SaferVPN Review 2024: Fast and User-Friendly VPN with A Big Pool of Servers
SaferVPN, a fast-expanding VPN service provider, claims itself to be the “Fastest & Simplest” VPN. The VPN service was launched back in 2013 and has improved its services since then. The Israel-based VPN service is certainly one of the most recommended VPNs on the market right now. But is it really the simplest and fastest service provider in the highly competitive VPN space? Yes, it does serves quite a few basic purposes, and definitely comes with a handful of outstanding features too, but it has its own set of shortcomings as well. Let’s take a closer look at how well the VPN service lives up to its promises.
| Location | Israel |
| No-log policy |  |
| Hiding IP | |
| Kill-switch | |
| Max connections | 5 |
| Total servers | 1300 |
| Total countries | 50 |
| Compatible devices | Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Mac OS X, iPhone / iPad, Android, Windows Phone 8.1, Chromebook, Linux (Ubuntu), DD-WRT Routers, Tomato Routers |
| TOR support | |
| Torrenting | |
| Netflix | |
| Does it work in China? | |
| Servers’ speed (overall) | Fast |
| Usability | Easy to use |
| Customer support | Chat and ticket-based support |
| Website | VPN is not active |
With more than 1300 servers in 50 countries around the world, SaferVPN is a considerably fast VPN that comes at a standard price. It hides your IP, logs minimal information, and has a strong server network which you can rely on. It’s easy to install and use, and while a number of core issues in regards to the VPN’s speed, privacy level and server selection cannot be undermined, it deserves some brownie points for the simplistic and rather uncomplicated interface. In fact, I was startled to find how incredibly easy it is to install the application and get straight into their servers.
The biggest drawback of the VPN service is that their privacy policy is full of ambiguity and is not really recommended for advanced users. The company collects a lot more information than any VPN is supposed to collect (I will come to this later on), and their privacy statement is a lot misleading. Like many VPN services, SaferVPN also proudly claims that they do not log data, but that’s not the entire story.
Notwithstanding the privacy concerns, with stable and fast speeds, a simplistic interface, a (newly added) kill switch, and a decent customer service, SaferVPN does offer some great value for money. I have broken it down here so you can figure out whether this particular VPN would fit the bill for you or not.
Logging Policy
- date and time on which the Session began, date and time on which the Session ended,
- the amount of data transmitted during each Session,
- to which location (eg. USA East) (We do not hold servers’ IP addresses),
- and from which country you connected from (We do not hold IP addresses).”
VPNs are integral to internet privacy. Your online activities might not be illicit, but you at least need a VPN with a watertight privacy policy to maintain anonymity online, especially if you use public WiFi frequently. SaferVPN is an Israel-based VPN, a country which is known for its strict privacy laws. However, Israel’s signing of the “Five Eyes” agreement might be a matter of concern for you. The regional privacy protection laws are designed keeping in mind human liberty and dignity, which makes SaferVPN a safe bet for privacy-conscious users.
However, there’s a catch. Although SaferVPN has a no-logging policy in place, if you delve into their policy document, you would find that the VPN service does collect certain parts of usage data in order maintain the ‘quality of service (excerpt above). In fact, they do also collect information regarding your location, session and the data you transmit through their servers. It’s true that they do not hold or share your IP address, but the amount and type of data that they collect is out of the usual run of things. I tested the VPN for DNS leaks, IP leaks and WebRTC detection on IPleak.com and I found zero issues, although few users reported that they have encountered DNS leaks while testing the VPN. SaferVPN has worked on these issues and seemingly, such issues have ceased to exist.
Is It Compatible With TOR Browser?
VPN and TOR are excellent means for maintaining your privacy and anonymity online. Although they serve the same purpose, using a TOR with a VPN is no child’s play and you need to pair it properly to keep the threats at bay. Fortunately, SaferVPN is compatible with TOR browser and you need to first connect to any of the SaferVPN servers and then connect to the TOR network in order to attain complete anonymity online. Note that when you connect to the TOR browser through one of the SaferVPN servers, your new IP which would appear to your ISP would be of the TOR exit node. SaferVPN also recommends using TOR browser with VPN for maximum security.
Is Torrenting Allowed?
To be honest, I think this is the biggest drawback of the VPN service. These days, it is quite normal for a VPN to optimize their servers for P2P file sharing and trouble-free torrenting. SaferVPN, however, lacks miserably on this front. They have only 3 servers (Netherlands, Canada and Spain locations) which allows you to download files via Torrent. Now imagine a VPN which has a network of 700+ servers having only 3 servers for Torrent users. When I asked their customer support rep whether torrenting is supported, they replied with an affirmative, but as you can see, that’s not the whole story. If you are planning to buy one of their subscription plans just for torrenting, I suggest you use IPVanish, ExpressVPN or some other VPN which has got mostly positive reviews from Torrent users. Having only 3 servers for Torrenting is not a deal breaker, but it’s a core issue they should start working on sooner or later.
Can You Access Netflix?
If you are looking for binge-worthy TV shows, Netflix has no better alternative. Good news is that SaferVPN actually works with Netflix (take a deep breath here, ya’ll binge-watchers!). Although not all of their servers would allow you to watch Netflix shows, at least 30% of their 700+ servers actually worked. This is a huge number given the fact that Netflix has already enforced a stringent policy to block all VPNs outright. I tried to connect to their US streaming server and it worked almost instantly. However, when I tried to connect to their US Eastside server, it couldn’t connect to the streaming site. Both UK and Canadian servers were blocked by Netflix, although the Netherlands server worked perfectly fine.
Does It Work In China?
If you are not going to use this VPN in China, you can skip this part and move on. Most people use VPN services to access geo-restricted content from China, but this is where SaferVPN lags behind its competitors as NordVPN or CyberGhost. China is one of those countries in the world where you need a full-spectrum to maintain your anonymity online and to access all the websites and services which you need. This is because the country has rigorous censorship laws. Unfortunately, SaferVPN Windows and Mac applications do not work in the mainland. Usually, both business and leisure travellers flying to China rely heavily on high-quality VPNs for unblocking geo-restricted while they are in China and the fact that SaferVPN services are no longer available in China can be a big turn-off for the fans of this VPN worldwide.
Are People Actually Looking For SaferVPN Online?
To get a bird’s eye view of where the VPN service stands in terms of popularity and general interest level, I decided to delve deep into analytics and for that purpose, I used Google Trends. Google Trends is an excellent tool for search marketers to figure out what people search about. So I decided to search with the keyword ‘SaferVPN’ using the G-Trends online tool and found that the interest around this specific VPN service reached its peak in the third quarter of 2017, perhaps because the devs added a host of new security features to the app right before that. However, it seems not too many people search with the keyword ‘SaferVPN review’ as the interest level has been always low. When I searched with the phrase ‘Buy SaferVPN’, it returned with no results.
Social media’s global impact has grown exponentially over the years and the potential threats associated with social media usage have also multiplied. Fortunately, SaferVPN still allows its users to access all sorts of social media sites through their virtual servers. You can download any of their apps and start accessing social media sites of your choice from anywhere in the world (except from China, as I have explained above). With an anonymous IP address assigned to you by SaferVPN, you can easily access Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and other popular social media sites even if your government has imposed a ban on these specific social media websites.
To test out the speed of the VPN, I turned to Ookla Speed Test. I connected to various server locations such as India, UK, US, Netherlands, Australia and Singapore. The India server was the fastest of all, and it took me 2-5 seconds in average to connect to each of the servers. This is where SaferVPN beats many of its competitors, as most standard VPNs require approx 10 minutes to connect you to any of your chosen servers. So in a way they lived up to my expectations and did justice to the catchline “fastest & simplest”. At peak performance, the speed of the VPN was outstanding. I could easily use the UK and US streaming servers respectively for watching BBC iPlayer and Netflix with zero buffering and zero lag issues. When I connected to the US Eastside server, I encountered a slight bump, but that was pretty negligible.
Although SaferVPN is a considerably fast VPN, there’s one issue I stumbled upon while checking the speed of the VPN. The app lacks in consistency. It surely allows you to connect to a specific country, but doesn’t offer any relevant information about the server load. It does a fantastic job in choosing the most optimized serer for you, but I encountered issues on occasions when the VPN slowed down to such an extent that I had to reconnect to the same location twice, and thrice at times. The location was the same, but I had to change the server just to get the desired speed.
You might think that I am going overboard when I am saying this, but I hate VPNs that take their users through a lot of complicated steps during installation. Thankfully, SaferVPN is not that kind of a VPN which forces you to restart your device after installation of the VPN client. In fact, it’s one of the simplest (again, they have successfully delivered on that front, just as promised) VPNs which have reviewed till date and with an user-friendly setup process. It took me around three minutes to install and launch the VPN client on my desktop and voila! The application started protecting my PC right away.
Also, it has got the one of the most elegantly simple user interfaces I have seen, and it makes navigation and choosing servers a walk in the garden – essentially, a single-click affair. You can also find the advanced optimization settings effortlessly and can have the perfect customization within seconds. It’s not the most feature-heavy VPN available as on date, but the application’s stunningly intuitive design and easy-to-navigate interface is something you will fall in love with.
While SaferVPN definitely doesn’t have the best customer support system, but the quality of support they offer is satisfactory, to say the least. I decided to test the efficiency of the support team and bombarded them with a number of questions while writing the review, and in 90% of instances, they answered my queries precisely and perfectly. And not on a single occasion, I had to wait more than a few seconds. They certainly do not have the best support team onboard, but their support reps know what they are supposed to do. However, I have a strong feeling that they use bots to answer some of the queries submitted by the users. You are free to test their support yourself. I also raised a support ticket on their site and got a reply within 24 hours. If you have the patience to go through long-form tutorials, you can browse their QuickStart Guides, which are equally helpful.
To wrap it all up, SaferVPN lived up to my expectations as it delivers on its promise of being the ‘fastest & simplest’ VPN. The apps are easy to install and use and connecting to any of their servers is a breeze. However, there are a few downsides too, and if you are particularly looking for a VPN to bypass the geo-restrictions in China, I suggest you go for Ivacy VPN instead, which is another top-performing VPN. Also, if you are interested in getting server-specific information, you won’t get it here and you just have to connect to a country or a location. It’s also not a good option for torrenting. But if you are looking for a fast, simple and easy-to-use VPN for a good price, SaferVPN has got very little competition in the VPN space today.
