PandaVPN is a branch of the Panda Security company – a Spanish multinational specialized in the development of IT security solutions. Panda Security started with developing antivirus software, and later expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services. That expansion gave birth to Panda VPN. There are many other VPN like PandaVPN that offer similar and also your desired security and privacy features. These similar VPNs are known as the best PandaVPN alternatives and competitors available. In this article, we shall explore all the PandaVPN competitors and alternatives to help you choose the most suitable option.
PandaVPN is a virtual private network service that promises to protect your privacy when online. It promises other perks which include making the internet borderless. Does the PandaVPN live up to this promises? How does it compare with the other VPNs in the market? The following review will seek to answer these questions. PandaVPN 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 PandaVPN. Below are other VPN like PandaVPN:
VPN LIke PandaVPN + Alternatives:
- NordVPN
- Surfshark
- ExpressVPN
- Proton VPN
- CyberGhost VPN
- PureVPN
- Private Internet Access
- IPVanish
- TorGuard
- Hotspot Shield
Plan and Pricing
Plans:
PandaVPN has two service plans – a free plan and a paid plan (Panda VPN Premium). The PandaVPN premium has two billing options – monthly or annually. However, this premium plan has consistent features across its tiers. This means that if you purchase the monthly subscription, you have access to the same features and resources as one who purchase the annual subscription; the only difference will be how long you can access the service.
The PandaVPN premium plan offers unlimited bandwidth. Where does this put Panda VPN among the VPN crowd? Right at the top. You will hardly see a top VPN service with bandwidth caps on their paid plans. Unlimited is the language of the industry, and PandaVPN showed they can speak it.
The premium plan also allows you to connect up to five devices simultaneously. This is on par with what many other VPNs offer; in fact, the industry average for simultaneous device connection is five.
Pricing and Payment
The PandaVPN Premium monthly subscription is priced at $9.99; and the annual subscription is priced at $77.40 which breaks down to a monthly cost of $6.45 to give a 35% saving.
Between the monthly deal and the yearly deal, PandaVPN does not offer any middle deal; some of the top VPNs fill this gap by offering 3 months and 6 months deals. Such mid-term deals will appeal to users who want VPN service for just a couple of months.
As with almost every premium VPN service in the market, the longer subscription is heavily discounted and will prove better value for money.
You can make payment using the popular payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal. PandaVPN does not currently support anonymous payment options (such as crypto currencies).
The prices of the PandaVPN premium packages are relatively high. The monthly price is similar to the price of some of the highly rated VPN services; and as for Panda’s best value deal, some of these top services have best value deals as low as $3.50. Does the Panda VPN give enough to justify its steep price?
Free Version:
As said earlier, PandaVPN generously offers a free version. Though like every free account, it is very limited: it cannot be used on more than one device, there is only one default virtual location to connect to, and there is a data cap of 150MB per day. However, this will adequately serve the needs of light users.
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.
Refund:
Panda Security gives a 30 days money back guarantee for all their product including the Panda VPN. Users who subscribed to the Panda VPN premium but were not satisfied with the service can take up this option and request a refund of their payment; but this must be done not later than 30 days of making the purchase.
The process of requesting a refund is: cancel your subscription (which will become effective at the end of the current billing period); and inform Panda Security in writing, either by fax, registered postal mail or by email sent to the Customer Service email address (atencionalcliente@pandasecurity.com).
You will get back your money, via the same means of payment, within fourteen days of sending the written request. Panda Security explains that there are no hidden clauses or caveats; you are free to exercise this option without even specifying the reason.
PandaVPN Features Review
Antivirus
The strongest point of the PandaVPN is that the Panda antivirus comes with the VPN. This makes PandaVPN protection a two edge sword; the first edge is a VPN to protect your online traffic, and the second edge is an antivirus to protect your devices.
One reason for using a VPN is to protect your personal information from hackers; an antivirus also protects you from hackers. An antivirus not only protects your devices from malicious viruses that would’ve come into the device to make programs run slower, eat up important files, and cause irrepairable damage; it also protects you from hackers who are intent on using spyware to get at personal information stored on your computer or mobile device.
Having antivirus protection in addition to VPN protection is therefore important for all round privacy and security. Many persons recognize this and would often buy a stand-alone software for their devices. Using PandaVPN save you the cost of purchasing additional security software for your devices.
The PandaVPN antivirus add-on has all the features that you’ll find in a complete antivirus suite. There is: a process monitor for monitoring the URLs accessed by each process to ensure that there is no suspicious activity; parental control for keeping kids safe while on the computer; USB protection for scanning external drives; and a rescue kit for recovering information that might have been lost or stolen.
Ease of Use:
PandaVPN does not come as a stand-alone VPN app. It is one of the available software in Panda Dome – the central app of the Panda company. To get Panda VPN, you have to install Panda Dome.
The Panda Dome interface is simple and user friendly. It shows the antivirus protection status, the scan result of files, and icons of all the tools in the client. Two clever things about the client interface are: when you hover a mouse on any of the icons, a text appears under it that tells you what software it is; and when a software is activated, a small green ‘on’ dot shows on its icon.
The interface of the PandaVPN itself is even simpler. The clean white interface shows connection status, bandwidth user status, server location, and a connect button. There is an automatic virtual server option, which allows you to connect with a single click. If you desire to get flying with VPN protection right away (without having to first select a location), click ‘connect’ and the app automatically connects you to the best server closest to you.
You can change servers from the settings page. Under “select the country to automatically connect to:” is a drop down menu, and clicking this will reveal a country list that you can choose from. However, there is no information on the servers: no server pings that can help you determine the best location based on speed, and no server availability info that can help you know if there is still space on the servers. Nothing, but the list of countries.
That Panda VPN is short on features can be seen by lookibg at the settings page. The page is almost bare; apart from the drop down menu to select a server location, the only other thing there is an option to toggle on/ off “enable VPN after restarting my PC”.
Torrenting:
After explaining why torrenting may put your data and personal information at risk (because when torrenting files are never located on a central server but are split over hundreds of computers), Panda Security recommended the PandaVPN Premium version for use in torrentting safely. Therefore, it is safe to say that Panda VPN allows torrenting.
Some of the top VPNs, that have been recomended for torrenting, have servers optimized for P2P activity, and they clearly highlight this on their website. However, there is no such information on the website of PandaVPN. There is also no mention of ‘torrenting’ or ‘P2P’ in the Panda VPN client.
Streaming:
In recent years, one reason that has caused the use of VPNs to soar is entertainment. Streaming services employ geo-blocking mechanisms to make some of their content unavailable outside of certain countries; and users employ VPNs to get access to these contents. The streaming services (Netflix in particular) react by identifying and blocking VPN traffic, and so it is becoming difficult to see VPN that still give access to Netflix. PandaVPN will give you access to Netflix, but only after the “cat-and-mouse” game of trying with different servers.
Supported devices:
The PandaVPN is compatible with only Windows and Android operating systems. Currently Panda VPN does not support MacOS, iOS, or Linux. Users who would want to protect all devices connected to a home router will also be disappointed; because PandaVPN cannot also be used on routers.
Top VPN services are flying high by developing apps that can work on any device that has an operating system including SmartTVs and gaming consoles. Admittedly, Panda VPN are behind in this respect; but they are seriously in pursuit of the leading pack. A couple of months ago, they supported on Windows; now they have Android covered; and they say MacOS and iOS are on the way.
Server Network:
PandaVPN does not follow the trend of advertising server counts and countries covered. They only highlight the latter; they state that they operates servers from over 18 countries in the world. Thus, it is difficult to know how many connection points PandaVPN has. Also, Panda make use of virtual servers; which means that the physical hardware is not in the locations advertised. This will concern users who are particular about the actual locations that their data packets pass.
Privacy and Security Features
Protocol and Encryption:
Unlike other services that clearly state on the website the VPN protocol that they use, the Panda VPN webpage does not clearly state the protocol it uses to secure its connections.
Only a deep search of the Panda Security resources revealed that “the VPN in Panda appliances supports all main VPN protocols – IPSec, L2TP, PPTP, and SSL“.
The Panda VPN app also does not say anything about protocols. Note that some premium VPN services even have configuration options for changing protocols.
However, PandaVPN makes it clear that they use the highest standard for encryption (AES 256-bit encryption) to secure your data. This is a very secure currently-impossible-to-crack encryption that is used by government agencies and apex financial institutions to secure their online data. You can be sure that your online data is secured.
Security Leaks Protection:
A VPN that leaks DNS and IP is not worth its salt because these leaks can be used to define the user’s actual location. PandaVPN passed all security checks. No IP leaks and no DNS leaks.
Logging Policy:
Activity logs (such as website visited) and connection logs (such as timestamps and bandwidth usage) can be used to effectively track and identify a user. The main reason for using a VPN is to be unidentifiable/ anonymous online. Thus, users would don’t like VPNs that keep logs.
To the question, Does PandaVPN keep logs? The response of Panda Security is:
“No, we do not collect any personally identifiable information. We do not collect, store, or share any permanent identifiers of users, including IP addresses. We do not keep any kind of activity logs for any of our users, whether they are free or Pro VPN users”
That is what any VPN user wants to hear. But when it comes to VPNs and logs; users take the no-log promises of VPNs with a pinch of salt. Users no longer trusts the no-logs advertisements of VPNs because VPNSs have been known to go against their words to record user data. It’s all a matter of trust.
Can Panda Security be trusted to honour their no-log words? Well, the part of the Panda Security privacy policy covering the VPN have nothing out of the ordinary. Also, Panda Security is not a new player in cyber security, and over the years they have proven to be trustworthy.
Kill Switch
The Kill Switch has become a welcomed companion of VPNs in order to keep the privacy and security of users intact at those unfortunate times that the VPN connection drops. When enabled, the kill switch cuts off internet connection when the VPN connection drops, ensuring that the user does not transmit data online without VPN protection. In most VPN clients, the kill switch is featured in settings; but in Panda’s almost-bare settings page, the kill switch is conspicuously absent, and the PandaVPN website also does not reference the kill switch. It is safe to assume that PandaVPN does not have this very important VPN feature. Except the VPN will have a 100% uptime, this carries potential privacy and security risks.
Speed
PandaVPN claims on their website that they are “No. 1 in speed, performance and reliability“. Series of speed test will reveal that PandaVPN has high speed, but not quite the number one.
On the average, the service increased ping by 198%; which is very good considering that some services record an average increase of up to 300%. The service did exceptionally on downloads; on the average, speed reduced by only 31%. Upload speed did not score as well as downloads; on the average, speed lagged by 53%. It can be said that Panda VPN is really fast.
Customer Support
PandaVPN have one of the most complete customer support in the VPN world. The help center features the usual knowledge base and FAQs that could help you solve problems without having to directly contact customer support. The FAQs addresses a lot of common questions that users have asked in the past; while the knowledge base consists of series of helpful articles arranged by topics. You can also search through the archive.
Panda also has a strong social media presence (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) and maintains a blog.
For direct contact with a Panda Security representative; you can use the online ticketing service, an e-mail service, a live chat or the telephone service.
Conclusion
The Panda VPN works okay if you need a VPN to browse anonymously, but it lacks advanced tools and configurations options to optimize your connection.
It is very good that Panda VPN:
- Comes with a complete antivirus
- Is extremely easy to use
- Use solid encryption to secure all your data
- Offers a generous free version
- Has very good speed
- Allows up to five connections
- Says they do not keep logs (and can be trusted not to)
- A complete customer service that include live chat and telphone support
It is not good that Panda VPN:
- Does not have a kill switch
- Can be used only on Windows and Android devices