Pros
- Easy Server Selection: Separate lists of servers for torrenting and streaming are added by which the user can easily find out the required server. You also have the option to add these servers to the favorite section.
- Connection Features: A set of connection features which allow customizing your connection for a better and secure experience. This also helps to protect the system from threats while browsing.
- Good User Control: CyberGhost provides user control for better functioning over Wi-Fi Networks. The ‘Auto-Connect’ option reduces the manual task of connecting to VPN every time after starting the system.
- Port Selection: Random Port Selection is available for OpenVPN Protocol which automatically selects the port that provides a reliable connection
- Seven Simultaneous Devices: You can connect seven different devices simultaneously from one account. Most of the other providers only allow five devices or less than that.
- Netflix and Torrenting: It is completely safe for torrenting and works efficiently for Netflix. In the streaming server list, after the name of the server’s country, you can find the name of the channel for which the server is optimized.
- Amazing User Interface: A crisp user interface with clean and clear text makes it easier to access CyberGhost. The use of ghostly toon makes it look more attractive.
- Kill Switch for Safeguarding the data: Automatic Kill Switch that blocks the internet traffic when the VPN connection fails. In that way, no data flows out of the VPN tunnel, and that avoid the data leakage.
Cons
- Unavailability of Some Features: Some more configurations such as changing the encryption type and key length could be added for better security. However, providing more control in a user’s hand may lead to loss of the simplicity and cause malfunctioning of the application.
- Lesser Servers for Australia and Africa: The number of servers in Australia and Africa are comparatively less than that of Europe and the United States. However, they keep working to increase the number of servers, and it has reached to three thousand in nearly sixty different countries.
Overview
| Quick Overview | |
|---|---|
| Protocols | OpenVPN, L2TP, IPsec, PPTP |
| Platforms | Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Amazon Fire TV, Linux, Routers |
| Jurisdiction | Romania |
| Logging | No |
| Encryption | 256-bit AES |
| Connections | Up to 7 |
| Locations | 60 Countries |
| Servers | 3600 |
| Netflix/P2P | Yes |
| Payment Options | PayPal, Credit card, BitPay |
| Support Options | Live chat or email |
| Pricing From | $ 2.75/mo Billed every 3 years |
| Guarantee | 45-days |
| Free Trial | Yes (24hrs) |
| Website | Visit Website |
CyberGhost has developed as a top-quality VPN application in these seven years. With their heart melting, unique theme of cute ghosts, it effectively renders positivity along with the security and anonymity to every “Ghostie.”
CyberGhost has developed as a top-quality VPN application in these seven years. With their heart melting, unique theme of cute ghosts, it effectively renders positivity along with the security and anonymity to every “Ghostie.”
The company is headquartered at Bucharest, Romania, and recently it was sold to the Crossrider Group. The key features that lead to the company’s success are the hard work and genuine appreciation for every member.
Keeping you anonymous by changing your IP address could be a mere game of servers, but the C-Ghost has taken it to another level by placing addition features, making it compatible with Tor, and improving continuously by adding several servers considering the user base in every corner of the world.
The application isn’t highly configurable like many products such as Perfect Privacy or ExpressVPN. For example, you don’t even have the option to turn on or off the kill switch, but anyway, it’s a feature that you would not want to turn off in any case. They have tried to offer the simplest possible user interface so that anyone who is concerned about his privacy can utilize its benefits.
Favorite Category for the Servers
There are always some of the servers out of all the servers which show optimum performance and speed in comparison to the other servers for a particular location. This is the case with CyberGhost also.
For every location, it is impossible that every server shows flawless performance, and that’s why favorite server list is an essential element of CyberGhost application.
Initially, it automatically connects to the fastest server for your location. If you wish to access content that is restricted to a particular country, you need to connect to the server of that country. Before that, it is required to save the previous server if it performs with high efficiency.
CyberGhost automatically saves that particular server in the favorite list. All you need to do for implementing a connection to it is just to click it from the list double. After that, the ghost will take a few seconds to connect to the chosen server. This is extremely “easy to use” and “easy to implement” feature which comes with three different categories:
- Favorites among all servers
- Favorites for downloading
- Favorites for Streaming
Different Servers Optimized for Downloading and Streaming
CyberGhost provides different server lists according to the user requirement. If the requirement is of downloading the content, servers would be ranked according to that. That means the ranking of the torrenting servers would be different from the ranking of the streaming servers.
For instance, the United States’ servers are optimized for Netflix, and there could be different servers which would be optimized for using Torrent. That’s how the custom categorization is done to improve the user experience. It is also a smart way of distributing traffic to different servers as all the users have different demands.
This type of feature is absent in most of the VPN providers because of which the other VPN users never know even if they could get a better downloading or streaming speed by connecting to any other server.
In-build Ad-Blocker
Even though we regard CyberGhost as a VPN provider; it also has some additional features with the main focus of improving the privacy along with the polished user experience. CyberGhost’s ‘Ad-Blocker’ blocks pop-up ads effectively, and it can be easily turned on by just a swipe.
Go to the connection features, and you will find the feature with the name “Block Ads” at the top. Although it has nothing to do with the VPN, the feature is an addition that safeguards the users from the unwanted ads.
Filter Malicious Websites
Even if the VPN provider is smart enough to hide your information by keeping you anonymous, it may fail to provide security if any Malware gets installed in your system.
It is not the task of the VPN provider to save you from these trespassers, but still, CyberGhost offers this feature, so now no one can question the security that it delivers. This feature doesn’t let you connect to any suspicious website when you visit them knowingly or unknowingly.
Block Online Tracking
Digital footprints are the leftovers of the users’ activity which, if followed, can lead to the detection of personal information of any user.
CyberGhost defeats every attempt that any third-party would do to record your behavior by recording the websites that you are visiting. The online anonymity is an important aspect by which VPN’s efficiency is judged.
Data Compression
It is another additional feature that CyberGhost provides to their Ghosties. However, it is not related to security or anonymity. It is just to decrease the Internet usage by decreasing the size of the media and content elements. It works very well as a significant decrement in the data usage could be seen while using this feature.
Smart Rules
CyberGhost VPN provider offers a separate section for behavioral settings when it experiences any Wi-Fi network. This feature is not present in many of the VPN providers as the unwanted data transfer could easily be blocked just by turning on the VPN connection.
But here, it even allows a user to take action against the encrypted Wi-Fi. If you are connected to an encrypted Wi-Fi, but you don’t trust it, you can add an extra layer of security just by turning on the CyberGhost application. You can even customize the action that CyberGhost needs to take for every individual Wi-Fi connection.
Automatic Kill Switch
Like in many other VPN providers, you will not see a kill Switch option in CyberGhost Application. It is because they have a built-in kill Switch that automatically stops the internet traffic in case if the VPN connection goes down.
You don’t have an option to uncheck this feature, and anyway, it’s necessary to use the Kill Switch to avoid the data leakage. It is a possibility that they don’t provide it optional as sometimes data leak may occur without the fault of VPN provider if the user has unchecked the Kill Switch Option.
Secure Your Transactions and Conversations
CyberGhost VPN is a virtual private network service that provides a wide range of security features that ensure your safety and security in your online activity. When you are doing some online banking and shopping, you would not want anyone to steal your important personal information.
The good thing about this service is that it can help you hide your online identity while you perform these activities. Also, when you are having conversations or communications online, this virtual private network ensures that nobody listens to your conversations with the help of a high-grade encryption system.
Protocol Settings
CyberGhost offers all the prominent protocols: OpenVPN, IKEv2, and L2TP, which have different security and speed levels. For high security, OpenVPN is always preferred, but then it comes with very low speed.
CyberGhost has come up with IKEv2 protocol which maintains a balance between security and speed. However, CyberGhost doesn’t provide PPTP protocol which is considered the fastest one. The reason may lead us to security vulnerabilities that it isn’t considered as secure as the other two.
For OpenVPN, you can select TCP or UDP according to your requirements, and if you wish not to make any compromise on security, just allow it to connect with a wide range of ports randomly. However, random port selection is only available for OpenVPN right now.
DNS Leak Protection
Fortunately, CyberGhost VPN is the type of VPN service that prioritizes the users’ privacy and security, and in doing so, it has the best DNS leak protection system available. DNS leak protection doesn’t let your ISP know what domain names you are visiting. Your actual DNS will remain hidden and what would be visible is CyberGhost’s DNS or any third-party DNS in case of any other VPN.
CyberGhost has its DNS, and thus it is a great measure to protect the privacy of the user by avoiding any third-party involvement.
Servers
In total, they have 3500+ server locations in 58 countries. Covering these many countries is a tough task, but after achieving this target, one can expect to get a good speed.
Out of these fifty-eight countries, thirty plus countries are from Europe, and that makes it one of the most of the suitable VPN applications for the Europeans.
In Europe alone, the number of servers is more than two-thousand.
Because of this, a good user-server ratio is maintained in Europe: one server per every hundred individuals. As they know that the VPN demand in some countries is very high, so they have added the servers according to the requirement.
The countries such as Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have more than a hundred servers. Even after that, to maintain a 100:1 user-server ratio, they need to add some more servers in Germany and the United Kingdom. But with a hard-working hand, they are pretty close to it.
Next comes North America, in which the United States alone has six hundred plus servers in ten plus location.
Other than that, you can find a huge number of servers in Canada also. A few are even added in Mexico and Costa Rica.
They have provided equal importance to Asia. The servers are placed in ten plus countries, and the total number is nearly 250. In some of the Asian countries, sometimes the user-server ratio goes so high that one server is only shared amongst ten users. So, for Asian users, CyberGhost will surely deliver blissful speed.
However, they need to work in the continents of the Southern Hemisphere. Australia doesn’t have a high population, but the area is vast, so multiple server locations are required in the country, but CyberGhost only has three. Other than this, only ten more servers are added in Oceania which are placed in New Zealand.
The case is even worse for Africa. Only twenty servers located in two countries.
With this huge network, they have tried to make sure that they cover all the required locations. As adding total forty-six servers in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, and Chile wasn’t necessary, but these servers have multiple advantages.
If the load is high on North American servers, then they can try connecting to these servers as they are not so far.
Refund Policy
Refund policy differs according to the plan. If you are using a one-month plan, then the refund policy will be of fourteen days. However, if you have purchased a six-month plan or above, then you can ask for the refund before ‘forty-five days.’
And also, it’s easy to contact them for the refund. You can either email them or reach them through live chat support. It’s a ‘no questions asked’ refund policy, and that’s why you don’t need to explain that why you are canceling the subscription.
This is done to make sure that the customers who move forward with the product are satisfied with the product and are willing to continue with them for a longer term.
Connection Time Analysis
CyberGhost is reliable regarding stability, and in our experience, it always gets connected within a few seconds. It always takes less than 20 seconds to establish a connection and rarely go above it.
This connection time analysis has been done for the best server available. It may change accordingly if you select the best server for streaming or downloading. The distance between the location and the server also affects the connection time.
| Trial no. | Time Taken To Establish the Connection |
|---|---|
| 1 | 13.73 |
| 2 | 16.92 |
| 3 | 22.46 |
| 4 | 15.92 |
| 5 | 12.88 |
| 6 | 15.67 |
| 7 | 12.18 |
| 8 | 12.12 |
| 9 | 13.13 |
| 10 | 13.01 |
| Average Time In Seconds | 14.804 |
Once connected, it offers a stable connection which is not expected to turn off automatically.
However, they can still improve as many VPN providers provide an instant connection. If not instant, then at least they must strive to reduce the connection time to ten seconds.
The precision is satisfactory if we do not consider the third trial which took 22.46 seconds for the connection. If we exclude that, then a range of nearly 4.5 seconds will be recorded. That means it’s easy to predict when the connection will get established.
Speed Test
When it comes to speed, using CyberGhost may affect the streaming and downloading in a significant way. Downloading speed of 13.59 Mbps got reduced to 5. 45 Mbps and Uploading speed of 11.92 Mbps got reduced to 6.91 Mbps. Even though in both the case it has decreased to 50%, it is enough to watch average-quality videos.
Note: the speed test is done for the server selected by CyberGhost automatically, and if you check it for the servers optimized for streaming and torrenting you will realize that you may get a better speed.
Security
The use of AES 256-bit key offers high security as it’s the toughest to break amongst all the encryptions. Stealing the secret key would be easier than passing through it using brute force.
The location of the company also matters a lot. As it is located in Romania, it remains out of the jurisdiction of Fourteen-Eyes, the group of countries which has security agencies that keep track of every citizen’s online activity. Because of this, CyberGhost guarantees “No-Log Policy” as the government doesn’t enforce data gathering.
The availability of NoSpy servers provides a higher level of anonymity. They have dedicated servers which are used for torrenting ensuring safe downloads.
They also own DNS which removes the possibility of dealing with any third party. No one would be able to store any of your DNS requests.
User Interface and User Experience
The main objective of the CyberGhost application is to provide a secure network for everyone. We learned that many other VPN providers who claim to have the same level of security, anonymity, and performance were not able to create a user base that CyberGhost has earned. This is because of simple user interface rendering amazing user experience.
It’s easy to download and sign-up. The settings are visible at first glance, and there is no requirement of any configuration making it easy to use. The CyberGhost user interface consists of small elements related to their humorous-spooky theme. This provides an attractive look out to the users that amuse them.
The additional features such as Ad-blocker and Data compression also added to deliver an exceptional user experience.
Platforms
Generally, VPN providers cover all the major platforms but CyberGhost, in addition to Windows, Android, iOS, and MacOS, has developed its application for the derivatives of Linux also.
For, Windows, iOS, Android and MacOS, you can directly download the application. However, for other operating systems and routers, you need to download the custom setup which is available with OpenVPN, L2TP or IPsec Protocol.
They don’t provide any custom setup for IKEv2, but anyways, one must always prefer the OpenVPN above the other protocols.
A custom connection could be setup with routers to provide privacy to every device connected to it.
Even after your every device is connected, you have the option of adding six more devices with one account. You can use download VPN application in these six devices while you travel and can experience an unrestricted Internet anywhere you go.
Netflix and Smart DNS
Even though smart DNS isn’t available right now, CyberGhost has made numerous efforts to make the Netflix content accessible for their users.
These efforts were worthy, and users can access the Netflix content of the USA, The UK, Denmark, and France. Not only this but with CyberGhost, you can get an entry for many media streaming channels.
CyberGhost is developing their own smart DNS after which the application will be improved regarding accessibility of the media channels, and you may stream many of the channels which are not reachable using other VPN providers. This may take some time, but it’s confirmed that with CyberGhost, users will get a number of options for streaming.
Customer Support
The live chat provides elaborated explanations about every query you ask them. They first try to solve the issue with the help of guides and articles available on their website. Based on the keywords you typed, the list appears showing related articles, and if they are not relevant, you can access the live chat and get their help.
It is the possibility that the live chat isn’t available all the time. If this is the case, then one can send them the email or can directly contact through feedback feature of the app.
Other than these options, self-help options are also added: Guides, Troubleshooter, FAQs, and Announcements.
You can use the “Guides” to find the basic information about the application according to the device on which you are using it. Steps for installing CyberGhost on routers is also provided in this section.
FAQs and Troubleshooting play an important role when instant solutions to issues are required. On CyberGhost’s website, you will find a sufficient number of FAQs containing data related to various aspects. Troubleshooter is also divided into five different categories based on the nature of the issue.
Conclusion
We would use the term “Humorously-Spooky-Protector” to describe CyberGhost as advanced security, and privacy options are provided with a package of the best user experience with amusing touch-ups.
It offers various security features that ensure that your network connection remains safe from the threats. Also, with the ad-blocker and malware checker feature, you don’t need to worry about the malicious ads and content that might get into your system and cause malfunction. It also protects your IP address and DNS requests from every possible leakage.
However, they need to improve the speed as fifty percent reduction was recorded. If they make efforts and decrease the load on servers, this issue may get solved. However, still, it’s worthy to use CyberGhost which comes with no log policy and amazing features.