VPNhub Review Overview
Devices
Unblocks
Pros
- 1000+ servers
- Fast speeds
- 256-bit AES encryption option
Cons
- A lot of logs
Pricing
- 36 month plan - $3.49 per month ($125.64 total cost)
- 24 month plan - $4.99 per month ($119.76 total cost)
- 12 month plan - $6.99 per month ($83.88 total cost)
- 1 month plan - $13.99 per month ($13.99 total cost)
Review scores
VPNhub got a passing mention in our post answering How Can I Watch BBC iPlayer Abroad for Free, however we felt it was time to take a more in-depth look at the provider.
One of the main reasons behind this decision is a slew of new information coming to our attention. Keep reading to find out why we won’t recommend VPNhub anytime soon.
How does VPNHub Compare to the Competition
In the table below, you can see how VPNHub stacks up to the competition. You can add and remove providers you wish to compare using the drop-down box below.
Take a look at How We Rate VPN Providers!
Bad Location
The first issue (one we were previously aware of) is VPNhub being based in the US.
If this is your first time visiting our site, you might think this is an odd thing to take issue with. But the US is one of the eponymous nations behind the UKUSA Agreement, which later developed into the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes Agreement.
The 5+ Eyes Agreement is best explained as an international network of government intelligence agencies who spy on their own (and each other’s) citizens and share that information with each other.
It’s a huge breach of privacy and one of the biggest reasons we got involved in the VPN market in the first place.
Usually, we’re willing to make exceptions for some VPN providers who are based in 5+ Eyes jurisdictions. It typically depends on their privacy policy, security features, and company background.
But – spoiler alert – VPNhub doesn’t make the cut.
Dodgy Company Background
Unless you live in the UK, you probably haven’t heard of AgeID, which was implemented in the Digital Economy Act 2017.
AgeID is an initiative developed by a company called MindGeek, in partnership with the UK government.
It essentially forces you to provide an official document or credit card information proving you’re 18+ years old before you can access any porn websites.
Once you hand over your personal information to any of MindGeek’s porn websites, you won’t need to verify your age on any of them again.
MindGeek owns pretty much all of the major porn websites: RedTube, YouPorn, Brazzers, and – you guessed it – Pornhub. In fact, the company has the closest thing to a true monopoly over the porn industry.
Now, we’re all for having some way of making sure under-age internet users aren’t able to access porn sites. But the way AgeID is going about it is a total invasion of user privacy.
Not only that, but implementing AgeID technology is going to be expensive… too expensive for smaller porn website companies, leaving them with two options: shut down or go bankrupt after being forced to pay a huge, unaffordable fine.
Either way, it gives MindGeek even more of a monopoly power, which we – and many others – suspect is their real motivation for stepping up to develop AgeID in the first place.
Finally, it smacks of a slippery slope. Who knows what else they’ll try holding ransom in exchange for your personal information?
Dodgy Privacy Policy
When we mentioned VPNhub as an option for trying to watch BBC iPlayer abroad for free, we highlighted the fact their privacy policy isn’t so great.
We still stand by that judgment.
In fact, it’s actually a nightmare. Here are some lowlights:
- When you launch the VPNhub app, “we and our third party services collect device-specific information,” which can be used to personally identify you
- When you connect to one of their VPN servers (which are actually owned by StackPath), VPNhub will “collect your internet protocol (IP) address” and encrypt it, deleting it after your session ends
- “We may share your general (city level) location”
- “Access to user Personal Information is restricted to those who need to know such information to perform their job functions” [i.e. we can see your personal information and all it takes is one of our employees using bad password practices for that information to become available to anyone trying to access that information]
- “We do not promise and cannot guarantee that your Personal Information can never be viewed and/or used by others”
- “We are not responsible for circumventions of any privacy settings or security measures contained in the Services” [even though they should be]
One last (and particularly bad) one:
But wait, there’s more!
Even though this is the privacy policy hosted on VPNhub’s website, it’s not actually their own privacy policy.
If you take a look at their FAQ section, you’ll find they link to AppAtomic – the company who developed and maintains the VPNhub app. AppAtomic’s privacy policy is word-for-word the same, which just confirms it’s AppAtomic in control of the VPN app, not VPNhub itself.
Given everything we uncovered since giving VPNhub a thumbs-up for users trying to watch BBC iPlayer from abroad for free, we’re regretting having done so.
The deeper we dig into the provider, the less happy we are with it – and it no longer works for streaming anyway, which we’ll discuss later.
Military-Grade Encryption and the Best VPN Protocols?
According to some VPN review sites, VPNhub uses two kinds of VPN encryption: the less-than-ideal 128-bit AES and the industry-standard, military-grade 256-bit encryption.
The only thing on the VPNhub website confirming this are the iOS and Android pages – where 256-bit AES is listed. However, the Windows and Mac pages were bare, so we bit the bullet by signing up (had to do so for this review anyway) and taking advantage of their 7-day free trial. To the best of our knowledge, it seems users can decide which they prefer.
As for their VPN protocols, users get the option of IKEv2, OpenVPN TCP, or OpenVPN UDP, with IKEv2 being the default across all devices.
We do not recommend using IKEv2 as the default, but rather OpenVPN, as it’s the most secure VPN protocol currently available (TCP is somewhat better than UDP, though the latter typically gives a faster connection).
Dodgy Kill Switch and No Split Tunneling, but No Leaks
Three security features we always take a hard look at are the kill switch, split tunneling, and DNS leak protection.
The kill switch is especially important, as it’s meant to prevent you from accidentally leaking data online by killing your internet connection if the connection between your device and the VPN server drops.
We’re glad to see VPNhub has one, though it is dodgy.
Well, actually, plan and simple: it doesn’t work.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re connected to one of their servers or not, you won’t be able to get any internet access. Which, to be fair, is probably why they don’t bother advertising it anywhere on their website.
Given the above, we’re not surprised VPNhub doesn’t have a split tunneling feature.
Split tunneling would allow you to have some websites and apps run through the VPN server while others run through your normal (unprotected) internet connection.
It’s a nice-to-have, in our opinion, but advanced VPN users will likely be frustrated with its absence.
Finally, we took a look at their leak protection. Bear in mind VPNhub doesn’t guarantee it’ll work at all.
Surprisingly, though, it does.
Both the IPv6 and DNS leak protection features worked without a hitch. Unfortunately, this is the only good news for this section.
No Double VPN/Multi-Hop, but There Is TOR Capability
Another nice-to-have feature we like seeing in a VPN is the Double VPN, which is sometimes called a Multi-Hop.
It’s an extra security measure users can choose to take advantage of by connecting to 2 VPN servers.
This helps obfuscate your physical location even further and is usually a best-practice for anyone using a VPN in countries like China or the UAE.
Unfortunately, VPNhub doesn’t have it.
Most of the time, you can mimic the feature by using The Onion Router (TOR).
Connect to your VPN, then open up the TOR proxy browser, which reroutes your connection via 3 remote servers.
However, TOR alone slows your connection speed quite considerably.
When we used the TOR-over-VPN method with VPNhub, our internet speed was unbearably slower than other TOR-over-VPN experiences.
So, in the end, this workaround wasn’t really a viable option either.
1,000+ Servers?
VPNhub claims to have “thousands of servers” in their network here, but later on the same page it also says they only have “over 1,000 servers.”
So how many servers are there really?
No one knows. We couldn’t get any sort of answer from their support (even asked for a ballpark figure rather than an exact number) or the app itself.
All we know is the servers are likely to be shared with the other VPNs using StackPath’s infrastructure – IPVanish and StrongVPN, for example.
And considering StackPath owns both of those, VPNhub clients would be getting third-priority at best.
On the other hand, according to VPNhub’s website, they offer servers in 60 different countries.
Speed
Here’s why the bottom-of-the-totem priority for VPNhub clients puts us off.
The closer you are to a server’s physical location, the better your connection speed will be.
Likewise, the fewer people being forced to share the same server, the lower the network load will be – and, therefore, the better your connection speed will be.
We heard bad things about VPNhub’s server speeds, so we didn’t have high hopes.
Here are the results:
No VPN
US Server
UK Server
Lucky for VPNhub, and unlike other users and reviews, our server speeds were on the higher end. Consider us cautiously impressed.
Device Compatibility and Connections
VPNhub doesn’t earn any brownie points on the device compatibility and simultaneous connections front either.
You can only use VPNhub on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. And you can only use it on 3 or 5 devices at the same time (per account) – we’re not sure on the 3 or 5 front, their FAQ section says 3 but their Windows page says 5.
Anyhow, on the subject of compatibility, we’re missing Linux and routers at the very least.
Subscription Plans and Pricing
The provider doesn’t do well with their subscription plans either:
To be frank, this is exorbitantly expensive (though the 3-year plan isn’t a bad deal).
Considering the many flaws this VPN has, we’d say it’s overpriced and not worth spending any money on at all.
We wouldn’t bother using the free version (available for mobile users only and riddled with invasive advertising) either.
You can also only pay using a Visa, Mastercard, Japan Credit Bureau, or American Express credit card.
There’s no option for PayPal or an anonymous cryptocurrency, which is another big disappointment.
No Streaming or Torrenting
Well, we already established VPNhub isn’t a particularly good choice for online privacy. Unfortunately, they’re not a good option for streaming and/or torrenting either.
When we first tested VPNhub for our guide on watching BBC iPlayer abroad for free, it was still working. Some users also reported it was okay-ish with Netflix too.
But all that’s changed. Both streaming platforms seem to have completely blocked all of VPNhub’s servers.
The provider also made it somewhat clear (if you can get through the legal mumbo-jumbo in AppAtomic’s Terms of Service) that torrenting is a forbidden activity.
Even if you want to use a P2P connection for legal purposes, you’re out of luck with VPNhub.
We recommend taking a look at our guides on The Best Netflix VPNs and The Best Torrenting VPNs instead.
NOTE: VPNhub will be taken out of our “Watch BBC iPlayer Abroad for Free” article in the coming weeks.
Usability and Support
Where to begin…
As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of features missing – and some existing features don’t even work properly.
With so few features, you’d expect the usability to be pretty great at least.
But nope.
Installation is easy and the interface is clean, but it’s a nightmare to use.
The apps are buggy and we struggled to get a working connection (even after disabling the overzealous kill switch). Basically, the app would say “connected”, but the visible location and IP would show “retrieving” – and we didn’t have access to the internet in the meantime.
It took multiple times of disconnecting and reconnecting before the app worked.
As for support… we had to send them an email, because there’s not live chat service whatsoever.
So far, we still haven’t gotten any response.
How to Cancel VPNhub (No Refunds)
If you made (in our opinion) the grave mistake of opening a VPNhub subscription, here’s how to cancel it:
- iOS users need to follow Apple’s instructions for canceling subscriptions
- Android users need to follow the Google Play instructions for canceling subscriptions
- Desktop users need to log in to their VPNhub Account to cancel their subscription under Settings
What’s that? You want a refund too?
Unfortunately, VPNhub doesn’t give refunds – yet another red flag. AppAtomic does, but you aren’t paying them for your VPNhub subscription.
FAQs
