Tired of all the censorships, restrictions, identity vulnerabilities and security issues on the web? If you answered yes to those questions, this TorGuard VPN review might just be the answer you’re looking for.
Now after spending time with over 50 VPNs, it’s not everyday I pick a VPN up for review, so in case you’ve heard of TorGuard or even if are totally unaware of it, allow me to pull the curtains up and put forth how well the VPN delivers on its claims and promises.
But before that, let’s answer another pertinent question related to this TorGuard VPN review.
Why do you need TorGuard VPN?
“To change your IP address”, that’s the most common answer to this question, isn’t it?
Well, TorGuard Anonymous VPN (or any other VPN) does more than just “change your IP address”, or in other words, because it changes your IP addresses, a lot of other things happen which not everyone is aware of.
- Change in Location: The IP address is what’s used to trace and track your real-world location on the Internet. So, once the IP is changed, your “location” as it appears on the internet is changed as well.
- Bypass blocked content: Because changing the IP address changes the location, the internet becomes liberal ground for us considering how most of the content on the web is blocked or censored using “geographical identifiers”, so if the internet can’t identify your real-world location, it can be fooled making it think you’re from another country or city where the blocked content is not restricted, and hence it becomes available to you as well. It comes in handy while accessing content like Netflix, Hulu or even Google and Facebook (in some countries).
- Prevent Hacking Attempts: We all do get excited whenever a free WiFi hotspot pops up, don’t we? Well, those are the most insecure connections, and one of the easiest ways to get into your computers and cell phones. With TorGuard and its encrypted connections, that’s another calamity that can be averted.
And these are just some of the benefits of employing a VPN, but I’m sure you’ve got the idea why it’s important, haven’t you?
TorGuard VPN Review:
Now coming down to the primary aspect of this piece, let’s see how well the TorGuard VPN handles these above-mentioned problems and helps you remain anonymous and secure on the web via this TorGuard VPN review.
1. User Interface
I must confess, I’ve been with VPNs which made me punch my computer screens because of messy and clumsy options and user-interface, and since then I always take user-interface to be a priority and hence it’s being listed so early in this TorGuard VPN review.
The interface with TorGuard isn’t the simplest I’ve ever seen, nope and I’m honest about that, but it’s in no way a demerit because it’s still much simpler and easy to understand as compared to most other VPNs, even for a first-timer.
Nearly all the options you’d ever need to change or tweak have been listed right there on the welcome-dashboard directly, along with a “connect” button.
Other deeper settings can be accessed via the “more settings” link at the bottom, or the server can be changed by clicking on “select server” on the top.
So in a nutshell, I’ll rate the user interface a 4/5 for this TorGuard VPN review.
2. 57+ Countries and 3000+ Servers
Considering how privacy is always my priority while choosing a VPN, availability of countries and servers is one of the primary weapons any VPN has in its arsenal for me.
So, as far as TorGuard VPN goes; It offers us 57+ countries to choose from, which includes:
- USA
- UK
- Netherlands
- Germany
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
And these are just a few of what’s available. In my personal opinion and experience, 57 countries are more than enough for me to choose from.
Most of these countries have more than one IPs for us to choose from, which make sure that at no time the servers are overloaded and we get optimum speed and connectivity no matter what. (How well they actually “work” is tried and tested in the later sections).
Being honest there aren’t many VPNs in the industry capable of boasting as many countries and servers as TorGuard VPN does (Quantitatively). So for now, I’d say it looks promising.
3. 7 Different Connection Protocols and Tunnel Types
Okay this is a lot, I don’t remember I’ve ever (ever) come across a VPN offering these many connecting options.
Most limit themselves to 4, or a maximum of 5 protocols. Therefore, I’m already impressed. (Not because it’s a TorGuard VPN review, but simply because credit should be given where it’s due).
It’s important because our general Internet traffic isn’t encrypted, but these connection protocols have much better encryption and security and hence need to be taken seriously.
The connection protocols offer by TorGuard VPN are:
- OpenVPN
- PPTP
- SSTP
- Stunnel
- L2TP/IPSec
- IKEv2
- & OpenConnect
Let’s discuss in brief about the above-mentioned protocols.
a. OpenVPN
This probably is the most secure VPN existing today, it’s open-source, and uses other open-source technologies like SSL v3 or TSL v1 protocols.
Its best feature, however, is that it can be mounted on any port, disguise it in a way and hence move it around firewalls and encryptions.
It’s secure enough in itself, but if you set it to use AES encryption the security literally multiplies many times over.
In either case, whatever encryption you’re using on it, it’s the best connection protocol and the one you should be making your default protocol.
b. L2TP/IPSec
L2TP stands for Layer 2 Tunnelling Protocol, even though it doesn’t boast any encryption on its own, it’s still one of the most secure connection protocols in the list when coupled with IPSec.
The only downside? You can’t disguise it on a port of your choice, and it’s always on UDP port 500, so in case someone wants to block it, they know what to target.
It’s also not as fast as OpenVPN, that’s so because it’s achieved through a 2-step process, first the traffic is converted to L2TP form, and then is wrapped with IPSec.
It still might be totally secure, without any known vulnerabilities when encrypted using AES, but if you’re a believer of Edward Snowden he already has slightly hinted that it might not be as secure as it’s considered.
So bottomline, it can be used if you can deal with the speed and don’t need to get around any super advanced firewalls.
c. PPTP
PPTP is the abbreviation for Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol. It’s not the most secure protocol and instead is known to have various security issues.
Especially the ones underlying on the PPP authentication protocol that’s used, or the integration between the MPPE and PPP authentication.
So in other words, the MS-CHAP exchange can be intercepted, MS-CHAP 2 still gives in to dictionary attacks, and the RC4 session keys used by MS-CHAP-v1 need to be better encrypted.
For the less technically-educated, what this means is, I wouldn’t go for this protocol or would make it my priority, but it’s still an option and can be leveraged in certain desperate situations.
d. SSTP
SSTP stands for Secure Socket Tunnelling Protocol, if I’ve to put it simply, I’ll call it OpenVPN’s distant-cousin.
That’s so because of its ability to use AES encryption (which is one of the most secure encryptions) and it too uses SSL v3 just like OpenVPN.
But then, it’s mostly a “Windows” thing, and not up for independent audit, so these two are the factors which separate it from OpenVPN.
Again, as security is a primary concern for this TorGuard VPN review, I’ll say it’s better than PPTP or even LT2P, but not as good as OpenVPN.
e. IKEv2
It’s the abbreviation for Internet Key exchange, and even though it’s not supported on as many platforms as L2TP/IPSec, and is much less common, it’s still considered equal in terms of security and encryption to L2TP/IPsec.
Although, IKEv2 in itself isn’t a VPN protocol, instead is just a “Tunnelling protocol”, in order to become a VPN protocol, it too needs help from other protocols such as IPSec.
Because of its support for MOBIKE protocol, it comes in handy to users who change a lot of locations or WiFi hotspots.
Another reason why I suppose it deserves a mention in this TorGuard VPN review is because of its ability to quickly recover from lost or interrupted connections!
Bottomline, it’s secure, it’s fast, and can be used as an alternative to L2TP (although I’d still not go so far as placing it on a higher position than OpenVPN).
f. OpenConnect
It’s a VPN protocol that uses the TSL, Datagram and HTTP protocols. It primarily operates on UDP packets, and use TCP only as a fall-back measure whenever UDP isn’t available.
It’s encrypted using the AES-256-GCM encryption, in other words it means it can’t be blocked or detected as it disguises itself as normal SSL traffic.
Other superpowers include the ability to use your bandwidth to its max potential, and even increase the internet speed by a significant amount. Infact that’s what makes Openconnect the fastest available connection protocol on the Internet!
Bottomline, it’s secure, incredibly fast and reliable. I still wouldn’t use it over OpenVPN, but it seems a worthy alternative. Moreover, it’s one of the most rare connection protocols VPNs today offer.
So far as connection protocols go, I’m more than satisfied, and I believe this TorGuard VPN review deserves a 5/5 star for this particular aspect.
4. Stunnel
Stunnel was primarily designed to add TLS encryption functionality to other existing clients, although one of its strongest suits are load-balancing.
As for encryption, it supports the OpenSSL library, so it can be compared to OpenVPN vaguely when it comes to security.
Although, It’s still not as secure or reliable as OpenVPN or Openconnect, but is a satisfactory option.
a. P2P and Torrent Support
Not many VPNs out there offer Peer to Peer file sharing or even Torrent optimized servers.
So another feather that can be added to the cap of this TorGuard VPN review is its support for P2P and Torrent servers.
b. Socks5 + SSL Proxy Access
Talking of P2P and torrent downloads, another feature that shouldn’t be missed in this TorGuard VPN review is its support for Socks 5 and SSL proxies.
It may or may not be valuable to you, but what it means is that you get better, faster download speeds with P2P and torrent, so if you do use those two features, it’s the cherry on the top.
Other benefits include added security, and round the clock traffic-guard, even when your VPN connection is interrupted.
5. Unlimited Bandwidth, Speeds and Server Switching
I’ve personally been a victim to Bandwidth restrictions and speed throttling with many VPNs by now, fortunately, TorGuard doesn’t seem to be one of them.
It provides for unlimited bandwidth, what this means is we’re free to use as much data as we please and need over the VPN, without needing to worry about running out of it.
And the same can be said for Speed as well, the Speed is never throttled, no matter how many days or bandwidth you’ve used of the VPN.
Last but not the least, it also provides for unlimited server-switching, which isn’t an exclusive feature but it does count all the same. It lets you switch your IP address as many times as you wish without any restrictions of any kind.
6. No Speed Loss
Talking of speed brought me to another factor of immense importance for this TorGuard VPN review- effect on speed.
A commonly known issue with VPNs is, they decrease internet speed. Does TorGuard do so as well? They say actions results speak louder than words, so instead of words, here are real-life results of my speed test before and after using TorGuard VPN.
In my personal experience, this is the “least speed reduction” I’ve ever seen with any VPN (And I wasn’t even using the OpenConnect Protocol), its so insignificant most won’t even notice it if not measured via something as hardcore as Ookla.
Therefore, this might seem like a lot of praise-song, but bottomline is, TorGuard does reduce speed (every VPN does) but it’s negligible. Again something worth rating it a 5/5 for the purpose of this TorGuard VPN review.
7. No Logs Policy
Another policy which stamped my decision of scribbling this TorGuard VPN review down was TorGuard’s No logs policy.
It’s one of the primary aspects I check with any VPN I use or review, if a VPN keeps logs, that’s totally against all the anonymity or security that it promises.
Well, fortunately, TorGuard doesn’t. No records of any kind are kept.
8. FREE 10mb Encrypted Email Account
Need to send or receive E-mails? TorGuard did add this extra perk which almost no other VPN does.
It provides us with a 10MB email account @email.tg and is completely encrypted and secure on its offshore servers.
9. Blocks DNS and IPV6 Leaks
DNS leaks are one of the most common problems with modern-day VPNs. Not all the requests made by our systems are always secure.
Well, TorGuard makes sure that there’s absolutely no chance of a DNS or IPV6 leaks, and only the requests really secure and encrypted go through. Again, it’s not an exclusive feature and is offered by all the VPNs out there, but it warrants a mention all the same.
10. Kill-Switch
Like any other VPN, TorGuard too boasts a kill-switch which makes sure our connections are at no times left unprotected. And it’s actually a tad bit advanced compared to other kill-switches out there.
If and when the VPN connection drops for whatever reasons, the program automatically terminates not only the “internet connection”, but any other apps which we can specify manually.
Personally, it does provide me with the peace of mind, and I don’t need to check the connection status of my VPN every other minute.
11. 5 Simultaneous connections
I was going to sum this TorGuard VPN review up, but I can’t without mentioning that It’s one of the “highest simultaneous connections offering” VPNs.
Letting us use the same account on as many as 5 devices, simultaneously, while the average industry number of other VPNs is not more than 4 in most cases.
12. Stealth Proxy
This is something that again makes TorGuard unique and impressive. When enabled, the VPN connection is wrapped up with another layer of security, using an encrypted proxy layer.
What this means for us is, it becomes nearly impossible, even for the super-hardcore govts. (China for e.g.) or agencies (e.g. NSA) to detect if a VPN is even being used! Let alone being able to block the connection.
Pricing and Plans
So finally, down to the very last section of this TorGuard VPN review, how much does it cost? In my opinion, after going through all the features, I believe its prices are fair, if not underpriced.
The best part is, it has 4 different plans, so it would likely fit almost everyone’s pocket, the plans are:
- $9.00/month- Monthly Plan.
- $19.99 for 3 months.
- $29.99 for 6 months.
- $59.99 for 1 year!
So basically, the higher is the time-frame, the lower is the price. Fair enough!
*Special Offer: They’re offering 50% off on Dedicated IPs for streaming services, use promo code: 1984.
Which Platforms are Supported?
If you’re worried about your device being or not being supported, you’ve little to think of. They seem to support nearly every platform in existence, including:
- Windows
- Mac
- Linux
- Android
- iOS
And even VPN routers such as:
- DDWRT
- And even Tomato
Final Verdict:
So finally what I personally think of TorGuard? Well, there are some pretty obvious (and exclusive in some cases) pros:
- OpenConnect Protocol.
- Stealth Proxy.
- 10mb Email encrypted E-mail account.
- Great speed.
- Great security.
- Long list of available countries.
While there aren’t any logical “cons” as such when I think about it, feel free to brainstorm and prove me wrong, but honestly what should be listed here as a major con? I’m at a loss.
So I believe it’s totally worth the money, at least worth a try and only then you can arrive at a really fair and logical decision. Go and try them out yourselves, their 7-day money-back guarantee makes sure you aren’t losing anything.
Anyway, that’s a wrap for this TorGuard VPN review, do let me know your verdict on the review as well as the platform.
