BlackVPN is located in Hong Kong. This VPN is the product of a company called BlackVPN Ltd. It operates 31 servers across 18 countries which right off the bat does not sound like a lot.
Although, we have seen some incredible speeds and quality from VPNs with a low server count. This really isn’t one of them, we recommend shopping elsewhere.
We won’t count them out yet.
In this article, we are digging deep inside of BlackVPN to find out how useful this service really is. By the end of the article, you should have a complete understanding of whether or not this is the best VPN for you.
What is BlackVPN?
This VPN sets out to do what the rest try to accomplish. It wants to protect your privacy and data by disguising your IP address. When your real IP address is hidden, it’s difficult for governments, ISPs, or hackers to track you down and locate your real information.
If we take a look at BlackVPN’s website, we are immediately greeted by some of the following features. It claims not to log any information, it has its own DNS servers, and it offers unlimited bandwidth.
So far, so good.
Benefits of BlackVPN
Here are the most outstanding benefits of BlackVPN broken down so you can skim through them.
- No logging
- Strong encryption and protocols
- Simple to set up
- Compatible with Tor
- Fast and efficient customer service
What We Like About BlackVPN
Now that you have a general understanding of how BlackVPN works, let’s take a more in-depth look into the pros behind this service.
No Logging (we mean it this time)
We wouldn’t need to do these reviews if we had a dollar for every time a VPN claimed to have a “no logging” policy. When we see a no logging claim, we always chuckle a little and expect to uncover the truth as we dive in.
What we saw from BlackVPN was incredibly promising. This VPN does not collect logs, and it does not document browsing history or timestamps. It also does not keep DNS logs or your source IP.
In its privacy policy, it states that the only logs it keeps are your email address and payment details. As long as you use an anonymous email, it would have no way of tracking you.
Top-Notch Privacy
The best VPNs use protocols like OpenVPN and SSTP. With BlackVPN, you get the choice of three different protocols; you can use OpenVPN, SSTP, or L2TP/IPSec. BlackVPN also offers AES 256-bit encryption, which is the standard for government organizations all over the world.
Each protocol has a built-in kill switch that is always on. We highly recommend using a VPN that has a kill switch. This technology is the only thing that keeps you anonymous in case you lose connection to the server.
One weird thing we found during our research is the fact that you have to close the app and reopen it to change servers, we’ve never seen that before.
Great Customer Service
During our research, we always look into customer service. In case something goes wrong, you always want to have someone available to help you. We discovered response times as fast as 30 seconds using BlackVPN’s live chat.
Can’t complain about that.
What We Dislike About BlackVPN
Unfortunately, we’ve also got a few negatives to go through here. Here’s what we don’t like about BlackVPN:
Located in Hong Kong
The good side is that Hong Kong is outside of the 5-eyes and 14-eyes security alliance. The bad news is that Hong Kong is part of China, but runs on a seperate governmental system as a Special Administrative Region.
The worry here is that China is one of the least privacy-friendly nations, with its ‘Great Firewall’ and government-sponsored VPNs, and its ever-increasing reach and influence in Hong Kong could compromise the nations strong privacy policies.
Maybe we’re wrong to feel nervous about this, but you never know.
So-so Compatibility
BlackVPN is compatible with all the major platforms. These include:
- Windows
- MacOS
- Linux
- Android
- iOS
- Routers
We would love to see compatibility with smart TVs and gaming systems. There is also no app for mobile, so you need to set everything up using the OpenVPN app and then install the servers manually to your device. You do have compatibility with Tor though.
You Kind of Get Netflix
There’s a lot of double-edged swords in this VPN review. On the bright side, you gain access to geo-restricted content on Netflix using BlackVPN.
The bad news is, you only get those servers on the most expensive plan (which we’ll discuss) and there is a highly limited number of servers that will access Netflix.
BlackVPN Pricing
The pricing structure of BlackVPN is a bit confusing, and the features you receive, vary tremendously from plan to plan. Here is a breakdown of BlackVPN’s pricing:
- $58 per year – Limited servers, unrestricted torrenting.
- $84 per year – Servers in USA and UK only, streaming from the USA and UK.
- $114 per year – Access to all servers, streaming from the USA and UK, unlimited torrenting.
It only offers yearly plans, but luckily, they are not too expensive. You also get a three-day free trial and 14-day money back guarantee. You have the choice of paying with a debit/credit card, PayPal, or cryptocurrency.
Our Verdict
Honestly this VPN is just average. It would never make it to our best vpn list.
In order to do that it would need to be faster, have more servers, be better priced and in a safer jurisdiction.
We recommend looking at some of our other great recommendations, like Nordvpn, Expressvpn, Surfshark and more.
Disclosure: Blokt strives to provide transparent, honest reviews, and opinions. The writer of this article is a user of the product(s) or service(s) mentioned in this article and was not influenced by the respective owners.
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