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VPNhub review: If ever, a company intended to produce a virtual private network (VPN) service as a natural outgrowth of its Pornhub company. That’s why it didn’t surprise anyone, but perhaps everyone, when the famous site VPNhub was introduced at the end of May. VPNhub focuses on mobile-first with Android and iOS that is the gateway to the free and premium services. Anyone can use VPNhub’s ad-supported service on mobile, but you need a premium subscription to use the service on Mac and Windows.
VPNhub review: Privacy and logging
VPNhub’s privacy policy is detailed but long. Long – over 4,500 words – but well-chosen titles like “Information We Collect…” help you jump straight to the details you need. The policy explains that ‘we do not associate your IP address with your online activities, and we do not store or log your IP address with your online activities.’
It also states with peace of mind that ‘we do not keep logs of your online activities and never associate domains, websites, or applications you use with you, your device, or your email .’But that’s not the whole story. The policy also includes this critical part.
“Our third-party service providers and we may automatically collect, use, store, and transfer the following information about you or your device:
When the VPNhub app is launched, but before you connect to the VPN, our third-party service providers and we collect device-specific information such as a unique mobile ID, operating system and platform, browser type and version, network information, and other technology on the devices you use to access the Website or the Services”.
VPNhub may not record what you do online, but it may fingerprint your device and capture a lot of information about it, and that data may be accessible to others. The free VPN is supported by advertising. As the policy explains, it has further implications: Advertisers may collect certain information independently of you or your device when offering ads from our Services, including your device’s ad ID, IMEI, MAC address, and wireless carrier. Advertisers may be able to access your IP address if your device is not connected to the VPNhub VPN.
Put all this together, and VPNhub has a few privacy issues. It may not matter if you want a simple VPN to encrypt regular Internet traffic on public Wi-Fi, but we’d think twice before using the service for something important.
VPNhub review: Performance
VPN’s site unblocking performance is average at best; it gave us access to US Netflix content and easy targets like US YouTube but failed with BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+. Our speed tests got off to a much better start, with the free service of VPNHub managing 30-35Mbps via wifi on a UK-US connection. Your results may be very different because you’re unable to choose your location, but that’s still a good starting point and already outperforms some commercial VPNs.
By switching to the paid version, we selected our nearest UK server, which certainly made a significant difference, with downloads averaging 65Mbps on our 75Mbps test line. We ran a second set of tests from a European data center at over 500Mbps, and VPNhub still performed very well at an average of 180-190Mbps.
The good news continued until the end of the review, where our latest privacy test found that VPNhub’s servers were really at the promised locations, and there were no DNS or WebRTC leaks to give away any details about us or our web activities.
VPNhub review: Pricing and plans
Prices start high, at $13.99 billed monthly, but drop to $6.99 if you pay one year in advance, $4.99 in two years, or $3.49 in three years. (Forget Bitcoin, there’s not even PayPal support – payments are only made by card). That’s the real value, but you can still save a lot of money by shopping around. Private Internet Access charges just $2.85 a month for the first 14 months, then $3.33 on the annual plan alone – no need for long-term contracts. But if you would like to sign up longer, Surfshark‘s two-year plan is an effective monthly fee of $1.99.
Still, if you want to try VPNhub Premium, sign up at your favorite app store, and you’ll be given a week to test before being charged.
Final words
VPNhub review works as advertised. It has an adequate encryption level, relies on the OpenVPN protocol, and the desktop program is straightforward to use. But the privacy policy is not excellent, the app has some usability issues to work out, and the accountability is suspicious. This is not the service you want to use if you try to stay as private as possible. You can’t be incredibly anonymous, and there’s not enough responsibility at this point to place a high level of trust in the product.
If all you want is an encrypted connection and everything else is doomed, then it will work. If you need more personal privacy from a VPN, then this is not the service for you.