CyberGhost VPN pricing and availability
CyberGhost VPN is a premium service that, unless you opt for its three-year annual plan, comes at a premium price. Users can choose between paying $12.99/£10.89 for a monthly plan; $47.88/£41.40 for a yearly plan, which averages $3.99/£3.45 a month; or $83.76/£69.36 for a two-year plan, at $3.49/£2.89 per month. They can also opt for the long-term three-year option (right now with an extra three months) priced at $87.75/£77.61, which breaks down to $2.25/£1.99 per month. On its monthly plan, CyberGhost offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. However, It has an even better 45-day trial period for its annual and three-year packages, which is a smidgen longer than ExpressVPN and NordVPN’s 30-day money-back guarantee. In terms of paying monthly, CyberGhost is one of the priciest VPN services around — being only a few cents cheaper than HotSpot Shield. This price pushes potential users toward its much more affordable annual plans, and for what CyberGhost offers, prices for yearly subscriptions are fantastic. But if you’re not after a long-term VPN then there are cheaper options available.
CyberGhost VPN streaming and unblocking
CyberGhost VPN server locations
In terms of numbers, CyberGhost blasts the competition away. It boasts a grand 6,983 servers in 112 different locations, and that figure continues to grow. The number of countries available? A nice 90. As you’ll find in my connection speed test, it’s a tad disappointing that some servers aren’t as speedy as others. However, the servers that do work well, especially in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and even Australia, are very speedy. CyberGhost lets you know how many users are filling up a region’s server with a helpful percentage detailing available server space. The lower the percentage, the more likely a server will be reliable. Even better, with the number of servers it boasts in each region, including in China, United Arab Emirates and even the Isle of Man, users won’t have to worry about a server being overloaded.
CyberGhost VPN security
CyberGhost’s security features are at the top of the VPN game – offering AED 256-bit encryption, OpenVPN TCP/UDP, IKEv2, and WireGuard security protocol options (although not for all devices), a Kill Switch, DNS and IP leak protection, no logs and split tunneling (only on PCs). CyberGhost’s Kill Switch feature (under the Smart Rules option) worked flawlessly. It gives you the option to secure your Wi-Fi connection before connecting, or always connect to a VPN server when connecting. It does the same for open Wi-Fi spots in public places. What’s more, every time my smartphone or iPad went to sleep or switched off, my internet connection terminated but immediately turned back on when I started using the devices again. Of course, if I didn’t want this, I could easily switch the behaviour of CyberGhost in its menu. CyberGhost also has a no-logs policy, which means it does not monitor, record, or log any data traffic when using any of its servers. The personal data it does collect is through the form users sign up with to use the VPN service. In March 2012, CyberGhost had successfully passed an audit and verification conducted by QSCert. While it has been a while since the last audit, those skeptical can chat to CyberGhost (opens in new tab) for more information.
CyberGhost VPN user accessibility and support
Lastly, CyberGhost allows up to seven simultaneous connections, although it can also be used with a router that will surpass that number. It has dedicated apps for virtually every platform, from desktops and smartphones to smart TVs and web browsers. You’ll also find it to be compatible across PS5, Xbox Series X and other consoles
CyberGhost VPN connection speed
Using speedtest.net, I tested the connection speed of CyberGhost VPN using the automatic protocol suggested in the U.S., U.K., Germany, South Africa, and India. This was done using an iPad, with an average internet download speed of 71Mbps, ping rate of 6ms and upload speed of 20Mbps. When connecting a server in London, which was also the fastest server I connected to when using the one-click connection, I got an average download speed of 69Mbps and upload speed of 19Mbps, with my ping rate being an incredible 7ms. This minuscule decrease in speed goes completely unnoticed when streaming or playing online games, which shows CyberGhost can dish out some stellar speeds. When connecting to Frankfurt, Germany, I got the same speeds of 69Mbps, upload speeds of 19Mbps, and a slight increase in ping rate of 17ms. That’s outstanding considering these speeds are virtually the same as they were in London. When I tested Mumbai, India, I saw a bigger dip in speeds. My results showed download speeds of 25Mbps, 11Mbps in upload speed, and a 142ms ping rate. This could be higher, although this can still be used to stream videos and surf the web. I then tried Johannesburg, South Africa and got an average download speed of 0.48Mbps, an upload speed of 0.89Mbps, and a ping rate of 181ms. Yeah… it took about a minute to even load up speedtest.net at these speeds. While a bad result, my distant location does play a factor in these speeds, too. Finally, I connected to New York in the United States, the fastest server available in this region, and got speeds of 69Mbps and upload speed of 19Mbps yet again, along with a ping rate of 91ms. While servers in South Africa were near unusable, and India didn’t fare much better, CyberGhost knocked it out of the park in terms of overall speeds in Europe and the United States.
Bottom Line
CyberGhost VPN is a fast and reliable VPN service, especially for streaming. While it’s disappointing it doesn’t work with Prime Video despite having optimized streaming servers for it, having servers dedicated to select streaming services across multiple countries is a stellar feature. While internet speeds in many countries were just as fast as my normal internet speeds, certain regions were severely lacking. This could be an issue for those who are all about server speeds, especially if you’re opting for its very pricey monthly subscription plan. But the pros far outweigh the cons. Overall, CyberGhost VPN offers a premium service for streaming with tons of locations and fast P2P for torrenting.
