StrongVPN is an older VPN, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t claim to the best. In this StrongVPN review, we’ll test out the features, performance, and reliability of this VPN to see if it deserves any title at all!
Pricing 6/10
StrongVPN offers a standard $10 a month VPN fee. They also offer a yearly subscription for around $70. Unfortunately, StrongVPN doesn’t offer any other payment options like quarterly or semi-quarterly. Another unfortunate detail is that StrongVPN doesn’t provide Bitcoin as a checkout–only PayPal and credit card. They do offer a five-day refund–but the website is very tricky in that it doesn’t provide you with an option to cancel your account, and it will bill you another month without you knowing it unless you send them an email requesting to cancel it (there isn’t a manual way to do so).
Check out this list if you want to know the cheapest VPNs.
Software 5/10
StrongVPN’s application is hard to get working right. If you plan on using OpenVPN on Windows 10 you might as well skip StrongVPN altogether. I could only get other protocols working like L2TP or PPTP which aren’t as good (fast/secure) as OpenVPN.
Once you install StrongVPN, you have the options of using the default server or running through the test to find you the best one. I wouldn’t recommend messing with these options since it could give you a server that doesn’t work–as in my case. I had to manually select a new server in order to get the VPN working again.
Connecting works like normal, but my speeds while connected–were nothing to brag about (more on that in the speed section).
Navigating to the settings gives you a lot of information on your account as well as various options like timeout, max speeds, and the ability to allow traffic when connecting (serves as a kill switch). The other tabs don’t have much use and only contain more information about log use. I would have liked to see more embedded security features for IP leaks inside the application settings.
Overall, StrongVPN’s application can work fine with L2TP/PPTP connections, but nothing about the app feels “strong.” If you need a strong client with a reliable OpenVPN connection, check out TorGuard VPN. It’s barebones while appearing cluttered, and glitchy while advertising it all.
Mobile Software 4/10
StrongVPN’s application is another mobile application that directly helps you install some files into your phone’s settings. It’s not as user-friendly as some applications where you can connect inside the application. You’ll have to dig through your settings every time to connect to the VPN. If you want a good mobile app, check out TorGuard VPN, ExpressVPN, or IPVanish VPN.
Extra Services 4/10
StrongVPN is a VPN provider that focuses solely on VPN. They don’t offer any extra services.
Website 6/10
Servers 5/10
StrongVPN offers 20 countries in 44 cities. From our server selection, a lot of the servers only worked or only supported PPTP/L2TP, and speeds weren’t impressive.
Privacy 4.5/10
StrongVPN has a strong privacy policy in their documentation, however, many users have expressed frustration with StrongVPN’s policies on filesharing. They have been known to send out notes as well as cancel service. It’s also concerning since a lot of servers have weak encryption like 128-bit blowfish while some has 256-bit AES encryption. Weak encryption coupled with a weak protocol should not give you much confidence when using StrongVPN as a reliable/secure VPN provider.
Speeds 4/10
We tested out StrongVPN’s L2TP protocol speeds with a nearby server and got slow download rates as well as average ping. In a real world torrent test we received speeds under 1Mbps which is dreadfully slow. For some fast VPNs check out Private Internet Access and TorGuard VPN.
Support 7/10
StrongVPN does have a forum community, which is beneficial if you have a question. They also have support guides to help you set things. While visiting the site I did notice live chat, but it seems to be intermittent as I couldn’t find it active again after revisiting.
Verdict
I want to believe that StrongVPN is a VPN that’s trying to be a good strong VPN. I hope that deep down inside there is something beautiful here, but I’m afraid we won’t ever get to see it.
The website doesn’t give much information at all about the details of the VPN, and what I’ve managed to dig out hasn’t been good. Lack of powerful encryption, dicey privacy policies, and poor application performance across the board–as well as mediocre speeds, make StrongVPN one of the weakest VPNs we’ve reviewed yet.
