SumRando VPN Review

SumRando is a company that seems to get all the basics right, but falls apart when it comes to performance and features.

SumRando may not have a good name, but it does seem to have the basics nailed down. It was founded in 2011 and is hosted in the country of Mauritania (Mauritius). Overall, it seems to be a decent service that cannot compete with the big boys as of yet but performs decently enough.

SumRando VPN falls behind in features. It would be great to see them add more servers and be a little less obscure with their logging policy. In order to learn the details, let’s dive into what’s most important: the security.

Security and privacy

The first thing we check when it comes to security for a VPN is the encryption that it uses and other aspects. Here is a brief overview of their features:

• AES-128 encryption
• OpenVPN protocol only
• DNS-leak prevention
• Kill switch

SumRando uses 128-bit AES encryption which is secure, but not nearly as strong as the industry-standard AES-256.

On top of this, you can only use the OpenVPN tunneling protocol. Although OpenVPN is a fairly successful protocol, it does not work in certain situations (for example in China). Apart from this, SumRando has no additional features such as multi-hop.

With that said, it does have all the important basics down, so you should be safe enough using it.

Does SumRando VPN keep logs?

As is the case with any other VPN, SumRando claims to keep no logs. Their Privacy Policy explicitly states that they keep no logs, but they do contradict it just a few paragraphs later.

The company mentions the data it does store, and it includes the time you connected (and disconnected), the total data you transfer for accounting purposes, and account management information. While this is not egregious, it’s not exactly nothing either.

SumRando is based in Mauritius, which is a country known for the privacy it affords its citizens. One thing you can be sure of is that it will be extremely difficult for any government or law enforcement agency to extract information about you.

Speed and performance

When it comes to servers, SumRando has a total of 13 servers spread out in a total of 8 locations. This is not a good inventory of servers and makes us doubt the VPN’s capabilities in the performance department. With that said, the connections were decently fast in our location.

Ease of use and multiplatform support

SumRando VPN does not support a lot of platforms. Currently, it is only available on two:

• Windows
• Android

If you want service for the PC, you can download the VPN through the website or download the app from the Google Play Store if you are looking for the Android app.

There is no service for the Mac or the iPhone, which are two huge platforms with a customer base of millions. The GUI is also very barebones, and there have been a number of problems reported by its users, such as the program often causing Windows Explorer to “Not Respond.” In short, the service is sub-par in terms of compatibility.

Unblocking Netflix and other streaming platforms

During our tests, we found SumRando VPN not great for bypassing geo-blocking. If you are planning to watch TV shows using SumRando, you may find the blocking technology used by pretty much all streaming services too tough.

We found that SumRando VPN failed to access Netflix US, Hulu, or BBC iPlayer.

Fortunately, there are plenty of VPNs that are suitable for streaming:

Best VPN for Netflix

Best VPN for BBC iPlayer

P2P and torrenting

We found it impossible to download torrents while using SumRando VPN. The providers block all P2P connections.

If you are looking for a VPN that is good for torrenting, then check out our Best VPN for Torrenting list.

Our recommendation is TorGuard which is a VPN that has been specifically built for torrenting.

Online censorship in China and elsewhere

China is famed for its Great Firewall and internet censorship. One of the main reasons why people use VPNs is to be able to access the internet in a completely uncensored fashion and dodge the online surveillance that seems to exist in almost every major country in the world.

One of the main ways through which China stops people from using VPNs is by blocking anyone from using the OpenVPN protocol. Since OpenVPN is the only protocol that SumRando VPN uses, it is no surprise that it does not work at all in China.

Customer support

As of right now, there is no live chat or phone support for SumRando VPN. However, they do provide you a few different alternatives to contact them for help. There are:

• Support tickets
• An FAQ

Their FAQ is quite detailed and provides information about all of their products (SumRando provides additional services like encrypted messaging and a web proxy). However, some important questions are skipped altogether. Customer support was fairly fast and helpful.

Although a live support option would be great, most VPNs of this caliber are simply unable to afford such an option. Overall, we found their customer support to be fairly satisfactory and one of the better aspects of SumRando VPN.

Pricing

SumRando has many different pricing plans available. Let’s take a look at all of them.

• Anonymous Free Plan (no registration needed)
• Free Plan
• 1-month plan: $10.00/month
• 6-month plan: $42.00 ($7.00/month)
• 12-month plan: $72.00 ($6.00/month)

The option to choose between 2 free plans is definitely a good thing. Although you only get 1 GB of data per month with each of them, the fact that you can use the Anonymous Free Plan without registering is a very good addition, and one that is not found in many other VPNs.

As for the payment methods, you have the choice of PayPal and Bitcoin. Bitcoin will probably be preferred by those who prioritize anonymity above everything else.

Unfortunately, there is no way to get a refund. If you find out that you do not like SumRando VPN, you are stuck with it. We recommend using the free version to find out whether or not you like the service.

Bottom line

Like most other VPNs of its stature, SumRando VPN is good for some things and not so good for others. Namely, it’s good if your goal is to browse or perhaps you’ll notice that the service unblocks the streaming platform of your choice. With that said, there are much better services available at similar prices.