CyberGhost VPN (for iPhone) - Review 2022

A virtual private network, or VPN, is an enormously powerful tool for securing your life online, merely these products tend to fall into two very different categories. Some trade usability for powerful tools, while others emphasize ease of use over arcane options. CyberGhost is one of the all-time VPNs, one that threads a path betwixt these two extremes, mixing usability with unique tools and powerful features, besides every bit a privacy policy that protects customers. You won't go awry with CyberGhost, only on iOS we still recommend Editors' Selection winners NordVPN and KeepSolid VPN Unlimited for iPhone VPN apps.

What Is a VPN?

When y'all switch on a VPN, all your web traffic goes through an encrypted tunnel to a server operated by the VPN company. This prevents anyone, fifty-fifty those on the same network every bit you lot, from intercepting your information. Information technology also helps hide your identity, by having your network traffic exit from a location other than your estimator. You need a VPN considering it's an incredibly powerful privacy and encryption applied science, and one that has been used for years by journalists and political dissidents operating in countries with restrictive internet policies.

Using a VPN too prevents your not-so-friendly neighborhood ISP from intercepting your information and selling anonymized versions of it. That's legal, thanks to a conclusion from Congress, and so be certain to complain to your senators and representatives when you lot get a chance.

Considering your traffic appears to come from the VPN server, anyone monitoring it volition meet the IP address of the VPN server, not your actual IP address. That helps hide your identity, simply it also hides where you are, since IP addresses correspond to geographic locations.

This same ability can also be used to spoof your location by connecting to a VPN server that's a long way from where you are. That'due south handy for a number of reasons, but especially for accessing region-locked streaming content. For instance, the BBC streams content for Uk citizens, simply whatever red-blooded American can also watch past connecting to a VPN server in London.

Co-ordinate to our survey on VPN usage, there's a good gamble that you've never laid hands on a VPN earlier. If that'south the case, don't worry! We've got a whole characteristic on how to set up and use a VPN.

Pricing and Features

Similar most VPN services, CyberGhost offers the same slate of features billed at different intervals. You pay more than upwards front for a longer interval, but salve more overall for doing so. A i-calendar month plan with CyberGhost costs $12.99, while a 6-month plan costs $47.94, and an annual program costs $63.00. That's a bit higher than the current industry average of $ten.38 per month, and even more than NordVPN (for iPhone).

Of course, many VPN services come in well below the average price. TunnelBear VPN (for iPhone), for instance, costs just $nine.99 a month, while Private Internet Admission offers a robust only spartan experience for $6.95 per calendar month. KeepSolid VPN Unlimited is notable for having a wide diverseness of pricing plans, starting with an ultra-low-toll weekly plan, and going all the way up to a lifetime plan.

You tin can easily purchase a CyberGhost plan with traditional payment methods such as credit carte du jour or PayPal, simply y'all tin can too pay anonymously with BitCoin. Other VPN services also offering the option to use prepaid souvenir cards, such equally those from BestBuy or Starbucks, equally anonymous options.

Price doesn't have to be a hurdle when it comes to security, as at that place are many serviceable free VPNs available. TunnelBear has a free offering that restricts the amount of data to 500MB per month, although yous tin can boost this cap. ProtonVPN also has a gratis offering, but it limits the speeds bachelor to free customers.

A subscription to CyberGhost lets you apply seven devices simultaneously, making it a skillful value for a household with lots of devices. The industry average for VPN companies is five devices; NordVPN offers six connections for the same cost. Golden Frog VyprVPN (for iPhone) and ProtonVPN practice not provide even v connections at their respective base-level offerings; you have to pay a bit more in society to get that many devices.

If y'all're a fan of BitTorrent, you'll be glad to know that CyberGhost allows BitTorrent and P2P file sharing via VPN. Some companies require that you limit this activeness to certain servers, while others disallow such activities altogether in their terms of service. Of course, torrenting is more than a desktop activity than a mobile pastime.

In addition to BitTorrent-friendly servers, CyberGhost too has servers specially made for streaming. That's great, and we'd similar to come across more VPN companies piece of work to ensure that users can access their favorite video streaming services without having to switch off VPN protection.

VPN Protocols

In that location are many ways to create a VPN connection. Our preferred method is OpenVPN, which is known for its speed and reliability. It's as well open-source software, significant that experts take picked over its lawmaking for whatever potential vulnerabilities.

CyberGhost supports OpenVPN on its Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows clients. On an iOS device, it uses IKEv2, a mod protocol that's also acceptable. Note that because Apple places additional requirements on apps that use OpenVPN, VPN companies tend to non include it in their iOS apps.

Servers and Server Locations

We look at the number of servers a VPN service offers as an important differentiator. VPNs with more than servers tend to be more robust. Plus, you're more probable to get a server that's not overburdened with other users when at that place are only more to choose from.

CyberGhost has about 3,000 servers (three,061 at the time of writing), a number that varies from time to time. That'due south a robust offering, putting it on par with some of the all-time VPN services out in that location. NordVPN, even so, costs slightly less than CyberGhost and offers iv,800 servers. Private Internet Access VPN (for iPhone), on the other hand, costs about half as much per month as CyberGhost and has 3,275 servers.

The geographic distribution of servers is also important. The more varied the distribution, the more choices you accept when looking to spoof your location. A strong geographic diversity also means that you're more likely to find a nearby server when traveling, which is important because you tend to get better performance with a nearby server than a distant ane.

CyberGhost has 90 server locations available, across approximately 60 countries. Information technology'south a good mix, with a meliorate-than-average showing for Africa, a continent ignored past many VPN companies. Hide My Ass VPN (for iPhone), all the same, has the largest network of servers, covering 286 locations in 220 countries. CyberGhost does offering servers in Hong Kong, but it does non have servers in Turkey or Russia, all of which are regions with repressive internet policies.

Your Privacy With CyberGhost

Using any security or privacy software requires trust in the developer—trust that their product does what it says on the tin, and trust that using the product will not expose you to other dangers. This is particularly important for VPNs, considering when a VPN is in use the company could have equally much insight as your ISP into your online activities, and protecting those activities is one of the key reasons to employ a VPN in the get-go place. That'southward why when we exam VPNs, we read the unabridged privacy policy and speak straight to the developer about its privacy practices.

The CyberGhost privacy policy is non our favorite such document. While information technology is thorough and extremely detailed, it'south lengthy and at times hard to parse. TunnelBear deserves credit for crafting a statement that'due south piece of cake to read and self-explanatory, while TorGuard VPN (for iPhone) has what is likely the shortest and most direct policy nosotros take yet seen. Nosotros'd like to meet CyberGhost piece of work on this, so that its customers tin better understand the service.

Briefly, this policy has no subconscious traps, and expresses a clear commitment to gathering only the information necessary for billing and maintaining the network. It even underwent an audit by a third party to confirm its information direction practices. For more details regarding the privacy policy, please refer to our review of the full CyberGhost VPN.

Hands On With CyberGhost

We had no trouble installing the CyberGhost app on the Apple iPhone SE nosotros used for testing. Note, however, that if y'all lose your login data, you'll need to employ a special primal sent in your activation email. If you've lost that, too, y'all'll accept to restore your business relationship through CleverBridge, the payment processor used by CyberGhost.

The CyberGhost app is unusual in advent. You swipe left or right to reveal four panels, representing four modes of VPN operation: Secure Wi-Fi, Secured Streaming, Surf Anonymously, and Choose My Server. Each panel offers a simple explanation of the selected mode and includes a high-resolution image that's simply slightly blithe. For case, Secured Streaming shows the confront of a motion-picture show viewer munching popcorn. The Windows edition uses slightly different names for some of these modes, and adds Torrent Anonymously and Unblock Basic Websites. PureVPN (for iPhone) uses a similar approach, helping users get online with different approaches for specific circumstances.

Secured Wi-Fi and Surf Anonymously include an options button. Clicking to start Choose My Server brings upwards a similar options page. All three include settings to block tracking and malicious content. Surf Anonymously and Choose My Server also let you relieve money by compressing spider web traffic. Other settings differ for different modes.

With Secure Wi-Fi, you tin control how CyberGhost reacts when you lot connect to specific hotspots. Its default behavior on connecting to a hotspot is to ask whether you desire to turn on VPN. You lot can ready it to always plow on for a specific public hotspot, or e'er plow off for a trusted network. The options to block tracking and malicious content are on by default.

With Secured Streaming you see a slate of streaming services like Netflix and Crunchyroll, every bit well as the preferred servers for accessing those services. You can also add your own; just dial in the URL and the preferred VPN servers. We like this a lot, although we're disappointed information technology doesn't characteristic admission to services like Netflix from unlike countries.

By default, Surf Anonymously selects a country for you; you lot can likewise brand your own choice. As with Secure Wi-Fi, the options to block tracking and malicious content are on past default. If you want to save coin by compressing content, you must turn that one on manually.

All 3 options are off by default on the Choose My Server console; we advise turning them on. Here you can select not only the country you want, but likewise the precise server. This ability would be significantly more useful if CyberGhost offered details about each server, to help you brand a selection. IPVanish VPN (for iPhone) reports ping latency and load percent for each server, and VyprVPN uses color coding to stand for the best server selection in each country. Running under Windows, CyberGhost shows you lot which servers are virtually crowded and most empty, and tin can also seek the fastest server. CyberGhost under iOS only gives y'all a listing of names like Oslo-S07-102.

While the 4 main panels, with their detailed images, are appealing, we found some problems with other screens such as the options pages and pages to select a country or server. The app does not seem to handle the smaller screen size of the iPhone SE in all cases. The letters in headings such equally Location and Options appear with odd spacing, some of them overlapping each other. It's a minor betoken, only it seems sloppy.

CyberGhost and Netflix

Oppressive governments aren't the but ones that block the use of VPNs. Streaming services will often cake VPN traffic to prevent people from spoofing their location to access region-locked content. Someone in the The states could, for case, make it appear as if they were in Canada to stream episodes of Star Expedition: Discovery, which is on Netflix exterior the US simply requires a CBS All Access subscription to view domestically.

Netflix is possibly the nigh aggressive when information technology comes to blocking VPNs, just fortunately that isn't an outcome for CyberGhost. When we tested the service, it didn't interfere with streaming while continued to a US server. That said, blocking VPNs is a bit of a true cat-and-mouse game, and then a VPN that works with Netflix today might be blocked tomorrow.

Using this feature on the iPhone proved rather awkward. To kickoff, y'all tin only select US servers, making it useless for region-spoofing. When we swiped to Secured Streaming and chose Netflix, information technology opened the Netflix website. And when nosotros tried to play an episode of Black Mirror, it sent us to the App Shop to go the Netflix app. Tapping Open up in the App Store opened the existing Netflix app installation, but required us to locate the desired episode again. At least streaming did work subsequently that rigmarole.

Across VPN

While the protection afforded by a VPN is of import in itself, some VPN companies include add-ons and sweeteners to seem even more attractive. TorGuard has the most comprehensive menu of options, letting you buy additional simultaneous connections, static IP addresses, and access to a Gigabit network for monthly fees.

CyberGhost provides advertizing blocking through its VPN connexion, too every bit malware and tracker blocking. On Windows, information technology besides has the choice to enforce the use of HTTPS; we didn't find this characteristic in the iPhone edition. TunnelBear also provides ad blocking but does it through a stand-lone browser plug-in, which provides more options for users than unseen blocking.

NordVPN goes even farther, offering specialized servers for increased anonymity and improved video streaming. You can, for example, use NordVPN to connect to the Tor anonymization network, which volition bounce your traffic around even more, making it far more difficult to intercept and track.

Speed and Performance

The number one concern nosotros hear from people about VPNs is that using i volition bring their spider web browsing to a crawl. Indeed, you typically experience an increase in latency and a decrease in upload and download speeds when you use a VPN. That's because a VPN doesn't route your cyberspace traffic in the most efficient style, instead having it jump through hoops for security's sake.

We endeavour to go a sense of the impact those extra steps cause by running a series of comparative tests with Ookla's internet speed exam tool. (Note that Ookla is owned by Ziff Davis, which also owns PCMag.) Ookla tests latency, upload speeds, and download speeds, so those are the criteria we employ too. We run 5 tests, both with the VPN agile and without. We then discard the top and lesser results, boilerplate what remains, and compare the VPN performance to the baseline operation to get a percent change.

See How We Test VPNs

Every bit networks tin can be choosy things, we don't consider these tests to exist the concluding word in the performance for each VPN. Rather, they're a snapshot for comparison. Your mileage may vary.

Initially, CyberGhost's results looked terrible, enough and so that nosotros repeated the tests twice. In both other tests, it scored very well, so we chalked upward the bad scores to an cyberspace fluke. We used the Secure Wi-Fi mode, because it'due south the first thing a user sees and hence the most probable choice. CyberGhost had a minimal issue on latency, increasing it by only 3.vii percent. The two next best products, Individual Internet Access and AnchorFree Hotspot Shield Elite (for iPhone), increased latency by 15.7 percent and 16.nine per centum respectively.

The absolute winner as far every bit download speed goes is Hotspot Shield. Using a variety of optimization techniques, this production increased download speed by 76.1 percent. And yes, nosotros repeated that exam to brand sure it wasn't a fluke. CyberGhost did the best of the remaining products, slowing downloads past only 9.five percent. This jibes with our Windows-based testing, in which CyberGhost earned one of the all-time scores.

Hotspot Shield speeded uploads besides, by 4.3 pct. Here once again, CyberGhost came in second, slowing uploads by just 4.8 percent. Information technology'due south worth noting that the scores here are all close. Private Internet Access and TorGuard slowed uploads the most, but just past eight.five percentage.

Just to see what would happen, nosotros tested CyberGhost again, this time using Surf Anonymously, with the compression option enabled. Indeed, with this custom configuration CyberGhost actually sped up both uploads and downloads, though non as much as Hotspot Shield.

CyberGhost performed well in our speed tests, especially when nosotros dug in to configure information technology for speed. Nevertheless, we encourage readers to look at all factors, not just speed, when choosing a VPN. Value, privacy, and usability are all much more important. Just if you lot are in the market place for the fastest VPN for your iPhone, that seems to be HotspotShield. In our Windows Testing, TorGuard proved the fastest.

A Solid Option

We adore CyberGhost's ambition. The visitor's goal seems to be to cram the technical excellence and breadth of Private Internet Access into something more usable, and information technology comes darn shut. The iPhone edition doesn't offering all of the advanced features found in its Windows client, merely its use of high-res animated images in its user interface makes it a visual standout. The company likewise has an exhaustive, if occasionally obtuse, privacy policy that goes to cracking lengths to explain how you are protected.

The service is also on the pricier side, although the price matches its features, and vii licenses is certainly a generous offer. CyberGhost is an excellent VPN service. However, we continue to recommend our top performers and Editors' Choice winners for iPhone VPN, NordVPN and KeepSolid VPN Unlimited.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/cyberghost-vpn-for-iphone/29923/cyberghost-vpn-for-iphone

Posted by: austinthresper1974.blogspot.com

Share this post