CyberGhost VPN Review: Cheap, High-Speed VPN for 2023

CyberGhost VPN is widely known as one of the cheapest VPN providers. This puts it ahead of the competition with an identical number of features that ask for a larger monthly expense. Even better, CyberGhost VPN is all about giving plenty of free trial time. This applies to both cases – whether you need a free VPN for a day or purchase their services and ask for a refund down the road. Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether you buy their VPN subscription or from another VPN provider we reviewed – you should use a VPN nonetheless. Before you decide, let our CyberGhost VPN review show whether it’s a perfect fit for you.

CyberGhost VPN Features

Here are some of the features of CyberGhost VPN that make it enticing for users:

Age

CyberGhost VPN was founded in 2011, which means they have plenty of experience in the industry. The main company, CyberGhost, has been around since 2004, adding to the feeling of reliability.

Headquarters

CyberGhost VPN is based in Romania, a country known for respecting the privacy of its residents. Also, the country has no mandatory data retention laws that allow the government to easily track your Internet activities.

Server Base

CyberGhost has more than 6700 servers spread across 89 countries. A large portion of those is “P2P-optimized“ and “streaming-optimized servers“ that support high bandwidth. They are intended for streaming in 4K and downloading large files directly or via P2P transfer e.g. torrents. Their “Gaming-Servers“ is optimized for the lowest latency to ensure a smooth video gaming experience. Another privacy-oriented server type they offer is RAM-based servers. Unlike with regular storage, the data is automatically and instantly wiped on every power down.

No-log Policy

CyberGhost has a strict zero-log policy, which means they don’t store activity or connection history logs.

Speed

You’ll be surprised at the server performance for such a low monthly price. The results below are only an example – numbers depend on the real-world location, time of day, and server their Smart Location connects you to. So, when we connected to a CyberGhost VPN server in our country (in Southeast Europe), we saw a download speed reduction of about 5%, while upload speed changed by 2%. Connection to their server in Germany only reduced the speed by less than 5% while the upload speed and ping remained almost unchanged.

Connecting to a server in London, United Kingdom showed almost identical results as Germany, but the ping went up by 25%. The first noticeable difference appeared when we connected to a server in the United States. Speed went down by around 30%, ping increased five-fold, and the reduction in upload speed was about 5%. Finally, we connected to an Australian CyberGhost VPN server. Ping saw a 9-time increase, download speed dropped down by about 40%, but the upload speed remained within the 5% margin.

No Bandwidth Limits

CyberGhost offers unlimited bandwidth on any of its servers.

Streaming Service Unblocking

The list is never complete because streaming services are legally obligated to continuously block VPNs from accessing their catalog. At this time, we successfully bypassed the Netflix VPN block. We were also able to bypass anti-VPN measures on services such as:

• HBO Max
• Disney Plus
• Crunchyroll
• Hotstar
• BBC iPlayer
• NBC
• Sling TV
• ABC

Although we were able to unblock Amazon Prime Video in the past, this wasn’t possible at the time of testing.

VPN Protocols

Although you can select any of them manually, CyberGhost VPN will automatically select the best one before connecting. Here are the available security protocols:

• OpenVPN (TCP and UDP)
• IKEv2
• WireGuard

Encryption

CyberGhost VPN uses a military-grade AES 256-bit encryption cipher which is impossible to crack.

Optimized servers

The VPN service provider also offers optimized servers. These servers promote a specific kind of web traffic, such as P2P, UDP, or TCP. Such servers are used to prioritize activities such as gaming, torrenting, or streaming.

Dedicated IP

Then we have a dedicated IP. It is a static IP that is assigned to a particular user and not shared with others. Dedicated IPs are much more secure than shared IP addresses. They also allow for uninterrupted services, as shared IPs get banned more frequently. You also do not encounter CAPTCHA on dedicated IP.

RAM Only servers

CyberGhost offers RAM-only servers. Meaning, its servers do not store data as they remove it periodically after every CyberGhost VPN use. Such servers are far more secure than others, as they strengthen the zero-logging policy of a provider and cater to the privacy-centric crowd.

Works in China (Partially)

CyberGhost has servers in China, and you’ll have no problem accessing China-only content from a country outside of it. On the other hand, you can’t use their VPN services in China to bypass the Great Firewall of China. This is disappointing because their competition can (for example, Hide.me we reviewed). We sincerely hope this will change soon.

24/7 Customer Support

The provider offers 24/7 Customer Service over the online chat (Live Help) or the internal ticket system.

Bonus features of CyberGhost VPN

Here are some of the additional CyberGhost VPN features that you might not use every day:

Ad, Tracker, and Malware blocker

CyberGhost comes equipped with an ad and tracker blocker, as well as malware protection. The first two work flawlessly while the third blocks access to malicious websites, but they can still sneakily download malware to your device. All three features can be enabled independently of each other.

Random Port and Forward Secrecy

CyberGhost VPN allows you to use a different port every time you connect to a VPN, which helps go around VPN blocks by websites and services. Additionally, the forward secrecy feature ensures that, with every connection, a new encryption key is generated.

Network Lock (Kill Switch)

CyberGhost VPN’s kill switch feature kills your Internet traffic when the VPN connection drops. It automatically enables it once the connection is back. This prevents accidental leaks of your identity or location.

Split Tunneling

With split tunneling, you can choose which apps will be taken out of the VPN tunnel while the connection is active. That way you can check your local online bank’s website (which blocks foreign traffic for security purposes) while watching Netflix connected to a VPN server across the globe.

In-App Leak Tests

CyberGhost added the feature that enables checking a VPN for DNS/IPv4 and IPv6 leaks as part of its browser extensions and apps.

Simultaneous Connections

With CyberGhost VPN, you can connect up to 7 devices at the same time on one subscription.

App Protection

When you open a protected app, CyberGhost VPN will automatically launch and connect using pre-determined settings (protocols, bonus features, particular VPN server type or location, etc.)

Tor Over VPN

You can combine the benefits of VPN with the TOR (The Onion Router) network features. This allows you to bounce traffic through multiple nodes while connected to a VPN server. Although it ensures anonymity, this security feature can reduce your browsing speed significantly.

CyberGhost VPN Installation and User Interface

CyberGhost VPN works on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and has free browser extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Additionally, you can use it with Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Roku, Kodi, Android TV, and even your router. Your router must support OpenVPN, but you can protect any device connected to the home network instead of only 7. This expands compatibility to PlayStation, Wii U, and Xbox consoles, for example.

Their desktop apps are beginner-friendly, use Dark Theme so they’re easy on the eyes, and the installation process is quick – around 3 minutes total. Also, you can search for country names in the app instead of scrolling through lists. Furthermore, when selecting servers, CyberGhost VPN shows the current server load, distance from your real location, and estimated ping. This removes the need for experimentation and running speed tests yourself. The apps for mobile devices share this simplicity while retaining most of the features. For example, the iOS app doesn’t support split tunneling.

CyberGhost Pricing

The provider runs deals that reduce the price between 70% and 85% all the time. Here are the prices of CyberGhost VPN:

• 1-month plan – $12.99/month (14-day money-back only)
• 1-year plan – $3.99/month
• 2-year plan – $3.49/month
• 3-year plan – $2.25/month

As you can see, the 3-year plan has the biggest saving overall and gives you 3 bonus months for free. Also, CyberGhost VPN offers a 1-day free trial of their desktop applications with full features. No payment details are needed to sign up, only an e-mail address that can be fake/temporary. Furthermore, where most VPN services offer a month, CyberGhost VPN offers a 45-day money-back guarantee.

Conclusion

CyberGhost VPN is an easy-to-use, reliable VPN provider with unmatched prices for what it offers. The only high-quality VPN provider in that price range is Surfshark, and a close contender is NordVPN we already reviewed. CyberGhost VPN has up-to-date features and offers different server types, great speeds, and impeccable security. They also constantly introduce new things and drop outdated ones. For example, they quickly removed the L2TP/IPSec protocol because NSA could allegedly break it. The only obvious flaw is the inability to work in China.