VPNSecure Review 2023

VPNSecure has been in the privacy business since 2009. In the years since then, it’s experimented with lifetime subscriptions and has made its client available for all popular operating systems. It also claims to have a no-logs policy, making it a good choice for privacy-oriented VPN users.

Sadly, to this day, VPNSecure falls short of its more popular competitors. The service is hampered by low connection speeds when connecting to far-away servers, a small server network, poor customer service, and an app that occasionally malfunctions.

Regardless, VPNSecure has everything that’s required to be a functional VPN. We just think it needs to up its game if it wants to compete with the biggest providers. For more information, read our full VPNSecure review below.

VPNSecure: A Short Review

VPNSecure is a privacy-oriented, no-logs VPN service with mid-tier features, connection speeds, and prices. Although it isn’t as feature-rich as other popular VPNs, it does provide an easy-to-use client that provides a fairly smooth experience. That is, as long as you don’t run into its bugs.

During our in-depth testing, VPNSecure failed to let us connect to any of its servers. We needed to contact VPNSecure’s support team repeatedly in order to get the connection working.

When we were finally able to test the service, we found that VPNSecure has average connection speeds. It also isn’t compatible with US Netflix.

You can get VPNSecure for as low as $3.99 per month, which lets you use the VPN for up to three simultaneous connections.

In our opinion, VPNSecure is a decent enough option — it’s just that there are better VPNs to choose from. We hope to see a more reliable client, more VPN servers, and better customer support from VPNSecure.

Specifications VPNSecure

💵 Price	From $2.99 per month
📱 Operating systems	Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux
💻 Connections	5
💳 Payment methods	PayPal, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Perfect Money, Payza, Paymentwall
🔒 Protocols	OpenVPN, PPTP, HTTP
📥 Torrent options	Torrenting allowed
📅 Money-back guarantee	30 Days
📋 Logs	No Logs
🍿 Works with

Deal

Grab VPNSecure for $2.99 per month when you signup for the 36 months subscription!

Visit VPNSecure

Speed – How Fast is VPNSecure?

Apart from safety and security, speed is a very important aspect of any VPN. After all, people don’t want a VPN that interferes with fast browsing, streaming, downloading, and online gaming.

VPNSecure scores a 7.5 out of 10. Our conclusions regarding VPNSecure’s speed are as follows:

• When connecting to servers that are close to users, they can expect pretty good speeds.
• Connection speeds dropped significantly when connected to non-local VPNSecure servers.
• Downloading large files can take up to a full day when connected to VPNSecure.

Speed test results for VPNSecure

First, it’s important to understand that your connection speed depends on different factors. For instance, your location, internet provider, connection type (broadband or Wi-Fi), and even the time of use all play a significant role.

Therefore, to give you an adequate idea of VPNSecure’s speed, we first measured our speed without a VPN to establish our “base speed.” You’ll find the base speed results and VPN results in the table below. We measured our speed using quite a few of VPNSecure’s servers, always in combination with the OpenVPN protocol. This should give you a good idea of the provider’s speed.

As you can tell, when connecting to a local VPNSecure server, speeds dropped, but not drastically. These speeds were more than passable for normal internet use, such as browsing and watching YouTube videos.

However, it’s worth noting that some other VPNs provide faster speeds, especially when connecting to far away servers, such as the US, for instance. This makes these VPNs better suited for watching Netflix or unblocking geo-restricted content. After all, this requires connecting to a non-local server (if you want to change the Netflix catalog to that of another country, for instance).

Speed during daily use

Of course, we also tested VPNSecure’s speed extensively during daily use. We were reasonably pleased with the provider’s speeds. We managed to watch YouTube videos and browse the web without any serious issues.

Unfortunately, when downloading large files, we did notice a significant speed drop. For instance, we downloaded a video game, and our average download speed was only 6.38 Mb/s. In other words, it took us an entire day just to download one game.

Safety – How Secure is VPNSecure?

To many, the level of security and privacy a VPN offers is its most important characteristic. Fortunately, VPNSecure is very clear and transparent regarding its security features and how they protect your privacy. That’s why we gave them a score of 8.5 out of 10 in terms of safety.

These are our conclusions about VPNSecure’s safety and privacy:

• VPNSecure is headquartered in Australia, which is a 5-eyes country, meaning its location presents a potential privacy risk.
• VPNSecure mainly uses the very reliable and open-source OpenVPN protocol and offers strong AES 256-bit encryption.
• The provider offers a kill switch.
• VPNSecure has a no-logs policy.
• You can use a temporary email address to sign up and pay using Bitcoin to protect your privacy and anonymity.

Protocols

VPNSecure mainly uses OpenVPN. Cryptography and VPN experts regard this as the very best VPN protocol out there, with the greatest level of security. Moreover, this protocol is open source, meaning anyone who is code-savvy can inspect the code to see if it has any security flaws and vulnerabilities. This greatly contributes to the protocol’s security.

VPNSecure also supports the PPTP protocol. For more information about VPN protocols and which one is best for you, check out our resource on VPN protocol comparison.

Moreover, VPNSecure also offers great AES 256-bit encryption, which grants a very high level of security. Even with the very best computers these days, it would take many human lifetimes to crack this encryption.

Logging and privacy

VPNSecure’s terms of service seem clear and transparent. Its privacy policy is short and plainly written, with a focus on user privacy. Its policy states that VPNSecure doesn’t save any data on users that connect with the VPN. More specifically, they state none of the following of your data will be logged:

• Your IP address
• Connection timestamps
• Disconnection timestamps
• Amount of used bandwidth
• DNS requests

Note, however, that the policy does state that VPNSecure will not monitor your use of its service “unless [it] has reason to believe that such action is necessary to conform to legal requirements or comply with legal process.” This caveat is likely because VPNSecure is headquartered in Australia, which is a member of the Five Eyes Alliance. The Five Eyes Alliance is an intelligence-sharing alliance between the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. These countries are said to engage in “ocean surveillance, covert action, human intelligence collection, and counterintelligence.”

Kill switch

Like any decent VPN provider should, VPNSecure also offers a kill switch. This feature protects your privacy and security if your VPN connection is somehow interrupted.

A VPN kill switch will “kill” your internet connection automatically if your connection to the VPN is interrupted. This means your data and identity will not be compromised. Do note you have to enable the VPN kill switch yourself from the client or application.

Which information does VPNSecure need?

The fact VPNSecure has a no-logging policy doesn’t mean they don’t gather and use any user data. Of course, any service provider needs some customer information to provide its service. In the case of VPNSecure, they require the following data:

• Email address: You can use a temporary and anonymous email address to register.
• Username: You can have VPNSecure generate one for you. In any event, if you just choose a username that doesn’t reveal anything about you, it won’t affect your privacy.
• Password: This password will be encrypted.
• Payment information: If you use a credit card, for instance, you’ll give away your identity, of course. Fortunately, you can also pay using Bitcoin.

Remember that paying for something using cryptocurrency is generally much more anonymous than using conventional payment methods such as PayPal or credit card. As such, we strongly recommend using this option if you want to stay anonymous.

Usability – How User-Friendly is VPNSecure?

Of course, it’s great when a VPN is very fast and secure. But if it’s a pain to use, most people still won’t enjoy the overall experience.

VPNSecure earns a measly 6 out of 10 in usability. These are our main findings regarding VPNSecure’s user-friendliness:

• VPNSecure has a clear and easy-to-navigate website, but it seems like it’s not regularly updated.
• The application is easy to use when it’s actually working (see our problem below).
• It allows for a relatively anonymous payment method with Bitcoin.
• The customer service is not too responsive and isn’t that knowledgeable.

VPNSecure’s website and installation process

The VPNSecure website is very clear and easy to navigate and has a bright and upbeat design.

At the top, you’ll find a menu with standard but useful categories. Among these are “How VPN Works,” “Features,” “Blog,” “Support,” and “Login.”

The website’s main disadvantage is that it seems sort of “deserted” and creates the impression the company no longer exists. For instance, at the time of writing, its blog hasn’t been updated since June 2020, and users don’t always get an answer to the questions they raise on the website’s forum.

Something that further contributes to this image is that some pretty basic features of the website aren’t working well. For instance, when you click on “Buy now” in the top right corner, it only lets you select the 30-day trial from its list of plans. This was a bit confusing to us.

Fortunately, VPNSecure’s installation process is very easy and straightforward. Simply follow the steps down below.

1. Go to the VPNSecure website.
2. Click on “Pricing” in the menu at the top. This will allow you to select the subscription of your choice, unlike when you click on “Buy Now” in the top right corner.
3. Choose from their four subscription options.
4. 
5. Fill out an email address and accept (or modify, if you want to) the username and password that VPNSecure has generated for you.
6. Choose your payment method, fill out any necessary details, and click on “Buy Now.”
7. Complete the payment process.
8. 
9. Download the right client or app for your operating system. VPNSecure offers software for: Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Linux.
10. Open the downloaded file, and complete the installation process.
11. Open the VPN app, and use your username and password to log in.
12. 
13. Connect to a VPN server.

Congratulations! You are now connected to the VPN.

When testing VPNSecure at first, we weren’t able to connect to a server, so we asked customer service for help. They asked us to configure our settings as follows:

1. Disable “Leak Fix.”
2. Go to “Advanced Config” and choose “AES-256-CBC” as your cipher.
3. Now add “ip-win32 ipapi” to the OpenVPN directive.
4. Log out and log back in.

Strangely, they also asked us to make sure our password doesn’t contain any special characters, just letters and numbers. This tip goes against typical advice for creating a strong password.

NOTE: After testing what happened when disabling “Leak Fix,” we noticed our connection received an Austrian IP address regardless of the server location we choose. This is a very serious issue, because it means you’re not actually connected to a VPN server at all. As such, we strongly recommend against disabling the Leak Fix, even though VPNSecure recommended us to do so.

VPNSecure’s appearance and ease-of-use

As you’d expect, VPN providers generally try to maintain a simple and easy-to-use app or client. Fortunately, VPNSecure is not an exception. When you open up the client and log in, you’ll immediately see their list of servers and get to choose one to connect to. You can also use the search bar to look for a specific country.

There are also some advanced settings you can use in the app, such as the “Stealth VPN” feature. These are essentially obfuscated servers that hide the fact that you’re using a VPN. They do this by offering countermeasures against deep packet inspections. This could be very useful in countries with oppressive governments that don’t allow the use of VPNs. You can also disable IPv6, which is the latest version of the IP protocol.

Despite the smooth and relatively simple interface, however, we did find some major flaws with the VPNSecure client. First, every time we minimized the client’s window on desktop, the app simply disappeared from the screen. We also weren’t able to start the app again until we manually closed it in Task Manager.

Secondly, initially, we were not even able to connect to a single VPN server. We had to jump through all sorts of loops with customer service to finally be able to connect to a server.

On the bright side, when we tested the desktop client more recently, this problem seemed to have been resolved completely. Nevertheless, we are very skeptical about a VPN application or client even being released if something as basic as actually connecting to a VPN server is very tedious.

Lastly, we noticed in some cases that the VPN client was completely wrong about the country we were in and our current IP address. Not even the continent was correct.

Pricing and payment methods

Before, VPNSecure used to experiment with some great discounts and offers. For instance, around 2016, they were offering lifetime subscriptions for only $35. Especially for lesser-known VPNs with fewer features and possibilities, this was a great way to try to compete with premium VPN services, such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

However, as of now, they offer a more conventional payment structure, with the following subscriptions:

• One month for $9.95
• Six months for $49.95 ($8.33 a month)
• 12 months for 79.95 ($6.66 a month)
• Three years for $107.64 ($2.99 a month)

These prices are pretty average compared to other VPN providers — not that expensive, but not very cheap, either. However, there are still some premium VPN services that offer better service for less money, such as Surfshark.

The website is a little unclear on this (which is one of its flaws), but it seems every subscription comes with a 30-day trial period, which costs just $1. We have to remark this is a bit unusual: we’ve never encountered a VPN that has a paid trial period. Generally, providers just offer a money-back period or a trial.

VPNSecure offers the following three payment methods:

• Credit card
• PayPal
• Bitcoin

Customer service

VPNSecure’s customer service definitely leaves something to be desired. They don’t offer live chat and it’s not clear whether messages through their contact form are actually delivered. In fact, our first two questions weren’t answered at all. Our third question eventually received a reply after 48 hours.

Our issue was about not being able to connect to any servers. After some back and forth, including sending them our logs, we were finally able to connect to a VPNSecure server.

Needless to say, it shouldn’t be this difficult to connect to a server (the most basic feature of a VPN), as well as get the required assistance from customer service. We would definitely like to see VPNSecure improve this part of its service.

Server Network – Can VPNSecure Unblock the Internet?

The extensiveness of a VPN’s server network predetermines, to a large degree, the possibilities the VPN gives you. After all, to unblock streaming services, you need a server from a specific country. Moreover, the number of servers within a location also plays a factor in your chances of unblocking geographically restricted content. Plus, if a provider offers very few servers (but has a lot of users), then speeds will generally decrease drastically.

It’s clear VPNSecure isn’t the very best option when it comes to its server network. Although it has servers in a decent number of countries (a total of 33), they only offer one or two servers per country. As such, we give VPNSecure only 6 out of 10 in this area.

Our conclusions on VPNSecure’s server network are as follows:

• VPNSecure offers servers in a decent number of countries, but a lot of countries have very few servers.
• The majority of VPNSecure’s servers support P2P downloading.
• VPNSecure is not compatible with Netflix.

Number of servers and locations

VPNSecure offers 133 servers in 33 countries. It also has close to 100 stealth (obfuscated) servers. This is certainly not the lowest number we’ve seen. Nevertheless, it doesn’t even come close to the server network of some premium providers, such as NordVPN with its 5,000+ servers in 60 countries.

Moreover, a lot of countries only have one or two servers. In other words, if you’ve tried and failed at using these few servers to unblock your favorite streaming service, that’s it. You won’t have too many options if a streaming service decides to crack down on VPN use, which most of them do these days.

As of now, VPNSecure offers servers in the following locations:

VPNSecure and streaming (Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, BBC iPlayer)

VPNSecure is not the best provider when it comes to streaming and unblocking. It’s unfortunately not compatible with the US version of Netflix or other popular streaming services like Hulu and Disney Plus. Here’s what we found out when we tried VPNSecure to stream our favorite shows:

The good news is we could connect to Dutch Netflix. However, compared to other VPNs that can unblock all other streaming sites, VPNSecure falls short. Additionally, VPNSecure’s speeds prevented us from watching movies and shows in full HD. Eventually, we settled for lower video quality, which is when we were able to watch content without extensive buffering and loading. In short, VPNSecure is an acceptable VPN only if you’re fine with a poor viewing experience.

VPNSecure and torrents

Luckily, almost all of VPNSecure’s servers support P2P (torrent) downloading. This means you can use all servers to download anonymously. The only downside is VPNSecure’s connection speeds aren’t ideal for downloading torrents.

VPNSecure White Label VPN

Apart from their standard VPN service for customers, VPNSecure also offers White Label VPN. This means you can use its servers and application to create your own custom VPN service (for instance, for your company). This is very useful since more and more organizations use a VPN to securely connect remote workers.

VPNSecure offers a complete API or WHMCS plugin and an application or client in your company’s branding for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Our Experience With VPNSecure

All in all, VPNSecure can’t compete with most premium VPN services. After all, it has multiple serious issues.

First, its headquarters is located in a 5 eyes country, which presents a potential security issue. Secondly, the VPN is not compatible with the US version of Netflix. Third, its download speeds are quite slow. On top of all these, VPNSecure doesn’t offer enough servers, and its price point is too high for its features.

The app also has some flaws, such as when the window disappears when you minimize it and often shows the wrong user locations and IP addresses. Lastly, customer service can be improved.

On the other hand, VPNSecure is easy to ease and is a passable VPN for anonymous browsing. It might still be worth a try, but it’s not our top recommendation for a VPN.

If you’re looking for a service that offers more bang for its buck, more features, and greater speeds, we recommend checking out our top 5 of the best VPNs available right now.