CyberGhost Review 2019
BEST FOR: High speed streaming and torrenting
- Based in Romania
- Works with Netflix US
- Adblocker
- 1-day free premium trial
CyberGhost Overview
CyberGhost has seen important changes recently, with the service having been acquired by Crossrider, a UK-based Israeli company. This raised concerns among users since changes in ownership location could in some instances have an impact on VPN providers’ privacy policies. However, we investigated the issue and can say that CyberGhost VPN is still 100% based in Romania, therefore ensuring their original privacy parameters.
CyberGhost VPN is a great choice for Netflix, and combined with the great features that CyberGhost VPN offers, is a major selling point. In this CyberGhost VPN review, we will take a closer look at the VPN and see how it stacks up among its competitors.
Pros
What we liked
- 1-day free premium trial
- Zero logs kept
- 7 simultaneous connections
- Unlimited bandwidth
- 45-day money back guarantee
- Allows payments by bitcoin
Cons
What can be improved
- Live chat not available 24/7
- Relatively highly priced
Security & Privacy
Security
CyberGhost scores really well when it comes to security. The VPN offers military grade 256-bit AES encryption with a 2048-bit RSA key, which is the best available on the market right now. It has also upgraded from HMAC MD5 for hash authentication to the more secure HMAC SHA-2, which is the standard recommended by the OSTIF OpenVPN Audit.
To further enhance security, CyberGhost makes use of Perfect Forward Secrecy. This is a feature used to create a new private encryption key for every session, something that significantly reduces the risks of somebody hacking into your connection.
CyberGhost offers three protocols to its users: OpenVPN, L2TP, and IKEv2. These are the protocols frequently used today, and older protocols like SSTP, SSL, and SSH are not supported. Among the three available protocols, OpenVPN is recommended due to its good balance of security and speeds. In case you only need little security and highest speeds, you can make use of the L2TP and IKEv2 protocols.
- PPTP
- L2TP/IPSec
- IKRv2
- OpenVPN
As for the IP addresses, CyberGhost uses shared IP addresses, which helps improve anonymity. Users on the same server always have the same public IP. CyberGhost tells me they have a total of 3,700+ IP addresses.
Privacy
Being based in Romania is a great plus for CyberGhost VPN, as this places it beyond the reach of the UK, Canadian, and US data retention policies. It’s also outside the “14-eyes” group of countries that share internet intelligence.
Romania is fairly lax regarding its data retention rules. The Romanian constitutional court actually revoked their data retention law in 2014. A new retention law was drafted in October 2015, and it aims to protect user privacy by preventing the collection of data by law enforcement groups. This provides CyberGhost VPN with a perfect environment to implement their Zero Logs policy.
The VPN explicitly states that it does not log user activity, although minimal connection records are usually kept. From the CyberGhost VPN website:
“CyberGhost VPN records exclusively for statistical purposes non-personal data (such as for example, data regarding the utilization degree of the servers), which do not represent in any moment a danger for your anonymity.”
To further boost your privacy and anonymity, CyberGhost allows you to pay for the VPN service using Bitcoin. In addition, don’t need to use your email during the sign-up, since you only need a username and password to get started. Beware of using the same username as your social media accounts, as that can easily expose you.
Pricing & Payment
CyberGhost offers some pretty straightforward plans. All their plans come with the same features and functionalities. The only difference is in the duration of the plans, which do show a significant difference in price.
*Although we make every effort to ensure all prices are accurate, we cannot guarantee thet they are always up to date
There are three plans available are:
1 month plan: costs $12.99, billed at $12.99/month
1 year plan: $5.99 per month, billed at $71.88
2 Year plan: $3.69 per month, billed at $88.56
3 Year plan: $2.75 per month (+ 2 months free), billed at $99
For each plan, CyberGhost gives a 45-day money-back guarantee. Unlike some VPN providers, we found that CyberGhost is very trustworthy with their guarantee. If for any reason you decide to cancel your subscription, you will get your money back! This is very useful for streaming content aficionados, as you get the opportunity to test first-hand and risk-free if the VPN can access your favorite streaming sites – before you commit to a plan.
Free Trial
CyberGhost is one of the few big names that offers a free trial of their premium VPN service. If you download their VPN client for PC or smartphone, you get a 1-day free trial period with all the premium features enabled. After your trial, you can then upgrade to a premium plan.
Payment Methods
The VPN supports quite a large range of payment options. These include the major credits, PayPal, bitcoin and even gift cards. The fact that CyberGhost supports bitcoin payment is a major benefit to maintain your anonymity, since paying through bitcoin leaves no traces behind.
Credit cards
Payment Service
Others
Performance
To test the speed performance of CyberGhost VPN, we first tested our connection without using a VPN connection. Below are the results.
We then connected the VPN using the Choose Server mode, which is the standard VPN mode. The connection was made to the nearest server, in the same country. There was a reduction in the speed of about 15% for the download speeds and about 35% for the upload. These are quite fair values.
A server in a far cut the speeds further, but they were still fast enough to make CyberGhost one of the fastest VPNs in the market.
Note: The bandwidth is unlimited, as well as server switching. The time it took to get connected was 20-30 seconds.
This speed test was recently conducted on April 20, 2019.
Get started with CyberGhost today to stay safe, private, and secure online!
Visit CyberGhostServers & Location
The geographical location and distribution of servers is always a critical feature to consider before committing to any VPN service. But of course, you should choose a VPN based on what its strengths are in terms of your particular needs.
Rest assured that CyberGhost can support all users’ basic needs simply with their sheer number of servers and how they distribute them. The VPN boasts 7,200+ servers located in 90 countries, which is a huge accomplishment. They also say that they are continually expanding their server network to provide users with the best experience.
A highlight here is the servers that CyberGhost has recently added to Africa and South America, two locations that have long been ignored even by the big name VPNs. There are also servers in Asia, which shows that CyberGhost is dedicated to offering service to all parts of the world.
Among the countries with the most significant number of servers is France, the UK, Germany and US. Major Cities like New York and London are home to the most number of servers.
The countries covered by CyberGhost include UK, US, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, Spain, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, South Africa, just to name a few.
One thing we learned from this CyberGhost review is that this VPN provider covers all areas of the world, ensuring that you can travel anywhere and be able to count on CyberGhost VPN for fast speeds and reliability.
Features
Smart DNS
CyberGhost does not provide SmartDNS. However, their client has various modes that can allow you to access geo-restricted content. If you want to change location and maintain good speeds, you can just use their Surf Anonymously mode with Extra Speed turned on.
Features
Smart DNS
Bypass Netflix
Onion Tow Web Address
Split Tunneling
Stealth Technology/Servers
Allow Torrenting
Automatic Kill Switch
ipv6
Open Ports
.onion website version
CyberGhost does not work well with heavily censored countries since it doesn’t have any obfuscation features. As a result, it doesn’t offer a .onion website version for signing up.
Split tunneling
CyberGhost offers split tunneling, under a feature known as App Protection. Though a VPN is meant to encrypt and tunnel all your traffic, App Protection allows you to specify the particular apps that you want to protect with the VPN. You can also choose the specific profile under which you want to run the feature.
Special servers
CyberGhost has servers that allow P2P. This is good news for torrent lovers since not all major VPN providers allow any P2P.
Automatic kill switch
CyberGhost provides users with an automatic Kill Switch. This is a handy tool that protects you from exposure in case your VPN connection drops. This prevents accidental data leaks that can be detected by your ISP. For example, if you’re streaming content and your VPN connection is lost or accidentally turned off, you’ll continue to remain anonymous because the internet connection will be cut off until the VPN comes back online.
During this CyberGhost review, we were pleased to find that the CyberGhost Kill Switch to be working quite efficiently.
Ad-blocking
Among its features, CyberGhost has implemented an ad-blocking technology within the VPN. All you need to do to prevent websites from tracking you is to use the Block Online Tracking feature. Malicious sites can also be blocked.
DNS & IP Leak Protection
CyberGhost has incorporated a DNS and IP Leak protection in its service, to further boost users’ privacy. Your ISP won’t get access to even a trace of your traffic while connected to CyberGhost.
CyberGhost Setup & User Interface
Signing up with CyberGhost is as easy as it gets. All you have to do is choose your plan, enter your email address to sign up and then select a payment method. All this is done on one page, making the process simple, intuitive and straightforward. After you complete the payments, you will get a pop-up window with your PUK. This is a secret code that you need to use in case you lose your login information. CyberGhost doesn’t store a copy of it, and so make sure you save it well.
The whole sign up process should take you less than 5 minutes. Once you’re signed up, you can then move to the download page to download a client for you preferred device(s).
The CyberGhost VPN Client
The CyberGhost VPN is very user friendly. For this CyberGhost VPN review, we tested the VPN for both Windows and Android.
To get the client up and running, you need to:
- Navigate to the CyberGhost Website.
- Register for an account.
- After registration, you will be directed to a page where you can download a client for your device.
- After download, run the setup and launch the app. It will appear as pictured below. You can then log in with your account to upgrade.
The whole process will take less than 10 minutes. It’s important to note that you can’t sign up with CyberGhost VPN while you are in a country with heavy censorship like China, where VPNs aren’t exactly legal.
CyberGhost recently launched CyberGhost 7 suite which features a new sleek look. CyberGhost 6, which featured a block organization is however still available.
Here’s the new look VPN app.
You can open extra features using the settings button or the drawer button on the left side.
From there, you can then choose a task and a server, or even customize your connection.
For Torrenting
With this option, you can basically use the VPN to torrent anonymously. There are torrenting servers in over 25 countries that you can choose from, and you can always see a particular server’s distance and load percentage.
For Streaming
This is a mode dedicated to accessing streaming services. You’ll find various servers, and each server is clearly indicated with the service that it’s optimized for. Some of the available services are:
- Netflix
- BBC iPlayer
- Hulu
- Amazon Prime
- Youtube Red
- CBS
- ESPN and many others
Connection Features
This section lets you choose the features you wan’t to use when you connect to the VPN. They include blocking ads, tracking, malicious websites and even reducing data usage.
Smart Rules( Options for Customization)
CyberGhost allows you to tweak a few options to determine how the app behaves, and how internet connections are handled.. You can do this using start up rules, WiFi protection, website exceptions, and app protection.
Smartphone App
The CyberGhost smartphone app is quite simpler, but it still offers most of the features in the desktop app. From the home page, you can connect with a single click as well as choose a general server or a streaming server.
To customize your connection, you just need to open the settings page.
Device Compatibility
CyberGhost VPN is has a wide range when it comes to compatibility, and it offers clients for various devices on different platforms. You can use CyberGhost on a laptop, Mac, smartphone, and tablet. The VPN supports devices running on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android, and iOS. There are also applets for Chrome and Firefox.
CyberGhost can also be installed on various other devices, but you will have to configure the VPN manually. The website however provides a comprehensive tutorial on how to set them up.
CyberGhost VPN supports up to 7 simultaneous devices, which means that you can effectively secure all your devices, as well as your whole family.
Compatibility
CyberGhost VPN has servers all over the world and therefore can help you access content from anywhere. However, for some services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, BBC, etc, servers are never the problem; partaking them is the problem.
From our CyberGhost VPN review, we can confidently say that at the moment CyberGhost is a great option to use to listen to your favorite music or video streaming apps and sites in their allowed geographic regions.
CyberGhost is a great solution for Amazon Prime, Hulu, CBS, BBC and most other streaming services. For those torrent VPN hounds out there, If you want to download torrents, CyberGhost has ultrafast speeds via its P2P servers.
Devices
- iOS
- Android
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
Browsers
- Chrome
Others
- Android Boxes
- Router Configuration
- xBox 360
- DDWRT Router
Customer support
CyberGhost customer support rates very highly. The VPN offers various options through which you can get help whenever you need anything;
- Live Chat Support
- Ticket System
- Knowledge Base
Customer support is crucial for any VPN user in order to make sure that one gets help whenever they need it. For this reason, we tested the customer support as part of our CyberGhost VPN review. We were very impressed with the Live Chat System. An agent joined my chat within 10 seconds and responded to some basic questions I asked.
Be aware that the live chat feature is only available during Eastern European working hours (09:00 am to 18:00 EST), but CyberGhost confirmed that they are working to improve its availability to 24/7.
The ticketing system is meant to deal with technical issues, and therefore it requires you to enter your username and reference number that came with the invoice. This helps them check into the trouble you are having so that they can handle the issue better. I received a response to my ticket within about 10 minutes. CyberGhost’s assistance is comprehensive, and therefore they don’t have remote desktop support.
The guide section is very broad and contains lots of tutorials on how to deal with all kinds of trouble you may face with the VPN. Their FAQ answers most of the questions that you may have, as well as give you a quick overview of CyberGhost VPN.
If you need to stay in touch with them, they also provide their social media profiles at the bottom of the Website.
Conclusion
CyberGhost VPN provides you with a superb VPN connection that is sure to secure all your online activities. This VPN is very stable, and you won’t experience any crashes or failure. I loved the experience I had with CyberGhost, and you also will if you are looking for an anonymous VPN that can gives you access to even the most notorious streaming services. We would love to see the service provider make the live chat 24/7, but otherwise, we didn’t experience any noteworthy shortcomings. The VPN is feature-packed, and though its monthly price is on the higher side, you’ll experience huge savings if you buy a long-term plan. Take advantage of CyberGhost’s 45-day money back guarantee, and give this excellent VPN service a shot.
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Performance
Privacy
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