TechRadar Verdict
CyberSilent does a great job in protecting your privacy when surfing and torrenting but its speeds may not be ideal when streaming, which is a shame as it is capable of unblocking the coveted Netflix content in places where it is unavailable.
Pros
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24-hour free trial and a 7-day refund policy
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Unblocks Netflix
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Supports torrenting
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Located in Seychelles
Cons
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Mediocre speeds at best
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Inconsistent information on the website
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Not many details in its no-logs policy
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CyberSilent is a decent VPN platform that will protect your privacy and mask your real IP while surfing, downloading large files via torrenting clients, and will even allow you some streaming if you manage to find a server with good speeds for your target channel.
Price
The vendor’s pricing plans differ only in length and entail discounts for longer subscription terms. Therefore the most expensive option is the monthly one at $9.90/month. The 6-month plan includes a 20% discount and costs the equivalent of $7.92/month, while the 1-year subscription is the cheapest and includes a 43% discount, at $5.64/month, placing this provider at the middle of the industry’s pricing range.
Regardless of the plan, simultaneous VPN connections can be run on up to 5 devices.
The list of accepted payment methods is truly mammoth and includes PayPal, credit cards, Bitcoin, Mint, Alipay, Sofort, WebMoney, GiroPay, and many, many more.
We were happy to learn that there was a 1-day free trial on the table, with no strings attached and no financial details necessary. The provider did, however, require our personal details, like the name, address, etc. The free trial was activated immediately upon signing up and included 300MB of traffic, enough to test it out.
If after purchasing a subscription you realize this VPN platform is below your standards, you can request a refund under the 7-day money-back guarantee.
Alternatives
CyberSilent offers nothing that the industry’s major performers don’t already have, and at a higher level at that. Surfshark is a lot cheaper, CyberGhost has a longer money-back guarantee, NordVPN has thousands of servers more, and ExpressVPN beats all others in virtually every area. All of them perform better in terms of download speeds, availability of customer support, and clarity of information provided on the website.
Streaming
CyberSilent can unblock some of the highly sought-after geo-restricted VOD (Video On Demand) services that are partially or completely unavailable in some regions, primarily Netflix, HBO, and Hulu. However, the British BBC iPlayer is unfortunately not on this list.
About the company
CyberSilent is the product of Sigmanet Ltd, a company headquartered in Mahè, the Seychelles, a country outside of the watchful gaze of any of the Five Eyes (or any other number of eyes, for that matter) governments.
It provides access to over 180 servers in more than 50 countries including Russia, Turkey, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Mexico, Panama, and many others.
Privacy and encryption
This VPN vendor deploys the uncrackable 256-bit encryption, which is accompanied by the usual collection of connection protocols - OpenVPN (TCP, UDP), SSTP, and PPTP.
The Privacy Policy is a very short document that doesn’t say much about what data the provider does or doesn’t record when you’re using its service. We are only told that it doesn’t “keep any logs or monitor user activity, keep any records of anything that could associate any specific activity to a specific user”, and that it only keeps “the minimum information required to create your account”, including your username, email address, and payment information.
P2P traffic is allowed, although not on all servers. The list where such activity is supported is short and includes Romania, Russia, Sweden, Lithuania, and South Africa.
Support
This VPN company has native clients for Windows, Mac, and Android devices, while Fire OS, iOS, Linux, and routers can still be equipped with its service with the help of manual installation, third-party apps, and configuration files.
The Android app has so far been installed over 1,000 times and was last updated on June 20, 2017. It has been rated by 10 users, who gave it a median score of 3.7 stars (out of 5). A CyberSilent app for iOS is in the works.
The website has a rich tutorial page with detailed instructions on equipping each of the supported platforms with CyberSilent’s VPN. You can also find these in the knowledgebase. There’s also a blog with some interesting and useful information, both in terms of the provider and the VPN industry.
24/7 customer support by chat, email, or web form. However, there were no active agents available for a chat on the website and oddly enough, the email we sent them bounced back. We tried using the web form, and we’re still waiting for a response.
Speed and experience
We took this service for a spin thanks to the 1-day free trial and were very interested in its download speeds. We first wanted to see how it would fare on the European continent (which is where we are), so we chose a server in Austria as our first victim. It did fine, or rather mediocre, considering we only got 11.69Mps on a 62Mbps testing connection. Bulgaria did worse, but not by a lot - 10.23Mbps.
Since streaming geo-locked US services was one of the provider’s advantages, we wanted to see how servers there would hold out for these purposes. Unfortunately, the server we tried performed miserably, delivering only 3Mbps. Interestingly, once we switched the protocol from OpenVPN TCP to OpenVPN UDP, the speed jumped to 8.95Mbps, but the connection proved much less stable, at least in our case. Connecting via PPTP or SSL failed.
Using this VPN platform was easy right from the start. It literally took us less than a minute from signing up on the website to connecting for the first time. For some reason, as soon as we connected, all the servers and settings became unavailable, but it wasn’t a big deal.
Connecting requires only a double click on the wanted server in the app list, where you can choose your favorite servers, look for specific locations you need, or see which servers are the best for your physical location. However, when we wanted to switch the active VPN servers, we had to disconnect from the current one first.
The apps don’t have any extras aside from selecting a VPN protocol and turning on/off automatic Wi-Fi security.
Verdict
CyberSilent doesn’t have much to show off that would make us recommend it over the VPN giants such as ExpressVPN, as its speeds are average at best, it doesn’t have thousands of servers or even live chat customer support, and its apps are absolutely devoid of any extras. However, its redeeming qualities include its location, support for torrenting, unblocking some popular geo-locked streaming services, as well as its straightforward and simple native clients.
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