Google One VPN | Review

Google has long been offering its users Google One, a subscription that lets you expand your storage space for use with Google services, and a few extras, like a VPN.

Here , we really want to analyze Google One VPN , which is offered to Premium users. Will it hold up to the competition? Let's find out right now.

What is Google One

Google One is the Premium range subscription service of the US technology giant that offers its members a higher share of cloud storage space than Google Drive and which remains usable between Drive , Gmail and Google Photos .

Unlike Google Drive, which you can use for free thanks to the 15 GB quota offered by the company to all users with a Google account, Google One subscribers get a much larger space, starting from 100 GB .



Photo Credits - Google

Google One VPN – Our review

However, for users who decide to subscribe to a Premium subscription of at least 2 TB , it is also possible to access Google One VPN , the virtual private network service offered by the company.

Google promises three main advantages with Its VPN: Watch streaming services and download content securely with a private connection, secure devices when connected to unsecured networks like public Wi-Fi, and reduce online tracking through IP address masking. All pretty much in line with the general purpose of a VPN.

The service of the Colossus of Cupertino has arrows in its bow, it is undeniable, such as a design smart enough to prevent the tracking of some data, all in all decent speeds, the possibility of using some advanced functions on the app Android and all the other extras contained in the Google One subscription plan.

Furthermore, a decidedly positive element is the fact that the company has subjected the service to external verifications through audits, a very important element to take into consideration when choosing a VPN.

Until recently, Google One VPN was a mobile-only service, and you could only use it on Android and iOS. However, the apps for Windows and macOS have recently arrived, however the iPhone / iPad app is really limited and basic, compared to what is offered on the Android counterpart. Of course, this is not surprising, however if you have an iOS device, perhaps you should take a look at our guide to the best VPNs for iPhone.

In general, then, the features are not so many and you will not bea> able to to choose the location, like on other commercial VPNs. Finally, if you really want to use Google One VPN you will have to agree to purchase the Google One subscription with all other services included, since the VPN is not sold separately.



Photo Credits - Google

Google One VPN – Plans and prices

As we said, the VPN is included in the Google One Premium package, so if you have the 200 GB Standard plan you will not be able to use Google One VPN .

Premium, on the other hand, consists of three different plans, the only difference of which is the allocated space quota. Otherwise, all the standard and premium features of Google One are included and, of course, the VPN for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

Plans and prices

Google One Basic 100 GB | €1.99 per month or €19.99 per year (single billing) Google One Standard 200 GB | €2.99 per month or €29.99 per year (single billing) Google One Premium 2 TB | €9.99 per month or €99.99 per year (one-time billing) There are additional 5, 10, 20 and 30 TB options, with the latter two available as a monthly plan only.

Google One VPN – Apps and features

Google One VPN is only available in certain countries, which include Italy, Austria, USA, United Kingdom and South Korea. This means that you may have problems connecting to servers outside the countries excluded from the list. For example, if you are in China and want to connect to an Italian server, you may not be able to do so. China, for several reasons, is an edge case, so if you plan a trip to Chinese territory, we strongly recommend that you consult the guide to the best VPNs for China.

That said, Google One VPN is not comparable to the competition. In this case, in fact, we will find ourselves in front of a real web page, with various sections dedicated to the VPN and other functions offered by your Google One subscription. In any case, the actual use of the service is more than basic, relegated to pressing a single button. And the mobile apps are equally simple. Thanks to Android's quick settings menu, users will be able to use the service on the fly, without having to open the app.

In functional terms, Google One VPN does what you expect, which is to create an encrypted tunnel and protected that goes from the origin to the destination of our traffic. Unfortunately, however, it is not possible to choose the virtual positions, for example to pretend to be in the USA and this is a major limitation, which we will talk about in detail below.

The iOS version, then, will allows you to activate/deactivate the connection to the VPN, view notifications, and that's it. Nothing else.

On Android, however, we find a kill switch, which blocks the Internet connection in the event of interruptions in the connection to the VPN and the Bypass option, for split tunneling. This feature allows you to decide which apps should use the normal internet connection and which should use the VPN. We always find the presence of split tunneling tools useful, too bad they are not present on iOS as well.

Finally, there is an option to suspend the VPN protection in blocks of 5 minutes at a time. But even in this case, we are faced with a very limited set of available features.

Streaming

As you may have guessed above, not being able to choose a virtual location means not being able to unlock streaming content from other countries . No Netflix USA, for example.

Google One VPN automatically chooses the server based on your country, consequently, if you are looking for a way to watch content not available in Italy or not to miss your favorite series in Italian while you are abroad, take a look at the best VPNs for Netflix.

Security and performance

At this point, the question may arise spontaneously: but given the many limitations, Google Is One VPN secure? Furthermore, does it guarantee good speeds?

Let's start immediately by saying that Google One VPN has a very smart feature: in fact, access is via one server, but navigation passes through another. In this way, if it is true that the first computer will have data on your identity, it will not track your actions, while the second will track your actions but not your credentials. Not even Google will ever know which sites you visit, consequently it will not be able to log.

The only data recorded is of a generic type, in connection with the use of the VPN. In this case, it is the number of connections made in the last 28 days, the number of active connections in the account, all data that cannot be used against you and which is generally stored by the vast majority of VPN services on the market.

That said, we know that Google's reputation for privacy isn't exactly spotless. However, in this specific case, the company has made some libraries open source, which makes them freely examineable by experts. Furthermore, an audit of the VPN was carried out by the NCC Group in 2021, with quite positive conclusions, as can be read in the official report.

However, the same document highlights that the technical measures adopted by the company they don't rule out 100% the possibility that Google will break its privacy promises in the future, but this can be said of any provider (if a company decides to violate the policies, it can almost always find a way to do it). However, to date there are no indications that Google One VPN is not delivering on its promises, in fact we can say the opposite. Not all providers have a lot of evidence to back up their no-log policies. Probably, this will not reduce the skepticism of many towards the company, in any case.

In terms of performance, then, we have found speeds that are quite good, with little dip compared to the standard connection. Of course, a lot depends on your ISP, location, network, devices and routers, but in general, with an Android device and a 5G router, we lost about 40-50Mbps going from the standard connection to the VPN, with average speeds of 200-225Mbps A positive result, compared to the average of 125-150 Mbps recorded with other competitive VPNs.

Conclusion

Google One VPN has some rather obvious limitations: one significant imbalance between the Android and iOS platforms (in favor of the first), practically zero possibility of unblocking streaming services. The solid no-logs policy and overall good speeds are not enough to counterbalance a service that is really too meager for those looking for a VPN of a certain level.

Of course, the Google One package offers several other services, not only the VPN, but even there it is necessary to take a look at what the competition offers, especially from the point of view of the price / storage share ratio.

In general, if you are a Google user and appreciate its ecosystem, subscribing to Google One Premium might make sense. This is especially true if your reference platform is Android and you want a larger share of storage to be used for both Gmail and Google Photos and Drive.

If, on the other hand, you are specifically looking for a VPN, we do not hear from you to recommend a Google One Premium subscription for this reason alone. There are very good alternatives for the same price or even lower costs, such as NordVPN and ExpressVPN . If Google One VPN were sold separately and with the features we have described, we would reject it without the reservations we highlighted above.