Privacy
Ranked #52 out of 61 VPNs for Privacy
SkyVPN will not keep your internet activity private. The VPN logs personally identifiable information, including your IP address and location information. The VPN also has links to China and has confirmed it will hand over user data to the government if it's ever requested.
| Originating IP Address | Yes |
|---|---|
| Browsing Activity | No |
| Individual Connection Timestamps | No |
| Date of Last Connection | No |
| VPN Server IP | Yes |
| Device Information | Yes |
| Individual Bandwidth Usage | Yes |
| Account Information | Yes |
You can read SkyVPN's full privacy policy on its website.
As you can see in the table above, SkyVPN logs a lot of identifying user data, including your IP address and VPN server IP address. The statement in its privacy policy that it’s a “no-log network” is completely false.
It also claims to be different to other free VPNs that track you, saying “SkyVPN never does like that [sic],” but it actually logs a lot of unnecessary information that can easily be used to track a users’ online activity.
We’re extremely disappointed to see how vague SkyVPN’s privacy policy is. In the list of data it collects, we found it also saves “other technical data” and “certain information”, which could include anything.
SkyVPN is also quite open about how: “Ads appearing on SkyVPN Software or any of our websites may be delivered to users by advertising partners, who may set cookies.”
SkyVPN also states that it will hand over your data to whichever court asks for it.
Worrying Ties to Chinese Companies
SkyVPN, Inc. is based in Hong Kong. Its corporate address is registered at Rm 2103 Futura Plaza 111 How Ming St, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong.
Our free VPN ownership research revealed that SkyVPN Inc. is owned by Tengzhan Hongkong Limited (騰展香港有限公司), which refers to itself as SkyVPN Inc, Secure Sentry Communications, and Dingtone, depending on where you look.
The Tengzhan Group acquired Dingtone in 2015, according to this Chinese language disclosure document. There is no other reference in English language media.
Tengzhen Hong Kong Ltd incorporated in December of that year, with You Xiumie (游秀妹) as director and sole shareholder.
None of this information is easily available to find. There is nothing on SkyVPN’s website that alludes to its ownership or corporate history anywhere.
You can’t trust SkyVPN. By law, the Chinese government could potentially demand logs and information on any of its users whenever it pleased, and SkyVPN would have to cooperate.
Streaming
Ranked #46 out of 61 VPNs for Streaming
SkyVPN is one of the worst free VPNs for streaming. In our recent streaming tests, it failed to access US Netflix, BBC iPlayer, HBO Max, or Disney+. It does work to unblock All 4, Amazon Prime Video, and YouTube, but its speeds and data limit are far too restrictive to watch movies or TV shows comfortably. Put simply, there are far better free streaming VPNs available.
| Streaming Service | Works with SkyVPN |
|---|---|
| BBC iPlayer (UK) | No |
| DAZN (Canada) | No |
| Disney+ (UK) | No |
| Hulu (US) | No |
| ITVX (UK) | No |
| Max (US) | No |
| Netflix (US) | No |
| Netflix (UK) | No |
| Prime Video (US) | Yes |
| Sky Go (UK) | No |
SkyVPN Free fails to unblock any of Netflix’s global libraries. This means you can’t access the US, UK, or Japanese Netflix collections from overseas.
You might be able to access Netflix’s own content library of originals, but the VPN will disconnect after a couple hours due to its 600MB daily data allowance.
In our streaming tests, SkyVPN failed to unblock US Netflix or any other Netflix library.
We also tested SkyVPN’s single UK server to see if it could bypass geo-restrictions on BBC iPlayer. We found it doesn’t unblock the streaming service at all.
If you want to use a VPN for Netflix or BBC iPlayer, you shouldn’t waste your time with SkyVPN. That’s especially the case with SkyVPN’s one-server mobile app. It has no UK server and the single US one doesn’t unblock Netflix.
Great alternatives to SkyVPN for streaming include PrivadoVPN Free, which can access US Netflix, and Windscribe Free, which can unblock 5 global Netflix libraries.
SkyVPN’s Streaming Performance Compared to Other Free VPNs
Speed
Ranked #57 out of 61 VPNs for Speed
SkyVPN is one of the slowest VPNs we've ever tested. Whether you're connecting to a nearby or international server, you can expect to see your internet speed drop by around 90%.
Here’s a table showing SkyVPN’s speed test results on a 100Mbps baseline internet connection:
As the data above shows, SkyVPN couldn’t even reach 15Mbps on a local or international connection in our tests.
These speeds are absolutely awful and don’t even come close to matching reputable free VPNs like Windscribe Free. A 90% drop in download speeds is simply unforgivable.
The fact that the VPN performs similarly on lots of different servers suggests that SkyVPN might be throttling its download speeds, too.
Overall, we simply don’t recommend SkyVPN to anyone who’s going to browse the internet, stream video, or try online gaming. Its speeds are not fit for purpose.
SkyVPN’s download speeds are consistently below 15Mbps on our 100Mbps baseline internet connection.
The only upside to SkyVPN’s speeds are the decent local ping times (5ms), but even then the service is too slow for online games (or even downloading them).
To put its awful speeds into context, you can see how SkyVPN’s performance compares to other VPNs in the chart below:
Security
Ranked #55 out of 61 VPNs for Security
SkyVPN is unsafe to use and lacks almost all the security features necessary in a VPN service. In our packet inspection tests, we found that it wasn’t even encrypting traffic, which means anyone intercepting your connection can see the websites you visit or the files you download. It does have a functioning kill switch on Windows, but doesn’t offer it on Android and iPhone.
| Independent Audit | No |
|---|---|
| VPN Kill Switch | Yes |
| Leak Protection | Yes |
Similar to other low-tier free VPNs such as SuperVPN, SkyVPN reveals hardly any details about security on its website or app. We are extremely concerned about the lack of information about the app’s security.
SkyVPN’s website claims that the VPN uses AES-256 encryption. However, when we used Wireshark to test whether SkyVPN encrypted our traffic, we found that our traffic while connected to SkyVPN was left unencrypted.
SkyVPN failed to encrypt our browsing activity.
As you can see in the screenshot of our test above, Wireshark was able to detect that we visited our test website, even when SkyVPN was active.
Essentially, SkyVPN fails to perform the basic function of a VPN service. Anyone intercepting your connection — including your ISP — will be able to see the web pages you visit and any other information you transmit online.
There’s also no public information regarding SkyVPN’s chosen VPN protocol, so we have no idea whether it’s OpenVPN, IKEv2, or possibly something far less secure, such as PPTP.
Combined, this lack of transparency and the total absence of functional encryption makes SkyVPN one of the most unsafe VPNs we’ve ever tested. For these reasons, we strongly suggest staying away from this appalling VPN service.
Kill Switch Stops IP Address Leaks on Windows
In our tests, SkyVPN successfully prevented our IP address from leaking when our connection dropped and when we switched between server locations.
Our kill switch test tool didn’t detect any issues with SkyVPN’s kill switch on Windows.
We’re glad to see SkyVPN’s kill switch works on Windows, but it isn’t available on any other platform. In comparison, Proton VPN Free offers a functioning kill switch on desktop and mobile, so your IP address will be protected on all of your devices.
No IPv4, IPv6, or WebRTC Leaks
In our VPN leaks test, we found no major red flags. We are slightly concerned that SkyVPN uses Google DNS servers, but this isn’t unusual for lower-tier or medium-tier VPNs.
The majority of VPNs that own first-party DNS servers are top-tier VPN services like ExpressVPN.
SkyVPN didn’t completely pass our VPN leaks test.
SkyVPN didn’t leak our IP address, geolocation, or WebRTC details, but we still don’t recommend using the VPN. While it might work to hide your IP address temporarily, it doesn’t encrypt your data, and it logs a lot of other personally identifying information.
Server Locations
Ranked #44 out of 61 VPNs for Server Locations
SkyVPN's server list depends on what device you're using. On the desktop app, you can connect to 13 server locations. This is impressive for a free VPN. On the mobile app, you can only connect to a US server, which is disappointing.
| Continent | SkyVPN Countries with Servers |
|---|---|
| Europe | 6 |
| Asia | 3 |
| North America | 2 |
| South America | 1 |
| Oceania | 1 |
| Africa | 0 |
SkyVPN has one US server to connect to when using the ‘Basic’ version on Mobile, including both iOS and Android.
Its desktop app, however, is much better, with a surprisingly reasonable spread of 13 server locations, two of which are in the US.
For a free VPN, this is a surprisingly diverse server list, with choices in South America, Asia, North America, and Europe. We’re disappointed to see SkyVPN removed its single server in the Middle East though, which was in Turkey.
SkyVPN’s premium servers on Android are available for free if you agree to watch ads.
Without city-level server choices, you’re stuck with just one server to cover large land masses like Canada, Australia, and the US, though. The app doesn’t tell you exactly where the servers are based, either.
We checked and SkyVPN’s Canada server is in Toronto, its US server is in New Jersey, and its Australia server is in Brisbane. If you’re not near these places and want to use a SkyVPN local connection, your speeds are going to be even worse than the ones we recorded.
User Experience
Ranked #60 out of 61 VPNs for User Experience
SkyVPN left us frustrated and annoyed during our tests. We experienced severe software issues with the desktop versions of SkyVPN. On Windows devices, we struggled to refresh the 600MB daily data, and other times we only received 500MB of data. On macOS, SkyVPN wasn’t compatible with our devices at all. The mobile versions were slightly easier to use, but were riddled with pop-up ads.
SkyVPN’s mobile apps are simple, with a standard ‘Connect’ button in the middle of the screen and the server list just above. This is fairly standard, but it’s so basic that it’s essentially stripped of anything useful.
In our tests, we couldn’t download SkyVPN onto our MacBook Pro or iMac from the App Store. It didn’t work using the official website’s macOS app download link, either.
Windows & macOS
While using SkyVPN on Windows, we experienced lots of mysterious bugs and software issues. Firstly, the app doesn’t always give you 600MB of data per day (as specified in the Terms of Service). Instead, we often only got 500MB of data.
Windscribe Free gives you 10GB per month, while Proton VPN Free is completely unlimited.
Other times, the data limit never actually went down while we were connected to SkyVPN and testing the service. This meant it was difficult for us to judge how long we could use the VPN service for.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to test out SkyVPN on macOS. The latest version of SkyVPN requires a Mac with Apple Silicon, which we currently don’t have in our testing suite.
It’s extremely unusual for a free VPN to require the best and latest devices in order to run.
None of the top-tier VPNs we used reduce their macOS user base with an Apple Silicon chip requirement.
Android & iOS
SkyVPN’s mobile apps are simple, but we encountered a lot of pop-up ads and notifications. We found that SkyVPN offers more “premium traffic” to users that agree to watch video ads, which makes for an annoying user experience.
SkyVPN’s premium traffic is supposedly faster and increases the daily data cap, but in reality it’s just as slow as the basic traffic.
We’re disappointed to find that SkyVPN doesn’t offer any technical features on mobile. There’s no kill switch, data leak prevention, or split tunneling available on either iOS or Android.
On SkyVPN’s mobile apps, like on Windows, you’re not able to switch between protocols or encryption.
Torrenting
Ranked #51 out of 61 VPNs for Torrenting
Though SkyVPN does allow torrenting, we strongly recommend you avoid it. Its 600MB daily data allowance restricts the size of files you can torrent before the VPN disconnects. The VPN also logs a lot of data, which makes it easy to identify you from your P2P activity. Lastly, its download speeds are extremely slow, barely reaching 0.8MiB/s.
| Torrenting Attribute | SkyVPN |
|---|---|
| Permits P2P Traffic | Yes |
| Average Download Bitrate | 0.8MiB/s (92% loss) |
| Countries with P2P Servers | 12 |
| Port Forwarding | No |
| Kill Switch | Yes |
| Logging Policy | Excessive Logs |
P2P file-sharing is permitted on some of SkyVPN’s servers. However, it explicitly states in its Terms of Service that P2P activity is not permitted on some servers, including Canada, France, the UK, and the US.
We tried torrenting on a UK SkyVPN server and our traffic was completely blocked. SkyVPN’s 600MB daily data cap means the VPN will likely disconnect before you finish downloading a file anyway, risking exposure of your true IP address.
In our torrenting tests, our download was completely stalled while connected to a UK SkyVPN server.
We strongly suggest avoiding SkyVPN for torrenting because it also logs your original IP address and server IP address, which could reveal your torrenting activity.
Overall, SkyVPN is virtually unusable for torrenting purposes. Its restrictive daily data cap, slow speeds, and intrusive logging policy make it a bad choice and one of the worst VPNs for torrenting.
Device Compatibility
SkyVPN is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. All versions of the app lack any customizable options or advanced features. If you want to use SkyVPN on macOS, you have to use a device with the new M1 chip, which rules out a significant number of devices. Even worse, SkyVPN isn’t compatible with any games consoles or streaming devices.
| Windows | Yes |
|---|---|
| Mac | Yes |
| iOS | Yes |
| Android | Yes |
| Linux | No |
| Amazon Fire TV | No |
| Android TV | No |
| Apple TV | No |
| Router | No |
| Chrome | No |
Simultaneous Connections: 1
To download SkyVPN on Windows, we used a link on the VPN’s website. However, when we tried to download SkyVPN on our test MacBook and iMac, the software was incompatible with our devices because none of them have the latest M1 chip.
SkyVPN can’t be used on any games consoles, like PlayStation or Xbox, or on streaming devices like Android TV or Amazon Fire TV. The VPN service doesn’t even offer browser extensions for Chrome or Firefox.
On the free plan it’s only possible to use the VPN on one device at a time, so if you’re looking to protect multiple devices simultaneously then you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Additional Features
SkyVPN offers hardly any additional features, missing obfuscation technology, multi-hop servers, and ad blocker. This falls well below the standard features we expect from a modern VPN service.
| Additional Feature | SkyVPN |
|---|---|
| Split Tunneling | Yes |
| VPN Obfuscation | No |
| Multi-Hop Servers | No |
| Dedicated IP | No |
| Ad Blocker | No |
IP Leak Protection & Split Tunneling Available
SkyVPN does offer some other basic features on Windows, like IP leak protection and split tunneling (called Smart VPN). However, the majority of the time its 600MB data cap makes the app so unusable that these features aren’t worth it.
It’s worth noting that these are the bare minimum when it comes to advanced features in VPN services. There are simply much better free VPNs available with fully-featured apps.
Security Features We’d Like to See
SkyVPN is an unsafe VPN and needs to add a lot more features to its security suite. Here’s some absent features we’d like to see added to its apps:
- Functional kill switch on iOS and Android to prevent accidental data leaks.
- OpenVPN or WireGuard protocols.
- Data leak protection on iOS and Android.
- Functional AES-256 encryption on all apps.
- Open-source software code to improve transparency and allow users to analyze SkyVPN’s security.