Good speeds, good service, and an improved app

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Witopia PersonalVPN in short:

• P2P allowed: Yes 
• Business location: Reston, VA
• Number of servers: 300+
• Number of nation places: 43
• Cost (annual): $50 (Basic), $70 (Pro), $100 (Premier) 
• VPN protocol: OpenVPN (Pro and Premier)
• Data encryption: AES-256
• Data authentication: per-user 4096-bit certificates
• Handshake: TLSv1.2

The final time I checked out PersonalVPN from Witopia I used to be impressed with components of the service, however discovered its app to be missing. It was simply so historic wanting on the time and in unhealthy want of overhaul. Since then Witopia has made up for that shortcoming with a brand new app that’s fashionable and simpler to make use of.

Note: This evaluation is a part of our best VPNs roundup. Go there for particulars about competing merchandise and the way we examined them.

Features and companies

The new app is typical of the present crop of VPNs. It’s a single-panel, mobile-style app with a big Connect button as the main target. Below that’s the present nation connection and the IP tackle of the VPN server for use. There are additionally two buttons: Smart Location and Choose Location. The former robotically chooses the perfect VPN connection based mostly on pace, whereas the latter permits you to select a particular nation.

In the upper-left nook a menu “hamburger” button takes you to the nation location part, in addition to preferences, and a diagnostics instrument for help assist.

The nation location display has three tabs: All, By Region, Custom. The latter is for customized gateways that you just create with the assistance of Witopia workers. In addition to deciding on by nation there are two streaming servers for U.S.-based streaming companies akin to Netflix and Disney Plus.

Dipping into preferences, you’ve got the usual objects such because the choices for auto-connecting the VPN when your PC begins up and robotically reconnecting if there’s an unintentional disconnect from the VPN. There’s additionally a kill swap, and IPv6 leak detection. Speaking of DNS, there’s additionally a piece the place you may select to make use of Witopia’s DNS (the default), in addition to set your individual DNS servers, or use your PC’s default DNS server settings (almost certainly your ISPs). 

For those that’d like to decide on their very own protocol, PersonalVPN has quite a few choices. For higher-paid plans (Pro and Premier) you should utilize OpenVPN and select the extent of encryption (AES-128 or AES-256). IKEv2 utilizing 256-bit AES can also be obtainable (the default for Basic plans), in addition to a “stealth mode” for obfuscating VPN visitors (one other Pro and Premier function). Finally, there are lesser-used choices together with IKEv1, L2TP over IPSec, and PPTP. Unless you’ve got cause to make use of them, most customers ought to persist with OpenVPN and IKEv2.

PersonalVPN contains three tiers: Basic, Pro, and Premier, priced at $50, $70, and $100, respectively, for a single 12 months. There are additionally cheaper choices when you join two or three years. The Pro and Premier tiers embrace the beforehand talked about protocol choices, added safety akin to a novel per-user 4096-bit certificates, and customizable encryption choices. Premier provides to this with options for utilizing the VPN by way of your router or setting it up with units akin to good TVs and consoles.

All VPN plans enable for 5 simultaneous connections, and there are not any limits on bandwidth or speeds.

Witopia’s PersonalVPN accepts fee by way of PayPal and bank cards.

In addition to the fundamental VPN plans, Witopia additionally sells specialty routers that embrace built-in VPN service. The firm additionally has an e mail encryption service known as Secure My Email that’s for e mail accounts from main suppliers together with Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook.com.

Performance

For my exams, I used the default OpenVPN settings for a PersonalVPN Pro plan. I examined the VPN a number of occasions over three days utilizing 5 completely different places, and in the long run the VPN maintained a base pace of 33 %. That common pace is kind of a bit decrease than the 43 % the final time I reviewed the product, a drop of about 23 %. The speeds have been introduced down by barely poorer performances in Japan and Australia. Tests for the UK, Germany, and the U.S., nonetheless, have been excellent. Even the Japanese and Australian speeds have been fairly good on some days. The greatest drawback gave the impression to be that the VPN had a tough time sustaining its speeds in these areas.

Still, 33 % is kind of good and places PersonalVPN throughout the high 20 for speeds in our exams. It’s additionally not that far off the highest 10 the place the underside rating is round 36 % of the bottom pace.

Witopia Inc. is predicated in Reston, Virginia its CEO is Bill Bullock and the CTO is Steve Shippa (each are firm co-founders). Both Bullock and Shippa have been executives at UUNET, an early Tier 1 Internet supplier that was bought to Verizon in 1996.

Witopia’s privacy policy for PersonalVPN says it doesn’t “monitor or store logs of a user’s internet activity, browsing, websites viewed, or files downloaded.” The firm says it additionally doesn’t throttle buyer VPN visitors. That’s about it for the privateness coverage’s details about logging. Simple and easy.

To create an account, Witopia requires an e mail and password, which is normal for many companies.

Conclusion

Witopia’s PersonalVPN is an efficient selection for each novice and energy customers given its ease of use and customizability. The tiered pricing has some odd selections. You can, for instance, get OpenVPN with a lot of VPN companies for lower than Witopia’s Premier and Pro pricing—together with some with 256-bit AES. A extra widespread thought for tiered pricing is extra options akin to double VPNs or good DNS.

I requested Witopia about this and the corporate stated it’s principally a holdover from 2005 when OpenVPN was tougher to implement and required extra help. The firm could restructure its pricing plans within the coming months. There are additionally plans to include WireGuard sooner or later. 

That apart, there’s rather a lot to love about Witopia’s PersonalVPN. The privateness coverage makes the correct guarantees, the house owners are clearly recognized, and it helps U.S. Netflix streaming. Witopia is an efficient selection if you’d like one thing based mostly within the U.S. with good efficiency and a transparent understanding of who’s operating the present.

Editor’s Note: Because on-line companies are sometimes iterative, gaining new options and efficiency enhancements over time, this evaluation is topic to vary in an effort to precisely mirror the present state of the service. Any adjustments to textual content or our ultimate evaluation verdict might be famous on the high of this text.