AirVPN

AirVPN is a budget-friendly option that claims to provide robust protection against online threats. Plus, it says it offers high-performance servers. But can it really rival the top VPNs, or is the price so low because it’s not that good?

After testing all its features, I found that AirVPN is secure, but it can’t match the best VPNs. It has many great security features, solid speeds, and works well for torrenting. However, it has a small network, is not the best for gaming, and does not offer 24/7 live chat. You can check out this list of top-rated VPNs that excel in every area.

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Streaming — Not Its Strong Suit

AirVPN is capable of securely accessing a few major platforms, but the quality isn’t great. My international team and I often had to deal with buffering and long load times. At other times, the VPN was completely incompatible with certain platforms.

Works With: Netflix, Max, and Peacock

AirVPN makes it possible to safely access Max from anywhere. This seemed like a promising start to our tests. However, skipping through scenes often resulted in buffering.

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We didn’t face any troubleshooting issues while streaming the full US Netflix library. It mostly worked well, but we were surprised that some movies that should have been available only offered us the “Remind me later” option (like Jurassic Park).

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With Peacock, every title took a bit of time to sharpen up, and instances of buffering only compounded the frustration.

Doesn’t Work With: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney+, BBC iPlayer, and ITVX

AirVPN didn’t let us watch any titles on Disney+. The page simply loaded indefinitely, which is pretty common when the service detects a VPN.

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There was also no way to watch BBC iPlayer or ITVX with AirVPN. While this isn’t the best choice for streaming, there are many VPNs that perform way better. The top providers can safely access all of these platforms from anywhere in great quality. To stay safe on your favorite services, check out our list of the best VPNs for streaming.

Speed — Slower Than You’d Expect on Nearby Servers

Speeds went down more than we anticipated on close servers, but some far-off ones were fast. A 10-20% speed dip is normal for top VPNs on short-distance servers, and AirVPN was a bit slower (although it usually left us with decent rates).

All of our tests were conducted from the same US location (Austin, Texas) and connected using WireGuard since it was the fastest protocol available.

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To achieve optimal connection speeds, you can use the recommended server feature. It determines the best server for you by considering several factors, including ping and failed connections.

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California and New York servers also slowed connections by 21% and 37%, respectively. The biggest decrease was in Canada, where the Toronto server cut speeds by more than half. Such a dip can really slow you down if your starting speed is low.

I was surprised that the far-away servers in the UK, Germany, and Brazil (6,000+km away) outperformed the closer ones. Much of this can be attributed to varying server loads, and I appreciate that the VPN displays this information for each server. To get much better speeds nearby, I suggest you try out one of the fastest VPNs around.

Gaming — Decent if You Can Find Nearby Servers

My ping rates were too high for competitive play. The lowest I could get was 196ms, and it’s best to have your ping below 85ms while gaming. There were no servers in Africa where I’m located, so I had to test one from the Netherlands.

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However, my US colleague could enjoy gaming with AirVPN. This is because he had nearby servers that gave him ping rates as low as 21ms. Unfortunately, with its small network (which I’ll get into in a second), there’s a good chance you won’t be able to find a server near you.

Server Network — Limited and Poorly Distributed

AirVPN has 514 servers spread out across 23 countries. Most of the locations are in Europe, including some more rare countries like Bulgaria and Estonia. This is followed by North America, with 2 locations in Asia and a single server in Oceania and South America.

The Netherlands leads in server count, with the US and Canada not far behind. Unfortunately, it has no servers in the Middle East or Africa. It offers city-level servers in most countries, a feature not common in many VPNs. There are 12 cities available in the US alone, which is impressive.

There are 40+ US servers, and I like that you can choose which one you connect to. I also like that AirVPN offers RAM-based servers which delete all of your information after each reboot for added privacy.

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It owns some of its servers and leases others. I lean towards VPNs that own all their servers, as this cuts out any intermediaries that might jeopardize my privacy. All these servers are physical, so their location is as stated,

If you have another VPN installed, it could lead to connectivity issues. In my case, ExpressVPN’s adapter obstructed AirVPN’s OpenVPN connections, but the support team helped me fix it. Just go to Eddie’s Preferences > Networking and enter eddie as the VPN interface name. This was annoying, but I appreciated how quick they were able to help.

Identifying servers can be a little confusing since it names them after celestial objects. However, it offsets this by adding the server’s country and a corresponding flag. It’s a cute idea, but it does make the app’s server menu cluttered and possibly frustrating.

On top of that, it doesn’t offer dedicated IPs — I use them to avoid the frequent CAPTCHAs associated with shared VPN IPs. Plus, connecting to each server took about 20 seconds; the top VPNs usually take 5 seconds or less. Overall, this is one category where AirVPN falls short. You can try a VPN with a huge worldwide server network on this list.

Security — Wide Range of Excellent Features

AirVPN comes with features that are standard among top VPNs. However, some of its features are a little strange, like its kill switch. It cuts off all active connections outside its tunnel. So, be sure to deactivate it when not using the VPN to freely access and navigate the web. Nonetheless, all its features do the job, and I appreciate that it’s compatible with Tor.

Security Encryption

AirVPN uses military-grade (AES 256-bit) or CHACHA20-POLY1305 encryption. AES 256-bit encryption is a gold standard for the industry’s top VPNs due to its near-impenetrable nature.

It also utilizes Perfect Forward Secrecy, which frequently rotates your encryption keys. So, even in the rare event an old key is compromised, your data stays safe with a newly generated key.

Security Protocols

It offers 2 security protocols, OpenVPN and WireGuard. OpenVPN is very secure due to its open-source nature, which means it’s being checked constantly for vulnerabilities by experts. WireGuard is optimized for speed and security, and I use it to enhance my torrenting and gaming experience.

The VPN also lets you use OpenVPN over Secure Shell (SSH) or OpenVPN over Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to conceal OpenVPN connections. This is beneficial, especially in instances where ISPs or DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) systems in countries like China attempt to interfere with or block OpenVPN connections upon detection. In short, this works as its stealth or obfuscation feature.

DNS, IP, and WebRTC Leaks

My tests never detected any leaks on all 10 servers I tried.

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This means the VPN protected my sensitive information from leaking while using its servers. I also appreciate that it has IPv6 protection as that technology is becoming more popular.

Private DNS Servers

AirVPN provides extra protection by sending all your requests through its own DNS servers (which include OpenNIC, Namecoin, and ICANN namespaces) every time you establish a connection. This prevents third parties from intercepting your DNS queries and responses, a vulnerability often associated with public DNS servers.

Kill Switch (Network Lock)

This feature immediately stops internet access if the VPN stops working, preventing your IP address from being exposed. This is a must-have safety option for any VPN to protect your information, and I wouldn’t recommend a service that lacks it.

Split Tunneling

You can use this to choose which websites or apps get routed through the VPN. On Windows and Mac, it calls this feature Routes. I like using it to keep my banking app out of the tunnel, so I don’t get security alerts.

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On both desktop platforms, it lets you choose which websites (by IP address, host, or range) use the VPN.

DNS Block List

This feature lets you easily avoid sites you don’t want to visit, such as porn, and dating services. Plus, it prevents your system from connecting to domains that are associated with malware, cryptojacking, and more.

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I also liked how it blocked ads during my tests, resulting in a better experience on sites like speedtest.net, which often displays annoying ads.

Privacy — Good, Transparent Policies

AirVPN is privacy-friendly, but there are a few small concerns. For example, I hope its privacy policy is someday validated by an independent audit. It’d also be nice if it wasn’t headquartered within the 14-Eyes Alliance, but its no-logging policy makes this less of an issue.

Does AirVPN Keep Logs? No

AirVPN pledges not to log sensitive information like your IP address, and it lets you sign up with cryptocurrency for further privacy. The VPN also follows European privacy regulations, which means it’s prohibited from unlawful data processing.

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The technical specifics it gathers to maintain your VPN connections are anonymized, and stored temporarily. This is within its automated RAM-based systems, and the data is kept only as long as necessary to deliver the service. This ensures that no information can be stored in a way that could be traced back to you.

Was AirVPN Audited? No

There is no evidence that independent audits have been done for AirVPN’s policies or apps. Top VPNs engage reputable external experts to verify their privacy commitments. I hope AirVPN will consider this approach in the future.

Based in Italy

AirVPN is based in Italy, a country within the 14 Eyes Alliance. This is a collection of countries that have agreed to share their citizens’ online data. So, there’s a potential risk that the VPN could be compelled by third-party agencies to collect and share user information. However, if it were asked today, it would have nothing to share due to its logging policies.

Does AirVPN Work in China? Yes

Support stated that AirVPN’s use of OpenVPN over SSH or SSL means you can use it in China. So, when visiting the country, you can access your usual online services, such as Gmail, Facebook, or Instagram.

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The Chinese government bans many VPNs, but there have been no publicly-reported cases of them going after individuals for using them. However, my team and I don’t condone any illegal activities. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the country’s laws before choosing to use a VPN there.

Torrenting — Great Choice, and Supports P2P on All Servers

I experienced fast download speeds on the few distant servers I tried. However, its lack of servers throughout Africa (my location) really left me curious about its potential on nearby servers.

It let me download a 709 MB file in 37.02 minutes, which I finished in 21.28 minutes with no VPN. This is really impressive, considering it achieved this with only a few seeders, and I was connected to a server in the Netherlands (6,000+ km away).

After enabling port forwarding, the time was cut down to 28.63 minutes. In addition, its unlimited bandwidth and great security features gave me the confidence to use AirVPN with programs like BitTorrent.

Although torrenting is generally legal in most countries, it’s important to note that downloading pirated content isn’t. Therefore, I advise only torrenting files that are in the public domain to stay within the boundaries of the law.