To produce an honest CactusVPN review. I have the get a premium subscription to test that all. Let’s get started!
CactusVPN is a small-to-medium-sized VPN provider that promises to keep users anonymous and private on the internet. Scrolling through its website, the security tools it promises to offer is surely impressive. However, the reviews available on forums like Reddit or Quora paint an entirely different picture.
Instead of muddling over it, the ultimate way out is to subscribe to CactusVPN and find out if it is worthy of use. I put it through some grueling tests which resulted in this review. Here you will find a
detailed insight into everything that CactusVPN offers to its users. So, let’s begin with this review.
Who Owns CactusVPN?
CactusVPN is a small and independent VPN company that was founded back in 2011. The company is based in Moldova, a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, and falls outside the global surveillance alliance.
The country also doesn’t follow any mandatory data retention laws and can go to any extent to protect user information. The company isn’t under any pressure to hand over the customer data to higher authorities. Moreover, the country has pro-consumer data protection legislation that is equal to GDPR. Under these laws, the users have the right to request and delete any personal information kept on them.
The company also has no previous track record of being involved in some data leak scandals. So, as a whole, CactusVPN remains spotlessly clean and belongs to a safe jurisdiction that gives users some peace of mind.
Quick Overview
The features measure a VPN’s popularity and the success it offers to the users. CactusVPN is reasonably good and covers most of the features, including strong encryption, downloading torrents, and streaming Netflix. The table below gives a brief insight into all the features that CactusVPN offers to users.
| Features | Explanation |
| Encryption | Uses AES-256 bit encryption (standard) |
| VPN protocol | OpenVPN, L2TP/IPSec, IKEv2, PPTP, SSTP, SoftEther, WireGuard |
| Servers | 39 servers in 22 countries |
| P2P support | 9 P2P-optimized servers with no bandwidth limit. |
| Device support | Unlimited simultaneous connections on Mac, Windows, Android, and more |
| Browser Extensions | Chrome and Firefox |
| Kill Switch | It has an active working kill switch protection |
| Jurisdiction | Moldova |
| Log policy | Do not keep logs |
| Log audit | Do not have a log audit report |
| Website | www.cactusvpn.com |
CactusVPN claims that all these features make it compete with other top-tier service providers. But, for more satisfaction, it’s better to test each VPN. In the latter part of the article, let’s review each feature separately.
Security Features
CactusVPN claims to be a secure VPN that protects against different kinds of VPN leaks. To vouch for the security credibility of CactusVPN, I ran the following leak test on the connection.
– IP Leak Protection
With CactusVPN, you’ll get IP leak protection. When an IP leak test was conducted, the VPN wasn’t revealing the actual IP address.
– DNS Leak Protection
CactusVPN claims to provide DNS leak protection. When the VPN was checked for DNS leaks, there were no DNS leaks found. It means that CactusVPN ensures that your DNS requests are carried securely without exposing any details about your online identity and activities.
– WebRTC Leak Protection
Even if your VPN is protecting against IP and DNS leaks, still vulnerabilities in your browser can expose your identity to all snooping eyes. Thus, it is better to check that your browser isn’t leaking the WebRTC. With most VPN fails to prevent browser leaks, CactusVPN, fortunately, prevents WebRTC leaks. For further satisfaction, a test was conducted, and it was impressive to find no WebRTC leaks.
– IPv6 Leak Protection
Like other big VPN names, it was expected that CactusVPN would be offering IPv6 leak protection for maximum online security. Unfortunately, when tested, it was not offering IPv6 leak protection.
– Encryption
Another promising claim that CactusVPN made was about the encryption it provides to the users. When the VPN encryption was tested using the Wireshark software, they proved their stance. CactusVPN is a secure VPN and uses the industry’s highest military-grade AES-256 bit encryption, 2048-bit DHE-RSA key exchange, and SHA256 authentication, making your data completely untraceable.
Such strong encryption prevents ISPs, hackers, and government agencies from tracking your online activities and makes it impossible for them to decrypt the traffic you send and receive.
Moreover, CactusVPN also uses seven different encryption protocols, which you can choose manually to customize and route your data traffic. The protocols are as follows:
- OpenVPN
- IKEv2 (Available only in Mac)
- L2TP/IPSec
- SSTP
- PPTP
- Soft Ether
- WireGuard
WireGuard is the latest protocol available on all CactusVPN supported devices and promises to speed up your internet connection. If you are using the Windows platform, then again, all these protocols are available. But, the bad news is that only the IKEv2 protocol is available on the Mac platform.
Privacy Features
Besides providing a top-notch level of security, a VPN’s fundamental goal is to boost your online privacy. For this purpose, a VPN comes with various privacy-focused features that enhance users’ online protection. The following mentioned below are the privacy features that CactusVPN offers.
Logging Policy
It is crucial to go through the VPN log policy carefully before subscribing to it. A VPN with a suspicious log policy or keeps logs kills the entire purpose of using a VPN. After scoring through the CactusVPN logging policy, I was glad to see that the VPN follows a strict no-log policy.
The service provider doesn’t collect or share any of your connection logs or browsing activities. Also, while searching on the internet, no news or report lashes out at CactusVPN for revealing users’ logs.
According to their website:
However, the VPN also doesn’t have any transparency reports or third-party log audit reports to prove their words. The company should focus on this area to win more users’ trust.
Kill Switch
A VPN that comes without a kill switch can expose your IP address and other sensitive data and risk your online privacy. But with CactusVPN, you don’t have to worry about it anymore. CactusVPN app comes with an active kill switch feature. It prevents your device from connecting to the internet world if your VPN connection drops.
Perfect Forward Secrecy
Another impressive feature that enhances your online privacy is the perfect forward secrecy (PFS). This feature ensures that you have a different encryption key for every new session you start. If the hacker gets hold of your encryption key in any chance, they won’t harm your data because they would see what you did during one session and not all the activities you perform while connected on the VPN.
This feature is of great use while you’re downloading torrents or sending any sensitive information over the web. But, if you’re using the VPN for streaming purposes, then this feature isn’t for you.
Split Tunneling
Split tunneling is an amazing feature that allows you to route your data traffic via an encrypted tunnel while other data goes through the open network. With this feature, you can save bandwidth as the unencrypted data travels faster than the encrypted one. Thus, this feature speeds up the connection while you download torrents. Also, you can use this feature when you’ve to send some private information using the VPN while still accessing your local network devices.
App Killer
CactusVPN comes with another innovative feature similar to kill switch but known as the app killer that many other service providers lack. With the app killer, you can close any app of your choice when your VPN connection is lost. By doing so, your online activities via the apps will remain invisible to the outside world when the VPN connection gets interrupted.
Compatibility With Tor
If you’re a privacy-conscious person, using Tor with a compatible VPN is the best option. If your VPN is compatible with the Tor browser, it first encrypts the internet traffic and then connects you to the Tor browser. CactusVPN is compatible with Tor, and when tested, there was a considerable change in the speed, which is a good sign.
TCP Port 443
The VPN has a TCP Port 443 that reroutes all the incoming connections that help in bypassing firewalls. Using the TCP port encrypts sensitive information when you’re browsing HTTPS sites. In this way, they prevent anyone from invading your network and increase your online protection.
Here’s some extra information that you must know about CactusVPN:
Does CactusVPN Support Torrenting?
Yes, CactusVPN allows torrenting on 9 P2P-optimized servers, and they’re well labeled and easy to find in the app. The VPN is a good option for downloading torrents because it doesn’t leak IP addresses or DNS and has a strict no-log policy. Also, the VPN encrypts the data using strong encryption, but since it has a minimal server network, speeds on local servers are undoubtedly good. But, if you want to download large files outside Europe that you experience speed issues.
If your primary use of a VPN is torrenting, you should use other compatible VPNs for torrenting like NordVPN and ExpressVPN. They have an extensive server network and fast speeds that guarantee a fast torrenting experience.
Does CactusVPN Work on Netflix?
CactusVPN comes with an innovative SmartDNS feature. It is helpful for streaming geo-blocked content. With the SmartDNS feature, you can unblock the streaming content in HD quality on Netflix or any other streaming platform.
When tested, CactusVPN successfully unblocks US Netflix. But, the issue is that if you use the SmartDNS feature, you won’t be able to use other VPN features. Thus, it is a good choice if you use CactusVPN to unblock Netflix on streaming devices like Android TV or Amazon TV. Otherwise, you have to maintain your online security yourself.
Does CactusVPN Offer a Free Trial?
Yes, CactusVPN does offer a one-free trial along with a 30-day money-back guarantee offer to the users. But some exceptions make it difficult to get back the refund. You are only eligible to get the refund if:
- You can not connect to the VPN servers
- The Smart DNS feature is not working
- Websites you want to access through the SmartDNS feature are blocked.
How Many Servers Does CactusVPN Have?
Unfortunately, CactusVPN is not among the VPNs like NordVPN or CyberGhost that has its servers spread in almost every corner of the world. They have a minimal 39 server network that’s spread in 22 countries. The company must expand its server network as it boosts the connection speed and gives better performance while downloading or streaming.
Does CactusVPN Work in China?
Because of the SoftEther protocol that helps bypass firewalls, CactusVPN sometimes might work in China. But it is not guaranteed that CactusVPN will give off exceptional performance in China. It is because of the increasing sophistication of internet restrictions in China. Thus, it’s recommended to use the best VPN for China.
How Many Users Can Connect to CactusVPN?
With one CactusVPN subscription, you can use the service on an unlimited number of devices. You can download the CactusVPN app on all supported devices, including:
- Android
- iOS
- macOS
- Android TV
- Apple TV
- Amazon FireTV’Stick
- Routers
- Gaming consoles
- Windows.
Does CactusVPN Offer a Dedicated IP Address?
No, CactusVPN doesn’t offer a dedicated IP address. It assigns a static shared IP address. It means that many people use the same IP address as you, which makes it impossible for anyone to tell who is accessing which website. In short, it is untraceable and more secure to use.
Final Verdict
CactusVPN offers decent security to the users. It uses military-grade encryption and a variety of encryption protocols to safeguard the data from the prying eyes. But, the VPN has a limited server network. Also is not very reliable to use for Netflix, lacks log audit reports, and offers mediocre speed, making it not a good option to consider.
If have any experience with CactusVPN, please review the service for new subscribers, cactus van review helps users.
