Safer VPN
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SaferVPN is a VPN service based in Israel, where it was founded in 2013. This VPN has lightning-fast connection speeds, unblocks a wide range of streaming services, has affordable pricing plans, 24/7, and many other exciting features. Although this is a relatively new VPN on the market, it has a reputation for being a reliable and safe VPN. This is one of the finest VPNs in the industry, with millions of content users, with over 700 servers in 35 countries.
What features are offered by Safer VPN?
SaferVPN offers a wide range of features. This VPN has the standard, as well as extraordinary features that you won’t see in many VPNs. In the following list, you will see the current features of this VPN:
· Strong encryption protocols
· Fast speeds
· Unblocks many streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu
· Kill switch
· Budget-friendly pricing plans
· Compatible with many operating systems
· No logs policy
Is your data private with Safer VPN?
It is true that Israel is a politically charged region, and people might think that this is not a safe VPN. On the contrary, Israel is an ideal location for a VPN because of its privacy laws that strongly limit the ability of the government to monitor its citizens. One thing that is certain is that the privacy policy of this VPN is safe and secure.
SaferVPN has a strict, no logs policy. This means that this VPN respects the privacy of its customers, and the no-logs policy is there to back up that statement. So, your connection logs, IP address, and browsing history won't be stored.
This VPN uses a strong protocol- the OpenVPN protocol. This encryption protocol consists of AES-256, RSA-2048, and SHA-256. This protocol is the best for security. There are also the IKEv2, PPTP, and L2TP protocols. The PPTP is recommended for getting access to streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc.
SaferVPN offers yet another superb feature, which is DNS leak protection. These DNS leaks are likely to occur when a DNS request is routed through the customer’s network instead of the Virtual Private Network (VPN). This VPN sets up a public Domain Name System, which means that the DNS request is routed through SaferVPN and not through the network of the user. The user's online presence will be indetectable thanks to the DNS leak protection feature.
There’s also another rather intriguing feature that this VPN offers to its users, and that is the kill switch. The kill switch is activated immediately when the customer’s public connection is threatened. Here’s how this VPN feature actually works.
You’re enjoying your coffee in the nearby diner, browsing the Internet, and you are online because of the public Wi-fi connection. But, out of nowhere, the public connection drops, and you’re in a position where you have to turn on your data so you can be on the Internet. But, don’t be discouraged, because here is where the kill switch comes to help. That kill switch is going to kill the connection from your smartphone or any device as a matter of fact, and you will be online again when the VPN connection is restored.
How to get started with Safer VPN?
SaferVPN is quite easy to use, as it is to set up this VPN. On the website of this VPN service, you will be able to find on which operating system you’re going to use this VPN service. Here are the steps which you must follow in order to set up this VPN successfully:
· First, you would have to download the SaferVPN application
· Then, you have to click on the Next button in the Setup wizard
· Then, accept the License agreement
· Install this VPN, and then you can establish a VPN connection
How much does Safer VPN cost?
SaferVPN is one of the best VPN companies in the business. For such a superior VPN that has solid and secure encryption protocols and safe apps, the price plans are more than affordable, so anyone has the opportunity to buy a subscription for this VPN service. A lot of VPN experts suggest that it would be wise to choose a pricing deal that will allow the customer to use the services of a VPN for a longer period of time because that way, the deals are much cheaper and the users will save a substantial amount of funds. Commonly, the VPN experts recommend that you purchase a subscription for a year or multiple years. There are VPNs that offer two-year pricing deals, while some VPNs even offer three-year pricing deals.
Once you take a look at the pricing deals of SaferVPN and compare them to other VPNs on the market, you will see that the plans from this VPN are quite cheaper. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t presume that they lack quality. In fact, these are high-end pricing plans. If, by any chance, you find the services of this VPN unsatisfying, you are free to pick the 30-day money-back guarantee option. We have mentioned earlier that this VPN service has millions of happy customers, so you can realize that not many people chose that option.
Every pricing plan has special features that the other plan doesn’t have, but here are the features that come with every pricing deal:
· Apps for all devices plus a Chrome extension
· Wi-fi security
· Unlimited bandwidth
· Global Internet Access
· 24/7 Support
Here are the current pricing deals of SaferVPN are:
· One-month deal- if you want to choose this pricing deal, you would have to pay $12.95. per month
· One year-plan- if you want to choose the one-year plan, you would have to pay $5.49 every month. If you choose this plan, you will save 58% of your expenses, which is really great.
· Three-year plan- currently, this is the bestseller of the pricing plans, because it is currently on an incredible 81% discount. Instead of the initial $466.2, the users only have to pay $89.99 every 36 months. So, if you choose this pricing plan, you would only have to pay $2.5 every month.
This VPN also offers a plethora of payment method options. As for the credit cards, the customers will be able to make payments with Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and so on. This is quite a modern VPN because it also supports alternative payment methods in the form of cryptocurrencies. It accepts CoinGate and the most famous cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
Safer VPN for Torrenting and Streaming Services
SaferVPN is the perfect VPN for unblocking streaming services. As far as torrenting and P2P support goes, it only supports the servers in the Netherlands. But, on the other hand, this VPN unblocks streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Hulu, Netflix as well as BBC iPlayer.
We have mentioned before that this VPN service works great with a wide range of streaming platforms. When you take a look at all the streaming services that this VPN supports, Netflix is the most popular of the lot, without a doubt. In the last 3-4 years, Netflix has emerged as the new star of streaming platforms. Its popularity has risen considerably, mostly because of its TV shows that many users prefer to binge-watch. What exactly is binge-watching? It's when you watch a whole season of one TV show in one day. Thus, there are many people that would like to have access to every Netflix movie and series, but the thing is they can only have limited access to the Netflix content. Here’s where this VPN comes to help. SaferVPN allows its users to have complete access to every Netflix movie and show by unblocking geo-restricted countries. For example, if you currently live in Greece, you can select the US server to get complete access to the entire Netflix content. Follow the next steps to get your preferred Netflix content from your region.
· The first step for you should be to create an account on the website of SaferVPN and to install the application on your device
· Then you should connect to a server in the region that you prefer. Probably the best server you can use to watch Netflix is the server from the United States
· Insert your password and email address so you can log into your account
· Sit back and watch your favorite Netflix movie or show
What devices can you use Safer VPN on?
SaferVPN supports a vast array of devices and platforms. This VPN is available on many operating systems. Customers will have the opportunity to use this VPN service on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and Linux. On the webpage of this VPN, you will be able to download the software for any of these operating systems.
This VPN gives you a chance to use this VPN on many devices. You can use it on your tablet, smartphone, PC, or even laptop. Also, this VPN gives you permission to use five devices at the same time, with just one account. It is irrelevant what pricing deal you chose because all of the plans offer that option to the customers of this VPN. It is really important to remember that if you wish to use five devices simultaneously, all of them would have to have the same operating system. In addition, you can use the five devices, but only if those devices aren’t connected to the same server. The great thing about using five devices simultaneously is that you can secure all of them with just one SaferVPN account.
This VPN also happens to offer browser extensions. To be more precise, browser extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Those extensions will just encrypt the traffic that goes through the browsers, and your online activities will be protected. Customers are free to install these extensions on their browsers, but only for Firefox and Chrome. Once you install the extension, click on it so you can be connected to this VPN service. Also, users can set an extension that will automatically connect once they open their browsers, which is great.
Safer VPN on Windows
Installing SaferVPN is easy. Navigate to the download page on the website. The download and installation process doesn’t take more than a few seconds.
It’s easy to get familiar with the interface. Clicking the connect button will get you connected to the nearest location without any additional hassle, or choose your preferred location from the location list. The server list is quite basic; you can’t view locations within a country, and there is no indicator for latency or but there is a search bar to find the location you need.
On the opening screen, you can see the currently selected location with a large connect button which connects you to the selected server, you can check your current IP address and connection timer by clicking on the information icon in the top right of the window.
Connecting to, and switching between servers takes a while, in our experience servers average speeds around 90Mbps.
When it comes to the settings you can find the usual ones, like launching the app with Windows or automatically connecting on startup. There is a wide range of protocols to choose from, and they all have a short description to make it easier to decide which one is the best for you. By default, the service selects which protocol to use automatically, but you can choose between OpenVPN, IKEv2, L2TP, and PPTP.
SaferVPN has a feature called “Automatic Wi-Fi Security” and this feature automatically enables the service when your device connects to a new Wi-Fi network. You can also add “Trusted” networks where the VPN won’t turn on.
If there are ever problems with your VPN connection the VPN kill switch will automatically block all internet traffic. We tested the kill switch by crashing the OpenVPN daemon, and by screwing around with the virtual network adapter. While initially, the service managed to block our internet connection the kill switch turned off after 5-10 seconds resulting in our real IP leaking out. We ran this test several times and got the same results.
While using the service we detected DNS leaks, and this information can be used to narrow down your real location, which leaves a security hole that can be exploited by potential attackers. The problem occurred even after switching between protocols.
Unlike most VPN providers SaferVPN makes good use of the tray icon. Right-clicking on it will display information about your current connection status, IP address, and time connected. There are also options to disconnect and connect to a new location.
The application doesn’t have a built-in interface to contact support, but there are buttons to open the FAQ and to open a support ticket.
At the end of the day, we would recommend using SaferVPN if you want a VPN with medium levels of security and a fair amount of features. There are many more features that we would like to see added in the future, like ad blocking and support for protocols that can bypass firewalls. During the testing we didn’t run into any bugs or glitches, and there were no IP-leaks but there was a DNS leak, also the internet kill switch is unreliable.
Safer VPN on your smartphone
CactusVPN’s Android app follows the same design scheme as the desktop edition. On the first start, the user is welcomed by a login screen and you get the chance to try out the service with a 3-day trial. Most of the time the mobile applications are way more limited in features than their desktop counterparts, while this is somewhat true for SaferVPN the app still packs the necessary features.
The smartphone applications of SaferVPN can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play. There is no notable difference between the IOS and Android versions.
On the first launch of the app, you get the chance to get a 3-day free trial. This trial is available for any new users of SaferVPN. The trial version is limited in features but it’s useful if you want to try out the service. Unlike most free VPN trials SaferVPN doesn’t charge their customers automatically after the trial is over.
Just like in the Windows app the service recommends servers to the user, making it easier to select the fastest one. The main menu has a large green connect button, and another light blue one displaying the selected server. Tapping on this one will bring up the server list. The server list is not the easiest to navigate as it’s sorted alphabetically by default and there is no way to change that, on the other hand, there is a search bar.
The amount of settings isn’t something to brag about. There are only two protocols to choose from (IKEv2, and OpenVPN), there is an internet kill switch, and “Auto Wi-Fi Protection” which automatically enables the VPN when your device connects to an unknown Wi-Fi network.
There are a lot of features that we would like to see in the application, most importantly split tunneling, and port selection, maybe some easy to use widgets on the Android version.
Overall the mobile application of SaferVPN provides most of the things that a casual user might want from a VPN service. The trial version is a nice way of bringing new customers in, and there are no traps or hidden fees. During our testing, we detected no bugs in the apps, and it didn’t leak our IP address.
How to use Safer VPN on Linux?
SaferVPN currently provides no application for its users on Linux but they do provide pre-configured OpenVPN files and a setup guide. We did run into some problems while trying to use OpenVPN: this problem both occurred on Linux and on our router, so we would recommend sticking to PPTP for now.
Before you can start using the service please make sure that you have the latest version of OpenVPN network manager installed, and when the installation is complete don’t forget to update your system using the “sudo apt-get update” command in a terminal.
Head over to SaferVPN’s website and look for the Ubuntu guide, while the screenshots are a bit outdated the essence of the setup procedure is still the same.
As for the next step, open the network settings and click on the little plus icon next to the list of VPN connections. Select “Point to Point Tunneling Protocol" (PPTP) and click on create. If you did everything correctly there should be a window called “Identity” on your screen, name the connection, enter your username and password into the corresponding fields (this is the email and password combination that you use on the website), select a server from SaferVPN’s website and enter its name into the gateway field.
Click on the “Advanced” button, and check the “Use Point-to-Point encryption (MPPE) option. Click on the “Ok” button, then “Apply”, and restart your network manager using “sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart”. To make sure everything worked, turn on the connection, and test out the service by checking your IP address online.
Considering everythingSaferVPN should sort out the problem with their OpenVPN configuration files, while the service can be used with PPTP OpenVPN would be a much better choice. During testing, we found no IP or DNS leaks.
Is your router compatible with Safer VPN?
We tested SaferVPN on a router running AsusWRT firmware but the service claims to support any router compatible with OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP SaferVPN also provides a large amount guides for routers running DD-WRT, Tomato, Asus Routers, Freebox, Mikrotik Routers, Fritzbox Router, Anonabox Router, Draytek Router, Tenda Router, Padavan Router, Toto link Router, Arris Router, Sabai Router, NetDuma Router, TRENDnet router, ASUS WRT-MERLIN Router, GL.iNet router, Belkin router, Huawei router, D-Link Router.
Normally we would recommend using OpenVPN, but even after talking to the support for hours we couldn’t get the service working, and the solution was to switch over to L2TP.
First, navigate to the VPN panel on your router’s configuration page, select add profile, give the connection a name of your liking, enter your username and password (these are the same as what you would use on the website).
Next, select a server name from the list on SaferVPNs website and enter its name into the “VPN Server” field.
The main reason why you would want to use a VPN on your router is that it forces every device on your LAN network to use the service. This means that you don’t need to configure every device individually.
Setting up SaferVPN was not particularly hard but the OpenVPN files not working did cost quite some time. We didn’t run into any problems or noticed any bugs while testing the service. SaferVPN passed all of our security tests.
Network speeds while using Safer VPN
There are really a lot of factors that you would have to consider before you choose a VPN that will suit your needs the most. Speed and performance are definitely one of those factors. So, we did a couple of speeds from certain servers in the world. So, here are the results.
Before we did any tests, the average download speed was 98 Mbps, while the average upload speed was 53 Mbps. Then we’ve tested EU servers, specifically a server in Amsterdam. The average download speed for the Amsterdam server was 79 Mbps, while the average upload speed was 27 Mbps.
Then, we tested a server in the United States. The average download speed was 57.4 Mbps, while the average upload speed was 23 Mbps. Then, we tested the speed of a server in the UK. The average download speed was 64 Mbps, while the average upload speed was 39 Mbps.
After that, we tested a server in Hong Kong. The average download speed was only 1.2 Mbps, while the average speed was 0.39 Mbps. When we compared all these tests, the best server was the one in Amsterdam.
Customer support at Safer VPN
The customer support is yet another great section of this VPNs website. The staff of customer support will be available to all users 24/7. The customers can get in touch with the support team via live chat and an email ticket system. Usually, the customer service team will respond in a matter of minutes when you contact them via live chat. On the other hand, it would take them up to 24 hours to answer your email ticket system. Many users have said that the customer support team was friendly and professional when they've answered questions. There is also a one-day free trial where you can see how the VPN works, and once you see that you like it, you can buy a subscription. There are also setup guides that will help you to install SaferVPN successfully.
