CyberGhost Review

Using a VPN is becoming more necessary than ever before. What was once a trend for those who craved anonymity on the internet for whatever reason is now a popular response against an increase in cybercrime and data mining.

Still, there are a lot of options to choose from when it comes to picking out the right VPN for you. Among the best contenders is CyberGhost, a fast and secure VPN service that’s been available for over 15 years. Read through this CyberGhost review to determine if it’s the right VPN for you and your sensitive data.

What Is CyberGhost?

CyberGhost is a VPN, which stands for virtual private network. It hides your IP address from everyone by redirecting your traffic through a VPN server. The company has servers across the world, so you choose which server you want to use when you’re online.

The company doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know what you’re browsing, downloading, or doing online. Because of these features, CyberGhost users refer to it as the best VPN on the market for privacy and anonymity. 

CyberGhost was founded in 2011 in Bucharest, Romania, by a German entrepreneur Robert Knapp. In 2017, the company was sold to a cybersecurity firm Kape Technologies, headquartered in the Isle of Man. It’s a UK territory, but with different laws and regulations, especially in terms of online businesses. 

The location of the company and the parent company keeps CyberGhost VPN free of strict regulations imposed by the 5/9/14 Eyes countries. This alliance is an agreement among the wealthiest, English-speaking countries in the world to monitor internet user activity and protect national security. 

It results in blocked sites, tracked activity, and the removal of anonymity online. It’s all in good faith, but many simply don’t want to be watched while doing something private, like using the internet. 

CyberGhost Price Plans

With high-quality service comes a high-quality price. CyberGhost isn’t the cheapest VPN out there, but if you’re looking for a great service that won’t boot you off right in the middle of a streaming marathon, it might be worth the price. 

It offers a monthly payment option, which varies depending on how long you wish to order the service. All plans offer a complete set of premium features, and you can always try CyberGhost Free VPN for 24 hours before committing to the payment option. 

• Monthly Plan: $12.99 per month with a 14-day money-back guarantee
• 6 Months: $6.39 a month, or $38.34 billed at six months with a 45-day money-back guarantee
• 2 Years: $2.17 a month or $58.50 billed once a year

When compared to other similar services on the market, the cost of CyberGhost can be described as mid-range. The monthly plan is more expensive than a lot of the competition, but it evens out if you opt for the six-month or two-year option. The best selection is the elusive three-year plan mentioned in other CyberGhost reviews, but at the time of writing, we couldn’t find it available. 

It’s nice to have the opportunity to learn about a product before deciding to purchase, especially with a VPN. CyberGhost provides the opportunity for you to download and test the product for 24 hours on desktop or 48 hours on mobile. No credit information is required to access the CyberGhost free trial, just your email. 

If 24 hours isn’t enough time for you, you can choose the option of signing up for the monthly plan and receive a 14-day money-back guarantee. You’ll have to pay upfront but can cancel at any point within the time frame. If that’s still not enough, signup for the six-month plan and receive a 45-day money-back guarantee, giving you plenty of time to decide if CyberGhost prices are worth the investment. 

CyberGhost Features

As one of the best-selling VPNs on the market, CyberGhost offers many options and features, and most users find them extremely useful once they get the hang of the interface. It is easy to navigate, and it shouldn’t take you more than five minutes to set up everything. Features are a key component of any CyberGhost VPN review and are detailed below.  

NoSpy Servers

Probably one of CyberGhost’s most unique features is its use of NoSpy servers. The somewhat James Bondish name is given to a range of highly secure servers located at the company’s HQ in Romania. They are entirely managed by company staff without any external interference. 

Finding them is easy in the Windows app as they are listed in the server menu. On the Mac app, choose Romania first and then find NoSpy servers listed at the bottom. As far as the CyberGhost for Android and iOS are concerned, the procedure is the same. 

There is a drawback to this feature, however. The servers are in Romania, meaning that if you are located far away, the connection speed can be slow, and server congestion has also been mentioned as a problem. 

The feature is free for annual subscribers, but if you have just a monthly subscription, it will cost you $59.88 every year. We didn’t have any problems with speed while testing it out for our CyberGhost review, but that can vary.

Kill Switch

A kill switch is a must-have feature for any self-respecting VPN, and with CyberGhost, it’s available on all platforms. This feature blocks all traffic if the VPN connection becomes shaky or you’re moving from one server to another.

Unlike other VPNs that require you to turn it on manually, CyberGhost’s kill switch turns on immediately after you connect to a server. It ensures your online activity is always protected and makes CyberGhost one of the best VPN programs for ensuring privacy and security.

A drawback is that the kill switch can slow down the traffic. You can shut it down in the settings, but honestly, it kind of defeats the purpose of the VPN if you do.

Split Tunneling

Split tunneling allows you to choose which apps will use the VPN and which will bypass it. It’s useful when you want to browse some local and foreign websites at the same time.

Unfortunately, it’s only available with CyberGhost for Windows and Android. Mac and iOS users will have to wait for this feature to become available on Apple devices.

Ad Blocker

The main task of the ad blocker feature is to block malware, trackers, and ads, but it works differently than some other ad blockers out there. Instead of blocking all ads, CyberGhost’s ad blocker only eliminates ads if they have malware. That means you could still see ads when streaming YouTube videos or visiting famous news websites.

Unfortunately, our CyberGhost trial showed that the ad blocker doesn’t work on HTTPS websites because of its filtering method. So let’s just say it isn’t the main selling feature for this VPN.

Military Grade Encryption

CyberGhost provides the highest level of encryption currently available in the world: AES 256-bit encryption. This feature not only hides your IP address, but the software also redirects all traffic through an encrypted tunnel. This ensures private browsing from both prying eyes and CyberGhost itself. Our CyberGhost review found that this differentiates the service from many other VPNs, which admit to collecting at least some information about subscribers. 

Multiple Devices 

With just one subscription, CyberGhost provides protection for seven separate devices. The next best offer that competitors can make in comparison is five devices. The process is simple, but there is a drawback. You are assigning specific devices to these slots, which get remembered. If you fill all the slots and add another device, even if the others are turned off, you have to empty the slot first and manually add the new device.

CyberGhost WiFi Protection

Few VPNs offer WiFi protection, and it’s a shame because it can be helpful. You can choose CyberGhost to launch automatically or ignore specific WiFi networks. That way, if you need to connect to an unsecured public WiFi network (and they are always unsecured), VPN will provide you with an extra layer of protection.

Dedicated IP Address

CyberGhost is a contender for the title of the best VPN, and with a dedicated IP feature, it pretty much takes the cake. By enabling you to get a dedicated IP address from the US, Germany, France, UK, or Canada, it will help you avoid CAPTCHAs and access different IP-restricted networks. It can also be beneficial when you try to access a business system or stream content from some providers with strict policies.

There are two drawbacks to this feature: The first is that It will increase your monthly CyberGhost cost by $5. The second is that websites will recognize you since you’ll consistently have the same IP address every time you visit. 

The second isn’t so much of a problem because you can easily switch between the static and dynamic IP address, depending on specific website requirements.

Browser Extensions for Chrome and Firefox

It’s nice to know that there is a free CyberGhost VPN, but unfortunately, it’s just a browser extension. It’s easy to install, and you don’t even need to create an account. The tests showed that it works fine and has no leaks.

There are some limitations, however. 

It doesn’t provide complete VPN protection, so we don’t recommend it for torrenting or sensitive online activities. A significant drawback of this CyberGhost free version is there are only four server locations to choose from, meaning they can get congested and dramatically reduce speed.

Three Security Protocols

CyberGhost provides its users with three security protocols: standard OpenVPN, IKEv2, and the newest WireGuard protocol. The latest addition to the list does offer higher speeds, but it’s not proven yet like the first two protocols.

The drawback is that certain protocols are only available for specific apps. For instance, IKEv2 is only for iOS, Mac, and Windows, while OpenVPN is available for Android, Windows, Linux, and smart TVs.

Wireguard is, at the moment, only available for the CyberGhost Linux app, but the company stated that it should be available across platforms soon.

Categorized Servers

The creators wanted to make our lives easier, so they categorized the servers according to their intended use, such as streaming, gaming, and torrenting. It’s a real-time-saver because 99% of the time, VPN users are doing one of these things. Because of features like these, many gamers state that CyberGhost is the best home VPN service. 

While some users have reported slower speeds, choosing servers that are far away will be slower with any VPN service. By selecting servers that are the closest or using the function “Best Location,” you can ensure top-quality speed and protection.

iOS and Android apps don’t currently have torrenting or downloading optimized servers, a significant drawback to using mobile with CyberGhost. 

How to use CyberGhost VPN?

The first step is installing the software. Go to the company’s website and select either the free trial option or the subscription plan you wish to sign up for. After installing the app, you will see a slick-designed window with a large icon notifying you about the current status of your VPN on the right, a list of servers, and the settings bar is located on the left.

During our CyberGhost review, we’ve concluded that it’s all straightforward to navigate. You can change the VPN spot from the pulldown menu below the connection button, and if you tap on the graph icon, you can see some real-time analytics about the current connection. 

If you click on the server list, you can see each server, location, and the current number of users. The app provides additional lists for streaming, gaming, and torrenting servers. This excess of features that are also easy to use is why people often mention CyberGhost as the best VPN for the price.

You will see settings for the tracker, ad, and malicious site blocking, where you can also enable data compression and choose websites that shouldn’t be tunneled through a VPN. 

CyberGhost provides some very advanced security features. You can choose to establish a connection through the random port, change the VPN protocols, or block IPv6 connections. It’s not advisable to tamper with these settings, though, unless you know what you are doing. 

There are some notable differences across platforms. For instance, iOS and Android apps don’t have torrenting or downloading optimized servers that CyberGhost for PC has. The iOS app even lacks features like split tunneling and the ad, malware, and tracker blockers. 

In some ways, it is understandable, as smartphones would be overcrowded if they had functionalities that desktop computers have. Still, iOS users are kind of left lacking. The company stated that they are working on making the features the same across different platforms.

CyberGhost Support

CyberGhost provides customer support through:

Guides and Tutorials

CyberGhost has a vast library with guides and answers for every platform. Some of the 12 languages featured are English, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.

Email

If you contact the support team through email, you can expect a detailed answer within 24 hours.

Live Chat

This is the fastest way to contact support that’s available 24/7, and you can speak in English, French, or German.

During our CyberGhost VPN review, we haven’t encountered any problems, so we had to make up some questions to ask the support team. We’ve contacted the team five times over the live chat and three times over email, and we have received proper instructions every time.

Summary

CyberGhost is, without a doubt, one of the best on the market. The only drawback is that there is no long-term CyberGhost free plan. Although CyberGhost isn’t cheap, especially if you choose a monthly subscription, the prices are comparable to other high-end VPNs. The good news is that the company often gives discounts if users subscribe for longer. Unfortunately, you have to spend more money upfront, but it will provide you with more than three years of VPN protection. 

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