iPredator has a claim to fame since it was founded by one of the co-founders of Pirate Bay – Peter Sunde. They are not affiliated with Pirate Bay or Bit Torrent, though. This VPN service does absolutely provide strong security and helps mask your IP address, but it is not as polished as other VPN services. They are especially lacking in global features.
Pricing:
The pricing model is the simplest pricing model of any VPN service, but definitely not the cheapest for long term use. They don’t have a pricing model that decreases the longer you subscribe to the service. Because they sell their service for a flat fee of $8.00 per month, they are more cost effective than a 1-month subscription from some other VPN providers, but more expensive when you consider 6 months of use or even a year of use. However, they do offer a 3-day free trial.
Features:
Their features aren’t especially flashy or exciting. You can only connect one device at a time, while other VPN providers offer more flexible options that allow you to connect 3, 5, or even 10 devices at a single time. Also, they do not offer static IP addresses. And their server location profile? It is a little disappointing unless you wish to connect to Sweden – the only location of their servers.
Security:
Using their VPN service, you can connect with PPTP and OpenVPN protocols, and that’s it for now. They claim they are working on bringing SSTP and L2TP/IPSec into their service profile, but that is still in development.
A few interesting things about this service is that they run their own HTTP proxy services that do not log your traffic, they administer their own DNS servers, and they have their own Tor exit node. Even though the security is strong, many people might think that their services don’t justify $8.00 a month – especially when you can get the same security protocols, added features, and more global locations from one of their competitors at a cheaper price.
Speed and Stability:
The speed of their VPN connections are not exactly innovative, and they’re not going to set the VPN market on fire. You should also understand that because their servers are only based in Sweden, you will likely encounter higher latency when connecting from a non-European location. If you are connecting from the US, Canada, or Australia, your data needs to travel halfway around the world to hit their VPN servers. Though their service is not the fastest in the industry, it is both reasonable and feasible to browse the web anonymously and securely. If you need access to highly latency-sensitive applications such as gaming, you will likely have a crummy experience. The extra latency equates to lag for the most up-to-date multiplayer videogames. If you want to play less intensive games – like Words With Friends or puzzle games – you shouldn’t experience any problems.
Customer Service:
There are three ways to initiate contact with iPredator. You can send them an email, open an IRC chat, or use Jabber (Cisco System’s unified messaging service). To be completely honest, this company is still growing and isn’t mature enough to provide the level of fast support that their competitors offer.
In summary, even though the founder has a legendary status in many online communities, this VPN service is a little more pricy than most other VPNs and they offer only a fraction of the extra features that their competitors offer. There is more to come and they are still expanding and developing, but there are currently some gaps to fill to make this option an industry leader.
