AirVPN is an Italian owned VPN company that prides itself on security and transparency. The application AirVPN uses is open source, and the team is very active on their forums providing clear-cut answers to controversies and providing answers to the community. Quite frankly, I consider them one of the last remaining “honest” VPNs around, and I think they are often underrated. Sure they aren’t perfect, and it seems like the team is a bit stubborn and not improving “too much”, but let’s discuss why that is, in this honest and unbiased AirVPN Review.
Rated #8 out of 50 VPNs
- Speed test: Good.
- Netflix: YES!
- Torrenting: Yes.
- Customer Service live chat : No.
- Logging policy: No logging policy.
- Cost: $8.22 for a month, or $5.25 a month for a year.
AirVPN Review Pros+
#1 Decent Pricing
AirVPN is one of the cheaper VPNs. Most VPNs are around $10 or more. AirVPN costs $17.68 for three months, $35.36 for 6 months, and $63.66 for a year.
AirVPN also offers a good amount of cryptocurrency payment options on checkout–via CoinPayments, which is good to see. AirVPN doesn’t have a free trial but they do have a three day “trial” for only $1.17.
Overall, I would consider AirVPN’s pricing a good deal, and a pro. It’s cheaper than competitors like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and PureVPN, which all go from $12-13 a month up to $100 a year!
#2 No Logging Policies
AirVPN states on their homepage that they have no “No monitoring nor logging of your online activities”. I went to their privacy policy to do some digging, (since a lot of VPNs claim this and later explain they collect various logs like bandwidth, connection, and so on).
Reading their privacy policy didn’t raise any red flags for me. They go so far as to recording your email address as “optional”. The policy is a bit wordy, but explains that “Air servers and software procedures in general do not acquire personal data,” which is good enough for me.
AirVPN has a good policy! Compare it to VPNs like Tunnelbear, Cyberghost, HideMyAss, and other policies which collect logs, and you’ll see what I mean!
#3 Good App?
While AirVPN doesn’t have a ton of “piazzaz” when it comes to the design, the app is chock full of neat security features and settings to configure. In fact, you might be overwhelmed by the options in the settings.
Here are some noteable inclusions within AirVPN’s app. There’s quite a bit here to digest. For most users, you should be satisfy that there are kill switches, multiple protocols to choose from, and so on. Not every VPN app has a kill switch, but there are NO VPNs out there that offer all of these features or configuration customization options as listed below:
- Connection and auto-connection configurations
- Multiple protocols to choose from like TCP,SSH,SSL,UDP
- Ability to use Proxy and Tor
- IP routing features
- DNS configuration support
- IPv4 tunneling
- Kill switches and network locks
- Support for forced configuration of TAP interface and windows features
- OpenVPN configuration support of base directives
- Event log
AirVPN is perhaps the king of “power” in terms of the VPN space. While most people don’t need these features, it’s good to see a VPN go “all out” and jam pack their application. I can’t find another VPN that offers so much customization as the Eddie client.
#4 Reputable Company with a Backbone?
AirVPN has a stellar reputation. I’ve found and researched many threads on their forums where they impress me. I found them argueing with none other than ThatOnePrivacyGuy in this imaged forumed post, in which the AirVPN mod clearly explained how the company NEVER pays for any reviews.
This is a stellar example for the industry, and something I wish other VPN providers would hold themselves to. That makes me think that AirVPN, and perhaps some companies like TorGuard, are some of the few VPNs that are “honest” in the industry. You can easily find paid reviews and blogs for almost every other VPN out there.
I think having a good VPN reputation can make or break a VPN, so AirVPN gets some REALLY good points here for being a VPN that I can admire and respect.
#5 Decent Speeds?
AirVPN doesn’t have the FASTEST VPN speeds, which kinda sucks. I wanted them to lead the pack, but they’re mostly standard/average, perhaps due to limited server selection. We’ve already awarded TorGuard that nomination. However, AirVPN doesn’t have bad speeds for the price. In our tests, we got varied performance from various servers. In one test, I got a good download and upload rate, but high ping.
In another, I got low ping, but a low download rate and the same upload rate as before. So there is varied performance here, and it kinda depends on your location to the servers and which you pick. I would have liked a bit better speeds to be honest.
Here’s my speed test with TorGuard, the #1 rated VPN, as a comparison (note the low ping, but high download rate):
#6 Works with Netflix – No Extra Charge?
AirVPN’s smaller server selection, and smaller userbase give it an advantage. Perhaps less shared users creates less blacklisted IPs on the Netflix site? The recommended server AUTOMATICALLY works with Netflix. This is the ONLY VPN that I’ve ever found to work without needing to talk to customer support or use some special server. Well done AirVPN!!
AirVPN Review Cons-
#1 No Mobile App?
AirVPN refuses to make a mobile app. They are one of the only VPNs out there that does this. I DON’T GET IT. I guess they assume anyone who loves AirVPN will download the OpenVPN app, and use their AirVPN credentials to use that? But that shouldn’t be necessary!
Not the HUGEST deal if you can use the OpenVPN app, but still just lazy in my humble opinion.
#2 Smaller Server Selection?
AirVPN is by no means the “biggest” VPN Provider. This means they have a smaller server selection, which means that depending on where you are in the world, you might have to connect to a server further away and get slower speeds. This actually happened to me in the speed test!
They only offer servers in 15 locations, whereas some other VPN providers offer double that amount, or even more. I think AirVPN needs to keep expanding and working on having more servers, but perhaps they are satisfied with their locations right now.
#3 No Live Chat?
AirVPN has a smaller support team, which means they don’t have live chat. You can send them tickets through customer support, and they don’t have the worst team I’ve found. They do offer refunds and the like.
#4 Main App Could Look Better?
AirVPN’s app reminds me of Windows XP. It looks incredibly basic, but it still has the needed functionality and features you would need.
This could be a big deal for you, or not. For me, it’s a small deal but nothing that big. One thing that bugs me about it is that it’s called “Eddie” instead of AirVPN, so it can be confusing to search for it during the first install to get it running.
When I use some other apps though, they feel more premium and the part of my brain that judges on appearance always seems impressed. I don’t think it’d be a TON of work to make the app look better, so it bugs me that they don’t. It’s a common theme that I have with AirVPN. They seem stubborn and unwilling to change things, even if it could make their product better.
Some other reviewers criticize TorGuard for the same reason, in that it feels “clunky” and that doesn’t bug me about TorGuard. But AirVPN does feel a bit clunky and like it needs a refresh, and while it doesn’t necessarily make me want to rate them lower, it is a con in my opinion–especially since the team seems to feel apathetic about it.
What do I mean exactly by saying the app feels a bit oudated? Well some text just looks a bit glitchy, and like the contrast and shadowing isn’t high resolution or scaled right. See some of the images above this text to see. Or when you login, there’s not enough visual change to indicate it. The app doesn’t change or ding really. There’s just a small loading icon, then it disappears. Actually connecting to a server is fine however, since there’s a clear interface change and new information presented.
The settings are very big and there are lots of options, and they are organized decently enough, so I don’t have A TON of complaints really.
However, the servers tab reminds me of looking through an excel sheet, and it can be hard to find the server that you need. You also need to click on the “lock current” button to get it to stop refreshing all the time. It is interesting though, being able to see latency figures, Load, and the amount of users on each server. You do sacrifice some “aesthetic” and useability, for more information, so it’s up to you!
Do I Recommend AirVPN? Conclusion
AirVPN is an excellent company. They’ve designed a great application with an amazing amount of customization. However, I think they could step up their game if they really want to compete, but it feels like they aren’t interested or have enough money to do so.
AirVPN’s limited server selections, lack of a mobile app, standard speeds, and lack of live chat, are enough to make it a significant step down to a competitor like TorGuard that quite frankly–has it all. However, AirVPN’s great reputation, ability to natively work with Netflix, fair pricing, workable speeds, and no logging policies–are nothing to scoff at.