SaferVPN Review
SaferVPN Review – Unblock Websites with Fast VPN
Short Information | |
---|---|
Number of servers | 700+ |
Server locations | 34+ |
Maximum devices supported | 5 |
Logs | No Logs |
Support | 24/7 Live Chat |
Supported Client Software | Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Routers, Chrome, Firefox |
Block Ads | No |
In keeping with our tradition of reviewing VPNs, today we will look at SaferVPN. You probably didn’t know that this VPN is a product of Safer Social Limited, an Israeli software development company. The service is based on peer-to-peer encryption of user connections. Although it was finally launched in December 2017, the initial plan for the launch of SaferVPN was March 2013.
It goes without saying that it works on all popular operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, etc. It should also be noted that it is available in many languages, including English, German, French and Russian.
In addition, it incorporates many VPN protocols, as you will find out later. Although it is a fairly good network, the question now is whether we recommend SaferVPN. You will find out what we think after reading this well-documented guide. So follow us on this informative journey!
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Key Features of SaferVPN
SaferVPN has more than 700 servers in 34 locations worldwide. It provides access to Netflix and Torrenting in the United States. The VPN is compatible with many operating systems and devices: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, routers, consoles and smart TVs.
VPN has servers all over the world, even in places like Brazil, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand. Also SaferVPN allows you to connect up to 5 devices at the same time, so you can share it with your friends and family.
Server Network
Having an extensive network of servers is one of the justifiable tricks used by VPN providers to win the hearts of potential buyers. Indeed, a VPN service that has an extensive network of servers will unlock more georeferenced sites than those that do not. As previously mentioned, SaferVPN has more than 700 servers in no less than 34 sites worldwide. It has more than 1,000 IP addresses in its park.
As this service is a newcomer, it is clear that it does not want to remain an outsider for long – thanks to its constantly improving performance. In fact, new servers are regularly added to the existing ones. Based in Tel Aviv, SaferVPN allows 5 multiple connections from the same account. In the United States, its server is located on the East and West coasts.
According to our findings, the West Coast server can easily connect to many Asian countries. Similarly, it has 2 servers in the UK, where one of the servers is dedicated to streaming. With only one server in the Netherlands, you can use it for torrenting and other fun things.
From Hong Kong to Israel, from Italy to Japan, from New Zealand to Australia, SaferVPN has servers in all these strategic countries. Today, the distribution of its servers around the world is welcomed in cybersecurity circles. While many VPNs do not yet have a footprint in Africa, SaferVPN has its server in South Africa. This is a clear indication that it wants to take the lead in no time.
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Security & Privacy
One of the important reasons why many users want to buy a VPN is to be able to access the Internet anonymously. Certain security features make this possible. In this section, we will put them into perspective.
- Kill Switch
As you probably know, a kill switch is a feature that automatically suspends your traffic when there is a problem with the VPN connection. As this VPN invests a significant amount of its resources in server optimization, you will certainly appreciate this feature when the highly encrypted network starts to make its own.
Nevertheless, SaferVPN promises 100% uptime. Despite this, the possibility of a network interruption cannot be completely excluded. When this happens, use the Kill Switch to control your data flow. This way, your IP address will not be disclosed to prying eyes. Remember that the Kill Switch works by default.
- Encryption protocols
In order to protect the online activities of its users, SaferVPN uses AES-256 encryption technology. Also known as military-grade encryption, AES-256 encryption ensures that your traffic is encrypted, making it difficult for spies to know what you are doing online. It is the industry standard today because it has proven to be very useful in this regard.
It is therefore used by companies who want tamper-proof security. In addition, SaferVPN works with a number of VPN protocols to ensure that your system is optimally protected online. These VPN protocols include OpenVPN, L2TP, PPTP, IPsec and IKEv2. Note that the VPN protocol most commonly used by vendors is OpenVPN.
The reason for this is that it guarantees a high level of security. Other technical details concerning encryption include the RSA 2048 handshake for HMA authentication and the DHE keys for Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS).
- Automatic diagnose fix
This is a handy feature that helps to solve any technical problems along the way. This means that you don’t have to contact the helpdesk all the time, because the automatic diagnostics function is integrated into the application to detect and solve technical problems.
This is one of the features that sets SaferVPN apart from the rest. It is mainly used to solve configuration problems based on VPN settings. However, if you are unable to solve the problem using this tool, you can contact the helpdesk.
- Leak protection
If you are not sure whether SaferVPN has DNS leakage protection, we can state categorically that it does. In addition to DNS leakage protection, this Israel-based VPN offers IPv6 leakage protection. In other words, you enjoy a high level of privacy when using this service.
In case you don’t know what this means, VPNs that offer DNS leakage protection are designed so that your traffic carefully passes through a secure channel, making it impossible for your ISP to know what you are doing online. On the other hand, IPv6 leakage protection means that SaferVPN automatically disables IPv6 traffic when it deems it necessary, thus ensuring that its traffic does not leak.
- Tor compatibility
While you can use the VPN and the Tor network to enhance your anonymity, it can turn into a boomerang if not used properly. When the two networks work together, it means your traffic will pass through a series of nodes before it reaches the exit node.
During these steps, data is encrypted and re-encrypted, making it difficult to decipher. Yes, SaferVPN works with the Tor network, which means the process adds a layer of security to your connection. You can start the process by connecting your computer to SaferVPN and then to the Tor network. At the end, you can safely browse the web.
- Smart Wi-Fi protection
You may still be browsing the web from a public Wi-Fi hotspot. You are potentially at risk as hackers roam these facilities looking for unsuspecting victims. Well, SaferVPN gives you the online protection you need with its smart Wi-Fi protection. So you don’t have to worry about your system or device being compromised.
- Other features
So far you have seen some of the features offered by this VPN. It’s fascinating to know that it has an ad blocker but does not offer a shared tunnel. Although SaferVPN does not have these features today, we cannot exclude the possibility that it will in the near future. Yes, this VPN is constantly expanding its horizons.
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Logging Policy
You know that the registration policy is very important when it comes to VPN. This is the case because a large majority of VPN subscribers use the network to improve their security. In other words, if the VPN provider keeps their logs, it is a problem because there is a good chance that they will sell private information to advertising companies. In doing so, they compromise the user’s privacy.
Therefore, any effective VPN should have a no logging policy. Basically, a “zero logging” policy is a policy statement that explicitly explains that a VPN company does not keep details of user registrations. While some companies retain data that they do not consider too personal, they do specify the log details that they normally retain in order to promote transparency.
The strict application of a no log-in policy is not only to sell user data to the highest bidder but also to reassure subscribers that the VPN provider cannot pass on their data to law enforcement authorities for any reason. In other words, the location of the VPN is important.
As far as SaferVPN is concerned, we have already established that this service is based in Israel. Israel is not a member of the 14-Eyes Alliance. Note that the 14-Eyes Alliance is a group of countries that have signed a treaty for the collection, analysis and sharing of intelligence. However, the Israeli government works regularly with the US National Security Advisor (NSA). This is a cause for concern.
Furthermore, close observation of SaferVPN’s non-registration policy shows that it follows certain data. Here is the excerpt “collecting minimum usage statistics to maintain our quality of service”. It would probably have been preferable to specify that it does not record any information on users. So you should keep that in mind.
SaferVPN Speed
Server Location | Download Speed | Upload Speed |
New York | 57 Mbps | 23 Mbps |
Amsterdam | 79 Mbps | 27 Mbps |
London | 64 Mbps | 39 Mbps |
Hong Kong | 1.28 Mbps | 0.37 Mbps |
It’s time for our usual speed tests. For those of you who don’t know, speed is very important because it is necessary in almost everything you do online. So we did the speed test using 4 different server locations. These are New York, Amsterdam, London and Hong Kong – as shown in the table.
First of all, we started with the New York server in the United States. After performing the speed test, we recorded a download speed of 57 Mbps and an upload speed of 23 Mbps. By all criteria, these results are relatively good.
Yes, you can still do all the fun things you normally do online at these speeds. If you look at the download speed of 57 Mbps, it’s really good because the vast majority of people spend more time downloading than they do downloading files, music, movies, and so on.
The second server we tested was the SaferVPN server in Amsterdam. At this point, the speed soared, with download and upload speeds of 79 Mbps and 27 Mbps respectively. This certainly indicates that if you access the Internet from this location, you’re going to have a good day. Yes, it’s so nice when you access the Internet from a high-speed server – which is what the Amsterdam server represents.
The next stop was the server in London. Despite the fact that both locations are in Europe, we noticed a variation between the London and Amsterdam servers. The speed results show 64 Mbps and 39 Mbps for download and upload speed respectively. While the download speed has dropped considerably, the upload speed has improved significantly. However, this is not uncommon as there are rarely two countries with the same server speeds.
Finally, we moved to the server in Hong Kong, where the figures dropped to 1.28 Mbps download and 0.37 Mbps upload. This is undoubtedly a significant departure from the results we achieved in the other three locations. But this is not surprising as Hong Kong servers tend to have poor speed performance almost all the time.
- Speed summary
On the whole, we can deduce that the speed performance is good. Apart from the server in Hong Kong which had terrible performance, the other servers showed excellent speeds. As we always establish here, there are certain factors that influence the speed of the server. These factors include your network connection, your location, and the processing speed of your computer. Despite this, using a low speed VPN can potentially hinder your connection.
The truth is that the speed of this VPN is far from “bad”. You can take it to the bank, SaferVPN has incredible speed. Note that it is not uncommon to see the VPN slow down your initial speed once a connection is established.
However, a good VPN never reduces speed to an abysmal level. In other words, the disparity between the speed before and after the connection should be infinitesimal. Once again, the SaferVPN team did an excellent job with its speed because, during the speed test, latency remained low. More importantly, its connection speed is surprisingly resilient.
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SaferVPN Customer Service
Customer Service | |
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24-hour support | Yes |
Type of support | Live Chat |
Free trial period | 24-hour |
Money-back guarantee | 30-day |
When looking for the right VPN for your device, you should pay attention to customer service. The reason is that this is the last resort when you encounter technical problems. Since this is very important for the VPN space, every good VPN has a customer service department.
But the million-dollar question is, “How effective is customer service? That’s where it gets interesting because there are a lot of VPN support services that are not very useful. So, to evaluate effective customer service, you have to consider several criteria:
- Multiple communication channels (email, live chat, social media, etc.)
- Working 24/7
- Quick response to messages (questions and complaints)
What does SaferVPN bring to the table? Well, it has round-the-clock support, which is a passing grade. In other words, you can contact the team at any time and be sure to get an answer. But this raises the question of how quickly the team responds to messages when they are contacted.
In an attempt to answer the question, we quickly sent them an email, asking them how long their free trial period lasts. In the end, we received an answer some 16 hours later, saying “24 hours”. The fact is that we have to congratulate them for being very responsive.
It didn’t stop there, we started a live chat with the VPN to find out how long it takes them to respond to messages via the channel. We simply asked them, “How long is the money-back guarantee policy?” We got a quick answer a few minutes later, saying “30 days”. We didn’t bother to engage the agent in further conversations because we achieved our result.
That said, we can state categorically that SaferVPN has the best customer service in its category. Some VPN support representatives redirected us to a web page where we could see the answer. However, the agent gave us a straight answer. This is commendable.
Supported Client Software
Just like the high-end VPN service, SaferVPN supports many operating systems. We are going to dissect them one after the other.
- Windows
Since it is the most widely used computer operating system in the world, the development of VPN software is always made to favour Windows users more than any other computer operating system user. SaferVPN runs on Windows XP/Vista/8/XP/10.
This means that if your computer has the old operating system, it will not run on it. With more than 200,000 downloads already registered, there is no doubt that many users log on to this service to improve their security and access the Internet more easily.
- Ubuntu
If you use Ubuntu, you have absolutely nothing to worry about because the SaferVPN client for Ubuntu allows you to enjoy everything this service has to offer. Setting up on your system is quick and easy because the detailed step-by-step guide is available on its website.
The entire process takes about 20 seconds. The Linux client is still under development, but it is likely to be launched in the near future. However, you must manually configure this client on your Ubuntu system before it starts working.
- macOS
Securing your online activities has become easier with SaferVPN for macOS. To get started, you need to download the application, open the file and drag the SaferVPN application icon to the Applications folder. Then you will follow the step-by-step instructions on the website to get the application working on your computer. Suffice it to say that you will benefit from many features similar to those of Windows operating systems.
- Android
SaferVPN also allows you to secure your mobile devices when accessing the Internet on the go. You can visit the Google Play Store to download it and start a free 7-day trial. There’s no better way to keep your online activities private, secure and anonymous. You’ll also benefit from features such as 5 multiple connections, kill switch, 24/7 in-app support, and more.
- iOS
In addition to macOS, iPhones and iPads are also a priority. You can follow the three-step installation process to get it working on your iDevice. The SaferVPN client is designed to work seamlessly with all iDevices, including Apple TV. You also benefit from many advantages, including 24/7 customer service, tamper-proof security, unlimited bandwidth, etc.
- Routers
You can secure your router using SaferVPN. In fact, it supports a wide range of routers and you can connect a number of devices that are not compatible with the VPN. However, you will need to configure the VPN manually.
Among the routers it supports are DD-WRT, Tomato, Asus, Freebox, Anonabox, Tenda, GL.iNet, D-Link, Huawei, and the list goes on. From your router, you can connect Chromecast, Xbox, Roku, PlayStation, Nintendo and other game consoles.
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Browser Extensions
Here’s good news: There are SaferVPN browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. That’s heartwarming. Again, installing each of these extensions takes a few seconds. You can also get it for free, and you are automatically qualified to take advantage of its free 500 MB per month thereafter. You should note, however, that these proxies do not create an encrypted connection.
In addition, SaferVPN browser extensions do not have advanced features like clients. We therefore recommend that you use it at the same time as its application and not as a stand-alone plug-in. You will have to configure it manually, but instructions are available on its website. Finally, it supports OpenVPN, PPTP and L2PT.
Torrenting with SaferVPN
If you are an unrepentant torturer, you can indulge in the torrent with SaferVPN. Of course, there is support for this. To do so, you will need to connect to servers in the Netherlands, Canada or Spain. As SaferVPN only has a few servers for the torrent, we cannot exclude that high traffic may cause congestion. Nevertheless, it is worth the effort. Remember that you need faster VPNs to be able to download and share P2P files.
In short, there are VPNs that provide a better user experience. But it would have made sense for SaferVPN to have more servers dedicated to P2P transfers. After all, this service has a large number of servers worldwide. Indeed, it does not make sense to leave the overwhelming task of the torrent to just a few servers.
This explains why many subscribers complain that torrenting with SaferVPN is no fun. Therefore, if you are looking for a VPN just for the torrent, you might want to look elsewhere, as doing so with SaferVPN could be frustrating.
Netflix Access with SaferVPN
One of the main reasons people use VPNs is to have access to the Netflix library. Note that the US streaming giant offers geoblocked services on demand. This means that French viewers, for example, will not be able to access content from American Netflix.
And American Netflix is its largest catalog. So more and more people are looking to unlock Netflix firewalls just to access the American library. This means that they need an efficient VPN to achieve this feat.
So, can SaferVPN help you achieve this? Yes, it does. You can easily unlock US Netflix using this VPN from the comfort of your home outside the US. But there are also servers that do not bypass it. In fact, most servers powered by Netflix do not.
So you have to fumble around to find the server that unblocks the site. In addition to Netflix, you can also use it to bypass the firewalls of other streaming services in the US, such as Hulu and Amazon Firestick.
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SaferVPN Cons
In conclusion, we must stress that SaferVPN is not just a matter of merits without demerits. We will therefore briefly discuss some of the drawbacks of this VPN.
- No-logs policy
The VPN has a warning that states that it gathers certain “statistics”. This will always be a concern because nobody is sure what statistics they collect. Again, any effective VPN should implement their “zero log” policy to the letter. Furthermore, we should not forget to mention that its operational base in Tel Aviv is another source of concern.
- Torrenting
While it is a good thing that SaferVPN supports torrent, P2P file sharing over the network does not guarantee the best user experience. Limiting the torrent to only 3 servers is not a good idea. Of course, this is another drawback. There are other VPNs that offer a much better user experience.
- It doesn’t work in China
Many cybersecurity experts consider the ability of a VPN to work and bypass the Great Firewall of China as a criterion to give such VPNs a stamp of approval. Unfortunately, SaferVPN does not work in China because it no longer bypasses local firewalls. So you might want to try another VPN if you plan to visit China in the near future.
- A small number of servers
Although some may claim that SaferVPN cannot be considered as having “a small number of servers”, it is also important to compare SaferVPN with other high-end VPNs. Some VPNs have around 3,000 to 5,000 servers, which means that their services are above the rest.
Therefore, if SaferVPN wants to start competing with these well-established names like ExpressVPN, NordVPN and CyberGhost, it needs to expand its server network.
Conclusion
It’s been an interesting trip, hasn’t it? Well, any good VPN review has to consider the pros and cons of the service. In this well-documented guide, we’ve taken our time to do that. Although SaferVPN has only been in the industry for a short time, it has achieved significant success in many areas.
It is even comforting to see that the team understands the areas where it needs to improve its performance and promises to do so. For example, the promise to launch the Linux client soon. Generally speaking, we would say that SaferVPN is an average VPN, and therefore cannot compete with some of the biggest brands.
On the other hand, it is relatively affordable. Yes, that’s the advantage it has over some of the top-rated VPNs in cybersecurity. To put it bluntly, there are many advantages to using SaferVPN. Now let’s move on to the most important: Do we recommend it? That depends on why you need a VPN. If you want to make a torrent and use it in China, check elsewhere.
However, if you need a VPN for security, streaming geoblocked sites and seamless Internet access, then you can afford a SaferVPN. If you finally make up your mind to do so, don’t forget to tell us about your personal experience. Our team will be happy to listen to you.