VPN99 Review 2024 — Is This Cheap VPN Trustworthy?

Few VPNs have cheaper plans than VPN99. It claims to keep you safe online and protect your privacy with a strict no-logging policy, but so does every other VPN. My team and I decided to investigate its features to see if these subscription rates are too good to be true.

After our tests, I do not recommend VPN99 since I wouldn’t trust it with my data. The VPN has a worrying privacy policy that leaves out a lot of information you expect VPNs to be transparent about. Plus, it has a small server network and lacks essential security features. I suggest looking at the best premium VPNs that offer a similar or lower long-term price.

VPN99 Pros, Cons, and Needed Improvements

VPN99 can safely access several top streaming platforms, but video quality can be an issue. There’s also an annoying problem with its servers; about half of the ones my international team and I tested couldn’t use the internet. That means you’ll probably have to spend an excessive amount of time looking for the right one just to start streaming securely.

There’s no native support for routers or smart TVs, so it could be tough to safely stream on your big screen. While it’s technically possible to cast to your television with a VPN99 app on your laptop or phone, this requires some processing power. And, I can’t guarantee 99 is up to the task.

Popular Streaming Platforms We Tested

During many of our tests, we experienced long load times and excessive buffering. For example, while we were watching Netflix US. Although the video worked well at first, the issues escalated after a few minutes.

The picture was blurry and it kept on stalling and stuttering

To be fair, the tests with Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video were better. We only had to wait about 5 seconds for videos to load, and within about 30 seconds they resolved into HD quality. However, VPN99's unreliable protocols caused problems with some of the other platforms we tested. I’ll go into more detail in a later section, but several of them never worked.

Switching browsers or using new protocols didn't fix it

Overall, you’d be better off paying slightly more for a VPN with reliable servers that perform better while streaming. The top VPNs can also securely access all the platforms above, and many more, from anywhere. To learn more, check out our list of the best VPNs for streaming.

VPN99 was much faster than I expected. This is because many smaller VPNs encounter issues with overcrowding. Typically, the more users a server has, the slower it becomes. Luckily, this wasn’t an issue during our analysis.

Our dedicated speed expert regularly tests the top VPNs from the US, using the same connection every time. They performed several tests with each of the VPN99 servers you see below to create more accurate averages. The WireGuard protocol was used for each test.

We lost 31% on nearby servers and 38% on distant ones

The best VPNs are slightly faster than VPN99, but not by much. Top performers have lowered rates by about 25% on nearby servers and 35% on distant ones. So, you can see that VPN99 isn’t far off.

Unfortunately, there is no quick connect feature. Most VPNs automatically present you with a server they think will be your fastest location. This is usually calculated by distance or ping rates. Speaking of that, it’s also disappointing that VPN99 doesn’t display any speed statistics within its app. Some VPNs show you how crowded their servers are along with other speed-related data before you connect.

In the end, VPN99 has to be one of the fastest providers you can find for such a low price. It’s just too bad it faces so many other issues that make me hesitant to recommend it overall.

It’s unlikely that VPN99 works well for gaming. Its website makes no mention of gaming securely, and as you might expect, its small server network could cause issues here. This is because distant servers severely lower your ping rates, the most important factor for gaming. We’ve never found a VPN that can play games without significant lag with distant locations.

Ping rates tell you how quickly your data will travel, and you need it under 85ms for smooth gameplay. You’ll normally want a server to be about 2,000km away or less to keep your ping rates this low.

I’d never play online games without encryption because you never know who you connect to. DDoS attacks and hacks are common on gaming servers, but you don’t want to compromise your performance to stay safe, either. You can find one of the best VPNs for gaming in this list that can protect your data without ruining your competitive edge.

VPN99’s 300 servers in 55 countries can be found on all major continents even though it doesn’t have a large network. There are premium VPNs with tons of servers that still don’t offer servers in Africa or the Middle East, so I appreciate that VPN99 has gone out of its way to offer a diverse list of locations.

It offers city-level locations in a small number of countries. These include the US, the UK, and Canada. These servers make it easier to gauge how far you are from a server to improve your speeds. In countries like Argentina or Latvia, you’ll have to perform a leak test to see which city VPN99 connects you to, which wastes some time.

There are servers optimized for stealth, P2P, and streaming. Stealth is a feature also known as obfuscation. It attempts to make your VPN traffic look like regular traffic, so you can encrypt your connection on restrictive networks, like school and work. The other specialized servers are self-explanatory, but I do wish they were offered in more countries.

The VPN rents its servers and discloses that some are virtual locations, but doesn’t specify which. Some VPNs offer greater privacy by owning their infrastructure. Virtual locations aren’t necessarily an issue, but they may be farther away than you expect. Finally, the VPN doesn’t provide dedicated IPs, which can be useful for things like running a website.

I appreciate how quickly VPN99 connects, but it’s unacceptable that so many of its servers don’t work. We tested 30+ of its locations, and at least half of them blocked our internet connection. This was true even when the kill switch was turned off.

If you’re looking for VPNs with more reliable servers, I recommend you look into this list of the VPNs with the best networks.

Does VPN99 Work in China? Maybe

Support states that there’s a good chance the VPN will work in China if you use the right protocol. However, I’m a bit skeptical of their claims since we ran into trouble with the protocols they’ve recommended. But, I'll elaborate further in the security section.

They recommend using the XST or StealthUP protocols

The Chinese government has banned many VPNs, but there have been no publicly-reported cases of them prosecuting travelers for using them. My team and I don’t condone any illegal activities, and we encourage you to read up on the laws before utilizing a VPN in any country.

VPN99 offers decent security features, but our tests show it's only safe with the WireGuard protocol. While its kill switch is reliable and it offers strong encryption, we could never connect to the majority of its protocols. The only ones that could actually connect were WireGuard and XST, and we ran into a huge issue with the latter option.

The WireGuard protocol did pass 12+ of our tests

It’s also missing many features its competitors provide, like split tunneling and ad blockers. The lack of split tunneling is quite disappointing as this has become a standard feature that all the top VPNs offer. It allows you to choose what traffic goes through the VPN tunnel, so you can keep things like your banking app outside of it to avoid getting flagged.

Advanced features like private DNS servers, double VPN, and data breach alerts are also absent. While these features won’t be necessary for everyone, some VPNs at a similar price point offer them in case they’re ever needed. You can check out some of the most secure VPNs in this list, none of which have ever leaked our IP address with any protocol.

Encryption

VPN99 utilizes AES 256-bit encryption, which is nearly unbreakable. This is the most popular encryption level that you’ll find in the best-selling VPNs. It makes it close to impossible for anyone to crack the keys protecting your data. So, I have no complaints here.

Protocols

For a smaller VPN, VPN99 offers a wide range of protocol options, but it’s too bad most don’t work. OpenVPN is the safest protocol since it’s open-source and always getting checked for vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, we could never get it to connect. The same was true for IKEv2, a protocol that’s better suited for mobile devices.

In addition, the Stealth protocol never worked, and you saw why you shouldn’t use XST. This essentially means there is no way to use obfuscation with VPN99, at least until it fixes these connection troubles. On the bright side, if you can only offer one working protocol, you could do a lot worse than WireGuard.

There are a few obfuscation options, but I wish they could be used on all its servers. You have to search through the app to find special locations that only connect through its Stealth protocols. This is inconvenient compared to a provider like ExpressVPN, which automatically obfuscates your connection on all its servers.

Kill Switch

This is a must-have feature that blocks your internet if the VPN ever disconnects. I don’t feel safe without this feature because I never want my data to be exposed online without encryption. While this wasn’t always the case, this feature is now available in all of VPN99’s native apps.

Some key information is left out of VPN99’s privacy policy, so I can’t trust them to keep me anonymous online. A VPN protects you from outside threats, but to do this it needs access to much of your essential information. That’s why it’s imperative that the VPN you choose follows a strict, and transparent, policy that lets you know what kind of data it does and doesn’t collect.

You can learn more about the most trustworthy VPNs in this list of the top no-logs providers.

Some key information is left out of VPN99’s privacy policy, so I can’t trust them to keep me anonymous online. A VPN protects you from outside threats, but to do this it needs access to much of your essential information. That’s why it’s imperative that the VPN you choose follows a strict, and transparent, policy that lets you know what kind of data it does and doesn’t collect.

You can learn more about the most trustworthy VPNs in this list of the top no-logs providers.

Does VPN99 Keep Logs? Maybe

VPN99’s policy only covers what its website collects and not what the VPN app records. This is a red flag to me because I expect a VPN to be completely transparent when it comes to data collection. When a VPN tells me nothing about what they collect, I’m left with no choice but to assume the worst, simply to protect myself.

It admits to logging important personal information when you visit its site, including your IP address. If you choose to learn more about VPN99 on its site, I strongly suggest you encrypt your connection first, even if you have to protect yourself with a free VPN (most can’t be trusted, but the ones in this list are reputable).

Was VPN99 Audited? No

The best VPNs have their policies audited by reputable third parties, but VPN99 hasn’t undergone this process. It’s not surprising since this can be an expensive undertaking that’s out of reach for smaller VPNs. However, it’s one of the only ways a VPN can truly prove it follows its policies, so it’s usually better to go with a bigger provider that can afford them.

Based in the US

VPN99 is owned by Shopcut LLC, a company based in New Jersey. This is unfortunate because it places the VPN under the jurisdiction of the United States, a country that’s a founding member of the 5 Eyes Alliance. The organization is a group of governments that have agreed to share their citizens’ data, which means VPN99 could be asked to share customers’ information.

VPN99’s P2P-optimized servers and its inclusion of the WireGuard protocol could help you maintain fast download rates. But, there are a few issues here. Its small server network could leave you with no nearby locations, and it doesn’t offer port forwarding. This is a feature that many torrenters use to increase downloading and seeding rates.

Before you decide to torrent with VPN99, I suggest you read about these top torrenting VPNs since they consistently offer great P2P speeds.

While torrenting is legal in most countries, downloading copyrighted files is prohibited everywhere. We recommend that you only access torrents within the public domain, so that you avoid any trouble with the law.