CyberGhost VPN quick detailsOur score: 4.3 stars out of 5
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CyberGhost VPN has a powerful server fleet spaning 100 international locations and 125 areas, an reasonably priced beginning worth, and specialised servers for streaming, torrenting, and gaming. It additionally helps Home windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, Android and Apple TV, and even gaming consoles.
Whereas its difficult firm historical past might trigger some concern, the general VPN package deal you get with CyberGhost makes it a worthy VPN alternative of the 12 months.
CyberGhost VPN pricing
| Plans | Value |
|---|---|
| One month | $12.99 per thirty days (14-day money-back assure) |
| Six months | $6.99 per thirty days (45-day money-back assure) |
| Two years | $2.03 per thirty days (45-day money-back assure) |
Whereas some VPNs provide completely different options at various worth factors, CyberGhost’s pricing is easy. It supplies three costs relying in your most popular service size — both one month, six months, or two years. The month-to-month possibility is billed each month, whereas the six-month possibility is billed each six months at $41.94 and the two-year possibility is billed for the primary two years at $56.94 then yearly thereafter.
By way of affordability, you’re going to get probably the most out of your cash with their two-year plan. At $2.03 per thirty days, CyberGhost is likely one of the most reasonably priced VPN choices out proper now. That is very true as soon as we consider the variety of servers you get at this worth. Have in mind, nevertheless, that this contract locks you in for 2 years so that you gained’t have the pliability of with the ability to change suppliers rapidly.
For those who’re seeking to check out the VPN for a month, CyberGhost VPN’s $12.99 is on the pricier finish in comparison with its opponents like Proton VPN, with its one-month Plus plan at present priced at $9.99 per thirty days. You additionally don’t get CyberGhost VPN’s in-house NoSpy servers without spending a dime with the one-month plan.
With that, I do want that CyberGhost provided no less than a one-year possibility for its paid plans as a substitute of its six-month subscription. This could give customers extra leeway with price and fewer of the time dedication. Annual plans are additionally commonplace choices for many VPN suppliers. For my part, having a one-year possibility would assist CyberGhost present a greater one-to-one pitch in opposition to its competitors.
Evaluating it to different VPNs, Surfshark’s mid-tier One subscription for one 12 months is priced at $3.39 per thirty days, whereas NordVPN’s Plus plan is $5.49 per thirty days. At $6.99 per thirty days for under six months, I really feel like CyberGhost might appear to be much less of a discount when what different VPNs have to supply.
CyberGhost VPN does have a reasonably beneficiant free trial program. For Home windows and macOS customers, you will get a 24-hour free trial with out offering any cost or bank card data. Android customers even have entry to a three-day trial, whereas iOS customers get free seven-day entry.
Whereas the 24-hour Home windows and Mac trial is brief, accessing all of the premium options with out handing off any monetary data is a worthwhile trade-off.
Is CyberGhost VPN protected?
CyberGhost VPN gives all of the industry-standard safety protocols we count on from a good VPN in 2023. It has the OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard protocols, in addition to AES-256 encryption. It additionally has a kill change, DNS leak safety, and break up tunneling functionality.
On its web site, CyberGhost boasts that its headquarters are based mostly in Romania — a rustic with sturdy privateness legal guidelines. It is a massive plus for customers who’re cautious of presidency interference. Nevertheless, it’s price noting that CyberGhost is owned by Kape Applied sciences, previously Crossrider. Crossrider had previously been related to malware and adware controversies earlier than it bought CyberGhost again in 2017.
Whereas CyberGhost has maintained that it acts as an impartial entity of Kape, the corporate historical past is necessary to say in terms of safety and privateness.
CyberGhost does have a no-logs coverage, which states that they don’t log consumer information equivalent to searching historical past, IP addresses, session durations, and the like. This no-logs coverage has been confirmed by an impartial audit performed by Deloitte in 2022.
In April 2024, CyberGhost accomplished a second impartial audit of its server community and administration techniques. The evaluation was performed by Deloitte Audit Romania, which stated that it discovered no proof to conclude that CyberGhost’s “configuration of IT techniques and administration of the supporting IT operations” weren’t in accordance with its No-logs Coverage No-Logging Safeguards.
I commend CyberGhost for persevering with its dedication to present process third-party audits. I particularly admire how current their newest audit was, offering an extra layer of confidence to customers all for buying a CyberGhost subscription at present.
The VPN service additionally frequently publishes quarterly Transparency Stories that cowl police requests and malicious exercise stories they obtain. That is an admirable degree of transparency that positively provides to CyberGhost VPN’s general credibility.
With its difficult historical past, potential customers could also be hesitant to think about CyberGhost VPN at first. Nevertheless, I do really feel that the corporate is doing sufficient to alleviate safety issues clients might have.
Key options of CyberGhost VPN
CyberGhost VPN supplies an alluring package deal of options for its worth, making it a stable alternative. Let’s check out some key options one after the other.
Intensive server community
CyberGhost VPN has one of many largest server suites out there at present. On the time of publication, it had servers from 125 areas unfold out over 100 international locations.
The big server fleet offers customers a greater probability of getting a high-quality server expertise. Whether or not it’s having a server close to your location to get sooner speeds or having extra entry to geo-restricted content material, CyberGhost’s in depth community is unquestionably a priceless characteristic.
That is very true if you buy CyberGhost with their $2 plan, supplying you with a discount package deal that’s arduous to refuse.
Specialised servers
CyberGhost VPN gives three specialised servers for a number of the commonest VPN use-cases. It categorizes servers into three teams: For Gaming, For Torrenting, and For Streaming.
I personally like the extent of element CyberGhost goes into when offering what precisely every server is greatest for.
For instance, it exhibits what streaming service a selected server is greatest for — a small element that I feel many customers will discover extraordinarily useful. If you’d like a VPN that makes specialised servers easy, CyberGhost ought to be on the high of your checklist.
Sensible Guidelines panel
CyberGhost has a built-in “Sensible Guidelines” panel that lets you automate completely different actions you need the VPN to do based mostly on completely different prompts.
For instance, you’ll be able to set CyberGhost to mechanically connect with a selected server upon boot up or have it open an app of your alternative as soon as the VPN is related. It is a highly effective useability characteristic that might be good for individuals who need a VPN that may be tailor-made for a particular want or workflow.
RAM-only server expertise
CyberGhost VPN makes use of RAM-only servers that retailer server information on random entry reminiscence as a substitute of arduous disks. Due to this, when a server is unplugged, all information is totally erased.
This supplies an extra layer of safety that many privateness fanatics will admire, particularly since CyberGhost itself designed a system that makes it tough for them to retailer consumer information. That is one other plus of CyberGhost’s no-logs coverage.
CyberGhost VPN velocity and efficiency
In my testing, CyberGhost VPN carried out rather well. I used to be capable of get good velocity and stability with a number of Chrome tabs open, enjoying 1080p YouTube movies, and utilizing Google Suite apps for work.
The story was the identical when it got here to hurry check outcomes. For uploads, CyberGhost VPN recorded solely a 12.67% drop in velocity in comparison with my web service supplier — which could be very spectacular since most VPNs wrestle with sustaining good add velocity. For downloads, CyberGhost carried out even higher because it was truly 9.1% sooner than my ISP. In real-world utilization, I skilled little or no discount in velocity and was completely pleased with CyberGhost’s general efficiency.
I did discover that switching from one server to a different took longer than I anticipated. Possibly that’s a trade-off with the VPN’s large server fleet, inflicting the longer than common switching. Regardless of this, I might say that is extra of a private nitpick since I didn’t expertise any dropped connection each time I switched to a brand new server throughout my testing.
For DNS leaks, I ran CyberGhost VPN and a variety of its servers from completely different areas by a public DNS leak instrument. I skilled zero leaks all all through.
SEE: SMB Safety Pack (TechRepublic Premium)
CyberGhost VPN servers and areas
CyberGhost gives servers from 125 areas unfold out in 100 international locations. In the intervening time, CyberGhost VPN doesn’t present the precise variety of servers it has in its server community. Nevertheless, third-party stories estimate it to have round 9,000-11,000 at any given time.
In 2023, I stated CyberGhost had one of many greatest server fleets out there. Whereas that continues to be true in 2024, I need to acknowledge that competing VPNs have caught up on this regard. NordVPN has elevated its server fleet from 60+ to 111 international locations in a 12 months, whereas ExpressVPN has elevated its community from 94 to 105 international locations as properly.
That is good for customers, as extra VPN choices have a big server suite to supply. Nevertheless, it additionally signifies that competitors amongst suppliers is more durable since server fleet dimension is getting nearer and nearer.
Transferring on from its server community, CyberGhost has specialised servers for streaming, gaming, and torrenting, respectively — a characteristic that may profit customers looking out for these particular use circumstances.
Lastly, CyberGhost additionally gives NoSpy Servers, that are servers housed throughout the firm’s Romanian headquarters. Which means that the servers, and the information they carry, are protected by CyberGhost personnel themselves and can’t be accessed by third events. CyberGhost additionally says that NoSpy servers use extra premium {hardware}, present higher speeds, and have greater bandwidth.
Sadly, you do must buy no less than a six-month plan to get entry to CyberGhost’s NoSpy servers as this isn’t out there on the one-month plan.
Whereas extra security-focused servers would spherical out CyberGhost’s VPN servers extra, there may be sufficient selection right here to fulfill lots of people’s VPN wants.
CyberGhost VPN ease of use
For consumer expertise, I discovered CyberGhost to be a blended bag. Whereas its app design isn’t my favourite, I had zero points with it throughout testing.
I actually admire CyberGhost’s handy categorization of specialised servers. This makes it simple to seek out one of the best server potential for widespread VPN use circumstances, and I consider ought to be a regular factor achieved by all VPNs.
On the opposite finish, I do suppose CyberGhost can do a greater job of organizing its different menus. Particularly, I discovered its use of a number of Settings pages a bit complicated. There’s a settings web page for the principle VPN, Basic settings to your dashboard, and Privateness settings for privacy-related options. For my part, these toggles might both be grouped collectively on one web page or be extra unfold out in separate, particular person tabs in the principle dashboard for a extra intuitive expertise.
CyberGhost VPN execs
- Giant fleet of servers from 100 international locations, 125 areas.
- Specialised servers for gaming, torrenting, and streaming.
- RAM-only servers that forestall information logging.
- Inexpensive two-year subscription.
- Customizable Sensible Guidelines panel for automated actions.
- Free trial.
- Means to attach as much as seven gadgets with one subscription.
- 45-day money-back assure.
- Simple-to-use app.
CyberGhost VPN cons
- Sophisticated firm historical past.
- Lack of extra security-focused servers.
- Desktop interface could possibly be extra intuitive.
- Expensive month-to-month subscription.
- NoSpy servers unavailable in a one-month plan.
How good is CyberGhost VPN?
CyberGhost VPN’s giant server fleet will profit many customers who need flexibility when it comes to velocity, reliability, and entry to geo-restricted content material. It’s very arduous to argue in opposition to servers throughout 100 international locations for under $2 a month (with their two-year plan), to not point out the truth that it’s good for customers who’re particularly in search of a VPN to stream, torrent, or recreation.
Whereas CyberGhost VPN is hampered by its controversial firm historical past, its spectacular server fleet, specialised servers, and beneficiant free trial choices make it a VPN that most individuals ought to positively think about.
CyberGhost VPN alternate options
CyberGhost VPN has a novel set of options that make it a stable VPN service. Nevertheless, these options will not be the correct mix for you. We’ve listed a couple of alternate options under that will suit your wants higher.
| Proton VPN | NordVPN | Surfshark | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginning worth (annual) | $4.99 per thirty days | $4.59 per thirty days | $2.99 per thirty days |
| Server community | 9,000+ servers in 112 international locations | 6,800+ servers in 111 international locations | 3,200 servers in 100 international locations |
| Spotlight characteristic | Primarily based in privacy-friendly Switzerland; open-source VPN | Quick efficiency and a wide range of security-focused options equivalent to anti-malware safety | Inexpensive paid plans throughout the board; quick VPN efficiency |
Proton VPN
If you’d like a VPN that prioritizes safety in opposition to authorities interference and illegal information requests, Proton VPN ought to be your best choice. Primarily based in Switzerland, Proton operates below strict Swiss privateness legal guidelines that add an extra layer of privateness and safety to your private or confidential information.
To be taught extra, take a look at our full Proton VPN evaluation.
NordVPN
For extra security-focused options, you’ll be able to take a look at NordVPN. It has sturdy third-party testing, privacy-centered server varieties, and a novel encrypted file-sharing system that may fulfill even the strictest privateness wants. It additionally has built-in anti-malware menace safety, which makes it a dependable all-around safety platform.
To be taught extra, take a look at our full NordVPN evaluation.
Surfshark
For VPN customers who need a number of machine help, Surfshark is likely one of the greatest. It gives an infinite variety of simultaneous connections that gained’t have you ever worrying about exceeding a selected machine restrict. It additionally has sturdy encryption and privateness options for these searching for extra safety.
To be taught extra, take a look at our full Surfshark VPN evaluation.
How I evaluated CyberGhost VPN
My evaluation of CyberGhost VPN concerned a complete evaluation of its options, price, and real-world efficiency. I used CyberGhost VPN hands-on with their 24-hour free trial on my private Home windows machine.
For velocity, I used Ookla’s public Speedtest to measure obtain and add speeds. I additionally ran CyberGhost by DNSLeakTest a number of instances to test for any drops in its DNS leak safety.
Lastly, I scored CyberGhost VPN on every little thing from safety protocols to pricing based mostly on an inner algorithm to get a score of 4.3 out of 5 stars. In my scoring, I checked out CyberGhost VPN each by itself and in relation to different VPN providers out there at present.