In our series on different VPN services, we will today undertake one of the lesser heard, yet capable VPN service that has carved a niche for itself. Windscribe is a Canada based VPN service that has more than 500 servers spread across 60 countries and offers you a very decent performance in most of the areas. We will check the VPN service out based on different parameters and find how it fairs against the competitors.
Windscribe Cyber Monday VPN – The Features
Windscribe is based in Canada and has been observed to be one of the excellent options if you are looking for the perfect experience in offering a good service for the customers who are US based. One of the best options we found with it lies in the fact that it offers you a free plan with a 10 GB per month.
The security
Windscribe provides you access to a reliable security service and capability. Running multiple leak tests has indicated that there are no DNS or IP leaks. The service does come with DNS/IPv6 leak protection which should further provide you access to a truly wonderful security features.
A few other security measures we found rather impressive would include the WebRTC leak protection and an automatic kill switch. Windscribe loves calling these security measures its firewall. Windscribe makes use of a great list of VPN protocols. Support for a wide range of VPN protocols such as OpenVPN, SOCKS 5 protocol, and IKEv2shoud make it one of the reliable options you would want to go with. The service, however, uses the IKEv2 protocol as the default option.
If you have a desktop version, you can have access to AES – 256 ciphers with SHA512 auth and a 4096-bit RSA key encryption. The browser extensions make use of the AES 128 GCMcipher encryption with P-256 key exchange and TLS 1.2, ECDHE_RSA.
VPN Speeds
The speeds at which the VPN service works should be one of the prime factors you need to think of and Windscribe lives up to your expectations with decent speed performance. You can be assured of faster connection speeds to provide you access to a great degree of reliability.
Tests showed variable results when conducted on reliable connections throughout the day. On an average, the Windscribe VPN showed speed reductions to the tune of 38 to 42 percent across download and upload speeds.
However, these reductions do not appear to be impractical given the fact that VPN is bound to reduce your speeds since it encrypts your data and thus the tests do appear to prove that the VPN service is quite efficient.
Server network
The Windscribe VPN service does offer you access to over 530 different servers spread across 60 countries. Do note that if you are a free user, you will have access to the servers in around just 11 countries. In fact, a wide range of servers are reserved for the Pro users.
With a considerably good number of servers spread across Americas, Europe, Asia, and even a few in Africa, you should be able to have access to a server that best meets your needs. A good number of servers are located in the US and that can be one of the best options you would find extremely impressive.
One of the best factors we found extremely useful and practical with Windscribe is that it lets you choose the server of your choice. If you are looking to gain access to the geo blocked content, this feature can be something you would find rather interesting and effective in helping you achive your task rather efficiently.
If you compare the Windscribe VPN service with the other service providers, it would be quite important to find that the number of servers may appear to be quite lower in number. However, rather than looking for the server locations spread across the world, it would be quite practical to give a thought to the number of servers within a single region.
Which streaming services does Windscribe work with?
One of the primary reasons you are checking out a VPN server is to find if it can handle the geo blocked content and can provide you access to a service that is actually not available in your region.
Windscribe does provide you access to the dedicated VPN servers that would assist you in masking your IP address and get access to a few content without issues. The service was tested to provide a complete access to Netflix in multiple regions and countries. The dedicated VPN servers used for Netflix are known as Windflix and offer you a perfectly designed functionality for accessing VPN anywhere you want to.
The VPN did not work in a few of our tests for Hulu UK and Netflix UK. It was, however, observed to work with the major streaming services such as Netflix, iPlayer, and YouTube.
Some other services that were observed to offer an excellent service quality would include –
- BBC iPlayer
- Disney+
- Hulu
- YouTube
Customer Support
The only way to get in touch with Windscribe customer support is through email tickets. The support team usually returns with a reply within a few hours, but it may take a few days in certain cases. In fact, compared to a wide range of VPN services, we found that the customer service dos not impress much with Windscribe.
The missing live chat can be one of the factors we found a little annoying. We would indeed look ahead to find a good support coming up in future. However, you do have access to a great deal of service offered through the content already available on the site. This includes online library of guides, FAQs, and knowledge bases and a subreddit as well.
You also have a Talk To Garry option that we thought to be a live cha option, but it turned out to be an automated response system. The chat too is not available 24 x 7 which can further be an annoying issue.
What are Windscribe Logging Policies?
Logging polices of a VPN service is yet another most important element you want to pay special attention to. The only data that Windscribe keeps can include username, password, email address, and payment method. That apart, it does not keep any of your data. It can also keep track of your data usage in terms of bytes used.
The service will not store the original IP address of the sites that you have visited. It keeps a minimum logs and handles them only for the maintenance purposes alone.
The service logs the following data –
- The amount of data transferred in the past 30 days
- A timestamp of your last activity on the Windscribe VPN network
- The number of simultaneous connections on your account
- Your OpenVPN or IKEv2 username (until the end of your session)
- The time you connected (until the end of your session)
Is Windscribe good for Torrenting?
Windscribe provides you access to torrenting on most of its servers. You should be able to find the servers where you are not allowed to use P2P connection. Just look for the crossed P2P icon on your server selection screen to find if the server you have picked allows torrenting.
Windscribe can be a good option for torrenting as most of its dedicated servers allow a P2P activity. It was also observed that the torrenting speeds were also substantially good enough and allowed an efficient performance for your torrenting needs. Since the P2P optimisation has been configured through an equal distribution across the world, that should provide you a consistent performance with torrenting on all supported servers.
We tested Windscribe VPN with torrenting clients such as uTorrent, Deluge, qBittorrent, and VUZE and found it working effectively across the different scenarios. However, if you are in Canada, you will find that the country has stringent copyright laws. It would be advisable to give a serious thought to find the server you are connected to and the copyright laws and their jurisdiction in your region.
Apps and Extensions
One of the biggest capabilities offered by the VPN services lies in the fact that it offers you an excellent multi platform compatibility. The service is extremely compatible across all major platforms such as Windows, Linux, Mac and even smartphone ecosystems.
You have access to a meticulously developed client for Windows. The app for Mac OS X can be one of the thoughtful options you would find something rather an enhanced option in its own right. As with Linux, we found the VPN service offering a decent beta version in the making. The product provides you access to different distros – Ubunto 19.04, Debian 10, Fedora 22+, and CentOS 6+.
The support for Android and iOS apps on Windscribe has been one of the excellent options ever. If you are on Android, you can make use of the Windscribe VPN via IKEv2 protocol or use its dedicated app. The additional security features on the platform should further make it one of the exciting options ever. The iOS app too offers the same functionality s the Android app. Of course, there are a few little variations based on the platform.
Browser extensions available for the popular browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Opera browsers. It provides you an one touch access to your websites and services.
How much does Windscribe Cost?
Windscribe comes with a freemium model. The pricing of the premium plans appear to be slightly costlier than a few other VPN services. They have three paid plans along with one free plan.
The plans offer you the following options –
- Monthly plan – The plan is available at $9.00 per month. It can be a good option if you are checking out the services as a trial. If you are satisfied, it may be a god idea to opt for other long terms plans.
- Annual Plan – The annual plan costs you $ 4.08 per month. You will be billed at $ 49 per year for a 12 year period. That would provide you access to an enhanced experience ever.
- Build a Plan – This is one of the exciting options where you can create your plan. The plan can be built right from $1.00 a month.
A Few Pros and Cons
Pros
- You can unblock up to 42 Netflix libraries
- Torrenting added on most of the servers.
- No logs policy
- The free version is one of the excellent options
- Unlimited simultaneous connections
Cons
- Performance may be slower on longer distances
- No live chat option
- Based in Canada which has strict copyright policy.
A Few FAQs
Is the free version of Windscribe any good?
If you are not much into browsing, Windscribe has been one of the prime options you would find quite impressive. While it would offer you access to limited servers, but you stand to gain an excellent service quality ever.
Is Windscribe VPN a safe option?
Yes. Windscribe VPN is one of the bright options from the safety point of view. However, the Canada based operation can prove to be a concern.
Does Windscribe have a kill switch?
Yes, Windscribe comes with a kill switch. This will ensure that your connection will go off as soon as the VPN connection drops out. This can be helpful in safeguarding your data.
Does Windscribe support P2P?
Yes. Most of the servers on Windscribe support P2P and torrenting. However, it is advisable to check out the individual servers to find if it allows P2P connection.
The Closing Thoughts
So, would we recommend Windscribe? It would be dependent. While the Windscribe Free has been observed to be a good option, we found a few inherent issues with the Pro plans. We observed a few prime issues with streaming services which is actually the prime reason one opts for a VPN service. The premium plans are a bit expensive when compared to the other services and that is one of the reasons we found a little out of place.
You may use Windscribe as it has a lot of things that it does best, but we would not consider it the best choice though.