VPN One Click is a VPN service that promises the above (online security, anonymity, and extras). This review will examine the privacy and security features of the service to determine if they can deliver on their promise and give users online security and anonymity. The review will also examine other VPN essentials (such as ease of use, pricing, streaming capabilities etc) in order to determine if the service will also deliver the VPN extras (user friendliness etc). There are many other VPN like VPN One Click that offer similar and also your desired security and privacy features. These similar VPNs are known as the best VPN One Click alternatives and competitors available. In this article, we shall explore all the VPN One Click competitors and alternatives to help you choose the most suitable option.
A VPN service enhances your Internet security by connecting you to an encrypted Internet connection, enables you to browse the Internet anonymously by keeping your real identity hidden, and lets you access blocked and restricted websites.
If you want a simple, fast, and very cheap VPN, for anonymous browsing on a single device. Look no further. Go for VPN One Click.
They have a simple, easy (almost to a fault) user interface; they have very good speeds (upload, download and latency); they have a large server network that will pitch you all over the world and make you anonymous; they do not monitor or store either activity logs or connection logs; and they have unbelievable low prices. And that’s about it.
On the flip side; VPN One Click has some security failings. VPN One Click does not support the secure OpenVPN protocol; they do not have a kill switch feature; and they leaked DNS.
They do not allow multiple device connections, and purchasing an account for each device will prove expensive; they do not do refunds; they could not unblock the popular streaming services; and they have little to no advanced features and configurable options. VPN One Click is one of the top VPN services, but if you are not satisfied with privacy and security features, you may try out other alternatives that strongly compete with VPN One Click. Below are other VPN like VPN One Click:
VPN LIke VPN One Click + Alternatives:
- Hotspot Shield
- NordVPN
- Surfshark
- ExpressVPN
- Proton VPN
- CyberGhost VPN
- PureVPN
- Private Internet Access
- IPVanish
- TorGuard
Service Plan
Pricing
VPN One Click has a distinctive pricing. In a very rare move, the VPN service charge you based on the type of device you use.
For iPhone & iPad; the service cost $2.99 per month and $14.99 per year. The one year deal breaks down to $1.25 per month and represents a 58% cost saving. For Android Phone & Tablets; the pricing is identical to that of iPhone and iPad
For Windows Mobile & Tablets; the service cost $1.99 per month, $10.99 for 6 months, and $19.99 per year. The 6 months deal breaks down to $1.84 per year representing a 7.5% cost saving; while the one year deal breaks down to $1.67 per month and represents a 16% cost savings.
For Windows Computers; the service cost $4.99 per month, and $24.99 per year. The one year deal breaks down to $2.09 per month which represents a 58.12% cost saving.
For Mac Version; the service cost $4.99 per month, $14.99 every 6 months, and $24.99 per year. The 6 months deal breaks down to $2.50 per month representing a 50% cost saving; while the one year deal gives the same saving as the one year deal of Windows computer.
Brief Competitors Price Comparison
| VPN service | Month-to-month price | Lowest advertised price | Initial payment | Brief comparison |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NordVPN | $14.99/month | $3.49/month for 27 months | $94.23 | Strong all-round option for speed – streaming and security; supports 10 simultaneous devices. (NordVPN) |
| Surfshark | $16.45/month | $2.49/month for 27 months | $67.23 | Excellent value for families, since a single subscription covers unlimited devices. (Surfshark) |
| ExpressVPN | $12.99/month | $3.49/month for 28 months | $97.72 | User-friendly premium VPN with easy-to-use apps and up to 10 connections on its Basic plan. (ExpressVPN) |
| Proton VPN | $9.99/month | $2.99/month for 24 months | $71.76 | Privacy focused VPN with open-source applications & a limited free plan with unlimited data. (Proton VPN) |
| CyberGhost VPN | $12.99/month | $2.19/month for 26 months | $56.94 | Affordable long-term option with streaming focused servers & a 45-day guarantee on longer plans. (CyberGhost VPN) |
| PureVPN | $12.95/month | $2.15/month for 27 months | $58.05 | Low-cost long-term plan that includes the main VPN service & tracker or advertisement blocking. (PureVPN) |
| Private Internet Access | $11.95/month | $2.03/month for 39 months | $79.00 | Suitable for experienced users who want advanced settings – port forwarding & unlimited device connections. (Private Internet Access) |
| IPVanish | $12.99/month | $2.19/month for 24 months | $52.56 | Good household option with unlimited simultaneous connections & easy-to-use applications. (Security.org) |
| TorGuard | $9.99/month | About $2.50/month on the $29.99 annual offer | $29.99 | Better suited to advanced users who need features such as port forwarding – static IP pools and detailed settings. (TorGuard) |
| Hotspot Shield | $12.99/month | About $2.42/month with the $29 introductory annual plan | $29.00 | Offers a limited free version & fast – simple applications – but the annual plan renews at $95.99. (Hotspot Shield) |
Verdict:
Surfshark VPN offers you the best balance of low pricing as well as unlimited devices. NordVPN is known as a strong overall choice for performance as well as security, while Proton VPN is attractive for privacy-conscious users and also for anyone that needs a free plan. CyberGhost, PureVPN, PIA and IPVanish provide you with some of the lowest long-term introductory prices. Which ever one you choose will be great for your online security. You may visit each of them to know more before subscribing.
On the surface, the low prices quoted above would make it appear as if VPN One Click is the cheapest service in the market. But in reality, the service could prove more expensive than the higher priced VPN services. How do I mean?
The answer is in the number of connections allowed. The industry average for simultaneous connections is five, which mean that many of the highly rated services allow you to purchase one VPN account and use it to secure up to five devices at the same time. On the other hand, VPN One Click allows only one device connection.
If you have a Windows PC and you secure it with VPN One Click’s best value deal (which is the one year deal), it will cost you $2.09 per month. If you also have an iPhone and go with its best value deal ($1.25 per month); your total cost becomes $3.34. And that’s just for two devices. In comparison, many premium services have best value deals of about $3.00, and that allows connecting 5 devices or more.
That said, VPN One Click is cheap only if you need VPN protection for just one device; but if you need VPN protection for the multiple devices of your small business or family, then the VPN One Click would be cost prohibitive.
Payment Method
VPN One Click allows payment using PayPal and bitcoin. They currently do not support the use of credit cards and debit cards which some will like because of the convenience of the payment operation. However, privacy conscious users will like the anonymity that bitcoin transactions provide.
Refund Policy:
Many VPN services offer “X”-days money back guarantees, which allow paid users who are not satisfied with the service to request a refund within “X” days of making payment. Many services offer a 30 days guarantee, while some others reduce their refund window to as small as 7 days.
VPN One Click has a 0 days money back guarantee. It means that they do not do refunds. If you pay for the service but are not satisfied, you are not getting back your money. VPN has not joined the “money back guarantee” pretence of valuing customer satisfaction.
Free Trial
VPN One Click offers a 7 days free trial which would allow users to fully explore the VPN service before making any financial commitment. The free trial allows access to all the features in the paid plan, except that it allows connection to only the European servers in the One Click network.
You have to submit your payment information to get the free trial. This is a pointer to th fact that the service will automatically move you to the paid plan and charge you when your free trial expires. So you must cancel your account before the expiration of the seven days to avoid the automatic subscription.
Features
Ease of Use
VPN One Click market itself as “a single click install application”, and that is so true. Downloading and setting up the app is hassle-free. The interface follows the simplistic approach and even one who has not used a VPN before will have no problem with using it. The interface features a beautiful world map, your your location and IP Address, a list of continents (for selecting a server location), and a connect/ disconnect button. While the interface is simple enough, it really can be made better. For example, the map is just there for aesthetics. It can be made to show current/ masked location, so that users would use it to visualize their connections. It can also be made to be clickable, so that one could click on a region on it to select a server location. Arranging the server locations by continents also makes the process of server selection longer than necessary.
Selecting servers is easy; you click on the continent, then the country, then choose a server from the country list. The app does not give certain pertinent server information that would help in making a good server choice. There is no ping times that would help one select the best server based on speed; and also no server load info that would help one avoid overcrowded servers.
There is nothing in the way of settings option, not even the generic option to start the app from system launch.
Supported Devices
VPN One Click is compatible with a range of devices including Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, X Box One, Apple TV, PlayStation 4, Wii console and any Wi-Fi device. This is one of the most extensive list of supported devices in the industry.
Proxy
VPN One Click provides a Proxy connection. The proxy will come handy if your VPN connection is effectively blocked by your local network. Then you can open the proxy, which protect your browser using SSL protocol, and continue your browsing.
Torrenting
It is becoming important to use a VPN for torrenting because insidious persons could use the file sharing activity to get at your personal information, and also because you could unwittingly download files that would raise copyright actions.
VPN One Click supports torrenting and even have servers for this activity. You can torrent with peace of mind using this service, knowing that your P2P activities is secured.
Streaming
I test a VPN streaming capabilities using Netflix and BBC iPlayer. Netflix in particular is a VPN blocking grandmaster. The streaming service is effectively blocking VPN services, and it is becoming rare to see VPNs that give access to Netflix.
When preparing this review, I checked out some past reviews oandf the service, and saw that the service could access Netflix. However, it would appear that the service has fallen victim to Netflix hammer blow because I couldn’t get access to Netflix no matter the server location I used. There was no luck also with BBC iPlayer. VPN One Click couldn’t stream any content from either of the two streaming giants.
Server Network
VPN One Click operates servers in 41 countries. While most services shout the number of servers in their network, VPN One Click choose to highlight the number of countries covered. Personally, I like to know the actual number of servers in a network for me to determine the robustness of the server network. This service leaves us guessing as to how robust their server network is. That said, the number of countries covered is impressive, because many VPN services cover only about 30 countries.
The countries covered shows a true global distribution. Africa is represented by South Africa; Asia is represented by Hong Kong, India, Japan and South Korea; South America is represented by Brazil, Chile and Colombia; Oceania is represented by Australia; while Europe and North America also have good representation. I like that VPN One Click does not follow the example of some services in neglecting Africa in their network. It is also impressive that the service has servers in countries with restrictive government and strong internet censorship such as Vietnam and Russia. Though there is no server operation in China, the service works in China.
With the wide coverage of VPN One Click server network, you’ll be able to access a lot of geo-restricted contents, and there will be lots of countries options for spoofing your location.
One thing of note is that VPN One Click rents most of their servers from third-party service providers. This is not an uncommon practice in the industry; but it holds certain privacy threats. And for that some VPN services have ditched third party server providers; and they proudly advertise as personally owning and managing their servers.
VPN One Click also acknowledge the privacy risk inherent in using third parties server providers by moving to state that they have strict data protection agreements in place with the service providers in order to protect users’ data.
Privacy and Security Features
Protocol and Encryption
VPN One Click admits that VPN Protocols measure the level of security of a VPN service. This is why the protocols that a VPN suppprts is one of the first considerations in examining the security features of a VPN.
VPN One Click support the PPTP and the L2TP/ IPSec protocols. The OpenVPN protocol, which optimizes excellent security and speed, is not supported by VPN One Click. This is one thing that will put off some users. However, the L2TP protocol is still very secured, and will ensure that your data is safe. But, the PPTP is insecure and some VPN services are already abandoning it.
In terms of encryption, VPN One Click uses industry standard AES 256 bit encryption for L2TP, and AES 128 bit key for PPTP. The 256 bit key is the highest level of encryption today; and is the encryption level used by banks to secure their online data. With the L2TP and ARS 256 encryption VPN One Click provides users a highly secure and private Internet connection.
Logging Policy
VPN One Click says that they have a strict no-logs policy. They explain that they store neither user’s connection logs nor internet activity. In their words: “We do not store, record or monitor any information related to user’s browsing activity, session details, timestamps, bandwidth, traffic logs, etc.“
No activity logs and No connection logs. That used to be all that is needed to be confident that a VPN service will not keep data that can compromise users’ privacy. But in the recent past, some VPN services have gone against their no-log claims to keep logs, showing that no-logs claims should not be taken at face value.
Before trusting a service no-logs advert, it is wise to comb the privacy policy of the service to know exactly what information is collected and how it is used.
VPN One Click privacy policy says in numerous places that they do not store or log IP addresses, browsing activities or connection details.
However the service collect certain information. When you contact their support service for assistance using any of the direct contact options (website contact form, email, or ticketing system), they keep a record of the communication correspondence used to provide technical resolutions. When you make payment for subscription, certain paymet info is maintained by the service’s payment processors.
However, the service guarantees that they do not sell this information provided by users, to any third-parties. It should be noted that many other services collect much more personal information.
One highlight of the privacy policy is the required information for signing up. VPN One Click states: “Users can download, install and use our application without any registration or sign-up process, and hence any personal information like email or mobile number is never requested“
This makes VPN One Click a privacy focused VPN. Many of the services in the market require users to submit a ton of personal information as part of the signing up process. Though the services take steps to ensure that the information is secured, it cannot be argued that not submitting any personal information is not a better option from privacy fronts.
VPN One Click explains further that since they do not store user’s personal information, they willingly or unwillingly cannot share user information to any third-parties or government authorities. The service also allow users to request that their details with the VPN service be deleted.
The one concerning thing in the privacy policy is that the service uses Google AdWords, Facebook, and other platforms for advertisement, and these advertisement platforms may use cookies to serve ads to users based on specific targeting and online behavior.
Jurisdiction
VPN One Click is a located in Turkey; but is run by Kryptotel FZ-LLC, a company headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both Turkey and UAE are not known for internet freedom; in fact they are known for the very opposite – internet censorship.
However, the company tells us: “We are not legally obliged to retain user data and/ or share it with authorities”.
Missing Security Features
Kill switch – the kill switch feature is fast becoming a companion of every VPN, and for good reason. A VPN must be connected before it can encrypt your data or mask your location, if the VPN connection drops your data and real location will be exposed. The kill switch feature prevent this by shutting off internet connection at the instant the VPN connection drops. This ensures that your real location and data is not exposed.
Sadly, VPN One Click does not have a kill switch feature. This means when the VPN connection suddenly drops, the service has kissed your anonymity goodbye. In that brief moment before the VPN reconnects you will have transmitted traffic online, and your real location (including any personal data transmitted) would have been captured by watching eyes.
To One Click’s credit, the service is quite reliable and does not loose connection too often. But remember that even a 99.99999% uptime means a 0.00001%; and that’s all it’ll take to spoil all the good work.
DNS leak protection – DNS leaks happen when DNS requests go to your ISP’s DNS servers rather than being handled within the VPN tunnel. This effectively reveals your online activities and real location to your ISP. DNS leak protection which is featured by most VPN service makes it impossible for DNS request to go through your ISP’s DNS servers. Most services have DNS leaks protection as a settings option that can be toggled on or off. Some others do not not have it as an option, but handle the leak protection at the server level.
VPN One Click does not have DNS leaks protection to be enabled in settings. Sadly, the service does not also handle leak protection at the server level. DNS leak test showed that the service leaked DNS.
Double VPN – Double VPN is a technology that encrypts data twice. The first encrypted channel is between the user’s computer and a VPN server, then a second encrypted channel is created between the first server and another server in the network. This gives you enhanced security and anonymity because the process entails double encrytption and multiple IP address entails
Speed
VPN One Click redeems itself in speed performance. The service showed excellent speed in certain locations, as speed drop was almost indecipherable. Understandably, speed reduction was pronounced with the distant servers. But on the average the result was very good.
On the average: VPN One Click increased latency by 162%. This is still about twice faster than some highly rated VPNs who record latency increase of about 300%. The average download speed drop was 18%; while average upload speed drop was 22%. These are very good results; some services that drop speed by 30% below the baseline are still regarded as fast.
However, it should be noted that most of the other services use the OpenVPN protocol, while VPN One Click use the L2TP/ IPSec; and the different protocols might have a say in the speed results.
Customer Support
VPN One Click has the usual sulport channels. There is the self help section that contains setup guides, FAQS, and troubleshooting. The guides will help set up the client on the supported devices; the FAQS addresses common questions; while the troubleshooting holds helpful answers and explanations to the more technical issues.
The VPN like VPN One Click listed above are also its best competitors in the VPN industry; you can use one of them as an alternative or better replacement.
You can also contact the service using an online support ticket or through the live chat support feature. The contact support service is another scoring point for VPN One Click because responses to queries are very fast (under an hour), and the support staff seems very knowledgeable. The live chat allows for faster responses on a real time basis.