Windscribe VPN Review: A Secure and Affordable VPN Service

Windscribe VPN 2023 Review
Overall
4.6
  • Speed
    (3.5)
  • Security
    (5)
  • Stability
    (5)
  • Streaming
    (4.5)
  • Downloading
    (5)
  • Brand
    (5)
  • Design
    (4)
Comments Rating 0 (0 reviews)

Summary

Windscribe VPN is a popular and well-liked VPN that offers both free and paid plans to help users more safely connect to the internet. It offers users the ability to connect to unlimited devices. The speeds are decent and won’t stop you from doing what you need to do but at this time there are faster services available. Windscribe is cheap and easy to use but it doesn’t offer a dedicated IP address, so you’ll need to share an IP address with other VPN users. The number of server locations is also low compared to leading competitors. It does have some solid features however that many providers do not offer.

Pros

+ Free Plan with 10GB Allowance
+ Advanced Features (Hotspot, Split Tunneling, Mac Spoof etc.)
+ Great for streaming in the UK and the US
+ Good value with lots of plans and billing options
+ Browser extensions independent of the application.

Cons

– No Audit (Currently in progress)
– Fewer servers and locations than others
– Speeds could be better in some locations
– No Live Support

Windscribe is a decent VPN service – well-known and widely liked. It offers servers in over 69 countries and 110 cities, unlimited simultaneous connections (devices), an excellent free version, works with various streaming services like Netflix, has essential features such as split tunnelling and ad blocking (R.O.B.E.R.T) and has apps for all popular OS.

The VPN has dramatically improved since we last looked at it – its connection speeds have significantly improved in mainstream areas with the introduction of the now market-standard WireGuard tunnelling protocol, and it now has various unique and valuable features.

Windscribe has not, until this day, gone through an independent security audit of their network and security which is the only genuine concern in our review, but they have an audit due to complete this year. What I must add, though, is that they have gone through an independent audit for their desktop software and mobile apps.

Windscribe Features:

Features:
Lowest Price:$5.75 p/m buying 1 full year.
Money Back Guarantee3 Days - must be below 10GB of Data used.
Does this VPN Keep logs?NO, Audit in progress.
Number of servers480
Countries69
Number of devices per licenseUnlimited
Kill switchYes
Dedicated IP?No - Static Shared only
DNS, WebRTC Leak Protection?Yes
Obfuscated Servers?Yes
Based in countryCanada
SupportKB, Email
Supports Streaming?Yes - Limited
Supports Torrents?Yes - Not all Locations
Supports Tor In-App?No
Ad Blocking?Yes
Audited?Apps Only
Protocols Supported?OpenVPN TCP/UDP, Stealth, sTunnel, WireGuard, IKEv2
Open-Source?Yes
RAM Disks?Yes (Reportedly)
Port SpeedsA mixture of 1 and 10Gbps port speeds.
Warrant Canary?No
Port Forwarding?Yes
Trustpilot Score:4.8 - Excellent
Should I? Yes.Buy Now

Network Speeds:

For each location, we test 12 times over three different protocols, servers, and providers in the same region. Each test is an average based on those. In this review, we test over a 260Mbps line from within the UK on a reasonably powerful system. We report the fastest protocol in the chart below.

FREE VPN:

Tested using a 260 Mbps line from the UK:

Location:DownloadUploadLatencyProtocolISP
USA - NY260Mbps20.5Mbps116msWireguardCOGENT
USA - FL210Mbps15.1Mbps243msWireguardM247
USA - LA61Mbps16.9Mbps220msWireguardM247
Canada - Toronto240Mbps25.0Mbps144msWireguardWINDSCRIBE
United Kingdom262Mbps25.0Mbps32msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Germany260Mbps24.8Mbps50msWireguardDatacamp Limited
France261Mbps25.0Mbps49msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Netherlands261Mbps25.1Mbps36msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Hong Kong42Mbps9Mbps405msWireguardPacswitch

PAID VPN:

Tested using a 260 Mbps line from the UK.

Location:DownloadUploadLatencyProtocolISP
USA - NY256Mbps20.5Mbps182msWireguardDatacamp Limited
USA - Chicago242Mbps22.2Mbps199msWireguardQuadraNet
USA - Dallas145Mbps20.7Mbps297msWireguardLeaseWeb
USA - LA187Mbps8.8Mbps368msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Canada - Toronto254Mbps18.0Mbps141msWireguardWindscribe
Canada - Vancouver24Mbps4.4Mbps319msWireguardHotlineservers LLC
Brazil61.5Mbps6.1Mbps240msWireguardQnax
United Kingdom262Mbps24.5Mbps29msWireguardM247
Germany260Mbps24.5Mbps48msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Netherlands261Mbps25.0Mbps34msWireguardDatacamp Limited
France260Mbps25.0Mbps39msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Sweden81.6Mbps24.0Mbps57msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Italy256Mbps13.5Mbps51msWireguardDatacamp Limited
AU - Sydney111Mbps5.9Mbps283msWireguardGSL Networks Pty
AU - Brisbane30.5Mbps5.2Mbps304msWireguardGSL Networks Pty
Hong Kong53.5Mbps3.7Mbps454msWireguardDatacamp Limited
Japan31.9Mbps4.7Mbps266msWireguardDatacamp Limited
South Korea8.2Mbps4.9Mbps315msWireguardDLIVE
South Africa12.4Mbps4.9Mbps199msWireguardWeb4Africa
Israel50.2Mbps24.5Mbps133msWireguardA.b Internet Solutions

As you can see, speeds are excellent in mainstream locations; in some regions, further away, they could be better. Some are a bit lower than we expected, but no VPN is immune to load. All in all, speed-wise, it’s decent.

SOFTWARE:

In this review, we mainly tested the desktop software for Mac OS. The app is based on the QT framework. It may not be as shiny as some other provider apps, but it’s a neat, easy-to-use app with plenty of functionality. The app is easy to operate, and nothing is hard to find.

Windscribe Desktop Software

All locations and options are just a click away. The Windscribe desktop app comes with loads of convenient features, some main ones below:

(R.O.B.E.R.T) is a DNS-based filtering solution to block Ads/Trackers, Malware and even has lists such as Social Media, ClickBait or “Other VPNs”. You can manage your rules within the apps or add your own custom rules.

Secure Hotspot is an option you can use if, for example, you have a device that does not support a VPN client and don’t have a physical router that supports VPN. You can activate this option (if your NIC supports it) and create your own VPN wifi access point directly on your PC/Laptop.

Split Tunneling in the Windscribe app supports IP addresses and hostnames only – it will not be a full-blown option that lets you exclude/include apps from the VPN, but it’s still handy in its current form.

MAC Spoofing is a handy option if, for example, you are a gamer or use betting apps. Some betting apps and games detect and block your MAC address, so spoofing it will bypass this block.

The Firewall in Windscribe is akin to a killswitch but a bit more robust and reliable than a regular killswitch – it certainly worked as expected. Still, we have not yet thoroughly tested this feature, which we will do in a further article.

SECURITY:

Strong Encryption:

Windscribe VPN offers the most robust encryption protocols for complete internet privacy, from using AES-256 data encryption with SHA512 authentication and 4096-bit RSA keys. You can also generate configuration files for OpenVPN, IKEv2 and WireGuard on a Pro account which allows you to use third-party apps if need be.

Logging Policy:

Windscribe VPN has a no-logs policy that claims not to store connection logs, browsing history and IP timestamps on both VPN servers and authentication servers, so your activities remain untraceable. Windscribe VPN monitors your most recent connection to count your monthly data consumption to help identify data usage for accounts on free tier plans. Still, we know this can be done without any need to log individual details, but we don’t know how Windscribe does this internally. There has not been any third-party audit or verification of Windscribe’s claims in its privacy policy, but it does claim an audit is currently in progress. We will update this review once this is complete.

Multifactor Authentication:

Windscribe offers 2FA protection for both the VPN and your Windscribe billing account, VPN accounts are notoriously sought after, and VPN providers are regularly probed or brute-forced by hackers to gain access and take over your account or who use it without your knowledge and so having the ability to enable 2FA on VPN servers or billing accounts, we believe is essential in this day and age for adequate security.

TORRENTS AND STREAMING:

As with most VPNs these days, you may need to try a few servers or locations to get the correct IP that works with the service you wish to view; however, with Windscribe, we had no such problem. Most mainstream US streaming services worked at the first attempt, as did UK services. We found streaming best in the UK and the US.

Torrent-wise, Windscribe worked a treat; all downloads were completed very quickly and without any issues – Windscribe offers port forwarding on their static IP offering, which could help with anyone having speed issues during torrents.

STATIC / SHARED IP:

Windscribe offers the option of a Static IP; this IP is shared amongst other users but at a much lesser extent than you would on IPs assigned to you on the regular network and so is less prone to being blacklisted, abused by spammers or malware distributors. There are different types of IPs on offer, though, one being a data centre IP and one being a residential IP; we will briefly explain the difference below.

Datacenter IP:

A data centre IP is an IP owned usually by a web hosting company that rents servers – this is where most VPN companies rent servers that provide their network; this type of IP is usually deemed risky because VPN providers use 99.9% of the time using these types of IPs. This has led to many online services, from streaming to gambling, blocking the ASN of the hosting company that owns them; this way, they block every IP this company owns rather than blocking thousands of individual IPs.

This IP is not recommended for streaming/gambling-type sites; there is a high chance it’s already blocked.

Residential IP:

Residential IPs are IP addresses we are generally assigned at home by our internet provider; these IPs are typically not blocked unless it’s a known proxy, a tor relay or on a blacklist, and so it’s highly unlikely to be blacklisted and blocked from streaming or gambling-type services. The only caveat with these types of IPs is they are usually quite expensive as they are costly for VPN providers to provide.

If you want to surf, stream, gamble and even download without problems, then this is the type of IP you want.

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