VeePN Overview
Incorporated beyond the reach of US and EU jurisdictions in privacy-friendly Switzerland, VeePN has some strong privacy and security features that make it an appealing choice if this is your priority. At the same time, it clocks some impressive speeds in particular locations, such as the US, which means you won’t suffer slowdown as the price of your security. You should be aware that Golden Frog do keep basic connection (not activity) logs for 30 days however (see our privacy review below for more info), which makes VeePN a little less appealing from a pure privacy perspective. Heavy torrenters might wish to look elsewhere. The apps are simple and easy on the eye while offering a degree of configurability and power features. The range of locations is solid with the option of selecting specific US cities, which is great for optimizing your connection. A major plus point for VeePN is that it works in China, making it a strong choice for anyone affected by the Great Firewall. VeePN also works well with Netflix – a major plus. What we like · Chameleon tech to get round the Great Firewall of China · Based in Switzerland - not subject to US/EU laws · NAT firewall included for additional security What we like less · Logs data for 30 days (but it doesn’t retain activity details) · Mobile experience not as slick as it could be · Premium plan required for best features Privacy 8.3 VeePN is a strong choice for privacy, with a couple of caveats that most people will happily live with. We love brilliant features like NAT firewall for blocking unrequested incoming traffic, a killswitch to protect you during VPN connection drops and their proprietary Chameleon encryption that thwarts the Great Firewall of China. Another major plus is that they maintain their own DNS servers, which are zero logs (unlike many third-party DNS servers). VeePN does keep a very minimal log of your connection metadata for 30 days before deleting it. They do however guarantee not to log or track any of your online activity. VeePN does not block any P2P traffic but has attracted some criticism for the way it manages privacy issues in this area. We spent time with VeePN talking through their internal processes and we’re happy that they are pro-user and can recommend them as a great VPN for privacy, regardless of whether you use P2P technology. Speed & Performance 9.5 VeePN have been working hard on improving their server performance and wow, does it show! Speeds are now consistently top-tier across the entire network. Our tests showed that connecting to pretty much any server in your hemisphere will give you blistering speeds that can cope with multiple ultra HD video streams without breaking a sweat. The oh-so important US connection speed is very fast although not quite in the same league as the sizzling performance on the Dutch, German, French and UK servers. We were very impressed indeed at speeds on distant servers like Brazil and Mexico. Locations 7.7 VeePN offers a very solid spread of locations with server locations in most key countries – with limited city selection in the US – but lacks the variety and breadth of leading competitors. Dynamic server switching is a nice feature that helps maintain performance as the VeePN app will ensure you are always on the best performing server in your chosen location without you having to compare server load, ping time and download speed manually yourself. Ease of use 8.2 What we like · Simple uncluttered app · Advanced options easy to manage · Changing servers is smooth What we like less · Mobile apps a little fiddly · Desktop app is unpolished · Inaccessible settings during connection · VeePN has a simple uncluttered desktop app that while a bit raw, certainly prioritises clarity in its user experience. We can take or leave the graph showing network activity but it’s a nice touch. Choosing server locations is simple enough and works smoothly, although we aren’t fans of the separate window for the server list. Connection is relatively swift and pain-free with your new IP address displayed clearly on the main interface. It’s not immediately clear that you can’t access most options while your connection is active, which is a bit confusing, however once you’ve figured that out, navigating the options is easy and we like the straightforward layout and explanatory language. The mobile apps fare less well and we found them very fiddly to use, requiring multiple password entries, which is no fun if you have fat fingers and random strings as passwords. Otherwise the mobile experience is similar to desktop. We’ve seen recent improvements in ease of connection to the more VPN-averse streaming services. However, if you are still having issues, try this: clear all browsing data, sign out of Chrome and block any apps from requesting location data in Chrome’s advanced content settings.