StrongVPN - Review
In the sea magnum of offers and brands available, it can be difficult to orient yourself in your purchase choice : Will the features described be enough to make StrongVPN worthy of your attention? Let's explore the service together and analyze the main features.
Read also: The best VPNs of 2022
StrongVPN: plans and prices
StrongVPN stands out from its competitors in one particular aspect: in fact it is one of the few to offer only two subscription plans, one monthly and one yearly that includes 256GB of cloud storage with SugarSync. Unfortunately there is no free trial plan, however you can use the 30 day money back guarantee.StrongVPN 1 month service review photos | 10.99 $ 12 months | $ 43.99 for the first year ($ 79.99 from the next) with a 30-day money back guarantee and 256GB of SugarSync cloud storage (valid for both plans) The cool thing, as we said before, is that you can connect up to 12 devices at the same time, an above average amount and which could make StrongVPN particularly interesting for those who need many simultaneous connections.
The plans also include over 51,000 IP addresses, 950+ servers located in 35 countries and 59 cities, and it is also possible to pay with PayPal, Alipay and major credit cards. No cryptocurrencies, however. It would have been interesting to be able to use Bitcoin or other e-currencies for greater anonymity.
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Privacy
StrongVPN implements a very strict no-log policy. No data of the users who connect to the company's servers are stored, the only exception is the data relating to the creation of the account, such as e-mail and payment method, since the renewal is automatic (and, as we said , StrongVPN does not allow anonymous payment systems such as coins based on blockchain technology).However, it should be noted that StrongVPN uses cookies to authenticate registered users who access the service via the site, therefore some traces stay. On the other hand, StrongVPN reserves the right to deactivate the accounts of anyone found to violate copyright law. Therefore, we believe that there is some form of tracking and control, probably implemented in particular cases.
If on the one hand, those who use the network in a legitimate way should have nothing to fear, on the other it raises some perplexity the fact that StrongVPN is owned by California-based J2 Global, a computer giant, listed on NASDAQ, which owns several dozen companies and five VPN services (including, in addition to StrongVPN, Encrypt.me which has incorporated Buffered, IPVanish and SaferVPN ). Knowing that the United States is the promoters of the 5-Eyes alliance and its subsequent extensions, which aims at the preventive collection of users' data on the network and on their mobile phones and that this alliance was responsible, for example, for the interception of a Powerful head of state like Angela Merkel (as it transpired in 2015), it is unlikely that such a large and branched company will not pique the interest of US intelligence agencies. And the fact that J2 Global does not receive audits from external entities, unlike other companies, does not help dispel those doubts.
From a technical point of view, however, StrongVPN offers all the major protocols of L2TP, SSTP, OpenVPN, IPSec, IKEV2 encryption to which the Wireguard protocol is added, which should guarantee maximum protection thanks to the 7 different encryption algorithms on which it is based, while ensuring the maximum possible speed.
The provider also offers a killswitch that disconnects the connection in case the connection to the VPN servers is lost, but this protection is only active on the desktop version of the apps. On the other hand, the protection of the connection to public wi-fi networks is implemented for the mobile apps.
Performance
StrongVPN follows in the footsteps of other competitors and with each subscription gives you 250 GB of space in the cloud on the SugarSync provider, useful for example for backing up your smartphone, perhaps to free up space by moving your photos. While this is a fairly useful plus, on the other hand you will associate a greater amount of information and data with your VPN account, which in theory would serve to remain anonymous. However, the value of the gift is very respectable, in fact SugarSync alone costs $ 9.99 / month, almost double StrongVPN's two-year service.From the point of view of connections, we are in the range high of the market: with a single StrongVPN account you can connect up to 12 devices at the same time, moreover StrongVPN, unlike other providers, recommends confirming the service directly in the router, in order to guarantee the anonymity of the entire home network.
Unfortunately, speed isn't StrongVPN's strongest point. If your base connection is fiber, you will mostly be traveling between 40 and 50 Mbps, which is roughly double what you would need to stream a 4K movie. Of course, we don't come close to the speeds offered by larger companies, however, by choosing servers that are not too remote, you may have enough speed to browse and consume content without too much trouble.
At the link level, however, StrongVPN offers a good range of options: 51,000+ IPs shared on 950+ VPN servers in 59+ locations around the world. Also in this case we are far from the records of the industry leaders, but we are still in the medium-high range of the market, especially considering that StrongVPN claims to rely exclusively on servers of its exclusive property.
Finally, as regards By removing geo-blocking of streaming services, StrongVPN does its duty, like any other VPN and works with major industry brands (Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, BBC ...), but without offering dedicated servers.
Precisely by virtue of what has been said above about the copyright protection policy, it is obvious and inevitable that StrongVPN does not offer dedicated servers for torrens, which you can still do by configuring the router and using the NAT protocol.
App and Installation
An interesting aspect is that you can set up your StrongVPN account on virtually any device imaginable, even on old Symbian devices. However, in some cases you will necessarily have to go through the router or you will be asked to manually configure the necessary settings.Dedicated apps are available for Windows, iOS, macOS, Android and FireTV, for everything else you will have to follow the very detailed instructions on the StrongVPN website.
StrongVPN offers fairly minimalist interfaces. The menus are reduced to the essentials and the user experience is limited to the choice of the server, the connection and finally navigation. In some cases (like on iOS) it may be necessary to explore some submenus to choose the type of encryption to apply to your browsing data, but nothing that an average user is not able to do. Among other things, in the menus, under each type of protocol, there is a brief explanation of what is the ideal condition for using it.
An excellent knowledge base is available for any problem, but in case of problems more complicated, a dedicated support service is available, reachable via email or chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Verdict
StrongVPN is certainly a good service, with a decent connection speed and interesting technical features, above all the Wireguard and SugarSync protocol. From a technical point of view, it is a very interesting provider, with decent functionality and connection options. However, the price isn't very attractive, especially when compared to the best VPN providers we've told you about.If instead, we analyze the privacy profile, perhaps it doesn't make much sense to rely on a service based in the States. United, even if we consider the speeds below average. Of course, if you are looking for a service that offers excellent security protocols and the ability to connect a good number of devices at the same time, StrongVPN is certainly an option to consider, especially if the 256 GB of space in the clouds included in the annual offer.
