VPN like CyberGhost + Alternatives + Competitors + Similar VPN

CyberGhost is a VPN that gives you privacy by making you a ghost (invisible) online. Though, a German company, it is headquartered in Romania, a country that has privacy friendly legislations. The word ‘cyber’ relates to computer networks (specifically the internet), and the word ‘ghost’ relates to the invisibility of disembodied soul of dead persons. CyberGhost is one VPN that ensures that you are a ghost online; that is, they ensure that your internet activities are invisible. There are many other VPN like CyberGhost that offer similar and also your desired security and privacy features. These similar VPNs are known as the best CyberGhost alternatives and competitors available. In this article, we shall explore all the CyberGhost competitors and alternatives to help you choose the most suitable option.

They have a large network that consist of 2200 servers in 60 countries that will cover all your location  CyberGhost is very easy to use; they have developed profiles that allow you to do almost everything with just one click. With just one click, you can unblock websites, streaming services, and surf anonymously.

CyberGhost also uses high level encryption protocols that ensure your online security and privacy. They also have a kill switch that ensures that you are always protected even when VPN connection drops. And in terms of speed, they have good download and upload speeds that rank among the best in the VPN industry.

CyberGhost keeps a no-log policy which should mean that there are no records of users’ data that would compromise their privacy and security; but an analytical look of their privacy policy suggests otherwise. Another disadvantage would be the high price of their single month package. CyberGhost 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 CyberGhost. Below are other VPN like CyberGhost:

Similar VPN LIke CyberGhost & Alternatives:

• NordVPN
• Surfshark
• ExpressVPN
• Proton VPN
• CyberGhost VPN
• PureVPN
• Private Internet Access
• IPVanish
• TorGuard
• Hotspot Shield

CyberGhost Review:

Supported Devices:

CyberGhost supports all the regular platforms: windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Routers and others. The client can be set up in the supported devices in just three simple steps.

Simultaneous Connections:

CyberGhost allows seven simultaneous connections under one license. This is more than double of the ‘3 devices connection’ allowed by most VPNs. The best performing VPNs in this regards allow only 5 simultaneous connections, and will charge a token for you to get extra connections. CyberGhost will therefore appeal to persons with multiple devices.

Some commentators have called CyberGhost the best VPN for Android. If you want a VPN that is easy to use and allow you to do everything with just one click, then CyberGhost had you in mind when developing their premade profiles.  I particularly like the Wi-Fi auto-protect profile; one click and the CyberGhost app ensures that you are automatically protected especially when you are connecting to unknown Wi-Fis.

Another interesting feature is the ‘surf anonymously’ button; with just one click, a couple of privacy features (including blocking malware, ads and online trackers) are enabled which gives you your online privacy. If you want access to certain blocked sites but don’t know what servers would unblock them, all you need do is click ‘unblock basic websites’ and you will have access.

CyberGhost allow Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing and BitTorrent; with just one click, you can schedule torrent activities to start with the CyberGhost Windows app and ensure that you are always secured when torrenting. ‘Unblock streaming services’ allow you access to streaming services including the notorious Netflix.

It is worth noting that Netflix is successfully blocking VPNs, and VPNs that can access Netflix are becoming rare by the day. CyberGhost proudly stands as one VPN with which you can still get Netflix.

CyberGhost also allow users enough freedom to choose particular servers. With some PVNs, you can only choose a country or location, and you’d get connected to any of the servers in that location. CyberGhost gives you choice.

Malware Blocking:

Although CyberGhost say on their website that their goal is to protect your traffic and not your computer, and therefore, the CyberGhost client is not meant as an antivirus or antimalware tool; they have recently introduced malware blocking features. 

This makes CyberGhost one of the few VPNs that provide features beyond VPN services in order to enhance your browsing experience. With this feature, CyberGhost will run thorough checks on websites that you try to access and block malicious contents.

Pricing

Packages:

CyberGhost is currently offering four packages. Their best value service is their 3 year package priced at € 99.00 (€ 2.75 per month). They also have a 2 year package priced at € 90.96 (€ 3.79 per month), a one year package priced at € 59.88 (€ 4.99 per month), and a single month package priced at € 11.99.

CyberGhost pricing follow the trend in the VPN industry where the longer packages represent the best value for money, and the single month is almost cost-prohibitive. Unfortunately, CyberGhost do not offer semi-annual and other shorter-term packages. Some PVNs offer 6 months and 3 months packages which serve the need of persons who don’t like long the term commitment of the annual or multiple year’s packages.

Payment Option:

You can purchase the CyberGhost VPN using regular payment methods such as credit plans and PayPal. They also support the use of bitcoin which minimizes the amount of personal data you submit to them when making payments. It is a plus that CyberGhost offer this anonymous payment methods to serve those who are concerned about the vulnerabilities of the regular payment methods; because many of the top VPN services do not allow anonymous payment methods. 

For users who choose to use the regular payment methods; CyberGhost has adopted a model that ensures that VPN data is separated from payment data. They use third party providers to handle all operations, and thus ensure that they have nothing to do with the storage of personal data which payment operations entails.

However, some would feel that no matter how much CyberGhost try to distance themselves from the collection of personal data that the payment operation entail, it does not remove the fact that the use of their VPN service will cause the user personal information to be stored somewhere.

Free Access:

CyberGhost also give a 30 day money guarantee on all their packages, which allows you to get a refund if you are not satisfied with the CyberGhost client. Just like every other VPN, you can only get your money back if you request it within the allowed window (30 days in this case).

CyberGhost does more than other VPNs by also offering a 7 day free trial; although this offering is only for their Android and iOS apps. It would be good to see them include the free trial in all their apps so that they can offer consistent features across board.

Automatic Charges:

CyberGhost employs automatic subscription; when your subscription ends, it is automatically renewed and you are charged, except you terminate the subscription before it expires. I don’t particularly like this practice; I don’t think it scores point for user experience for a user to be forced to take active steps to opt out of a service.

It is my opinion (yours might be different) that CyberGhost take their automatic charges too far by automatically charging a subscription to you after your free trial session ends.  Free trials are to make the users get the feel of the value of the services; and do not always turn to paid subscription. In my opinion, charging an unsuspecting trial user and forcing a subscription on the person is annoying.

Location Availabiliy

Server Network:

CyberGhost currently has a large server network that consists of 2200 servers in 60 countries worldwide, and they are adding more servers by the day. Examining the geographical distribution of their servers; I see that CyberGhost has 14 servers in Africa located in Kenya (4) and South Africa (10). Though, they have good numbers in Europe, they do not have servers in European countries that take a hard stance against VPNs such as Russia and Turkey. However, some VPNs have servers in these locations.

The numbers of servers in a VPN network is an important factor in rating VPNs because a large server network is important for spoofing your location, as your online location will be the location of the server you are connected to. It is also important for accessing geo-restricted sites, as you’ll need a server in another location where the contents you wish to access are not restricted. 

Lastly, with a large network, you’re less likely to have servers that are overcrowded which will slow your traffic. The 2200 servers of CyberGhost, though not the largest in the VPN industry, will adequately meet all these needs. 

Third Party Server Providers:

CyberGhost uses third party Data Processing Centers for their VPN servers, stating that the purpose is to make CyberGhost VPN available. However, many privacy-conscious users will not find this appealing because of the known security risks of using third parties.

Speed

Many users consider speed as a primary factor in choosing PVNs. VPN use slow internet speed because of all the additional encryption and the additional distances that the data packets have to travel. The speeds of VPNs are measured by measuring the browsing speeds with VPN use against browsing speed without VPN use.  A not-very-good VPN will ground your internet speed; but a good PVN will have tolerable drops in speed. 

CyberGhost have very good download speeds when connected to nearby servers (about 5% drop), but recorded significant drop in download speeds when connected to far-flung servers (more than 50% drop).

In terms of upload speeds: when connecting to near servers CyberGhost did admirably well (just over 7% drop); but when connecting to far servers, CyberGhost VPN registered a drop of over 60%. It is important to note that connecting to servers across great distances is more like a stress test, and CyberGhost’s performance, though not the best, was not so different from those of the highly rated VPNs.

Privacy and Security

VPN Protocol:

CyberGhost supports the regular VPN protocols – OpenVPN, L2TP/ IPsec and PPTP. It would have been surprising if CyberGhost with their security promises does not use the OpenVPN encryption protocol because it remains the industry standard for the encryption of online data, and is virtually uncrackable. Also, the OpenVPN acknowledge the inverse relationship between the level of encryption and internet speed, and perfectly optimizes security and speed. 

CyberGhost VPN uses the 256-bit AES encryption for its OpenVPN protocol to ensure that you have a fast and secure browsing experience.

Kill Switch:

One feature that scores point for CyberGhost is the kill switch. This ensures that when VPN connection drops, internet access is disconnected, and your privacy is not compromised.

Jurisdiction:

CyberGhost is a German company but is headquartered in Romania which is one of the most privacy-friendly locations in the world. This ensures that it is not subject to laws that will require it to retain user data.  Their location does appeal to a lot of privacy-conscious users.

Logging Policy:

Cyberghost is one of those VPNs that have a no-log policy. They explain that nothing is monitored, recorded, logged or stored by the company; not users’ activities (such as, browsing history, traffic destination, data content and search preferences), and not connection data (such as, connection timestamps, session duration, or other logs tied to users’ IP addresses). This would make CyberGhost an attractive VPN, because it is no news that keeping of logs can compromise safety and privacy.

However, there has been growing concerns that while certain VPNs claim ‘no-logs’, the fine prints of their privacy agreement suggest otherwise. Is CyberGhost one of such?

As said, CyberGhost, like most other VPNs, advertise no-logs on their website. What do we see in the fine prints of their very detailed privacy agreement?

CyberGhost states that as part of their measures to detect fraud “we shall collect data relating (i) website usage such as IP address and approximate location (country only) (ii) transaction information, items purchased, the price paid, billing methods, partial credit card information, chargeback requests and cancelled orders”. I appreciate their desire to prevent crime; but what does that say about their ‘strict no-log’ claim?

Also, they state this: “we also reserve the right to disclose your Personal data as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/ or comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process served on our web site”. 

Because, the statements pertain to fraud and the esoteric matters of the law, few would hold a grudge against you for okay-ing the practices.

However, consider another issue outside the circles of crime and the law. CyberGhost states that they can terminate an agreement in the case of an atypical use especially with regards to monthly transfer volume (where the ingoing and outgoing data traffic is higher than 80 GB). Though they swiftly add that they do not currently measure traffic volume, they concede that they “reserve the right to install corresponding tracking systems and to prevent unfair use in case of an unusually high utilization degree of the entire network”.

So they would install tracking systems? I appreciate their desire to prevent unfair use, but what does it say about their ‘nothing is monitored’ explanation of their no-log policy?

Generally, one way of testing a VPN’s no-log claim is to check out for restrictions. There cannot be restrictions without there being monitoring systems; and more often than not, monitoring translates to log keeping. CyberGhost definitely put restrictions on monthly transfer volume; you can guess the rest.

Customer Service

CyberGhost has an impressive help center that makes getting help easy with four sections: Guides, FAQs, Troubleshooter and Announcement. In Guides you will get helpful articles about the operation of the VPN in the different platforms.

FAQs answer some general questions about VPN use. The troubleshooter treats a host of issues including; connection and speed problems, account and subscription problems, streaming problems, and how to avoid anonymity leaks. With these resources you can solve most issues by yourself.

You can also have direct contact with a CyberGhost representative if you did not get the desired assistance from the help center articles. For this, you can use the e-mail service, the online ticket or their live chat service. 

The email support address for reaching them is:  support@cybrghost.ro. I particularly like two things about the request form for raising a ticket: (i) they encourage you to be generous as possible with the details of the situation encountered (ii) they allow attachments, (some picture, they say, are worth more than a million words). 

You are sure to get very good equally-detailed responses to your requests from the e-mail and ticket support service. In terms of timeliness of responses, the ticket and mail was not very great. However, there is the live chat service which provides instant but less-detailed responses to queries; and you will find it very useful if you desire immediate response.

FAQ:

1. Is CyberGhost Reliable?

Yes, CyberGhost is a reliable VPN service that helps secure your privacy

2. Is CyberGhost Legit?

Yes, CyberGhost is a legit and safe VPN services with good user feedback and ratings online.

3. What are the popular CyberGhost competitors?

The popular NordVPN competitors are ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Ipvanish and CyberGhost. Other alternatives are also reliable.