CyberGhost VPN is one of the most established VPN services around. It was founded by Robert Knapp in 2011, and it quickly became one of the most popular free VPNs.
CyberGhost currently has over 30 million users and its popularity keeps growing but the question is, how does it compare to other top VPN providers?
In this review you will learn what is good and what is not so good about CyberGhost, and you will find answers to popular questions like:
Is using CyberGhost safe? Is it legal and does it really work? Does CyberGhost still have a free version? Does it work with Netflix? Is torrenting & P2P allowed? Before we answer all these questions (and many more), lets first examine CyberGhost VPN’s pros and cons:
Pros
Fast speeds: 64Mbps (global average) Unlocks Netflix, BBC iPlayer & other streaming sites Optimized servers for torrenting/P2P traffic Strong logging policy & no IP/DNS/WebRTC leaks User-friendly apps for PC, Mac, iOS, & Android Great server network across 60 countries Cons Torrenting not available on US & Australia servers Doesn't work in high censorship countries Not recommended for Kodi 14-day refund guarantee on 1-month plan Works with
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, BBC iPlayer, Sky, HBO, Torrenting
Available on
Windows Mac Ios Android Linux Price from
$2.75/mo
As you can see CyberGhost is without a doubt an impressive VPN, but there are a few drawbacks that you need to know about in more detail.
Lets start off our in-depth review by looking at how fast CyberGhost really is.
Speed & Reliability Very fast speeds, especially for same-country connections
CyberGhost will match almost any VPN service for fast download and upload speeds, but what it occasionally lacks is consistency.
CyberGhost VPN’s same-country (for example, London to London) download and upload speeds are impressive and reliable, but CyberGhost users connecting to international servers may notice a drop-off in speed, with ping times also increasing.
Speed results from our physical location in London (100Mbps fibre optic connection) to a London test server.
Before using CyberGhost:
DOWNLOAD Mbps 95
UPLOAD Mbps 97
PING ms 2
When connected to CyberGhost:
DOWNLOAD Mbps 54
UPLOAD Mbps 77
PING ms 13
Download speed without CyberGhost: 95 Mbps
Download speed with CyberGhost: 54 Mbps
Our download speed loss when CyberGhost is running: 43%
We put all of the VPNs on the site through a rigorous scientific speed testing process, determining the average speeds from multiple locations across the globe. These are the average speeds you can expect to pick up from these locations:
USA: 51Mpbs (download) & 41Mbps (upload) Germany: 78Mbps (download) & 74Mbps (upload) Singapore: 28Mpbs (download) & 15Mbps (upload) Australia: 32Mbps (download) & 7Mbps (upload)
Server Locations 4,600 servers around the world
Globe with a blue flag 60 Countries Image of a city landscape 84 Cities Image of a pink marker 4,680+ IP Addresses See all Server Locations CyberGhost’s servers cover the whole world, with great server coverage in Europe and North America.
A choice of over 4,680 servers is paired with a similar number of IP addresses.
Screenshot of CyberGhost VPN server locations in Windows app
4,600 servers is a very good number, and one of the highest server counts on the market. While it’s considerably less than NordVPN‘s 5,000 plus servers, it is still a very high number of VPN servers.
Similarly to IPVanish, CyberGhost owns all of its DNS servers meaning that it doesn’t rely on rented servers to provide VPN connections.
The countries with the most CyberGhost servers are the US (1085), Germany (608), France (324), the UK (665) and Canada (223).
At city-level, CyberGhost covers 13 different US locations, and 3 locations in Australia, Canada and the UK.
Streaming & Torrenting Great for Netflix, Torrenting and More
CyberGhost provides many dedicated Netflix servers, which is great. They are very east to find in the app and we’ve never had any issues unblocking Netflix when using CyberGhost VPN.
CyberGhost has also its own dedicated BBC iPlayer server, too, and CyberGhost is currently our highest-recommended VPN for BBC iPlayer.
That’s not all, though. CyberGhost subscribers also report that they can successfully stream:
Amazon Prime Video Hulu HBO Sling TV Sky Now TV PlayStation Vue Torrenting CyberGhost is also a good choice for torrenting, although there are a couple of caveats:
It doesn’t allow torrenting on its US or Australian servers Torrenting on mobile is a hassle compared to Windows and macOS applications You can torrent from mobile while using CyberGhost if you check and select the existing P2P servers on the desktop app or on the website. P2P torrenting is allowed on mobile, but there is no tab to find out which work.
If you’re ok with these P2P limitations, then CyberGhost is a safe, fast and reliable VPN for torrenting. CyberGhost doesn’t log, it has a VPN kill switch and when we checked for IP/DNS leaks, we found none.
If however the torrenting limitations above are putting you off, then take a look at our best VPNs for torrenting.
Bypassing Censorship No good for China and highly censored countries
We can’t recommend CyberGhost as a VPN to use in high censorship countries, as it simply can’t guarantee to bypass aggressive web censors.
Unfortunately CyberGhost doesn’t have the obfuscation tools that make ExpressVPN and VyprVPN better VPN services to beat online censorship in countries like China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
CyberGhost even warns that you use of a VPN in certain countries is forbidden and CyberGhost VPN shouldn’t be used in these nations. CyberGhost does mention that workarounds to make its VPN work in these countries are available, but that you shouldn’t try them.
Basically, CyberGhost doesn’t want people to use its VPN in countries where VPNs are not legal.
Platforms & Devices Compatible with popular devices, including routers
Apps Windows Logo Windows Mac Logo Mac iOS Logo iOS Android Logo Android Linux Logo Linux Router Logo Router Whatever your device or operating system, CyberGhost has you covered with either a custom VPN app, or a manual workaround for you to configure your device and use CyberGhost VPN with it.
CyberGhost VPN is compatible with all Windows, macOS, iOS and Android devices.
You can also use CyberGhost on multiple devices at once, up to 7 in total (depending on the plan chosen).
Games Consoles & Streaming Devices AppleTV Logo AppleTV Amazon Fire TV Logo Amazon Fire TV Chromecast Logo Chromecast Nintendo Logo Nintendo PlayStation Logo PlayStation Roku Logo Roku Xbox Logo Xbox You can also use CyberGhost with a range of gaming consoles and streaming devices, by installing the VPN onto your home router and connecting the devices to it.
You can also piggyback off the CyberGhost VPN connection from another device running the CyberGhost app, such as your laptop.
The recent addition of a native VPN app for the Amazon Fire TV Stick is also a big plus.
Browser Extensions Chrome Logo Chrome Firefox Logo Firefox CyberGhost has VPN browser extensions available for Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. These extensions are entirely free but, regardless of whether or not you’re a paying customer, you’ll only get access to eight servers in four locations (2 servers each) through them: United States, Germany, Romania and the Netherlands.
These VPN add-ons are only proxies though, so they will only protect your web traffic. We recommend you use CyberGhost’s VPN extensions with the main VPN application or VPN client at all times.
Encryption & Security One of the best VPNs for security
Protocol
IKEv2/IPSec
L2TP/IPSec
OpenVPN (TCP/UDP)
PPTP
Encryption
AES-256
Security
DNS Leak Blocking
First-party DNS
IPV6 Leak Blocking
VPN Kill Switch
Advanced features
Split Tunneling
TOR via VPN Server
Please see our VPN Glossary if these terms confuse you and would like to learn more.
CyberGhost is an excellent choice for privacy, with one of the most advanced security suites of any VPN available today.
The CyberGhost apps default to our favorite protocol, OpenVPN, and it encrypts your web data traffic with the ultra-secure AES-256 encryption and has a kill switch to make sure your identity stays protected in the event of a connection drop.
Rest assured that your true location is safe and hidden with CyberGhost: we ran several IP or DNS leak tests and we found no leaks.
Logging Policy Based in EU but no logs policy assures privacy
This is a list of all the anonymous information that CyberGhost collects (taken from their logging policy):
“CyberGhost VPN records the log-in of an anonymous account for statistical purposes. We do this once a day (all other log-ins will be ignored) and sum up each daily log-in for one month. The daily log-in data will be deleted after 24 hours, the monthly sum at the end of each month.”
CyberGhost claims that this data is the bare minimum required to keep its VPN service running optimally.
CyberGhost’s logging policy makes it clear that no personally identifiable information is collected and therefore there is nothing stored on CyberGhost’s servers that could be used to identify you, should anyone ever seize their servers.
Excerpt from CyberGhost Logging Policy Excerpt from CyberGhost Logging Policy
Jurisdiction CyberGhost VPN is operated by the Romanian company CyberGhost SA, which was acquired by Kape Technologies PLC (previously known as Crossrider) in 2017.
The fact that CyberGhost is headquartered in Romania may seem less than ideal since Romania is part of the EU which has aggressive data-retention and sharing agreements in place with other nations.
However we are not concerned by where CyberGhost is located given that it doesn’t collect any personally identifiable connection data.
CyberGhost is a VPN you can trust with your online privacy.
Ease of Use Extremely easy to use
How to Install & Set Up CyberGhost CyberGhost download in our CyberGhost VPN review Find the relevant software on CyberGhost's website and click 'Download'.
CyberGhost download in our CyberGhost VPN review #2 OPT Follow the simple installation prompts and agree to the Terms and Conditions.
CyberGhost login in our CyberGhost VPN review The app will automatically open once installation is complete. Simply type in your login details.
CyberGhost connected screen in our CyberGhost VPN review After connecting the main screen will show the time you've been connected, your chosen server location, and new IP address.
CyberGhost main screen in our CyberGhost VPN review The main screen is compact and simple, with a connect button in the middle and your chosen server location below.
CyberGhost connected screen in our CyberGhost VPN review After connecting the main screen will show the time you've been connected, your chosen server location, and new IP address.
CyberGhost main screen in our CyberGhost VPN review The main screen is compact and simple, with a connect button in the middle and your chosen server location below.
CyberGhost connected screen in our CyberGhost VPN review After connecting the main screen will show the time you've been connected, your chosen server location, and new IP address.
CyberGhost extended screen and server list in our CyberGhost VPN review Click on the arrows in the bottom left to open up the extended app interface. Here you can see the full server locations list and choose optimized servers.
CyberGhost settings in our CyberGhost VPN review Click the cog symbol to open up the setting menu where you can change the VPN protocol and switch on leak protection.
CyberGhost connection features in our CyberGhost VPN review Under the Connection Features tab you can activate the ad blocker feature and other privacy extras.
CyberGhost split tunneling in our CyberGhost VPN review Click the Smart Rules tab to the left and then Exceptions. Here you can decide which apps you'd like to route outside of the VPN tunnel.
CyberGhost is still one of the easiest VPNs to use, even with all of its bells and whistles.
Menus in the apps are clearly labeled and come with helpful contextual tooltips.
There’s even a set of demonstrative videos on the CyberGhost website that show you just how simple its VPN apps are.
Browser Extensions CyberGhost’s browser extensions couldn’t be simpler. You just have to click the icon and select a location.
Customer Support Live chat and extensive troubleshooting
24/7 Live chat support
Online Resources
The round-the-clock live chat support agents are always friendly and responsive, usually managing to solve our queries in a matter of minutes.
There’s a good chance you won’t ever need to use live support, though, as the online troubleshooting guides are pretty comprehensive.
Pricing & Deals A great value VPN made very cheap with long-term plan
CyberGhost Coupon CyberGhost logo CyberGhost
Get 79% off CyberGhost's 3-year plan
TestedEnds 31 Aug Get CodeED Terms CyberGhost Pricing Plan CyberGhost used to provide a free VPN service, however that is no longer the case.
At its very cheapest, CyberGhost costs $2.75 per month – a 79% saving – but this requires a 3-year commitment. We think it’s worth the money, but if you don’t want to commit for 3 years then a monthly subscription plan jumps to $12.99 per month while a 6-month plan will cost $7.99 per month (a 39% saving).
CyberGhost has a 45-day money-back guarantee in place, which is one of the longest we’ve come across, but it only applies to subscriptions of six months or longer – one-month subscriptions have a 14-day refund guarantee.
There are no hidden catches or restrictions. If you want your money back then CyberGhost will refund you in 5-10 working days. To get a refund, simply contact CyberGhost support (live chat or email) and request a refund before the 45-days are up. You may be asked to fill in a short survey.
CyberGhost also offers a one-day free trial (or seven days for mobile devices). The free trial grants you the full VPN experience with no personal or payment details asked for. A handy pop-up will remind you of your remaining runtime every time you use the VPN service.
Monthly
US$12.99/mo
Billed $12.99 each month 6 Months
US$7.99/mo
Billed $47.94 every 6 months Save 39% 3 Years
US$2.75/mo
Billed $99.00 every 3 years Save 79% All plans have 45-day money-back guarantee
Payment & Refund Options Credit Card PayPal
Bitcoin CyberGhost accepts a range of payment options including most major credit cards, PayPal and Bitcoin.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t currently accept any other international options like Alipay or UnionPay.
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