AdGuard VPN review

AdGuard VPN is a freemium product that, like all VPNs, masks your id by providing you with a special IP deal with and subsequently making you seem like at a special location, and thus masking your web exercise.

Servers will be inside your individual nation, or will be in one other a part of the globe, that means you could possibly entry content material that isn’t obtainable regionally. For instance, if you happen to set Adguard VPN to a USA server, you’ll be capable to see the broader vary of Netflix content material availability there, or watch reside TV that has been “geoblocked” in your location. 

Regardless of what you could think about, AdGuard VPN doesn’t block adverts. The ad-blocking service, which the corporate has efficiently provided for a few years, stays separate and requires a further subscription.

Whereas AdGuard has finished nothing incorrect right here, this may very well be made just a little clearer on its web site, as some folks might assume ad-blocking is included due to the title. Plus, AdGuard is sort of completely satisfied to ship subscribers emails telling them what they haven’t bought, however can have for a further payment. 

Options

As a freemium product, you possibly can obtain AdGuard VPN and use it with out paying. Nonetheless, the free model is restricted. You may solely use the free model for as much as 3GB of information per 30 days – which is barely sufficient for an HD film, and it throttles your web pace at 20Mbps.

That’s enough for many issues, however if you’re paying for a a lot larger pace out of your supplier, it can irk to make use of a product that slows your web down. Typically, we’d at all times advise paying for a VPN, however you may like to present the free model a strive earlier than deciding whether or not to subscribe.

From right here, subsequently, we’re trying solely on the paid product.

AdGuard VPN is offered for Home windows, Mac, iOS and Android as a standalone app, providing whole-system safety. Alternatively there’s a browser extension obtainable for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera. This limits the safety to your internet looking, however as with so many ‘VPN’ extensions, AdGuard makes use of deceptive wording to make you suppose it’s a VPN when it’s, in truth, only a proxy service which doesn’t encrypt your connection like a VPN.

A paid AdGuard subscription covers you for as much as 5 simultaneous connections, however you possibly can set up the app / extension on as many gadgets as you want.

Android customers additionally get an additional function not obtainable to free customers: AdGuard’s DNS servers. These guarantee your individual ISP’s DNS isn’t used, which may reveal your exercise, and probably your location. There’s even a selection of filtered and unfiltered, in case you’re organising the app on a toddler’s machine and wish to shield them from grownup and different inappropriate content material when looking out the online. There are different choices, too, comparable to utilizing Google’s DNS, CloudFlare and extra.

Oddly, this isn’t in AdGuard VPN’s different apps.

There’s additionally an app particularly for Android/Google TV, which opens the door to streaming content material from overseas in your TV, nevertheless it’s a disgrace there isn’t an equal for Amazon Firesticks.

AdGuard notes that it isn’t in a position to unblock content material from the NBC streaming service Peacock. NBC content material is notoriously tough to entry exterior the US, and makes many VPNs stumble, but when that’s a deal-breaker for you, it’s value understanding. It does, nonetheless, work with a number of the primary streamers – Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and HBO Max.

Chris Merriman / Foundry

On the draw back, for extra superior customers, the corporate has chosen to make use of a bespoke protocol, slightly than the extra extensively used OpenVPN or WireGuard. That implies that you received’t be capable to configure your router with AdGuard to protect your whole house community, or unblock streaming on gadgets that don’t help VPNs comparable to video games consoles and the Apple TV & Roku gadgets.

Chris Merriman / Foundry

One superior function is split-tunnelling. This lets you use each your common web connection and the VPN on the similar time. Utilizing a black- or white-list, you could possibly, for instance, set it to solely use the VPN for Netflix, or set it to make use of it for every part besides the BBC. This can be a helpful function that provides to AdGuard VPN’s attraction and, though customary on the likes of ExpressVPN and NordVPN, it isn’t a given with each VPN supplier.

Privateness

When you’ve chosen from the 100+ servers in 44 international locations, AdGuard VPN has a kill change. Because of this if it drops its connection, it can block web entry fully, slightly than all of a sudden expose your actual connection. Whereas we had been testing, we didn’t expertise any drops. 

Chris Merriman / Foundry

From a privateness perspective, AdGuard VPN has a no-logs coverage. That implies that if the corporate was requested to offer details about who makes use of their service and when, they couldn’t, including to the extent of safety and anonymity provided. Sadly, this haven’t been independently checked, so on this one, we’ve got to take the corporate’s phrase for it that it actually doesn’t log something.

AdGuard’s jurisdiction is Cyprus, that means all information is protected below European GDPR guidelines, providing larger safety than corporations basing themselves in, for instance, the USA.

AdGuard VPN doesn’t provide the choice to run a “double VPN”, which providers comparable to NordVPN do. That is the place your connection is routed to 1 server after which one other, so there’s even much less of an audit path and it prevents even essentially the most decided from monitoring you.

That’s not an enormous loss for most individuals, nonetheless, and such options can usually have a big effect on pace. The excellent news is that AdGuard does enable Bittorrent visitors, so if you happen to’re attempting to obtain, shall we embrace, “delicate” information, you are able to do so anonymously. 

One factor that impressed us was that once we handed the account login to a colleague to run pace exams, AdGuard’s system noticed the login try from a special location and quickly locked the account. That is the primary time we’ve seen that occur and is a reassuring additional layer of safety.

Efficiency

AdGuard didn’t leak our IP or DNS throughout our testing: the primary necessary hurdle to clear for any VPN.

By way of unblocking, we had no points watching content material from the providers it claims to unblock, besides Prime Video. And it wouldn’t enable us to observe HBO Max or BBC iPlayer both.

AdGuard’s pace take a look at outcomes had been lower than stellar. Utilizing a Gigabit connection within the Bay Space of the US, with a base connection pace of 773Mbps obtain and 945Mbps add, we discovered that utilizing AdGuard VPN considerably slows down your looking – listed here are the outcomes for 4 key servers:

• LA: 158 / 98
• NY: 78 / 57
• London: 96 / 55
• Tokyo: 8.5 / 9

Though you received’t really feel a noticeable slow-down on many house broadband connections under 100Mbps, if you happen to’re fortunate to have Gigabit broadband, you will really feel the distinction. As we talked about, AdGuard VPN intentionally throttles the connection to its free prospects and these outcomes had been kind of as anticipated:

• New York: 21/10
• London: 21/22
• Turkey: 10/8

(We couldn’t take a look at on the Tokyo/LA servers as these aren’t obtainable to free customers.)

Assuming that AdGuard doesn’t intentionally throttle its paid prospects, we are able to solely conclude that its efficiency isn’t that nice. Now that quick broadband connections have gotten widespread, AdGuard must optimise its protocol or enhance its infrastructure as a result of, proper now, it could’t compete with one of the best VPNs.

We additionally discovered an issue with the Home windows app. When waking the take a look at laptop computer from sleep, Adguard VPN was unable to get well and required us to shut down this system and relaunch it. There’s an “Try to Get better” choice, nevertheless it didn’t reach a number of makes an attempt throughout our take a look at and this turned very irritating. 

Value & Availability

VPNs are likely to run particular affords on a regular basis, notably if you happen to’re ready to pay for a yr or two upfront. At time of overview AdGuard VPN was promoting a deal for at $2.99 per 30 days (approx. £2.52) for a two-year subscription. That is paid upfront, so prices $71.76 (round £60.50). Paying by the month is way more costly, at $11.99 (£10). 

Evaluate this to our present favorite, NordVPN, and it’s a couple of greenback per 30 days cheaper. NordVPN’s two-year plan prices $4.15 per 30 days, which is $99.63 upfront.

Nonetheless, provided that NordVPN affords a a lot wider vary of extras – together with an adblocker(!) – and significantly better speeds, it makes AdGuard VPN seem to be poor worth, although it’s value including that Nord actually hikes its costs at renewal after your subscription ends. AdGuard doesn’t. 

Verdict

Finally, AdGuard VPN is tough to advocate. It doesn’t excel in any specific space, and it prices as a lot as, or greater than, different extra succesful providers that provide higher speeds, extra apps, don’t solely use proprietary protocols and bundle ad-blocking for no additional value.

When NordVPN, Surfshark and Cyberghost all embody adblocking as customary, the truth that AdGuard doesn’t appears like an enormous personal aim, particularly when the mixture of the 2 providers makes it costlier than these rivals.