Windscribe Review

As you can see, Windscribe does log some data, which it claims are needed for maintenance purposes. This isn’t ideal as other true no-log VPN services, like Private Internet Access, function without retaining anything. We wish Windscribe would do the same.

The important thing is that none of the information can be used to personally identify you from your online activity. This has been verified many times by real-world events.

Windscribe maintains a page documenting the 100+ law enforcement data requests it’s received since 2018. In every case, Windscribe hasn’t shared any user data as it doesn’t have access to it. We’d still like to see a third-party audit as well, though, as an extra safeguard.

For additional privacy, Windscribe allows you to sign up using cryptocurrency if you don’t want to provide a name or address. In addition, its diskless server network means data can’t be extracted from a server.

You can see how Windscribe’s logging policy compares to other VPNs in the table below:

Unblocks 32 Netflix Regions

Windscribe Pro works with more Netflix libraries than any other VPN. In our most recent tests, Windscribe Pro unblocked 32 international Netflix libraries, including Netflix US, Netflix UK, and Netflix Japan.

This is by far the best result we’ve seen. Using it, we could access three times more Netflix regions than other top VPNs, like ExpressVPN and Proton VPN.

That said, our videos sometimes took over 10 seconds to load and wouldn’t stream in HD. We experienced this because Windscribe has fewer VPN servers in many international locations, including just one in India. Windscribe should fix this by adding more server options in more locations.

We unblocked 32 Netflix libraries using Windscribe.

Free Version Doesn’t Stream US Netflix

Until recently, Windscribe Free was our top-rated free VPN for Netflix. However, since May 2022, the free VPN no longer works with American Netflix.

It’s still a good choice for other regions, though. In our latest tests, it unblocked 5 Netflix regions, including the UK, France, and Germany. It’s free Canada VPN servers also accessed the Canadian library.

Windscribe Free works with UK Netflix.

Both Versions Work with All US Streaming Platforms

Windscribe is one of the best VPNs for accessing US streaming services from abroad. The Pro and Free versions of Windscribe always work with popular sites, like Hulu and HBO Max, whenever we test them.

Unlike with international Netflix libraries, we didn’t experience any buffering as the VPN offers 45 server locations in the US.

Windscribe bypasses HBO Max’s geo-blocks.

Windscribe’s UK Servers Stream BBC iPlayer

When connected to any of its five UK server locations, we could stream geo-blocked content from BBC iPlayer. We experienced the best quality when connected to the London – Custard server, though, due to its 10Gbps bandwidth.

Windscribe Free is the only free VPN that always works with BBC iPlayer. The other free VPNs we test, like PrivadoVPN and Hotspot Shield, are either unreliable or don’t work at all.

The free version of Windscribe can stream BBC iPlayer.

We also found that Windscribe’s free and paid UK servers work with other UK streaming services. We could access Sky Go, ITVX, and All 4 without any issues. It’s also the best free VPN for getting a French IP address.

To determine Windscribe’s speed performance, we tested the speed of the connection between our location and Windscribe VPN servers around the world.

Here’s a table showing Windscribe Pro’s speed test results:

We saw download speeds decrease from 100Mbps to 96Mbps connecting to a same-city server. This is a drop of only 4%, which is very fast and among the best results of any VPN we’ve tested. Speeds were very consistent from one test to the next. We didn’t experience any connection drops while connected to Windscribe servers, either.

But, as you can see, Windscribe’s international speeds are slower than its short-distance ones. Despite being ranked as the joint third-fastest VPN for local connections, it falls to the sixteenth position when it comes to international speeds.

We recorded a download speed loss of 20% connecting to South Africa and 16% connecting to Australia.

To put this in context, you can compare Windscribe’s international speeds to other top VPNs in the chart below.

That said, these speeds have improved a lot recently thanks to Windscribe’s addition of the WireGuard protocol. Previously, using OpenVPN, we recorded a 4x slower download speed on the Australia and Japan servers. We hope Windscribe can continue to optimize its app to deliver faster speeds.

Low Ping for Gaming

While connected to a nearby Windscribe server, we recorded an impressive ping time of 6ms. Using it, we played fast-paced competitive games, like Overwatch 2, without any lag. This puts it among the best gaming VPNs, which all register local ping times of 10ms or less.

Windscribe’s ping is low enough for lag-free gaming.

The VPN performed poorly on long-distance servers, though, at 152ms in the US and 450ms in Japan. It’s not a good choice for accessing easier gaming lobbies from abroad.

Windscribe Free Speed Test Results

Here are the results we recorded using Windscribe’s free version:

Though impressive for a free VPN, it falls short when compared to the top-performing free VPNs such as Hotspot Shield and Proton VPN. Both VPNs are over 8% faster on local connections. More notably, Hotspot Shield exceeds Windscribe’s international connection speeds by an average of 12%.

Unencrypted Ukrainian Servers

Although we still rate Windscribe as a highly-secure VPN, we’ve recently downgraded its Security & Features rating due to a security breach.

In June 2021, two of Windscribe’s servers were seized by the Ukrainian government. These servers were unencrypted as Windscribe incorrectly didn’t consider Ukraine a “high sensitivity region.”

However, despite the claims of many other VPN review websites, there is no evidence that Windscribe user traffic was monitored.

For traffic monitoring to be possible, a user had to be connected to Ukraine through a manual configuration file while using OpenVPN and a legacy DNS resolver. It is very unlikely that all of these conditions were met.

We’d like to see Windscribe commission third-party security audits to prevent this from happening again. In our TunnelBear review, you can read how it used audits to identify vulnerabilities and fix them before they could be used to jeopardize the privacy and security of its customers.

Uses Secure Tunneling Protocols & Encryption

Both the free and paid versions of Windscribe use industry-standard VPN protocols and encryption methods.

Thankfully, the app now automatically uses WireGuard, which is a trustworthy open-sourced protocol. Previously, the app defaulted to IKEv2, a closed-source protocol that we only recommend using if security is not a priority.

The VPN software encrypts network traffic using AES-256. This encryption method is virtually unbreakable and can be trusted to protect sensitive web data.

Using Wireshark, a packet-sniffing tool, we verified that Windscribe securely encrypts web traffic. It obfuscated all incoming and outgoing network packets.

Windscribe securely encrypts network traffic.

Both the free and paid version of the software uses a secure SHA512 authentication key for the handshake. We’re pleased to see this as it’s more secure than SHA-256, which many other VPNs use.

Furthermore, the VPN operates Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), which ensures encryption keys aren’t reused between sessions. Even if someone got their hands on your private key, it becomes useless as soon as you disconnect.

In the case of the Ukrainian server seizures we mentioned above, PFS blocked anyone from accessing historic VPN user traffic.

Windscribe’s Unique Firewall Setting

Windscribe’s “Firewall” setting in the Windows and macOS software stood out during our testing process. This feature is very similar to a typical kill switch, but more effective.

The Firewall blocks all connections outside the VPN tunnel. With a normal kill switch, the VPN program has to detect a VPN connection drop, and during that time, small data packets can potentially leak.

We verified that Windscribe’s firewall feature worked as described using our kill switch testing tool. This tool scans for IP address leaks when the internet connection drops.

As you can see in the image below, Windscribe’s kill switch successfully blocked our internet traffic and stopped our real IP address from leaking.

Windscribe’s kill switch didn’t leak our IP address.

Wide Range of Extra Technical Features

Windscribe includes more additional technical features than most other VPN services.

Here’s a summary of the most important ones and how well they work with Windscribe:

The only technical features the VPN is missing are an antivirus tool and the ability to issue IPv6 addresses. However, these are minor and their absence hasn’t substantially affected the VPN’s rating in this category.

As you can see, most of Windscribe Pro’s servers are concentrated in Europe. Instead of offering joke locations, like ‘Troll Antarctica’, we’d like to see it add servers in popular locations elsewhere, like Egypt and the UAE.

With Windscribe Free, you can get an IP address from far more countries than other top free VPNs. It has servers in 10 countries, while Proton VPN and Hide.me only have 5 and 7 respectively.

Windscribe has two free UK servers.

Many of these locations, like the UK, are usually behind a paywall. We’re also glad that Windscribe offers free servers in Hong Kong, to give non-paying users a fast choice when connecting from China.

Disappointingly, even after contacting it, Windscribe refused to reveal the total number of individual VPN servers it maintains. It also wouldn’t say how many of its servers are rented, which could mean that Windscribe is entrusting your data to third parties.

The Windscribe website features an excellent page with real-time updates of server status and capacity. This is great when you’re trying to find a quick server or want to troubleshoot a slow connection, but it’d be good to see this added to the Windscribe app instead.

To get started with Windscribe, simply create an account on its website and click Download Windscribe. From start to finish, you can start using it in under 10 minutes.

All of Windscribe’s apps use the same design. Thankfully, it updated the UI in March 2022. Before then, we criticized the design for being too basic and for not showing enough information, like the selected protocol and port, on the home screen.

Here’s more detail of our experience using Windscribe’s various apps:

Desktop & Laptop (Windows & Mac)

Windscribe’s Windows and Mac apps look and feel identical. Switching between platforms was seamless, with all settings and buttons in the same place. Importantly, both apps are well-presented and easy to use.

One downside to Windscribe’s desktop interface is the relatively small buttons and in-app text. Some members of our research team found it difficult to read the explanatory text underneath some settings, especially on lower-resolution PC monitors.

The app window is very small in comparison to many other VPN services. It’s half the size of ExpressVPN and a quarter of the size of NordVPN. Although this is ultimately down to personal preference, we’d like to see the app size improved slightly to accommodate larger buttons and text.

Windscribe’s desktop apps include a country search bar, which makes it much easier to search and select the country you want to connect to. This is especially useful for a VPN with as many server options as Windscribe.

The desktop apps offer lots of space for customization. You can change the latency display between a performance bar or specific measurement.

You can toggle the app between a window and tray or menu bar, too, which we like (although we prefer the windowed mode). You can also customize notifications and the order in which countries are listed within the app.

All in all, Windscribe’s desktop applications strike a good balance between intuitiveness and customization. It has features to satisfy both advanced and beginner users.

Mobile (iPhone & Android)

Windscribe’s iOS and Android apps are as easy to use as the desktop clients. The app is laid out in the same way, with a large connect button in the top-right and the server list in the bottom half. This user-friendly interface makes Windscribe one of the best free VPNs for iPhone and Android devices.

The app includes a network whitelisting option, which allows you to select certain networks for Windscribe not to activate over — such as your home network or other trusted networks. We like this addition for mobile, where you don’t always notice your phone moving between cellular networks.

Unique to mobile, Windscribe has also included a dark/light mode toggle. Although we’re glad to see this included, we wish it would automatically match the setting on your device. As it stands, we had to manually change it twice a day whenever our device switched to dark or light mode.

The app will also vibrate your phone when scrolling through lists or when clicking buttons, which is more distracting than it is useful. It also had a slight negative impact on our device’s battery life. We turned this off straight away by toggling off the ‘Haptic Feedback’ setting in the app.

Linux GUI App

Windscribe is one of only a few VPN services to provide a GUI app for Linux. The app is much easier to use than many other VPN apps on Linux, such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

Impressively, you can configure the app to connect to non-Windscribe servers. For example, we were able to connect to a VPN server we set up ourselves within the Windscribe app.

The app is compatible with all popular Linux distros. We tested it on Ubuntu and didn’t experience any issues.

Fire TV & Android TV Apps

Windscribe’s Fire TV and Android TV apps look different to its other apps, but they’re just as simple to use. They are fully optimized for larger TV screens, making it easy to see the button that’s currently selected.

However, we would like to see the addition of a search bar. As it stands, you have to navigate through a long list of flags using your device’s remote control.

Thankfully, the app’s well-thought-out split tunneling feature means you can configure certain apps to bypass the VPN tunnel. By doing this, you don’t have to go into the app every time you switch between streaming services.

We don’t recommend picking Windscribe for this app specifically – see our list of the best VPNs for Fire TV Stick instead. But it’s a positive extra if you have already decided on using Windscribe.

Control D Smart DNS Feature

Windscribe has a Smart DNS service, called Control D. It costs $20.00 a year for existing Windscribe subscribers.

With Control D, you can access geo-blocked streaming services on devices that don’t allow VPN apps, like Smart TVs and games consoles. But it still works on every other device, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Control D is by far the easiest-to-use Smart DNS service we’ve tested. Unlike other services we tested, you can select a different proxy server for each streaming service, without having to reconnect. For example, you can configure it to use a US server for HBO Max and Hulu, but a UK one for BBC iPlayer and Sky Go.

Control D allows you to choose a different proxy server for each streaming service.

Control D also supports secure DNS options, like DNS-over-HTTPS. This means that you don’t have to ever give your IP address to Windscribe to use the feature.

All of the other Smart DNS tools we’ve tested, like ExpressVPN’s MediaStreamer, are annoying to use as you have to update your IP address on the website whenever it changes.
That said, we do wish that Control D was included with every paid Windscribe subscription.

Browser Extensions

Windscribe’s browser add-ons are excellent. They’re simple to use but still come with an unusually large suite of features including ad and malware blocking, advanced leak protection, and GPS spoofing.

This is a great suite of privacy and security-focused tools which are easy to use thanks to a lightweight and intuitive user interface. The extension looks like a minimized version of the desktop app, so there’s no learning curve required.

There is also some limited integration with the desktop app – allowing you to view the status of, but not change, your device-wide VPN. We’re hoping Windscribe will move towards more complete integration in the future.

You can trust Windscribe to hide your torrenting activity from your ISP. It doesn’t collect any personally identifiable logs and it encrypts network traffic using AES-256. There’s no way for a third party to see the torrent files you’re downloading.

Both versions of Windscribe work well for torrenting.

We’re pleased that Windscribe has improved its support for torrenting over time, too, by allowing users to use any server location for P2P file-sharing.

In the past, the VPN restricted torrenting traffic on servers in specific locations, including India and Lithuania. However, these limitations have been lifted.

Slower Torrenting Speeds, Even with Port Forwarding

Although Windscribe Pro supports port forwarding, we found that its torrenting speeds are slower than other top VPNs.

It’s also complicated to set up port forwarding using Windscribe. You’ll have to configure it using its website, which took us more than 10 minutes from start to finish. With other VPNs, like Proton VPN, it took just a few seconds by ticking a checkbox in the app.

Here’s how long it took to download a 20GB torrent file with the free and paid versions of Windscribe compared to other VPNs:

Windscribe isn’t as quick as the fastest torrenting VPNs, but your torrent files won’t take much longer to download. If available, we recommend connecting to a 10Gbps server in the same country as you. This produced the fastest speeds in our research.

Though the apps are similarly easy to use on each platform, not every feature is available on each app. Here’s a summary of the key differences between Windscribe applications:

Windscribe does offer a separate DNS service called Control D. Though it’s discounted for Windscribe subscribers, it still requires a separate subscription.

We’d like to see it included for free. This would vastly increase the number of devices that Windscribe could work with.

Alternatively, you can use Windscribe’s ‘Secure Hotspot’ feature if you have a Windows computer. This allows you to create a virtual router within the app to share your VPN connection with other devices.

Many VPNs for China, including Windscribe, counter web censorship by employing obfuscation technologies that make it harder for censors to identify VPN traffic.

Windscribe uses a “Stealth protocol” to avoid detection by the censors. This protocol uses the open-source Stunnel algorithm to route your OpenVPN traffic through an additional TLS tunnel. In short, this conceals the fact you are using a VPN.

We’ve seen it working first-hand in China, using our test server in Shanghai. Windscribe bypassed China’s firewall 85% of the time over the past year. Even many top VPNs, like NordVPN, have only worked 0% of the time over the same period.

Moreover, Windscribe’s free software also worked in China by connecting to the Hong Kong > Victoria server.

With Windscribe, you can get a static IP address from 13 different locations. A static IP connects you to the same IP address every time you connect. This comes with a few benefits like reducing the chance of websites blacklisting your IP.

Windscribe is one of only a few VPNs that offer a residential IP address. Although this costs an extra $96.00 per year, the US residential IP we purchased has always worked for streaming over years of testing.

“ROBERT” is Windscribe’s ad and malware blocker. It’s a DNS-level malware and ad blocker integrated into the VPN apps.

ROBERT performed exceptionally well in our tests. According to our data, it blocked 80% of ads and 100% of analytic trackers. Using it, we bypassed ads on many popular websites, including YouTube and Google.

The only other VPNs that blocked more ads were IVPN and TunnelBear, but these are far inferior to Windscribe overall.

Though great, we’d like to see Windscribe include its ad and malware blocker on its free app as well. As it stands, you have to download a separate browser extension, which makes it less user-friendly and incompatible with mobile devices.