Astrill VPN Review
In 2021, it is no new that Governments are banning many websites and software. There are several reasons besides it. One of the most important reason is security. There are many sites that can be proved harmful to our privacy if you access them. Besides that, there are Geo-restricting in every corner. As results of which you cannot access many of the websites, that are only accessible by the regional people.
To overcome this sort of problem we can use a VPN.
What is a VPN?
A virtual private network (VPN) gives you online privacy and anonymity by creating a private network from a public internet connection. VPNs mask your internet protocol (IP) address so your online actions are virtually untraceable. Most important, VPN services establish secure and encrypted connections to provide greater privacy than even a secured Wi-Fi hotspot.
There are hundreds of VPN service provider in the market right now. But which one to choose from them? One such VPN service provider is Astrill. There are many factors that you should consider while selecting a VPN for yourself.
So. here is the complete Astrill VPN Review. I will discuss all the factors that will help you to decide which VPN to choose. So without any further ado, let’s get started.
Introduction
What Is Astrill VPN?
Astrill is founded in 2009 as a response to the increasing demand for personal VPN services by home users and travellers. Astrill is a registered Seychelles company focused mostly on travellers and ex-pats, who use the Astrill VPN service for protected and unrestricted Internet access. After almost 10 years of existence, Astrill is expanding to the USA, EU, Middle-East and Asian markets and today Astrill is the leader in the Global Personal VPN market.
Astrill VPN currently offers more than 300 VPN servers in 50 countries with a diversity of available VPN technologies – OpenWeb, StealthVPN, RouterPro VPN, OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/SSTP and Cisco IPSec. Astrill’s VPN customers can enjoy 24/7 customers support via Live Chat, Email and Skype from their highly trained staff.
Astrill VPN service works on personal computers (Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Linux), hand-held devices (iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablet devices such as Samsung Galaxy Tab etc.) as well as on compatible DD-WRT, Tomato, TomatoUSB, ASUS Merlin, RMerl/asuswrt-merlin based WiFi routers (for example Cisco E3000, Asus RT N-16, Asus RT-N66U etc.) Astrill VPN is constantly expanding their network and improving its plug-and-play software solutions.
Astrill VPN
Astrill VPN Features
Some Key Astrill VPN Features
Astrill VPN Features
1. Astrill VPN Smart Mode
When you are using a VPN, generally it assigns your computer a foreign IP address which can’t only slow down your Internet experience but governments and institutions can figure out that you’re using a VPN shutting down those IP addresses. Astrill VPN Smart Mode allows you to use the Internet with regional IP addresses keeping Internet speeds high and not raising any suspicion.
Smart Mode empowers users with high-end stealth and security that is extremely challenging for authorities to spot. It means you can use all the services and surf the Internet with peace of mind.
2. Website and App Filter
Some users might want to use VPN only with certain applications, such as Skype, Messenger, eBanking or torrent client and not for browsing. Others might prefer to be able to tunnel everything and have the option to exclude certain apps from VPN (e.g. your business e-mail client). Astrill covers both cases with a unique feature that allows you to choose between Tunnel all apps, Tunnel only selected apps or Exclude selected apps modes. This feature is available in OpenWeb, OpenVPN, StealthVPN and Wireguard protocols only with Astrill VPN software.
Website filter works much like the app filter but is not limited to any specific applications. Instead, whole domains (in the case of OpenWeb for browsers) or IP ranges (in case of other protocols) can be selected to be tunnelled through VPN or excluded.
3. VPN Sharing
The job of a VPN is to keep all the digital traffic coming to and from your device secure. However, when you want that protection to be extended to every device you own, you need to secure every device on your network with VPN instead of just your PC or phone.
That’s where the VPN sharing feature comes in super handy as it allows you to share the VPN from your PC over an entire network giving ultimate protection to all your devices including other PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets, routers, and even gaming consoles, smart TVs and TV boxes.
4. Astrill VPN Kill Switch
With the Astrill VPN Kill Switch feature, Astrill stops sending or receiving Internet traffic to and from your device if and when the connection fails. The Kill Switch feature is a must-have for any Internet user who relies on a VPN service to keep their personally identifiable information and online activity strictly confidential. As reliable as Astrill VPN is, odds can catch up to us and the connection may drop for a range of technical reasons. For those temporary lapses, you can’t risk not having a kill switch VPN.
5. No Logging Policy
Astrill VPN claims that they do not keep any log of their user’s online activity and they believe in absolutely unrestricted Internet. The very design of their VPN server software does not allow them to see which clients accessed what websites even if they wanted to. No logs whatsoever are stored on VPN servers after the connection is terminated.
6. Onion over VPN
Tor is short for “The Onion Router.” This refers both to the software that you install on your computer to run Tor and the network of computers that manages Tor connections. There are multiple drawbacks to using Tor for online browsing. Your ISP and government can easily spot you are accessing the Tor network. With sophisticated time and packet correlation analysis, they may even figure out what exactly you were doing while on Tor.
Astrill VPN securely allows its user to access the deep web through, without the need of running Tor software on your device.
7. Port Forwarding
Port forwarding also called port mapping or port tunnelling, is a method that is widely used to redirect computer signals or ports between local area network (LAN) computers and remote (Internet) computers. Layman definition of port forwarding is it’s a feature you can use when you require access to an internet-enabled device or service from anywhere.
Port forwarding with Astrill works by forwarding the traffic coming to a VPN’s IP and port combination and then redirecting it to your own connected device on the same port.
8. Connect unlimited devices
You can connect as many devices as you need, be it phones, tablets, computers, TVs, gaming consoles or routers. Every personal VPN plan allows you to connect up to 5 devices in your household simultaneously to any servers from their vast VPN network.
9. Astrill VPN Servers
Astrill VPN has servers in 110 cities across 58 countries. Astrill utilizes networks of super-powerful dedicated VPN servers. Many VPN providers use cheap VPS that can handle only a few clients, they are constantly overloaded and terribly slow. Astrill’s servers are physical, connected to high-quality network nodes and usually on 1Gbit or 10Gbit lines. Speed is never compromised with Astrill – max out your Internet connection with Astrill VPN.
10. Secure Torrenting
With Astrill VPN, you can download torrents and share content on a peer-to-peer network while keeping your IP address completely masked. Through IP masking and high-level military-grade encryption, Astrill keeps your identity, online activity, and location hidden from ISP, cyber attackers, and government authorities. This is a VPN for BitTorrent, uTorrent, LimeWire and other P2P sharing networks.
Astrill VPN Security Protocols
Is Astrill VPN Safe To Use?
OpenWeb
OpenWeb is a proprietary protocol developed by Astrill in 2009. It is based on TCP and is encrypted in multiple security encryptions and authentication layers. It is a connection-less protocol, so you can switch between servers within seconds, without waiting for VPN software to reconnect. It is very lightweight and performs well in countries with elevated censorship.
OpenWeb is very hard to detect by DPI (deep packet inspection). Traffic looks like regular website browsing, so nobody can say you are using the Internet over a VPN. OpenWeb traffic is encrypted with AES-256, which is an industry-standard.
StealthVPN
StealthVPN is another proprietary protocol by Astrill. It is inspired by OpenVPN and performs an additional obfuscation of traffic which makes it undetectable for automated firewall systems. StealthVPN is very stable and can work with both UDP and TCP modes. Just like OpenWeb, it is only available with official Astrill VPN software.
StealthVPN data streams are protected with AES-256 and authentication is done with certificates. This makes the protocol not only very secure, but also very stable. Connection is kept alive throughout the duration of a session and all traffic from your computer is routed through Astrill VPN, so there are no IP or DNS leaks.
Wireguard
WireGuard is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN protocol that utilizes very strong cryptography. It aims to be faster, simpler, leaner, and more useful than IPSec while avoiding the massive headache. It intends to be more performant than OpenVPN. WireGuard is designed as a general-purpose VPN, fit for many different circumstances.
WireGuard uses state-of-the-art cryptography, like the Noise protocol framework, Curve25519, ChaCha20, Poly1305, BLAKE2, SipHash24, HKDF, and secure trusted constructions. It makes conservative and reasonable choices and has been reviewed by cryptographers. WireGuard is the result of a lengthy and thoroughly considered academic process, resulting in the technical whitepaper, an academic research paper that clearly defines the protocol and the intense considerations that went into each decision.
Astrill VPN Speed
Astrill VPN Speed Test
Astrill claims that their speeds are incredibly fast. Just like everyone else. I tested them for myself so you don’t have to. Here are the results of my speed tests for Astrill on US and EU servers. Astrill VPN download/upload speed looks somehow like this in two major Servers:
US Server
Ping: 182 ms
Download: 78.65 Mbps
Upload: 18.99 Mbps
EU Server
Ping: 44 ms
Download: 69.08 Mbps
Upload: 53.30 Mbps
These speeds are pretty good! The download speeds are especially consistent. The upload speed for US servers could use some improvement, but these results are better than some other VPNs on the market
Astrill Pricing Info
How Much Does Astrill VPN Cost?
Astrill VPN Price And Plans:
- Astrill VPN 1 Month Plan: The one-month plan will set you back at $20 per month. This plan is perfect for a user that just wants to try out Astrill without making a long-term commitment.
- Astrill VPN 6 Month Plan: The six-month package is $15 per month. This is a saving of 25% in comparison to the three-month package. You’ll spend a total of $ 90. The one year package is $8.33 per month.
- Astrill VPN 1 Year Plan: The one year package comes out to a total of $120. Monthly it will cost you $10/month. You’ll save 45% here. So if you know you want to use Astrill on a long-term basis, this is the best value.
Astrill VPN also offers a 7-day money-back guarantee, along with a ton of different payment options, including Credit/debit cards, PayPal, PerfectMoney, Bank wire transfer, WechatPay, BitCoin etc.
Overall, pricing for Astrill isn’t the cheapest on the market. In fact, it costs a lot. Even more, thanExpressVPN is well known as one of the best VPNs.
Astrill VPN
Astrill VPN Customer Support
Help Center Of Astrill VPN
A bunch of other VPN services only offer a ticketing system but surprisingly, AstrillVPN offers a live chat. That means you’re looking at a full day in most cases to get a response to a simple question. All you have to enter is your name, email, and message to get started. You can also select the department that your question applies to. Once you hit send, you’ll receive a message.
I went ahead and clicked on the “leave a message” option to see how long it would take to hear something back when taking that route and I received a helpful email in a few hours. Such response time might be normal for a ticketing or email-based support system. But for a “live” chat It is completely terrible. You’re better to opt just to submit a message and wait for a response rather than sitting in the live chat window for an unknown amount of time.
Astrill VPN Pros And Cons
Advantages and Disadvantages Of Astrill VPN
Astrill VPN Pros
1. SSL 256-bit encryption & tons of protocol options
Privacy is the number one issue with VPN software. Nothing else matters if your encryption or logging policies aren’t up to snuff. Astrill offers SSL 256-bit encryption on all plans they have. This means that you’ll have military-grade protection, even if you’re just trying Astrill out through a free trial. Although there’s not a big difference, some VPNs only come with 128-bit encryption (hint: Zenmate).
Astrill also has one of the biggest lists of available protocols I’ve seen like the OpenWeb, StealthVPN, OpenVPN, Cisco IPSec, IKEv2/IPsec, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, PPTP That’s good news for pretty much any potential use case. Those first two, OpenWeb and StealthVPN, are actually proprietary protocols created by Astrill. The main feature of OpenWeb is that it’s supposed to help you evade deep packet inspection (DPI), which should reduce the chances of ISP throttling and Netflix detection. StealthVPN, on the other hand, was designed to help you slip past automated firewall systems. So all in all, there truly is something for everyone with Astrill’s protocol options.
2. Smooth Usability
Astrill is very simple to download and install. The site identifies which operating system you’re using and brings up a download button automatically. There’s no guesswork about how to use the Astrill installation wizard, either. Once Astrill has been downloaded to your device, this is what the interface looks like:
All you have to do is enter your email and password to log in. Once you’ve logged in, you can select whether you want to use OpenVPN tunnelling protocol, OpenWeb, or StealthVPN. Astrill VPN client protocol. You’ll immediately see an on/off button, as well as data for the server you’re connected to.
To change your server, just select one from the drop-down menu. With Astrill, you can enforce DNS leak protection, IPv6 leak protection, and WebRTC IP leak protection. DNS and IPv6 leak protection is automatically turned on upon downloading.
4. Astrill VPN Free trial + Astrill VPN Refund
Astrill is one of the few VPN apps that offers both a free trial and a money-back guarantee. Usually, only one or the other is offered. But now, you can give Astrill’s services a try for a few days before signing up. Then after you do, you’ll have another few days for you to decide whether you want to keep the service or not.
5. Astrill VPN for Netflix
While the company doesn’t mention Netflix by name, it does feature the ability to “unblock” favourite websites. In our testing, we found that Astrill was able to connect to Netflix through three servers in three different countries as well as unblock Netflix’s geo-restrictions. Astrill servers unblocking Netflix are the United States in Chicago, the United Kingdom in London and The Netherlands. Whereas Astrill servers who are blocked by Netflix are the United States in New York and Canada.
Astrill VPN Cons
1. Some Possible Logging
Astrill’s website seems to claim that it keeps no data logs. But when you dig into their privacy policy, you’ll find that they collect data, such as cookies and other personal information. The scariest part of their logging policy is that they claim not to “sell, rent, or trade your personal information with others,” but they also disclose that their reason for collecting data is to personalize your experience when it comes to things like “online shopping and interactive communications.”
That last sentence sounds like they’re going to use your personal info to target ads, just like another free VPN. It’s hard to interpret this privacy policy, which is a huge turn off for me. When using a VPN, I need to know exactly what data is being recorded and why it’s being recorded.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
🤔Is Astrill VPN free?
Astrill provides free easy-to-use VPN applications for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and router. But it is not permanent. Astrill free trial offer lasts for 7 days for windows. There is a free version of Astrill VPN for Android users. They also offer a free, one-week trial to all users.
🤔Is Astrill VPN good?
Astrill is a fantastic VPN with extremely high speeds, solid security features, a strong privacy policy, torrenting support, and a good VPN for China. Overall we can say it is a viable and good vpn.
🤔Is there any Astrill VPN lifetime subscription plan?
No there is no Astrill VPN lifetime plan, the maximum plan you can get is for 1 month at a time. You have to renew the plan after the plan is over.
🤔What are the best Astrill VPN alternatives?
There are many VPN service provider in the market and all of them claim themself to be the best. I have personally tried many of them, From my experience Express VPN and Turbo VPN are the best Astrill VPN Alternatives.
🤔How to do Astrill VPN download?
For the window and Mac version, you can visit Astrillb VPN official site to download the Astrill VPN apk. If you are an android user, search Astrill VPN in the Google Play Store and do the AStrill VPN download.
🤔How can I get Astrill VPN Coupons?
Play the classic game on the Astrill VPN coupon code page and reach 2048 in one tile. Get a chance to win a free Astrill VPN coupon code. This special promo is time-limited, so hurry up, grab your discount and get Astrill VPN at a lower price.
Conclusion
Final Words On Astrill VPN
By all means in our Astrill VPN review, we found this, it’s not a bad VPN. According to my tests, I’d rate it around 7/10. However, if you force someone to choose just a single VPN provider, Astrill would definitely not be it for sure. There was a lot to like. The connection speeds, in particular, were really strong. But there were
some drawbacks I couldn’t overlook, either. Specifically, the customer support was really slow. The device connections are too limited. And the privacy policy terminology is a little sketchy. That’s why it is probably recommended to use ExpressVPN, NordVPN or IPVanish before Astrill.
In a nutshell , With Astrill VPN :
✔Surf anonymously
✔Unblock your favourite websites
✔VPN servers in 110 cities across 58 countries
✔Unlimited bandwidth
NOTE: Accessing banned websites by using VPN is still illegal. You may face serious Legal problems while doing so.
I hope you have liked my Astrill VPN Review. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comment section below. I will be happy to respond.
