Article Summary
- Goose VPN is located in the Netherlands: That puts its credentials as a VPN provider in an odd position.
- 100+ servers across 25+ locations worldwide. Could be way better.
- Concerning anti-virus results: Goose VPN flagged some generic malware behavior in one of our virus tests.
- Not particularly impressive: Goose VPN doesn’t have much going for it as a premium VPN.
It’s one of the few VPNs that offers lifetime subscription. However, it’s light on features, and we couldn’t unblock any of the streaming services, no matter how many times we tried.
The speeds were also below the market average. So if you’re looking for a VPN that you don’t have to pay for each year, you can consider Goose VPN.
To help you choose, we signed up for their service, ran Goose VPN through a series of tests, and will share the results in our Goose VPN review.
Here’s what we found.
Goose VPN Overview
| OVERALL RANK: | #30 Out of 30 VPNs |
| USABILITY: | Very Easy To Use |
| LOG FILES: | Questionable Logging Policy |
| LOCATIONS: | 25 Locations, 100 Servers |
| SUPPORT: | Email, Snail Mail, Social Media, Live Chat, and a FAQ. |
| TORRENTING: | Limited Torrenting |
| NETFLIX: | No |
| ENCRYPTION/PROTOCOL: | AES-256 |
| COST: | From $5.99/mo |
| OFFICIAL WEBSITE: | www.goosevpn.com |
Goose VPN Pros
Goose VPN provides a good selection of protocols, strong encryption standards, is available almost everywhere, and is easy to use.
Here’s what we liked about them.
1. Supports Four Protocols, Including OpenVPN
Goose VPN supports four VPN protocols, including IKEv2, L2TP/IPSec, PPtP and OpenVPN.
The default standard is IKEv2 because it is seemingly the fastest. But Goose VPN admits that IKEv2 can “get blocked pretty easily.”
Their FAQ section does an excellent job helping you figure out which protocol is best (based on your objectives).
We’re a little concerned that Goose VPN still supports L2TP and PPtP, however. It’s been known for quite a while that these VPN protocols are insecure, and most VPN providers have phased them out as a precaution. The fact that Goose VPN has chosen not to do so is worrying, to say the least.
2. AES-256 Encryption Standard
Goose VPN uses the industry-standard AES-256 encryption standard.
The US government favors it for a simple reason:
It’s virtually hack-proof.
3. Allows Torrenting
Goose VPN allows torrenting, but only on specific servers.
To find out which servers are torrent/P2P approved, drop down the countries list in your Goose VPN desktop app and look for the countries marked “P2P Server.”
They’ll have a little “P2P” icon next to the favorite button.
4. Compatible on Multiple Devices
Goose VPN works with standard Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices.
But that’s not all.
They also work with Android TV, routers, NAS Firewalls, ChromeOS, and Raspberry Pi.
There is also a Chrome browser extension that you can use without installing the desktop client.
You can also hook up gaming consoles through the router.
Unlike some others, Goose VPN also provides native apps to install on your phone. Just look in the app store.
The Android APK installation file can also be directly installed from the Goose VPN website, and directly installed if you have the knowledge to do that.
Unlike many other VPN services, you can use the same Goose VPN account on as many devices as you want at the same time.
5. Very Easy To Use App
Goose VPN’s client is extremely simple to use.
You choose your country, flip the switch, and that’s it. Connection is fast and easy.
If you need to change the server, just drop down the countries menu and pick your preferred place. You don’t have to disconnect the current server first. You can just choose the new server, and Goose VPN will jump over.
Just remember to enable the Kill Switch in the settings first, so your real IP address is not temporarily revealed while changing servers.
6. Kill Switch Included
A kill switch will temporarily cut off your Internet connection while it finds and connects to a new server.
This also cuts off your connection when transferring between different servers or if you lose your Goose VPN connection.
The purpose is to stop your actual IP address from being temporarily revealed when Goose VPN is off for whatever reason.
The only catch is that you must switch it on yourself. It is off by default.
7. Strong Third-Party Ratings
Apple App Store
GooseVPN has an Apple App Store rating of 4.6 stars with 231 reviews.
Google Play Store
The Android app is a little worse at 3.8 stars after 1.5K reviews. Goose VPN isn’t super popular, with only 100K downloads.
Trustpilot
On Trustpilot, Goose VPN is rated fairly well at 3.9 stars across 4,528 reviews.
8. An Anti-Virus Solution
Goose VPN also comes with Cyber Alarm, its own in-house anti-virus solution, which alerts you when malware is found on your computer.
However, Cyber Alarm isn’t an all-in-one anti-virus solution. All it does is alert you when it finds programs on your computer that it suspects are malware. You still have to go through the procedure of removing the malware yourself, unlike NordVPN’s Threat Detection Pro, which handles everything for you.
Goose VPN Cons
Goose VPN started well. They had all the makings of a star on paper.
But cracks started appearing when we put them through a few tests.
Here’s what we discovered.
1. Inside Nine Eyes Agreement
The Netherlands is a member of the extended Nine Eyes intelligence alliance. That means they’re legally obligated to share online user information with the other eight members of the agreement in the interests of national security.
This would include keeping logs on suspected terrorists, as detailed in the “no logging” section we’ll get to below.
We tried clarifying these points with their support reps. But let’s just say that they were uncooperative.
Live Support actually said to me that they were “not authorized to talk about any other VPN provider other than Goose VPN.”
Let me shorthand things for you:
If you want a VPN for privacy and security, a Dutch VPN shouldn’t be at the top of your list.
Especially one that point-blank refuses to discuss things.
2. Vague Logging Policy
Goose VPN confirms that they do not keep logs or user information on their site.
However, there is a confusing contradiction where they then say that “if a public body suspects a Goose VPN user of criminal activities (terrorism, for example), we can keep a log on this specific user.”
So would the logging start after they were alerted by this “public body”? And if so, what standard of proof would be required?
Ironically, they don’t seem to consider copyright infringement a crime, as they then go on to say, “Goose VPN does not support any other organization that supports any type of copyright claims.”
3. VirusTotal Scan Was Concerning
A ‘leak’ is typically when your browsing habits are revealed.
That’s despite being connected to a VPN service.
The green connection light is on, you think you are safe, but it’s actually leaking your real IP address.
The problem is that this scenario is more common than you think.
To make sure that Goose VPN properly hides your IP address, we’ve put the client through a series of tests designed to uncover the most common leaks.
First of all, we put Goose VPN through IPLeak.net. This reveals whether Goose VPN properly protects your IP through IPv4 and IPv6, as well as via DNS.
DNS is the protocol that connects the human-readable domain names to a machine-readable IP address. Basically, it’s the address book for the internet.
However, when you make a DNS request, the operator can see which sites you’re requesting. This means that even if your ISP can’t read your traffic, if they can still see the DNS requests you make, they know which sites you’re visiting.
Thankfully, our tests revealed that Goose VPN properly handles DNS requests. It also doesn’t route IPv6 traffic at all, which is a common cause of IP leaks. So, we’re happy with these results.
Moving on, we then used BrowserLeaks.com to double-check for DNS leaks, as well as WebRTC leaks.
WebRTC allows browsers to chat directly to each other, but it’s notorious for revealing your real IP even when a VPN is up. Once again, Goose VPN passed these tests without issue.
We also tested Goose VPN’s kill switch to see if the VPN was able to handle disconnections correctly. Basically, a kill switch keeps you from sending any internet traffic if your connection to the VPN drops. It’s necessary if you’re on a network you don’t trust. It’s unlikely, but there could be a hacker hanging out on your coffee shop Wi-Fi.
Unfortunately, GooseVPN displayed a genuine kill switch leak. While connected to its server, I terminated the app for the connection to drop. GooseVPN app remained on, displayed green-lit connect verification, but IPLeak.net showed my original IP address.
Unfortunately, Goose VPN also threw up a serious red flag. We also ran the VPN installation files through VirusTotal, and the site found one virus in the installation file!
We should discuss a little more what this actually means, though. PAK_Generic.005 means that TrendMicro found behavior that looks like a virus. It’s not any specific virus, which means there’s a chance it could just be that Goose VPN’s installer behaves in a similar way to an actual virus.
That said, any virus-like behavior in a VPN installer is cause for concern. This is the biggest issue with Goose VPN, and we don’t recommend using it as a result.
4. Atrocious Speeds
After leak tests, we run performance tests to see how much each VPN affects browsing speed.
We’ve updated our speed tests for 2026 using a dedicated testing rig with a 250Mbps download and upload line.
Then, we connect to a few different servers and see how our results compare to our baseline speed tests.
Baseline
- Download: 251.17Mbps
- Upload: 251.61Mbps
- Ping: 1ms
Nearest Server
- Download: 240.47Mbps
- Upload: 241.23Mbps
- Ping: 12ms
Europe
- Download: 165.44Mbps
- Upload: 229.75Mbps
- Ping: 33ms
US East
- Download: 211.82Mbps
- Upload: 21.16Mbps
- Ping: 97ms
Asia
- Download: 60.89Mbps
- Upload: 5.23Mbps
- Ping: 287ms
Although the speeds we recorded to our nearest server were pretty impressive, we can’t say the same about the rest of our results. We look for speed loss below 20% in a top-tier VPN, but our loss of download speed to the Europe server we chose was closer to 35%. We also noticed our upload speeds to US East and Asia were outright terrible.
Seriously, 5Mbps on a 250Mbps line? That’s unusable for the modern internet. With nearly 80% download speed loss to Asia, too, that’s well beyond acceptable tolerances for even a midrange VPN.
We cannot recommend Goose VPN on the basis of their speeds.
5. Awful Customer Support
Customer Support can be contacted via email, snail mail, social media, Live Chat, and a FAQ.
First, we tried firing off an email.
After a few hours without a response, we tried their live chat.
“Monica” connected almost instantly. So far so good.
We fired off a lightning round of questions to see just how knowledgeable (and patient) Monica was.
- You say you collect no logs, except for those engaged in criminal activity. So you actually do collect logs then? Or is the logging of those involved in criminal activity only started after you have been notified? Also, you say terrorism is a crime (which it obviously is), but you are perfectly OK with torrenting. Isn’t copyright infringement also a crime?
- Which third-party payment service do you use for credit card payments?
- What encryption standard do you use? AES-256?
- Does Goose support the Tor browser and gaming consoles?
- What is the maximum number of connections allowed at any one time?
The interaction was strange, to say the least.
I am still not sure if “Monica” was a real person or an automated bot.
Every time I asked a question, it took a long time to get a reply. When a reply eventually came in, most of it was copy and pasted from the FAQ section.
When I asked for clarification on the first question (regarding the logging for criminal activity), “Monica” refused to clarify, instead repeating verbatim what is said in the FAQ.
Not helpful in the slightest. Plus, logging your IP is unacceptable for a VPN.
6. No Streaming Support
During our previous tests, we managed to access a few Netflix libraries via GooseVPN. However, Netflix keeps improving its VPN detection and blocking capabilities, and GooseVPN did not keep up. This time, we were not able to access a single Netflix library using it.
We were also unsuccessful in our other streaming tests. When we tried BBC iPlayer on Goose VPN’s UK servers, we found that we weren’t able to access it despite using their streaming option.
The same goes for Amazon Prime, where the streaming service detected we were using a VPN and wouldn’t allow us to stream until we disabled it.
Goose VPN could be much better at streaming. We wouldn’t recommend it if you’re looking for a dedicated streaming VPN, and instead we’d direct you to a service like NordVPN or ExpressVPN instead.
Goose VPN Cost, Plans & Payment Methods
You can either pay for Goose VPN monthly or annually.
They also offer a lifetime deal if that’s more your speed, but we recommend against it. “Lifetime” deals are very rarely what they’re advertised as. Your VPN provider can stop honoring the deal at any time, and if they go out of business, you’re left without recourse.
If you pay annually, you can get a discount of over 50%.
Otherwise, you can buy the monthly deal at €9.99 a month, which is roughly $11.60 as of writing.
You save 50% signing up for the yearly plan, but taking a month first is a decent way to test them first before taking the plunge on the annual discount.
You can pay in credit card, PayPal, or through a Dutch bank debit card via iDeal (participating banks only).
To buy Goose VPN, you cannot use cryptocurrencies or cash payments. So forget about anonymous payments.
There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee, plus a free 30-day trial.
Another excellent chance to take their service for a test drive before getting locked into any long-term deal.
Do We Recommend Goose VPN?
No.
Goose VPN is slow. It’s located in a Nine Eyes jurisdiction, and the no-logs policy leaves a lot to be desired. Customer support could have been much better. There’s also the issue of the Goose VPN software installation file, which is questionable at best. We can’t recommend a VPN that flags up on virus scans, even if it’s fantastic in every other category.
Bottom Line: Goose VPN isn’t a particularly good VPN, and with some concerning anti-virus results, we can’t recommend it. Here’s a complete list of the best VPNs in 2026, instead.
Alternative Recommendations:
- For streaming: NordVPN or ExpressVPN
- For budget-conscious users: Surfshark
- The best free VPN: ProtonVPN
- Need a 45-day money-back guarantee: CyberGhost
- Servers in all 50 states: Private Internet Access