Table of Contents
Goose VPN review: Goose VPN is a privacy provider based in the Netherlands with several attractive features and products. Goose has a compact network of 25 countries. Most are located in Europe and North America, but there are also servers in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, and Singapore (most support P2P). There is a wide range of Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android programs, while a Chrome extension is running everywhere, and there are bonus installation instructions for Linux, routers, and more.
Unusually, there is no arbitrary device limit. That puts Goose VPN ahead of big names like ExpressVPN (which limits you to five simultaneous connections) and NordVPN (six), although a few providers, including Windscribe and Surfshark, also have no limits.
Goose VPN review: Privacy and logging
Goose has its ‘no log policy’ at the top of the website, but if you’ve ever done VPN shopping, you know that every provider does the same, even if it’s not entirely true. That’s why it’s always a good idea to drill down into the small print and find out what’s going on.
The Privacy Policy explains that Goose does not record users’ Internet activities – “for example, websites visited, DNS search results, emails sent and received, usernames or passwords entered, etc. .”Even better, the policy also covers session data, explaining that the service does not record your original IP address or information about the VPN servers you use within a session.
The only data that is logged is bandwidth usage per account. However, this is not uncommon, and it cannot in itself endanger your privacy. There is more good news when the policy states that Goose owns and manages its network, giving it much more control over how the servers are set up and operated.
While browsing through the fine print, we saw an attractive fair use policy. Instead of vague warnings about ‘excessive use,’ Goose indicates the point where customers cross the line: when a user uses more than 1% of the entire Goose network’s bandwidth.
If a single user uses that much bandwidth, we expect there to be problems, but even then, the company is honest and only says that the user “will be approached by Goose to reduce usage, or to make a higher payment.”
In general, Goose does an excellent job of describing its procedures, with a lot of detail; but it’s still not enough. We want Goose VPN to follow TunnelBear, NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and others when conducting a privacy audit to verify the no-logging credentials.
Goose VPN review: Performance
Goose VPN prides itself on being able to help you “access all websites… wherever you are”, allowing you to view content that you wouldn’t usually be able to see. Our unblocking tests say this is far from the truth. Goose gave us access to US Netflix but failed BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. Privacy tests brought better news, with multiple test sites that Goose found blocking all DNS and WebRTC leaks correctly.
Our performance checks yielded mixed results. For example, the download speeds from a UK data center to our nearest servers were disappointing at around 50Mbps (we expect a decent provider to reach 100-200Mbps, and NordVPN managed over 300Mbps). But connecting the UK to Sweden gave us excellent speeds of 160-180Mbps.
Our U.S. test site also reported a significant time of day variation, with speeds of 50-60Mbps to 150-180Mbps. We interpret this as mostly positive, as we see that Goose VPN is capable of good performance. But it seems that this can change considerably depending on your location and the times you are usually online, so if you do sign up, make sure you run a lot of speed tests yourself.
Goose VPN review: Pricing and customer support
A monthly billing bill is priced at $12.99, similar to CyberGhost, ExpressVPN, HideMyAss, and VyprVPN. Paying a year in advance cuts costs to a very reasonable $4.99, and the two-year plan is an effective $2.99 per month.
Although there are some cheaper deals around – the Private Internet Access plan is priced one year at $3.33 per month, offering Surfshark two years is $2.49 per month for the first term – the Goose VPN beats most of the competition.
The Goose scores in another area, though: the first month is released, the best trial period we’ve found. You must provide your payment details, but you will not be billed until the first 30 days have passed. If there are any problems, close your account from the website, and there is nothing to pay.
Goose also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, but you are only eligible if you have transferred less than a small 100MB of data. Since Goose offers free for a month, we’re not going to complain, but it’s worth keeping this in mind. Do all of your tests in the free month, because unless you’ve been unable to connect at all, you probably won’t qualify for the money-back guarantee.
Support is available 24/7/365 via live chat and email. It’s also not offered by any third party with a minimum wage, halfway around the world – Goose says it doesn’t outsource support, which is a thumb up for us.
Final words
Goose VPN review provides a reliable service for unblocking geo-restricted content, and unlimited bandwidth means it is particularly suitable for torrenting. The small server network can be an issue for some, especially those trying to unlock content outside of Europe or North America. Use on unlimited devices is a big bonus, but the desktop app can use an updated look. Goose VPN offers strong encryption and a kill switch (in the desktop clients) but is a bit let down in terms of security due to the lack of IPv6 and DNS leak protection.