“FastestVPN” is a descriptive brand name if nothing else.
And therein lies the dilemma.
When you call yourself “FastestVPN,” you’re making both a seriously big claim and backing yourself into a corner.
You risk losing all credibility if rivals eclipse your speed.
That’s exactly what we set out to find in this FastestVPN review.
Are they truly the ‘fastest’?
Or is it just an advertising gimmick and they’re hoping everybody just doesn’t check too closely?
FastestVPN Overview
| OVERALL RANK: | #14 out of 78 VPNs |
| USABILITY: | Easy to use |
| LOG FILES: | No Logging Policy |
| LOCATIONS: | 10 countries, 70 servers |
| SUPPORT: | 24/7 Live Chat |
| TORRENTING: | P2P & Torrenting Allowed |
| NETFLIX: | Yes 1/5 |
| ENCRYPTION/PROTOCOL: | AES 256-bit, PPTP, L2TP, IKEV2, TCP, and UDP. OpenVPN possible but not included by default. |
| COST: | $1.11/month to $10/month |
| OFFICIAL WEBSITE: | www.fastestvpn.com |
Here’s why.
For a service that prides itself on speed, FastestVPN does an excellent job delivering on privacy.
1. Located in the Cayman Islands
There’s a reason why people love the Cayman Islands so much.
Part of it is to do with the weather, the beaches, and the little cocktails with umbrellas in them.
But another is the island’s obsession with secrecy and privacy. Banks will not give out information about their customers, for example.
And the same goes for VPN companies.
The Cayman Islands is also not a member of the Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, or Fourteen Eyes security agreements. This is a huge plus.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any information on their payment processing company (to confirm that they, too, were located outside of these alliances).
However, they do let you pay with bitcoin. So there’s at least one way to further protect your personal data.
2. Does Not Log Your Activity
On top of a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, FastestVPN also has a pretty good logging policy.
They do not collect logs of what you do online. This is confirmed in their Privacy Policy.
But they DO collect some minimal information for internal use, like your email and any marketing-related session data (Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Live Chat).
3. Supports Five Protocols with AES 256-Bit Encryption
FastestVPN supports five tunneling protocols – PPTP, L2TP, IKEV2, TCP, and UDP.
That’s the good news. Lots of flexibility.
The bad news is twofold:
- They default to PPTP. Which ain’t secure at all.
- They support OpenVPN, but you have some manual install work to do.
Beyond protocols, FastestVPN does use the industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption. This is bank-grade stuff that is used by security professionals around the world.
So it’s legit.
Overall, we’ll put these together under the Pros.
4. Pretty Fast (But Not the “Fastest”)
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for.
Is FastestVPN really the “fastest”?
No.
But they didn’t fare too badly. They came in at the 18th position out of 78 VPNs we’ve tested, right behind VyprVPN.
Our non-VPN connection came in around 95.27 Mbps download and 34.88 Mbps upload.
Now, let’s switch on the VPN and see the speed differences.
US Server (Florida):
- Ping: 132
- Download: 87.51 Mbps (8.1% slower)
- Upload: 13.17 Mbps (62.2% slower)
Good download speed. Only just over 8% slower than my regular speed without the VPN on.
Not so great upload speed. It leaves a lot to be desired.
Next, let’s test a Euro server.
EU Server (Sweden):
- Ping: 36
- Download: 92.95 Mbps (2.4% slower)
- Upload: 27.80 Mbps (20.3% slower)
Once again, the download speed is great, while the upload speed let’s them down a little.
Not terrible by any stretch. But definitely not the ‘fastest.’
5. Torrenting Is Allowed
FastestVPN does not have a bandwidth cap.
That’s great news for those who are downloading fanatics. They also permit their service to be used with torrenting apps.
So if you’re looking to download massive files at fast speeds, you’re in the clear!
6. Compatible with Multiple Devices
FastestVPN works with Windows, MacOS, five different Linux distros, iOS, Android, Chromebooks.
They also work with eleven different types of routers and Kodi. It is a simple case of clicking on the one you need and downloading the installation file.
They have native apps in the iOS and Google Play app stores. But if you feel like living dangerously, you can also download the APK installation file directly from FastestVPN and install it yourself.
FastestVPN also supports Apple TV, the PlayStation 3 and 4, and the Xbox.
You can use the same FastestVPN account on up to five devices at the same time.
7. Very Easy to Use
Most users can download the VPN client in a matter of seconds.
I can confirm that using it is extremely easy after testing both the Windows version and MacOS version.
No lags or bugs. And very little margin for error.
When the app starts up, you will get your standard sign-in box. (You should already have signed up for a customer account on the website and chosen your plan.)
When you log in, you will be automatically connected to a close server.
To disconnect or to change servers, click the yellow circle in the middle with the lightning bolt. This will disconnect you.
To choose a new server, click the horizontal three lines in the top left-hand corner, choose “Locations” and you’ll be given your choices.
And you’re free to browse from there! Happy surfing.
10 Simultaneous Connections Allowed
With one account, you are allowed to use the app from 10 different devices.
8. Leaks Fixed
The last time I reviewed FastestVPN, there were leaks… a LOT of them.
The entire point of using a VPN in the first place is to protect your personal data.
Yes, security is part of it. But so is anonymity.
You don’t want to divulge your location, for example.
Connection ‘leaks’ threaten to undermine this anonymity.
You think you’re solid. All the while, your VPN is hanging a sign that says:
“Here I am, come and get me.”
Well…
FastestVPN hung up a big ‘ol sign.
I had to retest the results three times to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.
My real location was leaked multiple times, in many different tests.
- https://ipleak.net/ (multiple leaks found)
- https://www.perfect-privacy.com/check-ip/ (none found)
- https://ipx.ac/run (multiple leaks found)
- https://browserleaks.com/webrtc (one leak found)
- https://www.perfect-privacy.com/dns-leaktest/ (multiple leaks found)
- http://dnsleak.com/ (three leaks found)
Don’t believe me?
Here’s one:
Here’s another:
However, when I tested the VPN again in March 2019, I found that there were no longer leaks.
We also ran the VPN installation files through VirusTotal. The installation file came back clean.
9. Kill Switch
The purpose of a ‘kill switch’ is to stop your real IP address from being revealed if the VPN connection is dropped.
This could happen with a technical malfunction, but also even when simply changing servers.
A kill switch will block your Internet connection while it is searching for a new VPN server. Then, it reconnects you to the Internet when it does.
The last time we reviewed FastestVPN there was no Kill Switch. They seem to have fixed this now, however.
FastestVPN Cons –
FastestVPN seems pretty solid on paper.
And their five-year deal for only $0.83/month seems too good to be true.
So… is it?
Let’s find out.
1. Does Not Work With Netflix
Forget about unbocking Netflix.
We were warned not to get our hopes up.
FastestVPN says on their site that they don’t support Netflix at all.
But of course we had to test them.
We did get one to work on a server in Florida. However, four others were all blocked:
- United States: New York
- Canada
- United Kingdom
- Netherlands
While testing, Netflix also kept redirecting us back to our home country’s version. Which was another painful reminder that even they knew our real location was leaking.
So don’t count on streaming geo-restricted content with FastestVPN anytime soon.
2. Doesn’t Seem to Work with Tor
Combining a VPN with Tor doubles-up your anonymity with an extra layer of security.
However, our research couldn’t find any mention of Tor compatibility.
We tried reaching out to their support to verify. But this, too, yielded nothing.
So once again, don’t bet on it.
3. ‘24/7’ Customer Support is Non-Existent
Customer Support can be contacted via email and live chat.
There is also a Support section which you can check out before emailing them.
The company claims they are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Except, according to our test, they’re not.
We reached out to clarify three different issues:
- What payment service do you use for credit card transactions?
- Does FastestVPN support the Tor browser?
- Why do you have no kill switch?
We tried email. But no luck. Hours sped by and still no response.
So we hopped on live chat and sent the same questions.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Nothing.
I waited close to two hours for the online chat to get back to me. There was no response.
This is a company that proclaims 24/7 customer support but no emails or chat requests were answered for several hours.
4. Too Few & Inconsistent Servers
Many VPNs lie about their servers.
And we noticed a few inconsistencies around FastestVPN’s servers.
Many times, a company might tell you they have a server in one location, only for it to actually be somewhere else.
FastestVPN claims over 100 servers in 23 locations.
But when you open up the desktop app, you can only see 29 servers.
Hmmm.
They also show only one server in each country that they’re in. The U.S. has seven. But the numbers still don’t add up.
And either way, there just aren’t enough to be worth your time.
Otherwise, you risk being forced to share the same overcrowded servers with everybody else.
FastestVPN Cost, Plans & Payment Methods
You can either pay for FastestVPN monthly, annually, or every two years.
Monthly is $10 a month which is on the expensive end of the spectrum.
But if you buy it for $29.95 upfront (one year), that drops to only $2.49 a month.
And if you pay $39.95 for a three-year plan, they are virtually giving their service away at $1.11 a month.
At the time of writing, they were also promoting a temporary special offer of a five-year plan for just $0.83 a month. They are giving no indication though on how long that offer will remain open or if they will make it permanent.
All plans come with a 7-day money-back guarantee. There is no trial period, but you have seven days to get a full refund if you’re not happy.
There is also just the one plan level.
There is no ‘Basic’ or ‘Pro’ level with extra features. The only difference is how long you want to pay for up-front.
You can pay for FastestVPN through credit or debit card, PayPal, Bitcoin (anonymous), and AliPay (third-party online payment platform based in China, made by Alibaba).
Do I Recommend FastestVPN?
Speeds are, in fact, pretty good. Their Cayman Islands location and logging policy are both encouraging.
They also provide an excellent array of device options.
Unfortunately, the Cons outweigh the Pros at the end of the day.
My tests on Netflix servers weren’t fooled. They kept redirecting me back to my home country’s Netflix.
Netflix may be cracking down hard on proxy servers but there are still a lot of VPN servers that are trying to stay one step ahead of Netflix.
FastestVPN seems not to be bothered.
And if that was not bad enough, Customer Support is totally non-existent.
I still have the timer ticking away on that email reply coming back, but I am not counting my chickens.
Nobody is bothering to reply to my Live chat message, either.
If that is their idea of ‘24×7’ support, you should use a VPN software that has an excellent provider, like NordVPN.
Add your own FastestVPN review:
21 user reviews for FastestVPN
Wel
Not worth it
I avail the Stacksocial lifetime plan and I must say that it was a bad decision. I'm in Asia and the majority of their Asia servers are extremely slow except Singapore (which is sadly always down). The US servers give faster speed but with the penalty of high latency (which is obvious due to the distance). Overall, don't waste your money on this trash.
shane
Was super skeptical but have been really impressed
I got the lifetime deal for next to nothing and have been using it for a few months. I read as much as I could on reddit before buying. This is the deal basically. If you need anything streaming related unblocked then move along. If you aren't good with computers and have to rely on their app ... it's not for you.
If you are able to install and configure openvpn then you are set. You bind your torrent app to the vpn and now you have a kill switch.
I was using PIA before and their speeds had been declining fast. (over this last year) So far the fastest has been just as fast or even faster in a lot of cases. I only really use it to torrent and for this reason I have not one complaint.
Today I forgot I was connected and ended up gaming for hours in an mmorpg and didn't even know I had openvpn connected until after. In all honesty that has happened when I had PIA and I would notice the game start lagging usually within the first 30 mins and disconnect it.
This has been just as good as PIA and at a fraction of the price. If I get 3 months out of the lifetime license then I broke even basically and 3 months is up in a few days. Overall this has been one of the best purchases I have made recently.
Had PIA not started getting so bad I would have resubbed with them and was sooooo close to. I am very glad I didn't. It's 100% perfect for what I use it for. OH YEAH the one issue I had was google constantly wanting me to verify and do the captcha garbage. The fix was so simple it will make you laugh. Change your default search engine to duckduckgo. LOL fixed !! duckduckgo searches through google anyways!
Rupert
U.S. connections often overloaded
Overloaded servers; no customer support; they sold too many cheap lifetime subs: if they are Still in business in 12 months, I will be amazed
Quinten
It IS bandwidth-capped, they're just playing games with Speedtest
One thing I noticed is that I wasn't getting actual total traffic more than about 8-10 Mbps, even though my ISP bandwidth is far greater than that and Speedtest reports the full ISP bandwidth. So I chose different servers in Speedtest which had latency close to or lower than the one Speedtest selected. I never got more than 8-10 Mbps. This was consistent at multiple locations. Going to those same servers without VPN I get full rate. They seem to be RATE-LIMITING EVERYTHING except the servers that Speedtest selects. Perhaps paying full-price would give me full-speed, but if that's what they're doing they should say so.
Calix Steve
No IP Leak Issue
I’ve had FastestVPN for a while now. I haven’t found any leak or slow speed issue. It works great with the Netflix and the speed was dam fine. If anyone is facing any connection drop or speed issue, then you probably need to change your server location. I don’t really think that it’s the fault of the VPN itself. At least, my experience was great and I got the value what I have paid for.
SV
Not a serious option
I have had this service for approximately 6 months. It works as a secure VPN but I would not recommend it as a serious option for general users. As others have mentioned, this is not a VPN for media streaming or torrenting. I have also noticed that speeds have drastically slowed down over the last 6 months. Given the limited number of servers, they seem to be suffering from over subscription of users - the slow down is most noticeable in the evenings when download rates sometimes drop below 5 mbps. It has become a frustrating service to work with.
Fernando
Abnormal activity in my Google account
By coincidence or not, I used the service for almost a day and at night my Google account alerts me that were an intent to login from the Arab Emirates.
AK
Very slow speed
I have the StackSocial Lifetime plan and located in America. All overseas servers are slow with 300ms ping and less than 6 mbps while I have 75 mbps connection. I do not know if they throttle me because of my cheap lifetime plan or not, but this is too slow speed to be call FastestVPN.
Stephen wasserman
Bad program
Installed program. DID NOT WORK. I had NO internet connection. They have many emails so it is hard to communicate with them. Chat was bad. I asked for a refund the same day a d only got the run around from them. They deny their refund policy.
ak47
Pretty Good as per money
Most of the time It worked as described. I saw Windows app is not working properly .They never promised Netflix work on it. DNS leak happened from your browser. Google how to turn on or off Webrtc leak on your browser. Internet Kill switch is working as well as ads blocks. They told me it setup form their server. I don't know know how NAT work
Jason
Tremendously satisfied user
I don't usually go out of my way to review products, but I feel it's necessary to add my two cents here because I'm mystified by the negative reviews this VPN receives.
I can only speak for my experiences within the past month when I took the plunge and bought a lifetime subscription on sale. Maybe they USED to be a poor service -- but I only have extremely positive things to say about FastestVPN.
Let's start with speed, since that seems to be the primary point made in every review (and rightly so). You might not believe this, but I've actually found them to live up to their name in this department! Using the Miami, FL server, my download speeds are 94% (!!) of the baseline. And my upload speeds are actually FASTER than without a VPN!! I've tested this on multiple ISPs and the results are consistent. Am I just lucky? Who knows, but I'm definitely happy.
Yes, they have a very limited number of servers. Yes, they don't work with Netflix (though this wasn't a problem for me). However, I feel that, for the price, this is the best VPN out there. Previously I used PrivateInternetAccess for a year, and I had nothing but trouble with them. They were slow, the connection would suffer interruptions, and I would always encounter problems when browsing websites to where I just ended up turning it off most of the time. I don't experience any of that with FastestVPN.
Like I say, maybe they used to be terrible. But after using this VPN for a month now, I can confidently say it's a top contender that deserves a second look.
Fiona
Fastestvpn
Admitted issues with bbc iPlayer. Wouldn’t install on iPad told me to wait 15 days. AOL password had to be changed unusual activity found with the VPN. Really not impressed and uninstalled.
Anonymous
Better with Extensions
Been using FastestVPN for the past 4 months. The service has improved drastically with leaks being solved and a faster than usual customer support. They have also introduced plugins for FireFox/Chrome. I have tested the FireFox addon and it seems to have no leaks (with flash turned off ofcourse). WebRTC blocking is built in along side ad-blocking technology.
Overall very impressed, just wish there was more servers to work with.
Paul
Nice service vpn
This is a very good service, NO LOGS for real, Fast servers, Good integration with many S.O. , NAT, FIREWALL, AD BLOCKER, ANTIMALWARE, KILL SWITCH, VERY CHEAP PRICE, P2P , ANTI WEBRTC leak, Cayman islands matrix. The bad of this service is no NETFLIX Access, not enough servers in my opinion.
Overall 8.5 of 10.
Good job.
Simmi
Fastest VPN is still a con
Purchased a one year plan in Jan 2019. The Windows desktop app did not work at all, after I kept trying multiple of their revisions on a variety of my computers for six days. Cancelled within seven days money back guarantee, was promised a refund within 7-10 days, nothing arrived 14 days later, except new empty promises. Had to dispute through my credit card company, which cost me additional hours of time.
This outfit is still a total Internet con job. Do not get anywhere near.
madgearhead
Review data seems wrong (outdated?)
I don't want to carry water for these guys because I haven't been happy with some things, but some of the review is not true.. to my experience anyway. Firstly, they do have a kill switch. (Whether or not you can actually get their client to run reliably is another story). Second, the customer service (while they mostly piss me of) is quite impressive in speed and reliability. I have had to contact them half a dozen times trying to learn my way through all this and the chat on their website was instant everytime, which I find kind of amazing actually... (Well if you don't count that it wouldn't run on Brave browser)... Like I said I don't mean to defend them but I call a spade a spade. Either they fixed these two issues in the short time since your review or ... I don't know what your talking about. Are you an honest person? Liars piss me off and need to die in a fire, so I hope that's not it. They even offered to just set things up for me if I gave them access to my computer remotely, which is pretty good service (although I found it creepy and declined... Plus I want to learn how to make it run well myself even if it takes 100 times more trouble. I'm just like that).
The problems I mostly ran into were:
- trying to get their clients to run well. .. I couldn't for a long while. I gave up on my android altogether, and use another client (my only other option at that point was to throw my phone at a wall). On windows.. Once I realized their client had a kill switch and the other options didn't seem to, I gave it a harder try. I'm not sure what I did or they did but it seems pretty stable now. I have done those leak tests as well and didn't get any leaks (granted I haven't done it a ton or on different servers, and I'm still a VPN noob.. So maybe I'm missing something). It would be better if it had more options I think, but so far I can live with it... That could change as I learn more.
-Their prices are so low and client seemed so bad that I am about 75% expecting them to fold. Because of that, I feel stupid for getting their lifetime deal (even though it was black friday and super cheap overall if you were to assume you will use it for "a lifetime".. 80$ I believe I paid?).. And even more angry with myself about that because I actually don't have but maybe 5 years to live if I'm lucky... So that was just a silly mistake on my part... (Unless they improve a lot I suppose..TMI but kind of funny.)
-looking around now I realize the server options are pretty limited... But at the end of the day I don't have much reason to need all those thousands of servers. Maybe that will change for some reason I can't see at this point.
-the kill switch works too well. If I just shut off my computer for instance.. I have to fight with the program for a while on startup to get connected to the net again... If I remember to turn off the kill switch before I close the program or turn off the machine it's fine. A bit lame though.
-I'll definitely do some more and often leak tests since you pointed it out though. That is completely unacceptable if true. (If my landlady gets her IP banned because of it, that will be quite bad for me... And I think I may literally send them a package of exploding dog crap from the bridge I'll be living under).
So yeah, over all they need improvement to be great, and I don't really recommend them unless you have more time than money like me, but those two issues I mentioned were nonexistent so I had to say something.
Person2
Major security leaks
Had constant slow speeds, asked remote desktop to test a few things. They remote desktop in and first thing they did was reinstall the app. Get to login info page and he copy and pasted my email and pass in without asking. He had access to email and passwords in plain text. That in itself if a big security risk, glad I used paypal and only have access to my email. I only use it for torrents, dont use it for anything needing security and privacy.
Jeff
Dissapointed to be honest
To be honest I can not recommend this VPN. I have messaged the support Team so many times and nothing gets done, they say it will be looked into, then a month later they said it was fixed now, then I check again and it leaks, they do not know what to do to fix it (about 4 times I have messaged about it, continuous loop). Also I have asked for a refund which they said they would give, in the end they said they were going to send the refund, but I haven't received the money after 2 months, and then I asked the support why I haven't got my money and all of a sudden they say I will not give me my money back. This company is untrustworthy and full of lies. It seems like a complete shambles over there and can not sort anything out properly. Getting the money back is like getting water out of a stone, once you have given it you will not get it back.
Person
Does not leak DNS if properly configured
First when I tried it I too noticed the leaks in DNS, however after some searching I found out that it could be due to my computer not being forced to route all traffic through the VPN. After I got that changed it works without leaks. For me FastestVPN works good and I would recommend it to other people.
Alex
FastestVPN is a con
Like Imod I also fell for the trap. There is no way of getting your money back from this firm. They are selling a program that does not work as stated on there web page. This leads me to thinking that they might be keeping logs and selling information as nothing they say can be trusted. Find a better VPN, Fastestvpn leaks DNS and cares nothing about been honest.
John
Worst VPN Ever
This VPN leaks DNS like no other VPN I have ever used.
The support keeps feeding you BS but nothing works to stop the leaks. To be honest I don’t think this firm has a tech team and they have no way of fixing the leak.
The 7-day money back is not to be trusted and trying to get your money back is like getting your teeth pulled by a blind person, painful and bloody.
My advice, don’t go near this program as it cannot be called a VPN. There are many many good VPNs out there FastestVPN is not one of them.