Astrill Review

It’s not ideal that Astrill logs your IP address, but this information is only kept during your VPN session, and is then permanently deleted.

This maintains the app’s performance without compromising your privacy. All VPNs need to handle a minimal amount of information in order to function; in this case, Astrill needs it to regulate the number of devices simultaneously connecting from one account.

This is a poor excuse considering other VPNs, like ExpressVPN and PrivateVPN, monitor device connections without logging your IP address.

Astrill also tracks the total number of bytes transferred for network maintenance and expansion. This isn’t personally identifiable, and presents no threat to your privacy, either. Astrill reassures the user that:

“The very design of our VPN server software does not allow us to see which clients accessed what websites even if we wanted to.”

Astrill does, however, log your last 20 connection records to help customer support identify and troubleshoot problems. This includes:

• Connection time
• Connection duration
• Country
• Device type
• Astrill client version number

None of this is personally identifiable, either, and if your Astrill account is inactive for 30 days this information is automatically deleted. You can also request to delete this data manually by contacting support@astrill.com.

Although none of the data stored is identifiable, it is unreasonable from a VPN service that advertises itself as no-logs.

Astrill would benefit from commissioning an independent audit into its logging practices. This would eliminate all doubts about its safety. We’d also like to see regular transparency reports so that users can see any requests for data that the company has received from government agencies.

We were impressed by the privacy-friendly payment method options Astrill VPN offers. You can purchase an Astrill subscription with cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, for increased anonymity.

This isn’t as anonymous as Mullvad VPN’s approach of allowing customers to send cash to its office, but it’s still impressive.

Astrill VPN Is Owned by Veloxee Corp

Astrill VPN is currently under the ownership of a corporate entity called Veloxee Corp.

The subsidiary company, Astrill Systems Corp., was built and continues to be run by a team of cryptographers, programmers, and networking engineers.

The company isn’t particularly transparent, but it has serious security credentials; there’s never been a server breach, security leak, or controversy surrounding the company.

Moved from Seychelles to Liechtenstein

Astrill VPN used to incorporated in the privacy stronghold of the Seychelles. However, in November 2023 Astrill quietly moved its legal base to Liechtenstein.

Liechtenstein is not in the EU, but it does have a data-sharing agreement with Europol. Either way, it’s nowhere near as private as the Seychelles.

Astrill takes itself seriously as a privacy and anti-censorship tool, but this comes at the cost of streaming capabilities.

There is no mention of streaming across the entirety of its website, and the VPN offers no optimized servers for services like Netflix, BBC iPlayer, or Disney+. There’s no native app for Amazon Fire TV Stick, either.

Astrill Can Only Access the US Netflix Region

Astrill does work to unblock the US Netflix library. Combined with its strong long-distance speeds, this makes it a viable (but expensive) option for those looking to stream US-exclusive Netflix content from overseas.

Astrill accesses the US Netflix library from overseas.

Astrill doesn’t unblock geo-restricted content from any other Netflix region. When we asked why we were getting US Netflix on its Australian servers, we were told that Netflix is not supported on them and so the traffic is automatically redirected towards the US. This applies every time you want to access any other library that isn’t the US.

Reliably Unblocks Hulu

Despite its poor Netflix performance, Astrill VPN consistently unblocks Hulu on all of its US VPN servers.

Astrill VPN allowed us to stream Hulu from outside the US

Using Astrill, we were able to bypass Hulu’s geo-restrictions on both our Lenovo T480 laptop and our iPhone 11.

In each instance, the video loaded without any buffering and no change in video quality.

Works with UK Streaming Platforms

Astrill’s performance with UK-based streaming services is more mixed than with US counterparts.

Although we were able to unblock BBC iPlayer, All 4, and ITVX with Astrill’s London server, the video quality was often blurry.

BBC iPlayer loaded faster than ITVX during our Astrill VPN streaming tests.

ITVX in particular took a few minutes to load and the low-resolution stream was too blurry to watch on our iPhone.

Astrill Fails to Unblock Most Streaming Platforms

Despite its success with US Netflix and Hulu, Astrill can’t access US-based HBO Max or the American version of Amazon Prime Video.

Astrill also doesn’t unblock Disney+ if you’re in a region that still doesn’t have it.

With no streaming-optimized servers, Smart DNS tool, or widespread access to major streaming services, Astrill VPN simply can’t match the best VPNs for streaming. We’d expect a top streaming VPN to unblock multiple Netflix libraries, support a native app for Fire TV stick, and provide sufficient connection speeds for 4K video quality — Astrill lacks all of this.

We connected to Astrill VPN servers in five different countries, spanning four continents. All of our testing was carried out on a 100Mbps internet connection.

Here’s a table of Astrill VPN’s speed test results in full:

Astrill slowed our normal internet speeds by 8% when connected to a nearby server, which means it is slower than many of the top VPN services we’ve tested, if only by a little. However, its speeds are rarely too slow, and they do not fluctuate unpredictably.

When connecting to countries farther away, Astrill is consistent – but one of the slowest VPNs on average according to our testing. It’s unlikely you’ll notice an impact on your day-to-day browsing, but some tasks (like gaming or 4K streaming) may suffer. You can see how Astrill compares to faster rivals below.

One strange quirk we noticed from our testing is that an average speed of 95Mbps when connecting to a server in Canada is actually faster than what we logged when connecting to a nearby server in New York, US.

Astrill Has a Built-In Speed Test Tool

Astrill actually has its own built-in speed test tool which can help you determine which server is the fastest for you before connecting.

Astrill’s speed test tool works wherever you are in the world.

You can use it to test every server’s speed and ping in real time. We identified Los Angeles A as the fastest US server from our location – a little strange given that we test from the East Coast of the United States.

Astrill Offers Multiple Proprietary Tunneling Protocols

OpenVPN and WireGuard are both trustworthy and open-source VPN connection protocols, and each one excels in different areas. Astrill offers them alongside StealthVPN and OpenWeb – two proprietary options – which provides a great balance between standardized and bespoke security.

OpenWeb is a proprietary protocol based on TCP, designed for fast streaming and browsing across the web. Rather than encrypting the traffic leaving your entire device, OpenWeb only tunnels traffic from popular web browsers like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Chrome, and Chromium.

You can configure OpenWeb to encrypt traffic from other applications too, and also to share your OpenWeb connections with iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. This is useful in case mobile VPN protocols are blocked by your ISP or network administrators.

StealthVPN is Astrill VPN’s flagship proprietary protocol. It adds a layer of obfuscation to your already encrypted internet traffic, allowing you to bypass firewalls undetected.

It’s a stable and reliable protocol that works with both UDP and TCP protocols. It uses RSA-2048 certificates for authentication and the AES-256 cipher to encrypt your data.

Reliable & Advanced Kill Switch

Astrill’s kill switch works well to prevent IP leaks and cut your entire internet connection should the VPN connection fail. In this case, a pop-up window appears asking if you want to restore your internet connection or reconnect the VPN before continuing.

There’s also a feature called App Guard available on Windows, which Astrill describes as an “enhanced” version of a kill switch. This feature lets you block specific apps from connecting to the internet in the event of a VPN disconnection, while everything else works normally.

It works even when the Astrill desktop app is not running, and is enabled automatically on system startup.

Astrill’s advanced kill switch is called App Guard.

We ran both Astrill’s standard kill switch and App Guard feature through our kill switch testing tool to verify their effectiveness. The tool detects IP leaks by constantly monitoring your IP address and geo-location during an internet disconnection.

As shown in the screenshot below, Astrill’s normal kill switch failed to hide our real IP address during a VPN server change. This is more of a usability issue than a security one, as Astrill requires you to manually disconnect from your VPN server before connecting to a new one.

Top-rated VPNs, like PIA, allow you to switch between VPN servers without interrupting the VPN connection.

Astrill’s standard kill switch doesn’t activate while changing VPN servers.

Astrill’s kill switch did prevent our real IP address from leaking during a sudden VPN disconnection, which is the more important test.

App Guard concealed our IP address during both a VPN server change and a VPN disconnection. We recommend enabling App Guard at all times to maintain your online anonymity.

Astrill doesn’t support a VPN kill switch on either of its mobile apps. This is a significant drawback for mobile users, and we’d like to see this rectified in a future update.

IP, DNS & WebRTC Leak Tests

We tested Astrill VPN for any compromising IP, DNS, or WebRTC leaks by connecting to a US server. We found no leaks of any kind.

Astrill VPN didn’t leak our IP address, WebRTC, or DNS.

Our test confirmed that Astrill doesn’t leak any of your personal data. It’s a safe, secure, and reliable VPN that will hide your IP address without fail.

Astrill has physical VPN servers located in 107 cities across 56 countries.

Astrill’s modest number of servers is mitigated by its excellent coverage, with VPN servers available in every inhabitable continent.

Astrill’s international approach to servers means you’re much more likely to find a server near you, wherever you are in the world.

Unlike many leading VPN services, it also pays attention to Asian servers. There are more countries in Asia to choose from than there are in North America, South America, Oceania, and Africa combined (although there are 26 cities in the US alone).

In fact, if you are looking for a US IP address you can connect to 26 cities across 24 states.

Multiple Server Types

We’d like to see these servers streamlined and available under one package — especially considering Astrill VPN’s already high cost. The range of options can be difficult to understand for new or casual VPN users.

An All-Physical Server Network

While VPNs like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost have more servers overall, Astrill promotes the fact that its servers are all physical, or “bare metal“. This means that Astrill’s servers don’t rely on virtualization, which can lead to security risks.

However, the drawback is that Astrill only has 107 servers compared to ExpressVPN’s physical and virtual server network of 3,000 servers.

It’s easy to install Astrill: you just need to select a subscription plan, create an account, and download the app for your chosen platform. We didn’t encounter any issues using Astrill’s website and the installation process as a whole didn’t take longer than five minutes.

Astrill has separate designs for its desktop and mobile apps, with the latter opting for a more minimal and beginner-friendly interface. Despite an ‘app redesign contest‘ in 2019, Astrill hasn’t updated its GUI across any of its apps for several years now.

Moving forward, we’d like to see a re-designed desktop app which aligns more with Astrill’s sleek mobile GUI.

Once the VPN is installed, the user experience of Astrill varies by platform. We cover this more in-depth in the following sections:

Desktop & Laptop (Windows & Mac)

Astrill’s desktop apps are intuitive and simple to use – if you can understand the features on offer.

The learning curve required is steep but once you understand its proprietary features, and become familiar with the layout of the apps, the user experience becomes far easier on Astrill.

Using the desktop apps, you’ll notice that the settings change based on which protocol you’re using.

With four protocols to choose from, this means that there are countless variables to familiarize yourself with.

Astrill has attempted to make its app easier through shortcuts, a hot-key to toggle Astrill on and off, and the ability to restore it to default factory settings.

On both Windows and macOS you can change protocol with ease via a drop-down menu in the top right corner, select servers via an easily accessible list, and click the hamburger menu in the top left to discover advanced settings options.

The apps make finding the right server incredibly easy, too. Servers marked with a yellow star support P2P and port forwarding, you can favorite servers, sort them alphabetically, and find P2P servers by typing an asterisk (*) into the search bar.

The only difference between the Windows and macOS clients is that the former comes with additional Windows-specific leak protections and app guard. This makes Astrill on Windows slightly more advanced, but it’s impressive that the desktop apps are almost exactly identical.

Mobile (iPhone & Android)

Astrill on mobile is incredibly simple and easy to use – essentially a ‘click and protect’ service that is quite different to its Windows and macOS version.

The Android app’s settings menu is significantly stripped-back. Its options are limited to changing the language, using the application filter, showing logs, and activating battery optimization.

The server list doesn’t have a search function and is listed in what appears to be an arbitrary order. US and UK servers are at the top and African nations, such as South Africa and Egypt, are at the bottom, which must be scrolled down to.

This makes it frustrating to find specific server locations, so we’d like Astrill to implement a search function in the future.

Astrill’s iOS client is even more sparse than its Android app. There’s very little to it other than a big on/off toggle, a server location drop-down menu, and the ability to switch between TCP and UDP connections.

Its server list does come with a search function and a favorite toggle, but there are no optimized servers for streaming or torrenting. Supercharged and China optimized servers are present, but this is far removed from the fully-featured desktop apps.

Fire TV Stick

Although you can’t directly install Astrill VPN onto your Fire TV Stick, you can sideload Astrill’s software using an .apk file.

The app functions like its desktop counterpart. You have access to Astrill’s full server network as well as its proprietary VPN protocols.

Once installed, the Fire TV Stick app also comes with a working VPN kill switch and the standard VPN protocols OpenVPN and WireGuard.

Astrill VPN is an excellent VPN for torrenting, combining fast speeds with P2P-optimized servers, port forwarding customization, an effective kill switch, and robust security.

We tested Astrill’s torrenting capabilities on qBittorrent

Seeders, copyright trolls, trackers, or ISPs won’t be able to see your identity or activity thanks to its AES-256 encryption.

You also won’t experience a leak or accidental exposure of your IP address due to Astrill’s DNS leak blocking feature and a reliable kill switch.

However, we don’t recommend that you torrent with the OpenWeb protocol. You should only use Astrill’s P2P-supported protocols: OpenVPN and WireGuard.

Fast P2P Speeds & Port Forwarding Support

Our testing revealed that Astrill is actually the fastest VPN for torrenting, with an exceptional average bitrate of 10.0MiB/s. This is faster than industry-leading VPN services like ExpressVPN and Surfshark.

Astrill’s excellent speeds are partly enabled by its support for automatic and manual port forwarding. This is enabled in the settings menu, but it will only work with servers that are marked with a star (these are highly-secure servers that are optimized for torrenting).

There’s also a port forward test tool found in the help menu, which allows you to check specific TCP ports. This feature is rare among even top VPN services, like NordVPN and IPVanish.

Astrill works well with torrenting clients like BitTorrent, LimeWire, and uTorrent. You can configure UDP port forwarding in these clients and enable UDP traffic flow over a secure tunnel.

Astrill functions in a similar way across each platform, but not every feature is available on each app. Below is a summary of the differences between each Astrill VPN app:

Limited Simultaneous Connections

Astrill lets you connect up to five devices simultaneously under one account, which is standard practice for most VPN services. If this is a priority for you, there are top VPN providers such as Surfshark and IPVanish which support unlimited simultaneous connections.

Games Consoles & Streaming Devices

You can install Astrill VPN on a router and protect every device in your household. Currently, Astrill is only compatible with DD-WRT, Tomato, or ASUS routers.

We’re disappointed by the lack of a dedicated Fire TV Stick app. This isn’t surprising, though, given Astrill’s disinterest in providing a service for entertainment needs. Instead, you’ll have to manually install an .apk file to use Astrill VPN on your Fire TV stick.

If that’s what you plan to do, we recommend using a top-rated VPN for Firestick instead.

Sadly, there are no browser extensions, but you can use Astrill’s OpenWeb protocol to safely encrypt your browser traffic.

Advanced Features Vary by Subscription

Astrill has more additional technical features than most VPN services, but their availability depends on your pricing plan.

You’ll need to purchase Astrill VIP to access the full suite of Astrill’s advanced features, which costs $10.00 a month extra.

Here’s a summary of how Astrill and Astrill VIP’s technical features differ:

In addition to either plan, you can purchase a dedicated VPN IP address for an extra fee of $5.00 per month. This is a VPN IP address that only you can connect to and use. This allows for secure remote access and complete agency over your IP address.

Unlike other VPN services, Astrill automatically forwards ports to your dedicated IP, so all VOIP and P2P applications will work without additional configuration.

Astrill VPN Reliably Works in China

Astrill is the best VPN service for China and other highly-censored countries in 2024.

Its proprietary StealthVPN protocol and Smart Mode features are both designed to bypass website blocks, state censorship, and internet shutdowns.

We’ve confirmed Astrill’s effectiveness inside China by testing it on our own server in Shanghai.

We connected remotely, installed Astrill, and tested the VPN from within China, very similarly to any other computer that uses the internet from within the country.

In the video below, we use Astrill to unblock censored websites in China:

Since the very first tests, the VPN has proven itself to be reliable and consistent, which is why it continues to be our top recommendation for China.

Our findings are corroborated by the anti-censorship website greatfire.org, which shows that Astrill is one of the most stable VPNs in China.

Astrill doesn’t let you use OpenVPN on connections in China, but its proprietary protocols remove the need for it anyway.

Here’s how Astrill’s reliability in China compares with other top VPNs:

Evading China’s Great Firewall is a benchmark test for any VPN that markets itself as an anti-censorship tool. If a VPN works in China, it’s likely to work in other highly-censored countries, too. This means Astrill also works in countries like Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, and UAE.

We used Astrill VPN to unblock YouTube in China.

Astrill’s Stealth VPN & Smart Mode

Astrill is particularly effective against censorship due to its proprietary protocols.

This feature is designed to evade deep packet inspection (DPI) and firewall blocks – the two main internet censorship methods used by The Great Firewall to block websites in China.

StealthVPN is not available on iPhone or iPad due to “limitations from Apple.” For this reason, we don’t recommend Astrill for use in China on iOS devices. Instead, we suggest using ExpressVPN on your iPhone or iPad.

Astrill has another feature called Smart Mode, a split tunneling feature available only on the OpenWeb protocol and only in China.

Smart Mode uses regional IP addresses in China to evade censors, while secretly tunneling and unblocking international websites.

Smart Mode is ideal for accessing messaging applications like WhatsApp and streaming services like YouTube.

What Is the Best Astrill Server for China?

Astrill also offers specially-optimized SuperCharged servers, sometimes called China-optimized servers.

These servers are designed to maximize speeds and lower latency for users in China. There are also nearby servers in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea, which means you can evade censorship and retain optimal speeds at the same time. These are the best Astrill VPN servers for China.

Knowledgeable 24/7 Live Chat Support

Astrill’s customer support team is knowledgeable, quick, and very helpful. Its online resources are detailed and extensive, and there is a 24/7 live chat. As VPN support goes, it doesn’t get much better than this.

Astrill VPN has a great customer support system. In our experience, the best way to contact Astrill’s support team is through its 24/7 live chat.

Throughout our testing process, we asked Astrill’s live chat several questions and recorded an average response time of 48 seconds.

This was particularly impressive considering the technical nature of our queries. The support agents themselves were well-informed, knowledgeable, and concise with their answers.

Astrill’s live chat support.

We found the video tutorials on the website and the extensive Astrill Wiki to be very helpful resources, too.

The wiki has information on manual router installation, configuring port forwarding, and using Astrill’s different VPN protocols.

Moving forward, we’d like to see Astrill introduce a chatbot to provide immediate, automated answers to basic questions. This would streamline the support process by removing the wait time for a support agent to become available.

Despite this, Astrill’s customer support is excellent and on-par with the best VPNs available.