This Romanian VPN provider comes with a promise to be “safer, better and faster”. But that can be brushed off as a marketing tactic right?
So I checked its reviews on various forums and found a staggering number of positive feedback. Also, the fact that its created by an IT solutions company had me intrigued to write this review of VPN.ac.
Although it is still a fairly small name in the VPN industry, it has managed to boost a considerable number of followers. So I surely had to see what they are offering!
I have compiled this review through an elaborate process and have done various tests to see where in privacy VPN.ac stands. So curious to know if it’s good enough? Read on!
Overview
Here is what I have generally conceived of the service so far.
| Type | Findings |
| Anonymity Level | I checked it through various tests and found it to be 9.3 |
| Jurisdiction | Located in Romania which is somewhat safe |
| Log Policy | A shady log policy without a log audit report but a clean history. |
| Servers | 117 servers in over 21 countries |
| Netflix | Allows streaming Netflix |
| Torrenting | It allows torrenting through recommended servers |
| Refund Policy | Offers refund within 7 days |
| Pricing | $9 for a 1-month subscription |
| Website | https://vpn.ac/ |
Overall experience
It is using exemplary encryption protocols and is compatible withP2P. Additionally, I found it working well with Netflix which is great! While using the app I faced no hurdles and my experience was fairly smooth too.
Drawback
While going through the logging policy It seemed very suspicious to me. The absence of a log audit report made things even more suspicious! Apart from that, its Jurisdiction, although seemingly safe is a part of the EU which makes it doubtfully secure!
Anonymity Table
I ran the service through a series of grueling tests to see how anonymous it is.
| Method | Findings | Rate |
| Logging | A shady log policy without a log audit report | 5 |
| Kill Switch | Working perfectly | 10 |
| IP Leak | Not Leaking | 10 |
| DNS Leak | Not Leaking | 10 |
| Torrent IP Leak | Not Leaking | 10 |
| IPv6 Leak | Not Leaking | 10 |
| Browser Leak | Not Leaking | 10 |
| Encryption | Found using secure OpenVPN protocol | 9.5 |
| Tor/VPN | It is compatible | 9.2 |
| Anonymity Level | Calculated it based on various VPN Leaks tests | 9.3 |
Testing For VPN Leaks through Different Methods.
The following tests allow me to see if there are any possible data leaks through the VPN.ac connection.
IPLeaks Test
As VPNs provide protection by masking your true IP, an IP Leak means privacy exposed! I checked VPN.ac through this test and found No IP Leaks.
DNS Leak Test
As this test is crucial, so for proper analysis I sent 100 requests through this tool simultaneously. I found No DNS Leaks.
WebRTC Leaks Test
Although I got its results with the IP Leaks test, I still checked the connection through this tool to keep up the flow. I found No WebRTC Leaks.
Torrent IP Leaks Test
I checked for Torrent IP Leaks as torrenting without encryption is unsecure. There were No Torrent IP Leaks with the connection.
IPv6 Leaks Test
Checking for IPv6 Leaks with a VPN is essential. I checked VPN.ac and found No IPv6 Leaks
Kill Switch
Although most VPN services claim to have kill switch protection they usually fail to provide us with a working Kill switch. However, with VPN.ac the kill switch was working perfectly fine!
What Encryption Standard They Are Using
VPN.ac claims to provide encryption through fairly secure encryption protocols that are:
- OpenVPN ECC
- 256-bit OpenVPN
- 128-bit OpenVPN
- OpenVPN XOR
- L2TP/IPSec
Instead of blindly trusting their word, I ran a test on the connection to see the encryption protocol they are using.
I found the network protected through UDP which is an OpenVPN protocol. This is by far the most secure VPN protocol available! And as far as security is concerned VPN.ac seems quite secure!
Privacy Insights
VPNs are tools used to gain privacy and anonymity online. Therefore, it is better to see the privacy it is offering before subscribing to the service. By looking into the following things you can determine the privacy VPN.ac is offering:
Logging Policy
Logging policies are specifically crucial to look at. After all, VPN logging data means a definite breach of privacy.
I scored through the “Privacy Policy” of VPN.ac and came across some alarming stuff! First off, although they claim to have a fairly strict no-log policy, they do accept keeping connection logs and IP addresses. Logging IP address means identity exposed!
Also, they have clearly stated that if they get a court order they will succumb to it and provide user’s information.
The key question here is that if they claim to keep no logs what data will they even provide? The fact that it has no third-party log audit is more suspicious. These clauses have surely thrown a dark shade over VPN.ac!
Jurisdiction
It is important to look up the jurisdiction of a VPN provider. Why? Well if it lies in a 5, 9 or 14 eyes country then that VPN is a clear No Go!
VPN.ac lies in a fairly safe jurisdiction that is Romains. This country is although a registered member of the EU doesn’t have any data retention laws.
Previous Track Records
I scoured through the internet to see if they have ever been a part of selling user information. I searched deep in news archives, forums like Reddit and even the Deep Dark Web but found no such scandal!
Crypto payments
Crypto payments allow complete security and anonymity over the internet. I scoured through VPN.ac payment plans and was pleased to find the crypto payment option available. At least there is some way they ensure privacy!
Tor compatibility
Tor is another popular security tool but it has its drawbacks. However, if you use it with a VPN you can cancel out those disadvantages!
Now, this is entirely based on my experience with VPN.ac. I tried to run Tor with it and it was astoundingly compatible! There was a significant improvement in the speeds. Also, the encryption standard it was using was UDP which is great with Tor and very secure.
Netflix with VPN.ac
As Netflix is banning IP addresses of VPN providers, I tried using it with VPN.ac. There were many servers that were working fine. The best part? There were no “buffering” hindrances either.
So there is one sure perk of VPN.ac being a small name in the industry, that it stayed off the radar for Netflix!
Torrenting
As VPN.ac promises to not block P2P traffic, I decided to check their service with BitTorrent and uTorrent clients.
I found VPN.ac working well with torrenting. The provided encryption level was UDP which is quite secure and the speeds were good too! All in all, it was a fairly robust performance.
For torrenting they recommend their servers located in Canada-Toronto, Finland, Sweden, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, and Romania.
Payment Insights
While opting for a VPN service payment insights are one of the key factors to ponder over. After all, we all want a convenient payment plan to subscribe to! VPN.ac offers a diverse payment plan for its subscribers:
- 1-month subscription for $9
- A 3-months long subscription for $24 ($8/ month) offering savings of 11%
- A year-long subscription for $58 ($ 4.8/ month) allowing savings of 48%
- 2 year subscription for $90 ($ 3.75/ month) offering 62% savings.
All these payments are made in USD only.
Payment Method
There are various payment methods available such as PayPal, Alipay, UnionPay, and Bitcoins. And for those who want to stick to mainstream ways, they can pay through credit/debit cards.
Refund Policy
Although they have no free trial available they do offer a 7-day refund policy. All you have to do is inform them before the completion of 7-days of your purchase! But they usually try to resolve your queries and may question you but the refund process is smooth!
Final words
On the surface it sure seems to be a somewhat great VPN service, however, its shady logging policy sure has red flags waving! The only way you can use this service is if you want to use Netflix! Otherwise for privacy? It’s surely a “not recommend”!
