Urban VPN Review (2024): Free, but Is It Good & Safe?

Urban VPN claims to be 100% free, super-fast, and completely anonymous. Yeah, that’s what I thought too — it definitely sounds too good to be true. So, I conducted a thorough Urban VPN review to see if it’s truly safe and reliable.

This VPN seems like a trustworthy service at first. However, every free VPN comes with a trade-off. I found that Urban VPN is a peer-to-peer service that introduces numerous security risks. It also lacks essential features, suffers from speed issues, and has one of the most intrusive privacy policies I’ve seen yet. Read on to learn everything you need to know.

Urban VPN works with a few streaming platforms, such as Disney+ and Max. However, some other services detected the VPN traffic and blocked our access.

Adding to the difficulties, you can’t select specific servers or customize your VPN connection. This means you can't experiment with different settings for uninterrupted streaming. Besides, Urban VPN lacks responsive customer support. So, you’re on your own if you find that you’re unable to watch your favorite shows.

Works With: Disney+, YouTube TV, and Max

Urban VPN works well with a couple popular streaming platforms, including YouTube TV and Disney+ — my testing team could stream Mandalorian in UHD without major issues. Nicely, we could also watch shows on Max (formerly HBO Max) in HD buffer-free.

We could watch our favorite shows without interruptions

Doesn’t Work With: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer

Urban VPN doesn’t work with any other popular services. No matter how much we switched servers, we got error messages when trying to open our Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and BBC iPlayer accounts.

We couldn't watch anything on BBC iPlayer

It didn't work with Netflix US, either. The testing team got the usual “You seem to be using a VPN or proxy” message and couldn't watch Shameless US or any other show from the US library.

Just so you know: We test all VPNs from the same location in the UK to keep our reviews fair. Tests are run on both long-distance and nearby servers, at different times of day, on the best protocol available. The results are then averaged and compared to our speeds without a VPN. Urban VPN didn’t work with Speedtest by Ookla, so we used Google’s Internet Speed Test.

The nearest UK server was fast, but the US server decreased our connection by 88%

Our connection varied a lot depending on the proximity of the server. We had good speeds on closeby servers, while faraway locations were barely usable. Our connection was only reduced by 7% on the UK server (from 109Mbps to 101Mbps). The US servers dropped the speeds to 24Mbps — which resulted in buffering issues during streaming (UHD requires 25Mbps).

Our connection speed plummeted on the US server

That said, one positive is that Urban VPN doesn't limit your bandwidth. So you can use it as much as you like without hitting data caps. But if you want to connect to long-distance servers, your patience might run out faster than any bandwidth limit would anyway.

Urban VPN doesn’t work for online gaming. I couldn’t play Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. I couldn't even measure my latency (ms) on the nearby servers — my ping was so high that none of the games would start.

With Urban VPN connected, I couldn't even queue for a match

On top of that, Urban VPN isn’t suitable for gaming devices either. There’s no support for routers or consoles, meaning you can’t play many geo-restricted games or protect your IP address while playing.

Urban VPN uses a peer-to-peer server network that introduces serious security risks. A P2P network means the VPN doesn’t have its own servers. Instead, it relies on the bandwidth of other users who share their connections and device resources. Your traffic is routed through other users' systems, and theirs is routed through yours.

This setup exposes you to several cyber threats. Revealing your IP address in this way can leave you vulnerable to malicious attacks. Additionally, you could get in serious legal trouble if another user engages in criminal activities using your IP address. Aside from the dangers, the VPN itself acknowledges that sharing resources in this way can slow down your whole device — even when you’re not using the service.

The only positive of the P2P network is that it allows Urban VPN to offer global connections. You can find locations in North and South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. However, it’s impossible to determine exactly how many servers the VPN has. It claims to cover 80+ locations, but I only found 56 in the Windows app. This makes sense as users probably join and leave the service daily, affecting the available pool of IP addresses.

I was a little disappointed, as I expected to see more options

Here’s the list of server locations listed on the Urban VPN’s website:

Additionally, you can’t select specific VPN servers within a region. If the IP address you’re assigned doesn’t work for any reason, all you can do is reconnect to the same country and hope the VPN picks a different server. This also takes forever — I had to wait over 10 seconds for each connection to establish.

Servers can become inaccessible due to overcrowding too. Because of the way it works, the VPN can’t offer dedicated IP addresses (which would prevent this issue). Urban VPN also lacks 10Gbps servers, a feature commonly found in many premium VPNs.

Urban VPN safeguards your traffic with encryption and leak protection. It also supports the industry-standard security protocol OpenVPN. Additionally, the VPN introduced by Urban Cyber Security Inc. claims to fully support IPv6 traffic, so your activities should be secure while connecting to a next-generation IPv6 network.

Apart from that, though, the VPN lacks any other basic security features or customization. There’s no kill switch feature to protect you against accidental data leaks (this feature terminates your internet if the VPN suddenly disconnects). You also can’t configure split tunneling or security protocols. Last but not least, Urban VPN lacks RAM-only servers, as it doesn’t operate on a traditional server model.

The desktop browser extensions have an ad blocker and anti-phishing tools, but they work more like a proxy than a VPN — so you’d be sacrificing encryption to get these features.

Unclear Encryption Standards

Encryption essentially masks all data sent and received online, keeping web activities concealed. This helps protect your online activities from interception by your internet service provider (ISP), WiFi admins, or cybercriminals. The VPN industry predominantly uses AES-256-bit encryption, the same standard that’s employed by commercial banks.

Urban VPN claims to use the "OpenVPN 256-bit encrypted protocol." Here, "OpenVPN" specifies the protocol used, while "256-bit" refers to the size of the encryption key.

However, the exact encryption algorithm Urban VPN utilizes is unclear. Its description merely references "top tier VPN encryption" without explicitly stating if this includes AES-256-bit. While there is a glossary article on End-To-End encryption (E2EE), it doesn't confirm whether Urban VPN incorporates this in its service.

OpenVPN Security Protocol

The VPN keeps your connections secure with OpenVPN protocol. This protocol creates a virtual tunnel that hides data on its journey between your device and the VPN server. Sadly, the VPN lacks WireGuard and IKEv2 support. WireGuard is a speedy security protocol designed for high-bandwidth tasks (like streaming and gaming), and IKEv2 is more mobile-friendly.

IP/DNS/WebRTC Leak Protection

I conducted extensive tests for IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks across multiple servers. Surprisingly, no leaks were detected in any of these areas. This means Urban VPN hid my real location during these tests, so third parties (like ISPs or hackers) can't see where I really am.

The VPN appeared to effectively hide my real location

Ad Blocker (for Browser Extensions Only)

Urban VPN’s browser extensions can block ads and pop-ups on the web. It blocked advertisements on Yahoo News and other sites. Surprisingly, I didn’t encounter any ads on YouTube either. Blocking intrusive ads can help declutter your browser and even improve page loading speeds.

Anti-Phishing (for Browser Extensions Only)

The browser extensions also have an anti-phishing tool to block potentially harmful links and web pages. This feature can’t eliminate the threat of phishing attacks, but it provides a layer of protection against malicious sites that can steal your credentials. I was disappointed that neither this feature nor the ad-blocker was available outside the browser extensions.

Additionally, the VPN claims to offer protection against crypto-mining malware. However, the features it cites for this anti-mining protection, such as encryption, secure protocols, and leak prevention, are standard across most VPN services.

Urban VPN is the opposite of a privacy-friendly VPN. In fact, this VPN has one of the most intrusive data collection and sharing policies I've seen.

Does Urban VPN Keep Logs? Yes

Urban VPN doesn’t require registration, so your email isn’t linked to your activity. That's where the positives end.

The provider collects all kinds of personally identifiable information. Most alarmingly, it even collects your IP address and the pages you visit while connected. The provider claims that all the information it collects about you is anonymized. However, there's no guarantee because the privacy policy has never been independently audited.

According to the privacy policy, Urban VPN logs the following:

• Your IP address, cookie ID, and other unique online identifiers.
• Browsing data (search queries, visited pages, watched videos, bought products, and more).
• Email, name, and other contact information (if you contact their support service).
• Technical data about your device (like Android permissions), the browser you use, as well as access location and time.

Urban VPN's privacy policy is shady, to say the least

Urban VPN's privacy policy states that it keeps collected information "as long as necessary." The policy also notes that the company may remove this data from its systems at any time, without notice, once it's deemed unnecessary for their purposes. However, there's no explicit guarantee regarding if or when the VPN actually deletes the collected data.

When using free VPNs, your data is often the price you pay. Urban VPN shares and sells this information with affiliated companies (BiScience), third-party digital marketing companies, and service providers. In addition, the VPN says it will freely disclose your data to governmental agencies if requested. The only way to opt out of data sharing is to subscribe to a paid plan (click here to see if Urban VPN’s premium plan is worth it).

Was Urban VPN Audited? No

Urban VPN has not been audited by any independent firms. Third-party audits can verify a VPN provider's adherence to its privacy policy and security technologies. The lack of independent verification is another major red flag for this service.

Based in the United States

The VPN is also headquartered in the United States (New York), a founding member of the 5/9/14 Eyes Alliances (international intelligence sharing agreements). In other words, Urban VPN is legally compelled to share your personal data upon official government requests — and it would have a lot to hand over if it did.

Does Urban VPN Work in China? No

While the provider claims to work in China, it’s unlikely Urban VPN works behind the Great Firewall when it isn’t reliable outside it. Chinese ISPs implement sophisticated firewalls and regularly block VPN servers to restrict access to international content. Urban VPN servers struggle to bypass blocks in the least restrictive countries.

What’s more, Urban VPN lacks obfuscation tech that can help bypass strict firewalls. Obfuscation disguises your VPN traffic as regular internet data, making it harder for ISPs or firewalls to block the connection. Without this feature, your VPN activity is easily identified and subsequently blocked.

In short, Urban VPN doesn’t support torrenting because it lacks P2P file-sharing support (not to be confused with Urban VPN's P2P-type network). Torrents that were downloading without a problem immediately stopped when I connected to the VPN. The VPN lacks any additional settings that would help resolve this issue.

Files stop downloading if you connect to a VPN server