VPN Unlimited review – lost in the crowd
VPN Unlimited is a premium VPN service by KeepSolid, a company that sells a variety of safety and security products to protect your online activity. VPN Unlimited is also one of the very few VPNs to offer a lifetime subscription plan.
How does it perform? Is the lifetime subscription worth it? Find out in our VPN Unlimited review!
Getting started
Getting started with VPN Unlimited is similar to other VPNs — quite simple. All you need to do is sign up with an email address and password. A confirmation email is then sent to the email address you've provided. Click or tap on the link in that email and you're good to go.
You can also sign up automatically using your Facebook or Google credentials. It seems like an option privacy buffs will shy away from, especially given Facebook's track record.
Payment and pricing
VPN Unlimited's subscription plans start at $9.99 per month. This isn't the cheapest monthly plan available, but it's far from the most expensive. As usual, significant discounts come into play with long-term subscriptions. The annual plan costs $59.99 ($5 per month) and a three-year plan will set you back $99 ($2.78 per month).
If you choose not to pay during the signup process, you can log in to the dashboard — called KeepSolid Cabinet — and find short-term options like 7 days ($4.99 per week) and 3 months ($18.99). You can also subscribe to one of the other online security products the company has available on this page.
It's extremely rare for a premium VPN service to offer a lifetime subscription, but VPN Unlimited sells one for $199.99. This is definitely an enticing and affordable option if you are absolutely sure about sticking with VPN Unlimited for the foreseeable future.
Before committing to a lifetime or any shorter subscription plan, VPN Unlimited offers a seven-day trial followed by a seven-day no questions money back guarantee. The free trial doesn't appear to be explicitly mentioned anywhere, but I was able to clear up my confusion by contacting a very helpful customer service. Basically, as soon as you sign up and log in to an app, the free trial period begins.
Payment options include credit and debit cards, Paypal, Bitcoin, and Amazon Pay. You can also find regional pay wallets like Alipay and more by clicking on "More options."
Setup and settings
VPN Unlimited's easy to install apps are available for Windows, Android, iOS, MacOS, Linux, and Windows Phone. You can also find useful guides to manually install the VPN on Wi-Fi routers and streaming devices like Apple TV, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and Android TV.
VPN Unlimited definitely goes beyond the standard as far supported platforms and devices are concerned. We will be taking a closer look at the Windows and Android apps in this review.
Windows
Note: While working on this review, the VPN Unlimited Windows app was updated to version 5.0 (from v4.25). This upgrade introduced some aesthetic changes to the UI that brought the Windows app more in line with the mobile apps. However, the settings and features remain the same.
After logging in to the Windows app, you are greeted by a static map with points showing the various server locations around the world and your current location. Unlike other VPNs that use a map interface, you can't interact with the VPN Unlimited map at all though. A large "Start" button lets you connect to a server. Optimal (the server closest to you) is selected by default.
Clicking on the server button will bring up the full list that is sorted alphabetically. Unfortunately, there are no other sorting criteria. Additional tabs help in that regard. "Recommended" lists servers that are close to you and with lower loads. The "Favorites" tab will list any you've chosen once you figure out which servers work the best for you. Simply click on the server you want to connect to.
Finally, there is a "Streaming" tab showing all the servers with access to streaming services like Netflix or Hulu. There have been a few reports about unblocked streaming not working particularly well with VPN Unlimited. I didn't run into any issues during my testing, however. If you run into problems, simply disconnecting and reconnecting to the same location may help.
VPN Unlimited has over 400 servers in more than 70 locations and 50 countries around the world. Legal torrenting is allowed, and you can do so by connecting to one of just 5 of the seventy locations. While many VPN companies sell their product based on their torrent-friendly nature, this is obviously not a priority or even a recommended usage with VPN Unlimited.
The Settings menu pops up by tapping on the menu icon at the top left corner of the app. It was previously a more accessible tab, but the interface certainly looks a lot cleaner and more refined now, without getting too complicated. The Settings menu is also divided into tabs. The "Account" page shows you subscription details, lets you change the password, and enable password protection for the app.
The "Settings" section is where you can change the VPN protocol, enable the network kill switch, add trusted networks to a whitelist, and choose system startup behavior. The "Information" tab gives you more info about the VPN service and has a feedback section. Finally, the "Support" section has a useful list of FAQs and the option to contact customer service.
Android
The Android and Windows apps have become more alike after a recent update. The mobile app also has the static map and a button to connect to a preset server. Tapping on the server location tab brings up the full list of servers, sorted, and divided into the same tabs as seen above.
The server list holds a little more information though. You can see the server load on the Android app, and whether a server is torrent-friendly is more obvious. The server load info was available with the older Windows version, but seems to no longer be available following the update.
Settings can be accessed via the hamburger menu. The Settings page has all the options mentioned above. Everything is on a single page though, instead of being spread across various sections and tabs. As it's a mobile app, you can also add fingerprint protection for the VPN app (instead of just password protection).
Security and privacy
VPN Unlimited comes with a lot of security and privacy features. Most of these options are available on other competing services and are generally what you'd expect from a good VPN service, like DNS leak protection, a VPN kill switch, and the best encryption protocols.
A highlight of the security features is KeepSolid Wise. KeepSolid has developed a special "stealth technology" protocol to make using a VPN extremely hard to detect and block. If you are on a network or in a region where VPN services are actively targeted or blocked, using the KeepSolid Wise TCP/UDP protocols are an excellent way to hide your VPN connection.
Not as exciting on the privacy front, KeepSolid is based in the U.S., which may be concerning since many privacy buffs are wary of using VPN services based in a Five Eyes country. The logging caveats mentioned in KeepSolid's privacy policy don't help either. The good news is that there's zero activity logging.
Logged info includes the total amount of web traffic per session and session dates, but only for showing them in the account dashboard. KeepSolid also logs info like the connection attempt time, the connection and encryption type, and the device type. It is mentioned this information is collected strictly for technical purposes like system and user experience improvements. This may not be a deal breaker for some, but many, like me, certainly prefer a VPN with a zero logging policy.
We tested for IP leaks, WebRTC detection, and DNS leaks using ipleak.net and found no issues. However, there were DNS leaks when the "Stop DNS Leaks" option in the settings was disabled. That seems kind of obvious, and it is enabled by default. It is definitely worth confirming again though since there are leaks when the setting is turned off.
Speed
- Original speed – Kolkata, India
- Bangalore, India
- Singapore
- Romania (Torrent-friendly server)
- U.K. (BBC iPlayer)
- U.S. (Netflix)
VPN Unlimited isn't the fastest VPN I've tested, but it isn't bad either. There's around a 50 percent drop when connected to servers closest to me, going to a nearly 80 percent drop when connected to locations in the U.S. However, the speed was still good enough to get everything done, including streaming video on Netflix without much buffering.
If there's one major complaint about the speed, it is with regards to its consistency. The speeds you see above are generally what you can expect, but I sometimes saw speeds fluctuate between an amazing 10 percent drop to a surprising 90 percent drop within minutes without changing servers or locations. I had to check a few times whether my connection was at fault because of how all over the place the speed tests results were.
Strangely, the "optimal" server (Pune, India) often offered the slowest speeds, despite being the location closest to me. Picking another server location in India (Bangalore) offered almost four times the speed. Again, these are average, since there were times when the optimal server was quite fast.
While it's nice to have a "quick connect" option of sorts with the Optimal server, things will certainly get easier once you figure out the servers that work best for you and have them saved in your "Favorites" list.
Key features
- Allows up to five concurrent connections. Additional slots for devices can be bought starting $0.99 per month for one device and going up to $5.99 per month for five additional devices. Significant discounts are available with long-term purchases (annual and lifetime).
- You can also boost your speed and security by getting a Static IP (plans start at $12.50 per month) or a Personal Server (plans start at $18.33 per month or $499.99 lifetime).
- Over 400 servers in more than 70 locations (50 countries) around the world.
- Torrenting works well enough. Not enough server support though. Remember to respect your country's copyright laws. We do not condone or encourage any illegal activities.
- Useful security features like network kill switch, DNS leak protection, and more.
- One of the few premium services to offer a seven-day trial as well as a seven-day no questions asked money back guarantee.
- Excellent customer service! A live chat is available during a certain part of the day (not 24/7) but queries after hours are handled via email. Customer service is extremely quick to respond, both on the live chat and via email.
Final thoughts – Is VPN Unlimited worth buying?
VPN Unlimited doesn't really do enough to make it stand out from the crowd. SaferVPN also keeps connection logs and offers even fewer torrent-friendly servers (just one), but makes up for it with incredible speeds.
VPN Unlimited comes with a lot of interesting security and privacy add-ons. However, a VPN like NordVPN takes security to another level. Being based in the U.S. is always going to make privacy buffs shy away, but services like StrongVPN and IPVanish alleviate some of that concern with their zero logging policies. Finally, having access to streaming sites are great, but most other premium VPNs offer the same.
If one thing is quite enticing about VPN Unlimited, it's the lifetime subscription plan for $199.99 (and often discounted to $149.99). This makes it one of the most affordable VPN services around, at least in the longterm.
VPN Unlimited is not bad by any stretch, but there a few red flags make it difficult to recommend. However, your experience could be entirely different from mine. Especially if you live in North America or Europe, where the bulk of VPN Unlimited's servers are located. Luckily, you can take advantage of the seven-day trial or seven-day no questions asked money back guarantee and find out risk free. If it suits your needs, that lifetime plan is certainly unbeatable.
We'll be bringing you even more quick review looks at some of the best VPN services in the weeks and months to come. If there is a particular VPN you would like us to review, do let us know in the comments section below!
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