Turbo VPN Review

Check top VPNsTurbo VPN review is full of negativity because it’s really hard to find something positive to say about this service. While it allows torrenting and can unblock Netflix, this VPN leaves a lot to be desired.

It has poor customer support, low speeds, weak security, questionable privacy policy, and its Premium plan is unreasonably expensive.

If you are looking for a free VPN and don’t really care much about privacy, Turbo VPN might not be the worst choice to do some torrenting or watch a TV show. With that said, if your needs are not so basic – give this one a pass and focus on alternatives.

Since I don’t recommend buying Turbo VPN by any means, I’ll concentrate on what you can squeeze out of its free version instead.

This free VPN has 300 million downloads across the globe. It must be pretty good, right? Well, not so fast!

Speed and performance

On the official website, Turbo VPN boldly states that it connects you with the speed of a hare. So I had to let the dogs out and field-test this theory myself. For this Turbo VPN review, I ran multiple Speedtest.net tests on three different continents.

Sadly, the speeds were mediocre at best. While all VPNs slow you down a tad (this is the price you pay for anonymous browsing), they shouldn’t bring your experience to a standstill.

With Turbo VPN, I saw speed drops of over 50% in nearby locations, which isn’t bad but also isn’t good enough. After choosing a server in another content, the speeds became so slow that if you shout “Police! Freeze!” they would actually become faster.

Speed test

I ran my Turbo VPN speed test from Europe, using the free Windows version. Here’s what my baseline speed looks like:

Download: 277 Mbps
Upload: 277 Mbps

And here are the results from different countries across the globe, along with the speed drop-off percentage:

United Kingdom

Download: 159 Mbps (43% drop-off)
Upload: 32 Mbps (88% drop-off)

United States

Download: 23 Mbps (92% drop-off)
Upload: 7 Mbps (97% drop-off)

Singapore

Download: 7 Mbps (97% drop-off)
Upload: 26 Mbps (91% drop-off)

As you can see, the drop-off is not too big when the distance to the VPN server is relatively close. Unfortunately, as soon as I moved to another continent, Turbo VPN speeds dropped sharply.

Therefore, I cannot recommend this service if you’re looking for the best performance. You should pick one from the fastest VPNs instead that have already implemented the WireGuard protocol.

Servers

TurboVPN offers 22,000+ servers in 20+ countries. I would be surprised if the majority of them weren’t virtual. As for the country selection, it’s one of the worst, especially for a paid service.

Free Turbo VPN version users can choose from seven countries:

• Canada
• Germany
• India
• Netherlands
• Singapore
• United Kingdom
• United States

While it’s not much, at least not all servers are in North America and Europe.

However, their availability depends on your device and operating system. For example, the Mac and iOS versions allow only connecting to a random server. In Europe, I had luck with the Netherlands and the UK.

Turbo VPN Lite for Android gives you more servers (same 7 countries, but you get to select the exact server/location) and more various ads before you can start using the service.

Android Turbo VPN Pro version leaves you the UK, the US, Canada, and Germany to choose from. It also starts showing ads at the bottom. But wait for this.. you get the split tunneling feature!

Pricing and plans

Turbo VPN is overpriced. Consider using its free version only.If you want a quality service, check our Best VPN services list.

Turbo VPN is a free service funded through ads, but there’s also a paid option with some more advanced features.

Here’s what a Turbo VPN subscription will cost you:

• 1-month plan: $11.99
• 6-month plan: $39.99 ($6.67/month)
• 1-year plan: $59.99 ($5.00/month)
• 2-years plan: $99.99 ($4.17/month)

These prices are high even for a quality Virtual Private Network provider, which Turbo VPN isn’t. The premium plans give you a kill switch and virtually no other features. Yes, it unlocks the server list and allegedly increases performance, but that’s simply not enough.

Turbo VPN offers new users a 7-day money-back guarantee masked as a free trial. Therefore, you need to remember to cancel the trial, or else they will automatically deduct the funds from your account.

The payment options are scarce. You can either use a credit card or PayPal.

TurboVPN security and privacy

Like most free and/or bad VPNs, Turbo VPN lacks in the security department. Here is a list of Turbo VPN security features:

• Secure tunneling protocols: OpenVPN, IKEv2
• Solid AES-256 encryption
• Kill switch

The protocol selection heavily depends on your device. For example, Windows and Mac users cannot choose at all, while the Android client lets you switch between OpenVPN and IPSec (L2TP? IKEv2? I guess we’ll never know).

Finally, the iOS app comes with the widest selection, including WireGuard, which becomes available only after buying Turbo VPN.

To top it off, the kill switch is a premium feature. It’s necessary to protect from leaks if your VPN connection breaks (although Android users can rely on a native Always-on VPN feature). At the same time, it’s one of the most basic ingredients of any VPN, be it free or premium. That’s why seeing Turbo VPN market the kill switch this way is by no means pleasant.

The only other option, reserved for Android users, is split tunneling. With it, you’ll be able to choose which apps use the VPN connection and which ones stay unprotected.

Turbo VPN leak test: IP, DNS, and WebRTC

As it’s often the case with below-average VPNs, they tend to leak your personal data despite all the tunneling protocols and encryptions. For this Turbo VPN review, I’ve decided to connect to a US server and test the service for leaks.

It turns out, Turbo VPN doesn’t have DNS, IP, or WebRTC leaks. I hope I wasn’t just lucky on that particular day. While I didn’t find any egregious leaks using online tests, I would still not bet my life on such a skeletal VPN service.

Does Turbo VPN keep logs?

Turbo VPN claims to be a no-logs provider. According to its privacy policy, the following data is NOT collected:

• Name, address, phone number, etc.
• Payment details
• Activity logs (browsing history, DNS queries)
• Connection logs (IP address, timestamp)

However, Turbo VPN collects:

• Your email address
• Any information you giveaway when contacting Turbo VPN directly
• Connection-related data (VPN location, your country, your ISP)

As you can see, Turbo VPN collects more than minimum. What’s more, it shares data with third-parties and allows them to collect data via the ads.

This might look rather OK, but you should remember that Turbo VPN used to log much more a couple of years ago before starting the premium VPN business. They may have such data if you’ve been using Turbo VPN when it was completely free.

Turbo VPN jurisdiction – Singapore

Turbo VPN was developed by Innovative Connecting Pte – a Singapore company and thus functioning within the context of the Fourteen Eyes surveillance alliance (Singapore is a partner). This means that your data can be readily shared among the countries.

Finally, Turbo VPN clearly states that it will hand over your information to the authorities if there’s such a request.

Ease of use and multiplatform support

Turbo VPN used to be a mobile-only service. But now, it has custom apps for:

• Windows
• macOS
• Android
• iOS

There are no browser extensions and no manual configuration options. However, there’s a way to install Turbo VPN for Amazon Fire Stick unofficially.

All apps look quite the same and are very easy to use. This stems from the fact that TurboVPN doesn’t have any settings to toggle.

TurboVPN for Windows and macOS

TurboVPN desktop versions came after the mobile clients, so the latter influenced the design of the former. However, this VPN didn’t invest much in making the apps (or its website) look nice, and the usability comes from the total lack of features.

The only two things you can do is choose the server and press the Connect button.

The situation doesn’t change much after switching to the macOS client.

In this case, you get to see what awaits you after upgrading to the premium Turbo VPN. Truth be told, I doubt that many users will be tempted by the speed test and the kill switch.

Turbo VPN for Android and iOS

Since Turbo VPN started as a mobile-only service, one might expect some more quality and features. Sadly, that’s not the case.

Just like in desktop clients, you get to choose the server (Android) or click Connect and see what the server roulette will serve you (Apple). You’ll find the former on the Google Play store, while the latter awaits you on the App Store.

I should mention that Turbo VPN has two Android apps – Lite and Pro. The difference between them is tiny. Save for some design nuances, the Pro version gives you split tunneling.

In the meantime, Turbo VPN for iOS forces you to install their internal Private Browser, which is where you’ll get even more annoying ads and give away even more personal data.

Unblocking Netflix and other streaming platforms

The good news is that installing the free Turbo VPN on Fire Stick or any other supported device will let you access Netflix. For this Turbo VPN review, I’ve checked if this server unblocks not only the US but other libraries and streaming platforms as well.

With the free version, I was able to unblock Netflix Netherlands, but the problem is that you don’t get to choose the country on Mac. Windows gives more server options, though, so I watched Netflix UK, US, Canada, and India.

Finally, the iOS version has the most servers, including specialized video versions. Those include Netflix in multiple countries, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Hotstar, and Fox. Unfortunately, the notoriously hard-to-unblock BBC iPlayer didn’t budge with a free account.

Even though Turbo VPN is surprisingly good for Netflix, the speed can be an issue if you’re connecting from another continent. I was able to watch in full HD in Europe, but when I switched to the US or India, the loading times increased, and the quality decreased.

P2P and torrenting

Turbo VPN doesn’t choke your bandwidth or try to deter you from torrenting, but it is important to realize that most people will want more speed and security.

If you can find a source that’s close, you might have no problem. However, the speeds will drop if you connect to some remote seeders. What’s more, Turbo VPN doesn’t have port forwarding, so if you have to upload a certain number of GBs before downloading, things can turn south pretty quickly.

Even if the mentioned things are of no issue to you, I would still argue against using Turbo VPN for torrenting. That’s because the free version is without the kill switch feature – something that is quite important for secure P2P use.

What’s more, it’s unclear whether Turbo VPN is a real no-logs provider, so if you’re in a country where torrenting is illegal, better choose from our top VPNs for P2P.

Online censorship in China and elsewhere

I don’t recommend using Turbo VPN in China or other censorious countries, such as Iran, Turkey, Russia, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, etc. As I have already established, Turbo VPN is not known for its bulletproof security or privacy. As such, you should only use it if you can deal with the repercussions.

Moreover, the service lacks features like “stealth mode” to bypass advanced censorship efforts, particularly those based on Deep Packet Inspection. And even if it did, the speeds would probably become too slow.

If you want to stay protected, better check out our list of Best VPNs for China.

Customer support

Almost every reputable VPN system offers 24/7 support, whether via email, chat, or a hotline. And here are the Turbo VPN customer support options:

• Email
• FAQ

If you go to the Turbo VPN website, you won’t find anything else, but an email address and nineteen-questions answered in the FAQ.

You might get the feeling that they really don’t want to hear from you. On the other hand, when all five apps have almost no features or options, there’s not much to discuss in the first place.

It’s safe to say that Turbo VPN severely lacks in the customer support department.

Bottom line

Almost every product has its pros and cons – Turbo VPN is no exception. Yet, the cons here greatly outweigh the pros. As a free VPN, Turbo is quite feeble, whereas as a paid service, it doesn’t hold a candle to the competition.

The free version doesn’t have a kill switch and doesn’t offer multiple tunneling protocols. What’s more, Turbo VPN’s reputation as a no-logs provider is shaky.

And even if you don’t mind giving away personal data, slow speeds will get you anyway. This will probably ruin your streaming experience as well, even though Turbo VPN unblocks Netflix. Finally, you should hope that nothing goes wrong because a FAQ and an email (not 24/7) will be your only options.

If you insist on using a free VPN service, then you should check our list of best free VPN services on the market.

FAQ

Is Turbo VPN trustworthy?

No, it's not. Turbo VPN claims to be a no-logs service but has been collecting data extensively before. What's more, it's based in Singapore, a Fourteen Eyes intelligence alliance member.

Does Turbo VPN hide IP address?

Turbo VPN is capable of hiding your IP address. However, the free version doesn't have a kill switch. This means that your data may leak in case of a VPN connection failure.

Is Turbo VPN free to use?

Yes, Turbo VPN has a free version. However, it lacks even the most basic features and shouldn't be used if security and privacy is your top concern.

Is Turbo VPN a good VPN?

No, Turbo VPN is a bad VPN. It has security and privacy issues, lacks features, offers poor customer support, and slows down your connection significantly.

Can I use Turbo VPN on PC?

Yes, you can. Turbo VPN has apps not only for mobile but desktop as well.