Unspyable VPN review

Unspyable is a provider of VPN, network security, and private email services for desktop and mobile devices. It also offers specialized routers pre-configured for its VPN servers, as well as the new, fast, and lightweight WireGuard VPN service which relies on the latest cryptography standards. 

There’s also an option to get your own dedicated server VPN service equipped with the said WireGuard VPN protocol. Moreover, you can also purchase pre-built and fully configured 1TB or 2TB hard drives, SSD drivers, or M.2 NVMe drives to install on your computer, as well as a VPN flash stick or USB hard drive that allows you to boot a fully functional computer from only a USB drive on any computer in the world.

Unfortunately, it does not provide services in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone, Gabon, and Cameroon, which is why one of the best VPN services may be better suited for users in the said regions.

• You can sign up for Unspyable VPN here.

Price

There are only two subscription options - monthly and yearly. The monthly option costs $10/month, while the yearly drops the price to $6.67/month or $80 paid annually. If you pay with Bitcoin, you can get a 10% discount. 

Other accepted payment methods include PayPal and credit cards. If you paid using PayPal, your account will be automatically charged at the beginning of each billing term until you cancel, and if you used a credit card, you’ll need to re-initiate the payment manually at the end of each term.

Unfortunately, there is no free trial or money-back guarantee on the table, unless Unspyable is “unable to make the service work for you”. Only one connection is allowed at any given time, per user.

It can also install your VPN service to one of the Mini Travel routers which are pre-configured for all of the provider’s VPN servers. These allow you to connect devices that are difficult (or impossible) to configure with a VPN, such as Blackberry, Apple TV, and others, putting them all under one secure connection. 

There are three options - Ethernet to Wireless, Wireless to Wireless Repeater Connection, and Wireless and Ethernet, each with their own perks. All the routers are equipped with a killswitch and cost $70 within US territory, while the international orders also entail a $30 shipping charge. Paying with Bitcoin carries a 10% discount. The VPN service is purchased separately.

Alternatives

Despite all its advantages, Unspyable is still a less attractive VPN solution than many of its competitors. For example, ExpressVPN, at the same opening price offers a far more advanced platform, with native clients for all major devices and operating systems. The same goes for NordVPN which is even cheaper, and not to mention CyberGhost and Surfshark, all of which are covered with user-friendly apps, support for torrenting and geo-restricted content, and more.

Streaming

Unspyable offers its users the convenience of being able to access geo-restricted streaming services like Netflix and BBC iPlayer wherever the user may be.

About the company

The website doesn’t tell us where Unspyable is headquartered (and we never got a response to our email), but our PayPal payment went to the company called Fox Trail Technology LLC, which is located in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Unspyable has an undisclosed number of offshore VPN servers in 15 countries: Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hong Kong, Hungary, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Turkey, Switzerland, as well as the servers in the UK and USA that are operated on a separate network from the offshore servers. The vendor warns that they are not intended to be used for applications where Internet privacy is a concern.

The provider’s WireGuard VPN service works on servers in the USA, Europe, and Asia.

Privacy and encryption

Unspyable uses the standard list of VPN protocols: OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP, and PPTP. The vendor states that IKEv2, L2TP, and PPTP work best for smartphones and tablets, while for desktop it suggests using the OpenVPN service.

The vendor also provides the modern and extremely secure WireGuard VPN service that works with Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices and includes a kill switch, the tool that steps in whenever a VPN connection drops, and blocks your entire Internet access so none of your sensitive information can fall into the wrong hands. A kill switch is also available on Unspyable’s customized routers.

Security mechanisms used to ensure your privacy include 256-bit AES encryption, SHA 512 hash, 4096-bit RSA signatures, and TLS 256-AES with its OpenVPN service. It also deploys Perfect Forward Secrecy to protect your data.

Unspyable allows P2P/torrenting on its “offshore servers excluding US and UK”, which makes sense as it doesn’t consider them privacy-respecting countries.

The vendor’s privacy policy is a surprisingly short document, where we are told that it doesn’t record any of our data, has no idea what websites we visited, doesn’t keep any user logs, and doesn’t sell, “or in any way provide to anyone else, any information with the exception of matters where designated by law to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or subpoena.”

In other words, no user logs are kept or given to anyone else, unless there’s pressure from an authority to do so. We aren’t told what exactly constitutes as ‘user logs’, so it would’ve been nice if this was specified, or even better - an outside auditor is invited to give an independent opinion on the truthfulness of the platform’s no-logging claims.

Support

There are no native clients, which might make things a bit more complicated for VPN beginners, but this is just a minor inconvenience. Instead of the native apps, this provider relies on third-party software including OpenVPN (for Windows) and TunnelBlick (for Mac), configuration files for Linux, and devices’ in-built VPN settings for Android and iOS.

If you need help with any part of the process, be it installation or use, it is available on the website in the form of the FAQs and Support section. If you get stuck and you can’t find help on the website, you can contact the customer support directly via email, although you’ll need to arm yourself with patience. The customer service is online from 8:00-17:00 (GMT -8), but sadly, doesn’t have a live chat option.

Speed and experience

We first tested the servers in our near vicinity and we were very pleasantly surprised with the download speeds. A server in Bulgaria gave us a fast 37Mbps on a 50Mbps testing connection, which isn’t something we see every day. A server in Serbia did somewhat worse but still excellent, with 20Mbps.

Servers further away didn’t perform badly themselves. One of the servers in the US hailed 13.07Mbps, which is very good considering it isn’t very close to our physical location. The server in the UAE gave us a low but decent 4.57Mbps. Out of curiosity, we also gave a chance to one of the “Scramble” servers which are expected to be slower considering their purpose is primarily privacy-oriented. However, the Scramble USA did great, delivering 14.36Mbps, which is even faster than the “regular” server.

The platform isn’t exactly super easy to use, at least not to a beginner, since there are no user-friendly native clients that guide you by your hand and are pretty obvious in functions and options. However, all the instructions for the use of the third-party apps that this provider relies on are included on the website along with their download links sent to your email.

The only thing that caused slight inconvenience was the fact that we had to type in our username and password every time we wanted to connect or switch servers. Interestingly, if we tried to connect to a different server without disconnecting from the first one, the platform would simply fail to connect without any explanation.

Verdict

Unspyable is a surprisingly fast VPN platform that can also unblock the likes of Netflix and BBC iPlayer, allow you torrenting, and protect your privacy, at blazing speeds. However, the reason why it lags behind the big players such as ExpressVPN lies in the fact that it has a low number of servers, no native clients, or live chat, but it’s on a good path toward someday becoming one of the best.

• You can sign up for Unspyable VPN here.

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