VyprVPN Review: Minimum Service Efficiency

VyprVPN is an underdog in the VPN market. There are still a few arguments to put forward: its simplicity and its effective privacy policy to the detriment of its functionalities.

VyprVPN Essentials in One Table

WHO IS VYPRVPN?

Like a certain ProtonVPN, VyprVPN originates from Switzerland. It therefore happily takes advantage of the laws in force on the spot concerning the protection of private data and the non-obligation to share information of its users. It is therefore apparently a safe VPN, not dependent on the conglomerate of the 5 eyes, and with a long experience in the field. The founders of VyprVPN, through their company Golden Frog, launched the service in 2009, a massive lead over its many competitors that flooded the market in the following years.

In addition to its VPN, the Golden Frog company also owns Texas.net, one of the first North American Internet service providers. It also has a number of data centers based across the Atlantic and in Europe, which allows it to be almost autonomous by having its own servers and equipment.

INTERFACE/ GETTING STARTED

As a preamble, we noted that the customer journey of VyprVPN was one of the most pleasant of all the services of our comparator. An email address, a password and that's it, the VPN does not clutter up with superfluous additional information that can frustrate or worry beyond measure as is the case with many other services.

Once the application is downloaded and installed, we are immediately surprised by the minimalist interface of the VPN. A simple little window repeating line by line the format and organization of the mobile application. This still has a big advantage: the client is light, discreet and above all extremely efficient since it only takes one click to connect to a server (selected by default as being the fastest). The other good point logically concerns the perfect convergence between the PC and mobile version with exactly the same menus in the same locations.

Since we are talking about the latter, here too, VyprVPN is simple, even minimal. The “Custom” menu gives access to advanced functions. There are the classic activations or not of the kill switch, the automatic reconnection function or even the change of network protocol.

There are still some very practical options, such as personalized protection from public Wi-Fi which is automatically activated if necessary, or the activation of a homemade TAP adapter (virtual network device) managed by the software and not by your computer. In the latter case, this can be very useful if you do not want to use the default Windows or macOS one.

VyprVPN offers the possibility of using personalized DNS parameters even if basic, the VPN activates its own DNS protocol by drawing from its 300,000 available IP addresses.

Less understandable, we note the absence of a split tunneling function (available on Android and iOS devices, however). We would also have liked an integrated speedtest function, a URL or advertising blocking option, but above all the presence of specific servers for each type of use to avoid having to dip into the list of servers and come across a not optimal connection.

VyprVPN therefore follows the trend of modern VPN services, namely simplicity of use pushed to the extreme even if it means setting aside certain features that often make the difference.

SERVERS AND PERFORMANCE

VyprVPN has a much smaller global network than most other VPNs. With just over 700 servers in around 60 countries, it pales in comparison to market behemoths such as Cyberghost or NordVPN. The comparison stops there in the sense that, as seen above, VyprVPN has its own infrastructure where the others use external providers. To find out what this VPN has in store, we tested it from a Parisian fiber connection via the Nperf site.

By default, VyprVPN assigns Wireguard as the primary network protocol. It took a lot of good, as the performance is in the high average of VPNs on the market, without breaking the glass ceiling on which NordVPN and ExpressVPN have settled. From a smartphone, we find performance in the same line with peaks at 350-400 Mb / s on a French server from a wireless fiber connection too. In the immediate future, VyprVPN's performance is therefore honorable and allows you to take advantage of most uses, ranging from online gaming (beware of the ping, however) to P2P downloading or streaming on foreign VOD/TV platforms.

Be careful, however, on this last point, the availability of foreign catalogs (especially US) being very uncertain. Most often, the platform will automatically detect that your connection is masked by a VPN (VyprVPN IPs are certainly flagged by these) and deny you access to video streaming. This happened almost systematically on Prime Video and Disney+, where Netflix seemed to be a little less sectarian. So be aware that you will have to juggle between various US servers before achieving your goals. Ultimately, VyprVPN is absolutely not a VPN to rely on for this type of use, although some advanced circumvention techniques are available from the support page.

PRIVACY POLICY

On its web page, VyprVPN loudly proclaims its “no-log VPN” policy meaning that the service does not keep any private data other than basic information (mainly email address). We have every reason to believe it, given the location of its head office in Switzerland, one of the countries whose protection of privacy is of public renown. But VyprnVPN doesn't just rely on that to make its case. The VPN has a 256-bit AES algorithm that encrypts a user's connection end-to-end to avoid man-in-the-middle attacks or DNS filtering.

To prove its good faith, VyprVPN even called on the company Leviathan Security Group to audit the platform and produce a public report on its logging practices. The results are available to everyone on the VyprVPN website and offer a wealth of information about how VyprVPN works and the extensive testing performed by the auditing company (connecting to servers, inspecting running processes, reviewing code source, etc). Anyone can simply check the summary explaining that the audit initially found a few issues that were quickly fixed later, while ensuring that VyprVPN does not record any third-party activity either before or after connecting to the service, what to be reassured.

It should be noted, however, that this audit dates from 2018 and has not provided any updates since.

Customer service

VyprVPN's customer service relies first and foremost on its knowledge base providing setup instructions, troubleshooting tips, and specific advice for different types of devices. The guides are very numerous and detailed, as if the VPN wanted to prepare for the slightest eventuality. However, it is not completely up to date with, for example, articles dealing with features that have disappeared from the application or others that are completely empty (?).

If the knowledge base is of no help, a live chat is available to give you an almost instantaneous and personalized answer. There is not much special to say about him, he is fast, courteous and answered our more or less technical questions perfectly. Conversations are in English, but an automatic translation tool facilitates exchanges.

The last option is to send an email to the support address. We asked a simple question about a product and got a clear answer in less than an hour.

PRICES

Regarding prices, VyprVPN recently revised its offer. Its offers are more visible than the competition with only two types of subscription, one annual at 86 euros (7.17 euros per month) and the other monthly at 13 euros. The rates are indeed a little high, similar to what can be found at ExpressVPN. the VPN offers 30 days to get a full refund and it is possible to get up to 5 simultaneous connections, regardless of subscription level. Point of additional services such as a password manager or an antivirus in addition.