Windscribe VPN Review | BitTorrent Friendly

Who are they? Where are they from?

After searching their website, we could discern that Windscribe is a company based in Canada.

Windscribe’s words about their service:

Price/ Packages

Package Configuration

Windscribe currently offers two pricing plans.

• 1 Month: $9 per month
• 12 Months: $90 – $7.50 per month

They also offer a free service, available in a select number of countries. This service is limited in regards to available bandwidth, maxing out at 10GB/month. However, it is a unique option that sets this VPN service apart form many others, and is perfect for light users.

All packages currently promise the features listed below.

• VPN servers in 45 countries
• Use on Unlimited devices
• Zero logging of connections
• OpenVPN (UDP, TCP, and Stealth) protocols
• Anonymous Torrenting with SOCKS5 and HTTP Proxy
• Port Forwarding
• ES-256 cipher encryption with SHA512 auth and a 4096-bit RSA key
• Multiple customer support options

Payment Options

Windscribe currently offers payment through the following services.

• Major Credit Cards
• Bitcoin
• PayPal
• Paymentwall

The Ordering Process

Windscribe offers a simple and potentially anonymous ordering process involving the input of a valid email address and payment using any of the above options. After this is completed, you can begin using the Windscribe client immediately on all supported devices.

Software and Connectivity

Windscribe currently offers support for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS and Android clients. They also offer browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome. All of the clients are beautifully designed and incredibly simple to use, generating an excellent user experience.

Windows Client

The tested client v1.70 combines a beautifully designed desktop application with an abundance of connectivity options. It runs smoothly on the Windows operating system and can quickly and easily connect to a VPN, providing safe and anonymous browsing.

The client features options such as a “Firewall” feature similar to a kill switch on other VPN programs, allowing no connections to continue if the VPN fails or you are accidentally disconnected. The ability to designate proxy settings is also available, as well as useful features such as “Launch on Startup”.

The experience of navigating provided a pleasant experience. The one problem we experience with design would be it’s small and often cumbersome server selection list, making it difficult to scroll through. With unmatched simplicity and design, Windscribe is an excellent product of software that operates just as it should on the Windows platform.

 

Mac OS Client

The tested client v1.70 combines a beautifully designed desktop application with an abundance of connectivity options. The application mainly lives in the menu bar of the operating system, allowing users to access the program from any screen. While this allows for VPN settings and connections to be reconfigured the without a need to quit or shift windows, it is sometimes cumbersome to work with as the window is very small and therefore may not appeal to some users.

The client features all of the same configurable options as the Windows client. Through our testing, we never experienced any program crashes or bugs. The client is an artistically designed application with the user experience at the center of the developers focus, it’s one pitfall being that the server selection window is small and clumsy to scroll through efficiently.

 

Android Application

The Windscribe application for Android is currently in development and not yet available to the general public. However, when it does become available, we predict that it will function in a very similar way to the iOS application.

 

iOS Application

The Windscribe iOS application v1.15 is an elegant and simple solution that should meet the anyone’s basic VPN needs. It combines the simplicity of a mobile application with numerous server locations to choose from, creating a fully capable and anonymous platform for browsing the internet on your mobile device. It takes less than a minute to download and connect, leaving no time or personal data sacrificed.

 

Chrome Extension

The Google Chrome extension of Windscribe offers a unique feature of the program with some noteworthy features that are otherwise not available within the desktop clients. It is designed with the same elegance and simplicity as the other Windscribe clients, but offers a few more options specific to internet browsing.

The extension not only allows for VPN connection and disconnection directly from your browser window, but also offers a secure link generator. This allows the user to copy and paste a website link into the extension and create a secure version of that link, providing a higher level of security and anonymity. A feature labeled as “Cruise Control” is also available, allowing the Windscribe extension to automatically select and connect to the best potential server when Chrome is open.

The Google Chrome extension is included in your Windscribe subscription at no additional cost and is an excellent feature that sets the company apart from some other VPN services. However, the small server selection window is once again an issue in navigation and is difficult to scroll through.

 

Connectivity Options

Windscribe currently offers OpenVPN (UDP, TCP, Stealth) protocol on desktop and IKEv2 protocol on mobile devices. Compared to other VPN services, this is a fairly limited selection of connectivity options. Despite this, OpenVPN is a versatile protocol that should not provide any noticeable limitations.

Speed

Our standard and most reliable testing methods that we found are by downloading from the nearest and fastest HTTP or FTP link for 60 seconds and measuring the average and max transfer rate. Upload and ping tests are performed by the closest beta.speedtest.net server, the most accurate HTML5 speed test thanks to 3000+ servers worldwide.

Speed Testing

[su_tabs] [su_tab title=”Results from United States’ East Coast”]

The test is performed with a 300 / 30 Mbps wireless connection on the United States’ East Coast, from “Duke University” in Durham, NC. Speed tests with Windscribe active are conducted through the VPN server “US East” and “Netherlands” on the OpenVPN UDP protocol. Keep in mind that the max upload speed is only 30Mbps, meaning the VPN could potentially be faster than projected, depending on internet bandwidth.

Download link used: http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/ubuntu-iso/yakkety/ubuntu-16.10-desktop-amd64.iso

Results without VPN

• Server Duke University
• Ping 22 ms
• Average Upload 22 Mbit/s
• Average Download 329 Mbit/s
• Max Download 332 Mbit/s

Results with Windscribe

• Server US East
• Ping 49 ms
• Average Upload 19 Mbit/s
• Average Download 76 Mbit/s
• Max Download 81 Mbit/s

Results with Windscribe

• Server Netherlands, Amsterdam
• Ping 98 ms
• Average upload 11 Mbit/s
• Average download 56 Mbit/s
• Maximum download 60 Mbit/s

Windscribe from the US East Coast did not perform as highly in speed testing as we had hoped, causing significant decreases in both upload and download speeds. While they offer an intuitive and beautifully designed interface, their server speeds at current time of testing could be improved.

[/su_tab] [su_tab title=”Results from The Netherlands”]

The test is performed with a 300 / 30 Mbps cable connection in the Netherlands, Hague. Speed tests with Windscribe active are conducted through the VPN server “Netherlands, Amsterdam #2” and server “Washington DC” on the OpenVPN UDP protocol. Keep in mind that the max upload speed is only 30Mbps, meaning the VPN could potentially be faster than projected, depending on internet bandwidth.

Download link used: http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/ubuntu-releases/16.10/ubuntu-16.10-desktop-amd64.iso

Results without VPN

• Server Ziggo
• Ping 11 ms
• Average Upload 31 Mbit/s
• Average Download 310 Mbit/s
• Max Download 324 Mbit/s

Results with Windscribe

• Server Netherlands, Amsterdam #2
• Ping 16 ms
• Average upload 29 Mbit/s
• Average download 176 Mbit/s
• Maximum download 254 Mbit/s

Results with Windscribe

• Server Washington DC
• Ping 110 ms
• Average upload 27 Mbit/s
• Average download 54 Mbit/s
• Maximum download 90 Mbit/s

If you want to stream without issues, you would need to pick the right server. Washington DC was the fastest one for me, however most other US East servers are too slow. It can be said that their servers in the Netherlands and Europe are much faster compared to the US at this point.

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Servers

Windscribe currently offers over 48 server options in 45 countries. Compared to other VPN services, this is a fairly limited number of server choices. However, it is likely that these options are simply labeled by location, with each one including many servers that are automatically assigned based on availability.

Reliability

Connections made with Windscribe were always reliable. After using all clients for many hours of internet browsing and other activities, we never experienced a dropped connection. Windscribe delivers a beautifully designed interface coupled with great reliability of connections.

Level of Privacy

Windscribe offers a “no logging” policy with their service, meaning that they will never store your personal information. They also claim to delete all logs associated with browsing data no longer than three minutes after you close a session.

IPv6, DNS and WebRTC IP Leak Test

We tested for IP leaks at https://ipleak.net. Windscribe did not leak your IP through WebRTC and IPv6. It also did not leak the DNS address of our ISP. This is consistent with company claims.

[su_row][su_column size=”1/3″]IPv6: [icon name=”fa-check”][/su_column] [su_column size=”1/3″]DNS: [icon name=”fa-check”][/su_column] [su_column size=”1/3″]WebRTC: [icon name=”fa-check”][/su_column][/su_row]

Customer Support

Regarding support options, Windscribe currently offers a FAQ page, a support ticket option, and the ability to send them an email message.

We sent them an email and received a reply in less than 12 hours that fully answered our inquiry.