e-VPN review

e-VPN is a relatively new service that seems determined to make a mark in the world of VPNs. With 18+ locations, e-VPN can unblock Netflix, multi-hop, bypass Deep Packet Inspection, and is available across Windows, Mac, Android, Amazon Fire, and Linux.

You can even turn to Settings to turn on “Stealth Mode” if you’re in one of the many countries that block VPNs.

With a no-logging privacy policy and at prices that go up to a maximum of 3 dollars per month, e-VPN is a fast-growing VPN product that is great for beginners and residents of censorship-happy regimes alike.

Security and privacy

With the exception of relatively weak encryption, e-VPN offers a surprisingly generous set of security features:

• Outdated AES-128-GCM encryption
• OpenVPN protocols (UDP/TCP)
• Kill switch
• Double hop
• Stealth mode
• DNS and IPv6 protection

There’s a double-hop (or multi-hop) feature, auto-connect, the aforementioned Stealth Mode feature against VPN-blocking, full support for IPv6, and a kill-switch, even for the Android app. These are robust security measures and some pretty fancy special features.

As for DNS leaks, a danger of using VPNs, e-VPN runs their own DNS servers with ad-blocking and no-logging private resolvers, to where all your data is sent through the aforesaid encrypted tunnels.

There’s also shared IP addresses, making it virtually impossible for any hackers, governments, or perhaps even the company itself, to know which specific user is doing what – and the kill-switch should quell any remaining paranoia.

Does e-VPN log your data?

Short answer: probably not.

While e-VPN is based in the United Kingdom, a country whose name doesn’t inspire confidence when it comes to online freedom, they claim their VPN servers have writing logs to disk fully disabled. You can also enable two-factor authentication (and are in fact encouraged to do so).

Additionally, nobody from the management access the encrypted VPN nodes, and the founder is the only person that maintains the service, thus holding personal liability.

Their privacy policy backs up this claim, which is good as far as legality goes – the only information they collect is the raw usage of bandwidth on their servers, but the wording is a bit unclear as to why this is done. An educated guess would be to measure the load on each server and optimize speeds better.

Speed and performance

e-VPN engages in “load-balancing” to make sure no one server is too overcrowded at any given time. Each server offers a connection speed of 1GBPS, and even though we connected to a location half the world away, we didn’t see a drop of more than a few Mbps, perhaps close to 35%.

Combine this with the security features mentioned and it’s almost too good to be true. Lest something else changes with the company, so far these speeds are amongst some of the best we’ve found – and perhaps never-before-seen with a VPN this secure and cheap.

Server coverage

With 30 locations in 25 countries, e-VPN focuses on optimizing its existing servers before increasing the scale of the operation. While its server fleet is tiny compared to the big VPN industry players at the moment, this shows an investment of a good nature rather than someone out to make a quick buck on the back of the VPN boom.

Multi-platform support

In terms of compatibility, e-VPN has all the basics covered:

• Windows
• macOS
• iOS
• Android
• Linux
• Amazon Fire TV

There are also configuration files available on the website itself for OpenVPN, and guides to help you out in setting it all up.

A slight issue is in the fact that e-VPN never makes it plain whether there is a limit on bandwidth or not. The Terms of Service state that there is a limit, though unspecified, and that a “single user” will never reach this limit lest they share their account with another person. Some clarification would certainly help with this vague statement.

More supported devices and a clearer data plan – whether it is truly unlimited or not – would go a long way in bringing e-VPN’s reputation up a notch.

Unblocking Netflix and other streaming platforms

As of right now, you can unblock Netflix from the UK server, meaning you can access the UK version of Netflix and not the US. The US one is the one most people want to be able to get into, but the UK version has its own perks and exclusive content, and if that’s what you want to gain access to, e-VPN will make sure you’re never blocked.

There’s also low latency, which is clearly a point of focus for e-VPN, and to be commended.
Given its inability to unblock Netflix US, e-VPN is not the best choice for streamers at this time.

P2P and torrenting

P2P is supported only on select servers: Dallas (USA), Spain, Norway, Netherlands, Russia, France, Germany, and Ukraine.

However, most of these countries are some of the most ideal for torrenting and combined with the high speeds of e-VPN, it certainly edges out above other VPN services that disallow torrents.

Online censorship in China and elsewhere

For strict countries – such as China – that not only censor the Internet but might even block VPNs themselves, particularly through Deep Packet Inspection or OpenVPN, e-VPN offers a built-in solution at no extra cost.

Many firewalls use DPI and specific keywords search to block OpenVPN in particular, with reports of this happening in China on a mass scale.

Wherever you find e-VPN not working – and it can be in a workplace or college campus as well – you can switch over to the Stealth Mode of the TCP protocol and port in the options for Protocol and Port.

In doing so, choose the server that’s closest to you. This can be found out easily by looking at the numbers stated with the words ms next to the server name. However, the TCP protocol might still restrict speeds, and Stealth Mode will restrict them further.

Customer support

There’s an open ticketing system for inquiries on billing and connections, but the client area has another dedicated support ticket system. At the moment, it doesn’t seem there’s any live support, but there’s an extensive collection of setup guides, FAQs that are plainly presented with relevant details and without shirking details and dancing around the facts.

Pricing

Pricing might be e-VPN’s strongest attraction, with everything being mentioned throughout our review:

• 1-month plan for $3.00
• 6-month plan for $12.00 ($2.00/month)
• 1-year plan for $24.00 ($2.00/month)

Our opinion is that this is introductory pricing, that might go up as e-VPN gains traction with its user base and garners a wider number of servers and increases features.

For the time being, it’s an amazing deal that makes up for the lack of certain features and surprises us when it comes to what e-VPN does offer.

When it comes to making the payment, e-VPN seems to accept almost anything you can think of; in addition to all major credit cards, you can sign up for e-VPN with PayPal, PaymentWall, Bitcoin, and a wide range of other payment methods (Webmoney, iDeal, AliPay) – all with a 7-day money back guarantee.

Bottom line

At a price this low and with features this advanced, e-VPN is a fighter in the ring with new and old VPNs alike.

The entire operation seems to be run by one dedicated person, with a clear vision defining the product. There are options to unblock UK Netflix, Kodi, Hulu, and the VPN itself in countries such as China and Qatar, and security that some of the top VPNs don’t offer, such as double-hop, kill-switches, ad-blocker, and malware-protection, along with a wide range of custom apps.

This is a surprisingly good VPN and one that’s seen a lot of progress happen in the span of a year (older reviews and forum posts can attest to this). It’s a noteworthy product as it stands and could go on to be one of the best.