ProXPN
ProXPN is a VPN service that offers data encryption to help protect you online. They support a wide variety of devices and operating systems including mobile platforms, and you can easily find them in Google Play or the App Store. They have been endorsed by Lifehacker as well as CNet, and they keep pace with their competitors in most areas. However, some people have complained about the speed – which is crucial for time sensitive applications like gaming and streaming video, but our latest tests showed adequate performance with some fluctuations. So how did ProXPN’s service do overall? Let’s have a look.
Pricing:
The pricing model ProXPN uses is pretty competitive as far as VPNs are concerned. They offer a free version of their software, but it offers a very restrictive amount of capability compared to the premium accounts starting at $6.25 per month. If you do decide to get a premium account, new users are granted a 30-day risk free trial – which can help give you time to decide if you like their service or not.
The free version is more watered-down than the premium version, and it doesn’t allow access to customer support or allow use on mobile devices and PPTP protocol is disabled. Also, users of the free version only have access to connections in the United States and the connection speed is limited to 300kbps. OpenVPN is offered which is a plus, and ProXPN does not impose any transfer limits on their free service. Besides only having one location and capped speeds, free users also cannot use the service on mobile devices such as an iPhone or Android, and torrents are blocked.
Features:
One feature that’s a little disappointing with ProXPN is their global locations. The VPN industry is a global market, and people generally need access to worldwide VPN servers. They seem to have most of their bases covered for native English speakers, though. Their servers are located in Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York City, London, Amsterdam, and Singapore (sorry Australia and Canada!) However as long as you can connect to a server on your continent, the latency will usually be more than tolerable.
Furthermore, ProXPN have their bases covered regarding supported platforms and operating systems. Their software runs on Windows 8/7/Vista/XP (SP3), Mac OS X 10.6+, and iOS & Android 4.0+.
Security:
Their website is great because they flat out tell you the dirty details of their server locations and security protocols on their home page. I didn’t have to dig through their site or contact support to find this information. They use a 2048-bit encryption key, and they offer both PPTP and OpenVPN connections.
During our testing we did not get any IP or DNS leak tests, but we did get connection hangups and dropouts. Without an additional VPN killswitch, the service would likely cause data leaks if the user was away or unable to spot it right away. Unfortunately, there have been too many peer user reviews complaining of IP and DNS leaks. Although DNS leaks and even IP leaks can often be caused by operating system quirks, for it to be happening regularly is alarming.
Their service apps have no built-in leak protection, or as mentioned a killswitch to cut your data transfers in case of a connection drop. Due to having witnessed multiple connection drops myself over the course of just three days this year, I cannot currently advise this service to be used if security is a priority or need.
Speed and Stability:
As mentioned before, some people have complained that the speed of ProXPN is nothing short of mediocre. Though it is not slow enough to cause all users to hate the service, many people think that the speed of the VPN service has room for improvement. We regularly revisit VPN services every 6 months to keep the reviews up to date with the latest performance results, and to our disappointment the service has degraded further the last time we tested it.
We initially tested good speeds across most US locations, usually capping at 20% loss at most, while Europe and Singapore would fluctuate as high as 35% loss. But latest tests showed much slower speeds with much higher fluctuation across the board. It would be anywhere from half of the speed lost, to getting so slow that they connection dropped. Only US servers had the capacity to hold the connection at 30%-40% loss for some period of time.
What I later uncovered is that ProXPN had been promoting the service aggressively, and offering one-time payments for lifetime access to their VPN servers. Presumably, this may be why the service has become even slower. If you allow your service to be sold at discount for a lifetime pass, you have no incentive to upgrade or upkeep server infrastructure to handle the masses because it is no longer profitable to do so. In turn, my personal opinion is that this has not helped the service one bit for paying customers.
Again discussing server drops, the stability has gone downhill. I would not be able to advise someone to use the service if the reason was anything other than changing locations to unlock geo-fenced content. The security and stability is not dependable for sustained encrypted data transfers.
Customer Service:
They are one of the few VPN service providers that actually list their phone number on their website. In addition, they offer an email address, a ticketing system, and even a Twitter feed. They may not claim that they are available for support 24/7, but they do say that you can contact them day or night. I find it odd that they would choose those words instead of listing ‘24/7 support’ if they really offer it.
Conclusion
In summary, this is a moderately well rounded VPN. but with too many drawbacks to opt for paying $6.25 a moth. The small amount of locations compared to larger competitors, fluctuating and generally slow speeds, constant connection drops, and various peer user reviews stating that their IP had been leaked, ultimately deem the service insufficiently secure or trustworthy for anything more that non-sensitive applications where you would not care if your personal IP or data leaked due to connection failures.