With on-line privateness persevering with to stay a large trigger for concern amongst web customers, proxies and VPN companies have gotten more and more essential instruments for privacy-conscious netizens world wide. That being the case, a number of VPN service suppliers are jostling for mindshare and marketshare of customers worldwide and it’s changing into more and more tough to chop by means of the litter and discover a service that may not put any restrictions both by way of pace or by way of total knowledge utilization. What’s simply as tough is to search out VPN companies that may worth privateness considerations of customers, so anyone that claims to supply some or the entire above is unquestionably value a re-examination. X-VPN, a comparatively new title within the business, is doing simply that, so let’s check out a few of the key options of the service and the way it compares to a few of its extra established friends within the business:
Options
The Graphic Consumer Interface (GUI) on Home windows is as minimal as it will possibly probably be, however it’s pretty intuitive even for the non-tech-savvy. As may be seen from the screenshots under, there’s a reasonably self-explanatory On/Off toggle that will get you related to what X-VPN believes is the quickest accessible server in your plan. It’s actually only a 1-click connection, and also you don’t even must be signed in to your account to make use of the service. If you happen to don’t need to accept the default server location, you can too click on on the “Quickest Server” button to manually go for the placement of your selection. 
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Accessible Nations and Servers
X-VPN presently has its servers in over a dozen totally different nations together with, the U.S., U.Ok., Hong Kong, Japan, India and the UAE. Whereas there are a number of areas accessible within the U.S., you might be restricted to only single areas when you’re trying to hook up with any of the opposite nations on the record. Lots of the areas, nonetheless, are reserved for paid subscribers, so when you’re a free person, you’re restricted to only 21 areas in 13 nations, together with 9 within the U.S.
On our clogged workplace Wi-Fi that hardly provides us 10Mbps at one of the best of occasions (although its truly a devoted 150Mbps connection), speedcheck outcomes appear to counsel that the free X-VPN server in Atlanta, GA, isn’t any slower than the presumably sooner, premium one in Berkely, CA. Whereas speeds on ethernet will virtually definitely be increased, it’s tough to say how the speeds will differ on sooner Wi-Fi networks. If there’s a notable pace distinction between the free and premium servers, it wasn’t instantly noticeable. As you’ll be able to see from the picture under, we had been getting 8Mbps down and 32Mbps up with out the VPN, however with the VPN turned on, the speeds lowered to about 7Mbps and 23Mbps respectively, regardless of whether or not we had been utilizing the free or the paid server. The latency, nonetheless, suffers with the VPN turned on, going from a really agreeable 7 ms with out the VPN to an uncomfortable 370 ms when related to the Santa Clara server, however a few of that’s to be anticipated due to apparent geographical causes.
Whereas X-VPN’s free service is pretty complete, the corporate additionally gives premium tiers that include extra bells and whistles. Pricing begins at $7.99 per 30 days for telephones and tablets and $11.99 per 30 days for all platforms, together with desktops. If you happen to pay on an yearly foundation as an alternative, the cost-per-month comes down by 50%, so that you’ll solely have to pay $48 or $72 for 1-yr subscriptions, relying on the package deal chosen. By way of availability, the X-VPN shopper is accessible on most main computing platforms, together with Home windows x86-64, macOS, Android and iOS, however it isn’t presently accessible on Linux and there’s no phrase on whether or not will probably be within the foreseeable future.
Whereas free customers have entry to much less servers than their paying counterparts, they’re additionally restricted to only 500MB of information. To have entry to all of the premium high-speed servers and take away the information cap, you’ll have to subscribe to one of many paid tiers. By the seems of issues, you’ll solely face the information cap in your PC and never on telephones or tablets, as a result of the corporate guarantees limitless utilization even totally free customers on cell gadgets. The restrictions on premium servers, nonetheless, will stay regardless of whether or not you’re utilizing the desktop purchasers or the cell purchasers. The free model of the cell purchasers additionally include promoting, one thing that the premium subscription eliminates.
Encryption and Privateness
The corporate undertakes a complete host of safeguards to guard the privateness of its customers. First off, all connections are mentioned to be encrypted through AES with a minimal key dimension of 256 bits. Based on X-VPN, a few of the different privacy-related options embrace:
- DNS leak Safety
- Entry through UDP/TCP
- A number of VPN Gateways and
- Port Forwarding
X-VPN additionally claims that it doesn’t retailer person logs associated to shopping historical past, DNS queries or visitors knowledge. The corporate, nonetheless, says that it logs entry makes an attempt to its servers “for safety and troubleshooting”. X-VPN additionally “doesn’t become involved in any type of censorship”, nor does it promote share person knowledge with third events for business acquire. The corporate additionally says that it “is not going to and can’t give away your private knowledge to authorities … until we’re ordered by a courtroom of competent jurisdiction”.
Assist For P2P Protocols like Torrent
In a question posted to an X-VPN consultant through the course of this assessment, we had been informed that the corporate doesn’t “prohibit our customers’ means to browse the web freely, nonetheless we might solely encourage our customers to make use of them (torrents) for authorized functions. And it’s for each free and premium customers”. So apparently, X-VPN doesn’t discriminate towards web visitors primarily based on protocols, which is a particular plus for web neutrality supporters who’ve usually expressed reservations about some VPN service suppliers treating video streaming or torrent downloads in another way from customary shopping.
The Remaining Phrase
X-VPN seems to be a competent VPN service that has nice potential going ahead. It is going to unblock Netflix’s US library whether or not you’re in Hong Kong or Australia, it would allow you to submit selfies on Fb whereas at college, and it’ll additionally allow you to obtain (hopefully authorized) torrents in your PC. With an uncluttered and intuitive UI, good speeds and a net-neutral strategy to web visitors, X-VPN is a straightforward suggestion particularly on cell gadgets, though, many customers will discover the 500MB knowledge cap on desktop a little bit of a sore level.
Professionals
- Intuitive person interface
- First rate speeds
- Helps all visitors equally
- AES 256-bit Encryption
- Unobtrusive advertisements (mobile-only)
Cons
- Unavailable on Linux
- Free model comes with a 500MB knowledge cap (desktop-only)
Surf Anonymously and Unblock Geo-Locked content material with X-VPN
X-VPN not solely does what any good, free VPN service is meant to do, but in addition brings a complete bunch of different cool options to the desk. As talked about earlier already, whether or not you need to entry Geo-locked content material, bypass web censorship or simply surf anonymously, X-VPN has acquired you coated. If you happen to’re looking for a free VPN service or perhaps a paid one for that matter, do give X-VPN a go, because it is likely one of the most hassle-free VPN companies you need to use both in your desktop or in your smartphone.
Obtain X-VPN apps (Home windows, macOS, Android, iOS)
