prime Video, using US servers, also proved to work well using VyprVPN.

So VyprVPN isn't quite one of the top streaming VPN services right now. That said, these results fluctuate so that may change.

It’s also particularly transparent about what it can unblock and what it can’t. A status page on the VyprVPN website keeps you informed on which streaming sites currently work and which don’t, and it even includes advice on which are the best servers to choose to access particular content. However, we'd take these with a pinch of salt, as they haven't always correlated with our tests.

VyprVPN says all peer-to-peer traffic is allowed on all servers. No logs are retained from sessions, and no ports are blocked. This makes VyprVPN a fine torrenting VPN.

How good are the VyprVPN desktop apps?

One of the main VyprVPN’s attractions is the vast support for many platforms. Apart from the standard Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, you’ll also find apps for Smart TVs, QNAP, routers, Anonabox, Chromebooks, and Blackphone. In addition, there are plenty of tutorials for setting the service on other devices, like Apple TV or DD-WRT. Usually, you’ll be using the APK file or OpenVPN configuration from the provider’s website to set these devices. 

Despite all this, VyprVPN doesn’t have extensions for browsers. While there are many third-party extensions that you can find on app stores to shore up your browsing privacy and security, many VPN companies include their own browser extensions for enabling and disabling the VPN. This level of convenience isn’t available with VyprVPN.

Signing up for VyprVPN brings you to a download page for the main app, and there’s a good amount of information here on the protocols that each support, the minimum requirements, and what’s changed. If you prefer to use your own client, there are OpenVPN configuration files available for all the servers.

Installation is a matter of running the file and entering your username and password when prompted. The VyprVPN desktop app feels like a mobile app in its simplicity. Server locations are sorted by country and city, but you have the choice to organize by ping time. A simple favorites system can help you keep your most-used server locations at the top.

Four protocols are available: OpenVPN, WireGuard, IKEv2, and VyprVPN’s own Chameleon. The app has a built-in kill switch, so if your VPN connection drops for any reason, your internet connection will be blocked momentarily to stop your true location from being broadcast. 

Unfortunately, in our testing the kill switch feature wasn’t reliable. When we forcibly dropped an IKEv2 connection, the app only displayed a Disconnected alert but didn’t close the connection. When we forcibly closed the VyprVPN WireGuard service while connected via WireGuard, the VPN didn’t notice, even though our traffic was no longer going through the VPN.

VyprVPN’s settings menu hides a few other options, like the option to use your own DNS server or connect the VPN automatically when you connect to untrusted Wi-Fi networks.

Some more advanced settings have been dropped – likely due to lack of use – meaning you can no longer set the MTU size. But it's hard to imagine many users are really going to miss that.

How good are the VyprVPN mobile apps?

A mobile VPN is often overlooked by casual users but it can play a vital part in improving your security and protecting your identity when you use less secure public networks.

VyprVPN’s Android VPN is very similar to the desktop counterpart as far as the look goes, and it does have most of the features as well. Just to name a few, there’s a DNS leak protection, a kill switch, split tunneling, custom DNS options, and automatic startup options.  

There are now even more protocols from which to choose, including WireGuard, OpenVPN, and VyprVPN’s proprietary Chameleon, but there’s no support for IKEv2. You can choose to bypass the VPN for particular apps. If you’re an advanced user, you can install the Android app using the APK file from the VyprVPN website.

We enjoyed the addition of URL filtering as a way to protect you from malicious websites. Although, if you blacklist a site it won't block it outright, you'll just get a notification – which can be good as you may know it's safe in that circumstance and want to visit.

The connection per app feature is great, allowing you to have some apps connect to the VPN but others won't – ideal if you want streaming apps to work in one location but your banking app to stay in another.

The VyprVPN iPhone VPN looks similar to the Android client but lacks a few of its features. You don’t get a kill switch, for example, but you do get support for WireGuard. The lack of URL filtering is a shame, but the auto connection when on untrusted networks is a useful feature.

Overall, the VyprVPN mobile apps are more powerful and versatile than most on the market, particularly the Android app.

What customer support does VyprVPN offer?

The first step of VyprVPN’s support is found on the website which provides troubleshooting, setup instructions, and answers to any related problem for various devices, and VyprVPN has plenty of helpful articles.

They cover a range of topics, from the already mentioned setup instructions to advice on specific devices, as well as troubleshooting. Approximately there are 30 articles regarding mobile apps, and over 50 for manually setting up less known devices. This sounds great but generally, the guides are short and not so detailed, missing screenshots and the like. Finding relevant articles should be a breeze though, as the search function is quite intuitive.

There are two other options for support: live chat and email. We tested the live chat and got a friendly, knowledgeable response within minutes. When we emailed, we got a response within an hour. Overall, VyprVPN has good support, but it doesn’t excel like ExpressVPN’s support does, for example.

VyprVPN: Final verdict

VyprVPN is a decent VPN with some issues like the unreliable kill-switch and low speeds when using OpenVPN. However, there are plenty of features, the apps are well made and easy to use, and with WireGuard speed improved quite a bit. In addition to that, P2P is fully supported.

Since the recent price hike, however, it's much harder to recommend over providers like ExpressVPN, NordVPN and Surfshark, which are better-featured and offer a lot more the money.