WeVPN Review
The virtual private network market is a vast place. It was valued at 25.65 billion dollars in 2017 and is expected to reach 75 billion dollars in 2027. Therefore the VPN market is naturally competitive and there are always new VPN services getting introduced.
One of these new VPN service is WeVPN. WeVPN is the new kid on the block, as it was released in March 2020. Since then, it has gained popularity in a short amount of time and among tough competitors.
Testing WeVPN Features
WeVPN has 100 servers in 55 locations and 39 countries. Some might find the small number of servers off-putting because they need more servers to connect to. On the other hand, WeVPN presents its users with unlimited bandwidth, 10 simultaenous connects and the ability to unblock geo-restrictions.
Down below we will answer some of the most common questions about this VPN.
Is WeVPN good for streaming?
A lot of VPN users invest in a VPN for its streaming capabilities alone. If a VPN is not capable of unblocking geo-restrictions, it is useless to them. Therefore, it is important to know if a VPN can bypass firewalls and VPN blocks. Usually, streaming websites work hard on blocking VPNs to prohibit users from accessing geo-restricted material.
Reliable VPNs provide technology that can bypass these blocks. In order to access streaming services like Hulu, which is only available in the US, you need a US IP address. By connecting to US VPN server, you can get that IP address and use it to connect to the streaming site. This requires a good VPN with the proper technology; otherwise it just gets caught in the VPN blocks.
To reach a conclusion about WeVPN’s geo-restriction abilities, we tested it against several streaming websites. These websites are: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and BBC iPlayer. We will discuss the results down below:
Netflix
Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services right now with 182.2 million subscribers. Unfortunately, Netflix does not provide the same media content to all of its regions. This is due to the copyright holders and laws on material. Therefore, you might want to enjoy Netflix US from Asia and find it difficult to do so. Ironically, 63% of Netflix’s users are outside the United States and therefore need to use a VPN to access Netflix US.
Netflix assigns a library of content and the pricing of subscription according to your IP address. However, Netflix is completely banned in countries like China, Syria, North Korea and Crimea. Furthermore, Netflix has an extensive VPN ban in place to prohibit VPN use. For example, if you attempt to use a cheap and unreliable VPN, you get a pop-up window asking you to turn it off.
With WeVPN, I selected the United States server and connected to it. I then logged onto Netflix and loaded a movie. Usually, Netflix detects the traffic coming from the VPN and blocks it. However, with WeVPN, there was no such issue. Hence, you can watch Netflix US using WeVPN without hitting the VPN block or bans.
Hulu
Hulu is a streaming service that is only available in the United States. This means that to even subscribe to this service, you need an American IP address. Hulu also has extensive VPN bans in place to prevent anyone outside the U.S from using its service. To bypass that, you need a reliable VPN with the proper technology.
While testing a VPN, you’d know you failed if you received an ‘’error proxy’’ message which pops up when you open the Hulu website. Fortunately, with WeVPN, I did not get this message. I created an account, subscribed and hit play on a TV show, and it all went smoothly with no VPN bans.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is another popular streaming service that has VPN blocks in place. It provides media libraries depending on IP address because of copyright issues. Therefore, the United States has the largest library with the biggest amount of media.
To enjoy the U.S library, you need a U.S IP address. Seeing as Amazon Prime has geo-restrictions in place, this seems tricky. So I tried connecting to a WeVPN U.S server and loading Amazon prime. The result was a successful connection with no VPN detection whatsoever.
BBC iPlayer
And finally, I tested WeVPN on the BBC iPlayer streaming service. The streaming service is popular outside the UK to the point where 60 million viewers streamed it using VPNs. BBC iPlayer offers all sorts of media from TV, music and live TV.
Bypassing the BBC iplayer VPN ban is tricky because you wouldn’t know that your VPN is not working. All you get is the same message that pops up when you use BBC iPlayer outside of the UK. Therefore, you will only know when you are successful. The good news is, streaming BBC iplayer with WeVPN works flawlessly. All you have to do is connect to WeVPN and launch the streaming content.
What about WeVPN’s Speed?
Unfortunately, speed is where WeVPN fails its users. According to testing, the VPN decreases your speed significantly no matter which server you connect to. A US server led to a 97% drop and a 94% drop in a France server. All in all, if you need a VPN solely for speed, then WeVPN is not it.
Can you Torrent with WeVPN?
Torrenting is a must for anyone who enjoys media content and entertainment. With torrenting you can form an exchange between peers to pass forward data. This data is files, videos, games and more. However, torrenting is illegal and can result in warning letters, lawsuits and even prison time.
Your internet service provider monitors your IP address and hence your internet activity. Therefore, it is simple to report any illegal actions including torrenting. WeVPN provides Peer-to-Peer (P2P) friendly servers that allow torrenting and optimize your torrenting experience. You will also have a secure connection and good speed.
What about Censorship?
As mentioned before, streaming websites like Netflix are banned in countries like China, North Korea and Syria. Other countries like Iran and KSA have very tough rules in place against gaming and streaming content. Hence, it is important to invest in a VPN that unblocks content in these countries especially if you reside in one of them.
After testing WeVPN against several firewalls in China, Iran and KSA, I found that WeVPN cannot break through the firewalls and is basically useless against them.
Privacy and Security Concerns
WeVPN operates in the British Virgin Islands which are out of the jurisdiction of the 5/9/14 Eyes. In simpler words, there is no excessive governmental surveillance and collection of data. Therefore, your information and data are kept quite safe from lurking eyes. WeVPN has a zero-logs policy.
It ensures that DNS requests, connection details, session connection details, including timestamp, duration, or location of the connection are not collected. Also, users IP addresses and bandwidth use are also anonymous. The only data that WeVPN collects are your email address, payment data and crash reports.
Furthermore, WeVPN uses the latest RAMDisk firmware instead of hard drives. This means that whenever the power turns off, all the data on the disks are wiped clean.
As for security, WeVPN uses AES-256-GCM + SHA512 + MODP4096 which are the strongest in the market. WeVPN also uses some of the speediest protocols including Wireguard, OpenVPN and IKEv2. However, the wireguard protocol is not available on the desktop versions just yet.
WeVPN also offers a kill switch service to turn off your internet if the VPN stops working. This protects your data from leaks. In addition to that, WeVPN has the WeBlock feature which is an adblocker feature that blocks ads, viruses and malware.
Other than that, a split tunneling option is available so you can select which apps and websites you want to use under the VPN service.
Interface and Compatibility
WeVPN supports Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and TV sets and gaming consoles. This is because of its Smart DNS feature. The smart DNS feature simply changes a part of the user’s traffic without changing the IP address or encryption.
This is useful for gamers and streamers who don’t want to sacrifice speed for strong encryption. You can set up the smart DNS feature on the usual platforms plus PlayStation, Xbox, Chromecast, Android TV, and Samsung Smart TV.
WeVPN allows up to ten simultaneous connections and browser extensions for Chrome. The desktop and mobile applications are both smooth and easy to navigate. However, the mobile app is preferable because it has the Wireguard protocol.
Customer Support and Pricing
First off, WeVPN provides 14 languages for its users to choose between. It also live chat customer support and an emailing option that gets a response in under 12 hours. The verdict is: WeVPN’s customer support is fast, reliable and easy to deal with.
As for pricing, WeVPN offers 3 main plans
- 1 Month: $9.95.
- 1 Year: $2.33/month, billed $39.95 every year.
- 2 Years: $2.69/month, $69.95 biannually after the first 26 months.
WeVPN also has a 30-day money back guarantee but the 7-day free trial demands your credit card information.
Conclusion – the verdict on WeVPN
WeVPN is a recent competitor in the VPN market. It offers a small variety of servers but they do their job well. WeVPN unblocks geo-restrictions and also saves up on speed by using its smart DNS feature. It offers a kill switch, split tunneling, an ad blocker and P2P friendly servers. WeVPN is also good for streaming websites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
However, the speeding tests we ran concluded that WeVPN’s speed is not very suitable. All in all, WeVPN offers a lot of advantages especially if you want to use your VPN to bypass geo-restrictions and to torrent. On the other hand, WeVPN does not help with bypassing country VPN bans and has a slower speed. Try the WeVPN 7-day trial and see if it suits your needs.
