Internet has revolutionized the way we think and live. Even average internet users are aware of their vulnerability and the dangers lurking around the web, especially today when it has become perfectly legal and routine to trade other people’s personal information without their explicit consent.
CyberGhost VPN changes that for you. Read on to find out what makes CyberGhost one of the top VPN providers.
First Thing’s First – What Is a VPN?
VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a service which, for a small monthly charge, gives your internet connection boosted security. It also helps you stay anonymous and get access to censored sites. VPN actually hides your IP address, the number assigned to your computer by your internet service provider (ISP).
It’s an important number—governments, different companies, networks and even hackers can easily track this number and use it to their advantage (or to your disadvantage, depending on your online activities). So, it is not hard to guess the benefits of hiding it.
VPN acts as a channel between your device and other servers through software which (ideally) cannot be intercepted. In this way, all your online activities—surfing, messaging, downloading or streaming—are well hidden.
The Name is Ghost, CyberGhost
CyberGhost is a VPN service offered by a Romania-based provider, launched in 2011. It works by encrypting your online connections, creating a Virtual Private Network for you. In your CyberGhost Virtual Private Network, your digital privacy and security are increased.
The IP address obtained from your internet service provider will be replaced with an address CyberGhost VPN assigns to your device. This basically changes the identity that you share with other users. CyberGhost VPN works on cable networks as well as with WLANs, UMTS, ISDN or modems.
CyberGhost has an upgraded version—CyberGhost Pro, well known for its free, but limited speed-wise edition. However, thanks to over 1,000 servers throughout more than 30 countries available, the congestion is hardly an issue.
Installing CyberGhost is very easy and fast. Just visit CyberGhost VPN, and hit the Get CyberGhost VPN button.
Further on, you have to fulfill three steps:
- CyberGhost offers you three package plans: a one-month plan, a two-year plan, and a six-month
Unlimited bandwidth, unlimited traffic, AES 256-bit encryption and OpenVPN protocol are included in each package.
- Create a secure
- Complete your purchase
After installation, CyberGhost starts automatically and enables you to choose between a couple of profiles, based on your goals and preferences. The most commonly used is probably Surf Anonymously.
CyberGhost will then inform you that you’ve gone incognito, opening a new incognito window.
Close the incognito tab and you are all set to surf undercover.
CyberGhost Features
Now, let’s look at the various aspects of this VPN software and some facts you should know about CyberGhost VPN—privacy, payment options, speed, locations, ease of use and customer support.
Privacy
Most VPNs can’t resist the urge to advertise their no-logging policy in a rather unsubtle way, using large letters on the front page. CyberGhost doesn’t follow that urge, but clearly describes its privacy policy in a small number of sections. Privacy fans will appreciate their zero-logs policy.
The key logging clauses indicate that the company does not log “communication contents or data regarding the accessed websites or the IP addresses,” or “data on who had used what server and when,” or generate any “statistical data, which can be linked to a user account.”
So, there’s nothing that could compromise your privacy. The users appreciate the fact that CyberGhost doesn’t store any personal data; even stored email addresses are not linked to user identification details. Furthermore, payment data is kept separate by using resellers. Ad-blocking and anti-tracking measures can be turned on if needed.
CyberGhost publishes a Transparency Report about its business. This report includes any DMCA, received malware complaints and law enforcement identity requests from various police forces. The only logged information are in the form of non-identifying server usage logs to maintain the network. CyberGhost’s promises haven’t been tested in court yet, but neither have those of most VPNs.
However, there is a minor setback when it comes to CyberGhost privacy issues—torrenting is allowed only on specific servers. P2P (Peer-to-Peer) protocols are blocked on CyberGhost Free servers, due to strategic reasons. This traffic is considered to unnecessarily slow down the free services at the expense of those who just want to surf the internet. In the list of servers, those with a yellow exclamation mark next to their name are those that are blocked for P2P/torrent traffic.
Payment options
CyberGhost partners with third-party internet sellers. As previously mentioned, all of your personal data (including your card number) is stored only by third-party sellers, such as PayPal. There is absolutely no connection with your CyberGhost account. Accordingly, the payment partner also doesn’t get any data about your CyberGhost account.
Users of CyberGhost in Germany, Switzerland and Austria can buy a subscription offline at Amazon, MediaMarkt and Saturn. You can choose to pay with cash, EC card or credit card. CyberGhost also accepts payment with Bitcoins.
Speed
When choosing a VPN, speed is clearly one of the crucial factors. The faster the VPN, the faster you get your job done. The ping time relates to how quickly data is received, and CyberGhost is proud with its 4ms. The average time to connect is 9s (tested and working with Netflix, BBC iPlayer, HBO, Kodi, Gmail, YouTube and gaming). Maximum download speed is 85.89 Mbps, and maximum upload speed is 78.75 Mbps (the results may vary based on the test type).
CyberGhost is truly dedicated to providing quality performance services. Most test results indicate there is a significant and impressive surge in speeds. European server results have shown blistering speeds which enable downloading multiple and large files, streaming HD videos and enjoying multiplayer games, without any setback.
United Kingdom and United States servers follow the European servers with 70Mbps download speed, but they are still leaving most VPN rivals to watch and weep. The only truly weak results were obtained in Hong Kong and Canada. Australia has, on the other hand, performed well (despite the distance).
Server congestion may occasionally impact speed, so the users might get a bit annoyed. Also, automatic selection resulted in significantly worse performance. If you wish to have the highest speed possible when using CyberGhost, turn off any extra features.
Locations
Besides speed, before buying a VPN service, one should consider the number of servers as well as their geographical location. Simply put, if a VPN service has many geographically scattered servers, it can easily allow you to bypass all the geographical restrictions imposed on content. This opens the door to access content from anywhere while you are…well, also anywhere.
CyberGhost’sservers are located all around the world. However, the number of countries with CyberGhost VPN servers is limited—46 in total. Central and South American options do not exist. Africa is also a gap, and Asia is limited to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.
While looking at the list of countries, CyberGhost is apparently aimed towards people looking for European, North American and Australian locations. The United States has the highest number of servers (215), followed by Germany (163), the United Kingdom (121), France (77) and Romania (71). For comparison, Hong Kong has three servers and South Africa has four.
You can find a full list of countries covered by CyberGhost VPN servers here.
Ease of use
CyberGhost deserves a strong handshake and praise for innovation, well-organized settings and search filters. It optimizes the user’s experience by asking what you want to do and then customizing the app accordingly.
Do you wish to simply browse anonymously? If so, you have a series of additional features to help you do that. Do you wish to stream? CyberGhost is with you on that with its list of streaming services. You can just click and connect to the best servers to launch the service.
The wizard launches a streaming device and connects to an optimal VPN by a single click.
If you prefer, you can also select your own server in a more typical fashion.
However, one of the common objections is the app’s design. Despite the excellent amount of effort and imagination, the app is pretty bloated. There are a lot of unnecessary and random graphics, animations and text, as you can see on the CyberGhost VPN “subtle” connection screen:
CyberGhost VPN works on various platforms and devices, from Windows and Mac, to iOS and Android. Linux and router can also be used to connect with VPN, but only manually, which means that you would have to configure your device/OS by inputting manual settings provided by the VPN provider. Windows and Blackberry phones do not support CyberGhost.
Customer support
Although using VPN is simple, there is always something that can complicate things. So, having a responsive support desk is one of the key factors when determining what VPN provider to opt for. CyberGhost’s email support, for example, is very prompt, and the friendly response to your question arrives in just 25 minutes, according to user accounts.
Livechat is back on after a while, but you still may experience certain difficulties in connecting with an agent, so it is better to stick with the email for now.
There are no video tutorials which is a shame since the text-based materials are very user-oriented and welcoming.
Is CyberGhost VPN Worth the Money?
CyberGhost VPN is established as one of the most reputable VPN providers on the market with its incredible speed and performance, excellent ad-block and anti-malware system, as well as top-notch privacy features.
It is not an A+ Virtual Private Network service, however, because the app is a bit cumbrous and in need of some additional work. More importantly, torrenting is restricted to specific servers and the server locations are limited. This is something CyberGhost might want to look into in the following period, but the overall mark is that yes, it is definitely worth investing into CyberGhost VPN.
