VPN.ac Review 2023

VPN.ac might not be a well-known player in the VPN field, but in terms of features, usability, and speed, it certainly keeps up with bigger premium services.

Based in Romania, VPN.ac is operated by Netsec Interactive Solutions, an IT security company that develops data protection software. The VPN.ac team consists of online security experts, who have previously worked in military institutions, banks, and public and private IT security.

VPN.ac’s focus points are encryption and customer satisfaction. On its website, it claims it would rather have a smaller number of loyal customers and keep them happy than employ a wide marketing strategy. Its business philosophy is the continuous improvement of its VPN service’s speed, security, and reliability.

In this VPN.ac review, we assess whether VPN.ac makes good on this promise.

VPN.ac Short Review

An important factor of any VPN provider is security. VPN.ac is a provider that uses high-end encryption features. They support OpenVPN protocol, L2TP/IKEv2 (IPsec), PPTP, TLS, and WireGuard. Additionally, you can activate SecureProxy, which allows you to split-tunnel your traffic and encrypt data through a browser add-on.

When it comes to privacy, VPN.ac performs well. It’s located in Romania, and because this country is not a member of the 14 eyes coalition, your data is not likely to end up in the hands of foreign authorities. The service has a no-logs policy, but connection logs are kept while in session (though they are automatically erased right after).

Though its server network is pretty small, VPN.ac provides Double-Hop and China-optimized servers. It also has clients on all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. Its software is easy to install and looks great, too.

During daily use, the connection stayed fast and reliable, allowing us to browse and stream without issue. There’s no live chat, but customer service is supportive and quick to respond.

All in all, we give VPN.ac a score of 7.6 out of 10.

Specifications VPN.ac

💵 Price	From $3.75 a month
📱 Operating systems	Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux
💻 Connections	12
💳 Payment methods	PayPal, Other, Credit card, Cryptocurrency
🔒 Protocols	OpenVPN, IKEv2, Wireguard, L2TP/IPsec, PPTP
📥 Torrent options	Torrenting allowed
📅 Money-back guarantee	Money-back-guarantee
📋 Logs
🍿 Works with

Deal

Grab a 2 year VPN.ac subscription for $3.75 per month

Visit VPN.ac

Speed – How Fast is VPN.ac?

A fast VPN provider is essential, especially if you’re using it for streaming, downloading, and gaming. Fortunately, all VPN.ac servers are connected to gigabit ports, and there is no limit on transfer speeds. The company also claims to increase its bandwidth capacity regularly.

For this VPN.ac review, we’ve put the provider’s capacities to the test, first by running a standard speed test on its servers, and then by testing the speed manually. We give them a score of 8.5 out of 10.

Here’s what we found:

• VPN.ac offers good speeds that are almost on par with our regular connection.
• We had no issues when browsing, streaming, and watching YouTube.
• Gaming and torrenting are possible.
• Netflix works, but unblocking content is challenging.

Speed tests VPN.ac

If you want consistently fast speeds with a VPN, you have to select a server that is close to your real location. This minimizes routing delay and makes it possible to almost match your regular connection speed.

For VPN.ac, we ran a couple of standard speed tests through speedtest.net. First, we conducted a baseline test to check our connection without the use of a VPN. After that, we connected to a local server (in our case, Amsterdam) and then to various distant servers. You can see the results below:

As you can see, the servers that are closest to our location — Germany, France, and the United Kingdom — gave us results nearly on par with our normal connection.

The more distant servers show a clear drop in download and upload speed. Still, the United States server still gave us decent results, and even with the Japan server, the connection wasn’t too terrible.

Speed during daily use

During your daily online activity, you don’t want to be distracted by your VPN running in the background. Luckily, VPN.ac won’t give you any issues.

When connected to a local server, we didn’t notice any delay at all. Netflix worked well and YouTube didn’t lag. When we tried to connect to a local streaming service, we had to reload the page once, but after that, the connection was fast and stable.

The same holds for distant servers. Again, the VPN ran in the background without any issues. One thing that we did notice during our testing, however, was that we couldn’t access any foreign Netflix libraries. We contacted customer service about this, and they acknowledged it’s a problem at the moment. You can read more about VPN.ac and Netflix below.

On its website, VPN.ac makes a specific note about sending emails. Certain email clients, such as Outlook and Thunderbird, won’t support an SMTP connection on port 25/TCP, making it impossible to send emails. They suggest using Submission (port 587/TCP) instead since most email services support it.

Safety – How Secure is VPN.ac?

A virtual private network creates a secure connection to the internet that keeps your actual IP address hidden. It’s one of the main reasons people use a VPN. That’s why, when it comes to safety, we assess a VPN’s protocols, logging policy, and privacy measures.

We gave VPN.ac’s safety a score of 8.0 out of 10. The following security features stand out:

• VPN.ac works with the OpenVPN protocol, L2TP/IKEv2 (IPsec), PPTP, TLS, and WireGuard (in beta).
• VPN.ac has a transparent privacy policy, in part because Romania deems data retention unconstitutional.
• The provider keeps temporary connection logs for troubleshooting purposes, which are automatically erased when you disconnect.
• The kill switch needs to be activated manually.
• It’s possible to get an account anonymously.

Protocols

If you use a VPN, your online activity is protected by the encryption protocol you use. Each VPN protocol has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on what you want to use your VPN for. Some VPN protocols are fast and perfect for streaming, but their security capacities are lower. Other protocols are the opposite. If you want to compare different protocols, have a look at our protocol overview.

VPN.ac uses the following encryption protocols:

• OpenVPN: This is the gold standard of protocols. It is reasonably fast, works on all platforms, and offers solid security. For VPN.ac, this is the default protocol. VPN.ac offers 265-bit AES-CBC, 129-bit AES-CBC and 128-bit BF-CBC encryption.
• L2TP/IKEv2 (IPsec): Both the L2TP and IKEv2 protocols use IPsec encryption. These protocols should be paired with a no-log policy for optimal protection. VPN.ac supports 256-bit AES and 128-bit AES, depending on your operating system and device.
• PPTP: This is an older protocol that is considered mostly obsolete. Because it uses very rudimentary encryption, it is ultra-fast, but VPN.ac does not recommend its use for sensitive data transfers, since it only has 128-bit MPPE encryption.
• TLS: This protocol is used for VPN.ac’s SecureProxy function, which will be discussed under VPN.ac Options.

Additionally, VPN.ac supports the WireGuard protocol, but only in beta. WireGuard is a new protocol, developed in 2018, that’s generally considered fast and reliable. Currently, WireGuard is not yet built into VPN.ac clients. Rather, you need to set it up yourself.

There are a few other encryption features to take note of: VPN.ac uses Elliptic Curve Cryptography and/or 4096-bit RSA authentication. These are strong encryption methods based on pairs of private and public algorithms. They’re easy to process in one direction but difficult to decode in the other. These two are considered the next generation of cryptography keys and keep your data very secure.

The VPN service also supports PFS (perfect forward secrecy). By creating a unique encryption key for each session, you can prevent compromised keys in previous sessions from affecting future sessions.

Logging and privacy

In its privacy statement, which was last updated in 2018, VPN.ac state, “We don’t give/transfer any personal data to any 3rd parties unless required by law.” Because data retention was officially declared unconstitutional by the Romania Constitutional Court in 2014, it’s unlikely that your private information is in danger.

In our previous VPN.ac review, we found that the provider kept connection logs, as well as timestamps and data usage. These logs were held for 24 hours. In 2021, however, VPN.ac changed its policy.

VPN.ac now claims that they do not monitor any kind of VPN traffic and don’t keep any logs, not even common Linux daemon logs. However, connection logs are kept while a session is active for troubleshooting purposes, though they are automatically erased once a session is terminated.

VPN.ac presumably also keeps track of bandwidth use, though they don’t further specify how or what the parameters of excessive use are. This is because its Terms of Service state that “excessive/abusive bandwidth consumption that may result in service disruption is not acceptable.” In order to determine what is considered excessive, the service likely needs to note how much bandwidth an account uses.

The company also clearly states that it does not use any third-party statistic tracking tools like Google Analytics. So, while VPN.ac is not a no-logs provider in the strictest sense of the word, it is at least transparent in its policies.

Kill switch

VPN.ac has a kill switch option. So should the VPN.ac connection suddenly drop, this feature will block all internet traffic, preventing DNS leaks.

Unfortunately, you do have to activate the kill switch yourself. To do this, go to the “Advanced” tab on the dashboard and slide the kill switch bar (available only if you’re using the OpenVPN protocol). Initially, activating the kill switch gave us some connectivity issues, but after restarting the VPN, this was resolved.

What information does VPN.ac need?

We looked at what information VPN.ac needs from you when you sign up for an account. It comes down to the following:

• An email address, which gives you the VPN login, allows you into the Client Area, and will be used for communication such as payment confirmations, payment reminders, and support inquiries
• Your payment details, which will be used for service orders, renewals, cancellations, and fraud checking

It would be better for your anonymity if you could use VPN.ac without giving out your email address. Of course, one alternative is to create a specific email address that you only use for VPN.ac. If you want to take it one step further, you can also use a secure email provider. That way, you’re even more protected.

Usability – How User-Friendly is VPN.ac?

VPN.ac is very focused on customer experience. The support team, for example, consists of tech experts with many years of experience under their belt. User-friendliness is at the core of how they’ve organized its website and VPN software. After assessing, we gave the service an 8.0 out of 10 for usability.

When reviewing usability, we noticed the following things:

• The VPN.ac website is well-organized and easy to navigate.
• The installation process is fast.
• The dashboard looks nice and definitely competes with premium providers in terms of usability.
• Customer support provides good assistance.
• You can secure up to six simultaneous connections.

The VPN.ac website and installation process

The VPN.ac website is easy on the eye. It’s well-organized, with clear navigation options. The homepage displays a “Get it now” button that takes you directly to plans and prices.

If you scroll down, you’ll find snapshots of information about the main features, how VPN.ac compares to other providers, why you might want to get a VPN in the first place, and some frequently asked questions.

A menu bar at the top will take you to the following tabs:

• The About page gives you some background information about the provider, including its business philosophy
• The Pricing page shows you all the different VPN subscription and payment options
• The Features page shows VPN.ac’s main security and service features
• The SecureProxy page leads you to additional browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera
• The FAQ page has a lot of answers and information
• The Apps & Guides page has client software downloads, as well as separate tutorials and installation guides for specific protocols or clients
• The Support page gives you access to three different means of support: submitting a ticket for direct contact with customer service, the Apps & Guides page, and the VPN.ac Knowledge Base

In the top right corner of the page, you can also find a contact option, enter the Client Area and check the VPN Nodes Status, which shows you the location, hostname, and real-time bandwidth of all VPN.ac servers.

Overall, the website is very user-friendly. There’s no overkill on information, but you can easily find everything you need. While the website itself doesn’t have a search function, the Knowledge Base does.

In terms of installation, you first select your preferred plan on the website. We opted for the one-week trial. You’ll be taken straight to the payment options. As soon as your payment has gone through, your account is activated right away.

After you sign up, VPN.ac will send you an email with login credentials. You’ll have two separate login options:

• An email address and password combination for the Client Area
• A VPN user name and a VPN password used to activate the VPN

As soon as you’ve logged into the Client Area, you’ll be able to change the passwords yourself.

To install the VPN software, go to the Apps & Guides page and select the client for your corresponding operating system: Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to install VPN.ac for Windows:

1. Click “Download” for Windows on the Client Software page. Allow VPN.ac to execute changes on your device. An installation wizard will pop up.
2. In the Installation Wizard, you can select a destination location for the software and create a desktop shortcut by clicking “Next.”
3. Click “Install” to get the software onto your computer. The VPN.ac dashboard will open right away.
4. Go to “Preferences” and use your VPN username and VPN password to login to the client.
5. Go back to “Connect” and click the blue button to connect to a VPN server. You can go online right away.

VPN.ac appearance and easy-of-use

Once, you’ve installed VPN.ac on your computer, a dashboard will open. It will show a pre-selected server closest to you. You can also see a couple of other tabs: Preferences, Advanced, News, and Help.

The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure your credentials are filled in correctly. Go to the Preferences tab and enter your credentials. Now you’re ready to use the VPN.ac service.

The Connect tab allows you to connect to any server that you like. You also have the option to check for an IP leak and view your connection log. To find the server list, click on the arrow on your pre-selected server. A list of servers, sorted by continent, will open up.

You’ll also be able to see the Double Hop servers and the China Optimized selection. Each server indicates whether it’s compatible with peer-to-peer (P2P) connections. You can add servers that you like to your favorites list by clicking the star icon next to the name of the server.

Preferences include basic settings. Amongst other things, this is where you can activate auto-connect, launch the VPN on system start, and pick between a light or dark theme for the interface.

The Advanced tab houses more advanced settings. This is where you select your port and protocol, activate your kill switch and DNS Filtering, and manually manage a couple of other options that you can see below:

The News tab shows you the latest updates to the service:

Finally, if you run into any trouble, you can go to the Help tab. It gives you some essential instruction guides, takes you to tutorials, directs you to the Knowledge Base, and allows you to get in contact with customer service.

Pricing and payment methods

When choosing a VPN service, you’ll want to get some bang for your buck. VPN.ac offers four plans at different prices:

• A 1-month plan for $9.00
• A three-month plan for $24.00 ($8.00 a month)
• A one-year plan for $58.00 ($4.80 a month)
• A two-year plan for $90.00 ($3.75 a month)

In comparison to other VPN providers, VPN.ac’s prices are not bad, especially considering its security features. It’s not the most affordable VPN you’ll find, but it’s not very pricey either. The best deal you can get is the two-year plan, which has your data secured for $3.75 a month.

With VPN.ac, you can have up to six simultaneous connections, plus an additional six if you’re using WireGuard. If you want to change from one plan to another, you need to switch before the end of your billing period.

VPN.ac does offer a one-week trial period for $2.00. This includes all VPN.ac functionalities, but you’re only allowed three simultaneous accounts.

In terms of payment, VPN.ac gives you the following options:

• PayPal
• Credit/debit cards
• Region-based payments: UnionPay, iDeal, Webmoney, SEPA Direct Debit, etc.
• Bitcoin and many altcoins: Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero, Dash, etc.
• Gift cards

As you can see, it’s possible to pay anonymously by using any of the cryptocurrency options.

There’s a seven-day money-back guarantee available for each plan. VPN.ac states the following on its website: “We will refund your order if you can’t use our service or if you are not satisfied with it.” So, note that, if you want a refund, you will need to specify how the VPN didn’t work or why it didn’t perform to your satisfaction.

Customer service

There are a few ways to get into contact with the VPN.ac support team. The Knowledge Base in the Client Area offers a lot of answers to questions you might have. The VPN.ac blog also has a lot of information. Unfortunately, there’s no 24/7 live chat.

If you want to speak to a VPN.ac employee directly, it’s best to send a ticket or fill out a contact form. We used the ticketing system to get an answer to a couple of questions, and we got a response within 12 hours.

On its website, VPN.ac states that they will only assist customers remotely by using desktop sharing/control software as a last resort.

VPN.ac Server Network

VPN.ac uses dedicated bare-metal servers with self-hosted DNS and gigabit bandwidth channels. These bare-metal VPN nodes are physical servers that don’t get as easily overcrowded as virtual ones.

When it comes to servers, we gave VPN.ac a score of 6.0 out of 10. This is based on the following things:

• VPN.ac has a small server network (130 servers across 27 countries).
• It offers dedicated servers and China-optimized servers.
• The provider also has over 30 Double-Hop servers.

Number of servers and locations

VPN.ac currently has a network of 120 servers in 27 countries. This is not the biggest server network, especially in comparison to providers such as NordVPN (5,100+ servers in over 60 countries) and CyberGhost (7,600+ servers in 91 countries).

However, VPN.ac does offer Double-Hop as well as special servers that are optimized for China.

These are VPN.ac’s main servers and their locations:

On the VPN.ac website, you can check the real-time status of any server location.

Dedicated IP addresses

VPN.ac uses shared IP addresses instead of dedicated IPs. This means that all users connected to the same VPN server will have the same IP address. Your real IP address will still be hidden, but generally, using shared IP addresses is not a good privacy practice. If a different user causes a shared IP address to get blocked (on a service like Twitch, for example), then everyone who uses the same IP address might get blocked, as well.

On its website, VPN.ac clearly states, “We do not provide dedicated IP addresses and we do not plan to provide in the future.” If you’re interested in a VPN that offers dedicated IP addresses, you can have a look at NordVPN and CyberGhost instead.

VPN.ac Options

Most users want to use their VPN for everyday activities, like watching a new series on Netflix or torrenting a new movie. As such, it’s important to know whether your provider will allow you to unblock streaming services and whether it’s possible to download torrents.

This is what we found:

• It’s possible to stream Netflix, though accessing foreign libraries is difficult.
• Torrenting is possible, but requires good configuration.
• With SecureProxy, you can split-tunnel your traffic and run your browser through the VPN separately.
• You can Double-Hop and use DNS Filtering.

VPN.ac and Netflix

In terms of functionality, Netflix works well with VPN.ac. We could access the platform while connected to a VPN, and there was no delay while watching.

However, it’s difficult to access a foreign Netflix library. Recently, Netflix has been doubling down on blocking VPN access to its platform. If you’re trying to watch a specific show that should be available but isn’t, you can try the following things:

• Connect to a different server
• Make sure to clear all your cookies
• Use an incognito browser tab
• Use a different browser altogether

With VPN.ac, we tried all these different things but to no success. We contacted customer service about it, and they told us that Netflix USA currently blocks all non-residential IPs. You can get access to its ‘originals’ catalog, which is the same in all countries, but not the properties owned by other companies.

If you want a VPN that has strong unblocking powers, we suggest you check out Surfshark. They have a browser extension that works particularly well for unblocking foreign Netflix libraries.

VPN.ac and torrents

Torrenting is possible with VPN.ac. Each server that’s suitable for torrenting is indicated by the P2P marker in the server list. And because VPN.ac is located in Romania, they are exempt from most data retention laws. This makes them a good enough candidate if you’re someone who torrents frequently.

However, you do have to first configure your torrent correctly, which can be a hassle for beginner users. VPN.ac provides guides on how to configure

Split-tunneling using SecureProxy

The SecureProxy feature is a browser tunneling add-on for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera that allows split-tunneling. Split-tunneling means you can browse the web without connecting through the VPN, while the rest of your PC traffic is routed through VPN.ac.

SecureProxy is quite resistant to deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, which means it can get around strong firewalls in ways a traditional VPN might not. You can find a list of current locations where SecureProxy is available here.

Multi-Hop and DNS Filtering

For those VPN users that are interested in achieving even higher levels of privacy, VPN.ac offers a multi-hop configuration. This is a feature that encrypts your data across two or more servers.

With Double-Hop, VPN.ac offers 22 different server configurations. You can find these in the list of servers under the “Connect” tab. Do keep in mind that a multi-hop configuration can slow down your speeds.

Finally, VPN.ac uses its own DNS resolvers for all DNS queries. They use DNS filtering, which filters trackers, ads, and malware. They also offer specific privacy advice to follow even when you’re using its VPN service, such as blocking Flash and disabling WebRTC.

Our Experience with VPN.ac

VPN.ac is a smaller VPN service. However, with its strong features and high speeds, it’s not a provider to overlook when browsing the VPN market.

In fact, its small size allows VPN.ac to focus on its customers. It’s not the cheapest option, but the software is easy to install, and the website is well-organized. Moreover, it has recently adapted its logging policy to protect its customers’ privacy better.

While VPN.ac’s server network is small and it’s currently facing some unblocking issues, it’s still a good pick if you want a secure provider for everyday use.