Our Verdict
VPN 360 is a free, mobile-only VPN for iOS and Android. We don’t recommend using it though: its security and privacy is weak, its speeds are slow, and it doesn’t work with Netflix. The VPN is also infested with advertisements. There are much safer and more trustworthy VPNs available.
0.4/10 1.3/10 0.1/10 7.0/10 1.8/10 0.0/10 5.0/10 2.4/10 0.0/10
- Custom apps are very simple to use
- Useful data privacy & advertiser settings on iOS
- Invasive logging policy
- Slow speeds
- iOS kill switch is faulty
- Doesn’t work with US Netflix
- Intrusive pop-up ads
- Blocks all torrenting traffic
VPN 360 is a popular freemium VPN that has been downloaded over 5 million times on the Google Play Store alone. It’s a popular VPN on the App Store, too.
While VPN 360 has both a free and premium version, this review focuses on the free VPN application.
We’ve put the service through our rigorous VPN testing process to measure its speeds, assess its privacy and security, see if it unblocks Netflix, quiz its support team, and more.
The results of our tests show that VPN 360 is not safe to use. In fact, though it has improved a lot since its acquisition by Aura, VPN 360 is still one of the worst VPNs we’ve ever tested.
Free VPN Details
| Safe to Use | No |
|---|---|
| Data Cap | Unlimited |
| Payment Details Required | No |
| Manually Select Server Location | Yes |
| Account Required | No |
| Contains Ads | Yes |
VPN 360 Key Data
| Attribute | VPN 360 | Typical Free VPN |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Aura | Independent |
| Launch Date | 2017 | 2015 |
| Safe to Use | No | No |
| Data Cap | Unlimited | 10GB per month |
| Payment Details Required | No | No |
| Account Required | No | Yes |
| Contains Ads | Yes | Yes |
| Local Download Speed | 4Mbps (96% loss) | 61Mbps (39% loss) |
| International Download Speed | 4Mbps (96% loss) | 55Mbps (45% loss) |
| Countries with Servers | 3 | 4 |
| Privacy Policy | Excessive Logs | Identifiable Data |
| Simultaneous Connections | 6 | 1 |
| Manually Select Server Location | Yes | Yes |
| Netflix Libraries | 0 | 0 |
| Torrenting | No | No |
| Works In China? | No | No |
| Customer Support | Online Resources | |
| Apps & Extensions |           | |
Privacy
We calculated this rating by examining the VPN's logging policy, jurisdiction, ownership, and privacy features. We also evaluated its history of handling user data and responding to legal requests.
Ranked #52 out of 61 VPNs for Privacy
VPN 360 logs too much personally identifiable information, including your personal IP address, connection timestamps, and the server location you connect to. It has a privacy-unfriendly US jurisdiction combined with an intrusive logging policy, which means you should avoid it.
| Originating IP Address | Yes |
|---|---|
| Browsing Activity | Yes |
| Individual Connection Timestamps | Yes |
| Date of Last Connection | Yes |
| VPN Server IP | No |
| Device Information | Yes |
| Individual Bandwidth Usage | Yes |
| Account Information | Yes |
| Jurisdiction | US (Five Eyes Member) |
|---|---|
| Privacy Policy | Excessive Logs |
| Transparency Reports | No |
| Diskless Servers | No |
| Anonymous Payment Options | No |
You can read VPN 360's full privacy policy on its website.
As you can see in the table above, VPN 360 logs a lot of personally identifiable information, including your originating IP address, domain names, VPN server location, and even timestamps.
Previously, VPN 360 did not have its own privacy policy. We had to read Aura’s privacy policy and the privacy policy in the Android and iOS apps.
Now in 2024, VPN 360 has published its own privacy policy on its website, and we can see that it does protect the privacy of its users somewhat. For example, all domain names that users visit are aggregated on a monthly basis. But a truly private VPN wouldn’t be storing domain names at all.
However, we’re extremely disappointed to see that VPN 360 Free allows its advertisers to access user IP addresses and device information. VPN 360 also uses customer IP addresses to identify internet service providers, which it deems as unidentifiable information.
To make the situation even worse, VPN 360’s privacy policy is not as clear or detailed as we’d like it to be. Compared to actual no-logs VPNs like Private Internet Access and PrivateVPN, VPN 360’s privacy policy seems cobbled together with perplexing contradictions and vague answers.
It’s also confusing that the privacy policy claims to be applicable to Hotspot Shield, Betternet, and Ultra VPN as well, despite all these other VPNs having their own separate privacy policies.
Here is how VPN 360’s logging policy compares to other top-tier cheap and free VPNs:
Streaming
We calculated this rating by identifying which streaming services the VPN could unblock and measuring how consistently it could access them.
Ranked #33 out of 61 VPNs for Streaming
In our streaming tests, VPN 360 Free unblocked just one streaming services: HBO Max. Even with that, its download speeds are so bad that we experienced severe buffering issues and poor video quality. It also wasn’t able to access international Netflix libraries, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, or BBC iPlayer. In fact, it couldn’t unblock a single UK streaming service.
| Streaming Service | Works with VPN 360 |
|---|---|
| BBC iPlayer (UK) | No |
| DAZN (Canada) | No |
| Disney+ (UK) | No |
| Hulu (US) | No |
| ITVX (UK) | No |
| Max (US) | Yes |
| Netflix (US) | No |
| Netflix (UK) | No |
| Prime Video (US) | No |
| Sky Go (UK) | No |
VPN 360 fails to unblock the US, UK, and Singapore Netflix libraries — the only three regions where it has servers. When testing the app on both Android and iOS, we found that we were able to login to the app, but could only stream Netflix originals.
VPN 360 didn’t work to unblock US Netflix, instead we were only able to stream Netflix original content.
A majority of free VPNs fail to unblock the US Netflix library, so it’s not out of the ordinary.
However, there are a couple of free VPNs that can stream international Netflix libraries. For example, PrivadoVPN Free can unblock US Netflix and Windscribe Free streams UK Netflix easily.
Doesn’t Unblock Amazon Prime, Hulu, or British Streaming Services
In our tests, VPN 360 was unable to stream a majority of popular streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and more.
We’re disappointed to see that it failed to unblock any UK streaming services. We couldn’t access BBC iPlayer, ITVX, or All 4 during our testing.
VPN 360 was detected and blocked by most streaming services.
VPN 360 is a bad VPN for streaming. There are plenty of other providers that can unblock these services and without causing buffering and decreasing the picture quality so significantly.
Streams Disney+, HBO Max & YouTube
VPN 360 is a pretty unreliable service for unblocking streaming platforms, but in our recent tests we were just about able to stream movies on Disney+, TV shows on HBO Max, and content on YouTube.
VPN 360’s download speeds are so slow that the video quality barely made it above 480p, making for a disappointing viewing experience. There also wasn’t the option to watch the content on a laptop or TV, as VPN 360 is only available on mobile.
We found VPN 360’s Los Angeles US server to be the most reliable when unblocking Disney+ and HBO Max. The apps didn’t block us on Android or iOS when connecting using VPN 360’s LA server.
However, we aren’t confident that the free VPN will be able to unblock these services for very long.
VPN 360’s Streaming Performance Compared to Other Free VPNs
None of the free VPNs we’ve tested are as good as their premium counterparts when it comes to streaming. But there are some free VPNs that perform better than others:
Speed
We calculated this rating using our proprietary tests of download, upload, and ping speeds across servers in 10 countries.
Ranked #59 out of 61 VPNs for Speed
VPN 360 is very slow. We tested it on all of its available servers and experienced consistent speed loss of up to 96%. This will make almost every internet activity much harder.
We tested VPN 360 on all of its available servers to test its impact on our internet speeds. Here are the full results:
As you can see, VPN 360 dramatically slowed down our internet by 96% to just 4Mbps on local New York connections. This is truly terrible, even for a free VPN.
Connecting farther away to the UK, we measured similar speed losses of 95% to 5Mbps, which suggests VPN 360 implements a speed cap.
These download speeds are absolutely dreadful, and are much slower than most other free VPNs we’ve tested. This makes VPN 360 virtually unusable for streaming or online gaming, and extremely frustrating to use during our speed tests.
Here’s a table comparing VPN 360’s terrible speed performance to the best free and cheap VPNs available:
Security
We calculated this rating by testing the VPN's security protocols, encryption, leak protection, and kill switch reliability. We also assessed the provider's track record and any past security incidents.
Ranked #36 out of 61 VPNs for Security
VPN 360 is not the safest free VPN on the market. We found issues with its kill switch and it doesn’t disclose what kind of encryption it uses, so we can’t tell if it uses safe AES-256.
| Independent Audit | No |
|---|---|
| VPN Kill Switch | Yes |
| Leak Protection | No |
| OpenVPN (TCP/UDP) | No |
|---|---|
| Hydra | Yes |
| WireGuard | Yes |
| Undisclosed | No |
| ChaCha20 | Yes |
| AES-256 | Yes |
Hydra & WireGuard Protocols
VPN 360 offers three protocol options on mobile. There’s WireGuard and IKEv2, which are commonly used by VPNs. Lastly, there’s Hydra, Hotspot Shield’s proprietary protocol, known for facilitating the fastest VPN speeds we’ve tested.
Despite Hotspot Shield’s excellent performance using the Hydra protocol, it actually doesn’t perform that well with VPN 360. Using VPN 360’s Hydra protocol, we recorded extremely slow download speeds of 4Mbps on a 100Mbps connection.
VPN 360 has three protocols on mobile: Hydra, IKEv2, and WireGuard.
Typically, we recommend using WireGuard because it’s the safest and one of the fastest VPN protocols available. But if you prioritize fast speeds you might wish to use Hydra instead.
Unfortunately, Hydra is a closed-source proprietary technology, so we aren’t able to examine the code for security issues. Hotspot Shield claims the code was assessed by cybersecurity firms, but we aren’t able to verify this.
Kill Switch Leaks on iOS
In our tests, VPN 360 prevented IP address leaks on Android, but it leaked our IP address on iOS, leaving it exposed when we switched between servers.
To make the situation worse, we found a software bug with the latest version of VPN 360 on iOS. Once connected with the kill switch enabled, we weren’t able to disable the kill switch.
This meant each time we disconnected from VPN 360, it automatically connected again, even if the kill switch was disabled in the app. We had to restart our test iPhone to completely halt the connection.
Our kill switch tool flagged VPN 360’s iOS app as faulty.
We’re hugely disappointed with this outcome since VPN 360’s iOS app is technically more private than its Android counterpart. You’re able to manually disable any data collection from advertisers on the iOS, but our tests now prove the iOS kill switch to be faulty.
No IPv4, IPv6, or WebRTC Leaks
We’re pleased that we didn’t experience any IPv4, DNS, WebRTC, or geolocation leaks while connected to a VPN 360 server in Singapore.
We tested both Android and iOS to ensure that VPN 360 wasn’t leaking any of these data points. Thankfully, both times the VPN was able to protect our details and real location.
VPN 360 passed our other leak tests.
Customize Privacy Settings on iOS
While a majority of free VPNs show users ads to make a profit, only a few VPNs allow users to pick and choose which advertisers are allowed to access your data.
VPN 360 is one of the few free VPN services that actually has useful privacy settings. It allows you to decline consent for data sharing with the app, and for advertisers to see your personal data. But those settings are only available on iOS.
We recommend opting out of all data sharing and declining all advertiser requests for data.
Security Features We’d Like to See
VPN 360 has the basic security essentials for a VPN, but still requires some serious improvements to rival the best free VPNs on the market. Here’s a list of specific features we’d like VPN 360 to add to its suite of security features:
- Functional kill switch on iOS and Android to prevent accidental data leaks.
- OpenVPN protocol as an alternative to WireGuard.
- Data leak protection on iOS and Android.
- Safe AES-256 encryption on iOS and Android.
- Open-source software code to improve transparency and allow users to analyze VPN 360’s security.
Server Locations
We calculated this rating by assessing the number of countries and cities available, their geographic spread, and availability in popular regions.
Ranked #54 out of 61 VPNs for Server Locations
VPN 360 Free has four server locations in three countries: the US, the UK, and Singapore. This server network is focused in English-speaking countries, disappointingly excluding many countries in Africa and Oceania. VPN 360 doesn’t let you choose specific servers, and it does not disclose the actual number of IP addresses it offers. However, we suspect VPN 360’s painfully slow speeds are due to server congestion.
| Continent | Countries with Servers |
|---|---|
| Europe | 1 |
| Asia | 1 |
| North America | 1 |
| South America | 0 |
| Africa | 0 |
| Oceania | 0 |
For a free VPN, VPN 360’s server selection isn’t too bad: there’s one on the West Coast of the US, one on the East Coast, one in the UK, and one in Singapore. This gives you access to more IP addresses than free VPNs like VPNhub, which only offers one server location.
However, competitors like Windscribe Free offer servers in 10 countries, and PrivadoVPN Free in 11 countries. If you simply want a free VPN with lots of server options, there are plenty of better alternatives to VPN 360.
VPN 360 offers the same amount of free servers on Android and iOS.
We are pleasantly surprised to see VPN 360 offers two city-level servers in the US, which cover the East and West coasts. There’s one server in Los Angeles and one in New York. Annoyingly, this leaves users across the whole of middle America without a nearby server.
In short, VPN 360 offers just four server locations, which is a very small selection. Annoyingly, if lots of people connect to the same VPN server, it can get overwhelmed with the number of simultaneous connections, slowing down everyone’s speeds.
User Experience
We calculated this rating by assessing the VPN’s ease of use, interface design, and setup process across multiple platforms.
Ranked #52 out of 61 VPNs for User Experience
VPN360's apps are very limited. They are easy to use, and look almost completely the same on Android and iOS, but they lack customization options. The apps also include some very irritating pop-up adverts. Importantly, the iOS app is much nicer to use than the Android app because you can disable ads in Privacy Settings.
The VPN 360 apps are almost identical across Android and iOS devices. There’s a big connect button, a settings menu, and a server list all on the homepage. Both apps also offer the same server locations.
To access the server list, simply tap on the drop-down menu next to the current server location.
The biggest difference between the two apps is the option to change privacy settings on iOS, which lets you disable and reject permissions for in-app advertisements. This greatly reduces the number of adverts you’ll encounter while connecting and disconnecting to servers.
We’re pleased to see this option available to iOS users, but we’d like to see it implemented in the Android app too.
Here are a few screenshots showing VPN 360’s mobile homepages, and an example advertisement we encountered during testing:
VPN 360 on Android (left) and iOS (left) both have minimalist apps, though they both feature a small ad at the bottom for a premium free trial.
While testing out VPN 360, we found it easy to access the settings via the hamburger menu. From there, we were able to switch protocols from Hydra to WireGuard, enable the kill switch, and enable the Always-on feature.
Torrenting
We calculated this rating by assessing the VPN's torrenting features, including P2P servers and port forwarding support. We also evaluated its average bitrate and stance on file-sharing.
Ranked #53 out of 61 VPNs for Torrenting
VPN 360 blocks all P2P traffic on its free servers, so you can’t use it for torrenting. Even if you could, the VPN service isn’t private enough to use, doesn’t offer desktop apps, and would be too slow for regular file sharing anyway.
| Torrenting Attribute | VPN 360 |
|---|---|
| Permits P2P Traffic | No |
| Average Download Bitrate | N/A |
| Countries with P2P Servers | 0 |
| Port Forwarding | No |
| Kill Switch | Yes |
| Logging Policy | Excessive Logs |
VPN 360 doesn’t explicitly ban torrenting in its terms of service, privacy policy, or in its knowledge base, but we weren’t able to torrent with it in our P2P tests. Even worse, we encountered annoying pop-up ads while connecting to VPN 360 in order to torrent.
In our torrenting tests on Android, VPN 360 refused to permit downloads using BitTorrent.
Even if it was able to torrent, judging from its download speeds, it would be frustratingly slow to use. The service’s privacy-unfriendly logging policy is also extremely concerning, and another reason to not use VPN 360 for P2P activities.
Instead of using VPN 360, consider using one of these free VPNs for torrenting, instead.
Windscribe Free is a great alternative to VPN 360 for torrenting. It comes with IP leak protection, an unlimited device policy, and the fastest torrenting speeds on a free VPN. It’s overall a much better free VPN and doesn’t make you sacrifice your privacy or user experience.
Device Compatibility
We calculated this rating by evaluating the VPN's support for various devices. We considered dedicated apps, browser extensions, Smart DNS functionality, and router compatibility.
VPN 360 is a mobile-only VPN, which means it’s only available on Android and iOS devices. Both versions of the app have the same technical features, but with slight differences. VPN 360 limits usage to six devices at a time, though we doubt many users will want to use the service on six phones at one time. VPN 360’s complete lack of desktop apps holds it back from being a VPN we can recommend to the majority of users.
| Windows | No |
|---|---|
| Mac | No |
| iOS | Yes |
| Android | Yes |
| Linux | No |
| Amazon Fire TV | No |
| Android TV | No |
| Apple TV | No |
| Router | No |
| Chrome | No |
| Smart DNS | No |
|---|
Simultaneous Connections: 6
To download VPN 360, open the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and install the app onto your device. On both stores, the developer is Pango GmbH.
Once downloaded, you’ll have to enter your email address and click a sign-in link sent to your inbox. After that, you’ll be able to use the VPN for free and connect to servers in four locations.
Here’s a table showing key differences between features on the iOS and Android VPN 360 apps:
We’re very disappointed that VPN 360 doesn’t offer any desktop apps for Windows or macOS, or any browser extensions. It’s lagging behind a lot of its competitors in device compatibility.
It also can’t be used on any games consoles, like PlayStation or Xbox, or on streaming devices like Amazon Fire TV or Android TV.
Despite the VPN being available on so few devices, it still imposes a six device limitation per account. We feel the limitation is pretty redundant, considering so few people own and use more than one or two mobile phones at the same time.
Additional Features
We calculated this rating by evaluating the VPN's extra capabilities beyond the basic VPN service. This includes bypassing censorship, additional tools like malware blockers, and customization options like split tunneling.
VPN 360 provides virtually no extra functionality beyond the base VPN. Though it's recently added split tunneling, it still doesn’t work in China or other censored regions, it doesn’t have multi-hop servers, nor does it block ads.
| Additional Feature | VPN 360 |
|---|---|
| Split Tunneling | Yes |
| VPN Obfuscation | No |
| Multi-Hop Servers | No |
| Dedicated IP | No |
| Ad Blocker | No |
Split Tunneling Is Available on Both Apps
One of the few extra features VPN 360 offers is split tunneling, which allows certain traffic to pass through the VPN while other data is routed via the local network.
In our testing, the split tunneling function performed well, allowing us to maintain access to local services like a banking app while connected to a VPN server in Singapore.
Unlike some competitors, VPN 360 offers the flexibility to either include or exclude specific apps from the VPN tunnel, which adds a welcome level of control.