Windscribe VPN review

Windscribe is a very interesting VPN which piles on the features, yet remains easy to use, with some great value commercial products, and a generous free plan.

A decent-sized network provides locations in 110 cities spread across 66 countries. Windscribe claims its servers really are in these locations, too, rather than, the company suggests, 'some competitors who have most of their servers in US and Europe, and simply fake the location with false IP WHOIS data to make it appear that it's elsewhere.'

An array of apps keeps you covered on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and Linux. Chrome, Firefox and Opera extensions give you even more ways to connect and stacks of privacy-related extras, and the website has guides to help you set up the service on routers, Kodi, Amazon Fire TV, Nvidia Shield, and via any OpenVPN-compatible software or device.

WireGuard, IKEv2 and OpenVPN support with strong AES-256 encryption keeps all your VPN tunnel traffic safe from snoopers, while stealth technologies try to obfuscate your VPN usage, perhaps allowing you to get online even in countries which actively block VPN traffic.

The powerful apps look great, are easy to use for beginners, but also include many advanced features: WireGuard everywhere, very configurable split tunneling (on the desktop as well as mobile devices), MAC address spoofing (a clever way to reduce the chance of being tracked), versatile auto-connect rules, and even a command line interface to automate the VPN from scripts.

ROBERT is Windscribe's DNS-based tool for blocking ads, malware, trackers and various internet content types (gambling, 'fake news and clickbait', and so on). This goes way beyond the basic DNS blocklist you'll get with other providers, and gives you more power and configurability than even many desktop content-filtering apps deliver.

Support is available via ticket, if you need it, but it's not yet 24/7. (Don’t rule the company out because of that, though – Windscribe tells us paying customers will get 24/7 support soon.)

What’s new?

The big news since our last review is Windscribe’s move to RAM disk-based servers, where data is stored in server memory rather than on hard drives. This has security and privacy benefits as data can’t be left on the server for a lengthy period of time (it disappears whenever the server is rebooted), and the company also told us it brings significant speed benefits.

The Android app has gained ‘Decoy Mode’, a unique privacy feature which protects against traffic correlation attacks (a method of identifying VPN users by monitoring the amount and timing of data uploads and downloads). Turn this on and the app creates huge amounts of fake traffic, making it far more difficult for anyone to pick out your real internet activity.

Decoy Mode generates a lot of data, potentially many gigabytes per hour, so this really isn’t a feature for the average user. But if you’re a journalist or a political dissident in a country where that’s very dangerous, then it should add a valuable extra layer of protection. It’s good to see a VPN provider move beyond the usual identikit extras (do you really care if your app now has a Dark Mode?) and come up with some ideas of its own.

Windscribe pricing

Windscribe's free plan offers a generous 10GB of data transfer a month if you register with your email address, 2GB if you don't. You're limited to 11 countries – North America, across Europe, and Hong Kong – but that's still far better than you'll get with many free services ('sorry, our free app only connects to Brunei, is that a problem?').

Upgrading to a commercial plan gets you unlimited data and access to all 110 locations.

There are no annoying limits on simultaneous connections, either. You can set up and use the service wherever you like, as long as the devices are yours (the small print forbids sharing your account with others).

Prices are fair. Monthly billing is only only $9 – many VPNs charge $10-$13. Pay for a year upfront and the price falls to an equivalent $5.75. That’s a significant increase on the $4.08 we saw last time, but it’s also within the range we expect for a premium VPN, and it’s still far cheaper than many. (ExpressVPN and Hide.me both ask $8.32 a month on the annual plan, NordVPN charges $8.29 from the second year.)

If low prices are top of your priority list, though, there’s money to be saved elsewhere. As we write this, Private Internet Access has a three-year plan that’s only $2.03 a month for the first term, while Ivacy’s five-year offering is only $1.19 monthly. Sure, we don't like long-term contracts either, but look at the totals. Hand over $69 to Windscribe and you get one year of protection; give Ivacy just $72 and you’re covered for five.

But that’s not the end of the story. Windscribe's 'Build a Plan' scheme cuts costs by allowing you to buy only the locations you need, for $1 each. Each location adds 10GB to your free bandwidth allowance, and your plan must have a minimum of two locations.

For example, providing your email address gets you 10GB data a month. Add the US and UK locations, and you'll get 30GB of data for $2 a month. You can upgrade to unlimited data for another $1, or a total of just $3 a month, billed monthly (not just $3 because you've signed up for three years).

If you only use a VPN for occasional short trips, say, that looks like a great deal. Surfshark's monthly-billed plan is more than four times as expensive at $13, for instance – okay, that's the full service with all the locations, but if you don't need them, who cares?

Another option, ScribeForce, enables signing up a group of users (a business, a family) with the same account. There's a five-user minimum, but you'll pay just $3 each, billed monthly, for access to the full and unrestricted service.

Unusual add-ons include static IP addresses. Adding a US or Canadian residential IP costs $8 a month, for example (data center IPs are $2), but could greatly improve your chances of accessing any blocked sites, and enable connecting to IP-restricted business and other networks. (Once you have a static IP, you can also enable port forwarding in the Windscribe web console).

Whatever your preference, Windscribe gives you a wider than usual choice of payment options, which include card, PayPal, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies via CoinPayments.net, along with gift cards and assorted other options via Paymentwall.

Windscribe doesn't have the lowest headline prices, then, but its monthly-billed plans are as cheap as you'll get. The others are fairly priced for the features on offer, and there are huge savings to be made if you're covering multiple users.

There is a small catch in Windscribe's money-back guarantee, which only covers you for three days and if you've used less than 10GB of traffic. But if you think that might be an issue, download and try the free version before you buy, giving you extra time to see how the service works for you.

Privacy and logging

Windscribe's privacy features start with its industrial strength AES-256 encryption, with SHA512 authentication, a 4096-bit RSA key and support for perfect forward secrecy (keys aren't re-used, so even if a snooper gets hold of a private key, it will only allow them to view data within one session).

The apps use multiple techniques to reduce the chance of data leaks, limiting IPv6 traffic, redirecting DNS requests through the tunnel to be handled by the VPN server, and optionally using a firewall to block all internet access if the connection drops.

We checked Windscribe's performance on a Windows 10 system using the websites IPLeak, DNSLeakTest and DoILeak, and found no DNS or other leaks.

Windscribe claims its ROBERT DNS filter can protect your privacy by blocking trackers, but how well does it work? We connected to our nearest server, then tried accessing 150 common trackers, and ROBERT blocked 148. That’s the best anti-tracker result we’ve seen from any VPN.

We enabled the Windows app's firewall (similar to a kill switch) and began using various tricks to forcibly close the VPN connection and see what happened.

We found the app didn’t display a notification to warn that we’d been disconnected. If it wasn’t able to reconnect immediately, that might leave the user with no internet, and no idea why.

This situation probably won't last long, though, as the app tries to reconnect as soon as it spots the problem. We were typically online again within a few seconds, and the app displayed a Windows desktop notification to let us know. This may be a small usability issue, but in privacy terms, the client worked perfectly, handling every oddball situation we threw at it and always protecting our traffic.

Windscribe's stance on logging is covered in a clearly written and refreshingly short privacy policy which explains what the company does and doesn't collect.

There's a tiny amount of very minimal long-term logging, but it's limited to the total bandwidth you've used in a month (essential to manage usage on the free plan), and a timestamp of your last activity on the service to allow identifying inactive accounts.

The system collects some connection details – username, VPN server connected to, time of connection, bandwidth used during the session, number of devices connected – but these are held in the VPN server's RAM only, and are lost when the session closes.

Other than that, there is no logging of connections, IPs, timestamps or browsing history. Or as the privacy policy puts it, 'we do not store any logs on who used what IP address, so we cannot tie user activity to any single user.'

As there is no data on your activities, Windscribe points out that there's nothing to share. This is backed up by a transparency report which covers the numbers of DMCA and Law Enforcement data requests over the year, and in both cases states that: 'Exactly zero requests were complied with due to lack of relevant data.'

This is all good, but we would like to see Windscribe go further. Many VPNs have had their systems publicly audited to check for logging or other privacy issues, and that gives far more reassurance to potential customers than comforting words on a website. We hope that Windscribe (and all other VPN providers for that matter) will soon do the same.

In the meantime, it's worth remembering that Windscribe gives you 2GB of data per month, for free, without requiring an email address or any other personal data. If you're just looking to protect email and basic browsing, and can live with the data limit, this automatically gets you more guaranteed anonymity than you'll have with almost everyone else.

Performance

Our performance tests involved connecting to the nearest Windscribe locations from both a UK data center and US location, each with 1Gbps test connections. We then measured download speeds using benchmarking services including SpeedTest (both the website and command line app), nPerf, SpeedOf.me and more. We ran each test using at least two protocols, and in both morning and evening sessions.

Windscribe says its new RAM-based servers have made a real difference to performance, and our tests show they just might have a point. UK WireGuard download speeds jumped from a below-par 200-490Mbps last time, to a strong 510-700Mbps for this review.

That’s a great result which beats Private Internet Access, Proton VPN and several other big names in our most recent tests.

We can only measure the speeds for our test locations, of course, and you may see different results. If speed is a top priority for you, using the free version gives you the chance to check local speeds (from the 11 locations) without as much as handing over your email address.

Alternatively, Windscribe's 'Build A Plan' option could give you a month of unlimited traffic to a couple of locations for only $3, a low-priced way to run all the intensive speed testing you need.

Netflix and streaming

Connecting to a VPN server in another country may, in theory, allow you to access content you wouldn't otherwise be able to view.

Unfortunately, it's not always that simple, as many content providers now attempt to detect and block visitors they think are using a VPN.

To test a VPN's unblocking abilities, we log into at least three Windscribe servers in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Japan, then try to access local Netflix content and other streaming services.

Windscribe scored full marks in our UK tests, getting us into BBC iPlayer, ITV and Channel 4.

The perfect record continued in Australia, as we managed to stream TV from 9Now and 10 play.

US Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus are more of a challenge, but not here. Windscribe neatly side-stepped their defenses, and we were free to view whatever we liked.

Netflix is the real unblocking prize, and it managed to beat Windscribe, just once, by preventing us from accessing exclusive Japanese content. But we had no further issues, and Windscribe went on to unblock Netflix in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.

Failing only one of our test sites is a very impressive result (and if you need Netflix Japan, don’t let our results put you off – VPNs are always busy keeping services unblocked, and it may be working again by the time you read this).

If only a 100% track record will do, though, ExpressVPN, Hide.me, NordVPN, PureVPN and Surfshark all unblocked every one of our test services in their last review.

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Torrents

VPN providers generally don't boast about their torrent support, and it can be a challenge to figure out what you're allowed to do. (TunnelBear was so quiet about its P2P policy that we had to email tech support to ask.)

Windscribe is much more open and transparent. Just point your browser at the company's Status page and you'll see its full list of locations, which of them support P2P (most) and which of them don't (India, Lithuania, Russia and South Africa, at the time of writing).

Your options are just as clear in the Windscribe apps. Locations where torrents aren't allowed are marked with the same crossed-out 'P2P', but select anything else and you can download whatever and whenever you like.

We don't like to take a provider's website promises for granted, even when they're from a VPN we trust, so we tried downloading torrents from three P2P-approved servers. Everything ran smoothly, and our downloads completed with no connection or performance issues at all.

Factor in Windscribe's free plan and various anonymous payment options (cryptocurrencies, gift cards), along with its decent performance levels, and the company makes a great torrenting choice.

Client setup

Tapping the 'Get Started' button on the Windscribe site took us to the Download page. The website detected and highlighted the best choice for our laptop – the Windows client and Chrome extension – but there were also links to downloads for Mac, Android and iOS, extensions for Firefox and Opera, and guides to cover setup on routers, Linux, Kodi, Amazon Fire TV and more.

Still not enough? No problem. Paying customers get tools to build custom configuration files for OpenVPN, WireGuard or IKEv2. 

Installing the Windows app is easy. You're able to create an account just by entering a username and password, which gets you 2GB of data a month. Hand over your email, too, and you get 10GB. Tweet about Windscribe and you get an excellent 15GB.

To put all that in perspective, Avira Phantom VPN's free package gives you a tiny 500MB.

• Check out our exclusive Windscribe offer

Windows app

Windscribe's Windows client 2.0 has real visual panache, with rounded corners and classy flag backgrounds (check the screenshot above) to highlight your current location.

Practical benefits over the old app include extra status information, such as the active protocol. But although there's plenty of text, icons and other UI elements in a very small area, it still looks good. If you don't care about the low-level detail, you can just click the big Connect/Disconnect button and ignore everything else.

Tapping Locations displays the full location list. This opens with a list of countries, but you can also expand any of these to view its available servers, complete with fun names (London server names include Tea and Crumpets, while you can connect to Los Angeles locations including Dogg, Pac and Lamar).

Each server has a latency indicator to help you find the fastest option. You can also mark countries as Favorites, displaying them at the top of the list for zero-scroll reconnections later.

Connection times were speedy at 1-2 seconds, and the app does a good job of keeping you up to date by using Windows notifications to tell you when you're connected, and when you're not.

Stylish visual extras are everywhere. The client doesn't just display your virtual IP all at once, for instance – each digit quickly rolls into place like it's a physical dial.

The interface is very configurable. You can order locations by alphabet, latency or location; display latency as bars or figures; have the interface docked, or a free-floating window; display notifications for events, or hide them; and the list goes on.

There are many interesting connectivity features, and these are often as tweakable as the UI.

Supported protocols include WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2, Stealth and WStunnel (harder-to-block versions of OpenVPN), for instance, or you can leave this set to Automatic and leave the client to decide.

Low-level connection tweaks include a choice of TAP driver and preferred DNS servers (OpenDNS, Cloudflare, Google or Windscribe's own).

Split tunneling allows you to decide which apps, IPs or host names are directed through the VPN, for instance, and which bypass it.

Unusual extras include the ability to set up your device as a Wi-Fi hotspot (if your OS and network adapter supports it), or as a proxy gateway for use by TVs, gaming consoles or anything else that can work with a proxy server.

One standout feature is that Windscribe's desktop clients can import custom OpenVPN configuration files from other providers, and then display those servers alongside its own. That could allow you to use Windscribe's client as a frontend for multiple free VPN providers, for instance, making it easier and more convenient to switch service if your data allowance runs out.

The ultra-compact interface means there are a lot of options crammed into a very small space, and this sometimes makes the client a little more awkward to use. You'll only see these extra pages if you go looking, though, and if you need these more advanced features, spending half an hour exploring the menus will show you just about everything you need to know.

Mac app

If you're a Mac user then you'll doubtless be very familiar with VPN providers largely ignoring all your needs, saving their best features for Windows and leaving you with the bare minimum. But here's some good news: Windscribe hates that approach just as much as you do, and its Mac app is as close a match to the Windows edition as anyone could expect.

Take the interface, for instance. There are no pointless variations, no 'do it this way on Windows, but that way on Mac' rules to remember. It's the same stylish look, the same icons, the same main menus, and almost the same options, all in the same order.

Mac VPN apps generally don't have as many advanced features as Windows, mostly because Apple's security model doesn't give them as much control over your device. Seems like no-one told Windscribe this, though, because its Mac app has all the key features we saw on Windows: WireGuard support, the firewall (kill switch), custom DNS settings, MAC spoofing, split tunneling, port and protocol options, network allow-listing, proxy support and more.

If your VPN needs are simple, or you're just not interested in the low-level tech, all this power might sound intimidating. No need to worry, though: unless you click the Menu icon and go exploring, you'll never even know these options are there.

Whether you fine-tune every setting or ignore them entirely, the Mac app is generally very easy to use. Tap the On/Off button and you're speedily connected to your nearest server, then tap again to disconnect, and there's a list of other locations if you need them.

The app still looks a little more complex than some of the competition, just because it has more icons, buttons and status information. But, generally, it's a well-designed mix of functionality and ease of use, and a must-see for any Mac user looking for a little extra power.

Mobile apps

Windscribe's mobile apps had more of the v2.0 features before the desktop, and once you've used the service on one platform, you'll know how to use it on the others.

The main Android status display is much like Windows, for instance: the gorgeous background flag, the big On/Off button, details on your new IP and preferred protocol.

A list of countries (expandable to city level) makes it easy to find the server you need. You can switch to lists of Favorites and dedicated Streaming locations. And there's a Custom Config list, maybe enabling using other VPN servers with Windscribe's interface and features.

A comprehensive Preferences screen comes absolutely stuffed with features. The Connection panel alone enables choosing between WireGuard, OpenVPN UDP, TCP, IKEv2 or Stealth, or selecting your preferred port, as well as choosing which apps use the VPN, and which don't (split tunneling). It also provides integration with Android's Always-On feature to let you set up a system-wide kill switch, or to enable GPS spoofing, define a packet size, allow or block local network traffic, and more.

A Network Whitelisting tool enables automatically connecting to Windscribe whenever untrusted networks are accessed, while ignoring others. So, for instance, you could have the service automatically connect to protect you in the library or coffee shop, while staying offline when you're at home or work.

iOS users are often short-changed by VPN providers, but not here. Windscribe's iOS offering has all the core features of its other apps, including some options you'll rarely find elsewhere. Can your desktop VPN client use a custom OpenVPN configuration to access a server from another provider, for instance, or set a preferred protocol depending on your current network? No? Didn't think so.

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Browser extensions

Windscribe's Chrome, Opera and Firefox extensions provide a quick and easy way to connect to the VPN from your browser. This has its limitations – they're simple proxies and only protect your browser traffic – but if you only need the VPN for basic browsing tasks, they're your most convenient and straightforward option.

The extensions make an immediate positive impression, courtesy of a stylish interface along the lines of the desktop and mobile apps.

Basic operations work much as you'd expect. Autopilot mode enables connecting to the best location with a click, you're able to choose countries or individual cities from a list, and set your most commonly-used cities as Favorites.

Need more? The extension can block WebRTC leaks, fake your GPS location and time zone to match your chosen Windscribe server, keep switching your browser user agent to make you more difficult to track, stop websites begging you to let them show notifications, and even delete first or third-party cookies when you close the tab.

The browser extensions support Windscribe's ad and malware-blocking ROBERT, too (even for free users). Known malicious and phishing sites, bandwidth sapping ads, trackers, social media widgets and more can all be exterminated in a click or two.

The sheer volume of options can make the extensions look complicated, but Windscribe does a lot to help. A small start-up tutorial explains which buttons do what, and a useful additional introduction is that the many settings each have a sentence or two describing what they’re all about.

Put it all together and this is a very capable extension which delivers far more than you'll get with other VPN providers, and even many standalone Chrome privacy extensions. Don't just take our word for it – the excellent 4.7 rating on the Chrome store suggests most users agree.

Support

If you have any technical troubles, Windscribe's support site is a good place to begin looking for answers.

Resources start with an array of setup guides for a very long list of platforms and devices (desktops, mobiles, routers, NAS, smart TVs, torrent clients and more).

These tutorials don't always have the range and depth we’d like, but they more than cover the basics. The Android setup guide doesn’t just say ‘go install the app at Google Play’, for instance, as we often see with lesser providers. It also gives you bonus advice on how to get connected via IKEv2 using the StrongSwan app, or via OpenVPN with OpenVPN for Android.

It’s good to see Windscribe refresh its YouTube video tutorials, too. Out go the ancient 2016 guides, to be replaced by shiny new up-to-date setup advice for all the main platforms (reportedly there’s more video content coming soon).

If your problem isn’t covered by the website, you can always contact support directly via ticket (there’s no live chat). 

In our experience, replies can sometimes take around a day to arrive. But as typical Windscribe replies are friendly, accurate and complete, they’re generally worth the wait. And although we can’t take account of it in this review, Windscribe told us 24/7 support is on the way for paying customers, which should mean faster advice is on hand whenever you need it.

Windscribe review: Final verdict

Windscribe is a likeable VPN, with good-looking and powerful apps, expert-level features, and one of the most generous free VPN plans around. The array of advanced options and settings mean this probably isn’t the best choice for newcomers or anyone looking for the VPN basics only, but there’s an easy and risk-free way to find out for sure: just install the free version and see how it works for you.

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