VPN.ac Review
OVERVIEW
VPN.ac is a Romanian-based VPN service that offers strong encryption, secure apps, and great performance in its network of servers. They also offer unique encryption protocols and browser extensions to protect your privacy – all for a low monthly fee!
What Is VPN.ac?
VPN.ac is good virtual private network (VPN) service with strong speed for streaming, and it has excellent encryption options to boot. However, if you want complete anonymity, this is not the provider for you. In their privacy policy they state that they keep your IP addresses temporary during 24 hours of connection logs- so security consciousgoers may still prefer a true zero-logs VPN instead.
VPN.ac Features
VPN.ac Encryption Options
VPN.ac comes with a range of encryption options that allow you to select the best level of privacy and security depending on your needs, while also optimizing performance for certain types of use cases. It’s worth noting that some VPN providers have been known to sell browsing logs and metadata in order to profit from customer data- with this company though, there is no chance as they don’t monitor traffic or share any information about their users at all.
- PPTP: 128-bit MPPE
- L2TP/IPSec: 256-bit AES and RSA-2048
- OpenVPN 128-bit BF: 128-bit BF-CBC for the data channel, RSA 2048 for keys, and SHA1 HMAC
- OpenVPN 128-bit AES: 128-bit AES-CBC- data channel
- OpenVPN 256-bit: 256-bit AES-CBC for data channel
- OpenVPN ECC: 128-bit AES-CBC for data channel
- OpenVPN XOR: 128-bit AES-CBC for data channel
Obfuscation To Defeat Network Restrictions
VPNs do not provide anonymity by themselves. It is recommended to always be using some sort of Tor browsing with a VPN connection in order to stay anonymous online when torrenting, shopping online (especially on sites like gambling) chatting.
As a reminder, obfuscation features are essential in countries such as China and Saudi Arabia where certain information is censored or strict network restrictions exist. This is also the case with many work networks that block VPNs or implement other restrictions. Furthermore, there are reports of internet service providers interfering with VPN traffic- another area where obfuscation may help.
VPN.ac Secure Proxy For Browsers
You can use VPN for PC, it offers a VPN proxy browser extension for Firefox, Chrome, and Opera that is secure and encrypted as well as fast. They advertise the benefits of this tool
The browser VPN that they offer is the strongest encryption you can use for your browsing activity. It even has stealth capabilities against firewalls and DPI (deep packet inspection). You don’t need to route all your PC traffic through the VPN, simply have it tunneling this and other internet traffic out via a regular ISP connection.
DNS Filtering (ad blocking)
VPN.ac has plenty of features worth talking about, but some users might be interested in the new DNS filtering feature, which filters out lots of harmful things. You can access this feature in the VPN app’s settings area called SecureDNS. This is available with Windows, Mac OSX and Linux apps as well as Android and iOS apps.
Multi-Hop VPN Configurations
Our article covered the benefits of multi-hop VPNs, which add a higher level of security. A noticeable benefit is that it adds an extra layer between you and any unencrypted internet connection. VPN.ac offers 22 double-hop configurations and has a great selection when compared to other providers.
Performance
In a multi-hop VPN configuration, you can typically expect the performance to be decreased from increased latency.
Overall, the speeds were excellent throughout the server network. However in our speed test for NordVPN vs ProtonVPN we also tested out double- VPN connections and found that NordVPN got speed about 214Mbps
Self-Configurable Multi-Hop
If you are looking for a higher level of anonymity, configuring your own multi-hop configuration is excellent. Perfect Privacy offers this with their clients on Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
Email support
Support tickets are handled by the team themselves and they do not outsource this to third party support. They provide a service of “just enough” stress, as opposed to too much or too little. There is one exception: there is no live chat option available on their site.
VPN.ac Pricing
VPN.ac is about average on the pricing scale, with its two-year plan providing a good bargain at $3.75 per month, or $72 for a full year’s service (saving you 17%). This puts it in line with NordVPN which also offers discounted rates if you purchase their services for two years.
Payment Options
- PayPal
- Bitcoin and various altcoins
- Credit cards
- Alipay
- 100+ US gift cards
- Mobile/SMS options and more
1 Month
| 3 Months SAVE 11% | 1 Year SAVE 46% | 2 Years SAVE 62% -BEST DEAL- |
$9 | $24 ($8 / month) | $58 ($4,8 / month) | $90 ($3,75 / month) |
Does VPN.ac Keep Connection Logs?
Previously, VPN.ac kept connection logs for 24 hours. But now they changed to only keeping basic connection records while the session is active. This means that no user data will be collected by VPN.ac because there’s nothing being logged in the first place! However, basic connection logs are temporarily saved, with each new session old data is erased automatically so you can still get a clear picture of your recent traffic info and bandwidth usage.
Does VPN.ac Work Well With Netflix And Streaming?
VPN.ac does not advertise this, but they do have servers that are capable of working with American Netflix. You may need to contact their support team for more information on which ones these are. In comparison, other VPNs haven’t been proven as of late and cannot be used at all times with the Netflix service, there is no way to know if a server will work when asked or even whether it has been updated recently either.
Privacy And Security With VPN.ac
VPN.ac not only passed the test, but it also performed superbly! For my leak tests, I used Windows and Mac OS clients as well as VPN Android devices. The tests revealed that VPN.ac has three secure DNS servers in their network – corresponding to the IPv4 address of the server and blocking IPv6 from leaking out of our device without my consent (but this is a good thing!). There weren’t any leaks at all found on this organisation’s servers.
VPN.ac Apps And Supported Platforms
VPN.ac supports many different platforms and devices, including Windows, Mac OS, iOS, and Android. For Linux VPN users, they have a client in beta for Ubuntu-based distributions that have not been available for quite some time now.
Pros And Cons of VPN.ac
Pros
- Excellent privacy & security features
- Unblocks China with obfuscation tools
- Quality, secure VPN servers
- Sensible privacy policy
- Fast speeds
- Good for streaming & torrenting
Cons
- Limited support for streaming websites
- Only 21 countries on the server list
VPN.ac Review: Final Thought
VPN.ac may be one of the best-kept secrets in VPN services, as it does not put much emphasis on marketing and is less well known because of this. Regardless, it is a high-performance service that provides security through its premium network of dedicated secure VPN server for any internet-connected device you use. VPN.ac has great service and will stay among the best VPN service on Restore Privacy. You can also get an excellent subscription by selecting the two-year plan that saves 62% off the monthly rate. They have a one-week trial for only $2, as well as 7-day money-back guarantee options on all subscriptions.
