VeePN review

Scoring well for encryption and server numbers, VeePN makes a few unforced errors regarding speed and transparency, but with its low prices, it could still catch the eye of VPN users.

In the world of VPNs, it sometimes feels like a new operator sets up business every week. But the dirty secret of this constant activity is simple: very few providers measure up where it really counts: in terms of speed, security, and value for money.

VeePN is one of the most recent entrants into the market, but it’s going to have to work hard to displace established names. So how does it fare?

As our VeePN review will outline, on the face of it, the company gets a lot right:

• 10 simultaneous connections
• Over 2600 servers in 40+ countries
• Military-grade encryption 
• Unlimited traffic
• “Zero log” guarantees 

These appear to fulfill most of the criteria for an outstanding VPN. However, there’s always a need to peer under the hood when assessing VPNs. So let’s get our hands dirty and establish whether these claims stack up.

Speed and performance

If fast connections are a priority, choose something from our list of the fastest VPN providers. Our top pick for blazing speed is NordVPN.

VeePN promises “unlimited traffic and bandwidth,” but this doesn’t mean that its speeds will be stellar. Actually, the company doesn’t foreground speed at all in its marketing materials, something that might set alarm bells ringing with skeptical buyers.

The support database on the VeePN website isn’t very encouraging here, either. In one posting, it claims that “your connection speed can only increase while you are using VeePN”, which is a transparent misrepresentation. In some cases, VPNs can neutralize ISP throttling and raise speeds. But honest providers would be clear that usually, some form of speed reduction is necessary.

Real-world speeds in our tests weren’t remarkable, but they weren’t a disaster. In our US testing, we came up with speeds of around 60-70 Mbps, and overseas servers tended to rate at around 40-50 Mbps.

However, when we looked deeper, plenty of servers in less well-served regions offered pedestrian speeds. So, while VeePN offers a vast server network, it looks like many of the actual servers are fairly slow.

Security and privacy

VeePN offers a good range of security features, so it’s definitely not out of the running straight away. Subscribers enjoy the following security-related benefits:

• 256-bit military-grade encryption
• Multiple protocols
• DNS leak protection
• Kill switch
• Automatic public wifi security
• Adblocker
• Double VPN

In the tunneling protocol department, VeePN offers OpenVPN, IKEv2, and special options labeled VeePN Smart TCP and VeePN Smart UDP.

It’s good to see that VeePN doesn’t engage with external DNS providers, and brings everything in-house. That’s a big plus for anonymity. The material on DNS leak protection is great, but there’s no mention of IPv6 or WebRTC leaks.

The kill switch is included with every version of the app. This ensures that the VPN will automatically cut out your connection if protection drops. When receiving a torrent download or streaming from Netflix, this can make all the difference between secure streaming and detection.

Other VeePN features include automatic public wifi security, adblocker, and double VPN. The latter uses two servers instead of one, mixing two protocols and thus bringing the chances of anyone finding you to zero.

Is there anything missing? Well, having TOR optimization would be nice, although there aren’t many providers that offer this feature. This is probably the only thing that keeps VeePN from entering the elite.

Does VeePN keep logs?

VeePN claims that it operates a “No Log Policy”, and that the company stores zero personal information. According to the VPN’s website, it does not collect: browsing information, information about downloads and shares, any IP information, DNS data, or metadata about what devices are being used.

A look at the company’s Privacy Policy suggests that it is far from the worst offender where logging is concerned. But there are some qualifications. For starters, users need to submit a “valid email address,” which isn’t always a requirement. VeePN also admits to collecting bulk data about how much data users consume. However, these aren’t huge issues.

Overall, VeePN seems to offer strong privacy and anti-logging policies. Users seeking an affordable VPN with privacy credentials could do a lot worse.

However, there is one final point to raise. VeePN isn’t very transparent about where it is headquartered. Actually, we looked long and hard, all over the website, and came up totally blank. All we could find was a third-party entry at CrunchBase listing Panama as the home country.

This is a big deal, as where VPNs are based can affect their security considerably. If VeePN is based in China, you can be sure that it’s not the most secure around (the same goes for USA-based suppliers, by the way). And if you can’t tell anything about the location of a VPN, exercise extreme caution. Assuming VeePN is a Panama-based company, that’s a good sign. Panama is outside the Fourteen Eyes surveillance network and is serious about privacy.

Server coverage

On server count, VeePN performs relatively well. The headline figure of over 2600 servers is impressive, but not up there with NordVPN or Private Internet Access yet. Also, these servers aren’t evenly spread across the world. There are actually 50 locations in 40+ countries, meaning that large chunks of the world have zero coverage, while some places arguably receive too much.

Over 2,200 of the total server count can be found in Europe and the USA, which tells you all you need to know about whether VeePN will suit Asian, African, Australian, or South American users.

VeePN also promises 99.9% uptime, which is (suspiciously) good. However, VeePN isn’t clear about how these servers are managed. Ideally, VPNs would manage their own server portfolios and ensure that they were properly secured and maintained. VeePN doesn’t state this, just reporting that the company is “investing in our servers”. This could mean renting space to third parties or buying specialist capacity. It’s very unclear.

Ease of use and multiplatform support

VeePN users can download app versions for the following platforms:

• Windows PC
• macOS
• iOS
• Android
• Linux
• Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera

You can also manually configure the VPN on routers to secure your home network.

This looks heartening and ideally suited to households with multiple smartphones and computers. And that might be the case. We tried out the service for Mac, the Windows version, and the Android mobile app. All proved to be well-designed, simple, and easy to use. Entry-level users won’t encounter any demons here.

Signing up is quick and easy, and there were no surprises. And there were no surprises when we fired up the apps. It’s the usual drill of choosing a server location, and pressing “connect.”

When using the service for PC or Mac, we would have hoped for a few more options on the side. For instance, users can toggle protocols and DNS protection, but there’s no automatic server selection – something most good VPNs provide as a matter of course. We actually had a few problems finding servers with the best download VPN speed, as the client doesn’t provide this data in an easy-to-digest format. That’s not great for beginners but it doesn’t make the app unusable.

Additionally, it might be best to download client apps for laptops or phones, instead of creating a router installation.

The VeePN website provides very sketchy guidance regarding router installations.

This is a major issue, as routers can be the most secure and fastest option for small businesses and households, and it’s not (yet) a viable option here.

Unblocking Netflix and other streaming platforms

VeePN unblocks Netflix, just not in every country. We managed to access libraries in the US, the Netherlands, and Australia. The UK, Canada, and Japan (the biggest library) remained blocked, though.

The speeds from our test location in Europe were pretty good. The average speed that we got from Netflix’s Fast.com test was around 80 Mbps or one-third of the original speed. However, the speeds in Australia were too poor even to get the test site working.

In our case, it was enough to stream in UltraHD (4K) when connected to servers in Europe or North America, but users with slower connections must have in mind that the quality will be lower unless they have a steady 25 Mbps connection.

When researching this VeePN review, it wasn’t hard to access the BBC iPlayer and to see YouTube footage that would normally be subject to geo-restrictions.

Sadly, VeePN hasn’t decided to cater to users of major streaming devices such as Roku or Amazon Fire Stick. There’s no specialist client for these popular tools, no tutorials about running VeePN with Kodi, and generally not much hope of maxing out your Amazon Fire viewing options, either.

To sum up, VeePN unblocks Netflix and other platforms but has poor hardware support.

P2P and torrenting

Torrenting and P2P downloads are areas where serious users will want watertight security for every download. Again, that’s not really something we can claim for VeePN. On the plus side, the VPN operates no download or speed limits. That’s a major bonus when downloading box sets, games, or music. The VPN also permits P2P downloads on all of its servers, which is something few competitors can match.

On the other hand, the kill switch isn’t as reliable as it could be, which raises security questions. There’s also no SOCKS5 functionality, which helps to boost P2P connection speeds while ensuring secure torrenting at the same time.

We managed to establish a few test torrents successfully, and at times the speeds weren’t too bad. But they weren’t enough to warrant praise for VeePN’s P2P performance, and better options are available.

Online censorship in China and elsewhere

Oddly, VeePN doesn’t mention its anti-censorship functions very much in its marketing literature. That’s odd because VPNs tend to use this ability as an example of their social purpose (as well as being a very useful addition for people living in countries like Saudi Arabia or China).

The 256-bit encryption and DNS/IP leak protection provided by VeePN should be a match for the Great Firewall and other security systems. We couldn’t check this directly, and there are very few reports from Chinese users that they rely on VeePN to remain anonymous. In theory, those surfing the web in repressive countries should be well protected, but there’s room for doubt here.

Customer support

Support is definitely not an area where VeePN shines. The company offers the following options for customers to use:

• Knowledgebase
• FAQ guides
• Live chat
• Twitter
• Email

That’s it. There’s no direct phone number and no postal address. The live chat is unreliable, and users will often find that customer service staff are “unavailable.” And the knowledge base is very basic, with poor quality tutorials, and areas (such as router configuration) where guides are seriously lacking. The Twitter feed is also rarely updated, which is never a good sign.

If users are willing to persevere with live chat or email, it’s possible to start a dialogue with VeePN, so there are support options. But the whole package lacks the slickness and level of content you would expect.

Pricing plans

There’s no free trial with VeePN. Instead, the company offers a single membership tier, with the following price points:

• 1 month for $10.99
• 1 year for $5.83/month
• 5 years for $1.67/month

As you can see, that’s a steep drop off in prices as contract periods grow longer. 5 years is an extremely long VPN payment term, and $1.67/month is very cheap indeed (although NordVPN’s long term packages come relatively close). The problem is, who can guarantee that VeePN will be operating in 5 years time?

Payment methods are diverse, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Paymentwall wallets, and cryptocurrencies like BitCoin. So anonymous payments are available – something we appreciated.

Customers also benefit from a 30-day money-back guarantee. This theoretically allows buyers to try the service for one month, and claim their cashback if things don’t work out. However, if you do take this route, decide early, as customer support can act slowly to process contract cancellations.

Overall, we’d say that the best VeePN packages compare pretty well with leading VPNs in terms of price. For instance, CyberGhost charges $12.99 for one month, while NordVPN’s 1-year package has an $4.59 monthly charge. However, everything changes if we add the service quality to its raw price.

Bottom line

After weighing every aspect of the product in this VeePN review, our verdict is – maybe. There are certainly many inferior providers to VeePN. The company scores well with its 256-bit encryption, server numbers, choice of apps, protocols, leak protection, and pricing. But it falls down on streaming support, torrenting, customer support, and basic transparency.

Confusion over where VeePN is based is just a sign that the company isn’t being totally open about the services it provides, and this puts a big dent into how trustworthy VeePN is. But it’s definitely an option for people who want something cheap, with no download limits, and decent security credentials.

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