Tested: Newcomer OysterVPN comes out of the gate looking strong

Price When Reviewed

$5.99 per thirty days

Best Prices Today: OysterVPN

OysterVPN in short:

• P2P allowed: Yes
• Simultaneous gadget connections: 5
• Business location: Dublin, Ireland
• Number of servers: 441+
• Number of nation areas: 35+
• Cost: $5.99 per thirty days, $39.99 for 1-year, or $59.99 for a lifetime subscription

OysterVPN is a comparatively new VPN supplier based mostly in Dublin, Ireland, that began in 2023. It has shortly expanded its choices, which now features a password supervisor and cloud storage, in an effort to distinguish itself in a crowded market.

But as a comparatively small supplier, how does it stack up in opposition to the most well-liked VPN companies? In my testing I discovered that it positively has potential, with respectable speeds, a smooth app that’s simple to make use of, and the power to successfully unblock most streaming websites. However, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment to its small server community and lack of any revealed unbiased safety audits. 

Read on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the best VPN services for comparability.

What are OysterVPN’s options and companies?

At first blush, OysterVPN may appear slightly mild on options. But if you happen to take a look at the service as a complete, you’ll discover that it does a reasonably good job of together with all of the fundamentals you want from a VPN. It isn’t completely honest to check it apples-to-apples in opposition to prime rivals equivalent to NordVPN and ExpressVPN, which have a ton of additional security measures that aren’t essentially related to a VPN’s principal goal.

Plus, these different companies have been in the marketplace means longer and have had time to ascertain and check these additional options. OysterVPN, alternatively, is comparatively new. Since getting into the VPN market simply over two years in the past, it has pushed exhausting to constantly roll out new options for its app—the newest of that are cloud storage and a password supervisor.

Just within the final yr, the service has added assist for extra protocols—together with WireGuard–expanded its server community, launched a split-tunneling function, and elevated the variety of supported platforms for its app.

Still, it does lack just a few VPN options that many customers crave. For instance, there are not any double VPN (or multihop) connections and simultaneous connections are restricted to simply 5 gadgets at a time. That is half of the 10 simultaneous gadget connections most suppliers supply and a far cry from companies equivalent to Surfshark and IPVanish which permit for limitless connections.

A spotlight, although, is OysterVPN’s app interface. When you first open the VPN in Windows you’re taken to a clean-looking residence display screen cut up between a column on the left for the server areas and a connection standing column on the best. Along the lefthand siderail, you’ll discover choices for Account info and a Settings menu. 

While OysterVPN’s server choice is slightly small at simply over 400 (on the time of writing), the server menu does point out streaming-specific servers and does job of recommending optimized servers based mostly in your bodily location. The “All locations” server menu nonetheless isn’t simply sortable or filterable and for some cause wasn’t mechanically alphabetized for simple scrolling both. 

Sam Singleton

Under the settings menu you’ll discover menus for “Auto-Connect,” “Network Protection,” “Split Tunneling,” and “Protocols.” Under the community safety menu you toggle a full-internet kill change on or off. 

The cut up tunneling function could be very good to have because it means that you can choose and select which app or web sites to run via your VPN connection and which to maintain separate. This is a nifty technique to optimize your connection by routing belongings you need to hold non-public, like your browser exercise, via a VPN whereas retaining apps like video games exterior of it to scale back lag.

OysterVPN does supply DDoS safety, making it an attractive possibility for players. Many VPNs safeguard in opposition to DDoS assaults simply by their very nature, however OysterVPN goes additional by actively monitoring and filtering out malicious site visitors—equivalent to DDoS assaults—throughout its servers. For sure players this generally is a godsend, however everybody ought to concentrate on each the pros and cons of gaming with a VPN earlier than committing.

OysterVPN, identical to the opposite best VPNs for torrenting, permits P2P file transfers throughout all of its servers. There is not any choice to manually configure SOCKS5 proxies, although.

OysterVPN is obtainable for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, FireTV, and a few browsers together with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.

How a lot does OysterVPN value?

Sam Singleton

OysterVPN provides three completely different plan lengths: month-to-month, 1-year, and a lifetime possibility. The month-to-month plan will set you again $5.99 per thirty days and also you’ll get two additional months thrown in without cost whenever you join. With this plan you get entry to the whole VPN, however not the cloud storage or password supervisor.

The 1-year plan is $39.99, or $3.33 per thirty days, and comes with the VPN and entry to the password supervisor. The lifetime subscription is a one-time fee of $59.99 and comes with one yr of 1TB cloud storage.

I don’t usually advocate that folks go for lifetime subscriptions to VPNs as there’s all the time an opportunity that the service will unexpectedly shut up store or its circumstances will change—as has occurred just lately with BulletVPN and VPNSecure. Still, if you happen to’re keen to danger it, OysterVPN’s lifetime value is fairly inexpensive. Just remember that lifetime plans really imply the lifetime of the service, not your lifetime.

Otherwise, the low month-to-month and yearly costs are tempting for a full VPN service that gives the feature-set that Oyster does. The month-to-month value specifically is interesting because it’s solely half of what most different rivals are charging.

How is OysterVPN’s efficiency?

As all the time, when testing a VPN’s speeds I measure connection speeds throughout its servers in several nations all all over the world for a number of days after which common them by location and evaluate them to my baseline web pace.

OysterVPN’s speeds had been respectable sufficient in my testing. The common obtain pace whereas linked was 51 p.c of the bottom. That’s not unhealthy, nevertheless it additionally isn’t sufficient to crack the record of fastest VPNs, both. In specific, I used to be impressed with the speeds on its U.S. servers. Across OysterVPN’s U.S. servers I observed a a lot greater common obtain pace of 60 p.c.

Upload speeds had been a unique story although. The common add speeds solely got here in at 38 p.c of the bottom speeds. That is a bit disappointing and will make it tough if you wish to add massive information or use video chat whereas linked to the VPN. 

When it involves unblocking streaming content material, OysterVPN did fairly nicely. Using its streaming-specific VPN servers, I used to be in a position to seamlessly entry and watch content material from Netflix U.S., Amazon Prime, Hulu, and even the notoriously tough HBO Max.

I did hit a snag with Disney+ the place I saved operating into an error. Also, DAZN labored with some servers, however didn’t work with others. This isn’t to say that the server gained’t be just right for you, although, as streaming websites and VPNs are all the time in flux—VPNs are continually rotating round IP addresses and utilizing obfuscated servers to bypass streaming website blacklists.

By and huge, streaming with OysterVPN was clean and dependable. You can try my record of the best VPNs for streaming if you happen to’re searching for much more nice companies that work with streaming websites.

How is OysterVPN’s safety and privateness?

Sam Singleton

OysterVPN employs the industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption. It additionally provides a big choice of protocols to attach with together with IKEv2, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, and WireGuard—simply carried out within the final yr. That’s truly extra choices than many rivals. While I like to recommend that most individuals stick to WireGuard, energy customers will recognize the abundance of protocols to select from.

When I examined the service for DNS and IPv6 leaks, I discovered no leaks on any of its servers. These leaks can probably expose your actual IP tackle thereby compromising your privateness and defeating the aim of a VPN. As a end result, you possibly can really feel assured privately and securely searching whereas linked to OysterVPN’s servers.

The service claims to abide by a zero-logs policy, however they haven’t but revealed an unbiased audit to confirm these claims. That doesn’t imply it hasn’t undergone an audit, however till it publicly releases this info, it’s exhausting to confirm this declare. For now, you’ll simply should take its phrase for it that person information isn’t saved or logged—one thing that doesn’t actually assuage privateness issues.

According to its Privacy Policy, OysterVPN doesn’t acquire or retailer “information on user activity, such as the websites, apps, or online services they visit, the online content a user engages with through clicking, playing, downloading, or uploading, or the information they enter into such online websites, apps or services.”

It does acquire some fundamental info equivalent to person fee methodology and e mail, connection timestamps, and which VPN servers and IP addresses had been used—seemingly to assist optimize server load sooner or later.

OysterVPN is predicated in Dublin, Ireland, which not solely enjoys privacy-friendly legal guidelines, but additionally isn’t a member of the Five, Nine, or Fourteen Eyes information sharing alliances. This is an enormous win for privacy-conscious customers because it implies that there isn’t a authorized mandate that might drive OysterVPN to retain or share person information with any governments.

Is OysterVPN price it?

Overall, OysterVPN is an efficient budget-friendly possibility that’s solely getting higher with every passing yr. The latest additions of the WireGuard protocol, a password supervisor, and cloud storage are all indicators that the corporate is critical about investing in the way forward for this VPN.

Despite it being a comparatively new service, it’ll present VPN expertise for many customers, even when it nonetheless lacks just a few instruments. It offers respectable sufficient speeds, works with most streaming platforms, and comes with strong security measures—ticking all the containers for the fundamentals you’d need from a VPN.

However, its server community and have set are each nonetheless small compared to rivals. The lack of any revealed unbiased audit can be a priority. Still, OysterVPN is nicely price trying out instead service because of its ease-of-use and affordability. It’s additionally one to observe for the long run.

Editor’s be aware: 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 prime of this text.