This is a great VPN for beginners, thanks to its user-friendly web and mobile apps. It’s also one of the most affordable VPN services on the market, and it offers the longest money-back guarantee you can find (45 days).

Power users will also find much to love, as CyberGhost offers advanced features like split tunneling, a kill switch, and customizable app launch rules. CyberGhost’s worldwide network of 11500+ servers will help you unblock restricted content from streaming platforms like US Netflix or bypass online censorship in restrictive countries.

For this CyberGhost review, we tested every essential CyberGhost feature, including its speed, security, and usability. How fast is CyberGhost, and how did it perform in our speed test circuit? Keep reading to find out.

CyberGhost: Pros and Cons

What We Like:

• Solid security setup
• Interface is simple to use, for beginners through to experts
• Installation is very straightforward
• Incredibly affordable
• Can unblock US Netflix and other streaming services
• Torrent quickly with dedicated servers and high speeds
• 45-day money-back guarantee, longest in the industry
• Second biggest server network, with 11500+ servers

What We Don’t Like:

• Slower performance on distant servers
• Tracks which devices are used, to monitor its “seven devices” limit

CyberGhost is a very user-friendly VPN with simple installation and support for up to seven simultaneous devices. With impressive speeds for online gaming and streaming Netflix, plus low-cost subscriptions and a lengthy money-back guarantee, we recommend this service to VPN newcomers.

However, CyberGhost is ideal for both new and advanced users, as we discovered in our CyberGhost VPN review. It makes advanced features like split tunneling easy to understand and use, all while providing robust security for your internet connection thanks to its 256-bit encryption and choice of VPN protocols (OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard).

Take 83% off your subscription to CyberGhost today with our time-limited discount and pay just $ 2.19 per month. It’s a steal – and you can still get a refund if you’re not happy.

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How Much Does CyberGhost Cost?

CyberGhost VPN offers several subscription plans and is very competitively priced. The monthly fee is considerably lower when you subscribe to this provider for a longer period. You can also get CyberGhost’s cheapest subscription with an 83% discount, meaning it’s only $ 2.19 a month!

The great thing is that all paid subscriptions give you the same service without any data limits or speed restrictions. The difference in prices is only due to the length of the chosen subscription.

CyberGhost also offers two add-ons you can bundle with your original subscription: CyberGhost Security Suite and Dedicated IP. We think dedicated IPs are a great choice if you can get one – you won’t share the same IP address with other people, meaning less chance of being blocked and even better speeds.

In terms of payment, you can choose between the following options:

• Credit card (VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and other options depending on the country you live in)
• PayPal
• Google Pay
• Amazon Pay
• Bitcoin

As always, we recommend buying a VPN with Bitcoin for optimal privacy. If that’s not an option, we advise going with PayPal. You should avoid using your credit card since this option requires you to provide a lot of your personal data.

Do you get your money’s worth with CyberGhost?

In our opinion, CyberGhost is one of the best value-for-money VPNs you can get. Aside from Surfshark, it’s one of the cheapest premium VPNs while having the second-largest server network and the longest money-back guarantee. If you want a cheap VPN that doesn’t sacrifice on quality, then we recommend choosing CyberGhost as a solid option.

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Does CyberGhost Work With Streaming?

CyberGhost VPN has streaming-optimized servers that help you unblock the most popular streaming catalogs. During our CyberGhost VPN review, we discovered that these streaming servers perform much better than other “regular” CyberGhost servers.

We tested CyberGhost with some of the best streaming services. Check out our findings below.

Platforms	Can CyberGhost unblock it?
Netflix	✔
Disney Plus	✔
Hulu	✔
Amazon Prime Video	✔
BBC iPlayer	✔
Crunchyroll	✔
HBO Max	✔

In short, CyberGhost can unblock a lot of content for you. We particularly like VPNs that allow us to access Crunchyroll, and we definitely watched our share of anime with CyberGhost. With our 83% discount on CyberGhost, you can start unblocking international content libraries and expanding your streaming choices in minutes!

CyberGhost and Netflix

During our Netflix tests, CyberGhost VPN allowed us to effortlessly access the US version. It could also unblock Netflix Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Brazil, The Netherlands, and others.

CyberGhost and HBO Max

We also accessed other popular streaming platforms during our CyberGhost VPN review, including HBO Max – but we had some teething issues with this platform. If you get the “not available in your region” error, just try a different browser or clear your cache. The same goes for Amazon Prime Video.

With Netflix fighting VPNs on a daily basis and other streaming services following suit, the list of reliable unblockers grows shorter by the day. Luckily, CyberGhost is one of the rare VPNs that hasn’t given up the fight yet, allowing you to watch your favorite content from anywhere in the world/.

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Torrenting With CyberGhost

CyberGhost VPN boasts hundreds of servers optimized for torrenting. Since there are no bandwidth limits or data caps, you can seed and download as many files as you like. We’ve tested CyberGhost’s optimized torrenting servers to ensure that they keep your IP address hidden.

In our torrent leak server, we added a test magnet link to our uTorrent client. Our tool monitored for any IP leaks, but there were none. This tells us that CyberGhost will adequately protect your IP address, even when torrenting.

Avoiding IP leaks when torrenting is crucial. Some regions take stricter stances on torrenting. Also, while we don’t condone downloading copyrighted materials, some people choose to. Get detected for torrenting the wrong thing, and you could be in trouble if your IP address is traced.

So, if you can’t imagine a day without using your uTorrent client, CyberGhost is the right VPN for you, as ti will also keep you safe and secure. You’ll be enjoying seamless downloads without any interruptions or speed throttling.

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CyberGhost Servers and Locations

CyberGhost has 11500+ servers in 100 countries. This is a huge server network, which explains why CyberGhost VPN performed so well in unblocking countless streaming platforms.

You can access the full list of servers from the app’s main screen or by expanding the app window. You can also create a list of favorite servers for easier access. Each server location comes with a physical distance indicator, so you can easily see which servers are closer to you.

Gaming servers also have ping indicators, which are extremely useful when every frame counts.

CyberGhost offers the following server locations:

• Americas: Argentina, Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, the United States, and Venezuela
• Asia and Pacific: Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Macau SAR of China, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam
• Europe: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom
• Middle East and Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Israel, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates

Dedicated IP address

Apart from regular VPN servers, we were happy to discover during our CyberGhost VPN review that this provider also offers dedicated IP servers for streaming (including BBC iPlayer and Netflix), gaming, and torrenting. Though this will cost you extra – a CyberGhost dedicated IP costs $2.50 monthly.

There are dedicated IPs available in Australia, Canada, France, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, Singapore, and the United States. You can see the exact list of locations with dedicated IPs below.

Dedicated IPs can help you avoid CAPTCHA pop-ups and service blacklisting (like on Netflix or using a VPN for Reddit, for example). In fact, dedicated IP addresses are probably the best way to circumvent the VPN blocks that many streaming services employ nowadays.

Dedicated IPs are also good for more secure online banking since you won’t be logging in with a different IP every time. This will prevent your banking app or website from blocking you on account of suspicious activity.

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How Fast is CyberGhost?

During our CyberGhost VPN review, the provider performed very well during our speed tests. CyberGhost VPN maintained up to 88% of our original speed during testing, though we experienced uneven performance across different CyberGhost servers. But we still enjoyed smooth day-to-day browsing, streaming, gaming, and torrenting without any noticeable problems.

Speed test results for CyberGhost

For this review, we tested the CyberGhost VPN app for Windows from The Netherlands, where our main office is located. We started off by determining our benchmark speed without the VPN and then comparing it to CyberGhost’s performance on various servers. Let’s take a look at the results of our CyberGhost VPN speed test.

NOTE:

Your speeds may differ based on your location, internet connection, and other factors. Therefore, you should view our results as indicators of potential performance.

Server	Download (Mbps)	Upload (Mbps)	Ping (ms)
No VPN	201.84	241.36	3
Fastest server (Netherlands)	194.62	139.41	6
The Netherlands	194.62	139.41	6
Germany (Frankfurt)	188.30	140.54	15
UK (London)	185.23	128.03	13
US (New York)	160.29	48.19	92
US (Los Angeles)	168.18	63.04	159
Canada (Vancouver)	161.58	34.04	192
Brazil (Sao Paulo)	132.31	40.85	239
South Africa (Johannesburg)	133.05	41.98	183
Japan (Tokyo)	110.19	34.26	253
Australia (Sydney)	111.84	34.6	264

Although not the fastest VPN out there, CyberGhost performed really well on nearby servers. However, as the pings went up, our download speed started decreasing. The VPN was still serviceable, but we didn’t expect to see such drops from CyberGhost.

Our upload speed dropped on faraway servers, but it was still fast enough for most activities. This makes CyberGhost a good tool for upload-heavy activities like video conferencing.

We also noticed big differences in speed between servers. For example, CyberGhost’s dedicated Netflix US server was much faster than all the other US servers we tested. Therefore, we recommend experimenting a bit with different CyberGhost servers until you find one that meets your needs.

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Is CyberGhost VPN Safe?

CyberGhost’s security features impressed us. This VPN supports a range of secure protocols and has no IP or DNS leaks. CyberGhost’s privacy policy raised no concerns with us, and its no-logs policy is airtight. Overall, we were happy with CyberGhost’s security and confident that using this service would keep us safe online.

CyberGhost hacks and vulnerabilities

In May 2023, cybersecurity researcher Ceri Coburn discovered a vulnerability in CyberGhost’s Windows app that could lead to “full system compromise.” According to Coburn, this flaw affected around three million CyberGhost customers who were using OpenVPN or WireGuard.

CyberGhost has since released a patch for this issue and stated that their apps will be subjected to stricter security control going forward. It remains unclear how many users were actually attacked, but we definitely hope CyberGhost will learn from this experience and keep its security up to par in the future.

Does CyberGhost leak your data?

During our tests for this CyberGhost VPN review, we didn’t notice any harmful data leaks.

Our ipleak.net test showed only data from the CyberGhost server we were using at the time. CyberGhost masked our IP address by using one of theirs. So, our own IP address was hidden, increasing our privacy while exploring the internet and preventing our data from being exposed to our internet service provider and other third parties.

Furthermore, CyberGhost VPN allows you to prevent DNS leaks by using its nameservers. This also lets you block domains known for hosting ads, trackers, and malware. These servers clearly work well, as we saw no DNS queries leak when we tested CyberGhost.

Finally, we checked for WebRTC leaks, which can occur when you use audio and video communication tools on the internet. CyberGhost was three for three – we didn’t see any WebRTC leaks, concluding our leak tests and leaving us satisfied that CyberGhost was protecting us!

Can you sign up to CyberGhost anonymously?

To create a CyberGhost VPN account, you need an email address and a password. We always recommend creating an anonymous burner email for this purpose, as well as using a strong password.

Your password is encrypted and isn’t visible to CyberGhost. The company assigns a serial number to your account to keep track of your user privileges.

According to CyberGhost, none of this information can be traced back to you, except when you choose to use your full name as an account name. This is a classic privacy blunder, and we strongly advise against it.

You should also choose your payment method carefully. We recommend going with Bitcoin or PayPal while avoiding credit cards. Although Cleverbridge, CyberGhost’s payment processor, has a good reputation, there’s no need to volunteer personal data.

Logging and privacy

CyberGhost advertises itself as a 100% no-logging VPN. While it does record quite a bit of info, fortunately, none of the collected data can be used to identify you or mount a hack attack against you.

With that in mind, here’s the information logged by CyberGhost VPN:

• Registration info: Email address and payment method
• Personal info: Anonymized IP address, country, transaction information, and partial credit card number
• Anonymous non-personal information: Browser, type of device (mobile/desktop), general properties and metadata, OS version, preferred language, timestamps when visiting the official website, and other browser fingerprinting data

PRO TIP:

Try to avoid credit card payments as you’ll have to provide your full name, country, postal code, and card info. Instead, we recommend opting for Bitcoin payments as these are better at protecting your identity.

The company always keeps your personal data separate from non-personal information. As such, nobody can combine these two groups to extrapolate anything related to your true identity. So, even though we’re not fans of IP logging, we consider this to be a safe logging policy.

There’s a lot that CyberGhost doesn’t record:

• Which user accessed a particular website or service
• Which user was connected to the VPN service at any given time
• Which CyberGhost VPN server IP they used
• The set of original IP addresses of a user’s computer

Furthermore, CyberGhost keeps a regularly updated transparency report, where you can see relevant data about DMCA complaints, malicious activity flags, and police requests.

None of the data that CyberGhost logs can be used to positively identify any of its users. So, you can rest assured that these data requests won’t affect you. So, even though CyberGhost records some information, it’s essentially a VPN with a strict no-logs policy when it comes to privacy and security.

Protocols and encryption

CyberGhost VPN offers a solid roster of modern VPN protocols. It has also abandoned some older and compromised options like PPTP and L2TP, which is a good sign that the VPN is evolving to meet today’s security standards.

Its current list of VPN protocols includes:

• OpenVPN (TCP/UDP): This is the most popular VPN protocol today, thanks to its excellent speed/security balance. It’ll satisfy the needs of most VPN users out there.
• IKEv2: Less CPU-heavy than OpenVPN, this protocol is quite popular among mobile users. It allows you to switch between networks without dropping your VPN connection.
• WireGuard: This is the youngest protocol on this list and the future of VPNs, in our opinion. It provides excellent connection speeds and security while maintaining a much smaller codebase than OpenVPN.

If you’re not sure which protocol is best for you, CyberGhost can pick one automatically based on your connection. If you’d rather take control yourself, we recommend going with WireGuard. Note that the TCP/UDP toggle only works if you’re using OpenVPN.

CyberGhost uses the AES-256 cipher to scramble your traffic. This is the most secure encryption method we have today, also known as “military-grade” encryption.

If you switch to WireGuard, you’ll be using ChaCha20 instead. Having this option is ideal if your devices can’t support AES hardware acceleration.

Kill switch

CyberGhost comes with an automatic kill switch, which functioned properly during all of our tests. A kill switch is important because if your VPN malfunctions for whatever reason, it will cut your connection to prevent data leaks.

Most VPNs place their kill switch options among the security settings. Oddly enough, CyberGhost keeps this failsafe in its “Privacy Settings” menu. This might make it a bit more difficult to find if you’re not used to handling VPNs, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of exploration.

Split tunneling

CyberGhost VPN stores the split tunneling feature in the “Exceptions” menu. Split tunneling allows users to exempt trusted sites or apps from VPN protection. More specifically, it allows you to:

• Avoid unnecessary encryption and speed drops on trusted sites.
• Prevent CyberGhost from locking you out of your local websites when connected to servers in other countries.
• Connect to other devices on your local area network without CyberGhost blocking you.

CyberGhost only offers so-called “URL-based split tunneling,” which means you can define the sites you want to access without VPN protection. However, it doesn’t work with apps on your devices. If you want app-based split tunneling, we recommend going with NordVPN instead.

CyberGhost NoSpy servers

CyberGhost recently added specialized servers called NoSpy servers. Unlike other VPN servers that can sit in third-party data warehouses, CyberGhost’s NoSpy hardware is fully owned, managed, and hosted by the VPN provider. They’re situated inside CyberGhost’s Romanian headquarters!

Since these servers are managed in-house and feature top-of-the-line hardware, they offer the best in security and privacy. This is a bonus perk that offered us further reassurance about CyberGhost’s secure practices during our CyberGhost VPN review.

CyberGhost Security Suite for Windows

When getting your CyberGhost subscription, it’s now also possible to add the Security Suite package. This is an add-on for Windows that helps you ensure your digital freedom and online privacy.

The package includes three different components:

• Cyberghost Antivirus: CyberGhost has partnered with Intego to protect your computer from malware, spyware, adware, ransomware, and other threats.
• Privacy Guard: This utility helps you maintain control over your privacy on your operating system. It allows you to decide exactly which information you wish to share with apps in Microsoft Store, Edge, Windows Defender, and Windows.
• Security Updater: CyberGhost’s Security Updater helps you get an overview of your software so you can easily see which programs are up-to-date and which aren’t. This means you can quickly update the right programs and minimize security risks.

With the CyberGhost Security Suite, you get a complete, all-in-one solution for your internet-connected device. This package works on Windows 7, 8.1, 10, and 11. It costs $4.50 per month as a standalone product, but it’s only an additional $1.00 when bundled with your VPN purchase.

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Is CyberGhost Easy to Use?

CyberGhost is famous for its user-friendly VPN apps and advanced features aimed at power users. Its website is simple and easy to navigate, while installation is quick and effortless. No matter the platform, we found all of its VPN apps very beginner-friendly – and customer support was very helpful and quick to respond.

CyberGhost on Windows

Starting with CyberGhost’s website, we found it to be professional and intuitive. All the relevant information is easy to find without navigating endless menus and features with cryptic proprietary names. We’re also fans of their unique black-and-yellow color scheme.

You can also download some of CyberGhost’s free tools, including their private browser and cookie cleaner for Chrome and Firefox. The browser isn’t on our list of the best privacy-focused browsers to use, but it is based on Chromium, which has some good privacy features.

CyberGhost VPN supports all major platforms, including a Windows VPN app, macOS, Android, iOS, smart TVs, gaming consoles, VPN routers, and many more. There are also browser extensions for Google Chrome and Firefox.

For this CyberGhost VPN review, we primarily tested its Windows app. Everything from installation through to connecting to a server worked flawlessly. We also dabbled with CyberGhost on Mac and mobile devices, which worked equally well.

IMPORTANT:

After purchasing a CyberGhost subscription, you’ll receive an email containing your “Cleverbridge reference number.” Make sure to save this information since you won’t be able to get any help from Cleverbridge (CyberGhost’s payment handler) unless you provide this number.

CyberGhost allows for seven simultaneous connections. This should be more than enough coverage for most VPN users.

CyberGhost VPN has a collapsible client similar to Proton VPN’s. The client looks professional while remaining easy to use. CyberGhost is one of the most beginner-friendly services out there, which makes it a perfect choice if you’ve never handled a VPN before.

The Windows app features a prominent on/off button with a shortcut to CyberGhost’s server list directly underneath. Once you connect, the client also shows info about your chosen server, real and assigned IP addresses, bandwidth, protocol, and connection time.

Clicking the arrow on the left side will open extra options. Most notably, you’ll gain access to CyberGhost’s full server list as well as privacy and security settings.

The “Settings” menu branches out into General and VPN settings.

The General settings include automatic app launch, language, themes, app shutdown behavior, background service, updates, and submitting anonymous usage data.

The VPN settings are comprised of features like protocol, MTU size, TCP/UDP, random port selection, disabling IPv6, and virtual network card repair.

CyberGhost’s “Smart Rules” menu allows you to play around with the service’s launch rules, which is a nice quality-of-life addition. If you don’t want to start CyberGhost manually every time, this section allows you to automate its behavior while you’re booting up your device.

CyberGhost VPN supports 12 different languages and allows you to switch between light and dark themes, which is always a nice extra. However, we tried the light theme and found that it takes away a lot from CyberGhost’s visual appeal.

CyberGhost is as beginner-friendly as it gets without dumbing down the service. It’s an excellent gateway VPN that still offers some advanced features that power users will love.

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Customer Service

The VPN has a dedicated knowledge base and FAQ section to help you if CyberGhost is not working for some reason or if you are experiencing other issues. Most of the time, you’ll be able to find an answer to your query there. However, note that we did find quite a few outdated articles.

It also offers a live chat service. This option is advertised as “24/7 live support,” but they weren’t online every single time we tried contacting them during our CyberGhost VPN review.

When you open the chat window, you’re asked to fill out your name and email so that the customer support team can send a transcript of the conversation to your email.

We tested the live chat service by asking some questions. They responded quickly and politely and were able to provide adequate answers to our questions.

CyberGhost offers customer support in English, German, French, and Romanian.

CyberGhost’s money-back guarantee: How to get a refund

CyberGhost’s monthly subscription has a 14-day money-back guarantee. Longer subscriptions offer a 45-day money-back guarantee. In other words, you can get a free trial of CyberGhost before committing to a long-term subscription.

Cleverbridge, CyberGhost’s payment processor, handles refunds. However, you can also contact CyberGhost directly within the CyberGhost app to resolve this. We contacted Cleverbridge after we were done with our testing and got our refund in a single day.

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Do We Recommend CyberGhost?

Our CyberGhost VPN review revealed that this is a user-friendly and reliable VPN for both beginners and power users. Its user interface is simple, and advanced features are easily accessed.

Moreover, CyberGhost’s protection is more than enough for everyday use, thanks to AES 256 encryption and a variety of VPN protocols. CyberGhost also has a large number of servers across the world, with dedicated servers for gaming, streaming, and torrenting.

All in all, this VPN service is one of the best VPN providers out there. We found that CyberGhost strikes the right balance between safety, affordability, speed, and user-friendliness.

CyberGhost Review: Frequently Asked Questions