BolehVPN Review

[Presented by BestCloudBest.com]

How do you choose a VPN provider that meets your precise requirements out of so many providers in the market? Many VPN providers make impressive claims about their products and services, however, not all of them deliver what they promise! 

BolehVPN, a VPN service owned by Malaysia-based BV Internet Services claims to offer powerful privacy, security, and other features. Does its reality match these claims?

Many Internet users want to retain their privacy while browsing the Internet, moreover, they want a secure browsing experience. Some Internet users want to use VPNs to unblock geo-restricted streaming services like Netflix, moreover, quite a few of them want to access P2P/torrenting services. 

What features come with BolehVPN?

You will surely want value for your money, therefore, you would want your VPN provider to offer useful features, wouldn’t you? Let’s analyze the features that BolehVPN offers.

Your privacy at BolehVPN

If you are like most VPN users, then privacy is your top priority when looking for a VPN. We find that BolehVPN is on a strong footing as far as privacy is concerned. 

The company has a very transparent “Privacy Policy” on its website, and it clearly states that BolehVPN follows a “no logs” policy. BolehVPN doesn’t log the Internet activities of its users, which means that it doesn’t log user access, DNS requests, timestamps, bandwidth usage, or IP addresses. 

This VPN provider monitors the general traffic on its servers, however, this data is at an aggregate level and not for individual users. There are scenarios where BolehVPN turns on logging, and the company explicitly states them in its privacy policy. These scenarios are as follows:

·  If the company suspects criminal activities or abuses on the part of any user, then it turns on logging for that user. What happens when BolehVPN finds out that a user is indeed conducting criminal activities or abusing its services? The company terminates the user’s account, and it sends him/her an email notifying the termination and the reasons for it. BolehVPN turns off logging for that user at that point. It makes it clear that users can’t use its products for unlawful activities, and its privacy policy spells this out clearly. 

·  BolehVPN might turn on logging for troubleshooting requirements, however, the company does this only as a “last resort”. It turns off logging when it doesn’t need the logs anymore for troubleshooting.

Every VPN provider has the capability to log the Internet activities of its users, however, not all of them are transparent about it. BolehVPN is fully transparent in this matter, which is an advantage.

BolehVPN collects your email address and transaction information when you buy its product. On its “Privacy Policy”, BolehVPN states that it will share this information only if required by the law. 

The company assures that it secures this information, and VPN users should have no concerns about BolehVPN recording this extent of personal information. BolehVPN allows you to buy its product using privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, therefore, you can pay anonymously. 

Although a Malaysian company owns BolehVPN, its jurisdiction is Seychelles. Seychelles isn’t part of the “14 Eyes” coalition of countries that conduct mass surveillance, moreover, BolehVPN isn’t subject to any data retention laws. 

BolehVPN publishes a “Warrant Canary” on its website, and the company updates it every month. As of 1st February 2020, the company or its employees haven’t been served any warrants. We rate BolehVPN highly as far as privacy is concerned. 

Data security while using BolehVPN

VPN users typically prioritize security when they shop for VPNs. Do you do so, too? In that case, you will find BolehVPN quite attractive since the company offers robust security features.

BolehVPN supports OpenVPN, and this has the reputation of being the most secure VPN protocol. OpenVPN has no known vulnerability. Although BolehVPN also supports the L2TP VPN protocol, we don’t recommend it. It is less secure. In any case, you don’t need to use L2TP when you buy BolehVPN.

You would want your personal information to be safe when using a VPN, wouldn’t you? Encryption assumes importance here, and we are happy to inform you that BolehVPN features as strong encryption as you could find in the market. It uses AES-256 encryption with the latest hashing algorithm of SHA-2. It has a robust “Public Key Infrastructure” (PKI) with 4096-bit RSA keys. In summary, this is military-grade encryption. 

What if a cybercriminal still manages to get your encryption key? Such a cyber-attacker will not be able to access your personal information for any notable amount of time since BolehVPN uses “Perfect Forward Secrecy” (PFS). This security feature regularly changes your encryption keys, therefore, cybercriminals can’t access your personal information for any significant period of time.

BolehVPN guards against all IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks. It uses additional obfuscation technology to mask your VPN traffic protocols, therefore, network monitoring tools can’t detect that you are using a VPN. 

What if the VPN connection drops unexpectedly? Your personal information remains safe even in that case since BolehVPN offers a “kill switch”. It blocks your Internet connection if the VPN connection terminates suddenly.

BolehVPN server location

You would want your VPN provider to offer good speed, wouldn’t you? VPN providers that have a sufficient number of servers across key geographies can typically offer robust speed. Let’s see how BolehVPN fares in this aspect.

BolehVPN has 35 servers in 14 countries. As it states on its FAQ page, the company has servers in the USA, the UK, Germany, Canada, Italy, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Hong Kong, France, and Japan. With this, BolehVPN covers several key geographies.

BolehVPN has fewer servers than several market-leading VPN providers, consequently, its speed isn’t as good as market-leading VPN providers. We found that it offers reasonable speed. 

We noted that BolehVPN offers different options for different countries. Take for example its BolehFlix and BolehGEO servers, which enable you to unblock Netflix from different regions.

BolehVPN offers “surfing streaming” servers that can unblock generic content for you, however, these can’t unblock Netflix. Additionally, you can access its “proxied” servers, which lets you specify the kind of Internet traffic you would route through its VPN. You can view the status of its servers on its website.

In summary, we found that BolehVPN doesn’t offer as many servers across various geographies as offered by several leading VPN providers. The relatively less number of servers the company has does impact the speed it offers. 

Platforms you can use BolehVPN on

You want a VPN that supports all your devices, don’t you? BolehVPN fares well here since it supports all key platforms. You can use it with desktops like Windows, Mac, and Linux, moreover, BolehVPN works with Android and iOS. 

BolehVPN offers custom clients for Windows, Mac, and Android. It doesn’t offer custom apps for Linux and iOS, however, it offers configuration instructions to use OpenVPN with Linux and iOS. You can connect 3 devices simultaneously.

We would like BolehVPN to offer custom apps for iOS and Linux too. Some VPN users aren’t tech-savvy, and custom apps are very helpful to them. Market-leading VPN providers offer custom apps for all platforms they support, and BolehVPN is comparatively less user-friendly in this regard.

This VPN provider supports Sabai Technology routers, Asus-WRT Merlin routers, and DD-WRT routers. BolehVPN offers detailed guides and configuration information for all platforms and routers it supports. 

It offers 3 simultaneous connections, which is comparatively less than several market-leading VPN providers. However, you can bypass this limitation by configuring the above-mentioned routers to use BolehVPN. This way, even if you connect all your devices to BolehVPN through the router, it will still count as just one connection.  

Unblocking streaming services using BolehVPN

BolehVPN claims on its website that it unblocks geo-restricted streaming services like USA-only Playstation, Stream, iTunes, Netflix, and Google Play. It also provides a guide on its website to help you to access Netflix USA. 

However, Netflix has acquired considerable capabilities to block VPN, therefore, many VPN providers can’t unblock it consistently. BolehVPN faces the same challenges, therefore, if you want a VPN that can consistently unblock Netflix, then you should check out other market-leading VPNs.

Does BolehVPN allow for P2P/Torrenting?

Accessing P2P/torrenting service is often a priority for many VPN users. Do you plan to access P2P services using a VPN? BolehVPN will work for you since it allows you to access P2P/torrenting services without any bandwidth restriction.

Some of the BolehVPN servers aren’t ideal for P2P/torrenting, e.g., the BolehGEO servers. BolehVPN offers other servers for this though, and these servers are optimized for P2P.

Can you bypass internet censorship with BolehVPN?

BolehVPN uses “xCloak”, which hides the fact that you are using a VPN. Several countries employ Internet censorship technologies like “Deep Packet Inspection” to identify VPN traffic and block it. With the xCloak technology from BolehVPN, you can bypass such instances of Internet censorship.

How much does BolehVPN cost?

You will surely want a VPN provider to offer a reasonable price for the products and services it offers, wouldn’t you? BolehVPN offers several pricing plans, which are categorized by duration, i.e., the number of days. 

The pricing plans of BolehVPN are as follows:

·  7 days: $3.70;

·  30 days: $9.99;

·  60 days: $16.99;

·  180 days: $44.99;

·  365 days: $79.99.

BolehVPN offers a free trial period for 1 day only, and you can get access to only 2-3 servers as part of its free trial. 

You can use all common payment options to buy BolehVPN. The company accepts major credit cards, PayPal, etc., and it provides a secure payment process. 

You can also buy BolehVPN products and services using Cryptocurrency. The company explains the process to pay using cryptocurrencies in the “Pay for your VPN with cryptocurrency” page on its website. It accepts payments using Bitcoin. You can make your Bitcoin payment using BitPay, alternatively, BolehVPN provides a payment address.

BolehVPN also accepts payments using privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Dash, Monero, Zcoin, and Zcash. This helps you to pay anonymously. If you pay using these privacy-focused cryptocurrencies, then you can avail of a 10% discount. You can directly pay by Dash, alternatively, you can use Coinpayments to pay using these privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

BolehVPN has a refund policy, and the company accepts refund requests made within 14 days of purchase. You can get a refund only if you are a new customer, not if you are renewing your account. 

The refund process works fine if you have paid using a traditional payment method like card or PayPal. However, it doesn’t work if you pay anonymously using the privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Dash, Monero, Zcoin, or Zcash.

We found that the yearly pricing plan of BolehVPN is reasonable, however, you can find market-leading VPN providers that charge less than BolehVPN. The other pricing plans are a bit on the expensive side, however, they are not very expensive.

The pros and cons of BolehVPN

Now that you have an idea about the features that BolehVPN offers and its price, you would naturally want to weigh its pros and cons. We have you covered there! We can summarize the advantages of BolehVPN as follows:

·  It offers excellent privacy with a “no logs” policy, transparent privacy policy, and a privacy-friendly jurisdiction. 

·  BolehVPN is very secure, thanks to a secure protocol, robust encryption, and other important security features.

·  It allows P2P/torrenting without any bandwidth restriction.

·  It provides custom apps for most of the platforms it supports, and these are easy to use.

·  BolehVPN has excellent documentation, moreover, the company offers robust customer support.

·  You can bypass Internet censorship using this VPN.

·  It supports all key platforms and routers.

·  The yearly pricing plan is reasonable.

·  BolehVPN offers anonymous payment options using privacy-focused cryptocurrencies.

BolehVPN also has a few disadvantages, which are as follows:

·  Its speed is less compared to several market-leading VPN providers.

·  BolehVPN doesn’t have custom clients/apps for Linux and iOS. While you can use a 3rd party OpenVPN client along with the detailed guides offered by BolehVPN, that still isn’t as user-friendly as an easy-to-use custom app.

·  Although BolehVPN claims to unblock Netflix and other geo-restricted streaming services, it can’t do so consistently.

·  The pricing plans other than the yearly plan are a bit expensive.

A few quick facts about BolehVPN

Let’s summarize a few quick facts about BolehVPN so that you can make an informed decision about whether to buy it. The following facts about BolehVPN are worth noting:

·  Malaysia-based BV Internet Services owns BolehVPN, however, its jurisdiction is Seychelles, a privacy-friendly country. 

·  BolehVPN is in the operations since 2007, and it has excellent privacy and security track records.

·  It supports all key platforms and routers, moreover, it allows P2P/torrenting.

·  You don’t get as good speed with BolehVPN as you would get with several market-leading VPNs, moreover, it can’t consistently block geo-restricted ·  streaming services like Netflix. 

·  BolehVPN offers excellent documentation and robust customer support.

·  The yearly plan of BolehVPN is reasonably priced, however, the plans with shorter duration are a bit expensive.

How to get started with BolehVPN?

You want a VPN that’s easy to use, don’t you? Well, BolehVPN is sufficiently easy to use. Let’s start with its website, which displays all key menu options clearly. You can easily locate the key options like “Get a Free Trial”, “Support”, “BUY Now!”, “Login”, etc. 

The BolehVPN website also displays its pricing plans and features prominently, moreover, you can easily locate its privacy policy, warrant canary, etc. in the footer section of the website. You can buy BolehVPN in a few intuitive steps.

Users can easily locate the guides to install the BolehVPN custom apps, and these are available in the “Clients Installation” page. You can find this page easily from the “Support” menu option. 

Customer service at BolehVPN

You likely prioritize customer service when you buy a VPN, don’t you? We are happy to note that BolehVPN has both excellent documentation and robust customer support.

Its website displays helpful guides, a searchable knowledgebase, and a useful FAQ section. The BolehVPN custom apps are easy to use, therefore, you might not need much customer support. BolehVPN offers detailed guides for the platforms where it doesn’t have custom apps, and you might need to reach out to its customer support team for questions concerning these guides. 

The company offers live chat support and a 24x7 online customer support help desk. You can reach its support team by submitting a ticket via its website, and the customer support team demonstrates promptness and knowledge.

Jurisdiction

Malaysia-based BV Internet Services owns BolehVPN, however, its jurisdiction is Seychelles. Seychelles isn’t one of the “14 Eyes” countries that conduct mass surveillance, therefore, it’s the ideal jurisdiction for a privacy-focused VPN provider.

BolehVPN isn’t subject to any data retention laws. The company discloses whether it has received any warrants. It publishes this information in the “Warrant Canary” on its website, and the company updates it monthly. The latest information on the “Warrant Canary” shows that as of 1st February 2020, BolehVPN or its employees have never received any warrants.

Does BolehVPN keep any logs of your activity?

BolehVPN doesn’t log the Internet activities of its users. It doesn’t log user login, connection timestamps, IP addresses, DNS requests, or bandwidth usage. 

The company states in its privacy policy that it tracks aggregate level information about the general traffic on its servers. BolehVPN tracks the number of connections on its servers, however, this doesn’t contain data at the level of individual users.

BolehVPN specifies the circumstances under which it will log users’ information, and these are as follows:

If it suspects that a user is using BolehVPN for unlawful or abusive activities, then it turns on logging. The company doesn’t allow illegal activities using its infrastructure, and it terminates accounts of users conducting such activities. It emails the concerned user about this termination, subsequently, it turns off logging. 

BolehVPN might turn on logging if troubleshooting activities require them to do so, however, the company does it only as a last resort. It turns off logging when they don’t need it anymore. 

We find this acceptable. BolehVPN maintains complete transparency about its logging capabilities in its “Privacy Policy”, and we believe that’s a positive aspect. 

Encryption and technical security at BolehVPN

In our review, we found that BolehVPN uses a very strong set of security solutions. This VPN provider supports OpenVPN, and this VPN protocol has no known security vulnerabilities. BolehVPN also supports the L2TP protocol, however, it’s less secure and you don’t need to use it at all.

With SHA-2 hashing algorithms, AES-256 encryption, and a “Public Key Infrastructure” (PKI) that uses 4096-bit RSA keys, BolehVPN offers the strongest possible encryption. It also employs “Perfect Forward Secrecy” (PFS), which changes your encryption keys regularly and provides additional security. 

Thanks to its strong security solutions, BolehVPN prevents all IP, DNS, and WebRTC leaks. This VPN provider uses an additional layer of obfuscation technology, therefore, network monitoring devices can’t detect that you are using a VPN. 

BolehVPN offers a “kill switch”, which blocks the Internet connection if the VPN connection suddenly drops. As far as security is concerned, BolehVPN stands on a strong footing! 

Our short conclusion

Many VPN providers promise a lot, however, the reality of their products and services vary from their promises. BolehVPN largely delivers what it promises, and this VPN has excellent privacy and security credentials. It supports all key platforms and allows P2P/torrenting.

BolehVPN doesn’t offer as good a speed as some of the market-leading VPNs do, moreover, it can’t consistently unblock Netflix. It doesn’t offer custom clients for iOS and Linux. Its yearly pricing plan is reasonable, however, the pricing plans with shorter duration are a bit expensive.

You can maintain anonymity if you use BolehVPN. BolehVPN offers excellent guides, a searchable knowledgebase, and robust customer support. To conclude, we consider BolehVPN to be a good buy. We recommend that you use its free trial period, and check out whether it works for you.