VPNhub Reviews

The service was released in the first half of 2018, making it a young contestant in the VPN space. Because of this, no one could really expect it to be able to dethrone any of the most experienced providers. In fact, the service is full of ups and downs and while it avoids many of the common flaws that other less reputable VPNs usually have, it still fails where it wouldn’t otherwise have been expected. Nonetheless, the overall experience is still positive for the average VPN user as the desktop and mobile apps are modern, intuitive, and strike a perfect balance between a ‘connect & go’ program with the basic customization that so many people demand.

Busty VPN in Your Area Wants to Secure Your Connection

One of VPNhub’s biggest surprises is its vast server network available from the start. We’ll get into further detail on this later on, but the fact that such a young VPN is able to provide worldwide coverage – with the added bonus of some uncommon countries – is really something to applaud.

Likewise, the emphasis put on security also deserves a special mention, as not only does the VPN act as an ad-blocker – with some flaws here and there – but every user has a basic range of customizable features, too. This includes changing between protocols or even lightening the encryption cyphers, for instance, which is most useful for those with slow connections. The less tech-savvy are welcome to visit the connection settings page as well, since all the options provide a short and concise explanation about their functions and when it’s best to use them.

All the above is more than enough to please most VPN users, which shows that the VPNhub team surely did their homework. Another example of this – and perhaps what many will consider to be the best aspect of the VPN – is that everything comes wrapped up in an aesthetically attractive and intuitive app.

VPN network

VPNhub’s server network is perhaps its biggest surprise, as it is fair to expect that some areas of the globe would be uncovered by this fledgling service. Fortunately, the company proved us wrong, reaching 49 countries including Africa or South America, areas that are usually untouched by providers the age and size of VPNhub. The actual server count is unknown, but some countries have multiple servers in different cities so it’s safe to assume that there are at least twice as many servers as there are countries. On top of all the most common locations, other places such as Costa Rica, South Africa, Republic of Korea, Cyprus, the Philippines, or Portugal are only some of the countries that we weren’t expecting to find in such a novice VPN.

But it’s when it comes to the quality of the connections that VPNhub’s immaturity becomes clearer. There are no DNS leaks in any server, which is very good and something that even the high-tier providers sometimes struggle to achieve. But on the other hand, some servers attribute wrong IP addresses that belong to other countries. When connecting to Cyprus, for instance, we ended up with an IP address from Vienna, the capital city of Austria, while South Africa placed us in the U.S. instead. These are isolated incidents and can sometimes be solved by switching back and forth between servers, but it still shouldn’t happen.

In terms of speeds, VPNhub performs its purpose comfortably. While testing from Europe, the closest countries naturally produced the best results and it’s clear that the respective internet infrastructure in different countries affects this. Malaysia, for instance, had a lower ping than Australia but was still much slower. The good news is that reducing the encryption or changing protocols does have an impact on the overall speed, oftentimes for the better.

Privacy protection

VPNhub is a newcomer trying to flourish, but the company knows that a good VPN service needs to be a trustworthy privacy tool more than anything. That’s why the only protocols available are OpenVPN (TCP and UDP) and IKEv2, which are considered to be the most reliable. This is a limited amount when compared to some rival providers, but no one can really criticize the decision to put security at the forefront. Also, when using OpenVPN, users can activate a scramble feature to obfuscate traffic and avoid being detected by VPN sensors that many sites already use.

There’s also the popular kill switch and auto-reconnect tools, but what’s not so usual is the chance to switch between encryption cyphers, where the two options are also the safest available: AES-128-CBC and AES-256-CBC.

Unfortunately there’s a gray area surrounding personal privacy, since the company’s policy in this regard leaves much to think about. First of all, there’s the fact that VPNhub is an American company, which means it can be required by law to provide customers’ logs if requested. Without too much detail, the privacy policy explains that VPNhub has access to the device ID when it is in use but that the app doesn’t log any traffic. Further down after stating that VPNhub doesn’t monitor or track users’ web activities outside of its apps, the policy states that the official website places persistent cookies on any visitors’ devices – meaning that they will remain there after closing the browser and turning off the computer – to “track aggregate and statistical information about user activity”.

The device support of VPNhub is hardly outstanding but once again it’s important to remember how recent this service is. With that in mind, the app is only compatible with Windows and Mac computers and Android and iOS mobile devices, which is at least really all that matters since this will cover the needs for the majority of people. However, this means that additional devices like routers and such are out of reach, though it’s expected that VPNhub will invest in this area in the future. A single account can be used with a maximum of three different connections, which again is something that is expected to improve.

The first week of using VPNhub is completely free of charge as part of a seven-day free trial without any restraints. This means that there are no bandwidth caps, nor is the server network limited in any way.

But before this is activated, however, customers need to create an account and subscribe to either a monthly or an annual plan, a choice that will dictate the cost of the program after the end of the trial period. The price is also affected by what ‘tier’ the customer’s country fits in: this is a quite an unusual pricing scheme and though VPNhub states that it’s supposed to “level the playing field between high earning countries and those in less fortunate parts”, what it really does is separate rich countries from poor ones.

While it’s true that in approaching its pricing structure in this novel way means that VPNhub is also affordable in countries with lower incomes, this separation also means that you could end up paying more than other users. The irony is that VPN connections are intended to unravel these sorts of geo-restricting digital divides and that if you use a VPN to buy VPNhub, then you could be able to actually save yourself money.

With this in mind, richer countries are part of tier one and includes the likes of the U.S., the UK, Australia, Germany, the UAE and so on, and are charged $14.99 per month or $89.99 per year, the latter being the highest of all three tiers. The former is quite expensive but the annual plan is around the same as VPNhub’s most direct rivals. It’s the better choice for a long-term commitment, too, since it drops the average monthly price to $7.49. Payment methods include credit cards and wire transfers.

It’s disappointing that VPNhub doesn’t offer any intermediate subscriptions, since they are quite popular when the monthly plan is overpriced and the only other option lasts a full year. And there’s yet another big downside to the service’s pricing. Whether it is an oversight or an intentional marketing strategy, there is no pricing information anywhere on VPNhub’s website except for inside the members area. Pricing is one of those aspects that should be clearly visible without the first personal details needing to be provided, even more when the website uses persistent cookies.

Unfortunately, the customer service is one of the weakest aspects of VPNhub, not because the staff are rude or don’t answer your questions politely but because of the limited number of ways to contact them. In fact, the only options are to submit a query through the ticket submission platform and wait for the reply or head over to the company’s Facebook page – which wasn’t updated for over four months at the time of writing. This wouldn’t be too bad if the help provided by the website and the FAQ page was enough, but it’s far from enough. Not only does the website lack some important info, but the FAQs only answer the most trivial questions. There is surely some help available here, but the most crucial details are nowhere to be found.

But the fact that VPNhub offers a week-long free trial is one of the best aspects, since anyone can fully test the service to make their own conclusions. At the end of the day, VPNhub surely deserves some praise and support from the community, but time will tell if the company has what it takes to sail towards a successful future.