CyberGhost Review
Overview
CyberGhost Pro, the new upgraded version from the Romanian-based provider that originally launched CyberGhost in 2011, offers vast improvements in speed and performance. Their approach and design were always innovative and edgy, and the new version is a great option for those wanting speed along with many excellent privacy features. The server network is limited to 44 countries, but congestion is not much of an issue, with over 1,100 servers available. They have some interesting extras, including anti-malware and ad-blocking, and free proxy service is offered on the website so you can try out the IP address masking. Their website is well-designed overall, and offers great customer support resources, though they don’t yet have mobile apps.
Speed & Performance: 9.7
CyberGhost Pro really shines here with their new upgraded server network. European server speeds were so blisteringly fast, we retested to verify we were getting accurate readings. You can download huge files at the same time, level up multiplayer games, and stream HD video—all effortless and super-fast. Servers in the UK and US were a little slower, delivering 70Mbps downloads—but this still puts most competitors to shame. Despite the distance, servers in Australia performed comparably; the only real slowdowns we observed were in Hong Kong and Canada. Server congestion may well be impacting some speeds, since Canada suffered a 50% drop over previous tests.
For the best performance, it’s necessary to select servers manually. They do offer automatic selection, but performance decreases significantly. And you will need to turn off any optional extra features you were using in order to get the best speed possible.
Unblock Content: 9.2
CyberGhost Pro works with Netflix, BBC iPlayer, HBO, Kodi, Google/Gmail, YouTube, and gaming, plus torrenting on some specific servers. The more limited of server locations, however, will be a big strike for some users looking to unblock websites in unrepresented areas.
Security & Privacy: 9.0
Fans of advanced privacy features will love CyberGhost Pro. Even though under EU jurisdiction, they have a zero logs policy, and use a killswitch as protection against dropouts. They offer the option to force traffic through their first-party DNS servers as well. Another great feature is that to sign up, you do not need an email address, or need to provide any personal details. Their privacy policy is clearly written and easy to understand. We are a bit skeptical about their claim of military-grade encryption—it looks like standard AES-256—but it’s still more than adequate. The availability of additional ad blocking and anti-tracking that can be switched on as needed is another big selling point. The one con we found was that they only allow torrenting on specific servers, further limiting the already somewhat-limited server choice.
Server Locations: 6.9
CyberGhost is supported in a limited — albeit growing — number of countries, and is definitely at the lower end of the locations market, with some big holes in coverage. Their target market is Europe, North America, and Australia. There are no options at all in Africa or Central or South America, and in Asia only Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan are covered. However, they do offer city-level server choices on quite a few server locations—great if you really want to optimize performance.
Ease Of Use: 7.5
CyberGhost Pro’s ease of use is mixed. They aim to optimize your experience with a unique approach—asking you what you want to do, and then customizing the app for you. For example, if streaming is your top priority at the moment, you can see streaming service options and then, with one click, connect to the best streaming server as well as launch the service you chose. They also allow you to select a server as an individual option in the usual fashion. Extra privacy features can be easily toggled off and on. Settings are well organized, with lots of good search filters.
The problem with this system is that it noticeably slows down the app with all the over-the-top graphics, unneeded text, and animations all in one big window. Another oddity is that some cities are only selectable from within search results for their particular country—and we couldn’t see that this was explained anywhere. Also, the three crashes experienced during two hours of testing seems a bit much. Their excellent innovative efforts are somewhat diminished by the actual execution; we hope they will keep working on these issues. They do not offer mobile apps yet for CyberGhost Pro, but you can access the original CyberGhost apps, which still perform great.
WHAT WE LIKE
- Interesting innovation efforts
- Single-click connect and launch of streaming sites
- Settings and search filters nicely organized
WHAT WE LIKE LESS
- Apps need a simple view option
- Server switching could be slicker
- Overly-flashy desktop design
- No mobile apps
Customer Support: 7.5
Email support was impressive; we had a reply in the inbox in just under half an hour. The response was spot-on as far as answering our question, and sounded friendly and warm—plainly not a standard canned response. It is a little cumbersome and time-consuming to submit a support request, though, since you have to log in first and then fill out a form. Their live chat had just been reinstated after a long downtime, but we were never able to connect with an agent after several tries and 30-minute wait periods. They did respond to the chat question by email the next day. Support is available in English or in French. Although clearly developed with the user in mind, online tutorials are text-based, and could benefit from some added video tutorials.
Value For Money: 8.6
CyberGhost Pro is a solid VPN provider, and their newly upgraded service does a lot of things right. Our top-rated NordVPN gives a better value for the money, though.
WHAT WE LIKE
- Stellar speed & performance
- Ad-blocker and anti-malware
- Free proxy
WHAT WE LIKE LESS
- App needs streamlining
- Torrenting restricted to certain servers
- Server locations are quite limited
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