VPNTunnel claims to offer blazing speeds, unlimited bandwidth, and anonymous IP addresses. With a plain looking website, it felt like they themselves were pretty anonymous as well.
Here, we evaluate VPNTunnel’s claims and see if you really can take back your privacy using their service. Let’s dive in.
VPNTunnel Pros
Servers and Locations: 800 servers in 32 countries
VPNTunnel boasts a decent number of servers for its user base. The VPN covers 32 countries in their network. With its network page, you can see how loaded their servers are with 800+ worldwide.
So even before you signup you can already scan through their servers and check if the server closest to you is underloaded or overloaded. It even comes with a ping button.
It’s always appreciated when VPN providers give potential customers a chance to preview their possible service in this manner (short of a free trial).
Pricing & Plans: Extremely cheap if you sign up yearly
VPNTunnel’s base monthly price is fairly standard at $9.99. We’ve reviewed several VPNs that set $10 as their standard price. Where VPNTunnel differs is their 3 and 12-month pricing.
Firstly, 3 months isn’t a normal interval for most VPN providers as most set their middle ground at 6 months. That being said, at $6.66, VPNTunnel offers a competitive price for a 3-month subscription.
Lastly is their 12-month subscription. At just $2.99 per month, this is one of the cheapest annual plans we’ve seen.
Looking at just the price, VPNTunnel clearly presents a good long-term package to its users.
Payment Methods: Plenty of secure payment methods
VPNTunnel provides a diverse set of payment options. As you can see, you can choose from credit cards, PayPal, Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies), Perfect Money, and even bank transfers.
Notably missing is Alipay from the list which is a shame since it has become the norm for VPN providers trying to capture the Chinese market.
Of course, we can’t forget about other anonymous methods like cash or gift cards.
Device Compatibility: An exhaustive list
VPNTunnel has an exhaustive list of compatible devices. One of them being Steam, which has a very strict no-VPN policy. Included in that list as well is Playstation which again does not have native VPN access.
Looking through their configuration manuals, it does say that it will work by configuring your routers. And this is the answer to Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Playstation, and Xbox. We found no articles mentioning Steam at all.
This is definitely something we’d consider as misleading from VPNTunnel; other VPN providers just outright say that you’d have to configure your router to do this.
Overall for those routers that they do actually support, it’s only DD-WRT and ASUS. Everything else is a standard list of products to support.
Subscribers also get to connect 5 devices simultaneously.
Sign Up Process: A pain-free process
Signing up can be easily done through their website after purchasing a plan. You just have to type in your email address so they can send an email with the link to confirm your account.
The link will lead you a page where you can set your username and password up. They also give you an option to auto-generate those details, if you’re feeling lazy.
Product Interface: Nothing special, but simple enough
They have a clean interface that is nothing out of the ordinary. Most importantly, it isn’t confusing.
On the upper right corner of their website is a My Account tab. The tab contains an interface that displays your account information.
On the My Account tab is where you’ll get access to download links for your device.
Click the VPN Client applicable to your device and the download will start automatically. After you’ve successfully installed the file on your device, go to your taskbar tray and select a server where you want to connect.
Their software has a “Favorites” tab which makes it easy to immediately locate and connect to a server of your choosing without having to go through their list.
Product Documentation: A complete guide to everything VPN
VPNTunnel’s FAQ section is relatively complete. The titles of the articles are clear and each section is well-defined. The install guides cover all the systems they support, even if the answer is “install VPNTunnel in your router.”
There are 2 main pages, Home and Solutions. Both pages seem to be the same, the redundancy seems more intentional than oversight.
IP and DNS Leak Test: Fear-free, no leaks
We have to say, even if their speeds aren’t the best, or even good for that matter, IP and DNS leaks were non-existent when we ran tests.
Encryption and Protocols: Plenty of protection
VPNTunnel offers 3 different protocols:
- OpenVPN
- L2TP
- PPTP
By default, OpenVPN is the preferred protocol, which is the industry standard at the moment. Along with a 256-bit AES encryption, VPNTunnel’s security is at par with most VPN providers offering services of the same price.
Kill Switch: Kill-switch, activated
VPNTunnel has a kill switch. This feature eliminates the risk of unwanted exposure by automatically disconnecting to the internet when a VPN fails.
VPNTunnel Neutral Points
Netflix Test: A couple of servers on offer
Binge watchers should feel free to subscribe to VPNTunnel and watch their favorite shows free of privacy worries. It offers 2 United States servers with Netflix, US-Netflix-East, and US-Netflix-West.
Their other servers can’t access Netflix, though. Still, if you’re one to look for US-content, then this is definitely a cheap way to go about it.
Torrenting Policy: TL;DR? Yes, but not really?
Initially, VPNTunnel tells users that they have a worry-free P2P policy. This is great to hear; especially that they allow torrenting on all their servers.
However, this falls short in the fine print. With their usage policy is a line that talks about not allowing users to share copyright files.
This was also confirmed by their support team when we asked the same question. As will be discussed in a later section this is likely a legal loophole they’ve added to cover themselves.
As a result, we question VPNTunnel’s trustworthiness as a provider as we would with any VPNs that create confusing and contradicting statements. Really, you shouldn’t be downloading anything illegally; that’s not what worries us. It’s the very muddied stance on everything; can we torrent? Can’t we? We’re confused, and that makes us feel uneasy.
Refund policy: Good, but not great
VPNTunnel does provide a refund policy. However, the policy only extends to within the first 7 days of use. As well as that, the refund policy is unconditional.
Given that this is a discretionary refund, it is advisable to find reviews or testimonials for it first in your region before giving VPNTunnel a shot. Especially, if you’re in a location that may have issues with VPN providers a lot.
The refund process takes about 10 days according to their Customer Support.
Customer Support: Hit and miss chat support
Good chat support is always a plus to any VPN provider, and VPNTunnel has one. Unfortunately, when we did try using it we often got a busy notification and found our message had become a support ticket.
Yes, there’s live chat. But how responsive VPNTunnel is to customers, is the question. Overall the experience with their live chat falls lower than other VPNs we’ve seen in the past.
However, when they were available, they responded with an answer in less than one minute.
On the scrollbar is Customer Support tab where you can inquire and ask questions on Help & Support. Once you’ve typed your concern in the Subject area, the Customer Support generates results found in their FAQ. However, if they don’t have the answer to your questions, they will answer your queries via email.
Response-wise, we got replies to our tickets within the hour and for chat messages around 1-5 minutes. So both the ticket resolution and chat messages were relatively quick on VPNTunnel.
In a question as to where they are located, support initially said VPNTunnel is based in Sweden and then corrected by saying Seychelles; more raised eyebrows from us, as they continue with confused, disjointed communication to customers.
VPNTunnel Cons
VPN Speed and Performance: Hit or miss
VPNTunnel offers unlimited bandwidth, but it begs the question, how well does it perform?
We checked 3 different servers from North America and Europe, and to our dismay, we found the speeds were wildly inconsistent.
Tests results at times hit up to 55.66Mbps and as low as 1.02Mbps.
Overall, the results are all over the place but towards the negative side of things – especially the connection to Asia. Our Internet package is no slouch either, so to see such bizarre results scattered across such a wide range is not confidence-inducing in VPNTunnel’s service as a whole. See the results below:
North American VPN Server Speed Test
| NA Baseline (Without VPN) |
Test Results (to NA Server) |
EU Baseline (Without VPN) |
Test Results (to EU Server) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ping (5 ms) |
19 ms (+14 ms) | Ping (90 ms) |
104 ms (+14 ms) |
| Download (98.6 Mbps) |
49.2 Mbps (-49.4 Mbps, -50%) |
Download (87.4 Mbps) |
38.4 Mbps (-49 Mbps, -56%) |
| Upload (98.4 Mbps) |
66.7 Mbps (-31.7 Mbps, -32%) |
Upload (56.3 Mbps) |
16.9 Mbps (-39.3 Mbps, -70%) |
European VPN Server Speed Test
| NA Baseline (Without VPN) |
Test Results (to NA Server) |
EU Baseline (Without VPN) |
Test Results (to EU Server) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ping (93 ms) |
103 ms (+10 ms) | Ping (27 ms) |
32 ms (+5 ms) |
| Download (92 Mbps) |
21.7 Mbps (-70.3 Mbps, -76%) |
Download (99.1 Mbps) |
55.7 Mbps (-43.4 Mbps, -44%) |
| Upload (58.6 Mbps) |
32.6 Mbps (-26 Mbps, -44%) |
Upload (98.7 Mbps) |
84.2 Mbps (-14.4 Mbps, -15%) |
Asian VPN Server Speed Test
| NA Baseline (Without VPN) |
Test Results (to NA Server) |
EU Baseline (Without VPN) |
Test Results (to EU Server) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ping (278 ms) |
496 ms (+218 ms) | Ping (281 ms) |
499 ms (+218 ms) |
| Download (46.9 Mbps) |
1 Mbps (-45.8 Mbps, -98%) |
Download (57.8 Mbps) |
1.7 Mbps (-56.1 Mbps, -97%) |
| Upload (7.9 Mbps) |
0.6 Mbps (-7.4 Mbps, -93%) |
Upload (6.2 Mbps) |
0.6 Mbps (-5.7 Mbps, -91%) |
Logging Policy: More confusion
Initially, VPNTunnel advertises that they do not store any traffic data nor save logs. From this alone, it should be good news for most users as VPNTunnel promises a zero logging policy.
This, however, is muddled by their confusing language in the fine print. Firstly, their disclosure policy states that they will personal information to third parties if they are acquired by a third party.
The more concerning statement is if they are ordered to comply with any legal obligation though they are located in Seychelles, which is outside the jurisdiction of any mass surveillance alliances.
VPNTunnel as a Business
VPNTunnel is a company based on the island of Seychelles. A wider search of them revealed they’re under a company called Edelino Commerce Inc. However, we weren’t able to determine exactly when they started.
Looking at their Facebook and Twitter, it seems they used to be active on social media. At this point, VPNTunnel’s posts are now a year old so it looks like that it isn’t important to them anymore.
Jurisdiction
Seychelles is a series of islands in the Indian Ocean. Being a part of the African continent, Seychelles is outside any of the alliance groups. Moreover, their laws do not require companies like VPNTunnel to reveal personally identifiable information to the government.
Countries like this that help ensure customers that their data is kept safe.
VPNTunnel Conclusion: Worth a shot for the price
VPNTunnel is a VPN service we’d consider the middle of the pack; they’re good in many areas, but do have one or two shortcomings.
The most egregious failing in their service has got to be the speed inconsistency. A free trial is also something they don’t offer. However, they do offer a 7-day money back guarantee just in case you no longer decide to use their service.
They do have a kill switch, they allow Netflix (though it’s a bit limited), and they exist outside of the 14 Eyes Alliance. If you can accept slightly messy communications and equally inconsistent speeds, VPNTunnel might just work for you.
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