As online security enthusiasts, we are always happy when ambitious VPNs bring out their supposedly safe and robust services. VeePN is one of these newcomers that claim to be a better alternative to well-established providers. A sizeable network, strong security features, unlimited streaming and torrenting – what could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, many VPN providers fall short in terms of keeping their promises. It is our duty to test out their functionality and conclude whether they are worthy of your attention or not. This is exactly what we are going to do in this VeePN review.
If you have no time to read the full review, at least make sure to check out our summary, which we broke down into strengths and weaknesses:
VeePN Pros:
- A large server network comprising of 2500 servers;
- Decent privacy policy;
- Offshore jurisdiction outside the Five Eyes Countries;
- Torrenting is allowed;
- Supports the majority of popular devices, OS, and browsers;
- 10 simultaneous connections;
- Easy-to-use apps;
- No DNS/IP leaks detected
- 30-day money-back guarantee;
- Fast and helpful customer support;
- Accepts cryptocurrency payments.
VeePN Cons:
- Variable speeds across the network;
- No gift card payments;
- Apps lack some essential features and flexibility;
- Fails to work with geo-blocked streaming services;
- Lack of details about the company.
It is clear that VeePN has a lot to offer but its offering is not always up to par. Let’s see which features earned our respect and which are begging for improvement.
Table of Contents
Best Alternatives
VeePN Prices and Plans
VeePN delivers a single plan with diverse durations. There are 1-month, 1-year, and 5-year subscriptions in place. The 1-month plan is priced averagely ($10.99) while the other two tariffs offer substation economy. Still, you can find plenty of well-known providers whose annual subscription is cheaper than $5.83 per/mo. Although the 5-year plan boasting 85% off ($1.67 per/mo) is pretty tempting, we wouldn’t risk paying upfront for a service that hasn’t yet established itself as trustworthy.
VeePN provides no trial period to size it up. However, you can take advantage of the 30-day refund policy to claim your money back if you remained unimpressed. The service also promises to extend the refund period over 30 days in case you faced technical issues it failed to resolve.
Payment Methods
The provider accepts popular payment methods including credit cards, Paymentwall, and PayPal. You can’t use the most anonymous solution, a gift card, but luckily, you can pay with Bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
Supported Devices and Operating Systems
VeePN started as a service for desktop devices running Mac and Windows as well as mobile phones and tablets powered by iOS and Android. Soon enough, it expanded the range of supported devices and OS to routers, AppleTV, and Linux. You can also use VeePN extension for Google Chrome browser. Unfortunately, the service offers no direct configuration for PS4, Xbox, Samsung smart TVs and some other popular devices. However, you can setup a VPN on your computer and then share the connection to any of these devices. VeePN also claims to have browser extensions for Firefox and Opera but at the moment, they are not working.
On a par with IPVanish, VeePN allows up to 10 simultaneous connections, which is pretty cool for multi-device usage.
VeePN Ease of Use
To get started with VeePN, you’ll need to choose a suitable plan, create an account by providing your name, email address, and password, and pay for a subscription. You can submit a fake name and a burner email to remain anonymous but keep in mind that if you pay with a credit card or PayPal, your identity will be revealed.
As for apps, VeePN used the same approach as ExpressVPN, which is a pioneer in designing super streamlined VPN clients. After you get VeePN on your device, you’ll see a start window featuring a huge power button, connection indicator, and a current server location. By tapping it, you will open a list of all available servers.
The top left corner displays a hamburger menu that opens settings. There are only 3 pretty simple tabs – General, Protocols, and Security. The first one allows you to set up language, notifications, and automatic connection, the second one lets you choose between supported tunneling protocols, and the security settings enable Kill Switch and DNS Leak Protection (which don’t really work but more on that later).
All in one, VeePN apps are very easy to use although experienced users may feel the lack of features and setting options. For instance, there is no automated connection that chooses the fastest server for you, no built-in speed test or server load indicator. The apps don’t even show VPN-assigned IP addresses. When you use a Windows VeePN client, you can’t change locations directly from the tray. All these seemingly little things tremendously impact the user experience.
VeePN Servers and Locations
For a relatively new VPN, VeePN delivers a respectable number of servers. 2500+ servers equal or even exceed averagely-sized networks. The coverage spans across 42 countries (48 locations) including mostly North American and European states. If you live in Asia, South America, Oceania or Africa, you might find the server presence in your region insufficient.
Servers Speed
There is something every VPN expert knows – when you enable a VPN, your Internet speed will slow down. It happens because of encryption and longer routes traffic has to travel through a VPN network. That’s why we were surprised to see VeePN’s statement that ‘your connection speed can only increase while you are using VeePN’. Surely, we couldn’t ignore this claim so we conducted our own speed test to confirm or disprove it.
After measuring our original download speed (it was around 100 Mbps) we connected to VeePN via OpenVPN protocol. Being based in Europe, we chose a nearby server location in Germany. The speed test gave us approximately 83 Mbps, which is very decent. Then we tried a location in the USA and obtained a 35% speed drop – connection became noticeable slower but still usable. When routing our traffic through Australia, we lost about 40% of our original speed.
The bottom line, VeePN manages to supply some fast speeds but performance dramatically varies through its network. Needless to say, we didn’t notice any speed increase, which the service advertises on its website.
Bypassing Geo-Restrictions
Since Netflix clamped down on VPNs and the majority of similar platforms followed its lead, it is extremely hard to find a VPN that would work with streaming services. VeePN is a relatively unknown provider so maybe it is off Netflix’s radar? VeePN promises that we can ‘access any blocked websites from anywhere in the world’ but is it too good to be true?
After connecting to a random US server, we checked if we could make Netflix work. No success, we only saw the infamous Netflix proxy error. We tried a few more servers but the result was the same. Hoping that we would have more luck with BBC iPlayer, we did one more round of testing for this service, too. Unfortunately, no matter which server in the UK we picked, we saw nothing else but an error.
We are not sure why VeePN failed to unblock geo-restricted services – most likely its servers were blacklisted. At the same time, we can’t test VeePN with every VoD platform out there so there is a chance it works with some of them. Also, we’d like to add that if a VPN doesn’t currently work with Netflix or similar services, it doesn’t mean it never will. If VeePN keeps introducing new servers into its network, it may be able to bypass bans. So, you can still try VeePN out and if doesn’t meet your expectations, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Torrenting & P2P
VeePN says it doesn’t forbid any type of traffic meaning torrenting is allowed. Indeed, we were able to use uTorrent but the speeds left much to be desired. We always recommend using locations safe for torrenting but if you are far away from them or servers in those countries are too busy, you’ll have to wait little longer to download the files you want.
Security Features
VeePN makes use of AES encryption pairing it with a 256-bit key. Currently, the combination of this cipher and the key length is considered to be practically unbreakable. Along with that, the service benefits from strong tunneling protocols including OpenVPN and IKEv2 (recommended) as well as VeePN Smart TCP and UPD. Speaking of these two options, the company claims that it developed its own custom protocols but how they work and why they are better is a mystery. At least, we couldn’t find any information about them at the service’s website, so you’d rather stick to the industry-standard protocols.
As every good VPN should, VeePN supplies Kill Switch to interrupt Internet traffic in the event of losing connection with a VPN server. It is disabled by default but we recommend turning it on right after installing VeePN on your device. Unfortunately, this tool works worse than it is supposed to – it doesn’t immediately kill the Internet connection after you stopped a VPN. It means that a few seconds, your real IP address will be exposed.
VeePN fails the mission of keeping your identity intact for one more reason. We ran several tests using OpenVPN and IKEv2 protocols and in both cases, our IP address was leaking. This was even despite connecting to Cloudflare DNS servers instead of our ISP’s ones. Summing up, if you want to surf the web incognito, VeePN is not a kind of service you can turn to
Privacy Policy
VeePN positions itself as a logless VPN service that collects neither activity nor connection logs. Well, we never take things at face value so we examined the provider’s privacy policy to see whether they actually tell the truth.
The service doesn’t retain much but there is still some logging going on. The logs include the amount of traffic for each session, dates of connection, and a number of connected devices. Well, this information is non-identifying so you shouldn’t worry that it may help trace your online activities back to your real IP address.
Along with that, it is not clear for how long VeePN keeps this data on its servers and whom it is willing to share it with. Moreover, we’ve witnessed numerous cases when VPNs supposedly executing no-logging policies helped imprison their clients by providing the information they shouldn’t have had altogether. VeePN is a relatively young provider so there is no information regarding their integrity or, vice versa, dishonesty. We’ll keep you posted if we find something.
Jurisdiction
VeePN says it is registered in Panama. This offshore country is known for privacy-friendly legislation and no connection with the Five Eyes treaty (neither with Nine or Fourteen Eyes). Moreover, Panama doesn’t cooperate with the governments of other countries and is not willing to help in investigations concerning VPNs and their clients. All these factors are great for user security (as a proof, one of the most safety-focused VPN in the industry, NordVPN, is also registered in Panama).
On the not-so-bright side, there is no information about VeePN as a legal entity. Its website contains no data on a company legal name or address. The only way you can contact VeePN is through chatting with the support and it is a little bit suspicious in our eyes.
Customer Support
Before reaching out to customer support for help, you might want to check the FAQ and installation guide sections. VeePN has some knowledge database but it is a far cry from what premium providers have on their websites. For example, it currently lacks router installation guides.
We were happy to know that the service provides multi-lingual 24/7 support. The website features a live chat icon in the right bottom corner so you can reach the tech support department pretty easy. To send a message, you need to provide your name and email address. After we dropped a line, we got a reply almost instantly and it was helpful. Alternatively, you can send your query or question through email or support ticket – they should be answered within 24 hours. VeePN website claims 95% customer satisfaction and we are definitely among those people who find their support good.
Conclusion
Do we recommend VeePN? It is a solid option for a lot of activities including secure web browsing, torrenting and video streaming if you are ok with the speeds. Unfortunately, we cannot recommend it for unblocking Netflix or some other major geo-restricted streaming services because VeePN didn’t work with the majority of them during our tests. You can still find better alternatives for VeePN in the same price range that deliver stronger security features and smoother performance.