AirVPN Review

They do actually offer free trials, but you have to ask for it. They give you a few days which is enough to see if the client works on your system, what speed you get from the various exit nodes and so on.

I'd previously used this VPN for short times and hadn't experienced any issues, but upon jumping into a 3-month subscription I came to regret the decision half way through. I frequently find pages suddenly extremely slow to load and have to switch to a different VPN, which isn't exactly fast to disconnect/connect either. On top of this the Android app is very poor, I frequently have to back up to my home screen and then re-open the app before it will actually connect to a server, on top of that if I leave my phone when I go back to it and turn the screen on I find I've been disconnected the whole time the screen was off - missing important emails in the process. I also find my service seems to throttle if I have a torrent client open, so I'm not sure if this is something wrong with my torrent settings or if they don't treat P2P traffic as fairly as claimed in the review above.

If you're looking for something cheap and short-term, and don't mind the hassles of switching connection from time to time, it's not a bad option. I've only ever used Air and Nord in the past, and when my subscription is up I'll definitely be paying the extra money for Nord. I wanted to support a smaller company that probably cares more for your privacy, but the service unfortunately just isn't good enough.

I have been an AirVPN subscriber for half a year. I use it on a multi-user MacOS desktop.

I enjoy the security and overall experience of using the VPN. Port forwarding is very easy, and the feature set is impressive.

AirVPN has a VPN server listing screen, with stars indicating the quality of the connection, based either on speed or latency. Oftentimes, every single server listed has 0 stars. This may be due to unavailability of good servers, or else a bug in the display of the stars. Either explanation underwhelms.

Stability issues with the client software, in particular, result in my low review score.

The client software on MacOS has a tendency to disconnect when fast user switching. It also has the unfortunate distinction of occasionally hanging when fast user switching. VPN software should never crash; if it crashes during the same ordinary behaviors like fast user switching, it is probably not ready for use by the security-minded public.

I suggest re-reviewing their customer support, I had a problem on my 3 day trial and they helped me fix it within 24 hours even though it took several troubleshooting steps and many back-and-forth replies. They were FAR more helpful than ExpressVPN or NordVPN, which are 2 other VPN companies I had used in the past and the only other ones I've contacted support for.

I've tried pretty much all, well most VPN's included the revered & Most Holy of VPN's Express & Nord, which IMHO are not that good with limited privacy but seems like they probably have ways as being reviewed as the best though again in my opinion actually are just half decent? Now to AIR, the best I've used, I've never needed to use tech support as had no need to in months. It's fast almost giving me almost the same speed as my fibre connection, within 7 meg or so. I have used the forum once & got a fast courteous reply. The GUI could do with a couple of additions though I have yet to use any VPN that does all I want - Stable, fast secure, easy to use & is the number one VPN without question.

Best thing about AirVPN is they allow you to forward some ports, you get a high (over 1024) random port as your very own, Up to 20 ports I think it is you can create. I even started 4 tor exit servers running on AirVPN as a test with great results! So I kept them running. Network lock keeps my home IP from suddenly being a tor exit (Very Bad) if AirVPN or a virtual box fails. I can even change my tor exit servers IP's without issue. I just download Eddie for linux and create a tor server in Linux mint Virtual boxes. Works great. You cannot do that on any other VPN's. Being able to forward a port, even if it is random, is absolutely a game changer.

Important information is missing from your AirVPN review: AirVPN is one of the very few new generation VPN servers that runs on iPv6 protocol. This is still not being done in 2019 by the ageing VPN stars NordVPN or ExpressVPN.

I don't know what this VPN service's issue is.

Sigh. I signed up with them because I was seeking anonymity. It was the "my life is on the line" kind, so I didn't take time to mull over my different VPN options. They seemed like a good choice.

Well, their Android app doesn't mask your IP, for starters. I had to buy a standalone OpenVPN client for that to work.

The Linux app is a bit buggy, but. It works.

The server speed is excellent... except when it's not. I have to reconnect pretty frequently, and it's been getting worse over the past 6m.

Still, it was secure, so I wasn't complaining until tonight.

I installed a new OS. I needed to get a fresh download of the client app, or my OpenVPN config at least. But. Even though I haven't been to the website in many months... I got greeted by a 429 error indicating my IP user made too many requests.

Huh...?

Now, this is the big problem: being blocked from the website, I have no way to contact their support. So I tried doing a public Tweet to their page. It got deleted... no reply...

At this point, I feel like I got scammed.

I'm pretty upset. And maybe they don't want to talk to me because I was so confused, but now they probably really don't want to talk to me, because after they deleted my Tweet... I got angry and told them I would be posting reviews everywhere I could find, as well as disputing bank charges and seeking out a way to report them to the BBB.

It really has put a significant halt and crunch on me.... since I work and go to school online... and have business clients that rely on me to keep confidential matters, well, secret.... and have had issues with cyber attacks for over a year now. The VPN thankfully brought those to a halt when, before I started using any VPN, I had to really harden the crap out of my OS as well as hide behind a maze of firewalled routers just to shake them.

And right now... I'm on a clean install.... so instead of doing the work that is due tomorrow morning, I'm working on securing my OS... just because for whatever reason, AirVPN's website thinks I've made too many requests by visiting the page ONCE.

The deleted Tweet made my confidence in AirVPN plummet. Big time. It showed me that they lack transparency. It would have been easy enough to Tweet me back that the site was down or why I was being blocked from it, but they chose instead to hide the issue's existence from their followers.

I also noticed on other review websites, for every negative review which lists the same issues I have - there were three to four glowing reviews to counteract the one negative review - all of them insisting anyone that was unhappy surely wasn't technically savvy enough. Making me suspect they're paying people somehow to astroturf, because - well, here I am, a system admin. If that's not technically savvy enough to use a VPN, then no one is savvy enough to use it, pretty much.

Look, there is a reason this is listed as #19 on this site. From what I can tell, this is an honest review site. That means that - honestly - there are other VPNs that made it to the top 10 which are just as affordable as AirVPN, just as secure, and (hopefully) faster as well.

And AirVPN didn't make it to that top 10 for a reason. It barely made the top 20.

The best I can suggest is that, if you use this service, do not use their Android client, and keep a backup copy of the PC client just in case you get locked out of the website for no discernable reason.

This review says BitTorrent is allowed, but I suspect I'm locked out because I used BitTorrent last night to download 4GB in data.

Do not be taken in by their claim of being "hacktivists and fighting against censorship". They are the very embodiment of what they claim to be against. I bought a subscription for two years, encountered slow speeds, then wrote to their forums for feedback and technical assistance. The senior admin there was rude, sarcastic, and despotic. He locked my thread after I complained that he gave unhelpful standard FAQ-type of replies. I made another thread and he deleted that one. I had enough by then and wrote to their sales department asking for a refund, but being as tiny as they are, their sales department probably doesn't exist or is handled by the same nasty person, and he promptly suspended my account. See how hollow and hypocritical their tagline rings.

So I have no hope of getting my refund back and cannot use their service in any case, which is basically fraud. Judging by other comments here, I'm not the first person to experience this, and surely won't be the last.

I can confirm Eddie does have a kill switch. Window7+ only- It is called "Activate Network Lock at startup" in Preferences->General tab. Note it does NOT enable this by default. It is a feature not in the Window XP version. For XP you can still achieve the same "lock" manually- after connecting to a VPN server, go into the server list and find the "Lock Current" checkbox at the bottom of the window. Checking that will lock the connection. You'll need to check it each time you connect.

Now the HUGE issue- if like most people, you use DHCP to configure your IP and DNS automatically, Eddie WILL NOT WORK PROPERLY. After connecting to a VPN server, all your traffic is still routed through your normal internet connection. THIS IS VERY BAD. If should automatically go over the VPN, but it doesn't, essentially rendering the VPN product useless. This does work properly if your PC is set up with static IP and static DNS- IE. on connecting to the VPN, traffic is then routed to the VPN as expected.

I have an atypical home setup with 15 or so PCs, several virtual machines, and for sanity sake, have always set up a static IP and static DNS (a block of local IPs is reserved for DHCP on my router, only my printers typically use it).

I added a new machine recently (Windows 7 Pro 64bit) , was in a rush to get it operational and went with DHCP. I installed AirVPN but didn't pay much attention to its stats. A week later I noticed NO DATA was going through the VPN!!! WTH?!? After some monitoring with Task Manager to confirm the issue, I disconnected the VPN, set up a static IP and static DNS on my LAN card properties and then all was well. But because of this MAJOR flaw, I can not recommend this service.

Since the space here is limited, I'll just post the link to my review on Reddit for anyone who's really interested:

https://www.reddit.com/r/vpnreviews/comments/a972oq/airvpn_worst_ever_vpn_in_terms_of_customer/

In short, I paid for a two-year subscription, experienced poor speed, then asked for help on the forums but was given a dismissive reply. I replied saying don't give me a FAQ reply and explained what I had tried. The post was then locked. When I asked for a refund, they suspended my account, essentially stealing my money for no services rendered. I'm not surprised to read that the post below mine had a similar experience, only that mine is even worse. They claim to be hacktivists against censorship, yet they freely indulge in it. Hypocritical bastards.

Airvpn seem good on paper but frequently I find the UK based servers to fall to a speed of less than 3mbps, sometimes you can get no connection at all and only changing the server fixes the issue. When I questioned this on the forum, the rep was rude, dismissive and banned me from making any more comments without his approval. So much for being the service for activists, maybe they are left wing activists like Google, Facebook and Youtube who only believe in free speech for those who worship Karl Marx. On the plus side when it works it works good, the software is reliable on both Windows and Linux, its just a shame their customer service and manners are so appalling.

I've used many of the prominent names in VPN services and I found the best overall solution was AirVPN. I am on the Brave browser in Linux Ubuntu and not having a Linux specific client eliminates many choices. I had connection problems, some services not allowing easy server selection, dropped connections, slow connections, expensive connections, problems with media displaying and so on.

Eddie, the GUI, ran flawlessly upon set-up, required no hand holding to figure out how to use it and had about the best overall assortment of privacy enhancing features that is out there. The prices is very competitive at longer durations.

I really, really like AirVPN and plan on sticking with them as long as their policies remain the same and their performance is maintained. For me, it was a great relief to find something so well developed for Linux.

My computer skills are relatively basic so consider the source but I’m sure a lot of basic users want simplicity in their VPN. I’ve had the service for about 2 years and have had a bunch of problems:

The speed drop even to a nearby server is at least 25-50% consistently since I started; the “recommended server” is usually in the Netherlands or Canada which is an inconvenience if I want to shop Joe Schmoe Store in the US-I have to change the server to the US-based one; the server lock “lock current” does not work; it takes several minutes for the selected connection to kick in assuming it does it on the first try which is often not the case; it will not let me select a lot of the servers that I want say the ones closer with lower latency times and in the US; for some strange reason I can no longer access the internet without the VPN even if I close it down, reboot and change the DNS server address back to a generic one – was never a problem before I got AirVPN; no sense in getting in touch with customer service as I had the same problem noted in the review above, remember, basic computer skills here. I signed up for all the reasons listed in the review. I think their concept is solid but execution leaves a lot to be desired.

One small positive though, I was able to watch the world cup by using one of their servers located in Germany to log onto one of the major German TV stations broadcasting the games. At times the images were a bit grainy but considering the routing not too bad. I had IPVanish before this and despite their propaganda, I could not do the same and their customer service was abysmal as well.

Looks like NordVPN or Express will be my next stop.

I have been using AirVPN for quite a few years. Fairly quick, easy to operate etc.

However, their technical support, sales support etc have been awful this year and seems to be getting worse. I have raised 6 support tickets, 4 have been closed without any response and 2 were just deleted!

I have asked them for VAT receipts but they refuse to provide one, even though VAT is charged. I believe this refusal is illegal (it certainly is in the UK). I think we will be moving elsewhere now.

I know I’m mostly just echoing the responses below, but I feel weirdly loyal to AirVPN, so I, too, will point out that AirVPN **does** have a kill switch–and that it works incredibly well…MUCH better than most other kill switches I’ve encountered. Also, imo Eddie (the GUI) is an excellent VPN application that manages to be user friendly without sacrificing security–all while offering lots of advanced options for those who want more customization. The app’s *design* might feel a bit outdated–and sure, lots of other VPN clients feature a sleeker, more ‘modern’ interface–but let’s not confuse flashy design with overall user friendliness (or quality of service!).

When it comes to VPN services, values are CRUCIAL. After all, it’s your private data we’re talking about! Not surprisingly, I’ve found that VPN companies who are truly committed to a core ethos that values privacy, security, transparency in government etc, fundamental rights, etc.) tend to provide the best, most secure VPN services. So while many VPN companies employ deceptive, hyperbolic marketing schemes to attract unsuspecting customers–AirVPN has opted to maintain its focus on building a top notch VPN service from the ground up. Imo, the results of this privacy-oriented ethos speak for themselves: I’ve never detected a leak of any sort when using either AirVPN. The same goes for Mullvad (another great, mission-driven VPN company).

Now, putting on my lawyer hat for a second…
I think people focus WAY too much on where a VPN is incorporated (e.g. Italy w/ AirVPN). Honestly, if the NSA or whoever wants your data, do you think they’ll waste their time and resources building a case and getting a warrant, when illegal “surveillance” is so much more efficient? Plus, in court there’s due process, presumption of innocence…you know, basic rights. Why bother with all that if you don’t have to? Instead of thinking about warrants and the like, ask yourself if you trust your VPN service to protect you–and your data–in situations that unfold away from the public eye, where there’s no accountability to *anyone*, where you have no due process to speak of. That’s what counts!

It DOES have a kill switch, its called the network lock and ive tested it and it works and in options you can get it to run minimized at boot with network lock on, so if your server drops out you won’t have any connection unless you close the program (no VPN) or connect to another server, it maxes out my 40Mb/10Mb connection every time (holland servers) with 22ms latency – the interface is good compared to others as it shows you the load and latency on each server before you even try it – 3 day free trial by request.

I was with PIA before and they had speed issues on their servers (top heavy now) and will be renewing with AirVPN after trying month after month different ones.

After my ISP shut down my connection after some alleged activity (copyrighted downloads), I decided to subscribe to a VPN service. Although PIA seems to be the more prominent name in my research, AirVPN has a better record.

THE BAD: The configuration files and tutorial for AirVPN and OpenVPN drove me nuts. AirVPN does not offer proxy, so I can’t use it for single applications. The price isn’t the best. Instructions to use their service are forum posts from employees. The speed on Windows (think 22mB/s max) is far less than Linux (think 36 mB/s max), though I assume I have something misconfigured.

THE GOOD: The desktop client is easy to use and clearly lists available connections and their stats. Setting up Android was super simple and did not require a forum post (but it is available). My internet stops if my VPN connection is interrupted, so absolutely nothing slips through the cracks. Tons of server options on the rare occasion (twice in 1.5 years) one isn’t working properly.

I resubscribed to AirVPN happily. The service and client work perfect. Most servers trigger websites’ CAPTCHA from botters, but nothing is blocked.